Charmless Hadronic B Decays at BaBar

We present recent results on charmless hadronic B decays using data collected by the BaBar detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. We report measurements of branching fractions and charge asymmetries in several charmless two-body, three-body, and quasi-two-body decay modes. We also report measurements of polarization in charmless B decays to exclusive final states with two vector mesons.Comment: Proceedings to the Lake Louise Winter Institute 200

Dynamical dimensional reduction in multidimensional Bianchi I models

We discuss some mechanisms of isotropization in the class of n-dimensional Bianchi I models. We show that these models can isotropize but this process leads to the breakdown of dimensional reduction. Thus we ought to look for such a mechanism of dimensional reduction that isotropizes the space

Dynamical meaning of the adiabatic quantum phase

The interaction between the "macrosystem" (corresponding to the so-called slow variables) and the "microsystem" (corresponding to the so-called fast variables) is considered. By using the Born–Oppenheimer adiabatic approximation it is shown that such interaction modifies dynamics of the "macrosystem". We find the form of modified Poisson brackets for the "macrosystem". We also show how symmetries and laws of conservation of the "macrosystem" are influenced by this interaction

Lorentz Invariance Violation induced time delays in GRBs in different cosmological models

Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) manifesting itself by energy dependent modification of standard relativistic dispersion relation has recently attracted a considerable attention. Ellis et al. previously investigated the energy dependent time offsets in different energy bands on a sample of gamma ray bursts and, assuming standard cosmological model, they found a weak indication for redshift dependence of time delays suggestive of LIV. Going beyond the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology we extend this analysis considering also four alternative models of dark energy (quintessence with constant and variable equation of state, Chaplygin gas and brane-world cosmology). It turns out that the effect noticed by Ellis et al. is also present in those models and is the strongest for quintessence with variable equation of state.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

The reliability of the AIC method in Cosmological Model Selection

The Akaike information criterion (AIC) has been used as a statistical criterion to compare the appropriateness of different dark energy candidate models underlying a particular data set. Under suitable conditions, the AIC is an indirect estimate of the Kullback-Leibler divergence D(T//A) of a candidate model A with respect to the truth T. Thus, a dark energy model with a smaller AIC is ranked as a better model, since it has a smaller Kullback-Leibler discrepancy with T. In this paper, we explore the impact of statistical errors in estimating the AIC during model comparison. Using a parametric bootstrap technique, we study the distribution of AIC differences between a set of candidate models due to different realizations of noise in the data and show that the shape and spread of this distribution can be quite varied. We also study the rate of success of the AIC procedure for different values of a threshold parameter popularly used in the literature. For plausible choices of true dark energy models, our studies suggest that investigating such distributions of AIC differences in addition to the threshold is useful in correctly interpreting comparisons of dark energy models using the AIC technique.Comment: Figures and further discussions of the results were added, and the version matches the version published in MNRA

Lorentz-violation-induced arrival delays of cosmological particles

We point out that previous studies of possible Lorentz-violating effects in astronomical time-of-flight data did not take into account the entire implications of the universe's cosmological expansion. We present the derivation of the accurate formulation of the problem and show that the resulting correction of the limits on Lorentz violation is significant.Comment: references to additional studies of GRB data adde

The tale of two centres

We study motion in the field of two fixed centres described by a family of Einstein-dilaton-Maxwell theories. Transitions between regular and chaotic motion are observed as the dilaton coupling is varied.Comment: 20 pages, RevTeX, 7 figures included, TeX format change