Abstract: Cosmological analysis based on currently available observations are unable to rule out a sizeable coupling among the dark energy and dark matter fluids. We explore a variety of coupled dark matter-dark energy models, which satisfy cosmic microwave background constraints, in light of low redshift and near universe observations. We illustrate the phenomenology of different classes of dark coupling models, paying particular attention in distinguishing between effects that appear only on the expansion history and those that appear in the growth of structure. We find that while a broad class of dark coupling models are effectively models where general relativity (GR) is modified – and thus can be probed by a combination of tests for the expansion history and the growth of structure -, there is a class of dark coupling models where gravity is still GR, but the growth of perturbations is, in principle modified. While this effect is small in the specific models we have considered, one should bear in mind that an inconsistency between reconstructed expansion history and growth may not uniquely indicate deviations from GR. Our low redshift constraints arise from cosmic velocities, redshift space distortions and dark matter abundance in galaxy voids. We find that current data constrain the dimensionless coupling to be vertical bar xi vertical bar < 0.2, but prospects from forthcoming data are for a significant improvement. Future, precise measurements of the Hubble constant, combined with high-precision constraints on the growth of structure, could provide the key to rule out dark coupling models which survive other tests. We shall exploit as well weak equivalence principle violation arguments, which have the potential to highly disfavour a broad family of coupled models.

Abstract: In models with flavour symmetries added to the gauge group of the Standard Model the CP-violating asymmetry necessary for leptogenesis may be related with low-energy parameters. A particular case of interest is when the flavour symmetry produces exact Tri/Bi-maximal lepton mixing leading to a vanishing CP-violating asymmetry. In this paper we present a model-independent discussion that confirms this always occurs for unflavoured leptogenesis in type I see-saw scenarios, noting however that Tri/Bi-maximal mixing does not imply a vanishing asymmetry in general scenarios where there is interplay between type I and other see-saws. We also consider a specific model where the exact Tri/Bi-maximal mixing is lifted by corrections that can be parametrised by a small number of degrees of freedom and analyse in detail the existing link between low and high-energy parameters – focusing on how the deviations from Tri/Bi-maximal are connected to the parameters governing leptogenesis.

Abstract: The data taken by DELPHI at centre-of-mass energies between 189 and 209 GeV are used to place limits on the CP-conserving trilinear gauge boson couplings Delta g(1)(Z), lambda(gamma) and Delta k(gamma) associated to W+W- and single W production at LEP2. Using data from the jjl nu, jjjj, jjX and lX final states, where j,l and X represent a jet, a lepton and missing four-momentum, respectively, the following limits are set on the couplings when one parameter is allowed to vary and the others are set to their Standard Model values of zero: Delta g(1)(Z) =-0.025-(+0.033)(0.030,), lambda(gamma) = 0.002(-0.035)(+0.035) and Delta k(gamma) = 0.024(-0.081)(+0.077). Results are also presented when two or three parameters are allowed to vary. All observations are consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model and supersede the previous results on these gauge coupling parameters published by DELPHI.