Abstract: We study the evolution of the energy distribution and equation of state of the Universe from the end of inflation until the onset of either radiation domination (RD) or a transient period of matter domination (MD). We use both analytical techniques and lattice simulations. We consider two-field models where the inflaton (/) has a monomial potential after inflation V((/)) proportional to i(/) – vip (p 4, and of order similar to 50% for p 4. The system goes to MD at late times for p = 2, while it goes to RD for p > 2. In the later case, we can calculate exactly the number of e-folds until RD as a function of g2, and hence predict accurately inflationary observables like the scalar tilt ns and the tensor-to-scalar ratio r. In the scenario (ii), the energy is always transferred completely to X for p > 2, as long as its effective mass m2X = g2((/) – v)2 is not negligible. For p = 2, the final ratio between the energy densities of X and (/) depends strongly on g2. For all p > 2, the system always goes to MD at late times.

Abstract: We perform a low-mass dark matter search using an exposure of 30 kg x yr with the XENON100 detector. By dropping the requirement of a scintillation signal and using only the ionization signal to determine the interaction energy, we lowered the energy threshold for detection to 0.7 keV for nuclear recoils. No dark matter detection can be claimed because a complete background model cannot be constructed without a primary scintillation signal. Instead, we compute an upper limit on the WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section under the assumption that every event passing our selection criteria could be a signal event. Using an energy interval from 0.7 keV to 9.1 keV, we derive a limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section that excludes WIMPs with a mass of 6 GeV/c(2) above 1.4 x 10(-41) cm(2) at 90% confidence level.

Abstract: We present a model where Majorana neutrino mass terms are forbidden by the flavor symmetry group Delta(27). Neutrinos are Dirac fermions and their masses arise in the same way as those of the charged fermions, due to very small Yukawa couplings. The model fits current neutrino oscillation data and correlates the octant of the atmospheric angle theta(23) with the magnitude of the lightest neutrino mass, with maximal mixing excluded for any neutrino mass hierarchy.

Abstract: We argue that Witten's loop mechanism for the right-handed Majorana neutrino mass generation identified originally in the SO(10) grand unification context can be successfully adopted to the class of the simplest flipped SU(5) models. In such a framework, the main drawback of the SO(10) prototype-in particular, the generic tension among the gauge unification constraints and the absolute neutrino mass scale-is alleviated, and a simple yet potentially realistic and testable scenario emerges.

Abstract: Recently it has been demonstrated that QCD corrections are numerically important for short-range mechanisms (SRM) of neutrinoless double beta decay (0 nu beta beta) mediated by heavy particle exchange. This is due to the effect of color mismatch for certain effective operators, which leads to mixing between different operators with vastly different nuclear matrix elements (NMEs). In this note we analyze the QCD corrections for long-range mechanisms (LRM), due to diagrams with light-neutrino exchange between a Standard Model (V-A)chi(V-A) and a beyond the SM lepton number violating vertex. We argue that in contrast to the SRM in the LRM case, there is no operator mixing from color-mismatched operators. This is due to a combined effect of the nuclear short-range correlations and color invariance. As a result, the QCD corrections to the LRM amount to an effect no more than 60%, depending on the operator in question. Although less crucial, taken into account QCD running makes theoretical predictions for 0 nu beta beta-decay more robust also for LRM diagrams. We derive the current experimental constraints on the Wilson coefficients for all LRM effective operators.