304 research outputs found
Naturally split supersymmetry
Nonobservation of superparticles till date, new Higgs mass limits from the
CMS and ATLAS experiments, WMAP constraints on relic density, various other low
energy data, and the naturalness consideration, all considered simultaneously
imply a paradigm shift of supersymmetric model building. In this paper we
perform, for the first time, a detailed numerical study of brane-world induced
supersymmetry breaking for both minimal and next-to-minimal scenarios. We
observe that a naturally hierarchical spectrum emerges through an interplay of
bulk, brane-localized and quasi-localized fields, which can gain more relevance
in the subsequent phases of the LHC run.Comment: 6 pages, 6 eps figures; v2: minor updates, to appear in JHE
Hyperextended Scalar-Tensor Gravity
We study a general Scalar-Tensor Theory with an arbitrary coupling funtion
but also an arbitrary dependence of the ``gravitational
constant'' in the cases in which either one of them, or both, do not
admit an analytical inverse, as in the hyperextended inflationary scenario. We
present the full set of field equations and study their cosmological behavior.
We show that different scalar-tensor theories can be grouped in classes with
the same solution for the scalar field.Comment: latex file, To appear in Physical Review
Implications of Flavor Dynamics for Fermion Triplet Leptogenesis
We analyze the importance of flavor effects in models in which leptogenesis
proceeds via the decay of Majorana electroweak triplets. We find that depending
on the relative strengths of gauge and Yukawa reactions the asymmetry can
be sizably enhanced, exceeding in some cases an order of magnitude level. We
also discuss the impact that such effects can have for TeV-scale triplets
showing that as long as the asymmetry is produced by the dynamics of the
lightest such triplet they are negligible, but open the possibility for
scenarios in which the asymmetry is generated above the TeV scale by heavier
states, possibly surviving the TeV triplet related washouts. We investigate
these cases and show how they can be disentangled at the LHC by using Majorana
triplet collider observables and, in the case of minimal type III see-saw
models even through lepton flavor violation observables.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, extended discussion on collider phenomenology,
references added. Version matches publication in JHE
Boson Stars in General Scalar-Tensor Gravitation: Equilibrium Configurations
We study equilibrium configurations of boson stars in the framework of
general scalar-tensor theories of gravitation. We analyse several possible
couplings, with acceptable weak field limit and, when known, nucleosynthesis
bounds, in order to work in the cosmologically more realistic cases of this
kind of theories. We found that for general scalar-tensor gravitation, the
range of masses boson stars might have is comparable with the general
relativistic case. We also analyse the possible formation of boson stars along
different eras of cosmic evolution, allowing for the effective gravitational
constant far out form the star to deviate from its current value. In these
cases, we found that the boson stars masses are sensitive to this kind of
variations, within a typical few percent. We also study cases in which the
coupling is implicitly defined, through the dependence on the radial
coordinate, allowing it to have significant variations in the radius of the
structure.Comment: 19 pages in latex, 3 figures -postscript- may be sent via e-mail upon
reques
100 key questions to guide hydropeaking research
As the share of renewable energy grows worldwide, flexible energy production from peak-operating hydropower and the phenomenon of hydropeaking have received increasing attention. In this study, we collected open research questions from 220 experts in river science, practice, and policy across the globe using an online survey available in six languages related to hydropeaking. We used a systematic method of determining expert consensus (Delphi method) to identify 100 high-priority questions related to the following thematic fields: (a) hydrology, (b) physico-chemical properties of water, (c) river morphology and sediment dynamics, (d) ecology and biology, (e) socio-economic topics, (f) energy markets, (g) policy and regulation, and (h) management and mitigation measures. The consensus list of high-priority questions shall inform and guide researchers in focusing their efforts to foster a better science-policy interface, thereby improving the sustainability of peak-operating hydropower in a variety of settings. We find that there is already a strong understanding of the ecological impact of hydropeaking and efficient mitigation techniques to support sustainable hydropower. Yet, a disconnect remains in its policy and management implementation.publishedVersio
The QUIJOTE experiment: project overview and first results
QUIJOTE (Q-U-I JOint TEnerife) is a new polarimeter aimed to characterize the
polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background and other Galactic and
extragalactic signals at medium and large angular scales in the frequency range
10-40 GHz. The multi-frequency (10-20~GHz) instrument, mounted on the first
QUIJOTE telescope, saw first light on November 2012 from the Teide Observatory
(2400~m a.s.l). During 2014 the second telescope has been installed at this
observatory. A second instrument at 30~GHz will be ready for commissioning at
this telescope during summer 2015, and a third additional instrument at 40~GHz
is now being developed. These instruments will have nominal sensitivities to
detect the B-mode polarization due to the primordial gravitational-wave
component if the tensor-to-scalar ratio is larger than r=0.05.Comment: To appear in "Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics VIII", Proceedings
of the XI Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society, Teruel,
Spain (2014
Naturalness Lowers the Upper Bound on the Lightest Higgs Boson Mass in Supersymmetry
We quantify the extent to which naturalness is lost as experimental lower
bounds on the Higgs boson mass increase, and we compute the natural upper bound
on the lightest supersymmetric Higgs boson mass. We find that it would be
unnatural for the mass of the lightest supersymmetric Higgs boson to saturate
it's maximal upper bound. In the absence of significant fine-tuning, the
lightest Higgs boson mass should lie below GeV, and in the most natural
cases it should be lighter than GeV. For modest , these bounds
are significantly lower. Our results imply that a failure to observe a light
Higgs boson in pre-LHC experiments could provide a serious challenge to the
principal motivation for weak-scale supersymmetry.Comment: 11 pages, LaTex, 3 ps.figure
QUIJOTE scientific results - VIII. Diffuse polarized foregrounds from component separation with QUIJOTE-MFI
We derive linearly polarized astrophysical component maps in the Northern Sky from the QUIJOTE-MFI data at 11 and 13?GHz in combination with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe K and Ka bands (23 and 33?GHz) and all Planck polarized channels (30-353-GHz), using the parametric component separation method B-SeCRET. The addition of QUIJOTE-MFI data significantly improves the parameter estimation of the low-frequency foregrounds, especially the estimation of the synchrotron spectral index, [beta]s. We present the first detailed ?s map of the Northern Celestial Hemisphere at a smoothing scale of 2°. We find statistically significant spatial variability across the sky. We obtain an average value of ?3.08 and a dispersion of 0.13, considering only pixels with reliable goodness of fit. The power-law model of the synchrotron emission provides a good fit to the data outside the Galactic plane but fails to track the complexity within this region. Moreover, when we assume a synchrotron model with uniform curvature, cs, we find a value of cs = ?0.0797 ± 0.0012. However, there is insufficient statistical significance to determine which model is favoured, either the power law or the power law with uniform curvature. Furthermore, we estimate the thermal dust spectral parameters in polarization. Our cosmic microwave background, synchrotron, and thermal dust maps are highly correlated with the corresponding products of the PR4 Planck release, although some large-scale differences are observed in the synchrotron emission. Finally, we find that the ?s estimation in the high signal-to-noise synchrotron emission areas is prior-independent, while, outside these regions, the prior governs the [beta]s estimation.We thank the staff of the Teide Observatory for invaluable assistance in the commissioning and operation of QUIJOTE. The QUIJOTE experiment is being developed by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), the Instituto de Fisica de Cantabria (IFCA), and the Universities of Cantabria, Manchester, and Cambridge. Partial financial support was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the projects AYA2007-68058-C03-01, AYA2007- 68058-C03-02, AYA2010-21766-C03-01, AYA2010-21766-C03-02, AYA2014-60438-P, ESP2015-70646-C2-1-R, AYA2017-84185-P, ESP2017-83921-C2-1-R, AYA2017-90675-REDC (co-funded with EU FEDER funds), PGC2018-101814-B-I00, PID2019-110610RBC21, PID2020-120514GB-I00, IACA13-3E-2336, IACA15-BE3707, EQC2018-004918-P, the Severo Ochoa Programs SEV-2015- 0548 and CEX2019-000920-S, the Maria de Maeztu Program MDM2017-0765, and by the Consolider-Ingenio project CSD2010-00064 (EPI: Exploring the Physics of Inflation). We acknowledge support from the ACIISI, Consejeria de Economia, Conocimiento y Empleo del Gobierno de Canarias, and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under grant with reference ProID2020010108. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 687312 (RADIOFOREGROUNDS). EdlH acknowledges financial support from the Concepcion´ Arenal Programme of the Universidad de Cantabria. DT acknowledges the support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) with grant no. 2020PM0042. FP acknowledges support from the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) under grant number PID2019-105552RB-C43. The authors acknowledge the computer resources, technical expertise, and assistance provided by the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES) node at Universidad de Cantabria. Some of the presented results are based on observations obtained with Planck (http://www.esa.int/Planck), an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States, NASA, and Canada. We acknowledge the use of the Legacy Archive for Microwave Background Data Analysis (LAMBDA) and the Planck Legacy Archive (PLA). Support for LAMBDA is provided by the NASA Office of Space Science. Some of the results in this paper have been derived using the HEALPIX package (Gorski ´ et al. 2005), and the HEALPY (Zonca et al. 2019), NUMPY (Harris et al. 2020), EMCEE (ForemanMackey et al. 2013), and MATPLOTLIB (Hunter 2007) PYTHON packages
QUIJOTE Experiment: status of telescopes and instrumentation
The QUIJOTE Experiment (Q-U-I JOint TEnerife) is a combined operation of two telescopes and three instruments working in the microwave band to measure the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) from the northern hemisphere, at medium and large angular scales. The experiment is located at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, one of the seven Canary Islands (Spain). The project is a consortium maintained by several institutions: the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the Instituto de Física de Cantabria (IFCA), the Communications Engineering Department (DICOM) at Universidad de Cantabria, and the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge. The consortium is led by the IAC
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