Abstract: The framed standard model (FSM), constructed to explain the empirical mass and mixing patterns (including CP phases) of quarks and leptons, in which it has done quite well, gives otherwise the same result as the standard model (SM) in almost all areas in particle physics where the SM has been successfully applied, except for a few specified deviations such as the W mass and the g-2 of muons, that is, just where experiment is showing departures from what SM predicts. It predicts further the existence of a hidden sector of particles some of which may function as dark matter. In this paper, we first note that the above results involve, surprisingly, the FSM undergoing a vacuum transition (VTR1) at a scale of around 17MeV, where the vacuum expectation values of the colour framons (framed vectors promoted into fields) which are all nonzero above that scale acquire some vanishing components below it. This implies that the metric pertaining to these vanishing components would vanish also. Important consequences should then ensue, but these occur mostly in the unknown hidden sector where empirical confirmation is hard at present to come by, but they give small reflections in the standard sector, some of which may have already been seen. However, one notes that if, going off at a tangent, one imagines colour to be embedded, Kaluza-Klein (KK) fashion, into a higher-dimensional space-time, then this VTR1 would cause 2 of the compactified dimensions to collapse. This might mean then that when the universe cooled to the corresponding temperature of 1011 K when it was about 10-3 s old, this VTR1 collapse would cause the three spatial dimensions of the universe to expand to compensate. The resultant expansion is estimated, using FSM parameters previously determined from particle physics, to be capable, when extrapolated backwards in time, of bringing the present universe back inside the then horizon, solving thus formally the horizon problem. Besides, VTR1 being a global phenomenon in the FSM, it would switch on and off automatically and simultaneously over all space, thus requiring seemingly no additional strategy for a graceful exit. However, this scenario has not been checked for consistency with other properties of the universe and is to be taken thus not as a candidate solution of the horizon problem but only as an observation from particle physics which might be of interest to cosmologists and experts in the early universe. For particle physicists also, it might serve as an indicator for how relevant this VTR1 can be, even if the KK assumption is not made.

Abstract: Axion like particles (ALPs) and right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) are two well-motivated dark matter (DM) candidates. However, these two particles have a completely different origin. Axion was proposed to solve the strong CP problem, whereas RHNs were introduced to explain light neutrino masses through seesaw mechanisms. We study the case of ALP portal RHN DM (Majorana DM) taking into account existing constraints on ALPs. We consider the leading effective operators mediating interactions between the ALP and Standard Model (SM) particles and three RHNs to generate light neutrino masses through type-I seesaw. Further, ALP-RHN neutrino coupling is introduced to generalize the model which is restricted by the relic density and indirect detection constraint.

Abstract: A bonus of the framed Standard Model (FSM), constructed initially to explain the mass and mixing patterns of quarks and leptons, is a solution (without axions) of the strong CP problem by cancelling the theta-angle term theta(I) Tr(H-mu v H-mu v*) in coloura by a chiral transformation on a quark zero mode which is inherent in FSM, and produces thereby a CP-violating phase in the CKM matrix similar in size to what is observed.' Extending here to flavour, one finds that there are two terms proportional to Tr(G(mu v) G(mu v)*): (a) in the action from flavour instantons with unknown coefficient, say theta(I)', (b) induced by the above FSM solution to the strong CP-problem with therefore known coefficient theta(C)'. Both terms can be cancelled in the FSM by a chiral transformation on the lepton zero mode to give a Jarlskog invariant J' in the PMNS matrix for leptons of order 10(-2), as is hinted by the experiment. But if, as suggested in Ref. 2, the term theta(I)' is to be cancelled by a chiral transformation in the predicted hidden sector to solve the strong CP problem therein, leaving only the term theta(C)' to be cancelled by the chiral transformation on leptons, then the following prediction results: J' similar to -0.012 (delta(CP)'similar to (1.11)pi) which is (i) of the right order, (ii) of the right sign and (iii) in the range favoured by the present experiment. Together with the earlier result for quarks, this offers an attractive unified treatment of all known CP physics.

Abstract: In this review, we discuss recent developments in both the theory and the experimental searches of magnetic monopoles in past, current and future colliders and in the Cosmos. The theoretical models include, apart from the standard Grand Unified Theories, extensions of the Standard Model that admit magnetic monopole solutions with finite energy and masses that can be as light as a few TeV. Specifically, we discuss, among other scenarios, modified Cho-Maison monopoles and magnetic monopoles in (string-inspired, higher derivative) Born-Infeld extensions of the hypercharge sector of the Standard Model. We also outline the conditions for which effective field theories describing the interaction of monopoles with photons are valid and can be used for result interpretation in monopole production at colliders. The experimental part of the review focuses on, past and present, cosmic and collider searches, including the latest bounds on monopole masses and magnetic charges by the ATLAS and MoEDAL experiments at the LHC, as well as prospects for future searches.

Abstract: The focus of this paper lies on the possible experimental tests of leptogenesis scenarios. We consider both leptogenesis generated from oscillations, as well as leptogenesis from out-of-equilibrium decays. As the Akhmedov-Rubakov-Smirnov (ARS) mechanism allows for heavy neutrinos in the GeV range, this opens up a plethora of possible experimental tests, e.g. at neutrino oscillation experiments, neutrinoless double beta decay, and direct searches for neutral heavy leptons at future facilities. In contrast, testing leptogenesis from out-of-equilibrium decays is a quite difficult task. We comment on the necessary conditions for having successful leptogenesis at the TeV-scale. We further discuss possible realizations and their model specific testability in extended seesaw models, models with extended gauge sectors, and supersymmetric leptogenesis. Not being able to test high-scale leptogenesis directly, we present a way to falsify such scenarios by focusing on their washout processes. This is discussed specifically for the left-right symmetric model and the observation of a heavy W-R, as well as model independently when measuring Delta L = 2 washout processes at the LHC or neutrinoless double beta decay.