Quasiclassical Coarse Graining and Thermodynamic Entropy

Our everyday descriptions of the universe are highly coarse-grained, following only a tiny fraction of the variables necessary for a perfectly fine-grained description. Coarse graining in classical physics is made natural by our limited powers of observation and computation. But in the modern quantum mechanics of closed systems, some measure of coarse graining is inescapable because there are no non-trivial, probabilistic, fine-grained descriptions. This essay explores the consequences of that fact. Quantum theory allows for various coarse-grained descriptions some of which are mutually incompatible. For most purposes, however, we are interested in the small subset of ``quasiclassical descriptions'' defined by ranges of values of averages over small volumes of densities of conserved quantities such as energy and momentum and approximately conserved quantities such as baryon number. The near-conservation of these quasiclassical quantities results in approximate decoherence, predictability, and local equilibrium, leading to closed sets of equations of motion. In any description, information is sacrificed through the coarse graining that yields decoherence and gives rise to probabilities for histories. In quasiclassical descriptions, further information is sacrificed in exhibiting the emergent regularities summarized by classical equations of motion. An appropriate entropy measures the loss of information. For a ``quasiclassical realm'' this is connected with the usual thermodynamic entropy as obtained from statistical mechanics. It was low for the initial state of our universe and has been increasing since.Comment: 17 pages, 0 figures, revtex4, Dedicated to Rafael Sorkin on his 60th birthday, minor correction

Phenomenology of Dirac Neutrinogenesis in Split Supersymmetry

In Split Supersymmetry scenarios the possibility of having a very heavy gravitino opens the door to alleviate or completely solve the worrisome "gravitino problem'' in the context of supersymmetric baryogenesis models. Here we assume that the gravitino may indeed be heavy and that Majorana masses for neutrinos are forbidden as well as direct Higgs Yukawa couplings between left and right handed neutrinos. We investigate the viability of the mechansim known as Dirac leptogenesis (or neutrinogenesis), both in solving the baryogenesis puzzle and explaining the observed neutrino sector phenomenology. To successfully address these issues, the scenario requires the introduction of at least two new heavy fields. If a hierarchy among these new fields is introduced, and some reasonable stipulations are made on the couplings that appear in the superpotential, it becomes a generic feature to obtain the observed large lepton mixing angles. We show that in this case, it is possible simultaneously to obtain both the correct neutrino phenomenology and enough baryon number, making thermal Dirac neutrinogenesis viable. However, due to cosmological constraints, its ability to satisfy these constraints depends nontrivially on model parameters of the overall theory, particularly the gravitino mass. Split supersymmetry with m_{3/2} between 10^{5} and 10^{10} GeV emerges as a "natural habitat" for thermal Dirac neutrinogenesis.Comment: 37 pages, 8 figure

Neutrino Models of Dark Energy

I consider a scenario proposed by Fardon, Nelson and Weiner where dark energy and neutrinos are connected. As a result, neutrino masses are not constant but depend on the neutrino number density. By examining the full equation of state for the dark sector, I show that in this scenario the dark energy is equivalent to having a cosmological constant, but one that "runs" as the neutrino mass changes with temperature. Two examples are examined that illustrate the principal feautures of the dark sector of this scenario. In particular, the cosmological constant is seen to be negligible for most of the evolution of the Universe, becoming inportant only when neutrinos become non-relativistic. Some speculations on features of this scenario which might be present in a more realistic theory are also presented.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Added comments on why FNW scenario always leads to a running cosmological constant and a few references. To be published in Phys. Rev.

Thermal leptogenesis in brane world cosmology

The thermal leptogenesis in brane world cosmology is studied. In brane world cosmology, the expansion law is modified from the four-dimensional standard cosmological one at high temperature regime in the early universe. As a result, the well-known upper bound on the lightest light neutrino mass induced by the condition for the out-of-equilibrium decay of the lightest heavy neutrino, $\tilde{m}_1 \lesssim 10^{-3}$ eV, can be moderated to be $\tilde{m}_1 \lesssim 10^{-3} {eV} \times (M_1/T_t)^2$ in the case of $T_t \leq M_1$ with the lightest heavy neutrino mass ($M_1$) and the ``transition temperature'' ($T_t$), at which the modified expansion law in brane world cosmology is smoothly connecting with the standard one. This implies that the degenerate mass spectrum of the light neutrinos can be consistent with the thermal leptogenesis scenario. Furthermore, as recently pointed out, the gravitino problem in supersymmetric case can be solved if the transition temperature is low enough $T_t \lesssim 10^{6-7}$ GeV. Therefore, even in the supersymmetric case, thermal leptogenesis scenario can be successfully realized in brane world cosmology.Comment: 9 pages, final versio

Insensitivity of flavoured leptogenesis to low energy CP violation

If the baryon asymmetry of the Universe is produced by leptogenesis, CP violation is required in the lepton sector. In the seesaw extension of the Standard Model with three hierarchical right-handed neutrinos, we show that the baryon asymmetry is insensitive to the PMNS phases: thermal leptogenesis can work for any value of the observable phases. This result was well-known when there are no flavour effects in leptogenesis; we show that it remains true when flavour effects are included.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; version accepted for publication, added explanations, notation clarifie

Signatures from an extra-dimensional seesaw model

We study the generation of small neutrino masses in an extra-dimensional model, where right-handed neutrinos are allowed to propagate in the extra dimension, while the Standard Model particles are confined to a brane. Motivated by the fact that extra-dimensional models are non-renormalizable, we truncate the Kaluza-Klein towers at a maximal extra-dimensional momentum. The structure of the bulk Majorana mass term, motivated by the Sherk-Schwarz mechanism, implies that the right-handed Kaluza-Klein neutrinos pair to form Dirac neutrinos, except for a number of unpaired Majorana neutrinos at the top of each tower. These heavy Majorana neutrinos are the only sources of lepton number breaking in the model, and similarly to the type-I seesaw mechanism, they naturally generate small masses for the left-handed neutrinos. The lower Kaluza-Klein modes mix with the light neutrinos, and the mixing effects are not suppressed with respect to the light-neutrino masses. Compared to conventional fermionic seesaw models, such mixing can be more significant. We study the signals of this model at the Large Hadron Collider, and find that the current low-energy bounds on the non-unitarity of the leptonic mixing matrix are strong enough to exclude an observation.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, REVTeX4. Final version published in Phys. Rev.

B-L Violating Nucleon Decay and GUT Scale Baryogenesis in SO(10)

We show that grand unified theories based on SO(10) generate naturally the next-to-leading baryon number violating operators of dimension seven. These operators, which violate B-L, lead to unconventional decays of the nucleon such as n -> e^-K^+, e^- \pi^+ and p -> \nu \pi^+. In two-step breaking schemes of non-supersymmetric SO(10), nucleon lifetime for decays into these modes is found to be within reach of experiments. We also identify supersymmetric scenarios where these decays may be accessible, consistent with gauge coupling unification. Further, we show that the (B-L)-asymmetry generated in the decays of GUT scale scalar bosons and/or gauge bosons can explain consistently the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe. The induced (B-L)-asymmetry is sphaleron-proof, and survives down to the weak scale without being erased by the electroweak interactions. This mechanism works efficiently in a large class of non-SUSY and SUSY SO(10) models, with either a 126 or a 16 Higgs field employed for rank reduction. In minimal models the induced baryon asymmetry is tightly connected to the masses of quarks, leptons and neutrinos and is found to be compatible with observations.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figure

A model for fluctuating inflaton coupling: (s)neutrino induced adiabatic perturbations and non-thermal leptogenesis

We discuss an unique possibility of generating adiabatic density perturbations and leptogenesis from the spatial fluctuations of the inflaton decay rate. The key assumption is that the initial isocurvature perturbations are created in the right handed sneutrino sector during inflation which is then converted into adiabatic perturbations when the inflaton decays. We discuss distinct imprints on the cosmic micro wave background radiation, which can distinguish non-thermal versus thermal leptogenesis.Comment: 4 pages, version to be published in PR

Multicomponent dense electron gas as a model of Si MOSFET

We solve two-dimensional model of $N$-component dense electron gas in the limit of large $N$ and in a range of the Coulomb interaction parameter: $N^{-3/2}\ll r_s\ll 1$. The quasiparticle interaction on the Fermi circle vanishes as 1/N. The ground state energy and the effective mass are found as series in powers of $r_s^{2/3}$. In the quantum Hall state on the lowest Landau level at integer filling: $1\ll\nu<N$, the charge activation energy gap and the exchange constant are found.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Flavour-Dependent Type II Leptogenesis

We reanalyse leptogenesis via the out-of-equilibrium decay of the lightest right-handed neutrino in type II seesaw scenarios, taking into account flavour-dependent effects. In the type II seesaw mechanism, in addition to the type I seesaw contribution, an additional direct mass term for the light neutrinos is present. We consider type II seesaw scenarios where this additional contribution arises from the vacuum expectation value of a Higgs triplet, and furthermore an effective model-independent approach. We investigate bounds on the flavour-specific decay asymmetries, on the mass of the lightest right-handed neutrino and on the reheat temperature of the early universe, and compare them to the corresponding bounds in the type I seesaw framework. We show that while flavour-dependent thermal type II leptogenesis becomes more efficient for larger mass scale of the light neutrinos, and the bounds become relaxed, the type I seesaw scenario for leptogenesis becomes more constrained. We also argue that in general, flavour-dependent effects cannot be ignored when dealing with leptogenesis in type II seesaw models.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures; v3: minor additions, typos corrected, results and conclusions unchange