Mesons and diquarks in a color superconducting regime

The behavior of the mesons and diquarks is studied at finite temperatures, chemical potentials and densities, notably when the color superconductivity is taken into account. The Nambu and Jona-Lasinio model complemented by a Polyakov loop (PNJL description) has been adapted in order to model them in this regime. This paper focuses on the scalar and pseudoscalar mesons and diquarks, in a three-flavor and three-color description, with the isospin symmetry and at zero strange density. An objective of this work is to underline the modifications carried out by the color superconducting regime on the used equations and on the obtained results. It has been observed that the two-flavor color-superconducting (2SC) phase affects the masses and the coupling constants of the mesons and diquarks in a non-negligible way. This observation is particularly true at high densities and low temperatures for the pions, [Formula: see text] and the diquarks [Formula: see text] whose color is [Formula: see text]. This reveals that the inclusion of the color superconductivity in the modeling is relevant to describe the mesons and diquarks near the first-order chiral phase transition.

Time-reversal asymmetries and angular distributions in Λb → ΛV

We study the spin correlations to probe time-reversal (T) asymmetries in the decays of Λb→ ΛV (V = ϕ, ρ0, ω, K∗0). The eigenstates of the T-odd operators are obtained along with definite angular momenta. We obtain the T-odd spin correlations from the complex phases among the helicity amplitudes. We give the angular distributions of Λb→ Λ(→ pπ−)V (→ PP′) and show the corresponding spin correlations, where P(′) are the pseudoscalar mesons. Due to the helicity conservation of the s quark in Λ, we deduce that the polarization asymmetries of Λ are close to −1. Since the decay of Λb→ Λϕ in the standard model (SM) is dictated by the single weak phase from the product of CKM elements, $$ {V}_{tb}{V}_{ts}^{\ast } $$ V tb V ts ∗ , the true T and CP asymmetries are suppressed, providing a clean background to test the SM and search for new physics. In the factorization approach, as the helicity amplitudes in the SM share the same complex phase, T-violating effects are absent. Nonetheless, the experimental branching ratio of Br(Λb→ Λϕ) = (5.18 ± 1.29) × 10−6 suggests that the nonfactorizable effects or some new physics play an important role. By parametrizing the nonfactorizable contributions with the effective color number, we calculate the branching ratios and direct CP asymmetries. We also explore the possible T-violating effects from new physics.

Portal Effective Theories. A framework for the model independent description of light hidden sector interactions

We present a framework for the construction of portal effective theory (PETs) that couple effective field theories of the Standard Model (SM) to light hidden messenger fields. Using this framework we construct electroweak and strong scale PETs that couple the SM to messengers carrying spin zero, one half, or one. The electroweak scale PETs encompass all portal operators up to dimension five, while the strong scale PETs additionally contain all portal operators of dimension six and seven that contribute at leading order to quark-flavour violating transitions. Using the strong scale PETs, we define a set of portal currents that couple hidden sectors to QCD, and construct portal chiral perturbation theory (χPTs) that relate these currents to the light pseudoscalar mesons. We estimate the coefficients of the portal χPT Lagrangian that are not fixed by SM observations using non-perturbative matching techniques and give a complete list of the resulting one- and two-meson portal interactions. From those, we compute transition amplitudes for three golden channels that are used in hidden sector searches at fixed target experiments: i) charged kaon decay into a charged pion and a spin zero messenger, ii) charged kaon decay into a charged lepton and a spin one half messenger, and iii) neutral pion decay into a photon and a spin one messenger. Finally, we compare these amplitudes to specific expressions for models featuring light scalar particles, axion-like particles, heavy neutral leptons, and dark photons.

Regge theory in a holographic dual of QCD in the Veneziano limit

We initiate the study of Regge theory in a bottom-up holographic model for QCD in the Veneziano limit, where the backreaction of the quarks to the gluon dynamics is included. We determine the parameters of the model by carrying out a precise fit to the meson spectrum in QCD. The spectrum for spin-one and pseudoscalar mesons is well reproduced. We then generalise the model to incluce higher spin fields in the bulk trajectories dual to the Pomeron and meson Regge trajectories at the boundary. With this setting, we fit the masses of the mesons with spins J = 2, 3, and 4, as well as the experimental data of the total cross-sections σ(γγ → X), σ(γp → X) and σ(pp → X). For the cross sections we obtain a $$ {\chi}_{\mathrm{d}.\mathrm{o}.\mathrm{f}}^2 $$ χ d . o . f 2 of 0.74 for a total of 199 experimental points.

Radiative and Meson Decays of Y(4230) in Flavor SU(3)

The charmonium-like exotic states Y(4230) and the less known Y(4320), produced in e+e− collisions, are sources of positive parity exotic hadrons in association with photons or pseudoscalar mesons. We analyze the radiative and pion decay channels in the compact tetraquark scheme, with a method that proves to work equally well in the most studied D∗→γ/π+D decays. The decay of the vector Y into a pion and a Zc state requires a flip of charge conjugation and isospin that is described appropriately in the formalism used. Rates are found to depend on the fifth power of pion momentum, which would make the final states πZc(4020) strongly suppressed with respect to πZc(3900). The agreement with BES III data would be improved considering the πZc(4020) events to be fed by the tail of the Y(4320) resonance under the Y(4230). These results should renovate the interest in further clarifying the emerging experimental picture in this mass region.

The low-energy effective theory of axions and ALPs

Axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) are well-motivated low-energy relics of high-energy extensions of the Standard Model, which interact with the known particles through higher-dimensional operators suppressed by the mass scale Λ of the new-physics sector. Starting from the most general dimension-5 interactions, we discuss in detail the evolution of the ALP couplings from the new-physics scale to energies at and below the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking. We derive the relevant anomalous dimensions at two-loop order in gauge couplings and one-loop order in Yukawa interactions, carefully considering the treatment of a redundant operator involving an ALP coupling to the Higgs current. We account for one-loop (and partially two-loop) matching contributions at the weak scale, including in particular flavor-changing effects. The relations between different equivalent forms of the effective Lagrangian are discussed in detail. We also construct the effective chiral Lagrangian for an ALP interacting with photons and light pseudoscalar mesons, pointing out important differences with the corresponding Lagrangian for the QCD axion.