A minimal scale invariant axion solution to the strong CP-problem

We present a scale invariant extension of the Standard model allowing for the Kim-Shifman-Vainstein-Zakharov (KSVZ) axion solution of the strong CP problem in QCD. We add the minimal number of new particles and show that the Peccei-Quinn scalar might be identified with the complex dilaton field. Scale invariance, together with the Peccei-Quinn symmetry, is broken spontaneously near the Planck scale before inflation, which is driven by the Standard Model Higgs field. We present a set of general conditions which makes this scenario viable and an explicit example of an effective theory possessing spontaneous breaking of scale invariance. We show that this description works both for inflation and low-energy physics in the electroweak vacuum. This scenario can provide a self-consistent inflationary stage and, at the same time, successfully avoid the cosmological bounds on the axion. Our general predictions are the existence of coloured TeV mass fermion and the QCD axion. The latter has all the properties of the KSVZ axion but does not contribute to dark matter. This axion can be searched via it's mixing to a photon in an external magnetic field

Scale-invariance as the origin of dark radiation?

Recent cosmological data favour R^2-inflation and some amount of non-standard dark radiation in the Universe. We show that a framework of high energy scale invariance can explain these data. The spontaneous breaking of this symmetry provides gravity with the Planck mass and particle physics with the electroweak scale. We found that the corresponding massless Nambu--Goldstone bosons -- dilatons -- are produced at reheating by the inflaton decay right at the amount needed to explain primordial abundances of light chemical elements and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background. Then we extended the discussion on the interplay with Higgs-inflation and on general class of inflationary models where dilatons are allowed and may form the dark radiation. As a result we put a lower limit on the reheating temperature in a general scale invariant model of inflation.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures; v2: replaced with revised version recently publishe

On the dark radiation problem in the axiverse

String scenarios generically predict that we live in a so called axiverse: the Universe with about a hundred of light axion species which are decoupled from the Standard Model particles. However, the axions can couple to the inflaton which leads to their production after inflation. Then, these axions remain in the expanding Universe contributing to the dark radiation component, which is severely bounded from present cosmological data. We place a general constraint on the axion production rate and apply it to several variants of reasonable inflaton-to-axion couplings. The limit merely constrains the number of ultralight axions and the relative strength of inflaton-to-axion coupling. It is valid in both large and small field inflationary models irrespectively of the axion energy scales and masses. Thus, the limit is complementary to those associated with the Universe overclosure and axion isocurvature fluctuations. In particular, a hundred of axions is forbidden if inflaton universally couples to all the fields at reheating. In the case of gravitational sector being responsible for the reheating of the Universe (which is a natural option in all inflationary models with modified gravity), the axion production can be efficient. We find that in the Starobinsky $R^2$-inflation even a single axion (e.g. the standard QCD-axion) is in tension with the Planck data, making the model inconsistent with the axiverse. The general conclusion is that an inflation with inefficient reheating mechanism and low reheating temperature may be in tension with the presence of light scalars

Random Sequential Adsorption of Objects of Decreasing Size

We consider the model of random sequential adsorption, with depositing objects, as well as those already at the surface, decreasing in size according to a specified time dependence, from a larger initial value to a finite value in the large time limit. Numerical Monte Carlo simulations of two-dimensional deposition of disks and one-dimensional deposition of segments are reported for the density-density correlation function and gap-size distribution function, respectively. Analytical considerations supplement numerical results in the one-dimensional case. We investigate the correlation hole - the depletion of correlation functions near contact and, for the present model, their vanishing at contact - that opens up at finite times, as well as its closing and reemergence of the logarithmic divergence of correlation properties at contact in the large time limit.Comment: Submitted for publicatio

A high-order nonconservative approach for hyperbolic equations in fluid dynamics

It is well known, thanks to Lax-Wendroff theorem, that the local conservation of a numerical scheme for a conservative hyperbolic system is a simple and systematic way to guarantee that, if stable, a scheme will provide a sequence of solutions that will converge to a weak solution of the continuous problem. In [1], it is shown that a nonconservative scheme will not provide a good solution. The question of using, nevertheless, a nonconservative formulation of the system and getting the correct solution has been a long-standing debate. In this paper, we show how get a relevant weak solution from a pressure-based formulation of the Euler equations of fluid mechanics. This is useful when dealing with nonlinear equations of state because it is easier to compute the internal energy from the pressure than the opposite. This makes it possible to get oscillation free solutions, contrarily to classical conservative methods. An extension to multiphase flows is also discussed, as well as a multidimensional extension

To Positivity and Beyond, where Higgs-Dilaton Inflation has never gone before

We study the consequences of (beyond) positivity of scattering amplitudes in the effective field theory description of the Higgs-Dilaton inflationary model. By requiring the EFT to be compatible with a unitary, causal, local and Lorentz invariant UV completion, we derive constraints on the Wilson coefficients of the first higher order derivative operators. We show that the values allowed by the constraints are consistent with the phenomenological applications of the Higgs-Dilaton model.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures; matches the published versio