Quantum cosmology in anisotropic cosmological models with scalar-tensor theories
This paper deals with quantum cosmological phenomena in anisotropic cosmological models with nonminimally coupled scalor field. With proper transformation of the field variables, the Wheeler–Dewitt (WD) equation looks simple in form and solutions are obtained using separable form of the wave function. Using part integral formulation, the wave function of the Universe has been evaluated by the method of steepest descent. Finally, the causal interpretation has been done using quantum Bohmian trajectories and also we study the classical limit of some particular solutions of these quantum models.

title: Interacting Holographic Dark Energy at the Ricci scale and Dynamical system
abstract: In this work, we consider homogeneous and isotropic FRW model of the universe, filled with interacting dark matter and dark energy. The dark matter is chosen as usual in the form of dust while dark energy is holographic in nature with IR cut off at the Ricci's length and it is in the form of a perfect fluid with variable equation of state. We have chosen the interaction term of the following two types: (i) a linear combination of the matter density of the two fluids, (ii) a product of the two matter densities. For both the choices the evolution equations are transformed to an autonomous system and the corresponding critical points are analyzed. Finally, for the first choice of the interaction term the evolution of the ratio of the energy densities has been studied from the point of view of the present coincidence problem.

title: Emergent universe in brane world scenario with Schwarzschild–de Sitter bulk
abstract: A model of an emergent universe is obtained in brane world. Here the bulk energy is in the form of cosmological constant, while the brane consists of a fluid satisfying an equation of state of the form $${p_{b}=\frac{1}{3}\rho_{b}}$$ , which is effectively a radiation equation of state at high energies. It is shown that with the positive bulk cosmological constant, one of our models represents an emergent universe.

title: Energy Conditions, Cosmological Solutions and Cosmic No-Hair Conjecture in Gauss-Bonnet Theory
abstract: A detailed investigation of Gauss-Bonnet theory has been done from a different perspective. At first, the standard energy conditions are discussed and modified forms have been presented. Then some cosmological solutions have been obtained in 5D for perfect fluid assuming that the extra dimensional metric coefficient decreases with time. For some particular choice of the parameters, exponential solutions are obtained and finally, Cosmic No-Hair Conjecture has been proved for Gauss-Bonnet dilatonic scalar coupled to Einstein gravity with coupling parameter growing linearly in time.

title: NAKED SINGULARITIES IN HIGHER DIMENSIONAL GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE
abstract: Spherically symmetric inhomogeneous dust collapse has been studied in higher dimensional space–time and the factors responsible for the appearance of a naked singularity are analyzed in the region close to the centre for the marginally bound case. It is clearly demonstrated that in the former case naked singularities do not appear in the space–time having more than five dimension, which appears to a strong result. The non-marginally bound collapse is also examined in five dimensions and the role of shear in developing naked singularities in this space–time is discussed in details. The five-dimensional space–time is chosen in the later case because we have exact solution in closed form only in five dimension and not in any other case.

title: Exact solutions of the field equations for Charap’s chiral invariant model of the pion dynamics
abstract: The field equations for the chiral invariant model of pion dynamics developed by Charap have been revisited. Two new types of solutions of these equations have been obtained. Each type allows infinite number of solutions. It has also been shown that the chiral invariant field equations admit invariance for a transformation of the dependent variables.

title: Holographic quark-antiquark potential in hot, anisotropic Yang-Mills plasma
abstract: Using the gauge/gravity duality we calculate the heavy quark–antiquark potential in a hot, anisotropic and strongly coupled Yang–Mills plasma in ( 3 + 1 )-dimensions. As the anisotropic medium we take a deformed version of N = 4 super Yang–Mills theory at finite temperature following a recent work where the dual type IIB supergravity solution is also proposed. We turn on a small value of the anisotropy parameter, for which the gravity dual is known analytically (perturbatively), and compute the velocity-dependent quark–antiquark interaction potential when the pair is moving through the plasma with a velocity v . By setting v = 0 we recover the static quark–antiquark potential. We numerically study how the potential is modified in the presence of anisotropy. We further show numerically how the quark–antiquark separation (both in the static and the velocity-dependent case) and hence, the screening length gets modified by anisotropy. We discuss various cases depending upon the direction of the dipole and the direction of its propagation and make a comparative study of these cases. We are also able to obtain an analytical expression for the screening length of the dipole moving in a hot, anisotropic plasma in a special case.

title: Brownian motion in strongly coupled, anisotropic Yang-Mills plasma: A holographic approach
abstract: We employ methods of gauge/string duality to analyze the Brownian motion and the concomitant Langevin equation of a heavy quark in a strongly coupled, thermal, anisotropic Yang-Mills plasma. We consider fluctuations both along and perpendicular to the direction of anisotropy and study the effects of anisotropy on the drag coefficient, the diffusion constant and the Langevin coefficient for both the directions. We also verify the fluctuation-dissipation theorem for Brownian motion in an anisotropic medium.

title: The mass-hierarchy and CP-violation discovery reach of the LBNO long-baseline neutrino experiment
abstract: A bstractThe next generation neutrino observatory proposed by the LBNO collaboration will address fundamental questions in particle and astroparticle physics. The experiment consists of a far detector, in its first stage a 20 kt LAr double phase TPC and a magnetised iron calorimeter, situated at 2300 km from CERN and a near detector based on a highpressure argon gas TPC. The long baseline provides a unique opportunity to study neutrino flavour oscillations over their 1st and 2nd oscillation maxima exploring the L/E behaviour, and distinguishing effects arising from δCP and matter.In this paper we have reevaluated the physics potential of this setup for determining the mass hierarchy (MH) and discovering CP-violation (CPV), using a conventional neutrino beam from the CERN SPS with a power of 750 kW. We use conservative assumptions on the knowledge of oscillation parameter priors and systematic uncertainties. The impact of each systematic error and the precision of oscillation prior is shown. We demonstrate that the first stage of LBNO can determine unambiguously the MH to > 5σ C.L. over the whole phase space. We show that the statistical treatment of the experiment is of very high importance, resulting in the conclusion that LBNO has ~ 100% probability to determine the MH in at most 4-5 years of running. Since the knowledge of MH is indispensable to extract δCP from the data, the first LBNO phase can convincingly give evidence for CPV on the 3σ C.L. using today’s knowledge on oscillation parameters and realistic assumptions on the systematic uncertainties.

title: Wilson loops in (p+1)-dimensional Yang–Mills theories using gravity/gauge theory correspondence
abstract: We compute the expectation values of both the time-like and the light-like Wilson loops in a strongly coupled plasma of ( p + 1 ) -dimensional Yang–Mills theories using gravity/gauge theory correspondence. From the time-like Wilson loop we obtain the velocity dependent quark–antiquark potential where the dipole is moving through the plasma with an arbitrary velocity 0 v 1 and also obtain expressions for the screening lengths. When the velocity v → 1 , the Wilson loop becomes light-like and we obtain the form of the jet quenching parameter in those strongly coupled plasma.

title: Higgs boson mass, neutrino masses and mixing and keV dark matter in an U(1)R − lepton number model
abstract: A bstractWe discuss neutrino masses and mixing in the framework of a supersymmetric model with an U(1)R symmetry, consisting of a single right handed neutrino superfield with an appropriate R charge. The lepton number (L) of the standard model fermions are identified with the negative of their R-charges. As a result, a subset of leptonic R-parity violating operators can be present and are consistent with the U(1)R symmetry. This model can produce one light Dirac neutrino mass at the tree level without the need of introducing a very small neutrino Yukawa coupling. We analyze the scalar sector of this model in detail paying special attention to the mass of the lightest Higgs boson. One of the sneutrinos might acquire a substantial vacuum expectation value leading to interesting phenomenological consequences. Different sum rules involving the physical scalar masses are obtained and we show that the lightest Higgs boson mass receives a contribution proportional to the square of the neutrino Yukawa coupling f. This allows for a 125 GeV Higgs boson at the tree level for f ~ $ \mathcal{O}(1) $ and still having a small tree level mass for the active neutrino. In order to fit the experimental results involving neutrino masses and mixing angles we introduce a small breaking of U(1)R symmetry, in the context of anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking. In the presence of this small R-symmetry breaking, light neutrino masses receive contributions at the one-loop level involving the R-parity violating interactions. We also identify the right handed neutrino as a warm dark matter candidate in our model. In the case of R-symmetry breaking, the large f case is characterized by a few hundred MeV lightest neutralino as an unstable lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and we brieflydiscuss the cosmological implications of such a scenario.