Abstract: In this study we present a unified phenomenological analysis of the scalar glueball and scalar meson spectra within an AdS/QCD framework in the bottom up approach. For this purpose we generalize the recently developed graviton soft-wall (GSW) model, which has shown an excellent agreement with the lattice QCD glueball spectrum, to a description of glueballs and mesons with a unique energy scale. In this scheme, dilatonic effects, are incorporated in the metric as a deformation of the AdS space. We apply the model also to the heavy meson spectra with success. We obtain quadratic mass equations for all scalar mesons while the glueballs satisfy an almost linear mass equation. Besides their spectra, we also discuss the mixing of scalar glueball and light scalar meson states within a unified framework: the GSW model. To this aim, the light-front (LF) holographic approach, which connects the mode functions of AdS/QCD to the LF wave functions, is applied. This relation provides the probabilistic interpretation required to properly investigate the mixing conditions.

Abstract: Mixed damping is a physical effect that occurs when a heavy species is coupled to a relativistic fluid which is itself free streaming. As a cross-case between collisional damping and free-streaming, it is crucial in the context of neutrino-dark matter interactions. In this work, we establish the parameter space relevant for mixed damping, and we derive an analytical approximation for the evolution of dark matter perturbations in the mixed damping regime to illustrate the physical processes responsible for the suppression of cosmological perturbations. Although extended Boltzmann codes implementing neutrino-dark matter scattering terms automatically include mixed damping, this effect has not been systematically studied. In order to obtain reliable numerical results, it is mandatory to reconsider several aspects of neutrino-dark matter interactions, such as the initial conditions, the ultra-relativistic fluid approximation and high order multiple moments in the neutrino distribution. Such a precise treatment ensures the correct assessment of the relevance of mixed damping in neutrino-dark matter interactions.

Abstract: Cosmological probes are steadily reducing the total neutrino mass window, resulting in constraints on the neutrino-mass degeneracy as the most significant outcome. In this work we explore the discovery potential of cosmological probes to constrain the neutrino hierarchy, and point out some subtleties that could yield spurious claims of detection. This has an important implication for next generation of double beta decay experiments, that will be able to achieve a positive signal in the case of degenerate or inverted hierarchy of Majorana neutrinos. We find that cosmological experiments that nearly cover the whole sky could in principle distinguish the neutrino hierarchy by yielding 'substantial' evidence for one scenario over the another, via precise measurements of the shape of the matter power spectrum from large scale structure and weak gravitational lensing.