Abstract: A detailed beta -decay study of the low- and high -spin states in 216 Bi has been performed at the ISOLDE Decay Station at the CERN-ISOLDE facility. In total, 48 new levels and 83 new transitions in the beta -decay daughter 216 Po were identified. Shell -model calculations for excited states in 216 Bi and 216 Po were performed using the H208 and the modified Kuo-Herling particle effective interactions. Based on the experimental observations and the shell -model calculations, the most likely spin and parity assignments for the beta -decaying states in 216 Bi are (3 – ) and (8 – ), respectively.

Abstract: Abundant phenomenology suggests that strong decays from relatively low-excitation hadrons into other hadrons proceed by the creation of a light quark-antiquark pair with zero total angular momentum, the so called 3P0 mechanism originating from a scalar bilinear. Yet the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) interaction is perturbatively mediated by gluons of spin one, and QCD presents a chirally symmetric Lagrangian. Such scalar decay term must be spontaneously generated upon breaking chiral symmetry. We attempt to reproduce this with the help of the quark-gluon vertex in Landau gauge, whose nonperturbative structure has been reasonably elucidated in the last years, and insertions of a uniform, constant chromoelectric field. This is akin to Schwinger pair production in quantum electrodynamics (QED), and we provide a comparison with its two field-insertions diagram. We find that, the symmetry being cylindrical, the adequate quantum numbers to discuss the production are rather 3E0, 3E1, and 3110 as in diatomic molecules, and we indeed find a sizeable contribution of the third decay mechanism, which may give a rationale for the 3P0 phenomenology, as long as the momentum of the produced pair is at or below the scale of the bare or dynamically generated fermion mass. On the other hand, ultrarelativistic fermions are rather ejected with 3E1 quantum numbers. In QED, our results suggest that 3E0 dominates, whereas the constraint of producing a color singlet in QCD leads to 3110 dominance at sub-GeV momenta.

Abstract: We explore a mechanism for producing the baryon asymmetry and dark matter in models with multiple hidden sectors that are Standard -Model -like but with varying Higgs mass parameters. If the field responsible for reheating the Standard Model and the exotic sectors carries an asymmetry, it can be converted into a baryon asymmetry using the standard sphaleron process. A hidden sector with positive Higgs mass squared can accommodate dark matter with its baryon asymmetry, and the larger abundance of dark matter relative to baryons is due to dark sphalerons being active all the way down the hidden sector QCD scale. This scenario predicts that dark matter is clustered in large dark nuclei and gives a lower bound on the effective relativistic degrees of freedom, Delta N eff greater than or similar to 0 .05 , which may be observable in the nextgeneration cosmic microwave background experiment CMB-S4.

Abstract: Current cosmological tensions show that it is crucial to test the predictions from the canonical ACDM paradigm at different cosmic times. One very appealing test of structure formation in the Universe is the growth rate of structure in our universe f, usually parametrized via the growth index gamma, with f equivalent to Omega(m)(a)gamma and gamma similar or equal to 0.55 in the standard ACDM case. Recent studies have claimed a suppression of the growth of structure from a variety of cosmological observations, characterized by gamma > 0.55. By employing different self-consistent growth parametrizations schemes, we show here that gamma < 0.55, obtaining instead an enhanced growth of structure today. This preference reaches the 3 sigma significance using cosmic microwave background observations, supernova Ia and baryon acoustic oscillation measurements. The addition of cosmic microwave background lensing data relaxes such a preference to the 2 sigma level, since a larger lensing effect can always be compensated with a smaller structure growth, or, equivalently, with gamma > 0.55. We have also included the lensing amplitude AL as a free parameter in our data analysis, showing that the preference for AL > 1 still remains, except for some particular parametrizations when lensing observations are included. We also do not find any significant preference for an oscillatory dependence of AL, AL + Am sin l. To further reassess the effects of a nonstandard growth, we have computed by means of N-body simulations the dark matter density fields, the dark matter halo mass functions and the halo density profiles for different values of gamma. Future observations from the Square Kilometer Array, reducing by a factor of 3 the current errors on the gamma parameter, further confirm or refute with a strong statistical significance the deviation of the growth index from its standard value.

Abstract: We analyze theoretically the coupled-channel meson-baryon interaction with global flavor c<overline>cssn and c<overline>csss, where mesons are pseudoscalars or vectors, and baryons have JP = 1/2+ or 3/2+. The aim is to explore whether the nonlinear dynamics inherent in the unitarization process within coupled channels can dynamically generate double- and triple-strange pentaquark-type states (Pcss and Pcsss, respectively), for which there is no experimental evidence to date. We evaluate the s-wave scattering matrix by implementing unitarity in coupled channels, using potential kernels obtained from t-channel vector meson exchange. The required PPV and VVV vertices are obtained from Lagrangians derived through appropriate extensions of the local hidden gauge symmetry approach to the charm sector, while capitalizing on the symmetry of the spin and flavor wave function to evaluate the BBV vertex. We find four different poles in the double strange sector, some of them degenerate in spin. For the triple-strange channel, we find the meson-baryon interaction insufficient to generate a bound or resonance state through the unitary coupled-channel dynamics.