Natural inflation and flavor mixing from Peccei–Quinn symmetry breaking

We propose a left–right symmetric model to simultaneously give natural inflation and flavor mixing from a Peccei–Quinn symmetry breaking at the Planck scale. Our model can be embedded into SO(10)$\mathit{SO}(10)$ grand unification theories.     

Universal seesaw from left–right and Peccei–Quinn symmetry breaking

To generate the lepton and quark masses in the left–right symmetric models, we can consider a universal seesaw scenario by integrating out heavy fermion singlets which have the Yukawa couplings with the fermion and Higgs doublets. The universal seesaw scenario can also accommodate the leptogenesis with Majorana or Dirac neutrinos. We show that the fermion singlets can obtain their heavy masses from the Peccei–Quinn symmetry breaking.     

An extension of the SM based on effective Peccei–Quinn Symmetry

Peccei–Quinn (PQ) mechanism based on a chiral global U(1) symmetry is considered to be a simple and elegant solution for strong CP problem. The fact that the mechanism could be experimentally examined through the axion search makes it much more interesting and recently it causes a lot of attention again. However, it is also known that the mechanism is annoyed by two serious problems, that is, a domain wall problem and goodness of global symmetry. Any global symmetry is considered not to be exact due to the quantum effect of gravity. In this paper, we consider a solution to these problems, in which quark mass hierarchy and mixing, neutrino mass generation and existence of dark matter are closely related. In our solution, PQ symmetry is assumed to be induced through symmetry breaking at an intermediate scale of a local U(1) symmetry, and a global U(1) symmetry which plays a role of Froggatt–Nielsen symmetry . In the lepton sector, a remnant of the PQ symmetry controls neutrino mass generation and dark matter existence.     

Temperature effects on superfluid phase transition in Bose–Hubbard model with three-body interaction

We theoretically investigate the effect of the three-body on-site interactions on the Mott-insulator–superfluid transition for ultracold bosonic atoms in the framework of the Bose–Hubbard model. In particular, we explore the combined effects of three-body interaction and finite temperature on the phase diagram in detail. In order to handle system with strong local interactions a resolvent expansion technique based on the contour integral representation of the partition function has been devised. Subsequently, we derive the Landau-type expansion for the free energy in terms of the superfluid order parameter and find the phase diagrams depicting the relationships between various physical quantities of interest.     

Thermal entanglement in the Heisenberg XXZ model with Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction

By the concept of negativity, we investigate the thermal entanglement in the two-spin $(\frac{1}{2},s)$ Heisenberg XXX and XXZ models in the presence of Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya $\left(DM\right)$ interactions respectively. Through calculation, we know that for the XXZ model, the $\Delta$ and $s$ can be used together to control the extent of entanglement and, in particular, to obtain large entanglement. The effect of spin in both models shows that it can increase the critical temperature and the negativity decreases as the spin increases. We found that the DM interaction has different effects on Fermi and Bose systems so it can not only excite entanglement but also affect the entanglement in different spin systems.     

Minimal supersymmetric left–right model with automatic R-parity

We revisit the minimal supersymmetric left–right model with B−L=2$B-L=2$ triplet Higgs fields and show that a self-consistent picture emerges with automatic R-parity conservation even in the absence of higher-dimensional operators. By computing the effective potential for the Higgs system including heavy Majorana neutrino Yukawa couplings we show that the global minimum of the model can lie in the charge and R-parity conserving domain. The model provides natural solutions to the SUSY phase problem and the strong CP problem and makes several interesting predictions. Quark mixing angles arise only after radiative corrections from the lepton sector are taken into account. A pair of doubly charged Higgs fields remain light below TeV with one field acquiring its mass entirely via renormalization group corrections. We find this mass to be not much above the Bino mass. In the supergravity framework for SUSY breaking, we also find similar upper limits on the stau masses. Natural solutions to the μ   problem and the SUSY CP problem entails light SUL₍₂₎$\mathit{SU}{(2)}_L$ triplet Higgs fields, leading to rich collider phenomenology.     

The role of conformal symmetry in the Jackiw–Pi model

The Jackiw–Pi model in 2+1$2+1$ dimensions is a non-relativistic conformal field theory of charged particles with point-like self-interaction. For specific values of the interaction strengths the classical theory possesses vortex and multi-vortex solutions, which are all degenerate in energy. We compute the full set of first-order perturbative quantum corrections. Only the coupling constant g²$g^2$ requires renormalization; the fields and electric charge e are not renormalized. It is shown that in general the conformal symmetries are broken by an anomalous contribution to the conservation law, proportional to the β-function. However, the β  -function vanishes upon restricting the coupling constants to values g²=±e²$g^2=\pm e^2$, which includes the case in which vortex solutions exist. Therefore the existence of vortices also guarantees the preservation of the conformal symmetries.     

Spin-1 Blume–Capel model with random crystal field effects

The random-crystal field spin-1 Blume–Capel model is investigated by the lowest approximation of the cluster-variation method which is identical to the mean-field approximation. The crystal field is either turned on randomly with probability p$p$ or turned off with q=1−p$q=1-p$ in a bimodal distribution. Then the phase diagrams are constructed on the crystal field (Δ$\Delta$)–temperature (kT/J)$(kT/J)$ planes for given values of p$p$ and on the (kT/J,p$kT/J,p$) planes for given Δ$\Delta$ by studying the thermal variations of the order parameters. In the latter, we only present the second-order phase transition lines, because of the existence of irregular wiggly phase transitions which are not good enough to construct lines. In addition to these phase transitions, the model also yields tricritical points for all values of p$p$ and the reentrant behavior at lower p$p$ values.     

Finite-size effects on the minimal conductivity in graphene with Rashba spin–orbit coupling

We study theoretically the minimal conductivity of monolayer graphene in the presence of Rashba spin–orbit coupling. The Rashba spin–orbit interaction causes the low-energy bands to undergo trigonal-warping deformation and for energies smaller than the Lifshitz energy, the Fermi circle breaks up into parts, forming four separate Dirac cones. We calculate the minimal conductivity for an ideal strip of length L and width W within the Landauer–Büttiker formalism in a continuum and in a tight binding model. We show that the minimal conductivity depends on the relative orientation of the sample and the probing electrodes due to the interference of states related to different Dirac cones. We also explore the effects of finite system size and find that the minimal conductivity can be lowered compared to that of an infinitely wide sample.     

Nonlinear modes in rotating double well potential with parity–time symmetry

We investigate the nonlinear modes in a rotating double well potential with 79T symmetry. Focus on the existence and stability of the nonlinear PT modes in this system, we found that five types of PT modes can stably exist by given certain parameter settings. The multistable area between these modes are studied numerically and the bistable and tristable areas are delimited. With different input trial wavefunctions, five types of solitary wave modes are identified. We found that the rotating of the potential can significantly affect the power flow of the fundamental harmonic mode, whose effect is absent for the other modes.     

μ–τ symmetry in Zee–Babu model

We study the Zee–Babu two-loop neutrino mass generation model and look for a possible flavor symmetry behind the tri-bimaximal neutrino mixing. We find that there probably exists the μ–τ   symmetry in the case of the normal neutrino mass hierarchy, whereas there may not be in the inverted hierarchy case. We also propose a specific model based on a Froggatt–Nielsen-like Z₅$Z_5$ symmetry to naturally accomplish the μ–τ symmetry on the neutrino mass matrix for the normal hierarchy case.     

Simulation of dynamic temperature evolution in an underground coal fire area based on an optimised Thermal–Hydraulic–Chemical model

Underground coal fires (UCFs) exist in almost all coal mining countries. In this paper, an optimised Thermal–Hydraulic–Chemical model, which includes variable reaction kinetics of coal and permeability variation in UCF zones, was developed for the simulation of dynamic temperature evolution of an actual UCF in Xinjiang, China. The model was also adopted in the analysis of the effect of surface coverage permeability on the temperature field, providing a theoretical reference for UCFs control. The results demonstrate that the temperature evolution included three distinct stages which were slow-heating stage, rapid-heating stage and stable-development stage. The slow-heating stage was occupied by the low-temperature oxidation of residual coal. During the rapid-heating stage, a hotspot (combustion centre) formed in residual coal zone and moved toward the air inlet side when the temperature reached a certain threshold. And before moving back into the deeper coal seam, the hotspot developed the temperature to the maximum when it got to the air inlet side. In the stable-development stage, the hotspot spread along the coal seam with the maximum temperature staying between about 800°C and 1000°C, creating elliptical temperature anomalies around the combustion centre. The simulation proved to be in good agreement with the in situ measurements. Surface covering will extinguish the UCF when the permeability of the coverage layer is lower than 10^–10?m², otherwise the fire will persist and continue to spread.     

Neutrino masses and lepton-flavor-violating τ decays in the supersymmetric left-right model

In the supersymmetric left-right model, the light neutrino masses are given by the Type-Ⅱ seesaw mechanism. A duality property of this mechanism indicates that there exist eight possible Higgs triplet Yukawa couplings which result in the same neutrino mass matrix. In this paper, we work out the one-loop renormalization group equations for the effective neutrino mass matrix in the supersymmetric left-right model. The stability of the Type-Ⅱ seesaw scenario is briefly discussed. We also study the lepton-flavor-violating processes (τ→ μγ and τ→eγ) by using the reconstructed Higgs triplet Yukawa couplings.     

Large lateral shift in complex dielectric multilayers with nearly parity–time symmetry

We investigate the lateral shift of optical beam in complex dielectric multilayers with nearly parity–time (PT) symmetry. The gain and loss of dielectrics are modulated to achieve nearly PT symmetry. As light impinges on the multilayers, a laser point (LP) and exceptional points (EPs) appear in the parameter space composed of the incident angle and refractive index. The phase of reflection dislocates at the LP and EPs, inducing large lateral shift around these points. The shift can be positive and negative, and the polarities of the lateral shift convert at the LP and EPs. The shift, which is sensitive to the incident angle and refractive index of dielectrics, could be tuned flexibly. The study may find potential applications in highly sensitive sensors.