Advances in theoretical and experimental XAFS studies of thermodynamic properties,anharmonic effects and structural determination of fcc crystals

Thermodynamic properties, anharmonic effects and structural determination of fcc crystals have been studied based on the theoretical and experimental Debye–Waller factors presented in terms of cumulant expansion up to the third order, thermal expansion coefficient, X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectra and their Fourier transform magnitudes. The advances in these studies are performed by the further development of the anharmonic correlated Einstein model primary only for approximating three first XAFS cumulants into the method using that all the considered theoretical and experimental XAFS parameters have been provided based on only the calculated and measured second cumulants. The obtained cumulants describe the anharmonic effects in XAFS contributing to the accurate structural determination. Numerical results for Cu are found to be in good agreement with the experimental values extracted by using the present advanced method and with those obtained by the other measurements.     

Pinning down neutrino oscillation parameters in the 2–3 sector with a magnetised atmospheric neutrino detector: a new study

We determine the sensitivity to neutrino oscillation parameters from a study of atmospheric neutrinos in a magnetised detector such as the ICAL at the proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory. In such a detector, which can separately count \(\nu _\mu \) and \(\overline{\nu }_\mu \)-induced events, the relatively smaller (about 5%) uncertainties on the neutrino–antineutrino flux ratios translate to a constraint in the \(\chi ^2\) analysis that results in a significant improvement in the precision with which neutrino oscillation parameters such as \(\sin ^2\theta _{23}\) can be determined. Such an effect is unique to all magnetisable detectors and constitutes a great advantage in determining neutrino oscillation parameters using such detectors. Such a study has been performed for the first time here. Along with an increase in the kinematic range compared to earlier analyses, this results in sensitivities to oscillation parameters in the 2–3 sector that are comparable to or better than those from accelerator experiments where the fluxes are significantly higher. For example, the \(1\sigma \) precisions on \(\sin ^2\theta _{23}\) and \(|\Delta {m^2_{32(31)}}|\) achievable for 500 kton year exposure of ICAL are \({\sim }9\) and \({\sim }2.5\)%, respectively, for both normal and inverted hierarchies. The mass hierarchy sensitivity achievable with this combination when the true hierarchy is normal (inverted) for the same exposure is \(\Delta \chi ^2\approx 8.5\) (\(\Delta \chi ^2\approx 9.5\)).     

Thermodynamic implications of the gravitationally induced particle creation scenario

A rigorous thermodynamic analysis has been done as regards the apparent horizon of a spatially flat Friedmann–Lemaitre–Robertson–Walker universe for the gravitationally induced particle creation scenario with constant specific entropy and an arbitrary particle creation rate \(\Gamma \). Assuming a perfect fluid equation of state \(p=(\gamma -1)\rho \) with \(\frac{2}{3} \le \gamma \le 2\), the first law, the generalized second law (GSL), and thermodynamic equilibrium have been studied, and an expression for the total entropy (i.e., horizon entropy plus fluid entropy) has been obtained which does not contain \(\Gamma \) explicitly. Moreover, a lower bound for the fluid temperature \(T_f\) has also been found which is given by \(T_f \ge 8\left( \frac{\frac{3\gamma }{2}-1}{\frac{2}{\gamma }-1}\right) H^2\). It has been shown that the GSL is satisfied for \(\frac{\Gamma }{3H} \le 1\). Further, when \(\Gamma \) is constant, thermodynamic equilibrium is always possible for \(\frac{1}{2}<\frac{\Gamma }{3H} < 1\), while for \(\frac{\Gamma }{3H} \le \text {min}\left\{ \frac{1}{2},\frac{2\gamma -2}{3\gamma -2} \right\} \) and \(\frac{\Gamma }{3H} \ge 1\), equilibrium can never be attained. Thermodynamic arguments also lead us to believe that during the radiation phase, \(\Gamma \le H\). When \(\Gamma \) is not a constant, thermodynamic equilibrium holds if \(\ddot{H} \ge \frac{27}{4}\gamma ^2 H^3 \left( 1-\frac{\Gamma }{3H}\right) ^2\), however, such a condition is by no means necessary for the attainment of equilibrium.     

$$\varvec{B^0\rightarrow K^{*0}\mu ^+\mu ^-}$$ decay in the aligned two-Higgs-doublet model

In the aligned two-Higgs-doublet model, we perform a complete one-loop computation of the short-distance Wilson coefficients \(C_{7,9,10}^{(\prime )}\), which are the most relevant ones for \(b\rightarrow s\ell ^+\ell ^-\) transitions. It is found that, when the model parameter \(\left| \varsigma _{u}\right| \) is much smaller than \(\left| \varsigma _{d}\right| \), the charged scalar contributes mainly to chirality-flipped \(C_{9,10}^\prime \), with the corresponding effects being proportional to \(\left| \varsigma _{d}\right| ^2\). Numerically, the charged-scalar effects fit into two categories: (A) \(C_{7,9,10}^\mathrm {H^\pm }\) are sizable, but \(C_{9,10}^{\prime \mathrm {H^\pm }}\simeq 0\), corresponding to the (large \(\left| \varsigma _{u}\right| \), small \(\left| \varsigma _{d}\right| \)) region; (B) \(C_7^\mathrm {H^\pm }\) and \(C_{9,10}^{\prime \mathrm {H^\pm }}\) are sizable, but \(C_{9,10}^\mathrm {H^\pm }\simeq 0\), corresponding to the (small \(\left| \varsigma _{u}\right| \), large \(\left| \varsigma _{d}\right| \)) region. Taking into account phenomenological constraints from the inclusive radiative decay \(B\rightarrow X_{s}{\gamma }\), as well as the latest model-independent global analysis of \(b\rightarrow s\ell ^+\ell ^-\) data, we obtain the much restricted parameter space of the model. We then study the impact of the allowed model parameters on the angular observables \(P_2\) and \(P_5'\) of \(B^0\rightarrow K^{*0}\mu ^+\mu ^-\) decay, and we find that \(P_5'\) could be increased significantly to be consistent with the experimental data in case B.     

Two-body decays of gluino at full one-loop level in the quark-flavour violating MSSM

We study the two-body decays of the gluino at full one-loop level in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with quark-flavour violation (QFV) in the squark sector. The renormalisation is done in the \(\overline{\mathrm{DR}}\) scheme. The gluon and photon radiations are included by adding the corresponding three-body decay widths. We discuss the dependence of the gluino decay widths on the QFV parameters. The main dependence stems from the \(\tilde{c}_R \)–\( \tilde{t}_R\) mixing in the decays to up-type squarks, and from the \(\tilde{s}_R \)–\( \tilde{b}_R\) mixing in the decays to down-type squarks due to the strong constraints from B-physics on the other quark-flavour-mixing parameters. The full one-loop corrections to the gluino decay widths are mostly negative and of the order of about ?10%. The QFV part stays small in the total width but can vary up to ?8% for the decay width into the lightest \(\tilde{u}\) squark. For the corresponding branching ratio the effect is somehow washed out by at least a factor of two. The electroweak corrections can be as large as 35% of the SUSY QCD corrections.     

Likelihood analysis of the minimal AMSB model

We perform a likelihood analysis of the minimal anomaly-mediated supersymmetry-breaking (mAMSB) model using constraints from cosmology and accelerator experiments. We find that either a wino-like or a Higgsino-like neutralino LSP, \(\tilde{\chi }^0_{1}\), may provide the cold dark matter (DM), both with similar likelihoods. The upper limit on the DM density from Planck and other experiments enforces \(m_{\tilde{\chi }^0_{1}} \lesssim 3 \,\, \mathrm {TeV}\) after the inclusion of Sommerfeld enhancement in its annihilations. If most of the cold DM density is provided by the \(\tilde{\chi }^0_{1}\), the measured value of the Higgs mass favours a limited range of \(\tan \beta \sim 5\) (and also for \(\tan \beta \sim 45\) if \(\mu > 0\)) but the scalar mass \(m_0\) is poorly constrained. In the wino-LSP case, \(m_{3/2}\) is constrained to about \(900\,\, \mathrm {TeV}\) and \(m_{\tilde{\chi }^0_{1}}\) to \(2.9\pm 0.1\,\, \mathrm {TeV}\), whereas in the Higgsino-LSP case \(m_{3/2}\) has just a lower limit \(\gtrsim 650\,\, \mathrm {TeV}\) (\(\gtrsim 480\,\, \mathrm {TeV}\)) and \(m_{\tilde{\chi }^0_{1}}\) is constrained to \(1.12 ~(1.13) \pm 0.02\,\, \mathrm {TeV}\) in the \(\mu >0\) (\(\mu <0\)) scenario. In neither case can the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, \((g-2)_\mu \), be improved significantly relative to its Standard Model (SM) value, nor do flavour measurements constrain the model significantly, and there are poor prospects for discovering supersymmetric particles at the LHC, though there are some prospects for direct DM detection. On the other hand, if the \(\tilde{\chi }^0_{1}\) contributes only a fraction of the cold DM density, future LHC Open image in new window -based searches for gluinos, squarks and heavier chargino and neutralino states as well as disappearing track searches in the wino-like LSP region will be relevant, and interference effects enable \(\mathrm{BR}(B_{s, d} \rightarrow \mu ^+\mu ^-)\) to agree with the data better than in the SM in the case of wino-like DM with \(\mu > 0\).     

New physics effects in charm meson decays involving $$c \rightarrow u l^+ l^- (l_i^{\mp } l_j^{\,\pm \,})$$ transitions

We study the effect of the scalar leptoquark and \(Z^\prime \) boson on the rare decays of the D mesons involving flavour changing transitions \(c \rightarrow u l^+ l^- (l^{\mp }_i l^{\,\pm \,}_j)\). We constrain the new physics parameter space using the branching ratio of the rare decay mode \(D^0 \rightarrow \mu ^+ \mu ^-\) and the \(D^0 - {\bar{D}}^0\) oscillation data. We compute the branching ratios, forward–backward asymmetry parameters and flat terms in \(D^{+(0)} \rightarrow \pi ^{+(0)} \mu ^+ \mu ^-\) processes using the constrained parameters. The branching ratios of the lepton flavour violating D meson decays, such as \(D^0 \rightarrow \mu e, ~\tau e\) and \(D^{+(0)} \rightarrow \pi ^{+(0)} \mu ^- e^+\) are also investigated.     

A search for sterile neutrinos with the latest cosmological observations

We report the result of a search for sterile neutrinos with the latest cosmological observations. Both cases of massless and massive sterile neutrinos are considered in the \(\Lambda \)CDM cosmology. The cosmological observations used in this work include the Planck 2015 temperature and polarization data, the baryon acoustic oscillation data, the Hubble constant direct measurement data, the Planck Sunyaev–Zeldovich cluster counts data, the Planck lensing data, and the cosmic shear data. We find that the current observational data give a hint of the existence of massless sterile neutrino (as dark radiation) at the 1.44\(\sigma \) level, and the consideration of an extra massless sterile neutrino can indeed relieve the tension between observations and improve the cosmological fit. For the case of massive sterile neutrino, the observations give a rather tight upper limit on the mass, which implies that actually a massless sterile neutrino is more favored. Our result is consistent with the recent result of neutrino oscillation experiment done by the Daya Bay and MINOS collaborations, as well as the recent result of cosmic ray experiment done by the IceCube collaboration.     

Leptoquark mechanism of neutrino masses within the grand unification framework

We demonstrate the viability of the one-loop neutrino mass mechanism within the framework of grand unification when the loop particles comprise scalar leptoquarks (LQs) and quarks of the matching electric charge. This mechanism can be implemented in both supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric models and requires the presence of at least one LQ pair. The appropriate pairs for the neutrino mass generation via the up-type and down-type quark loops are \(S_3\)–\(R_2\) and \(S_{1,\,3}\)–\(\tilde{R}_2\), respectively. We consider two distinct regimes for the LQ masses in our analysis. The first regime calls for very heavy LQs in the loop. It can be naturally realized with the \(S_{1,\,3}\)–\(\tilde{R}_2\) scenarios when the LQ masses are roughly between \(10^{12}\) and \(5 \times 10^{13}\) GeV. These lower and upper bounds originate from experimental limits on partial proton decay lifetimes and perturbativity constraints, respectively. Second regime corresponds to the collider accessible LQs in the neutrino mass loop. That option is viable for the \(S_3\)–\(\tilde{R}_2\) scenario in the models of unification that we discuss. If one furthermore assumes the presence of the type II see-saw mechanism there is an additional contribution from the \(S_3\)–\(R_2\) scenario that needs to be taken into account beside the type II see-saw contribution itself. We provide a complete list of renormalizable operators that yield necessary mixing of all aforementioned LQ pairs using the language of SU(5). We furthermore discuss several possible embeddings of this mechanism in SU(5) and SO(10) gauge groups.     

An analytic analysis of the pion decay constant in three-flavoured chiral perturbation theory

A representation of the two-loop contribution to the pion decay constant in SU(3) chiral perturbation theory is presented. The result is analytic up to the contribution of the three (different) mass sunset integrals, for which an expansion in their external momentum has been taken. We also give an analytic expression for the two-loop contribution to the pion mass based on a renormalized representation and in terms of the physical eta mass. We find an expansion of \(F_{\pi }\) and \(M_{\pi }^2\) in the strange-quark mass in the isospin limit, and we perform the matching of the chiral SU(2) and SU(3) low-energy constants. A numerical analysis demonstrates the high accuracy of our representation, and the strong dependence of the pion decay constant upon the values of the low-energy constants, especially in the chiral limit. Finally, we present a simplified representation that is particularly suitable for fitting with available lattice data.