Abstract: This work presents new three-dimensional traversable wormhole solutions sourced by the Casimir density and pressures related to the quantum vacuum fluctuations in Yang-Mills (Y-M) theory. We begin by analyzing the noninteracting Y-M Casimir wormholes, initially considering an arbitrary state parameter omega and determine a simple constant wormhole shape function. Next, we introduce a new methodology for deforming the state parameter to find well-behaved redshift functions. The wormhole can be interpreted as a legitimate Casimir wormhole with an expected average state parameter of omega = 2. Then, we investigate the wormhole curvature properties, energy conditions, and stability. Furthermore, we discover a novel family of traversable wormhole solutions sourced by the quantum vacuum fluctuations of interacting Yang-Mills fields with a more complex shape function. Deforming the effective state parameter similarly, we obtain well-behaved redshift functions and traversable wormhole solutions. Finally, we examine the energy conditions and stability of solutions in the interacting scenario and compare to the noninteracting case.

Abstract: The inclusive b (b) over bar- and c (c) over bar -dijet production cross-sections in the forward region of pp collisions are measured using a data sample collected with the LHCb detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV in 2016. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.6 fb(-1). Differential cross-sections are measured as a function of the transverse momentum and of the pseudorapidity of the leading jet, of the rapidity difference between the jets, and of the dijet invariant mass. A fiducial region for the measurement is defined by requiring that the two jets originating from the two b or c quarks are emitted with transverse momentum greater than 20 GeV/c, pseudorapidity in the range 2.2 < eta < 4.2, and with a difference in the azimuthal angle between the two jets greater than 1.5. The integrated b (b) over bar -dijet cross-section is measured to be 53.0 +/- 9.7 nb, and the total c (c) over bar -dijet cross-section is measured to be 73 +/- 16 nb. The ratio between c (c) over bar- and b (b) over bar -dijet cross-sections is also measured and found to be 1.37 +/- 0.27. The results are in agreement with theoretical predictions at next-to-leading order.

Abstract: We study two- and three-meson systems composed either of pions or kaons at maximal isospin using Monte Carlo simulations of lattice QCD. Utilizing the stochastic LapH method, we are able to determine hundreds of two- and three-particle energy levels, in nine different momentum frames, with high precision. We fit these levels using the relativistic finite-volume formalism based on a generic effective field theory in order to determine the parameters of the two- and three-particle K-matrices. We find that the statistical precision of our spectra is sufficient to probe not only the dominant s-wave interactions, but also those in d waves. In particular, we determine for the first time a term in the three-particle K-matrix that contains two-particle d waves. We use three N-f = 2 + 1 CLS ensembles with pion masses of 200, 280, and 340 MeV. This allows us to study the chiral dependence of the scattering observables, and compare to the expectations of chiral perturbation theory.