Dark energy, inflation and the cosmic coincidence problem
We show that holographic dark energy could explain why the current dark energy density is so small, if there was an inflation with a sufficient expansion in the early universe. It is also suggested that an inflation with the number of e-folds N ≃ 65 may solve the cosmic coincidence problem in this context. Assuming the inflation and the power-law acceleration phase today we obtain approximate formulas for the event horizon size of the universe and dark energy density as functions of time. A simple numerical study exploiting the formula well reproduces the observed evolution of dark energy. This nontrivial match between the theory and the observational data supports both inflation and holographic dark energy models.

title: Radiation Damping at a Bubble Wall
abstract: The first order phase transition proceeds via nucleation and growth of true vacuum bubbles. When charged particles collide with the bubble they could radiate electromagnetic wave. We show that, due to an energy loss of the particles by the radiation, the damping pressure acting on the bubble wall depends on the velocity of the wall even in a thermal equilibrium state.

title: Black Hole as an Information Eraser
abstract: We discuss the identity of black hole entropy and show that the first law of black hole thermodynamics, in the case of a Schwarzschild black hole, can be derived from Landauer's principle by assuming that the black hole is one of the most efficient information erasers. The term "most efficient" implies that maximal information will be erased for a given amount of work. We calculate the discrete mass spectra and the entropy of a Schwarzschild black hole assuming that the black hole processes information in unit of bits. The black hole entropy acquires a subleading contribution proportional to the logarithm of its mass-squared in addition to the usual mass-squared term without an artificial cutoff. We also argue that the minimum of the black hole mass is $\sqrt{\log 2/(8\pi)}M_{\rm P}$.

title: Zero cosmological constant and nonzero dark energy from the holographic principle
abstract: The first law of thermodynamics and the holographic principle applied to an arbitrary large cosmic causal horizon are shown to naturally demand a zero cosmological constant and a non-zero dynamical dark energy in the form of the holographic dark energy. A semiclassical analysis shows that the holographic dark energy has a parameter d = 1 and an equation of state comparable to current observational data if the entropy of the horizon saturates the Bekenstein-Hawking bound. This result indicates that quantum field theory should be modified on a large scale to explain the dark energy. The relations among the dark energy, the quantum vacuum energy and the entropic gravity are also discussed.

title: Dark energy from forgetting
abstract: We suggest that dark energy has a quantum informational origin. Landauer's principle associated with the erasure of quantum information at a cosmic horizon implies the non-zero vacuum energy having effective negative pressure. Assuming the holographic principle, the minimum free energy condition, and the Gibbons-Hawking temperature for the cosmic event horizon we obtain the holographic dark energy with the parameter $d\simeq 1$, which is consistent with the current observational data. It is also shown that both the entanglement energy and the horizon energy can be related to Landauer's principle.

title: Quantum entanglement from the holographic principle
abstract: It is suggested that quantum entanglement emerges from the holographic principle stating that all of the information of a region (bulk bits) can be described by the bits on its boundary surface. There are redundancy and information loss in the bulk bits that lead to the nonlocal correlation among the bulk bits. Quantum field theory overestimates the independent degrees of freedom in the bulk. The maximum entanglement in the universe increases as the size of the cosmic horizon and this could be related with the arrow of time and dark energy.

title: Bootes II: Not a Dwarf Galaxy but Possibly Shed by One
abstract: We present moderately deep V I C photometry of Boötes II, obtained using the SOAR Telescope. While identified initially as an old, metal-poor, dwarf galaxy, Boötes II appears to be a moderately metal-rich globular cluster with [Fe/H] ≈ −0.7. The slope of the red giant branch suggests that [α/Fe] ≈ 0.0, and the turn-off indicates an age of 7 to 9 Gyrs, considerably younger than most globular clusters, but similar to Palomar 12. Like that object, Boötes II lies in the direction of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy tidal stream, and, with a distance of almost 50 kpc, is probably associated with the more distant portion of the stream, as defined by Belokurov et al. (2006a).

title: Singlino-driven electroweak baryogenesis in the next-to-MSSM
abstract: We explore a new possibility of electroweak baryogenesis in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model. In this model, a strong first-order electroweak phase transition can be achieved due to the additional singlet Higgs field. The new impact of its superpartner (singlino) on the baryon asymmetry is investigated by employing the closed-time-path formalism. We find that the CP violating source term fueled by the singlino could be large enough to generate the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe without any conflicts with the current constraints from the non-observation of the thallium, neutron and mercury electric dipole moments.

title: The Spatial Distribution of the Hard X-Ray Spectral Index and the Local Magnetic Reconnection Rate
abstract: The rare phenomenon of ribbon-like hard X-ray (HXR) sources up to 100 keV found in the 2005 May 13 M8.0 flare observed with the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager provides detailed information on the spatial distribution of flare HXR emission. In this Letter, we further investigate the characteristics of HXR emission in this event using imaging spectroscopy, from which we obtain spatially resolved HXR spectral maps during the flare impulsive phase. As a result we found, along a flare ribbon, an anticorrelation relationship between the local HXR flux and the local HXR spectral index. We suggest that this can be regarded as a spatial analog of the well-known temporal soft-hard-soft spectral evolution pattern of the integrated HXR flux. We also found an anticorrelation between the HXR spectral index and the local electric field along the ribbon, which suggests electron acceleration by the electric field during flares.

title: Search for events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, and at least two tau leptons in 7 TeV proton–proton collision data with the ATLAS detector
abstract: A search for events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, and at least two tau leptons has been performed using 2 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 7 TeV recorded with the ...

title: Squark mixing in electron positron reactions
abstract: Squark mixing plays a large role in the phenomenology of the minimal supersymmetric standard model, determining the mass of the lightest Higgs boson and the electroweak interactions of the squarks themselves. We examine how mixing may be investigated in high energy e + e reactions, both at LEP-II and the proposed linear collider. In particular, off-diagonal production of one lighter and one heavier squark allows one to measure the squark mixing angle, and would allow one to test the mass relations for the light Higgs boson. In some cases off-diagonal production may provide the best prospects to discover supersymmetry. In the context of the light bottom squark scenario, we show that existing data from LEP-II should show definitive evidence for the heavier �