Abstract: We study the radiative decay properties of the charmoniumlike X, Y, and Z mesons generated dynamically from vector-meson-vector-meson interaction in the framework of a unitarized hidden-gauge formalism. In the present work, we calculate the one-and two-photon decay widths of the hidden-charm Y(3940), Z(3930) [or X(3915)], and X(4160) mesons in the framework of the vector-meson dominance formalism. We obtain good agreement with the experiment in case of the two-photon width of the X(3915), which we associate to the 2(+) resonance that we find at 3922 MeV. However, in view of discrepancies with a different approach that also considers the resonances as molecular states, we urge independent calculations along the same lines to further clarify the issue.

Abstract: We revisit the nonrelativistic quark model description of electromagnetic radiative decays in bottomonium. We show that even for the simplest spectroscopic quark model the calculated widths can be in good agreement with data once the experimental masses of bottomonium states and the photon energy are properly implemented in the calculation. For transitions involving the lower lying spectral states this implementation can be easily done via the long wavelength approximation. For transitions where this approximation does not apply we develop a new method of implementing the experimental energy dependencies.

Abstract: We study the Higgs boson mass spectrum of a classical scale invariant realization of the two Higgs doublet model (SI-2HDM). The classical scale symmetry of the theory is explicitly broken by quantum loop effects due to gauge interactions, Higgs self-couplings and top quark Yukawa couplings. We determine the allowed parameter space compatible with perturbative unitarity and electroweak precision data. Taking into account the LEP and the recent LHC exclusion limits on a standard-model-like Higgs boson HSM, we obtain rather strict constraints on the mass spectrum of the heavy Higgs sector of the SI-2HDM. In particular, if MHSM 125 GeV, the SI-2HDM strongly favors scenarios in which at least one of the nonstandard neutral Higgs bosons has a mass close to 400 GeV and is generically degenerate with the charged Higgs boson, whilst the third neutral Higgs scalar is lighter than 500 GeV.

Abstract: Rapidly rotating black holes are known to develop instabilities in the presence of a sufficiently light boson, a process which becomes efficient when the boson's Compton wavelength is roughly the size of the black hole. This phenomenon known as black hole superradiance generates an exponentially growing boson cloud at the expense of the rotational energy of the black hole. For astrophysical black holes with M similar to O(10)M-circle dot, the superradiant condition is achieved for bosons with m(b) similar to O(10(-11))eV; intriguingly, photons traversing the intergalactic medium acquire an effective mass (due to their interactions with the ambient plasma) which naturally resides in this range. The implications of photon superradiance, i.e., the evolution of the superradiant photon cloud and ambient plasma in the presence of scattering and particle production processes, have yet to be thoroughly investigated. Here, we enumerate and discuss a number of different processes capable of quenching the growth of the photon cloud, including particle interactions with the ambient electrons and backreactions on the effective mass (arising e.g., from thermal effects, pair production, ionization of the local background, and modifications to the dispersion relation from strong electric fields). This work naturally serves as a guide in understanding how interactions may allow light exotic bosons to evade superradiant constraints.

Abstract: Dirac neutrino masses require two distinct neutral Weyl spinors per generation, with a special arrangement of masses and interactions with charged leptons. Once this arrangement is perturbed, lepton number is no longer conserved and neutrinos become Majorana particles. If these lepton number violating perturbations are small compared to the Dirac mass terms, neutrinos are quasi-Dirac particles. Alternatively, this scenario can be characterized by the existence of pairs of neutrinos with almost degenerate masses, and a lepton mixing matrix which has 12 angles and 12 phases. In this work we discuss the phenomenology of quasi-Dirac neutrino oscillations and derive limits on the relevant parameter space from various experiments. In one parameter perturbations of the Dirac limit, very stringent bounds can be derived on the mass splittings between the almost degenerate pairs of neutrinos. However, we also demonstrate that with suitable changes to the lepton mixing matrix, limits on such mass splittings are much weaker, or even completely absent. Finally, we consider the possibility that the mass splittings are too small to be measured and discuss bounds on the new, nonstandard lepton mixing angles from current experiments for this case.