Fisher matrix forecasts for astrophysical tests of the stability of the fine-structure constant

We use Fisher Matrix analysis techniques to forecast the cosmological impact of astrophysical tests of the stability of the fine-structure constant to be carried out by the forthcoming ESPRESSO spectrograph at the VLT (due for commissioning in late 2017), as well by the planned high-resolution spectrograph (currently in Phase A) for the European Extremely Large Telescope. Assuming a fiducial model without $\alpha$ variations, we show that ESPRESSO can improve current bounds on the E\"{o}tv\"{o}s parameter---which quantifies Weak Equivalence Principle violations---by up to two orders of magnitude, leading to stronger bounds than those expected from the ongoing tests with the MICROSCOPE satellite, while constraints from the E-ELT should be competitive with those of the proposed STEP satellite. Should an $\alpha$ variation be detected, these measurements will further constrain cosmological parameters, being particularly sensitive to the dynamics of dark energy.Comment: Phys. Lett. B (in press

Collider Detection of Dark Matter Electromagnetic Anapole Moments

Dark matter that interacts with the Standard Model by exchanging photons through higher multipole interactions occurs in a wide range of both strongly as well as weakly coupled hidden sector models. We study the collider detection prospects of these candidates, with a focus on Majorana dark matter that couples through the anapole moment. The study is conducted at the effective field theory level with the mono-$Z$ signature incorporating varying levels of systematic uncertainties at the high-luminosity LHC. The projected collider reach on the anapole moment is then compared to the reach coming from direct detection experiments like LZ. Finally, the analysis is applied to a weakly coupled completion with leptophilic dark matter.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Generation and detection of bound entanglement

We propose a method for the experimental generation of two different families of bound entangled states of three qubits. Our method is based on the explicit construction of a quantum network that produces a purification of the desired state. We also suggest a route for the experimental detection of bound entanglement, by employing a witness operator plus a test of the positivity of the partial transposes