Abstract: The correct description of Double Parton Scattering (DPS), which represents a background in several channels for the search of new Physics at the LHC, requires the knowledge of double parton distribution functions (dPDFs). These quantities represent also a novel tool for the study of the three-dimensional nucleon structure, complementary to the possibilities offered by electromagnetic probes. In this paper we analyze dPDFs using Poincare covariant predictions obtained by using a Light-Front constituent quark model proposed in a recent paper, and QCD evolution. We study to what extent factorized expressions for dPDFs, which neglect, at least in part, two-parton correlations, can be used. We show that they fail in reproducing the calculated dPDFs, in particular in the valence region. Actually measurable processes at existing facilities occur at low longitudinal momenta of the interacting partons; to have contact with these processes we have analyzed correlations between pairs of partons of different kind, finding that, in some cases, they are strongly suppressed at low longitudinal momenta, while for other distributions they can be sizeable. For example, the effect of gluon-gluon correlations can be as large as 20 %. We have shown that these behaviors can be understood in terms of a delicate interference of non-perturbative correlations, generated by the dynamics of the model, and perturbative ones, generated by the model independent evolution procedure. Our analysis shows that at LHC kinematics two-parton correlations can be relevant in DPS, and therefore we address the possibility to study them experimentally.

Abstract: In addition to spectacular signatures such as black hole superradiance and the rotation of CMB polarization, the plenitude of axions appearing in the string axiverse may have potentially dangerous implications. An example is the cosmological overproduction of relic axions and moduli by the misalignment mechanism, more pronounced in regions where the signals mentioned above may be observable, that is for large axion decay constant. In this work, we study the minimal requirements to soften this problem and show that the fundamental requirement is a long period of low-scale inflation. However, in this case, if the inflationary Hubble scale is lower than around O(100) eV, no relic DM axion is produced in the early Universe. Cosmological production of some axions may be activated, via the misalignment mechanism, if their potential minimum changes between inflation and today. As a particular example, we study in detail how the maximal-misalignment mechanism dilutes the effect of dangerous axions and allows the production of axion DM in a controlled way. In this case, the potential of the axion that realises the mechanism shifts by a factor increment theta = pi between the inflationary epoch and today, and the axion starts to oscillate from the top of its potential. We also show that axions with masses m(a) similar to O(1 – 100) H-0 realising the maximal-misalignment mechanism generically behave as dark energy with a decay constant that can take values well below the Planck scale, avoiding problems associated to super-Planckian scales. Finally, we briefly study the basic phenomenological implications of the mechanism and comment on the compatibility of this type of maximally-misaligned quintessence with the swampland criteria.

Abstract: We suggest a new left-right symmetric model implementing a low-scale see-saw mechanism in which quantum consistency requires three families of fermions. The symmetry breaking route to the Standard Model determines the profile of the “next” expected new physics, characterized either by the simplest left-right gauge symmetry or by the 3-3-1 scenario. The resulting Z' gauge bosons can be probed at the LHC and provide a production portal for the right-handed neutrinos. On the other hand, its flavor changing interactions would affect the K, D and B neutral meson systems.

Abstract: We present a novel benchmark application of a quantum algorithm to Feynman loop integrals. The two on-shell states of a Feynman propagator are identified with the two states of a qubit and a quantum algorithm is used to unfold the causal singular configurations of multiloop Feynman diagrams. To identify such configurations, we exploit Grover's algorithm for querying multiple solutions over unstructured datasets, which presents a quadratic speed-up over classical algorithms when the number of solutions is much smaller than the number of possible configurations. A suitable modification is introduced to deal with topologies in which the number of causal states to be identified is nearly half of the total number of states. The output of the quantum algorithm in IBM Quantum and QUTE Testbed simulators is used to bootstrap the causal representation in the loop-tree duality of representative multiloop topologies. The algorithm may also find application and interest in graph theory to solve problems involving directed acyclic graphs.

Abstract: A coherent study of e(+)e(-) annihilation into two (pi(+)pi(-), K+K-) and three (pi(+)pi(-)pi(0), pi(+)pi(-)eta) pseudoscalar meson production is carried out within the framework of resonance chiral theory in energy region E less than or similar to 2 GeV. The work of [L.Y. Dai, J. Portoles, and O. Shekhovtsova, Phys. Rev. D88 (2013) 056001] is revisited with the latest experimental data and a joint analysis of two pseudoscalar meson production. Hence, we evaluate the lowest order hadronic vacuum polarization contributions of those two and three pseudoscalar processes to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. We also estimate some higher-order additions led by the same hadronic vacuum polarization. Combined with the other contributions from the standard model, the theoretical prediction differs still by (21.6 +/- 7.4) x 10(-10) (2.9 sigma) from the experimental value.