GRAVITY AND YANG-MILLS THEORY: TWO FACES OF THE SAME THEORY?
We introduce a gauge and diffeomorphism invariant theory on the Yang-Mills phase space. The theory is well defined for an arbitrary gauge group with an invariant bilinear form, it contains only first class constraints, and the spacetime metric has a simple form in terms of the phase space variables. With gauge group SO(3, C), the theory equals the Ashtekar formulation of gravity with a cosmological constant. For Lorentzian signature, the theory is complex, and we have not found any good reality conditions. In the Euclidean signature case, everything is real. In a weak field expansion around de Sitter spacetime, the theory is shown to give the conventional Yang-Mills theory to the lowest order in the fields. We show that the coupling to a Higgs scalar is straightforward, while the naive spinor coupling does not work. We have not found any way of including spinors that gives a closed constraint algebra. For gauge group U(2), we find a static and spherically symmetric solution.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Non-standard interaction in neutrino oscillations and recent Daya Bay, T2K experiments
abstract: We study the possible constraints on non-standard interaction(NSIs) in a model independent way by considering the recent results from T2K and Daya Bay neutrino oscillations experiments. Using perturbation method we present generic formulas (suitable for T2K baseline and for large $\theta_{13}$ as evident from Daya Bay) for the probability of oscillation for $\nu_\mu \rightarrow \nu_e$, taking into account NSIs at source ($\epsilon^s$), detector ($\epsilon^d$) and during propagation ($\epsilon^m$) of neutrinos through matter. Two separate cases of perturbation with small (slightly large) NSI ($\epsilon_{\alpha\beta}^m \sim 0.03(0.18)$) are discussed in detail. Using various possible presently allowed NSI values we reanalyze numerically the $\theta_{13} - \delta$ allowed region given by recent T2K experimental data. We obtain model independent constraints on NSIs in the $\delta-\epsilon_{\alpha\beta}^m$ plane using the $\theta_{13}$ value as measured by Daya Bay, where $\delta$ is the CP violating phase. Depending on $\delta$ values significant constraints on $\epsilon_{e\tau}$ and $\epsilon_{\tau\tau}$, in particular, are possible for both hierarchies of neutrino masses. Corresponding to T2K's 66% confidence level result, the constraints on $\epsilon_{\tau\tau}$ is shown to be independent of any $\delta$ value.

title: Analysis of matter suppression in collective neutrino oscillations during the supernova accretion phase
abstract: The usual description of self-induced neutrino flavor conversions in core collapse supernovae (SNe) is based on the dominance of the neutrino density n_nu over the net electron density n_e. However, this condition is not met during the post-bounce accretion phase, when the dense matter in a SN is piled up above the neutrinosphere. As recently pointed-out, a dominant matter term in the anisotropic SN environment would dephase the flavor evolution for neutrinos traveling on different trajectories, challenging the occurrence of the collective behavior in the dense neutrino gas. Using the results from recent long term simulations of core-collapse SN explosions, based on three flavor Boltzmann neutrino transport in spherical symmetry, we find that both the situations of complete matter suppression (when n_e >> n_nu) and matter-induced decoherence (when n_e \gtrsim n_nu) of flavor conversions are realized during the accretion phase. The matter suppression at high densities prevents any possible impact of the neutrino oscillations on the neutrino heating and hence on the dynamics of the explosion. Furthermore, it changes the interpretation of the Earth matter effect on the SN neutrino signal during the accretion phase, allowing the possibility of the neutrino mass hierarchy discrimination at not too small values of the leptonic mixing angle \theta_{13} (i.e. \sin^2{\theta}_{13} \gtrsim 10^{-3}).

title: Turbulence patterns and neutrino flavor transitions in high-resolution supernova models
abstract: During the shock-wave propagation in a core-collapse supernova (SN), matter turbulence may affect neutrino flavor conversion probabilities. Such effects have been usually studied by adding parametrized small-scale random fluctuations (with arbitrary amplitude) on top of coarse, spherically symmetric matter density profiles. Recently, however, two-dimensional (2D) SN models have reached a space resolution high enough to directly trace anisotropic density profiles, down to scales smaller than the typical neutrino oscillation length. In this context, we analyze the statistical properties of a large set of SN matter density profiles obtained in a high-resolution 2D simulation, focusing on a post-bounce time (2 s) suited to study shock-wave effects on neutrino propagation on scales as small as O(100) km and possibly below. We clearly find the imprint of a broken (Kolmogorov-Kraichnan) power-law structure, as generically expected in 2D turbulence spectra. We then compute the flavor evolution of SN neutrinos along representative realizations of the turbulent matter density profiles, and observe no or modest damping of the neutrino crossing probabilities on their way through the shock wave. In order to check the effect of possibly unresolved fluctuations at scales below O(100) km, we also apply a randomization procedure anchored to the power spectrum calculated frommore » the simulation, and find consistent results within ± 1σ fluctuations. These results show the importance of anchoring turbulence effects on SN neutrinos to realistic, fine-grained SN models.« less

title: No collective neutrino flavor conversions during the supernova accretion phase.
abstract: We perform a dedicated study of the supernova (SN) neutrino flavor evolution during the accretion phase, using results from recent neutrino radiation hydrodynamics simulations. In contrast to what was expected in the presence of only neutrino-neutrino interactions, we find that the multiangle effects associated with the dense ordinary matter suppress collective oscillations. The matter suppression implies that neutrino oscillations will start outside the neutrino decoupling region and therefore will have a negligible impact on the neutrino heating and the explosion dynamics. Furthermore, the possible detection of the next galactic SN neutrino signal from the accretion phase, based on the usual Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect in the SN mantle and Earth matter effects, can reveal the neutrino mass hierarchy in the case that the mixing angle θ(13) is not very small.

title: 7 keV sterile neutrino dark matter in U(1)R-lepton number model
abstract: A bstractWe study the phenomenology of a keV sterile neutrino in a supersymmetric model with U(1)R-lepton number in the light of a very recent observation of an X-ray line signal at around 3.5 keV, detected in the X-ray spectra of Andromeda galaxy and various galaxy clusters including the Perseus galaxy cluster. This model not only provides a small tree level mass to one of the active neutrinos but also renders a suitable warm dark matter candidate in the form of a sterile neutrino with negligible active-sterile mixing. Light neutrino masses and mixing can be explained once one-loop radiative corrections are taken into account. The scalar sector of this model can accommodate a Higgs boson with a mass of ∼125 GeV. In this model gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and we also study the cosmological implications of this light gravitino with mass ∼OGeV$$ \sim \mathcal{O}\left(\mathrm{GeV}\right) $$.