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Barenboim, G., Blinov, N., & Stebbins, A. (2021). Smallest remnants of early matter domination. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 12(12), 026–50pp.
Abstract: The evolution of the universe prior to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis could have gone through a phase of early matter domination which enhanced the growth of small-scale dark matter structure. If this period was long enough, self-gravitating objects formed prior to reheating. We study the evolution of these dense early halos through reheating. At the end of early matter domination, the early halos undergo rapid expansion and eventually eject their matter. We find that this process washes out structure on scales much larger than naively expected from the size of the original halos. We compute the density profiles of the early halo remnants and use them to construct late-time power spectra that include these non-linear effects. We evolve the resulting power spectrum to estimate the properties of microhalos that would form after matter-radiation equality. Surprisingly, cosmologies with a short period of early matter domination lead to an earlier onset of microhalo formation compared to those with a long period. In either case, dark matter structure formation begins much earlier than in the standard cosmology, with most dark matter bound in microhalos in the late universe.
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Bazeia, D., Marques, M. A., & Olmo, G. J. (2018). Small and hollow magnetic monopoles. Phys. Rev. D, 98(2), 025017–8pp.
Abstract: We deal with the presence of magnetic monopoles in a non-Abelian model that generalizes the standard 't Hooft-Polyakov model in three spatial dimensions. We investigate the energy density of the static and spherically symmetric solutions to find first order differential equations that solve the equations of motion. The system is further studied and two distinct classes of solutions are obtained, one that can also be described by analytical solutions and is called a small monopole, since it is significantly smaller than the standard 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole. The other type of structure is the hollow monopole, since the energy density is endowed with a hole at its core. The hollow monopole can be smaller or larger than the standard monopole, depending on the value of the parameter that controls the magnetic permeability of the model.
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Lopez-Ibañez, M. L., Melis, A., Jay Perez, M., & Vives, O. (2017). Slepton non-universality in the flavor-effective MSSM. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 162–27pp.
Abstract: Supersymmetric theories supplemented by an underlying flavor-symmetry G(f) provide a rich playground for model building aimed at explaining the flavor structure of the Standard Model. In the case where supersymmetry breaking is mediated by gravity, the soft-breaking Lagrangian typically exhibits large tree-level flavor violating e ff ects, even if it stems from an ultraviolet flavor-conserving origin. Building on previous work, we continue our phenomenological analysis of these models with a particular emphasis on leptonicflavor observables. We consider three representative models which aim to explain the flavor structure of the lepton sector, with symmetry groups G(f) = Delta (27), A(4); and S-3.
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Vento, V. (2018). Skyrmions at high density. Phys. Part. Nuclei Lett., 15(4), 367–370.
Abstract: The phase diagram of quantum chromodynamics is conjectured to have a rich structure containing at least three forms of matter: hadronic nuclear matter, quarkyonic matter and quark gluon plasma. We describe its formulation in terms of Skyrme crystals and justify the origin of the quarkyonic phase transition in a chiral-quark model.
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NEXT Collaboration(Alvarez, V. et al), Agramunt, J., Ball, M., Bayarri, J., Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., et al. (2012). SiPMs coated with TPB: coating protocol and characterization for NEXT. J. Instrum., 7, P02010.
Abstract: Silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) are the photon detectors chosen for the tracking read-out in NEXT, a neutrinoless beta beta decay experiment which uses a high pressure gaseous xenon time projection chamber (TPC). The reconstruction of event track and topology in this gaseous detector is a key handle for background rejection. Among the commercially available sensors that can be used for tracking, SiPMs offer important advantages, mainly high gain, ruggedness, cost-effectiveness and radio-purity. Their main drawback, however, is their non sensitivity in the emission spectrum of the xenon scintillation (peak at 175 nm). This is overcome by coating these sensors with the organic wavelength shifter tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB). In this paper we describe the protocol developed for coating the SiPMs with TPB and the measurements performed for characterizing the coatings as well as the performance of the coated sensors in the UV-VUV range.
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Llosa, G. (2019). SiPM-based Compton cameras. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 926, 148–152.
Abstract: Compton cameras have been developed for almost fifty years in various fields (astronomy, medical imaging, safety and industrial inspections, etc.), employing different types of detectors. Their potential use has gained renewed interest with the emergence of high light yield scintillator crystals and silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). This combination provides good performance and operation simplicity at an affordable cost, raising again the interest in this type of systems. SiPM-based Compton cameras are being assessed for diverse applications with promising results.
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Benisty, D., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2021). Singularity-Free and Cosmologically Viable Born-Infeld Gravity with Scalar Matter. Symmetry-Basel, 13(11), 2108–24pp.
Abstract: The early cosmology, driven by a single scalar field, both massless and massive, in the context of Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity, is explored. We show the existence of nonsingular solutions of bouncing and loitering type (depending on the sign of the gravitational theory's parameter, epsilon) replacing the Big Bang singularity, and discuss their properties. In addition, in the massive case, we find some new features of the cosmological evolution depending on the value of the mass parameter, including asymmetries in the expansion/contraction phases, or a continuous transition between a contracting phase to an expanding one via an intermediate loitering phase. We also provide a combined analysis of cosmic chronometers, standard candles, BAO, and CMB data to constrain the model, finding that for roughly |epsilon|& LSIM;5 & BULL;10-8m2 the model is compatible with the latest observations while successfully removing the Big Bang singularity. This bound is several orders of magnitude stronger than the most stringent constraints currently available in the literature.
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Magalhaes, R. B., Ribeiro, G. P., Lima, H. C. D. J., Olmo, G. J., & Crispino, L. C. B. (2024). Singular space-times with bounded algebraic curvature scalars. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 05(5), 114–34pp.
Abstract: We show that the absence of unbounded algebraic curvature invariants constructed from polynomials of the Riemann tensor cannot guarantee the absence of strong singularities. As a consequence, it is not sufficient to rely solely on the analysis of such scalars to assess the regularity of a given space-time. This conclusion follows from the analysis of incomplete geodesics within the internal region of asymmetric wormholes supported by scalar matter which arise in two distinct metric-affine gravity theories. These wormholes have bounded algebraic curvature scalars everywhere, which highlights that their finiteness does not prevent the emergence of pathologies (singularities) in the geodesic structure of space-time. By analyzing the tidal forces in the internal wormhole region, we find that the angular components are unbounded along incomplete radial time-like geodesics. The strength of the singularity is determined by the evolution of Jacobi fields along such geodesics, finding that it is of strong type, as volume elements are torn apart as the singularity is approached. Lastly, and for completeness, we consider the wormhole of the quadratic Palatini theory and present an analysis of the tidal forces in the entire space-time.
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Mavromatos, N. E., & Papavassiliou, J. (2018). Singular lensing from the scattering on special space-time defects. Eur. Phys. J. C, 78(1), 68–15pp.
Abstract: It is well known that certain special classes of self-gravitating point-like defects, such as global (non gauged) monopoles, give rise to non-asymptotically flat space-times characterized by solid angle deficits, whose size depends on the details of the underlying microscopic models. The scattering of electrically neutral particles on such space-times is described by amplitudes that exhibit resonant behaviour when thescattering and deficit angles coincide. This, in turn, leads to ring-like structures where the cross sections are formally divergent (“singular lensing”). In this work, we revisit this particular phenomenon, with the twofold purpose of placing it in a contemporary and more general context, in view of renewed interest in the theory and general phenomenology of such defects, and, more importantly, of addressing certain subtleties that appear in the particular computation that leads to the aforementioned effect. In particular, by adopting a specific regularization procedure for the formally infinite Legendre series encountered, we manage to ensure the recovery of theMinkowski space-time, and thus the disappearance of the lensing phenomenon, in the nodefect limit, and the validity of the optical theorem for the elastic total cross section. In addition, the singular nature of the phenomenon is confirmed by means of an alternative calculation, which, unlike the original approach, makes no use of the generating function of the Legendre polynomials, but rather exploits the asymptotic properties of the Fresnel integrals.
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Drach, V., Fritzsch, P., Rago, A., & Romero-Lopez, F. (2022). Singlet channel scattering in a composite Higgs model on the lattice. Eur. Phys. J. C, 82(1), 47–10pp.
Abstract: We present the first calculation of the scattering amplitude in the singlet channel beyond QCD. The calculation is performed in SU(2) gauge theory with N-f = 2 fundamental Dirac fermions and based on a finite-volume scattering formalism. The theory exhibits a SU (4) -> Sp(4) chiral symmetry breaking pattern that is used to design minimal composite Higgs models currently tested at the LHC. Our results show that, for the range of underlying fermion mass considered, the lowest flavour singlet state is stable.
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