Abstract: We show, from a diabatic analysis of lattice results for string breaking, that mixing of Q (Q) over bar with open-flavor meson-meson configurations may be expressed through a mixing potential which is order 1/m(Q). A relation between the minimum string breaking energy gap and the string tension comes out naturally. Using this relation, and matching the energy gap for b (b) over bar with lattice QCD data, we study the mixing in the c (c) over bar case without any additional parameter. A 1(++) bound state very close below the D-0(D) over bar*(0) threshold, in perfect correspondence with chi(c1)(3872), is predicted.

Abstract: We show that, after resolving what was thought to be an ambiguity in the Higgs coupling, the FSM gives, apart from two extra terms (i) and (ii) to be specified below, an effective action in the standard sector which has the same form as the SM action, the two differing only in the values of the mass and mixing parameters of quarks and leptons which the SM takes as Finputs from experiment while the FSM obtains as a result of a fit with a few parameters. Hence, to the accuracy that these two sets of parameters agree in value, and they do to a good extent as shown in earlier work,' the FSM should give the same result as the SM in all the circumstances where the latter has been successfully applied, except for the noted modifications due to (i) and (ii). If so, it would be a big step forward for the FSM. The correction terms are: (i) a mixing between the SM's gamma – Z with a new vector boson in the hidden sector, (ii) a mixing between the standard Higgs with a new scalar boson also in the hidden sector. And these have been shown a few years back to lead to (i') an enhancement of the W mass over the SM value,(2) – and (ii') effects consistent with the g – 2 and some other anomalies,(3) precisely the two deviations from the SM reported by experiments(4,5) recently much in the news.

Abstract: We show that if global lepton number symmetry is spontaneously broken in a postinflation epoch, then it can lead to the formation of cosmological domain walls. This happens in the well-known “Majoron paradigm” for neutrino mass generation. We propose some realistic examples that allow spontaneous lepton number breaking to be safe from such domain walls.

Abstract: We show that binary black hole mergers with precessing evolution can potentially excite photons from the quantum vacuum in such a way that total helicity is not preserved in the process. Helicity violation is allowed by quantum fluctuations that spoil the electric-magnetic duality symmetry of the classical Maxwell theory without charges. We show here that precessing binary black hole systems in astrophysics generate a flux of circularly polarized gravitational waves which, in turn, provides the required helical background that triggers this quantum effect. Solving the fully nonlinear Einstein’s equations with numerical relativity we explore the parameter space of binary systems and extract the detailed dependence of the quantum effect with the spins of the two black holes. We also introduce a set of diagrammatic techniques that allows us to predict when a binary black hole merger can or cannot emit circularly polarized gravitational radiation, based on mirror-symmetry considerations. This framework allows to understand and to interpret correctly the numerical results, and to predict the outcomes in potentially interesting astrophysical systems.

Abstract: We show that a significant quantum gain corresponding to squeezed or over-squeezed spin states can be obtained in multiparameter estimation by measuring the Hadamard coefficients of a 1D or 2D signal. The physical platform we consider consists of twolevel atoms in an optical lattice in a squeezed-Mott configuration, or more generally by correlated spins distributed in spatially separated modes. Our protocol requires the possibility to locally flip the spins, but relies on collective measurements. We give examples of applications to scalar or vector field mapping and compressed sensing.