Abstract: While the hunt for new states beyond the standardmodel (SM) goes on for various well motivated theories, the leptoquarks are among the most appealing scenarios at recent times due to a series of tensions observed in B-meson decays. We consider SU(2) singlet and triplet scalar leptoquarks separately, which contribute to charged and neutral current B-meson decays. Focusing on the single production of these two scalar leptoquarks, we perform a PYTHIA-based simulation considering all the dominant SM backgrounds at the current and future setups of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The mono-b-jet + p(T) finalstate gives the strongest signal for the singlet leptoquark at the 30 TeV LHC or Future Circular Collider (FCC), with a possibility of 5 sigma signal significance with greater than or similar to 1000 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity, for the chosen benchmark scenarios. The finalstate consisting of a c-jet and two tau-jets provides highest reach for the singlet leptoquark, probing an O(10(-1)) value of the Yukawa-type couplings for up to 3.0 TeV leptoquark mass. For the triplet leptoquark, 1 – jet + 2 μ+ p(T) topology is the most optimistic signature at the LHC, probing leptoquark couplings to fermions at O(10(-1)) value for the leptoquark mass range up to 4.0 TeV. The invariant mass edge distribution is found to be instrumental in determination of the leptoquarkmass scale at the LHC. We also perform the analysis at the proposed multiTeV muon collider, where an O(10(-1)) leptoquark Yukawa coupling can be probed for a 5.0 TeV leptoquark mass.

Abstract: While standard solar model (SSM) predictions depend on approximately 20 input parameters, SSM neutrino flux predictions are strongly correlated with a single model output parameter, the core temperature T-c. Consequently, one can extract physics from solar neutrino flux measurements while minimizing the consequences of SSM uncertainties, by studying flux ratios with appropriate power-law weightings tuned to cancel this T-c dependence. We reexamine an idea for constraining the primordial C + N content of the solar core from a ratio of CN-cycle O-15 to pp-chain B-8 neutrino fluxes, showing that non-nuclear SSM uncertainties in the ratio are small and effectively governed by a single parameter, the diffusion coefficient. We point out that measurements of both CN-I cycle neutrino branches-O-15 and N-13 beta-decay-could, in principle, lead to separate determinations of the core C and N abundances, due to out-of-equilibrium CN-cycle burning in the cooler outer layers of the solar core. Finally, we show that the strategy of constructing “minimum uncertainty” neutrino flux ratios can also test other properties of the SSM. In particular, we demonstrate that a weighted ratio of Be-7 and B-8 fluxes constrains a product of S-factors to the same precision currently possible with laboratory data.

Abstract: While cosmological inflation can erase primordial inhomogeneities, it is possible that inflation may not begin in a significantly inhomogeneous universe. This issue is particularly pressing in multifield scenarios, where even the homogeneous dynamics may depend sensitively on the initial configuration. This paper presents an initial survey of the onset of inflation in multifield models, via qualitative lattice-based simulations that do not include local gravitational backreaction. Using hybrid inflation as a test model, our results suggest that small subhorizon inhomogeneities do play a key role in determining whether inflation begins in multifield scenarios. Interestingly, some configurations which do not inflate in the homogeneous limit “succeed” after inhomogeneity is included, while other initial configurations which inflate in the homogeneous limit “fail” when inhomogeneity is added.