Probing Confinement with Chromomagnetic Fields

Using the lattice Schr\"odinger functional we study vacuum dynamics of SU(3) gauge theory at finite temperature. The vacuum is probed by means of an external constant Abelian chromomagnetic field. We find that by increasing the strength of the applied external field the deconfinement temperature decreases towards zero. This implies that strong enough Abelian chromomagnetic fields destroy confinement of color.Comment: Lattice2002(topology). 3 pages, 3 figure

RXJ1856.5-3754 and RXJ0720.4-3125 are P-Stars

P-stars are a new class of compact stars made of up and down quarks in $\beta$-equilibrium with electrons in a chromomagnetic condensate. P-stars are able to account for compact stars with $R \lesssim 6 Km$, as well as stars comparable to canonical neutron stars. We show that P-stars once formed are absolutely stable, for they cannot decay into neutron or strange stars. We convincingly argue that the nearest isolated compact stars RXJ1856.5-3754 and RXJ0720.4-3125 could be interpreted as P-stars with $M \simeq 0.8 M_{\bigodot}$ and $R \simeq 5 Km$.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, revised version, to appear in JCA

Magnetars: Structure and evolution from p-star models

P-stars are compact stars made of up and down quarks in $\beta$-equilibrium with electrons in a chromomagnetic condensate. We discuss p-stars endowed with super strong dipolar magnetic field which, following consolidated tradition in literature, are referred to as magnetars. We show that soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous $X$-ray pulsars can be understood within our theory. We find a well defined criterion to distinguish rotation powered pulsars from magnetic powered pulsars. We show that glitches, that in our magnetars are triggered by magnetic dissipative effects in the inner core, explain both the quiescent emission and bursts in soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous $X$-ray pulsars. We account for the braking glitch from SGR 1900+14 and the normal glitch from AXP 1E 2259+586 following a giant burst. We discuss and explain the observed anti correlation between hardness ratio and intensity. Within our magnetar theory we are able to account quantitatively for light curves for both gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous $X$-ray pulsars. In particular we explain the puzzling light curve after the June 18, 2002 giant burst from AXP 1E 2259+586.Comment: 42 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

The High Temperature Superconductivity in Cuprates

We discuss the high-temperature superconductivity in copper oxide ceramics. We propose an effective Hamiltonian to describe the dynamics of electrons or holes injected into the copper oxide layers. We show that our approach is able to account for both the pseudogap and the superconductivity gap. For the hole-doped cuprates we discuss in details the underdoped, optimal doped, and overdoped regions of the phase diagram. In the underdoped region we determine the doping dependence of the upper critical magnetic field, the vortex region, and the discrete states bounded to the core of isolated vortices. We explain the origin of the Fermi arcs and Fermi pockets. Moreover, we discuss the recently reported peculiar dependence of the specific heat on the applied magnetic field. We determine the critical doping where the pseudogap vanishes. We find that in the overdoped region the superconducting transition is described by the conventional d-wave BCS theory. We discuss the optimal doping region and the crossover between the underdoped region and the overdoped region. We also discuss briefly the electron-doped cuprate superconductors.Comment: 40 pages, 13 figures, revised version accepted for publication in La Rivista del Nuovo Ciment

Evidence of the true Higgs boson HTH_T at the LHC Run 2

The aim of the present note is to compare the recent LHC data at $\sqrt{s} =13 \,TeV$ with our previous theoretical proposal that the true Higgs boson $H_T$ should be a broad heavy resonance with mass around $750 \, GeV$. We focus on the so-called golden channel $H_T \rightarrow ZZ$ where the pair of Z bosons decay leptonically to $\ell^+ \ell^- \ell^+ \ell^-$, $\ell$ being either an electron or a muon. We use the data collected by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations at $\sqrt{s} =13 \,TeV$ with an integrated luminosity of $36.1 \, fb^{-1}$ and $77.4 \, fb^{-1}$ respectively. We find that the experimental data from both the LHC Collaborations do display in the golden channel a rather broad resonance structure around $700 \, GeV$ with a sizeable statistical significance. Our theoretical expectations seem to be in fair good agreement with the experimental observations. Combining the data from both the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations we obtain an evidence of the heavy Higgs boson in this channel with an estimated statistical significance of more than five standard deviations.Comment: Modern Physics Letters A Vol. 33, No. 1 (2019) 1950137 (9 pages) DOI: 10.1142/S0217732319501372. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1707.05605, arXiv:1609.0961

Dynamical Gap Generation in Topological Insulators

We developed a quantum field theoretical description for the surface states of three-dimensional topological insulators. Within the relativistic quantum field theory formulation, we investigated the dynamics of low-lying surface states in an applied transverse magnetic field. We argued that, by taking into account quantum fluctuations, in three-dimensional topological insulators there is dynamical generation of a gap by a rearrangement of the Dirac sea. By comparing with available experimental data we found that our theoretical results allowed a consistent and coherent description of the Landau level spectrum of the surface low-lying excitations. Finally, we showed that the recently detected zero-Hall plateau at the charge neutral point could be accounted for by chiral edge states residing at the magnetic domain boundaries between the top and bottom surfaces of the three-dimensional topological insulator.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures; revised version accepted for publication in EPJ