Positronium Portal into Hidden Sector: A new Experiment to Search for Mirror Dark Matter

The understanding of the origin of dark matter has great importance for cosmology and particle physics. Several interesting extensions of the standard model dealing with solution of this problem motivate the concept of hidden sectors consisting of SU(3)xSU(2)_LxU(1)_Y singlet fields. Among these models, the mirror matter model is certainly one of the most interesting. The model explains the origin of parity violation in weak interactions, it could also explain the baryon asymmetry of the Universe and provide a natural ground for the explanation of dark matter. The mirror matter could have a portal to our world through photon-mirror photon mixing (epsilon). This mixing would lead to orthopositronium (o-Ps) to mirror orthopositronium oscillations, the experimental signature of which is the apparently invisible decay of o-Ps. In this paper, we describe an experiment to search for the decay o-Ps -> invisible in vacuum by using a pulsed slow positron beam and a massive 4pi BGO crystal calorimeter. The developed high efficiency positron tagging system, the low calorimeter energy threshold and high hermiticity allow the expected sensitivity in mixing strength to be epsilon about 10^-9, which is more than one order of magnitude below the current Big Bang Nucleosynthesis limit and in a region of parameter space of great theoretical and phenomenological interest. The vacuum experiment with such sensitivity is particularly timely in light of the recent DAMA/LIBRA observations of the annual modulation signal consistent with a mirror type dark matter interpretation.Comment: 40 pages, 29 Figures 2 Tables v2: Ref. added, Fig. 29 and some text added to explain idea for backscattering e+ background suppression, corrected typos v3: minor corrections: Eq 2.1 corrected (6 lines-> 5 lines), Eq.2.17: two extra "-" signs remove

Treg-Therapy Allows Mixed Chimerism and Transplantation Tolerance Without Cytoreductive Conditioning

Establishment of mixed chimerism through transplantation of allogeneic donor bone marrow (BM) into sufficiently conditioned recipients is an effective experimental approach for the induction of transplantation tolerance. Clinical translation, however, is impeded by the lack of feasible protocols devoid of cytoreductive conditioning (i.e. irradiation and cytotoxic drugs/mAbs). The therapeutic application of regulatory T cells (Tregs) prolongs allograft survival in experimental models, but appears insufficient to induce robust tolerance on its own. We thus investigated whether mixed chimerism and tolerance could be realized without the need for cytoreductive treatment by combining Treg therapy with BM transplantation (BMT). Polyclonal recipient Tregs were cotransplanted with a moderate dose of fully mismatched allogeneic donor BM into recipients conditioned solely with short-course costimulation blockade and rapamycin. This combination treatment led to long-term multilineage chimerism and donor-specific skin graft tolerance. Chimeras also developed humoral and in vitro tolerance. Both deletional and nondeletional mechanisms contributed to maintenance of tolerance. All tested populations of polyclonal Tregs (FoxP3-transduced Tregs, natural Tregs and TGF-β induced Tregs) were effective in this setting. Thus, Treg therapy achieves mixed chimerism and tolerance without cytoreductive recipient treatment, thereby eliminating a major toxic element impeding clinical translation of this approach

Do Instantons Like a Colorful Background?

We investigate chiral symmetry breaking and color symmetry breaking in QCD. The effective potential of the corresponding scalar condensates is discussed in the presence of non-perturbative contributions from the semiclassical one-instanton sector. We concentrate on a color singlet scalar background which can describe chiral condensation, as well as a color octet scalar background which can generate mass for the gluons. Whereas a non-vanishing singlet chiral field is favored by the instantons, we have found no indication for a preference of color octet backgrounds.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

Probing the axion-nucleon coupling with the next generation of axion helioscopes

A finite axion–nucleon coupling, nearly unavoidable for QCD axions, leads to the production of axions via the thermal excitation and subsequent de-excitation of 57Fe isotopes in the sun. We revise the solar bound on this flux adopting the up to date emission rate, and investigate the sensitivity of the proposed International Axion Observatory IAXO and its intermediate stage BabyIAXO to detect these axions. We compare different realistic experimental options and discuss the model dependence of the signal. Already BabyIAXO has sensitivity far beyond previous solar axion searches via the nucleon coupling and IAXO can improve on this by more than an order of magnitude

Axions, their Relatives and Prospects for the Future

The observation of a non-vanishing rotation of linear polarized laser light after passage through a strong magnetic field by the PVLAS collaboration has renewed the interest in light particles coupled to photons. Axions are a species of such particles that is theoretically well motivated. However, the relation between coupling and mass predicted by standard axion models conflicts with the PVLAS observation. Moreover, light particles with a coupling to photons of the strength required to explain PVLAS face trouble from astrophysical bounds. We discuss models that can avoid these bounds. Finally, we present some ideas to test these possible explanations of PVLAS experimentally.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. Contributed to the ``Third Symposium on Large TPCs for Low Energy Rare Event Detection'' in Paris, December 200

Flow Equations without Mean Field Ambiguity

We compare different methods used for non-perturbative calculations in strongly interacting fermionic systems. Mean field theory often shows a basic ambiguity related to the possibility to perform Fierz transformations. The results may then depend strongly on an unphysical parameter which reflects the choice of the mean field, thus limiting the reliability. This ambiguity is absent for Schwinger-Dyson equations or fermionic renormalization group equations. Also renormalization group equations in a partially bosonized setting can overcome the Fierz ambiguity if the truncation is chosen appropriately. This is reassuring since the partially bosonized renormalization group approach constitutes a very promising basis for the explicit treatment of condensates and spontaneous symmetry breaking even for situations where the bosonic correlation length is large.Comment: New version to match the one published in PRD. New title (former title: Solving Mean Field Ambiguity by Flow Equations), added section IX and appendix B. More explanations in the introduction and conclusions. 16 pages, 6 figures and 3 tables uses revtex

Towards a renormalizable standard model without fundamental Higgs scalar

We investigate the possibility of constructing a renormalizable standard model with purely fermionic matter content. The Higgs scalar is replaced by point-like fermionic self-interactions with couplings growing large at the Fermi scale. An analysis of the UV behavior in the point-like approximation reveals a variety of non-Gaussian fixed points for the fermion couplings. If real, such fixed points would imply nonperturbative renormalizability and evade triviality of the Higgs sector. For point-like fermionic self-interactions and weak gauge couplings, one encounters a hierarchy problem similar to the one for a fundamental Higgs scalar.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Low-energy Observables and General Gauge Mediation in the MSSM and NMSSM

We study constraints on the general gauge mediation (GGM) parameter space arising from low-energy observables in the MSSM and NMSSM. Specifically, we look at the dependence of the spectra and observables on the correlation function ratios in the hidden sector where supersymmetry is presumably broken. Since these ratios are not a priori constrained by theory, current results from the muon anomalous magnetic moment and flavor physics can potentially provide valuable intuition about allowed possibilities. It is found that the muon anomalous magnetic moment and flavor-physics observables place significant constraints on the GGM parameter space with distinct dependences on the hidden sector correlation function ratios. The particle spectra arising in GGM, with the possibility of different correlation function ratios, is contrasted with common intuition from regular gauge mediation (RGM) schemes (where the ratios are always fixed). Comments are made on precision gauge coupling unification, topography of the NLSP space, correlations of the muon anomalous magnetic moment with other observables, and approximate scaling relations in sparticle masses with respect to the high-scale correlation function ratios.Comment: 43 pages, 16 figures. Typos corrected, updated references, acknowledgements and minor changes in expositio

R-parity Conservation via the Stueckelberg Mechanism: LHC and Dark Matter Signals

We investigate the connection between the conservation of R-parity in supersymmetry and the Stueckelberg mechanism for the mass generation of the B-L vector gauge boson. It is shown that with universal boundary conditions for soft terms of sfermions in each family at the high scale and with the Stueckelberg mechanism for generating mass for the B-L gauge boson present in the theory, electric charge conservation guarantees the conservation of R-parity in the minimal B-L extended supersymmetric standard model. We also discuss non-minimal extensions. This includes extensions where the gauge symmetries arise with an additional U(1)_{B-L} x U(1)_X, where U(1)_X is a hidden sector gauge group. In this case the presence of the additional U(1)_X allows for a Z' gauge boson mass with B-L interactions to lie in the sub-TeV region overcoming the multi-TeV LEP constraints. The possible tests of the models at colliders and in dark matter experiments are analyzed including signals of a low mass Z' resonance and the production of spin zero bosons and their decays into two photons. In this model two types of dark matter candidates emerge which are Majorana and Dirac particles. Predictions are made for a possible simultaneous observation of new physics events in dark matter experiments and at the LHC.Comment: 38 pages, 7 fig