Low-scale inflation in a model of dark energy and dark matter

We present a complete particle physics model that explains three major problems of modern cosmology: inflation, dark matter and dark energy, and also gives a mechanism for leptogenesis. The model has a new gauge group $SU(2)_Z$ that grows strong at a scale $\Lambda\sim 10^{-3}$ eV. We focus on the inflationary aspects of the model. Inflation occurs with a Coleman-Weinberg potential at a low scale, down to \sim 6\times 10^5\gev, being compatible with observational data.Comment: 5 two-column pages, RevTex4; two reference added and minor changes made in the text; published in JCA

Remote sensing and GIS-based analysis of cave development in the Suoimuoi Catchment (Son La - NW Vietnam)

Integration of remotely sensed imagery with ground surveys is a promising method in cave development studies. In this research a methodology was set up in which a variety of remote sensing and GIS techniques support cave analysis in the tropical karst area of the Suoimuoi catchment, NW Vietnam. In order to extract the maximum information from different remotely sensed data, the hue invariant IHS transformation was applied to integrate Landsat multispectral channels with the high resolution Landsat 7 ETM panchromatic channel. The resulting fused image was used, after enhancement, to visually and digitally extract lineaments. Aerial photos evaluated the extracted lineaments. Based on lineament density indices a fracture zone favorable for cave development is defined. The distance between caves and faults was investigated as well as the correspondence between the cave occurrence and the fracture zone

Approximate gauge symmetry of composite vector bosons

It can be shown in a solvable field theory model that the couplings of the composite vector bosons made of a fermion pair approach the gauge couplings in the limit of strong binding. Although this phenomenon may appear accidental and special to the vector boson made of a fermion pair, we extend it to the case of bosons being constituents and find that the same phenomenon occurs in more an intriguing way. The functional formalism not only facilitates computation but also provides us with a better insight into the generating mechanism of approximate gauge symmetry, in particular, how the strong binding and global current conservation conspire to generate such an approximate symmetry. Remarks are made on its possible relevance or irrelevance to electroweak and higher symmetries.Comment: Correction of typos. The published versio

A Model of Quark and Lepton Masses I: The Neutrino Sector

If neutrinos have masses, why are they so tiny? Are these masses of the Dirac type or of the Majorana type? We are already familiar with the mechanism of how to obtain a tiny Majorana neutrino mass by the famous see-saw mechanism. The question is: Can one build a model in which a tiny Dirac neutrino mass arises in a more or less "natural" way? What would be the phenomenological consequences of such a scenario, other than just merely reproducing the neutrino mass patterns for the oscillation data? In this article, a systematic and detailed analysis of a model is presented, with, as key components, the introduction of a family symmetry as well as a new SU(2) symmetry for the right-handed neutrinos. In particular, in addition to the calculations of light neutrino Dirac masses, interesting phenomenological implications of the model will be presented.Comment: 25 (single-spaced) pages, 11 figures, corrected some typos in Table I, added acknowledgement

On Neutrino Masses and Family Replication

The old issue of why there are more than one family of quarks and leptons is reinvestigated with an eye towards the use of anomaly as a tool for constraining the number of families. It is found that, by assuming the existence of right-handed neutrinos (which would imply that neutrinos will have a mass) and a new chiral SU(2) gauge theory, strong constraints on the number of families can be obtained. In addition, a model, based on that extra SU(2), is constructed where it is natural to have one "very heavy" fourth neutrino and three almost degenerate light neutrinos whose masses are all of the Dirac type.Comment: RevTex, 12 pages with 1 figure, minor changes to the text and added acknowledgment

Superstring-Inspired E_6 Unification, Shadow Theta-Particles and Cosmology

We construct a new cosmological model considering the superstring-inspired E_6 unification in the 4-dimensional space at the early stage of the Universe. We develop a concept of parallel existence in Nature of the ordinary and shadow worlds with different cosmological evolutions.Comment: 7 page

Minimal SU(5) Resuscitated by Long-Lived Quarks and Leptons

The issue of gauge unification in the (non-supersymmetric) Standard Model is reinvestigated. It is found that with just an additional fourth generation of non-sequential and long-lived quarks and leptons, SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1) gauge couplings converge to a common point of approximately 3.5x10^{15} GeV (corresponding to a proton lifetime of approximately 10^{34 plus/minus 1} years). This result is due to the non-negligible- but still perturbative- contributions of the top and fourth generation Yukawa couplings to the gauge two-loop beta functions, in contrast with the three generation case where such a contribution is too small to play an important role in unification.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Mass-Varying Neutrinos from a Variable Cosmological Constant

We consider, in a completely model-independent way, the transfer of energy between the components of the dark energy sector consisting of the cosmological constant (CC) and that of relic neutrinos. We show that such a cosmological setup may promote neutrinos to mass-varying particles, thus resembling a recently proposed scenario of Fardon, Nelson, and Weiner (FNW), but now without introducing any acceleronlike scalar fields. Although a formal similarity of the FNW scenario with the variable CC one can be easily established, one nevertheless finds different laws for neutrino mass variation in each scenario. We show that as long as the neutrino number density dilutes canonically, only a very slow variation of the neutrino mass is possible. For neutrino masses to vary significantly (as in the FNW scenario), a considerable deviation from the canonical dilution of the neutrino number density is also needed. We note that the present `coincidence' between the dark energy density and the neutrino energy density can be obtained in our scenario even for static neutrino masses.Comment: 8 pages, minor corrections, two references added, to apear in JCA