Test of conformal gravity with astrophysical observations

Since it can describe the rotation curves of galaxies without dark matter and can give rise to accelerated expansion, conformal gravity attracts much attention recently. As a theory of modified gravity, it is important to test conformal gravity with astrophysical observations. Here we constrain conformal gravity with SNIa and Hubble parameter data and investigate whether it suffers from an age problem with the age of APM~08279+5255. We find conformal gravity can accommodate the age of APM~08279+5255 at 3 $\sigma$ deviation, unlike most of dark energy models which suffer from an age problem.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

The puzzle of anomalously large isospin violations in η(1405/1475)→3π\eta(1405/1475)\to 3\pi

The BES-III Collaboration recently report the observation of anomalously large isospin violations in $J/\psi\to \gamma\eta(1405/1475) \to \gamma \pi^0 f_0(980)\to \gamma +3\pi$, where the $f_0(980)$ in the $\pi\pi$ invariant mass spectrum appears to be much narrower ($\sim$ 10 MeV) than the peak width ($\sim$50 MeV) measured in other processes. We show that a mechanism, named as triangle singularity (TS), can produce a narrow enhancement between the charged and neutral $K\bar{K}$ thresholds, i.e., $2m_{K^\pm}\sim 2m_{K^0}$. It can also lead to different invariant mass spectra for $\eta(1405/1475)\to a_0(980)\pi$ and $K\bar{K}^*+c.c.$, which can possibly explain the long-standing puzzle about the need for two close states $\eta(1405)$ and $\eta(1475)$ in $\eta\pi\pi$ and $K\bar{K}\pi$, respectively. The TS could be a key to our understanding of the nature of $\eta(1405/1475)$ and advance our knowledge about the mixing between $a_0(980)$ and $f_0(980)$.Comment: 4 pages and 7 eps figures; Journal-matched versio

Tip induced unconventional superconductivity on Weyl semimetal TaAs

Weyl fermion is a massless Dirac fermion with definite chirality, which has been long pursued since 1929. Though it has not been observed as a fundamental particle in nature, Weyl fermion can be realized as low-energy excitation around Weyl point in Weyl semimetal, which possesses Weyl fermion cones in the bulk and nontrivial Fermi arc states on the surface. As a firstly discovered Weyl semimetal, TaAs crystal possesses 12 pairs of Weyl points in the momentum space, which are topologically protected against small perturbations. Here, we report for the first time the tip induced superconductivity on TaAs crystal by point contact spectroscopy. A conductance plateau and sharp double dips are observed in the point contact spectra, indicating p-wave like unconventional superconductivity. Furthermore, the zero bias conductance peak in low temperature regime is detected, suggesting potentially the existence of Majorana zero modes. The experimentally observed tunneling spectra can be interpreted with a novel mirror-symmetry protected topological superconductor induced in TaAs, which can exhibit zero bias and double finite bias peaks, and double conductance dips in the measurements. Our work can open a broad avenue in search for new topological superconducting phases from topological Weyl materials and trigger intensive investigations for pursuing Majorana fermions

Fourier-Jacobi models of Deligne-Lusztig characters and depth zero local descent for unitary groups

In this paper, we deduce explicit multiplicity formulas of the Fourier-Jacobi model for Deligne-Lusztig characters of finite symplectic groups, unitary groups, and general linear groups. We then apply these results to deduce the explicit depth zero local descent (\`a la Soudry and Tanay) for $p$-adic unitary groups. The result is a concrete example in the context of non-tempered Gan-Gross-Prasad program.Comment: 31 pages. Comments are welcom