CP Violating Baryon Oscillations

We enumerate the conditions necessary for $CP$ violation to be manifest in $n$-$\bar n$ oscillations, and build a simple model that can give rise to such effects. We discuss a possible connection between neutron oscillations and dark matter, provided the mass of the latter lies between $m_p-m_e$ and $m_p+m_e$. We apply our results to a possible baryogenesis scenario involving $CP$ violation in the oscillations of the $\Xi^0$.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. v2: version to appear in PR

Inflationary Axion Cosmology Beyond Our Horizon

In theories of axion dark matter with large axion decay constant, temperature variations in the CMB are extremely sensitive to perturbations in the initial axion field, allowing one to place a lower bound on the total amount of inflation. The most stringent bound comes from axion strings, which for axion decay constant f=10^17 GeV would currently be observable at a distance of 6 x 10^16 light-years, nearly ten million times as far away as our horizon

Baryogenesis via Mesino Oscillations

We propose a new mechanism for baryogenesis at the 1-200 MeV scale. Enhancement of CP violation takes place via interference between oscillations and decays of mesinos--bound states of a scalar quark and antiquark and their CP conjugates. We present the mechanism in a simplified model with four new fundamental particles, with masses between 300 GeV and 10 TeV, and show that some of the experimentally allowed parameter space can give the observed baryon-to-entropy ratio.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

CP Violation in Pseudo-Dirac Fermion Oscillations

Supersymmetric theories with a $U(1)_R$ symmetry have Dirac gauginos, solve the supersymmetric flavor and CP problems, and have distinctive collider signatures. However when supergravity is included, the $U(1)_R$ must be broken, adding small Majorana mass terms which split the mass of the two components of the Dirac gaugino and lead to oscillations between $U(1)_R$ charge eigenstates. We present a general study of fermion-antifermion oscillations in this system, including the effects of decays and CP violation. We consider the effects of such oscillations in the case where the two $U(1)_R$ charge eigenstates can decay into the same final state, and show that $O(1)$ CP violation is allowed. In the case of decays into final states containing leptons such CP violation can be observed as a same sign dilepton asymmetry.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, v2: references added, typos correcte

A Renormalizable Model for the Galactic Center Gamma Ray Excess from Dark Matter Annihilation

Evidence for an excess of gamma rays with O(GeV) energy coming from the center of our galaxy has been steadily accumulating over the past several years. Recent studies of the excess in data from the Fermi telescope have cast doubt on an explanation for the excess arising from unknown astrophysical sources. A potential source of the excess is the annihilation of dark matter into standard model final states, giving rise to gamma ray production. The spectrum of the excess is well fit by 30 GeV dark matter annihilating into a pair of b quarks with a cross section of the same order of magnitude as expected for a thermal relic. Simple models that can lead to this annihilation channel for dark matter are in strong tension with null results from direct detection experiments. We construct a renormalizable model where dark matter-standard model interactions are mediated by a pseudoscalar that mixes with the CP-odd component of a pair of Higgs doublets, allowing for the gamma ray excess to be explained while suppressing the direct detection signal. We consider implications for this scenario from Higgs decays, rare B meson decays and monojet searches and also comment on some difficulties that any dark matter model explaining the gamma ray excess via direct annihilation into quarks will encounter.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures. v2: published version, references added, B_s->mu mu limits and estimates update

Little flavor: A model of weak-scale flavor physics

We describe a model of quarks which identifies the large global symmetries of little Higgs models with the global flavor symmetries that arise in a deconstruction of the extra-dimensional 'topological insulator' model of flavor. The nonlinearly realized symmetries of little Higgs theories play a critical role in determining the flavor structure of fermion masses and mixing. All flavor physics occurs at the few TeV scale in this model, yet flavor changing neutral currents arising from the new physics are naturally smaller than those generated radiatively in the standard model, without having to invoke minimal flavor violation.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. Minor revisions to align with version accepted for publication, including title, and additional discussion about phenomenolog

Is CP a Gauge Symmetry?

We suggest here that CP is a discrete {\it gauge} symmetry, and is therefore not violated by quantum gravity. We show that four dimensional CP can arise as a discrete gauge symmetry in theories with dimensional compactification, if the original number of Minkowski dimensions equals $8k+1$, $8k+2$ or $8k+3$, and if there are certain restrictions on the gauge group; these conditions are met by superstrings. CP may then be broken spontaneously below $10^9$ GeV, explaining the observed CP violation in the kaon system without inducing a large EDMN. We discuss the phenomenology of such models, as well as the peculiar nature of cosmic ``CP strings'' which could be produced at the compactification scale. Such strings have the curious property that a particle carried around the string is turned into its CP conjugate. A single CP string renders four dimensional spacetime nonorientable.Comment: 2

Counting 4 pi 's in Strongly Coupled Supersymmetry

We extend the "naive dimensional analysis" arguments used in QCD for estimating the strengths of operators in chiral Lagrangians to strongly coupled supersymmetric theories. In particular, we show how to count factors of 4 pi ---an inexact science, but nevertheless a useful art when such theories are used to model real particle physics.Comment: 11 pages, late

Testing m(up)=0 on the Lattice

A massless up quark is an intriguing solution to the strong CP problem. We discuss how lattice computations can be used in conjunction with chiral perturbation theory to address the consistency of $m_u=0$ with the observed hadron spectrum and interactions. It is not necessary to simulate very light quarks-three flavor partially quenched computations with comparable sea and valence quark masses on the order of the strange quark mass could suffice.Comment: 20 pages, corrected equations, added ref