Particle Physics

This talk presents some recent results in renormalizable noncommutative quantum field theory. After introducing the renormalization group approach in the commutative setting I will procede to its generalization to the simplest noncommutative model, $phi_4^{star 4}$ on the Moyal space. The well known phenomenon of ultraviolet/infrared mixing is cured by adding a harmonic potential term to the free action. Under the new renormalization group, adapted to the noncommutative geometry, this model turns out to be renormalizable to all orders in perturbation theory. Moreover it is {f asymptotically safe} at all orders in perturbation theory. The consequences of this results are discussed.

Explorations of the possibility that the quark masses, and more generally the particle mass spectra, could be dynamically generated in the context of massless QCD will be presented. The basic idea is that the large degeneracy of the free massless QCD could lead to a large quark condensate and its corresponding mass. Under the presence of this very massive quark, the other five ones could acquire smaller masses as argued by Fritzsch in his Democratic Symmetry Breaking scheme. Further, the lepton and neutrinos could get their masses through their interaction with quarks mediated by radiative corrections. In this case the stronger electromagnetic corrections could imply the larger lepton masses with respect to the neutrino ones, since these are only weakly interacting with the quarks.

Graphene, a single atomic layer of graphite, was created only a few years ago. It is a remarkable system, whose law energy effective theory has a lot in common with relativistic 2 + 1 dimensional ones. Graphene allows tabletop experiments for observing nonperturbative relativistic phenomena, most notably spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking both in vacuum and in an external magnetic field. The latter is in turn crucial for the dynamics of Quantum Hall effect in this system. I will review the basic physics and the latest results obtained both in the experimental studies and the theory of graphene.

How sure are you that spacetime is continuous? One of the more radical approaches to quantum gravity, causal set theory, models spacetime as a discrete structure: a causal set. Allowing the possibility that spacetime is discrete then how should we do physics on it? Carrying over the usual continuum descriptions in terms of differential equations seems like a difficult option. This talk begins with a brief introduction to causal sets then describes an approach to modelling the propagation of scalar particles on a causal set. We obtain the continuum causal retarded propagator by summing quantum mechanical amplitudes assigned to paths in the causal set - a kind of \'discrete path integral\' that agrees with the continuum result. The propagator so obtained should serve as a building block towards a model for quantum field theory on a causal set.

The consequences of a modified gravity (MOG) are explored. I demonstrate how the solutions of the field equations obtained from the action principle of the MOG lead to a theory without any free, adjustable parameters or ad-hoc empirical formulae. The theory successfully explains solar system observations, the dispersion velocities of globular clusters, the rotation curves of galaxies, the mass profiles of X-ray clusters, the dispersion velocities of satellite galaxies, the Bullet Cluster and cosmological observations without exotic dark matter. The peculiar features of the recent data obtained for the merging cluster Abell 520 are discussed. MOG predicts agreement with data from the scale of the solar system to cosmological scales without dark matter. With no undetermined free parameters, the theory can be used to make firm predictions that may be verifiable in the foreseeable future.

I shall review the potential relevance of antisymmetric tensor fields in physics, perhaps the most intriguing being a massive antisymmetric tensor as dark matter. Next, based on the most general quadratic action for the antisymmetric tensor field, I shall discuss what are possible extensions of Einstein\\\'s theory which include antisymmetric tensor field and thus torsion in a dynamical fashion.