[en] We present a semiclassical study of the suppression of topology changing, baryon number violating transitions induced by particle collisions in the electroweak theory. We find that below the sphaleron energy the suppression exponent is remarkably close to the analytic estimates based on a low energy expansion about the instanton. Above the sphaleron energy, the relevant semiclassical solutions have qualitatively different properties from those below the sphaleron: they correspond to jumps on top of the barrier. Yet these processes remain exponentially suppressed, and, furthermore, the tunneling exponent flattens out in energy. We also derive lower bounds on the tunneling exponent which show that baryon number violation remains exponentially suppressed up to very high energies of at least 30 sphaleron masses (250 TeV)

[en] We review some theoretical and phenomenological aspects of massive gravities in 4 dimensions. We start from the Fierz-Pauli theory with Lorentz-invariant mass terms and then proceed to Lorentz-violating masses. Unlike the former theory, some models with Lorentz violation have no pathologies in the spectrum in flat and nearly flat backgrounds and lead to an interesting phenomenology. (reviews of topical problems)

[en] The recently observed correlation between HiRes stereo cosmic ray events with energies E ∼ 10¹⁹ eV and BL Lacertae objects occurs at an angle that strongly suggests that the primary particles are neutral. We analyze whether this correlation, if not a statistical fluctuation, can be explained within the Standard Model, i.e., assuming only known particles and interactions. We have not found a plausible process that can account for these correlations. The mechanism that comes closest-the conversion of protons into neutrons in the IR background of our Galaxy-still underproduces the required flux of neutral particles by about two orders of magnitude. The situation is different at E ∼ 10²⁰ eV, where the flux of cosmic rays at the Earth may contain up to a few percent of neutrons, indicating their extragalactic sources

[en] The full-sky multipole coefficients of the ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) flux have been measured for the first time by the Pierre Auger and Telescope Array collaborations using a joint data set with E > 10 EeV. We calculate these harmonic coefficients in the model where UHECR are protons and sources trace the local matter distribution, and compare our results with observations. We find that the expected power for low multipoles (dipole and quadrupole, in particular) is sytematically higher than in the data: the observed flux is too isotropic. We then investigate to which degree our predictions are influenced by UHECR deflections in the regular Galactic magnetic field. It turns out that the UHECR power spectrum coefficients C_l are quite insensitive to the effects of the Galactic magnetic field, so it is unlikely that the discordance can be reconciled by tuning the Galactic magnetic field model. On the contrary, a sizeable fraction of uniformly distributed flux (representing for instance an admixture of heavy nuclei with considerably larger deflections) can bring simulations and observations to an accord

[en] Recent advances in measuring and interpreting cosmic rays from the spectral ankle to the highest energies are briefly reviewed. The prime question at the highest energies is about the origin of the flux suppression observed at E ≅ 4*10¹⁹ eV. Is this the long awaited GZK-effect or the exhaustion of sources? The key to answering this question will be provided by the largely unknown mass composition at the highest energies. The high level of isotropy observed even at the highest energies challenges models of a proton dominated composition if extragalactic magnetic fields are on the order of a few nG or less. We shall discuss the experimental and theoretical progress in the field and the prospects for the next decade. (authors)

[en] This spontaneous workshop (SW) brings together specialists on recent insights in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. The aim is to stimulate debates on common topics in views of providing the scientific community with innovating ideas. The main topics are gravity, dark matter and cosmological models. This document is made of the slides of the presentations.

[en] We made use of the two latest sets of rotation measures (RMs) of extragalactic radio sources, namely the NRAO VLA Sky Survey rotation measures catalog and a compilation by Kronberg and Newton-McGee, to infer the global structure of the Galactic magnetic field (GMF). We have checked that these two data sets are mutually consistent. Given the existence of clear patterns in the all-sky RM distributions we considered GMF models consisting of two components: disk (spiral or ring) and halo. The parameters of these components were determined by fitting different model field geometries to the observed RMs. We found that the model consisting of a symmetric (with respect to the Galactic plane) spiral disk and antisymmetric halo fits the data best and reproduces the observed distribution of RMs over the sky very well. We confirm that ring disk models are disfavored. Our results favor small pitch angles around ∼ - 5⁰ and an increased vertical scale of electron distribution, in agreement with some recent studies. Based on our fits, we select two benchmark models suitable for studies of cosmic ray propagation, including cosmic rays at ultrahigh energies.

[en] We present a toy model of a generic five-dimensional warped geometry in which the 4D graviton is not fully localized on the brane. Studying the tensor sector of metric perturbation around this background, we find that its contribution to the effective gravitational potential is of 4D type (1/r) at the intermediate scales and that at the large scales it becomes 1/r^1+α, 0<α≤1 being a function of the parameters of the model (α=1 corresponds to the asymptotically flat geometry). Large-distance behavior of the potential is therefore not necessarily five-dimensional. Our analysis applies also to the case of quasilocalized massless particles other than graviton

[en] Winding number transitions in the two-dimensional softly broken O(3) nonlinear σ model are studied at finite energy and temperature. New periodic instanton solutions which dominate the semiclassical transition amplitudes are found analytically at low energies, and numerically for all energies up to the sphaleron scale. The Euclidean period β of these finite energy instantons increases with energy, contrary to the behavior found in the Abelian Higgs model or simple one-dimensional systems. This results in a sharp crossover from instanton-dominated tunneling to sphaleron-dominated thermal activation at a certain critical temperature. Since this behavior is traceable to the soft breaking of conformal invariance by the mass term in the σ model, semiclassical winding number transition amplitudes in the electroweak theory in 3+1 dimensions should exhibit a similar sharp crossover. We argue that this is indeed the case in the standard model for M_H<4M_W. copyright 1996 The American Physical Society

[en] The propagator in the instanton background in the (-λφ⁴) scalar model in four dimensions is studied. Leading and subleading terms of its asymptotics for large momenta and its on-shell double residue are calculated analytically. These results are applied to the analysis of the initial-state and initial-final-state corrections and the calculation of the next-to-leading (propagator) correction to the exponent of the cross section of instanton induced multiparticle scattering processes