Anatomy of a thermal black hole mimicker

We are entering a new era to test the strong gravity regime around astrophysical black holes. The possibility that they are actually horizonless ultracompact objects and then free from the information loss paradox can be examined more closely with observational data. In this paper, we systematically develop a thermal gas model of the 2-2-hole in quadratic gravity, as one step further to look for more tractable models of black hole mimickers. Concrete predictions for departures from black holes are made all the way down to the high curvature interior. The simple form of matter further enables an explicit study of the relation between geometry and thermodynamics. Within this unified framework, we identify notably different behaviors at two limits. On one side is the astrophysically large 2-2-hole, as characterized by a minuscule deviation outside the would-be horizon and a highly squeezed interior along the radial direction. Anomalous features of black hole thermodynamics emerge from the ordinary gas. On the other side is the minimal 2-2-hole with an isotropic and shrinking interior, which behaves more like a normal thermodynamic system. This brings a new perspective to the related theoretical questions as well as phenomenological implications.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; minor corrections, matches published versio

Penalization of Reflected SDEs and Neumann Problems of HJB Equations

In this paper we first study the penalization approximation of stochastic differential equations reflected in a domain which satisfies conditions (A) and (B) and prove that the sequence of solutions of the penalizing equations converges in the uniform topology to the solution of the corresponding reflected stochastic differential equation. Then by using this convergence result, we consider partial differential equations with Neumann boundary conditions in domains neither smooth nor convex and prove the existence and comparison principle of viscosity solutions of such nonlinear PDEs. Also, by applying the support of reflected diffusions established in \cite{ren-wuAP}, we establish the maximum principle for the viscosity solutions of linear PDEs with Neumann boundary conditions

Higgs Partner Searches and Dark Matter Phenomenology in a Classically Scale Invariant Higgs Boson Sector

In a previous work, a classically scale invariant extension of the standard model was proposed, as a potential candidate for resolving the hierarchy problem, by minimally introducing a complex gauge singlet scalar, and generating radiative electroweak symmetry breaking by means of the Coleman- Weinberg Mechanism. Postulating the singlet sector to respect the CP-symmetry, the existence of a stable pseudoscalar dark matter candidate with a mass in the TeV range was demonstrated. More- over, the model predicted the presence of another physical CP-even Higgs boson (with suppressed tree-level couplings), in addition to the 125 GeV scalar discovered by the LHC. The viable region of the parameter space was determined by various theoretical and experimental considerations. In this work, we continue to examine the phenomenological implications of the proposed minimal sce- nario by considering the constraints from the dark matter relic density, as determined by the Planck collaboration, as well as the direct detection bounds from the LUX experiment. Furthermore, we investigate the implications of the collider Higgs searches for the additional Higgs boson. Our results are comprehensively demonstrated in unified exclusion plots, which analyze the viable region of the parameter space from all relevant angles, demonstrating the testability of the proposed scenario.Comment: Published version with a slight adjustment of the title per journal's suggestio

Marrying Tracking with ELM: A Metric Constraint Guided Multiple Feature Fusion Method

Object Tracking is one important problem in computer vision and surveillance system. The existing models mainly exploit the single-view feature (i.e. color, texture, shape) to solve the problem, failing to describe the objects comprehensively. In this paper, we solve the problem from multi-view perspective by leveraging multi-view complementary and latent information, so as to be robust to the partial occlusion and background clutter especially when the objects are similar to the target, meanwhile addressing tracking drift. However, one big problem is that multi-view fusion strategy can inevitably result tracking into non-efficiency. To this end, we propose to marry ELM (Extreme learning machine) to multi-view fusion to train the global hidden output weight, to effectively exploit the local information from each view. Following this principle, we propose a novel method to obtain the optimal sample as the target object, which avoids tracking drift resulting from noisy samples. Our method is evaluated over 12 challenge image sequences challenged with different attributes including illumination, occlusion, deformation, etc., which demonstrates better performance than several state-of-the-art methods in terms of effectiveness and robustness.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1807.1021

Strongly First-Order Electroweak Phase Transition and Classical Scale Invariance

In this work, we examine the possibility of realizing a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition within the minimal classically scale invariant extension of the standard model (SM), previously proposed and analyzed as a potential solution to the hierarchy problem. By introducing one complex singlet scalar and three right-handed Majorana neutrinos, the scenario was successfully capable of achieving a radiative breaking of the electroweak symmetry (Coleman-Weinberg Mechanism), inducing non-zero masses for the SM neutrinos (seesaw mechanism), presenting a pseudoscalar dark matter candidate, and predicting the existence of a second $CP$-even boson in addition to the 125 GeV scalar. We construct the full finite-temperature one-loop effective potential of the model, including the resummed thermal daisy loops, and demonstrate that finite-temperature effects induce a first-order electroweak phase transition. Requiring the thermally-driven first-order phase transition to be sufficiently strong further constrains the model's parameter space; in particular, an $\mathcal O(0.01)$ fraction of the dark matter in the universe may be simultaneously accommodated with a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition. Moreover, such a phase transition disfavors right-handed Majorana neutrino masses above several hundreds of GeV, confines the pseudoscalar dark matter masses to $\sim 1$-2 TeV, predicts the mass of the second $CP$-even scalar to be $\sim 100$-300 GeV, and requires the mixing angle between the $CP$-even components of the SM doublet and the complex singlet to lie within the range $0.2 \lesssim \sin\omega \lesssim 0.4$. The obtained results are displayed in comprehensive exclusion plots, identifying the viable regions of the parameter space. Many of these predictions lie within the reach of the next LHC run.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures. Published version, typos corrected, references adde

On approximate continuity and the support of reflected stochastic differential equations

In this paper we prove an approximate continuity result for stochastic differential equations with normal reflections in domains satisfying Saisho's conditions, which together with the Wong-Zakai approximation result completes the support theorem for such diffusions in the uniform convergence topology. Also by adapting Millet and Sanz-Sol\'{e}'s idea, we characterize in H\"{o}lder norm the support of diffusions reflected in domains satisfying the Lions-Sznitman conditions by proving limit theorems of adapted interpolations. Finally we apply the support theorem to establish a boundary-interior maximum principle for subharmonic functions.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/15-AOP1018 in the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

A QCD analogy for quantum gravity

Quadratic gravity presents us with a renormalizable, asymptotically free theory of quantum gravity. When its couplings grow strong at some scale, as in QCD, then this strong scale sets the Planck mass. QCD has a gluon that does not appear in the physical spectrum. Quadratic gravity has a spin-2 ghost that we conjecture does not appear in the physical spectrum. We discuss how the QCD analogy leads to this conjecture and to the possible emergence of general relativity. Certain aspects of the QCD path integral and its measure are also similar for quadratic gravity. With the addition of the Einstein-Hilbert term, quadratic gravity has a dimensionful parameter that seems to control a quantum phase transition and the size of a mass gap in the strong phase.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures, matches published versio

Liquid Metal Enabled Droplet Circuits

Conventional electrical circuits are generally rigid in their components and working styles which are not flexible and stretchable. From an alternative, liquid metal based soft electronics is offering important opportunities for innovating modern bioelectronics and electrical engineering. However, its running in wet environments such as aqueous solution, biological tissues or allied subjects still encounters many technical challenges. Here, we proposed a new conceptual electrical circuit, termed as droplet circuits, to fulfill the special needs as raised in the above mentioned areas. Such unconventional circuits are immersed in solution and composed of liquid metal droplets, conductive ions or wires such as carbon nanotubes. With specifically designed topological or directional structures/patterns, the liquid metal droplets composing the circuit can be discretely existing and disconnected from each other, while achieving the function of electron transport through conductive routes or quantum tunneling effect. The conductive wires serve as the electron transfer stations when the distance between two separate liquid metal droplets is far beyond than that quantum tunneling effects can support. The unique advantage of the current droplet circuit lies in that it allows parallel electron transport, high flexibility, self-healing, regulativity and multi-point connectivity, without needing to worry about circuit break. This would extend the category of classical electrical circuits into the newly emerging areas like realizing room temperature quantum computing, making brain-like intelligence or nerve-machine interface electronics etc. The mechanisms and potential scientific issues of the droplet circuits are interpreted. Future prospects along this direction are outlined.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Quadratic gravity: from weak to strong

More than three decades ago quadratic gravity was found to present a perturbative, renormalizable and asymptotically free theory of quantum gravity. Unfortunately the theory appeared to have problems with a spin-2 ghost. In this essay we revisit quadratic gravity in a different light by considering the case that the asymptotically free interaction flows to a strongly interacting regime. This occurs when the coefficient of the Einstein-Hilbert term is smaller than the scale $\Lambda_{\mathrm{QG}}$ where the quadratic couplings grow strong. Here QCD provides some useful insights. By pushing the analogy with QCD, we conjecture that the nonperturbative effects can remove the naive spin-2 ghost and lead to the emergence of general relativity in the IR.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. Essay awarded fourth prize in the Gravity Research Foundation 2016 essay competitio

SU(2) x SU(2) x U(1) Interpretation on the 750 GeV Diphoton Excess

We propose that the SU(2) x SU(2) x U(1) (aka G221) models could provide us a 750 GeV scalar resonance that may account for the diphoton excess observed at the LHC while satisfying present collider constraints. The neutral component of the $SU(2)_R$ scalar multiplet can be identified as the 750 GeV scalar. In the lepto-phobic and fermio-phobic G221 models the new charged gauge boson W' could be light, and we find that the diphoton decay width could be dominated by the loop contribution from the $W'$. To initiate gluon fusion production, it is necessary to extend the G221 symmetry to the Pati-Salam and SO(10) symmetry. We investigate the possibilities that the light colored scalars or vectorlike fermions survive in the SO(10) theory and provide large gluon fusion rate for the diphoton signature. It is possible to test the G221 interpretation by direct searches of W' using the multi-gauge boson production channel at the Run 2 LHC.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, 2 table