Abstract: It was predicted qualitatively in ref. [I] that skyrmion matter at low density is stable in an inhomogeneous phase where skyrmions condensate into lumps while the remaining space is mostly empty. The aim of this paper is to proof quantitatively this prediction. In order to construct an inhomogeneous medium we distort the original FCC crystal to produce a phase of planar structures made of skyrmions. We implement mathematically these planar structures by means of the 't Hooft instanton solution using the Atiyah-Manton ansatz. The results of our calculation of the average density and energy confirm the prediction suggesting that the phase diagram of the dense skyrmion matter is a lot more complex than a simple phase transition from the skyrmion FCC crystal lattice to the half-skyrmion CC one. Our results show that skyrmion matter shares common properties with standard nuclear matter developing a skin and leading to a binding energy equation which resembles the Weiszacker mass formula.

Abstract: A first attempt to apply the AdS/QCD framework for a bottom-up approach to the evaluation of the effective cross section for double parton scattering in proton-proton collisions is presented. The main goal is the analytic evaluation of the dependence of the effective cross section on the longitudinal momenta of the involved partons, obtained within the holographic Soft-Wall model. If measured in high-energy processes at hadron colliders, this momentum dependence could open a new window on 2-parton correlations in a proton.

Abstract: The Chiral Dilaton Model, where baryons arise as non-topological solitons built from the interaction of quarks and chiral mesons, shows in the high density low temperature regime a two phase scenario in the nuclear matter phase diagram. Dense soliton matter described by the Wigner-Seitz approximation generates a periodic potential in terms of the sigma and pion fields that leads to the formation of a band structure. The analysis up to three times nuclear matter density shows that soliton matter undergoes two separate phase transitions: a delocalization of the baryon number density leading to B = 1/2 structures, as in skyrmion matter, at moderate densities, and quark deconfinement at larger densities. This description fits well into the so-called quarkyonic phase where, before deconfinement, nuclear matter should undergo structural changes involving the restoration of fundamental symmetries of QCD.

Abstract: Electrically charged particles can be created by the decay of strong enough electric fields, a phenomenon known as the Schwinger mechanism(1). By electromagnetic duality, a sufficiently strong magnetic field would similarly produce magnetic monopoles, if they exist(2). Magnetic monopoles are hypothetical fundamental particles that are predicted by several theories beyond the standard model(3-7) but have never been experimentally detected. Searching for the existence of magnetic monopoles via the Schwinger mechanism has not yet been attempted, but it is advantageous, owing to the possibility of calculating its rate through semi-classical techniques without perturbation theory, as well as that the production of the magnetic monopoles should be enhanced by their finite size(8,9) and strong coupling to photons(2,10). Here we present a search for magnetic monopole production by the Schwinger mechanism in Pb-Pb heavy ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, producing the strongest known magnetic fields in the current Universe(11). It was conducted by the MoEDAL experiment, whose trapping detectors were exposed to 0.235 per nanobarn, or approximately 1.8 x 10(9), of Pb-Pb collisions with 5.02-teraelectronvolt center-of-mass energy per collision in November 2018. A superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer scanned the trapping detectors of MoEDAL for the presence of magnetic charge, which would induce a persistent current in the SQUID. Magnetic monopoles with integer Dirac charges of 1, 2 and 3 and masses up to 75 gigaelectronvolts per speed of light squared were excluded by the analysis at the 95% confidence level. This provides a lower mass limit for finite-size magnetic monopoles from a collider search and greatly extends previous mass bounds.

Abstract: We study electromagnetic properties of particles with magnetic moment and no charge using their behavior when traversing coils and solenoids. These particles via the Faraday-Lenz law create a current whose energy we calculate. We analyze both the case of very long lived, almost stable, particles and those with a finite lifetime. We use this development to study the behavior of monopolium a monopole-antimonopole bound state in its excited states.