Abstract: A sizeable difference in the differential production cross section of top-compared to antitop-quark production, denoted charge asymittetm has been observed at the Tevatron. The experimental results seem to exceed the theory predictions based on the Standard Model by a significant amount and have triggered a large number of suggestions for “new physics'. In the present paper the Standard Model predictions for Tevatron and LHe experiments are revisited. This includes a reanalysis of electromagnetic as well as weak corrections, leading to a shift of the asymmetry by roughly a factor 1.1 when compared to the results of the first papers on this subject. The impact of cuts on the transverse momentum of the top-antitop system is studied. Restricting the it system to a transverse momentum less than 20 GeV leads to an enhancement of the asymmetries by factors between 1.3 and 1.5, indicating the importance of an improved understanding of the tt-momentum distribution. Predictions for similar measurements at the LHC are presented, demonstrating the sensitivity of the large rapidity region bot ti to the Standard Model contribution and effects from ”new physics".

Abstract: We show that the Higgs portal interactions involving extra dark Higgs field can save generically the original Higgs inflation of the standard model (SM) from the problem of a deep non-SM vacuum in the SM Higgs potential. Specifically, we show that such interactions disconnect the top quark pole mass from inflationary observables and allow multi-dimensional parameter space to save the Higgs inflation, thanks to the additional parameters (the dark Higgs boson mass m(phi), the mixing angle a between the SM Higgs H and dark Higgs Phi, and the mixed quartic coupling) affecting RG-running of the Higgs quartic coupling. The effect of Higgs portal interactions may lead to a larger tensor-to-scalar ratio, 0.08 less than or similar to r less than or similar to 0.1, by adjusting relevant parameters in wide ranges of alpha and m(phi), some region of which can be probed at future colliders. Performing a numerical analysis we find an allowed region of parameters, matching the latest Planck data.

Abstract: Electric dipole moments are extremely sensitive probes for additional sources of CP violation in new physics models. Specifically, they have been argued in the past to exclude new CP-violating phases in two-Higgs-doublet models. Since recently models including such phases have been discussed widely, we revisit the available constraints in the presence of mechanisms which are typically invoked to evade flavour-changing neutral currents. To that aim, we start by assessing the necessary calculations on the hadronic, nuclear and atomic/molecular level, deriving expressions with conservative error estimates. Their phenomenological analysis in the context of two-Higgs-doublet models yields strong constraints, in some cases weakened by a cancellation mechanism among contributions from neutral scalars. While the corresponding parameter combinations do not yet have to be unnaturally small, the constraints are likely to preclude large effects in other CP-violating observables. Nevertheless, the generically expected contributions to electric dipole moments in this class of models lie within the projected sensitivity of the next-generation experiments.