Split supersymmetry under GUT and current dark matter constraints

There are four types of two-Higgs doublet models under a discrete \(Z_2\) symmetry imposed to avoid tree-level flavor-changing neutral current, i.e. type-I, type-II, type-X, and type-Y models. We investigate the possibility to discriminate the four models in the light of the flavor physics data, including \(B_s\) – \(\bar{B}_s\) mixing, \(B_{s,d} \rightarrow \mu ^+ \mu ^-\) , \(B\rightarrow \tau \nu \) and \(\bar{B} \rightarrow X_s \gamma \) decays, the recent LHC Higgs data, the direct search for charged Higgs at LEP, and the constraints from perturbative unitarity and vacuum stability. After deriving the combined constraints on the Yukawa interaction parameters, we have shown that the correlation between the mass eigenstate rate asymmetry \(A_{\Delta \Gamma }\) of \(B_{s} \rightarrow \mu ^+ \mu ^-\) and the ratio \(R=\mathcal{B}(B_{s} \rightarrow \mu ^+ \mu ^-)_\mathrm{exp}/ \mathcal{B}(B_{s} \rightarrow \mu ^+ \mu ^-)_\mathrm{SM}\) could be a sensitive probe to discriminate the four models with future precise measurements of the observables in the \(B_{s} \rightarrow \mu ^+ \mu ^-\) decay at LHCb.     

Reunion Probabilities of N One-Dimensional Random Walkers with Mixed Boundary Conditions

In this work we extend the results of the reunion probability of \(N\) one-dimensional random walkers to include mixed boundary conditions between their trajectories. The level of the mixture is controlled by a parameter \(c\) , which can be varied from \(c=0\) (independent walkers) to \(c\rightarrow \infty \) (vicious walkers). The expressions are derived by using Quantum Mechanics formalism (QMf) which allows us to map this problem into a Lieb-Liniger gas (LLg) of \(N\) one-dimensional particles. We use Bethe ansatz and Gaudin’s conjecture to obtain the normalized wave-functions and use this information to construct the propagator. As it is well-known, depending on the boundary conditions imposed at the endpoints of a line segment, the statistics of the maximum heights of the reunited trajectories have some connections with different ensembles in Random Matrix Theory. Here we seek to extend those results and consider four models: absorbing, periodic, reflecting, and mixed. In all four cases, the probability that the maximum height is less or equal than \(L\) takes the form \(F_N(L)=A_N\sum _{\varvec{k}\in \Omega _{\text {B}}} \mathrm{e}^{-\sum _{j=1}^Nk_j^2}\mathcal {V}_N(\varvec{k})\) , where \(A_N\) is a normalization constant, \(\mathcal {V}_N(\varvec{k})\) contains a deformed and weighted Vandermonde determinant, and \(\Omega _{\text {B}}\) is the solution set of quasi-momenta \(\varvec{k}\) obeying the Bethe equations for that particular boundary condition.     

QCD analysis of forward neutron production in DIS

Observing light-by-light scattering at the large hadron collider (LHC) has received quite some attention and it is believed to be a clean and sensitive channel to possible new physics. In this paper, we study the diphoton production at the LHC via the process \({{pp}}\rightarrow {{p}}\gamma \gamma {{p}}\rightarrow {{p}}\gamma \gamma {{p}}\) through graviton exchange in the large extra dimension (LED) model. Typically, when we do the background analysis, we also study the double Pomeron exchange of \(\gamma \gamma \) production. We compare its production in the quark–quark collision mode to the gluon–gluon collision mode and find that contributions from the gluon–gluon collision mode are comparable to the quark–quark one. Our result shows, for extra dimension \(\delta =4\) , with an integrated luminosity \(\mathcal{L} = 200\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}\) at the 14 TeV LHC, that diphoton production through graviton exchange can probe the LED effects up to the scale \({M}_{S}=5.06 (4.51, 5.11)\,\mathrm{TeV}\) for the forward detector acceptance \(\xi _1 (\xi _2, \xi _3)\) , respectively, where \(0.0015<\xi _1<0.5\) , \(0.1<\xi _2<0.5\) , and \(0.0015<\xi _3<0.15\) .     

Optimal N-Point Configurations on the Sphere: “Magic” Numbers and Smale’s 7th Problem

This paper inquires into the concavity of the map \(N\mapsto v_s(N)\) from the integers \(N\ge 2\) into the minimal average standardized Riesz pair-energies \(v_s(N)\) of \(N\) -point configurations on the sphere \(\mathbb {S}^2\) for various \(s\in \mathbb {R}\) . The standardized Riesz pair-energy of a pair of points on \(\mathbb {S}^2\) a chordal distance \(r\) apart is \(V_s(r)= s^{-1}\left( r^{-s}-1 \right) \) , \(s \ne 0\) , which becomes \(V_0(r) = \ln \frac{1}{r}\) in the limit \(s\rightarrow 0\) . Averaging it over the \(\left( \begin{array}{c} N\\ 2\end{array}\right) \) distinct pairs in a configuration and minimizing over all possible \(N\) -point configurations defines \(v_s(N)\) . It is known that \(N\mapsto v_s(N)\) is strictly increasing for each \(s\in \mathbb {R}\) , and for \(s<2\) also bounded above, thus “overall concave.” It is (easily) proved that \(N\mapsto v_{-2}^{}(N)\) is even locally strictly concave, and that so is the map \(2n\mapsto v_s(2n)\) for \(s<-2\) . By analyzing computer-experimental data of putatively minimal average Riesz pair-energies \(v_s^x(N)\) for \(s\in \{-1,0,1,2,3\}\) and \(N\in \{2,\ldots ,200\}\) , it is found that the map \(N\mapsto {v}_{-1}^x(N)\) is locally strictly concave, while \(N\mapsto {v}_s^x(N)\) is not always locally strictly concave for \(s\in \{0,1,2,3\}\) : concavity defects occur whenever \(N\in {\mathcal {C}}^{x}_+(s)\) (an \(s\) -specific empirical set of integers). It is found that the empirical map \(s\mapsto {\mathcal {C}}^{x}_+(s),\ s\in \{-2,-1,0,1,2,3\}\) , is set-theoretically increasing; moreover, the percentage of odd numbers in \({\mathcal {C}}^{x}_+(s),\ s\in \{0,1,2,3\}\) is found to increase with \(s\) . The integers in \({\mathcal {C}}^{x}_+(0)\) are few and far between, forming a curious sequence of numbers, reminiscent of the “magic numbers” in nuclear physics. It is conjectured that these new “magic numbers” are associated with optimally symmetric optimal-log-energy \(N\) -point configurations on \(\mathbb {S}^2\) . A list of interesting open problems is extracted from the empirical findings, and some rigorous first steps toward their solutions are presented. It is emphasized how concavity can assist in the solution to Smale’s \(7\) th Problem, which asks for an efficient algorithm to find near-optimal \(N\) -point configurations on \(\mathbb {S}^2\) and higher-dimensional spheres.     

The Colored Hofstadter Butterfly for the Honeycomb Lattice

We rely on a recent method for determining edge spectra and we use it to compute the Chern numbers for Hofstadter models on the honeycomb lattice having rational magnetic flux per unit cell. Based on the bulk-edge correspondence, the Chern number \(\sigma _\mathrm{H}\) is given as the winding number of an eigenvector of a \(2 \times 2\) transfer matrix, as a function of the quasi-momentum \(k\in (0,2\pi )\) . This method is computationally efficient (of order \(\mathcal {O}(n^4)\) in the resolution of the desired image). It also shows that for the honeycomb lattice the solution for \(\sigma _\mathrm{H}\) for flux \(p/q\) in the \(r\) -th gap conforms with the Diophantine equation \(r=\sigma _\mathrm{H}\cdot p+ s\cdot q\) , which determines \(\sigma _\mathrm{H}\mod q\) . A window such as \(\sigma _\mathrm{H}\in (-q/2,q/2)\) , or possibly shifted, provides a natural further condition for \(\sigma _\mathrm{H}\) , which however turns out not to be met. Based on extensive numerical calculations, we conjecture that the solution conforms with the relaxed condition \(\sigma _\mathrm{H}\in (-q,q)\) .     

Maximal Distance Travelled by N Vicious Walkers Till Their Survival

We consider N Brownian particles moving on a line starting from initial positions \(\mathbf{{u}}\equiv \{u_1,u_2,\ldots u_N\}\) such that \(0 . Their motion gets stopped at time \(t_s\) when either two of them collide or when the particle closest to the origin hits the origin for the first time. For \(N=2\) , we study the probability distribution function \(p_1(m|\mathbf{{u}})\) and \(p_2(m|\mathbf{{u}})\) of the maximal distance travelled by the \(1^{\text {st}}\) and \(2^{\text {nd}}\) walker till \(t_s\) . For general N particles with identical diffusion constants \(D\) , we show that the probability distribution \(p_N(m|\mathbf{u})\) of the global maximum \(m_N\) , has a power law tail \(p_i(m|\mathbf{{u}}) \sim {N^2B_N\mathcal {F}_{N}(\mathbf{u})}/{m^{\nu _N}}\) with exponent \(\nu _N =N^2+1\) . We obtain explicit expressions of the function \(\mathcal {F}_{N}(\mathbf{u})\) and of the N dependent amplitude \(B_N\) which we also analyze for large N using techniques from random matrix theory. We verify our analytical results through direct numerical simulations.     

Pesin’s Entropy Formula for Systems Between C^1 and C^{1+\alpha }

In this article we give a new observation of Pesin’s entropy formula, motivated from Mañé’s proof of (Ergod Theory Dyn Sys 1:95–102, 1981). Let \(M\) be a compact Riemann manifold and \(f:\,M\rightarrow M\) be a \(C^1\) diffeomorphism on \(M\) . If \(\mu \) is an \(f\) -invariant probability measure which is absolutely continuous relative to Lebesgue measure and nonuniformly-H \(\ddot{\text {o}}\) lder-continuous(see Definition 1.1), then we have Pesin’s entropy formula, i.e., the metric entropy \(h_\mu (f)\) satisfies $$\begin{aligned} h_{\mu }(f)=\int \sum _{\lambda _i(x)> 0}\lambda _i(x)d\mu , \end{aligned}$$ where \(\lambda _1(x)\ge \lambda _2(x)\ge \cdots \ge \lambda _{dim\,M}(x)\) are the Lyapunov exponents at \(x\) with respect to \(\mu .\) Nonuniformly-H \(\ddot{\text {o}}\) lder-continuous is a new notion from probabilistic perspective weaker than \(C^{1+\alpha }.\)      

Dispersion dependence of two-photon absorption transition on frequency in Si PIN photodetector

The variation of two-photon absorption (TPA) coefficient \(\beta _{\mathrm{TPA}} (\omega )\) of Si excited at difference photon energy was investigated. The TPA coefficient was measured by using a picosecond pulsed laser with the wavelength could be tuned in a wide photon-energy range. An equivalent RC circuit model was adapted to derive the TPA coefficient \(\beta _{\mathrm{TPA}} (\omega )\) . The results showed that \(\beta _{\mathrm{TPA}} (\omega )\) varied from \(4.2 \times 10^{-4}\) to \(1.17 \times 10^{-3 }\)  cm/GW in the transparent wavelength region \(1.80<\lambda <1.36\,\upmu \) m of Si. The increasing tendency of \(\beta _{\mathrm{TPA}} (\omega )\) with the incident photon energy can be qualitatively interpreted as the photon energy increases from \(E_{\mathrm{ig}}/2\) to nearly \(E_{\mathrm{ig}}\) , the electrons excited from the valance band find an increasing availability of conduction band states. Comparing with the high-energy side transitions, the TPA coefficient in low-energy side is about 10 times too small. This can be attributed that the TPA transition in low-energy side is the process of photon-assisted electron transitions from valence to conduction band occurring between different points in k-space, while is direct transition in high-energy side.     

Near-Extreme Eigenvalues and the First Gap of Hermitian Random Matrices

We study the phenomenon of “crowding” near the largest eigenvalue \(\lambda _\mathrm{max}\) of random \(N \times N\) matrices belonging to the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble of random matrix theory. We focus on two distinct quantities: (i) the density of states (DOS) near \(\lambda _\mathrm{max}\) , \(\rho _\mathrm{DOS}(r,N)\) , which is the average density of eigenvalues located at a distance \(r\) from \(\lambda _\mathrm{max}\) and (ii) the probability density function of the gap between the first two largest eigenvalues, \(p_\mathrm{GAP}(r,N)\) . In the edge scaling limit where \(r = \mathcal{O}(N^{-1/6})\) , which is described by a double scaling limit of a system of unconventional orthogonal polynomials, we show that \(\rho _\mathrm{DOS}(r,N)\) and \(p_\mathrm{GAP}(r,N)\) are characterized by scaling functions which can be expressed in terms of the solution of a Lax pair associated to the Painlevé XXXIV equation. This provides an alternative and simpler expression for the gap distribution, which was recently studied by Witte et al. in Nonlinearity 26:1799, 2013. Our expressions allow to obtain precise asymptotic behaviors of these scaling functions both for small and large arguments.     

Is the CNMSSM more credible than the CMSSM?

“Post-sphaleron baryogenesis”, a fresh and profound mechanism of baryogenesis accounts for the matter–antimatter asymmetry of our present universe in a framework of Pati–Salam symmetry. We attempt here to embed this mechanism in a non-SUSY SO(10) grand unified theory by reviving a novel symmetry breaking chain with Pati–Salam symmetry as an intermediate symmetry breaking step and as well to address post-sphaleron baryogenesis and neutron–antineutron oscillation in a rational manner. The Pati–Salam symmetry based on the gauge group \(\mathrm{SU}(2)_L \times \mathrm{SU}(2)_{R} \times \mathrm{SU}(4)_C\) is realized in our model at \(10^{5}\) – \(10^{6}\)  GeV and the mixing time for the neutron–antineutron oscillation process having \(\Delta B=2\) is found to be \(\tau _{n-\bar{n}} \simeq 10^{8}\) – \(10^{10}\)  s with the model parameters, which is within the reach of forthcoming experiments. Other novel features of the model include low scale right-handed \(W^{\pm }_R\) , \(Z_R\) gauge bosons, explanation for neutrino oscillation data via the gauged inverse (or extended) seesaw mechanism and most importantly TeV scale color sextet scalar particles responsible for an observable \(n\) – \(\bar{n}\) oscillation which may be accessible to LHC. We also look after gauge coupling unification and an estimation of the proton lifetime with and without the addition of color sextet scalars.     

Antineutrino science in KamLAND

The primary goal of KamLAND is a search for the oscillation of \({\bar{\nu }}_\mathrm{e}\) ’s emitted from distant power reactors. The long baseline, typically 180 km, enables KamLAND to address the oscillation solution of the “solar neutrino problem” with \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) ’s under laboratory conditions. KamLAND found fewer reactor \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) events than expected from standard assumptions about \(\overline{\nu }_e\) propagation at more than 9 \(\sigma \) confidence level (C.L.). The observed energy spectrum disagrees with the expected spectral shape at more than 5 \(\sigma \) C.L., and prefers the distortion from neutrino oscillation effects. A three-flavor oscillation analysis of the data from KamLAND and KamLAND + solar neutrino experiments with CPT invariance, yields \(\Delta m_{21}^2 \) = [ \(7.54_{-0.18}^{+0.19} \times \) 10 \(^{-5}\) eV \(^{2}\) , \(7.53_{-0.18}^{+0.19} \times \) 10 \(^{-5}\) eV \(^{2}\) ], tan \(^{2}\theta _{12}\) = [ \(0.481_{-0.080}^{+0.092} \) , \(0.437_{-0.026}^{+0.029} \) ], and sin \(^{2}\theta _{13}\) = [ \(0.010_{-0.034}^{+0.033} \) , \(0.023_{-0.015}^{+0.015} \) ]. All solutions to the solar neutrino problem except for the large mixing angle region are excluded. KamLAND also demonstrated almost two cycles of the periodic feature expected from neutrino oscillation effects. KamLAND performed the first experimental study of antineutrinos from the Earth’s interior so-called geoneutrinos (geo \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) ’s), and succeeded in detecting geo \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) ’s produced by the decays of \(^{238}\) U and \(^{232}\) Th within the Earth. Assuming a chondritic Th/U mass ratio, we obtain \(116_{-27}^{+28} {\bar{\nu }}_{e}\) events from \(^{238}\) U and \(^{232}\) Th, corresponding a geo \({\bar{\nu }}_{e}\) flux of \(3.4_{-0.8}^{+0.8}\times \) 10 \(^{6}\) cm \(^{-2}\)  s \(^{-1}\) at the KamLAND location. We evaluate various bulk silicate Earth composition models using the observed geo \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) rate.     

The CMSSM and NUHM1 after LHC Run 1

We analyze the impact of data from the full Run 1 of the LHC at 7 and 8 TeV on the CMSSM with \(\mu > 0\) and \(<0\) and the NUHM1 with \(\mu > 0\) , incorporating the constraints imposed by other experiments such as precision electroweak measurements, flavour measurements, the cosmological density of cold dark matter and the direct search for the scattering of dark matter particles in the LUX experiment. We use the following results from the LHC experiments: ATLAS searches for events with \({E\!\!/}_{T}\) accompanied by jets with the full 7 and 8 TeV data, the ATLAS and CMS measurements of the mass of the Higgs boson, the CMS searches for heavy neutral Higgs bosons and a combination of the LHCb and CMS measurements of \(\mathrm{BR}(B_s \rightarrow \mu ^+\mu ^-)\) and \(\mathrm{BR}(B_d \rightarrow \mu ^+\mu ^-)\) . Our results are based on samplings of the parameter spaces of the CMSSM for both \(\mu >0\) and \(\mu <0\) and of the NUHM1 for \(\mu > 0\) with 6.8 \(\times 10^6\) , 6.2 \(\times 10^6\) and 1.6 \(\times 10^7\) points, respectively, obtained using the MultiNest tool. The impact of the Higgs-mass constraint is assessed using FeynHiggs 2.10.0, which provides an improved prediction for the masses of the MSSM Higgs bosons in the region of heavy squark masses. It yields in general larger values of \(M_h\) than previous versions of FeynHiggs, reducing the pressure on the CMSSM and NUHM1. We find that the global \(\chi ^2\) functions for the supersymmetric models vary slowly over most of the parameter spaces allowed by the Higgs-mass and the \({E\!\!/}_{T}\) searches, with best-fit values that are comparable to the \(\chi ^2/\mathrm{dof}\) for the best Standard Model fit. We provide 95 % CL lower limits on the masses of various sparticles and assess the prospects for observing them during Run 2 of the LHC.     

Antiproton low-energy collisions with Ps-atoms and true muonium atoms (μ + μ −)

Three-charge-particle collisions with participation of ultra-slow antiprotons ( \(\overline {\rm {p}}\) ) is the subject of this work. Specifically we compute the total cross sections and corresponding thermal rates of the following three-body reactions: \(\overline {\rm p}+(e^+e^-) \rightarrow \overline {\rm {H}} + e^-\) and \(\overline {\rm p}+(\mu ^+\mu ^-) \rightarrow \overline {\rm {H}}_{\mu } + \mu ^-\) , where \(e^-(\mu ^-)\) is an electron (muon) and \(e^+(\mu ^+)\) is a positron (antimuon) respectively, \(\overline {\rm {H}}=(\overline {\rm p}e^+)\) is an antihydrogen atom and \(\overline {\rm {H}}_{\mu }=(\overline {\rm p}\mu ^+)\) is a muonic antihydrogen atom, i.e. a bound state of \(\overline {\rm {p}}\) and μ ⁺. A set of two-coupled few-body Faddeev-Hahn-type (FH-type) equations is numerically solved in the framework of a modified close-coupling expansion approach.     

On Gravitational Effects in the Schrödinger Equation

The Schrödinger  equation for a particle of rest mass $m$ and electrical charge $ne$ interacting with a four-vector potential $A_i$ can be derived as the non-relativistic limit of the Klein–Gordon  equation $\left( \Box '+m^2\right) \varPsi =0$ for the wave function $\varPsi $ , where $\Box '=\eta ^{jk}\partial '_j\partial '_k$ and $\partial '_j=\partial _j -\mathrm {i}n e A_j$ , or equivalently from the one-dimensional  action $S_1=-\int m ds +\int neA_i dx^i$ for the corresponding point particle in the semi-classical approximation $\varPsi \sim \exp {(\mathrm {i}S_1)}$ , both methods yielding the equation $\mathrm {i}\partial _0\varPsi \approx \left( \frac{1}{2m}\eta ^{\alpha \beta }\partial '_{\alpha }\partial '_{\beta } + m + n e\phi \right) \varPsi $ in Minkowski  space–time  , where $\alpha ,\beta =1,2,3$ and $\phi =-A_0$ . We show that these two methods generally yield equations  that differ in a curved background  space–time   $g_{ij}$ , although they coincide when $g_{0\alpha }=0$ if $m$ is replaced by the effective mass $\mathcal{M}\equiv \sqrt{m^2-\xi R}$ in both the Klein–Gordon  action $S$ and $S_1$ , allowing for non-minimal coupling to the gravitational  field, where $R$ is the Ricci scalar and $\xi $ is a constant. In this case $\mathrm {i}\partial _0\varPsi \approx \left( \frac{1}{2\mathcal{M}'} g^{\alpha \beta }\partial '_{\alpha }\partial '_{\beta } + \mathcal{M}\phi ^{(\mathrm g)} + n e\phi \right) \varPsi $ , where $\phi ^{(\mathrm g)} =\sqrt{g_{00}}$ and $\mathcal{M}'=\mathcal{M}/\phi ^{(\mathrm g)} $ , the correctness of the gravitational  contribution to the potential having been verified to linear order $m\phi ^{(\mathrm g)} $ in the thermal-neutron beam interferometry experiment due to Colella et al. Setting $n=2$ and regarding $\varPsi $ as the quasi-particle wave function, or order parameter, we obtain the generalization of the fundamental macroscopic Ginzburg-Landau equation of superconductivity to curved space–time. Conservation of probability and electrical current requires both electromagnetic gauge and space–time  coordinate conditions to be imposed, which exemplifies the gravito-electromagnetic analogy, particularly in the stationary case, when div ${{\varvec{A}}}=\hbox {div}{{\varvec{A}}}^{(\mathrm g)}=0$ , where ${{\varvec{A}}}^{\alpha }=-A^{\alpha }$ and ${{\varvec{A}}}^{(\mathrm g)\alpha }=-\phi ^{(\mathrm g)}g^{0\alpha }$ . The quantum-cosmological Schrödinger  (Wheeler–DeWitt) equation is also discussed in the $\mathcal{D}$ -dimensional  mini-superspace idealization, with particular regard to the vacuum potential $\mathcal V$ and the characteristics of the ground state, assuming a gravitational  Lagrangian   $L_\mathcal{D}$ which contains higher-derivative  terms up to order $\mathcal{R}^4$ . For the heterotic superstring theory  , $L_\mathcal{D}$ consists of an infinite series in $\alpha '\mathcal{R}$ , where $\alpha '$ is the Regge slope parameter, and in the perturbative approximation $\alpha '|\mathcal{R}| \ll 1$ , $\mathcal V$ is positive semi-definite for $\mathcal{D} \ge 4$ . The maximally symmetric ground state satisfying the field equations is Minkowski  space for $3\le {\mathcal {D}}\le 7$ and anti-de Sitter  space for $8 \le \mathcal {D} \le 10$ .     

DGP cosmological model with generalized Ricci dark energy

The Higgs-boson decay \(h \rightarrow \gamma \ell ^+ \ell ^-\) for various lepton states \(\ell = (e, \, \mu , \, \tau )\) is analyzed. The differential decay width and forward–backward asymmetry are calculated as functions of the dilepton invariant mass in a model where the Higgs boson interacts with leptons and quarks via a mixture of scalar and pseudoscalar couplings. These couplings are partly constrained from data on the decays to leptons, \(h \rightarrow \ell ^+ \ell ^-\) , and quarks \(h \rightarrow q \bar{q} \) (where \(q = (c, \, b)\) ), while the Higgs couplings to the top quark are chosen from the two-photon and two-gluon decay rates. Nonzero values of the forward–backward asymmetry will manifest effects of new physics in the Higgs sector. The decay width and asymmetry integrated over the dilepton invariant mass are also presented.     

Parameter estimation of a nonlinear magnetic universe from observations

The cosmological model consisting of a nonlinear magnetic field obeying the Lagrangian \(\mathcal {L}= \gamma F^{\alpha },\, F\) being the electromagnetic invariant, coupled to a Robertson-Walker geometry is tested with observational data of Type Ia Supernovae, Long Gamma-Ray Bursts and Hubble parameter measurements. The statistical analysis show that the inclusion of nonlinear electromagnetic matter is enough to produce the observed accelerated expansion, with not need of including a dark energy component. The electromagnetic matter with abundance \(\varOmega _B\) , gives as best fit from the combination of all observational data sets \(\varOmega _B=0.562^{+0.037}_{-0.038}\) for the scenario in which \(\alpha =-1, \varOmega _B=0.654^{+0.040}_{-0.040}\) for the scenario with \(\alpha =-1/4\) and \(\varOmega _B=0.683^{+0.039}_{-0.043}\) for the one with \(\alpha =-1/8\) . These results indicate that nonlinear electromagnetic matter could play the role of dark energy, with the theoretical advantage of being a mensurable field.     

Dilaton gravity, (quasi-) black holes,and scalar charge

Electrically charged dust is considered in the framework of Einstein–Maxwell–dilaton gravity with a Lagrangian containing the interaction term \(P(\chi )F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }\) , where \(P(\chi )\) is an arbitrary function of the dilaton scalar field \(\chi \) , which can be normal or phantom. Without assumption of spatial symmetry, we show that static configurations exist for arbitrary functions \(g_{00} = \exp (2\gamma (x^{i}))\) ( \(i=1,2,3\) ) and \(\chi =\chi (\gamma )\) . If \(\chi = \mathrm{const}\) , the classical Majumdar–Papapetrou (MP) system is restored. We discuss solutions that represent black holes (BHs) and quasi-black holes (QBHs), deduce some general results and confirm them by examples. In particular, we analyze configurations with spherical and cylindrical symmetries. It turns out that cylindrical BHs and QBHs cannot exist without negative energy density somewhere in space. However, in general, BHs and QBHs can be phantom-free, that is, can exist with everywhere nonnegative energy densities of matter, scalar and electromagnetic fields.     

Factorizable electroweak \mathcal{O}(\alpha) corrections for top quark pair production and decay at a linear e^+e^- collider

We calculate the standard model predictions for top quark pair production and decay into six fermions at a linear e⁺e^- collider. We include the factorizable electroweak $\mathcal{O}(\alpha)$ corrections in the pole approximation and QED corrections due to the initial state radiation in the structure function approach. The effects of the radiative corrections on the predictions are illustrated by showing numerical results for two selected six-fermion reactions $e^+e^-\rightarrow b\nu_{\mu}\mu^+\bar{b}\mu^-\bar{\nu}_\mu$ and $e^+e^-\rightarrow b\nu_{\mu}\mu^+\bar{b}d\bar{u}$ .