Top quark production from black holes at the CERN LHC

LHC is expected to be a top quark factory. If the fundamental Planck scale is near a TeV, then we also expect the top quarks to be produced from black holes via Hawking radiation. In this Letter we calculate the cross sections for top quark production from black holes at the LHC and compare it with the direct top quark cross section via parton fusion processes at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). We find that the top quark production from black holes can be larger or smaller than the pQCD predictions at NNLO depending upon the Planck mass and black hole mass. Hence the observation of very high rates for massive particle production (top quarks, Higgs or supersymmetry) at the LHC may be an useful signature for black hole production.     

Weak gravity conjecture with large extra dimensions

In the presence of large extra dimensions, the fundamental Planck scale can be much lower than the apparent four-dimensional Planck scale. In this setup, the weak gravity conjecture implies a much more stringent constraint on the UV cutoff for the U(1) gauge theory in four dimensions. This new energy scale may be relevant to LHC.     

Three Flavor Neutrino Mixing and Dark Energy Above GUT Scale

Neutrino mixing lead to a non zero contribution to the dark energy of the universe. We assume that the neutrino masses and mixing arise through physics at a scale intermediate between Planck Scale and the electroweak scale. The mechanism of neutrino mixing is a possible candidate to contribute the cosmological dark energy. Quantum gravitational (Planck scale) effects lead to an effective SU(2) _L ×U(1) invariant dimension-5 Lagrangian involving neutrino and Higgs fields, which gives rise to additional terms in neutrino mass matrix. There additional term can be considered to be perturbation of the GUT scale bi-maximal neutrino mass matrix. We assume that the gravitational interaction is flavor. In this paper, we discuss the three flavor neutrino mixing and cosmological dark energy contributes due to Planck scale effects.     

Gravitational coupling at the Planck scale

We consider the possibility that gravitational interaction could have originated in the decoupling of matter from antimatter at the Planck scale.     

Compact hyperbolic extra dimensions: branes, kaluza-klein modes, and cosmology

We reconsider theories with low gravitational (or string) scale M(*) where Newton's constant is generated via new large-volume spatial dimensions, while standard model states are localized to a 3-brane. Utilizing compact hyperbolic manifolds we show that the spectrum of Kaluza-Klein modes is radically altered. This allows the early Universe to evolve normally up to substantial temperatures, and completely negates the astrophysical constraints on M(*). Furthermore, an exponential hierarchy between the usual Planck scale and the true fundamental scale of physics can emerge with only O(1) coefficients. The linear size of the internal space remains small. The proposal has striking testable signatures.     

Effect on Jarlskog Determinant Above the GUT Scale Within Four Flavor Neutrino Framework

We study the Planck scale effects on Jarlskog determiant in the four flavor framework. On electroweak symmetry breaking, quantum gravitational effects lead to an effective SU(2) × U(1) invariant dimension-5 Lagrangian including neutrino and Higgs forces, which perturbed the neutrino mass term and produce an extra terms in the neutrino mass matrix. We consider that gravitational interaction is independent from flavor and compute the Jarlskog determiant due to Planck scale effects. In the case of leptonic sector, the strentgh of CP violation is measured by Jarlskog determiant. We applied our approach to study Jarlskog determinant in the four flavor neutrino mixing above the GUT scale.

     

From the Sky to the Fundamental Physics

We discuss the relation between string theory/supergravity and the observational data in cosmology, as well as at LHC, past and future. We pay particular attention to the possibility of the future detection of primordial gravitational waves and how this might affect our understanding of fundamental physics.     

Operational definition of (brane-induced) space–time and constraints on the fundamental parameters

First we contemplate the operational definition of space–time in four dimensions in light of basic principles of quantum mechanics and general relativity and consider some of its phenomenological consequences. The quantum gravitational fluctuations of the background metric that comes through the operational definition of space–time are controlled by the Planck scale and are therefore strongly suppressed. Then we extend our analysis to the braneworld setup with low fundamental scale of gravity. It is observed that in this case the quantum gravitational fluctuations on the brane may become unacceptably large. The magnification of fluctuations is not linked directly to the low quantum gravity scale but rather to the higher-dimensional modification of Newton's inverse square law at relatively large distances. For models with compact extra dimensions the shape modulus of extra space can be used as a most natural and safe stabilization mechanism against these fluctuations.     

Standard model and gravity from spinors

It is shown how the Lorentz and standard-model gauge groups can be unified by using algebraic spinors of the standard four-dimensional Clifford algebra, in left–right symmetric fashion. This defines a framework of unification with gravity and generates exactly a standard-model family of fermions, while a Pati–Salam unification group emerges, at the Planck scale, where (chiral) gravity decouples. We show that this low-energy broken phase emerges from the VEV of extended vierbein fields, which at this stage are assumed to be dynamically generated from a theory in the fully symmetric phase valid beyond the Planck scale (and whose consistency and dynamics is thus yet to be assessed) providing thus a geometrical and group-theoretical framework for the unification and breaking. At low energy, on the other hand, it is intriguing to find, as a remnant of this unification, new isospin-triplet spin-two particles that may naturally lie at the weak scale, providing a striking signal at the LHC.     

Peculiar relics from Primordial Black Holes in the inflationary paradigm

Depending on various assumptions on the energy scale of inflation and assuming a primordial power spectrum of a step‐like structure, we explore new possibilities for Primordial Black Holes (PBH) and Planck relics to contribute substantially to Cold Dark Matter in the Universe. A recently proposed possibility to produce Planck relics in four‐dimensional string gravity is considered in this framework. Possible experimental detection of PBHs through gravitational waves is also explored. We stress that inflation with a low energy scale, and also possibly when Planck relics are produced, leads unavoidably to relics originating from PBHs that are not effectively classical during their formation, rendering the usual formalism inadequate for them.     

Conformal symmetry and the Standard Model

We re-examine the question of radiative symmetry breaking in the Standard Model in the presence of right-chiral neutrinos and a minimally enlarged scalar sector. We demonstrate that, with these extra ingredients, the hypothesis of classically unbroken conformal symmetry, besides naturally introducing and stabilizing a hierarchy, is compatible with all available data; in particular, there exists a set of parameters for which the model may remain viable even up to the Planck scale. The decay modes of the extra scalar field provide a unique signature of this model which can be tested at LHC.     

Affine-Goldstone/Quartet-Metric Gravity and Beyond

As a group—theoretic foundation of gravity, it is considered an affine-Goldstone nonlinear model based upon the nonlinear realization of the global affine symmetry spontaneously broken at the Planck scale to the Poincaré symmetry. It is shown that below this scale the model justifies and elaborates an earlier introduced effective field theory of the quartet-metric gravity incorporating the gravitational dark substances emerging in addition to the tensor graviton. The prospects for subsequent going beyond the nonlinear model above the Planck scale are indicated.

     

Quantum gravity at the LHC

We study the production of massless gravitons at the LHC and compare our results to those obtained in extra-dimensional models. The signature in both cases is missing energy plus jets. In case of non-observation, the LHC could be used to put the tightest limit to date on the value of the Planck mass.     

Does proton decay follow the exponential law?

Tetrads cause the breakdown of symmetry in gravitational theories. Their vacuum expected values reduce the symmetry of the vacuum from that of the action to what is global Poincaré invariance at ordinary distances. Gravitational theories can be written in terms of rescaled fields in such a way that the Planck mass never appears. The rescaled fields are dimensionless, except for gauge fields and tetrads, both of which acquire the dimension of mass. The empirical distribution of energy throughout spacetime causes the tetrads to assume vacuum expected values of the order of the Planck mass,m _p . Thus the gravitational constant,G=hc/m _p ² , may be viewed not as a fundamental constant, but as a mass scale that is dynamically determined by the large-scale structure of the universe. Generalized tetrads may also break internal symmetries.     

Brane effects on extra-dimensional scenarios: a tale of two gravitons

We analyze the propagation of a scalar field in multidimensional theories which include kinetic corrections in the brane, as a prototype for gravitational interactions in a four-dimensional brane located in a (nearly) flat extra-dimensional bulk. We regularize the theory by introducing an infrared cutoff given by the size of the extra dimensions, R, and a physical ultraviolet cutoff of the order of the fundamental Planck scale in the higher-dimensional theory, M. We show that, having implemented cutoffs, the radius of the extra dimensions cannot be arbitrarily large for M≳1 TeV. Moreover, for finite radii, the gravitational effects localized on the brane can substantially alter the phenomenology of collider and/or table-top gravitational experiments. This phenomenology is dictated by the presence of a massless graviton, with standard couplings to the matter fields, and a massive graviton which couples to matter in a much stronger way. While graviton KK modes lighter than the massive graviton couple to matter in a standard way, the couplings to matter of the heavier KK modes are strongly suppressed.     

On the relation of the Methagalaxy mass to the gravitation constant. 1. from Einstein’s theory to the Einstein–Cartan theory

The notion of the dimensionless gravitational charge defined through the Planck mass and the fundamental constants specifying this mass itself is introduced. The Big Bang is related to the unified physical interaction decay and the drop of Newton’s gravitational constant by 40.67 orders of magnitude in comparison with the electromagnetic constant taken as unity. This causes an increase in theMetagalaxy curvature radius by the same value and a decrease in the average density of space–time curvature sources by 122 orders of magnitude: from the maximum allowable Planck density to the observed critical density. The microphysics appears naturally related to cosmology.     

Deviation from Tetra-Maximal Neutrino Mixing Above the GUT scale

We consider non-renormalizable interaction term as perturbation of the conventional neutrino mass matrix. We assume that the neutrino masses and mixing arise through physics at a scale intermediate between Planck scale and the electroweak breaking scale. We also assume that, just above the electroweak breaking scale, neutrino masses are nearly degenerate and their mixing is tetra-maximal. Quantum gravity (Planck scale effects) lead to an effective SU(2) _L ×U(1) invariant dimension-5 Lagrangian involving neutrino and Higgs fields. On electroweak symmetry breaking, this operator gives rise to correction to the above masses and mixing. These additional term can be consider as a perturbation to the Tetra-maximal mass matrix. The nature of gravitational interaction demands that the element of this perturbation matrix should be independent of flavor indices. We compute the deviation of three neutrino mixing angles due to Planck scale effects. We find that there is no change in θ ₁₃ and θ ₂₃ but change in solar mixing angle θ ₁₂ is suppress by 3.0°.     

Cosmology versus standard model

I will discuss a proposal for a unified solution of the problems of neutrino masses, dark matter, baryon asymmetry of the Universe and inflation, which does not require introduction of any new energy scale besides already known, namely the electroweak and the Planck scales. This point of view, supplemented by a requirement of simplicity, has a number of experimental predictions which can be tested, at least partially, with the use of existing accelerators and the LHC, with current and future X-ray telescopes, and with the Planck mission.     

Unitarity bounds on low scale quantum gravity

We study the unitarity of models with low scale quantum gravity both in four dimensions and in models with a large extra-dimensional volume. We find that models with low scale quantum gravity have problems with unitarity below the scale at which gravity becomes strong. An important consequence of our work is that their first signal at the Large Hadron Collider would not be of a gravitational nature such as graviton emission or small black holes, but rather would be linked to the mechanism which fixes the unitarity problem. We also study models with scalar fields with non-minimal couplings to the Ricci scalar. We consider the strength of gravity in these models and study the consequences for inflation models with non-minimally coupled scalar fields. We show that a single scalar field with a large non-minimal coupling can lower the Planck mass in the TeV region. In that model, it is possible to lower the scale at which gravity becomes strong down to 14 TeV without violating unitarity below that scale.     

Supersymmetry breaking,open strings and M-theory

We study supersymmetry breaking by Scherk-Schwarz compactifications in type I string theory. While in the gravitational sector all mass splittings are proportional to a (large) compactification radius, supersymmetry remains unbroken for the massless excitations of D-branes orthogonal to the large dimension. In this sector, supersymmetry breaking can then be mediated by gravitational interactions alone, that are expected to be suppressed by powers of the Planck mass. The mechanism is non-perturbative from the heterotic viewpoint and requires a compactification radius at intermediate energies of order 10¹²−10¹⁴ GeV This can also explain the value of Newton's constant if the string scale is close to the unification scale, of order 10¹⁶ GeV.