Motion of test particles around global monopoles in Brans-Dicke theory
A detailed analysis of the motion of test particles around global monopole in Brans-Dicke theory of gravity has been prescribed using the Hamilton-Jacobi (H-J) formalism. The trajectory of the test particles are trapped by the monopole with some restriction on the coupling parameter ω.

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: 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: 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: Wilson loops in noncommutative Yang–Mills theory using gauge/gravity duality
abstract: By using the gauge/gravity duality and the Maldacena prescription we compute the expectation values of the Wilson loops in hot, noncommutative Yang–Mills (NCYM) theory in ( 3 + 1 ) dimensions. We consider both the time-like and the light-like Wilson loops. The gravity dual background is given by a particular decoupling limit of non-extremal (D1, D3) bound state of type IIB string theory. We obtain the velocity dependent quark–antiquark potential and numerically study how the dipole length and the potential change with velocity (for 0 v 1 , i.e., the Wilson loop is time-like) of the dipole as well as noncommutativity. We discuss and compare the results with the known commutative results. We also obtain an analytic expression for the screening length when the rapidity is large and the noncommutativity parameter is small with the product remaining small. When v → 1 , the time-like Wilson loop becomes light-like and in that case we obtain the form of the jet quenching parameter for the strongly coupled noncommutative Yang–Mills plasma which matches with our earlier results obtained using different approach.

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: Collective flavor oscillations of supernova neutrinos and r-process nucleosynthesis
abstract: Neutrino-neutrino interactions inside core-collapse supernovae may give rise to collective flavor oscillations resulting in swap between flavors. These oscillations depend on the initial energy spectra, and relative fluxes or relative luminosities of the neutrinos. It has been observed that departure from energy equipartition among different flavors can give rise to one or more sharp spectral swap over energy, termed as splits. We study the occurrence of splits in the neutrino and antineutrino spectra, varying the initial relative fluxes for different models of initial energy spectrum, in both normal and inverted hierarchy. These initial relative flux variations give rise to several possible split patterns whereas variation over different models of energy spectra give similar results. We explore the effect of these spectral splits on the electron fraction, Ye, that governs r-process nucleosynthesis inside supernovae. Since spectral splits modify the electron neutrino and antineutrino spectra in the region where r-process is postulated to happen, and since the pattern of spectral splits depends on the initial conditions of the spectra and the neutrino mass hierarchy, we show that the condition Ye < 0.5 required for successful r-process nucleosynthesis will lead to constraints on the initial spectral conditions, for a given neutrino mass hierarchy.

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: Probing the neutrino mass hierarchy with the rise time of a supernova burst
abstract: The rise time of a Galactic supernova (SN) bar-nue lightcurve, observable at a high-statistics experiment such as the IceCube Cherenkov detector, can provide a diagnostic tool for the neutrino mass hierarchy at "large" 1-3 leptonic mixing angle theta_13. Thanks to the combination of matter suppression of collective effects at early postbounce times on one hand and the presence of the ordinary Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect in the outer layers of the SN on the other hand, a sufficiently fast rise time on O(100) ms scale is indicative of an inverted mass hierarchy. We investigate results from an extensive set of stellar core-collapse simulations, providing a first exploration of the astrophysical robustness of these features. We find that for all the models analyzed (sharing the same weak interaction microphysics) the rise times for the same hierarchy are similar not only qualitatively, but also quantitatively, with the signals for the two classes of hierarchies significantly separated. We show via Monte Carlo simulations that the two cases should be distinguishable at IceCube for SNe at a typical Galactic distance 99% of the times. Finally, a preliminary survey seems to show that the faster rise time for inverted hierarchy as compared to normal hierarchy is a qualitatively robust feature predicted by several simulation groups. Since the viability of this signature ultimately depends on the quantitative assessment of theoretical/numerical uncertainties, our results motivate an extensive campaign of comparison of different code predictions at early accretion times with implementation of microphysics of comparable sophistication, including effects such like nucleon recoils in weak interactions.