Cosmic rays from multiwavelength observations of the Galactic diffuse emission

Cosmic rays (CRs) generate diffuse emission while interacting with the Galactic magnetic field (B-field), the interstellar gas and the radiation field. This diffuse emission extends from radio, microwaves, through X-rays, to high-energy gamma rays. Diffuse emission has considerably increased the interest of the astrophysical community due to recent detailed observations by Planck, Fermi-LAT, and by very-high-energy Cherenkov telescopes. Observations of this emission and comparison with detailed predictions are used to gain information on the properties of CRs, such as their density, spectra, distribution and propagation in the Galaxy. Unfortunately disentangling and characterizing this diffuse emission strongly depends on uncertainties in the knowledge of unresolved sources, gas, radiation fields, and B-fields, other than CRs throughout the Galaxy. We report here on recent multiwavelength observations of the Galactic diffuse emission, and discuss the diffuse emission produced by CRs and its model uncertainties, comparing observations with predictions. The importance for forthcoming telescopes, especially for the Square Kilometre Array Telescope (SKA) and the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), and for future missions at MeV energies is also addressed.Comment: Proceedings of the TAUP 2015 - XIV International Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics, September 2015 Torino, Ital

Axion-dilaton cosmology, Ricci flows and integrable structures

In this work we study renormalization-group flows by deforming a class of conformal sigma-models. At leading order in $\alpha'$, renormalization-group equations represent a Ricci flow. In the three-sphere background, the latter is described by the Halphen system, which is exactly solvable in terms of modular forms. The round sphere is found to be the unique perturbative infra-red fixed point at one loop order.Comment: 2 pages, based on a talk given at the Cargese Summer School, May 22 to June 3, 200

A two-dimensional non-equilibrium dynamic model

This paper develops a non-equilibrium dynamic model (NEDyM) with Keynesian features (it allows for a disequilibrium between output and demand and it considers a constant marginal propensity to consume), but where production is undertaken under plain neoclassical conditions (a constant returns to scale production function, with the stocks of capital and labor fully employed, is assumed). The model involves only two endogenous / prognostic variables: the stock of physical capital per unit of labor and a goods inventory measure. The two-dimensional system allows for a careful analysis of local and global dynamics. Points of bifurcation and long-term cyclical motion are identified. The main conclusion is that the disequilibrium hypothesis leads to persistent fluctuations generated by intrinsic deterministic factors

Verlinde bundles of families of hypersurfaces and their jumping lines

Verlinde bundles are vector bundles $V_k$ arising as the direct image $\pi_*(\mathcal L^{\otimes k})$ of polarizations of a proper family of schemes $\pi\colon \mathfrak X \to S$. We study the splitting behavior of Verlinde bundles in the case where $\pi$ is the universal family $\mathfrak X \to |\mathcal O(d)|$ of hypersurfaces of degree $d$ in $\mathbb P^n$ and calculate the cohomology class of the locus of jumping lines of the Verlinde bundles $V_{d+1}$ in the cases $n=2,3$.Comment: This version adds a missing definition in Prop. 2.2 and corrects minor typo