Particle Physics

With a cosmic flight simulator, we'll take a scenic journey through space and time. After exploring our local Galactic neighborhood, we'll travel back 13.7 billion years to explore the Big Bang itself and how state-of-the-art measurements are transforming our understanding of our cosmic origin and ultimate fate. We then turn to the question of whether this can all be described purely mathematically, and discuss implications ranging from standard physics topics like symmetries, irreducible representations, units, free parameters and initial conditions to broader issues like parallel universes, simulations and and Goedel incompleteness.

We consider N=2 supersymmetric quantum electrodynamics (SQED) with 2 flavors, the Fayet--Iliopoulos parameter, and a mass term $beta$ which breaks the extended supersymmetry down to N=1. The bulk theory has two vacua; at $beta=0$ the BPS-saturated domain wall interpolating between them has a moduli space parameterized by a U(1) phase $sigma$ which can be promoted to a scalar field in the effective low-energy theory on the wall world-volume. At small nonvanishing $beta$ this field gets a sine-Gordon potential. As a result, only two discrete degenerate BPS domain walls survive. We find an explicit solitonic solution for domain lines -- string-like objects living on the surface of the domain wall which separate wall I from wall II. The domain line is seen as a BPS kink in the world-volume effective theory. The domain line carries the magnetic flux which is exactly 1/2 of the flux carried by the flux tube living in the bulk on each side of the wall. Thus, the domain lines on the wall confine charges living on the wall, resembling Polyakov's three-dimensional confinement.

I begin with a brief description of the black strings in backgrounds with compact circle, the Gregory-Laflamme instability and the resulting phase transition, and the critical dimensions.Then I describe a Landau-Ginzburg thermodynamic perspective on the instability and on the order of the phase transition. Next, the approach is generalized from a circle compactification to an arbitrary torus compactification. It is shown that the transition order depends only on the number of extended dimensions. I end up with outlining several open questions and puzzles related to the outcome of the Gregory-Laflamme instability.

We discuss the properties of matter in the low temperature regime at density that may exist in the core of compact stars. Assuming that in these conditions quarks are deconfined the attractive color interaction determines the formation of Cooper pairs of quarks and the resulting quark matter has properties analogous to standard superconductors. We show that under reasonable conditions a state were Cooper pairs have non-zero total momentum is energetically favored and the resulting non-homogeneous condensate is characterized by a crystal symmetry. Studying the elastic properties of such a state we find that it behaves like a solid crystal with a very large shear modulus. Our results raise the possibility that (some) pulsar glitches may originate within the Crystalline Color Superconductor core of Neutron stars.

We discuss motivations, observational constraints and consequences of modifying the fundamental laws of gravity at large distances. Such modifications of gravity can be the reason for the observed late-time acceleration of the Universe, and can be differentiated from conventional dark energy via precision cosmology. The inevitable additional polarizations of graviton lead to observably large perihelion precession of the Lunar and Martian orbits. These theories also have potentially observable consequences at LHC .

Conventional wisdom holds that the majority of high energy atomic nuclei ("cosmic rays") that continually rain upon the Earth originate in galactic supernova shock waves, although some different (likely extragalactic) origin must be invoked to explain the highest energy particles. Despite many decades of intensive research on the subject, only indirect clues to these ideas exist at present. Direct measurements of the spectrum and mass composition of high energy cosmic rays are needed to validate these notions, but are hampered by rapidly dwindling fluxes with energy. Indeed, there is an expectation that the cosmic nuclei should have progressively more charge (and therefore mass), on average, with increasing energy, up to the astrophysical "knee" (spectral break) in the spectrum at around 3x10^15 eV. At energies beyond the knee, only indirect measurements are possible. The CREAM (Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass) experiment is a complex particle detector flown by high altitude balloon to directly measure the charge and energy of the cosmic rays at energies near the spectral knee. It flew successfully in Antarctica in Dec 04 / Jan 05 for a record-breaking 42 days, and again in Dec 05 / Jan 06. We will review the science and performance of the instrument in flight, and present preliminary results and discuss prospects for additional CREAM missions. The Auger experiment is the largest cosmic ray detector ever built, currently nearing completion in Argentina, covering an area of 3000 km^2. Its aim is to resolve a number of mysteries surrounding the highest energy cosmic rays, beyond 10^18 eV, whose very existence and ability to reach the Earth are difficult to understand. The rarity of the highest energy particles has precluded definitive answers to the question of their nature and origin, and indeed some controversy surrounds the existing experimental evidence. The Auger experiment will afford an order of magnitude improvement in statistics over previous efforts, as well as much improved control of systematics. We will briefly review the science of the highest energy cosmic rays and present first results obtained with the growing Auger array, and discuss plans for the future of these efforts.

I argue that all necessary ingredients for successful inflation are present in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). The potential for the supersymmetric flat directions (which can be viewed as moduli near points of enhanced symmetry) generically has metastable minima at large field values. An adjustment of soft supersymemtry breaking parameters results in a point where the first two derivatives of the potential vanish. One can then have more than 10^3 e-foldings of slow roll inflation with a Hubble rate ~ O(1-10) GeV in the vicinity of this point. The model has a robust prediction for the scalar spectral index: n_s \leq 0.93, which agrees with the current WMAP and LSS data within 2\sigma. It can be implemented purely within MSSM, or MSSM plus Dirac neutrinos. It has the unique feature of having a concrete and real connection to physics that can be observed in earthbound laboratories.

At low energy and small curvature, general relativity has the form of an effective field theory. I will describe the structure of the effective field theory, and show how it can be used to calculate low energy quantum effects.