Abstract: We study the possibility of extracting the neutrino mass ordering at the future Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment using atmospheric neutrinos, which will be available before the muon neutrino beam starts being operational. The large statistics of the atmospheric muon neutrino and antineutrino samples at the far detector, together with the baselines of thousands of kilometers that these atmospheric (anti) neutrinos travel, provide ideal ingredients to extract the neutrino mass ordering via matter effects in the neutrino propagation through Earth. Crucially, muon capture by argon provides excellent charge tagging, allowing us to disentangle the neutrino and antineutrino signature. This is an important extra benefit of having a liquid argon time projection chamber as a far detector, that could render an similar to 3.5 sigma extraction of the mass ordering after approximately 7 yr of exposure.

Abstract: We study the phenomenology of a unified supersymmetric theory with a flavor symmetry Delta(27). The model accommodates quark and lepton masses, mixing angles and CP phases. In this model, the Dirac and Majorana mass matrices have a unified texture zero structure in the (1, 1) entry that leads to the Gatto-Sartori-Tonin relation between the Cabibbo angle and ratios of the masses in the quark sectors, and to a natural departure from zero of the theta 13(l) angle in the lepton sector. We derive the flavor structures of the trilinears and soft mass matrices, and show their general non-universality. This causes large flavor violating effects. As a consequence, the parameter space for this model is constrained, allowing it to be (dis)proven by flavor violation searches in the next decade. Although the results are model specific, we compare them to previous studies to show similar flavor effects (and associated constraints) are expected in general in supersymmetric flavor models, and may be used to distinguish them.

Abstract: We study the particle creation process in the Schwinger model coupled with an external classical source. One can approach the problem by taking advantage of the fact that the full quantized model is solvable and equivalent to a (massive) gauge field with a non-local effective action. Alternatively, one can also face the problem by following the standard semiclassical route. This means quantizing the massless Dirac field and considering the electromagnetic field as a classical background. We evaluate the energy created by a generic, homogeneous, and time-dependent source. The results match exactly in both approaches. This proves in a very direct and economical way the validity of the semiclassical approach for the (massless) Schwinger model, in agreement with a previous analysis based on the linear response equation. Our discussion suggests that a similar analysis for the massive Schwinger model could be used as a non-trivial laboratory to confront a fully quantized solvable model with its semiclassical approximation, therefore mimicking the long-standing confrontation of quantum gravity with quantum field theory in curved spacetime.

Abstract: We study the nonconservation of the chiral charge of Dirac fields between past and future null infinity due to the Adler-Bell-Jackiw chiral anomaly. In previous investigations [A. del Rio, Phys. Rev. D 104, 065012 (2021)], we found that this charge fails to be conserved if electromagnetic sources in the bulk emit circularly polarized radiation. In this article, we unravel yet another contribution coming from the nonzero, infrared “soft” charges of the external, electromagnetic field. This new contribution can be interpreted as another manifestation of the ordinary memory effect produced by transitions between different infrared sectors of Maxwell theory, but now on test quantum fields rather than on test classical particles. In other words, a flux of electromagnetic waves can leave a memory on quantum fermion states in the form of a permanent, net helicity. We elaborate this idea in both 1 + 1 and 3 + 1 dimensions. We also show that, in sharp contrast, gravitational infrared charges do not contribute to the fermion chiral anomaly.

Abstract: We study the molecular probability of the X(3872) in the D0 over bar D*0 and D+D*- channels in several scenarios. One of them assumes that the state is purely due to a genuine nonmolecular component. However, it gets unavoidably dressed by the meson components to the point that in the limit of zero binding of the D0 over bar D*0 component becomes purely molecular. Yet, the small but finite binding allows for a nonmolecular state when the bare mass of the genuine state approaches the D0 over bar D*0 threshold, but, in this case the system develops a small scattering length and a huge effective range for this channel in flagrant disagreement with present values of these magnitudes. Next we discuss the possibility to have hybrid states stemming from the combined effect of a genuine state and a reasonable direct interaction between the meson components, where we find cases in which the scattering length and effective range are still compatible with data, but even then the molecular probability is as big as 95%. Finally, we perform the calculations when the binding stems purely from the direct interaction between the meson-meson components. In summary we conclude, that while present data definitely rule out the possibility of a dominant nonmolecular component, the precise value of the molecular probability requires a more precise determination of the scattering length and effective range of the D0 over bar D*0 channel, as well as the measurement of these magnitudes for the D+D*- channel which have not been determined experimentally so far.