Abstract: Amplitude models are applied to studies of resonance structure in D-0 -> (KSK-)-K-0 pi(+) and D-0 -> (KSK+)-K-0 pi(-) decays using pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1) collected by the LHCb experiment. Relative magnitude and phase information is determined, and coherence factors and related observables are computed for both the whole phase space and a restricted region of 100 MeV/c(2) around the K*(892)(+/-) resonance. Two formulations for the K pi S-wave are used, both of which give a good description of the data. The ratio of branching fractions B(D-0 -> (KSK+)-K-0 pi(-))/B(D-0 -> (KSK-)-K-0 pi(+)) is measured to be 0.655 +/- 0.004(stat) +/- 0.006(syst) over the full phase space and 0.370 +/- 0.003(stat) +/- 0.012(syst) in the restricted region. A search for CP violation is performed using the amplitude models and no significant effect is found. Predictions from SU(3) flavor symmetry for K*(892)K amplitudes of different charges are compared with the amplitude model results.

Abstract: We study the structure and stability of traversable wormholes built as (spherically symmetric) thin shells in the context of Palatini f(R) gravity. Using a suitable junction formalism for these theories we find that the effective number of degrees of freedom on the shell is reduced to a single one, which fixes the equation of state to be that of massless stress-energy fields, contrary to the general relativistic and metric f(R) cases. Another major difference is that the surface energy density threading the thin shell, needed in order to sustain the wormhole, can take any sign and may even vanish, depending on the desired features of the corresponding solutions. We illustrate our results by constructing thin-shell wormholes by surgically grafting Schwarzschild space-times and show that these configurations are always linearly unstable. However, surgically joined Reissner-Nordstrom space-times allow for linearly stable, traversable thin-shell wormholes supported by a positive energy density provided that the (squared) mass-to-charge ratio, given by y = Q(2)/M-2, satisfies the constraint 1 < y < 9/8 (corresponding to overcharged Reissner-Nordstrom configurations having a photon sphere) and lies in a region bounded by specific curves defined in terms of the (dimensionless) radius of the shell x(0) = R/M.

Abstract: We study the behavior of strongly interacting matter under a uniform intense external magnetic field in the context of nonlocal extensions of the Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. A detailed description of the formalism is presented, considering the cases of zero and finite temperature. In particular, we analyze the effect of the magnetic field on the chiral restoration and deconfinement transitions, which are found to occur at approximately the same critical temperatures. Our results show that these models offer a natural framework to account for the phenomenon of inverse magnetic catalysis found in lattice QCD calculations.