25,705 research outputs found
A strong electroweak phase transition in the 2HDM after LHC8
The nature of the electroweak phase transition in two-Higgs-doublet models is revisited in light of the recent LHC results. A scan over an extensive region of their parameter space is performed, showing that a strongly first-order phase transition favours a light neutral scalar with SM-like properties, together with a heavy pseudo-scalar (m_A^0 > 400 GeV) and a mass hierarchy in the scalar sector, m_H^+ gamma gamma decay channel and find that an enhancement in the branching ratio is allowed, and in some cases even preferred, when a strongly first-order phase transition is required
Cosmological signatures of a UV-conformal standard model
Quantum scale invariance in the UV has been recently advocated as an attractive way of solving the gauge hierarchy problem arising in the Standard Model. We explore the cosmological signatures at the electroweak scale when the breaking of scale invariance originates from a hidden sector and is mediated to the Standard Model by gauge interactions (Gauge Mediation). These scenarios, while being hard to distinguish from the Standard Model at LHC, can give rise to a strong electroweak phase transition leading to the generation of a large stochastic gravitational wave background in possible reach of future space-based detectors such as eLISA and BBO. This relic would be the cosmological imprint of the breaking of scale invariance in Nature
Block-Transitive Designs in Affine Spaces
This paper deals with block-transitive - designs in affine
spaces for large , with a focus on the important index case. We
prove that there are no non-trivial 5- designs admitting a
block-transitive group of automorphisms that is of affine type. Moreover, we
show that the corresponding non-existence result holds for 4- designs,
except possibly when the group is one-dimensional affine. Our approach involves
a consideration of the finite 2-homogeneous affine permutation groups.Comment: 10 pages; to appear in: "Designs, Codes and Cryptography
Spin dynamics in a superconductor / ferromagnet proximity system
The ferromagnetic resonance of thin sputtered Ni80Fe20 films grown on Nb is
measured. By varying the temperature and thickness of the Nb the role of the
superconductivity on the whole ferromagnetic layer in these heterostructures is
explored. The change in the spin transport properties below the superconducting
transition of the Nb is found to manifest itself in the Ni80Fe20 layer by a
sharpening in the resonance of the ferromagnet, or a decrease in the effective
Gilbert damping co-efficient. This dynamic proximity effect is in contrast to
low frequency studies in these systems, where the effect of the superconductor
is confined to a small region in the ferromagnet. We interpret this in terms of
the spin pumping model.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted for publicatio
Criteria for self-ignition of supersonic hydrogen-air mixtures
A correlation of available self ignition data for supersonic hydrogen-air mixtures in configurations representative of scramjet combustors was made. The correlation was examined in light of simplified ignition-limit models. The data and model included cases of injection from transverse fuel jets on walls, transverse jets behind swept and unswept steps, and transverse injection ahead of swept and unswept steps and strut bases. The results provide useful guidance for predicting self ignition in a variety of applications. The likely regions for self ignition in a combustor are given in order of merit
Echoes of the electroweak phase transition: discovering a second Higgs doublet through A0 → ZH0
The existence of a second Higgs doublet in nature could lead to a cosmological first-order electroweak
phase transition and explain the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. We obtain the
spectrum and properties of the new scalars H0, A0, and H� that signal such a phase transition and show that
the observation of the decay A0 → ZH0 at LHC would be a “smoking gun” signature of these scenarios. We
analyze the LHC search prospects for this decay in the llbb¯ and llWþW− final states, arguing that current
data may be sensitive to this signature in the former channel as well as there being great potential for a
discovery in either channel at the very early stages of the 14 TeV run
Gravitational waves from the sound of a first order phase transition
We report on the first three-dimensional numerical simulations of first-order phase transitions in the early Universe to include the cosmic fluid as well as the scalar field order parameter. We calculate the gravitational wave (GW) spectrum resulting from the nucleation, expansion, and collision of bubbles of the low-temperature phase, for phase transition strengths and bubble wall velocities covering many cases of interest. We find that the compression waves in the fluid continue to be a source of GWs long after the bubbles have merged, a new effect not taken properly into account in previous modeling of the GW source. For a wide range of models, the main source of the GWs produced by a phase transition is, therefore, the sound the bubbles make
Interplay between nanometer-scale strain variations and externally applied strain in graphene
We present a molecular modeling study analyzing nanometer-scale strain
variations in graphene as a function of externally applied tensile strain. We
consider two different mechanisms that could underlie nanometer-scale strain
variations: static perturbations from lattice imperfections of an underlying
substrate and thermal fluctuations. For both cases we observe a decrease in the
out-of-plane atomic displacements with increasing strain, which is accompanied
by an increase in the in-plane displacements. Reflecting the non-linear elastic
properties of graphene, both trends together yield a non-monotonic variation of
the total displacements with increasing tensile strain. This variation allows
to test the role of nanometer-scale strain variations in limiting the carrier
mobility of high-quality graphene samples
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