Abstract: We review and extend the model derived in Garcia-Recio et al. [Phys. Rev. D 83, 016007 (2011)] to address the dynamics of the low-lying even-parity meson resonances. This model is based on a coupled-channels spin-flavor extension of the chiralWeinberg-Tomozawa Lagrangian. This interaction is then used to study the S-wave meson-meson scattering involving members not only of the pi octet, but also of the rho nonet. In this work, we study in detail the structure of the SU(6)-symmetry-breaking contact terms that respect (or softly break) chiral symmetry. We derive the most general local (without involving derivatives) terms consistent with the chiral-symmetry-breaking pattern of QCD. After introducing sensible simplifications to reduce the large number of possible operators, we carry out a phenomenological discussion of the effects of these terms. We show how the inclusion of these pieces leads to an improvement of the description of the J(P) = 2(+) sector, without spoiling the main features of the predictions obtained in the original model in the JP = 0(+) and J(P) = 1(+) sectors. In particular, we find a significantly better description of the I-G(J(PC)) =0(+)(2(++)), 1(-)(2(++)) and the I(JP)=1/2(2(+)) sectors, which correspond to the f(2)(1270), a(2)(1320), and K-2(*)(1430) quantum numbers, respectively.

Abstract: Recent cosmic microwave background measurements at high multipoles from the South Pole Telescope and from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope seem to disagree in their conclusions for the neutrino and dark radiation properties. In this paper we set new bounds on the dark radiation and neutrino properties in different cosmological scenarios combining the ACT and SPT data with the nine-year data release of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP-9), baryon acoustic oscillation data, Hubble Telescope measurements of the Hubble constant, and supernovae Ia luminosity distance data. In the standard three massive neutrino case, the two high multipole probes give similar results if baryon acoustic oscillation data are removed from the analyses and Hubble Telescope measurements are also exploited. A similar result is obtained within a standard cosmology with N-eff massless neutrinos, although in this case the agreement between these two measurements is also improved when considering simultaneously baryon acoustic oscillation data and Hubble Space Telescope measurements. In the N-eff massive neutrino case the two high multipole probes give very different results regardless of the external data sets used in the combined analyses. When considering extended cosmological scenarios with a dark energy equation of state or with a running of the scalar spectral index, the evidence for neutrino masses found for the South Pole Telescope in the three neutrino scenario disappears for all the data combinations explored here. Again, adding Hubble Telescope data seems to improve the agreement between the two high multipole cosmic microwave background measurements considered here. In the case in which a dark radiation background with unknown clustering properties is also considered, SPT data seem to exclude the standard value for the dark radiation viscosity c(vis)(2) = 1/3 at the 2 sigma C.L., finding evidence for massive neutrinos only when combining SPT data with baryon acoustic oscillation measurements.

Abstract: A state-of-the-art analysis of the pion-photon transition form factor is presented based on an improved theoretical calculation that includes the effect of a finite virtuality of the quasireal photon in the method of light-cone sum rules. We carry out a detailed statistical analysis of the existing experimental data using this method and by employing pion distribution amplitudes with up to three Gegenbauer coefficients a(2), a(4), a(6). Allowing for an error range in the coefficient a(6) approximate to 0, the theoretical predictions for gamma*gamma -> pi(0) obtained with nonlocal QCD sum rules are found to be in good agreement with all data that support a scaling behavior of the transition form factor at higher Q(2), like those of the Belle Collaboration. The data on gamma*gamma -> eta/eta' from CLEO and BABAR are also reproduced, while there is a strong conflict with the auxetic trend of the BABAR data above 10 GeV2. The broader implications of these findings are discussed.

Abstract: In calculations of the elementary scalar spectra of spontaneously broken gauge theories there are a number of subtleties which, though it is often unnecessary to deal with them in the order-of-magnitude type of calculations, have to be taken into account if fully consistent results are sought for. Within the “canonical” effective-potential approach these are, for instance: the need to handle infinite series of nested commutators of derivatives of field-dependent mass matrices, the need to cope with spurious IR divergences emerging in the consistent leading-order approximation and, in particular, the need to account for the fine interplay between the renormalization effects in the one-and two-point Green functions which, indeed, is essential for the proper stable vacuum identification and, thus, for the correct interpretation of the results. In this note we illustrate some of these issues in the realm of the minimal Abelian Higgs model and two of its simplest extensions including extra heavy scalars in the spectrum in attempt to exemplify the key aspects of the usual “hierarchy problem” lore in a very specific and simple setting. We emphasize that, regardless of the omnipresent polynomial cut-off dependence in the one-loop corrections to the scalar two-point function, the physical Higgs boson mass is always governed by the associated symmetry-breaking VEV and, as such, it is generally as UV-robust as all other VEV-driven masses in the theory.

Abstract: A new method to measure the top-quark mass in high energetic hadron collisions is presented. We use theoretical predictions calculated at next-to-leading order accuracy in quantum chromodynamics to study the ( normalized) differential distribution of the t (t) over bar + 1-jet cross section with respect to its invariant mass root s(t (t) over barj). The sensitivity of the method to the top-quark mass together with the impact of various theoretical and experimental uncertainties has been investigated and quantified. The new method allows for a complementary measurement of the top-quark mass parameter and has a high potential to become competitive in precision with respect to established approaches. Furthermore we emphasize that in the proposed method the mass parameter is uniquely defined through one-loop renormalization.