Abstract: The simplest ΛCDM model provides a good fit to a large span of cosmological data but harbors large areas of phenomenology and ignorance. With the improvement of the number and the accuracy of observations, discrepancies among key cosmological parameters of the model have emerged. The most statistically significant tension is the 4 sigma to 6 sigma disagreement between predictions of the Hubble constant, H (0), made by the early time probes in concert with the 'vanilla' ΛCDM cosmological model, and a number of late time, model-independent determinations of H (0) from local measurements of distances and redshifts. The high precision and consistency of the data at both ends present strong challenges to the possible solution space and demands a hypothesis with enough rigor to explain multiple observations-whether these invoke new physics, unexpected large-scale structures or multiple, unrelated errors. A thorough review of the problem including a discussion of recent Hubble constant estimates and a summary of the proposed theoretical solutions is presented here. We include more than 1000 references, indicating that the interest in this area has grown considerably just during the last few years. We classify the many proposals to resolve the tension in these categories: early dark energy, late dark energy, dark energy models with 6 degrees of freedom and their extensions, models with extra relativistic degrees of freedom, models with extra interactions, unified cosmologies, modified gravity, inflationary models, modified recombination history, physics of the critical phenomena, and alternative proposals. Some are formally successful, improving the fit to the data in light of their additional degrees of freedom, restoring agreement within 1-2 sigma between Planck 2018, using the cosmic microwave background power spectra data, baryon acoustic oscillations, Pantheon SN data, and R20, the latest SH0ES Team Riess, et al (2021 Astrophys. J. 908 L6) measurement of the Hubble constant (H (0) = 73.2 +/- 1.3 km s(-1) Mpc(-1) at 68% confidence level). However, there are many more unsuccessful models which leave the discrepancy well above the 3 sigma disagreement level. In many cases, reduced tension comes not simply from a change in the value of H (0) but also due to an increase in its uncertainty due to degeneracy with additional physics, complicating the picture and pointing to the need for additional probes. While no specific proposal makes a strong case for being highly likely or far better than all others, solutions involving early or dynamical dark energy, neutrino interactions, interacting cosmologies, primordial magnetic fields, and modified gravity provide the best options until a better alternative comes along.

Abstract: We present updated LHC limits on the minimal universal extra dimensions (MUEDs) model from the Run 2 searches. We scan the parameter space against a number of searches implemented in the public code CheckMATE and derive up-to-date limits on the MUED parameter space from 13TeV searches. The strongest constraints come from a search dedicated to squarks and gluinos with one isolated lepton, jets and missing transverse energy. In the procedure, we take into account initial state radiation and stress its importance in the MUED searches, which is not always appreciated.

Abstract: The framed standard model (FSM), constructed to explain, with some success, why there should be three and apparently only three generations of quarks and leptons in nature falling into a hierarchical mass and mixing pattern,(10) suggests also, among other things, a scalar boson U, with mass around 17 MeV and small couplings to quarks and leptons,(11) which might explain(9) the g – 2 anomaly reported in experiment.(12) The U arises in FSM initially as a state in the predicted “hidden sector” with mass around 17 MeV, which mixes with the standard model (SM) Higgs h(W), acquiring thereby a coupling to quarks and leptons and a mass just below 17 MeV. The initial purpose of this paper is to check whether this proposal is compatible with experiment on semileptonic decays of Ks and Bs where the U can also appear. The answer to this we find is affirmative, in that the contribution of U to new physics as calculated in the FSM remains within the experimental bounds, but only if m(U) lies within a narrow range just below the unmixed mass. As a result from this, one has an estimate m(U) similar to 15-17 MeV for the mass of U, and from some further considerations the estimate Gamma(U) similar to 0.02 eV for its width, both of which may be useful for an eventual search for it in experiment. If found, it will be, for the FSM, not just the discovery of a predicted new particle, but the opening of a window into a whole “hidden sector” containing at least some, perhaps even the bulk, of the dark matter in the universe.

Abstract: The Schwarzschild-de Sitter (SdS) metric is the simplest spacetime solution in general relativity with both a black hole event horizon and a cosmological event horizon. Since the Schwarzschild metric is the most simple solution of Einstein's equations with spherical symmetry and the de Sitter metric is the most simple solution of Einstein's equations with a positive cosmological constant, the combination in the SdS metric defines an appropriate background geometry for semi-classical investigation of Hawking radiation with respect to past and future horizons. Generally, the black hole temperature is larger than that of the cosmological horizon, so there is heat flow from the smaller black hole horizon to the larger cosmological horizon, despite questions concerning the definition of the relative temperature of the black hole without a measurement by an observer sitting in an asymptotically flat spacetime. Here we investigate the accelerating boundary correspondence of the radiation in SdS spacetime without such a problem. We have solved for the boundary dynamics, energy flux and asymptotic particle spectrum. The distribution of particles is globally non-thermal while asymptotically the radiation reaches equilibrium.

Abstract: The sensitivity of cosmology to the total neutrino mass scale E m & nu; is approaching the minimal values required by oscillation data. We study quantitatively possible tensions between current and forecasted cosmological and terrestrial neutrino mass limits by applying suitable statistical tests such as Bayesian suspiciousness, parameter goodness-of-fit tests, or a parameter difference test. In particular, the tension will depend on whether the normal or the inverted neutrino mass ordering is assumed. We argue, that it makes sense to reject inverted ordering from the cosmology/oscillation comparison only if data are consistent with normal ordering. Our results indicate that, in order to reject inverted ordering with this argument, an accuracy on the sum of neutrino masses & sigma;(m & nu;) of better than 0.02 eV would be required from future cosmological observations.