Metastability of the false vacuum in a Higgs-seesaw model of dark energy
In a recently proposed Higgs-Seesaw model the observed scale of dark energy results from a metastable false vacuum energy associated with mixing of the standard model Higgs particle and a scalar associated with new physics at the GUT or Planck scale. Here we address the issue of how to ensure metastability of this state over cosmological time. We consider new tree-level operators, the presence of a thermal bath of hidden sector particles, and quantum corrections to the effective potential. We find that in the thermal scenario many additional light degrees of freedom are typically required unless coupling constants are somewhat fine-tuned. However quantum corrections arising from as few as one additional light scalar field can provide the requisite support. We also briefly consider implications of late-time vacuum decay for the perdurance of observed structures in the universe in this model.

title: 125 GeV Higgs boson and electroweak phase transition model classes
abstract: Recently, the ATLAS and CMS detectors have discovered a bosonic particle which, to a reasonable degree of statistical uncertainty, fits the profile of the Standard Model Higgs. One obvious implication is that models which predict a significant departure from Standard Model phenomenology, such as large exotic (e.g., invisible) Higgs decay or mixing with a hidden sector scalar, are already ruled out. This observation threatens the viability of electroweak baryogenesis, which favors, for example, a lighter Higgs and a Higgs coupled to or mixed with light scalars. To assess the broad impact of these constraints, we propose a scheme for classifying models of the electroweak phase transition and impose constraints on a class-by-class basis. We find that models, such as the MSSM, which rely on thermal loop effects are severely constrained by the measurement of a 125 GeV Higgs. Models which rely on tree-level effects from a light singlet are also restricted by invisible decay and mixing constraints. Moreover, we find that the parametric region favored by electroweak baryogenesis often coincides with an enhanced symmetry point with a distinctive phenomenological character. In particular, enhancements arising through an approximate continuous symmetry are phenomenologically disfavored, in contrast with enhancements from discrete symmetries. We also comment on the excess of diphoton events observed by ATLAS and CMS. We note that although Higgs portal models can accommodate both enhanced diphoton decay and a strongly first order electroweak phase transition, the former favors a negative Higgs portal coupling whereas the latter favors a positive one, and therefore these two constraints are at tension with one another.

title: Is Higgs inflation ruled out
abstract: School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Mt. Stromlo Observatory,Australian National University, Canberra,  March 21, 2014)We consider the status of Higgs Inﬂation in light of the recently announced detection of B-modes in the polar-ization of the cosmic microwave background radiation by the BICEP2 collaboration. In order for the primordialB-mode signal to be observable by BICEP2, the energy scale of inﬂation must be high, V

title: Modeling colliding beams with an element by element representation of the storage ring guide field
abstract: (Received 9 May 2005; published 26 January 2006)A detailed model of the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) guide ﬁeld, including beam-beaminteraction computed in the weak-strong regime, is the basis for a multiturn simulation of luminosity. Thesimulation reproduces the dependence of luminosity on bunch current that is measured in the storage ring,at both high-energy (5

title: Gravitino Leptogenesis
abstract: We explore here a new mechanism by which the out of equilibrium decay of heavy gravitinos, followed by possible R-parity violating decays in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) can generate the baryon asymmetry of the universe. In this mechanism, gravitino decay produces a CP-asymmetry that is carried by squarks or sleptons. These particles then decay through R-parity violating operators generating a lepton asymmetry. The lepton asymmetry is converted into a baryon asymmetry by weak sphalerons, as in the familiar case of leptogenesis by Majorana neutrino decays. To ensure that the gravitino decays while the sphaleron is still in equilibrium, we obtain a lower bound on the gravitino mass, m3/2 & 10 GeV, and therefore our mechanism requires a high scale of SUSY breaking, as well as minimum reheating temperature after inflation of T & 10 GeV in order to for the gravitino density to be sufficiently large to generate the baryon asymmetry today. We consider each of the MSSM’s relevant R-parity violating operators in turn, and derive constraints on parameters in order to give rise to a baryon asymmetry comparable to that observed today, consistent with low energy phenomenological bounds on SUSY models.

title: Dark strings and their couplings to the standard model
abstract: We consider the Standard Model extended by a hidden sector U(1)_X symmetry that is spontaneously broken at the TeV scale by the vacuum expectation value of an additional scalar field. We study "dark string" solutions in this model and their properties due to the Higgs portal and gauge kinetic mixing operators. We find that dark strings effectively interact with Higgs and Z bosons by linear couplings, and with leptons and baryons via Aharonov-Bohm couplings, thus possibly leading to new cosmological constraints on dark matter models with spontaneously broken extra U(1) symmetry factors.

title: Broad-band X-ray measurements of the black hole candidate XTE J1908+094
abstract: XTE J1908+094 is an X-ray transient that went into outburst in February 2002. After two months it reached a 2- 250 keV peak fl ux of 1t o 2 10 8 erg cm 2 s 1 . Circumstantial evidence points to an accreting galactic black hole as the origin of the X-radiation: pulsations nor thermonuclear flashes were detected that would identify a neutron star and the spectrum was unusually hard for a neutron star at the outburst onset. We report on BeppoSAX and RXTE All Sky Monitor observations of the broad-band spectrum of XTE J1908+094. The spectrum is consistent with a model consisting of a Comptonization component by a40 keV plasma, a multicolor accretion disk blackbody component with a temperature just below 1 keV and a broad emission line at about 6 keV. The spectrum is heavily absorbed by cold interstellar matter with an equivalent hydrogen column density of 2:5 10 22 cm 2 , which makes it dicult to study the black body component in detail. The black body component exhibits strong evolution about 6 weeks into the outburst. Two weeks later this is followed by a swift decay of the power law component. The broadness of the 6 keV feature may be due to relativistic broadening or Compton scattering of a narrow Fe-K line.

title: X-ray orbital modulations in intermediate polars
abstract: We present an analysis of 30 archival ASCA and RXTE X-ray observations of 16 intermediate polars to investigate the nature of their orbital modulation. We show that X-ray orbital modulation is widespread amongst these systems, but not ubiquitous as indicated by previous studies that included fewer objects. Only seven of the sixteen systems show a clearly statistically significant modulation depth whose amplitude decreases with increasing X-ray energy. Interpreting this as due to photoelectric absorption in material at the edge of an accretion disc would imply that such modulations are visible for all system inclination angles in excess of 60 degrees. However, it is also apparent that the presence of an X-ray orbital modulation can appear and disappear on a timescale of ∼years or months in an individual system. This may be evidence for the presence of a precessing, tilted accretion disc, as inferred in some low mass X-ray binaries.

title: Production of Large Transverse Momentum W Bosons at the Tevatron
abstract: We discuss the production of W bosons at large transverse momentum in p pbar collisions at the Tevatron Run I and II. W boson hadroproduction is a process of relevance in testing the Standard Model and in estimates of backgrounds to new physics. The next-to-leading order cross section in the region of large transverse momentum is dominated by threshold soft-gluon corrections which arise from incomplete cancellations near partonic threshold between graphs with real emission and virtual graphs due to the limited phase space available for real gluon emission. In this contribution it is shown how, by including next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) soft-gluon corrections, the transverse momentum distribution of the W at the Tevatron is modestly enhanced and the dependence on the factorization and renormalization scales is significantly reduced.