[en] We compare the BCS and Overhauser effect as competing mechanisms for the destabilization of the quark Fermi surface at an asymptotically large chemical potential, for the special case of 2 space and 1 time dimensions. We use the framework of perturbative one-gluon exchange, which dominates the pairing at μ/g² much >1. With screening in matter, we show that in the weak coupling limit the Overhauser effect can compete with the BCS effect only for a sufficiently large number of colors. Both the BCS and the Overhauser gaps are of order g⁴/μ in the Landau gauge

[en] We study thermalization of the early Universe when the inflaton can decay into the Standard Model (SM) quarks and gluons, using QCD arguments. We describe the possible formation of the thermal plasma of soft gluons and quarks well before the completion of reheating. Relevant interaction rates of leading order processes and the corresponding thermalization time scale is presented. We discuss hadronization while thermalizing the decay products of the inflaton, when the reheat temperature of the Universe is below the QCD phase transition but above the temperature of the Big Bang nucleosynthesis

[en] We revisit the emissivity from neutrino pair bremsstrahlung in neutron-neutron scattering, nn→nnνν-bar, which was calculated from the one-pion exchange potential including correlation effects by Friman and Maxwell. Starting from the free-space low-momentum nucleon-nucleon interaction V_lowk, we include tensor, spin-orbit and second-order medium-induced non-central contributions to the scattering amplitude in neutron matter. We find that the screening of the nucleon-nucleon interaction reduces the emissivity from neutrino bremsstrahlung for densities below nuclear matter density. We discuss the implications of medium modifications for the cooling of neutron stars via neutrino emission, taking into account recent results for the polarization effects on neutron superfluidity

[en] We investigate moduli field dynamics in supergravity/M-theory like set ups where we turn on fluxes along some or all of the extra dimensions. As has been argued in the context of string theory, we observe that the fluxes tend to stabilize the squashing (or shape) modes. Generically we find that at late times the shape is frozen while the radion evolves as a quintessence field. At earlier times we have a phase of radiation domination where both the volume and the shape moduli are slowly evolving. However, depending on the initial conditions and the parameters of the theory, like the value of the fluxes, curvature of the internal manifold and so on, the dynamics of the internal manifold can be richer with interesting cosmological consequences, including inflation. (author)

[en] We propose that the origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff and the origin of small cosmological constant can both be explained by vacuum tunneling effects in a theory with degenerate vacua and fermionic doublets. By considering the possibility of tunneling from a particular winding number state, accompanied by violation of some global quantum number of fermions, the small value of the vacuum dark energy and the production of high energy cosmic rays are shown to be related. We predict that the energy of such cosmic rays should be at least 5x10¹⁴ GeV

[en] We show that even in the simple framework of pure Kaluza-Klein gravity the shape moduli can generate potentials supporting inflation and/or quintessence. Using the shape moduli as the inflaton or quintessence field has the additional benefit of being able to explain symmetry breaking in a natural geometric way. A numerical analysis suggests that in these models it may be possible to obtain sufficient e-foldings during inflation as well as a small cosmological constant at the current epoch (without fine-tuning), while preserving the constraint coming from the fine structure constant

[en] Neutrino emission drives neutron star cooling for the first several hundreds of years after its birth. Given the low-energy (∼keV) nature of this process, one expects very few nonstandard particle-physics contributions which could affect this rate. Requiring that any new physics contributions involve light degrees of freedom, one of the likely candidates which can affect the cooling process would be a nonzero magnetic moment for the neutrino. To illustrate, we compute the emission rate for neutrino pair bremsstrahlung in neutron-neutron scattering through photon-neutrino magnetic moment coupling. We also present analogous differential rates for neutrino scattering off nucleons and electrons that determine neutrino opacities in supernovae. Employing current upper bounds from collider experiments on the τ magnetic moment, we find that the neutrino emission rate can exceed the rate through neutral current electroweak interaction by a factor 2, signaling the importance of new particle physics input to a standard calculation of relevance to neutron star cooling. However, astrophysical bounds on the neutrino magnetic moment imply smaller effects

[en] We compute the rates of real and virtual photon (dilepton) emission from dense QCD matter in the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase, focusing on results at moderate densities (three to five times the nuclear saturation density) and temperatures T≅80 MeV. We pursue two approaches to evaluate the electromagnetic response of the CFL ground state: (i) a direct evaluation of the photon self-energy using quark particle/hole degrees of freedom and (ii) a hidden local symmetry framework based on generalized mesonic excitations, where the ρ meson is introduced as a gauge boson of a local SU(3) color-flavor group. The ρ coupling to generalized two-pion states induces a finite width and allows us to address the issue of vector meson dominance in the CFL phase. We compare the calculated emissivities (dilepton rates) to those arising from standard hadronic approaches including in-medium effects. For rather large superconducting gaps (several tens of MeV at moderate densities), as suggested by both perturbative and nonperturbative estimates, the dilepton rates from CFL quark matter turn out to be very similar to those obtained in hadronic many-body calculations, especially for invariant masses above M≅0.3 GeV. A similar observation holds for (real) photon production

[en] We compute the principal non-radial oscillation mode frequencies of Neutron Stars described with a Skyrme-like Equation of State (EoS), taking into account the possibility of neutron and proton superfluidity. Using the CompOSE database and interpolation routines to obtain the needed thermodynamic quantities, we solve the fluid oscillation equations numerically in the background of a fully relativistic star, and identify imprints of the superfluid state. Though these modes cannot be observed with current technology, increased sensitivity of future Gravitational-Wave Observatories could allow us to observe these oscillations and potentially constrain or refine models of dense matter relevant to the interior of neutron stars.

[en] We study the non-radial oscillation modes of strange quark stars with a homogeneous core and a crust made of strangelets. Using a 2-component equation-of-state model (core+crust) for strange quark stars that can produce stars as heavy as 2 solar masses, we identify the high-frequency l=2 spheroidal ( f, p ) in Newtonian gravity, using the Cowling approximation. The results are compared to the case of homogeneous compact stars such as polytropic neutron stars, as well as bare strange stars. We find that the strangelet crust only increases very slightly the frequency of the spheroidal modes, and that Newtonian gravity overestimates the mode frequencies of the strange star, as is the case for neutron stars. (paper)