Clockworking FIMPs

We study freeze-in dark matter production in models that rely on the Clockwork mechanism to suppress the dark matter couplings to the visible sector. We construct viable scalar and fermionic dark matter models within this Clockwork FIMP scenario, with several subtleties that need to be taken into account revealed in the model-building process. We also provide analytic, semi-analytic and numerical results for the diagonalization of Clockwork-type mass matrices and briefly discuss the LHC phenomenology of the corresponding scenarios.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures. Some typos in the appendices corrected. Accepted for JHE

Isospin-violating dark matter from a double portal

We study a simple model that can give rise to isospin-violating interactions of Dirac fermion asymmetric dark matter to protons and neutrons through the interference of a scalar and U(1)$'$ gauge boson contribution. The model can yield a large suppression of the elastic scattering cross section off Xenon relative to Silicon thus reconciling CDMS-Si and LUX results while being compatible with LHC findings on the 126 GeV Higgs, electroweak precision tests and flavour constraints.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

Cornering pseudoscalar-mediated dark matter with the LHC and cosmology

Models in which dark matter particles communicate with the visible sector through a pseudoscalar mediator are well-motivated both from a theoretical and from a phenomenological standpoint. With direct detection bounds being typically subleading in such scenarios, the main constraints stem either from collider searches for dark matter, or from indirect detection experiments. However., LHC searches for the mediator particles themselves can not only compete with — or even supersede — the reach of direct collider dark matter probes, but they can also test scenarios in which traditional monojet searches become irrelevant, especially when the mediator cannot decay on-shell into dark matter particles or its decay is suppressed. In this work we perform a detailed analysis of a pseudoscalar-mediated dark matter simplified model, taking into account a large set of collider constraints and concentrating on the parameter space regions favoured by cos-mological and astrophysical data. We find that mediator masses above 100-200 GeV are essentially excluded by LHC searches in the case of large couplings to the top quark, while forthcoming collider and astrophysical measurements will further constrain the available parameter space

Monojet searches for momentum-dependent dark matter interactions

We consider minimal dark matter scenarios featuring momentum-dependent couplings of the dark sector to the Standard Model. We derive constraints from existing LHC searches in the monojet channel, estimate the future LHC sensitivity for an integrated luminosity of 300 fb−1, and compare with models exhibiting conventional momentum-independent interactions with the dark sector. In addition to being well motivated by (composite) pseudo-Goldstone dark matter scenarios, momentum-dependent couplings are interesting as they weaken direct detection constraints. For a specific dark matter mass, the LHC turns out to be sensitive to smaller signal cross-sections in the momentum-dependent case, by virtue of the harder jet transverse-momentum distribution

Works for the diversion of bed of rivers and torrents and their impact to the environmental of the Lagoons of Greece and Italy

This work deals with the comparative account and evaluation of the impact to the environment and especially with the alterations to the geomorphological structure and the hydro-geomorphological processes caused by the works for the diversion of the beds and the flow of rivers and torrents in the greater area of the "Katafourko lagoon" in Greece and of the "Venice lagoon" in Italy. Human intervention in the study areas, was of different aims in each location, but it all resulted in the alteration of the dynamic evolution of the hydro-geomorphological processes which has led to the creation of an "artificial" environment, controlled to a great extend by human power and which in turn, in the long term re-strengthens and reenforces the possibility of environmental destabilization

The "new diverted bed" of the Sperchios river and the new National Road Athina-Lamia in the area of the "Alamana Bridge" and the impact to the environment to the coastal area of the Maliakos Gulf and the Delta (Fthiotida-Greece)

The purpose of this work is to depict and evaluate the alterations in the geomorphological characteristics and the hydro-geomorphological processes as well as the effects to the environment of the coastal area of the Maliakos gulf and the delta of the Sperchios river, as a result of the construction of the "new bed" of the new diverted bed of Sperchios river, the "New Alamana Bridge" and the construction of the long embankments which are constructed in order to facilitate the road works for the New National Road Athina-Lamia in the section Thermopylae - Lamia (Fthiotida-Greece)

The singlet scalar as FIMP dark matter

The singlet scalar model is a minimal extension of the Standard Model that can explain the dark matter. We point out that in this model the dark matter constraint can be satisfied not only in the already considered WIMP regime but also, for much smaller couplings, in the Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP) regime. In it, dark matter particles are slowly produced in the early Universe but are never abundant enough to reach thermal equilibrium or annihilate among themselves. This alternative framework is as simple and predictive as the WIMP scenario but it gives rise to a completely different dark matter phenomenology. After reviewing the calculation of the dark matter relic density in the FIMP regime, we study in detail the evolution of the dark matter abundance in the early Universe and the predicted relic density as a function of the parameters of the model. A new dark matter compatible region of the singlet model is identified, featuring couplings of order 10^-11 to 10^-12 for singlet masses in the GeV to TeV range. As a consequence, no signals at direct or indirect detection experiments are expected. The relevance of this new viable region for the correct interpretation of recent experimental bounds is emphasized.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

A new viable region of the inert doublet model

The inert doublet model, a minimal extension of the Standard Model by a second Higgs doublet, is one of the simplest and most attractive scenarios that can explain the dark matter. In this paper, we demonstrate the existence of a new viable region of the inert doublet model featuring dark matter masses between Mw and about 160 GeV. Along this previously overlooked region of the parameter space, the correct relic density is obtained thanks to cancellations between different diagrams contributing to dark matter annihilation into gauge bosons (W+W- and ZZ). First, we explain how these cancellations come about and show several examples illustrating the effect of the parameters of the model on the cancellations themselves and on the predicted relic density. Then, we perform a full scan of the new viable region and analyze it in detail by projecting it onto several two-dimensional planes. Finally, the prospects for the direct and the indirect detection of inert Higgs dark matter within this new viable region are studied. We find that present direct detection bounds already rule out a fraction of the new parameter space and that future direct detection experiments, such as Xenon100, will easily probe the remaining part in its entirety.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figure

Antimatter signals of singlet scalar dark matter

We consider the singlet scalar model of dark matter and study the expected antiproton and positron signals from dark matter annihilations. The regions of the viable parameter space of the model that are excluded by present data are determined, as well as those regions that will be probed by the forthcoming experiment AMS-02. In all cases, different propagation models are investigated, and the possible enhancement due to dark matter substructures is analyzed. We find that the antiproton signal is more easily detectable than the positron one over the whole parameter space. For a typical propagation model and without any boost factor, AMS-02 will be able to probe --via antiprotons-- the singlet model of dark matter up to masses of 600 GeV. Antiprotons constitute, therefore, a promising signal to constraint or detect the singlet scalar model.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures. v2: minor improvements. Accepted for publication in JCA

Fall detection using history triple features

Accurate identification and timely handling of involuntary events, such as falls, plays a crucial part in effective as-sistive environment systems. Fall detection, in particular, is quite critical, especially in households of lonely elderly people. However, the task of visually identifying a fall is challenging as there is a variety of daily activities that can be mistakenly characterized as falls. To tackle this issue, various feature extraction methods that aim to effectively distinguish unintentional falls from other everyday activi-ties have been proposed. In this study, we examine the capability of the History Triple Features technique based on Trace transform, to provide noise robust and invariant to different variations features for the spatiotemporal represen-tation of fall occurrences. The aim is to effectively detect falls among other household-related activities that usually take place indoors. For the evaluation of the algorithm the video sequences from two realistic fall detection datasets of different nature have been used. One is constructed using a ceiling mounted depth camera and the other is constructed using an RGB camera placed on arbitrary positions in dif-ferent rooms. After forming the feature vectors, we train a support vector machine using a radial basis function kernel. Results show a very good response of the algorithm achiev-ing 100 % on both datasets indicating the suitability of the technique to the specific task. 1