1,720,977 research outputs found
Cosmological constant: Relaxation vs multiverse
Get PDFWe consider a scalar field with a bottom-less potential, such as g3φ, finding that cosmologies unavoidably end up with a crunch, late enough to be compatible with observations if g≲1.2H02/3MPl1/3. If rebounces avoid singularities, the multiverse acquires new features; in particular probabilities avoid some of the usual ambiguities. If rebounces change the vacuum energy by a small enough amount, this dynamics selects a small vacuum energy and becomes the most likely source of universes with anthropically small cosmological constant. Its probability distribution could avoid the gap by 2 orders of magnitude that seems left by standard anthropic selection
Relaxing the Higgs mass and its vacuum energy by living at the top of the potential
No full textWe consider an ultralight scalar coupled to the Higgs in the presence of heavier new physics. In the electroweak broken phase the Higgs gives a tree-level contribution to the light-scalar potential, while new physics contributes at loop level. Thereby, the theory has a cosmologically metastable phase where the light scalar is around the top of its potential, and the Higgs is a loop factor lighter than new physics. Such regions with precarious naturalness are anthropically and environmentally selected, as regions with heavier Higgs crunch quickly. We expect observable effects of rolling in the dark-energy equation of state. Furthermore, vacuum energies up to the weak scale can be canceled down to anthropically small values
Thermal localizable entanglement in a simple multipartite system
No full textThe quantum correlations present in a system of three coupled spins 12 in a thermal state are investigated. Localizable entanglement, as well as concurrence function, is exactly evaluated. The results obtained show the existence of a temperature range corresponding to which it is impossible to localize entanglement
BUILDING AN ENTANGLEMENT MEASURE ON PHYSICAL GROUND
Get PDFWe introduce on physical grounds a new measure of multipartite entanglement for pure states. The function we define is discriminant and monotone under LOCC; moreover, it can be expressed in terms of observables of the system.We introduce on physical grounds a new measure of multipartite entanglement for pure
states. The function we define is discriminant and monotone under LOCC; moreover, it
can be expressed in terms of observables of the system
Dark matter and the XENON1T electron recoil excess
No full textWe show that the electron recoil excess around 2 keV claimed by the Xenon Collaboration can be fitted by dark matter (DM) or DM-like particles having a fast component with velocity of order ∼0.1. Those particles cannot be part of the cold DM halo of our Galaxy, so we speculate about their possible nature and origin, such as fast-moving DM subhalos, semiannihilations of DM and relativistic axions produced by a nearby axion star. Feasible new physics scenarios must accommodate exotic DM dynamics and unusual DM properties
Is negative kinetic energy metastable?
No full textLocal minima of the potential can be metastable up to cosmologically long times thanks to energy conservation. We explore the possibility that theories with negative kinetic energy (ghosts) can be metastable up to cosmologically long times. In classical mechanics, ghosts undergo spontaneous lockdown rather than run away if weakly coupled and nonresonant. Physical examples of this phenomenon are shown. In quantum mechanics, this leads to metastability similar to vacuum decay. In classical field theory, lockdown is broken by resonances and ghosts behave statistically, drifting toward infinite entropy as no thermal equilibrium exists. We analytically and numerically compute the runaway rate finding that it is cosmologically slow in four-derivative gravity, where ghosts have gravitational interactions only. In quantum field theory, the ghost runaway rate is naively infinite in perturbation theory, analogously to what is found in early attempts to compute vacuum tunnelling; we do not know the true rate
Dark Matter as dark dwarfs and other macroscopic objects: multiverse relics?
Get PDFFirst order phase transitions can leave relic pockets of false vacua and their particles, that manifest as macroscopic Dark Matter. We compute one predictive model: a gauge theory with a dark quark relic heavier than the confinement scale. During the first order phase transition to confinement, dark quarks remain in the false vacuum and get compressed, forming Fermi balls that can undergo gravitational collapse to stable dark dwarfs (bound states analogous to white dwarfs) near the Chandrasekhar limit, or primordial black holes
Coset cosmology
Get PDFWe show that the potential of Nambu-Goldstone bosons can have two or more local minima e.g. at antipodal positions in the vacuum manifold. This happens in many models of composite Higgs and of composite Dark Matter. Trigonometric potentials lead to unusual features, such as symmetry non-restoration at high temperature. In some models, such as the minimal SO(5)/SO(4) composite Higgs with fermions in the fundamental representation, the two minima are degenerate giving cosmological domain-wall problems. Otherwise, an unusual cosmology arises, that can lead to supermassive primordial black holes; to vacuum or thermal decays; to a high-temperature phase of broken SU(2)L, possibly interesting for baryogenesis
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