Editor’s Choice Articles

In the first part of this talk, we review some prerequisites for and essential arguments involved in the construction of the thermal-ground-state estimate underlying the deconfining phase in the thermodynamics of SU(2) Quantum Yang–Mills theory and how this structure supports its distinct excitations. The second part applies deconfining SU(2) Yang–Mills thermodynamics to the Cosmic Microwave Background in view of (i) a modified temperature-redshift relation with an interesting link to correlation-length criticality in the 3D Ising model, (ii) the implied minimal changes in the dark sector of the cosmological model, and (iii) best-fit parameter values of this model when confronted with the spectra of the angular two-point functions temperature-temperature (TT), temperature-E-mode-polarisation (TE), E-mode-polarisation-E-mode-polarisation (EE), excluding the low-l physics. The latter, which so far is treated in an incomplete way due to the omission of radiative effects, is addressed in passing. Full article

Several searches for dark matter have been performed by the CMS and ATLAS collaborations, using proton-proton collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV produced by the Large Hadron Collider. Different signatures may highlight the presence of dark matter: the imbalance in the transverse momentum in an event due to the presence of undetectable dark matter particles, produced together with one Standard Model particle, a bump in the di-jet or di-lepton invariant mass distributions, or an excess of events in the di-jet angular distribution, produced by a dark matter mediator. No significant discrepancies with respect to the Standard Model predictions have been found in data, so that limits on the dark matter couplings to ordinary matter, or limits on the dark matter particles and mediators masses have been set. The results are also re-interpreted as limits on the dark matter interaction cross-section with baryonic matter, so that a comparison with direct detection experiments is allowed. Full article

We show that the expected lifetime of white holes formed as remnants of evaporated black holes is consistent with their production at reheating. We give a simple quantum description of these objects and argue that a quantum superposition of black and white holes with large interiors is stable, because it is protected by the existence of a minimal eigenvalue of the area, predicted by Loop Quantum Gravity. These two results support the hypothesis that a component of dark matter could be formed by small black hole remnants. Full article

The understanding of black holes in loop quantum gravity is becoming increasingly accurate. This review focuses on the possible experimental or observational consequences of the underlying spinfoam structure of space-time. It addresses both the aspects associated with the Hawking evaporation and the ones due to the possible existence of a bounce. Finally, consequences for dark matter and gravitational waves are considered. Full article

In previous works, we have demonstrated that the path integral for real, Lorentzian four-geometries in Einstein gravity yields sensible results in well-understood physical situations, but leads to uncontrolled fluctuations when the “no boundary” condition proposed by Hartle and Hawking is imposed. In order to circumvent our result, new definitions for the gravitational path integral have been sought, involving specific choices for a class of complex four-geometries to be included. In their latest proposal, Diaz Dorronsoro et al. advocate for integrating the lapse over a complex circular contour enclosing the origin. In this note, we show that, like their earlier proposal, this leads to mathematical and physical inconsistencies and thus cannot be regarded as a basis for quantum cosmology. We also comment on Vilenkin and Yamada’s recent modification of the “tunneling" proposal, made in order to avoid the same problems. We show that it leads to the breakdown of perturbation theory in a strong coupling regime. Full article

First-order phase transitions, such as the liquid-gas transition, proceed via formation of structures, such as bubbles and droplets. In strongly interacting compact star matter, at the crust-core transition but also the hadron-quark transition in the core, these structures form different shapes dubbed “pasta phases”. We describe two methods to obtain one-parameter families of hybrid equations of state (EoS) substituting the Maxwell construction that mimic the thermodynamic behaviour of pasta phase in between a low-density hadron and a high-density quark matter phase without explicitly computing geometrical structures. Both methods reproduce the Maxwell construction as a limiting case. The first method replaces the behaviour of pressure against chemical potential in a finite region around the critical pressure of the Maxwell construction by a polynomial interpolation. The second method uses extrapolations of the hadronic and quark matter EoS beyond the Maxwell point to define a mixing of both with weight functions bounded by finite limits around the Maxwell point. We apply both methods to the case of a hybrid EoS with a strong first order transition that entails the formation of a third family of compact stars and the corresponding mass twin phenomenon. For both models, we investigate the robustness of this phenomenon against variation of the single parameter: the pressure increment at the critical chemical potential that quantifies the deviation from the Maxwell construction. We also show sets of results for compact star observables other than mass and radius, namely the moment of inertia and the baryon mass. Full article

Astronomical observations are about to deliver the very first telescopic image of the massive black hole lurking at the Galactic Center. The mass of data collected in one night by the Event Horizon Telescope network, exceeding everything that has ever been done in any scientific field, should provide a recomposed image in 2018. All this, forty years after the first numerical simulations performed by the present author. Full article

A key challenge for many quantum gravity approaches is to construct states that describe smooth geometries on large scales. Here we define a family of $(2+1)$-dimensional quantum gravity states which arise from curvature excitations concentrated at point like defects and describe homogeneously curved geometries on large scales. These states represent therefore vacua for three-dimensional gravity with different values of the cosmological constant. They can be described by an anomaly-free first class constraint algebra quantized on one and the same Hilbert space for different values of the cosmological constant. A similar construction is possible in four dimensions, in this case the curvature is concentrated along string-like defects and the states are vacua of the Crane-Yetter model. We will sketch applications for quantum cosmology and condensed matter. Full article

We present new, exact, finite solutions of relativistic hydrodynamics for longitudinally expanding fireballs for arbitrary constant value of the speed of sound. These new solutions generalize earlier, longitudinally finite, exact solutions, from an unrealistic to a reasonable equation of state, characterized by a temperature independent (average) value of the speed of sound. Observables such as the rapidity density and the pseudorapidity density are evaluated analytically, resulting in simple and easy to fit formulae that can be matched to the high energy proton–proton and heavy ion collision data at RHIC and LHC. In the longitudinally boost-invariant limit, these new solutions approach the Hwa–Bjorken solution and the corresponding rapidity distributions approach a rapidity plateaux. Full article

The Bronnikov model of nonlinear electrodynamics is investigated in general relativity. The magnetic black hole is considered and we obtain a solution giving corrections to the Reissner-Nordström solution. In this model spacetime at $r\to \infty$ becomes Minkowski’s spacetime. We calculate the magnetic mass of the black hole and the metric function. At some parameters of the model there can be one, two or no horizons. The Hawking temperature and the heat capacity of black holes are calculated. We show that a second-order phase transition takes place and black holes are thermodynamically stable at some range of parameters. Full article

Independent tests aiming to constrain the value of the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ are usually difficult because of its extreme smallness $(\Lambda \simeq 1\times {10}^{-52}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2},\mathrm{or}2.89\times {10}^{-122}\mathrm{in}\mathrm{Planck}\mathrm{units})$ . Bounds on it from Solar System orbital motions determined with spacecraft tracking are currently at the $\simeq {10}^{-43}$ – ${10}^{-44}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}$ $(5$ – $1\times {10}^{-113}\mathrm{in}\mathrm{Planck}\mathrm{units})$ level, but they may turn out to be optimistic since $\Lambda$ has not yet been explicitly modeled in the planetary data reductions. Accurate $({\sigma }_{{\tau }_{\mathrm{p}}}\simeq 1$ – $10\mathsf{\mu }\mathrm{s})$ timing of expected pulsars orbiting the Black Hole at the Galactic Center, preferably along highly eccentric and wide orbits, might, at least in principle, improve the planetary constraints by several orders of magnitude. By looking at the average time shift per orbit ${\overline{\Delta \delta \tau }}_{\mathrm{p}}^{\Lambda }$ , an S2-like orbital configuration with $e=0.8839,P_{\mathrm{b}}=16\mathrm{yr}$ would permit a preliminarily upper bound of the order of $\left|\Lambda \right|\lesssim 9\times {10}^{-47}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}\left(\lesssim 2\times {10}^{-116}\mathrm{in}\mathrm{Planck}\mathrm{units}\right)$ if only ${\sigma }_{{\tau }_{\mathrm{p}}}$ were to be considered. Our results can be easily extended to modified models of gravity using $\Lambda$ -type parameters. Full article

The sixfold direct detection of gravitational waves opened the era of gravitational wave astronomy. All of these gravitational waves were emitted by black hole or neutron star binaries. The determination of the parameters characterizing compact binaries requires the accurate knowledge of waveforms. Three different waveforms (Spin Dominated, SpinTaylorT4 and Spinning Effective One Body fitted to Numerical Relativity, SEOBNR) are considered in the spin-aligned and precessing cases, in the parameter ranges where the larger spin dominates over the orbital angular momentum. The degeneracy in the parameter space of each waveform is analyzed, then the matches among the waveforms are investigated. Our results show that in the spin-aligned case only the inspiral Spin-dominated and SpinTaylorT4 waveforms agree well with each other. The highest matches of these with SEOBNR are at different parameters as compared to where SEOBNR shows the best match with itself, reflecting SEOBNR being full inspiral-merger-ringdown waveform, with coefficients fitted to numerical relativity, rather than arising from post-Newtonian (PN) calculations. In the precessing case, the matches between the pairs of all waveforms are significantly lower. We identify possible causes of this in (1) the implementation of the angular dynamics carried out at different levels of accuracy for different waveforms; (2) differences in the inclusiveness of the merger process and in the PN coefficients of the inspiral waveforms (Spin-Dominated, SpinTaylorT4) and the full SEOBNR waveform. Full article

I give a review of predictions of values of spectral parameters for a large number of inflationary models. The present review includes detailed deductions and information about the approximations that have been made, written in a style that is suitable for text book authors. The Planck data have the power of falsifying several models of inflation as shown in the present paper. Furthermore, they fix the beginning of the inflationary era to a time about 10⁻³⁶ s, and the typical energy of a particle at this point of time to 10¹⁶ GeV, only a few orders of magnitude less than the Planck energy, and at least 12 orders of magnitude larger than the most energetic particle produced by CERN’s particle accelerator, LHC. This is a phenomenological review with contents as given in the list below. It includes systematic presentations of the different types of slow roll parameters that have been in use, and also of the N-formalism. Full article

In recent literature, one-loop tests of the higher-spin AdS ${}_{d+1}$ /CFT ${}_d$ correspondences were carried out. Here, we extend these results to a more general set of theories in $d>2$ . First, we consider the Type B higher spin theories, which have been conjectured to be dual to CFTs consisting of the singlet sector of N free fermion fields. In addition to the case of N Dirac fermions, we carefully study the projections to Weyl, Majorana, symplectic and Majorana–Weyl fermions in the dimensions where they exist. Second, we explore theories involving elements of both Type A and Type B theories, which we call Type AB. Their spectrum includes fields of every half-integer spin, and they are expected to be related to the $U\left(N\right)/O\left(N\right)$ singlet sector of the CFT of N free complex/real scalar and fermionic fields. Finally, we explore the Type C theories, which have been conjectured to be dual to the CFTs of p-form gauge fields, where $p=\frac{d}{2}-1$ . In most cases, we find that the free energies at $O\left(N^0\right)$ either vanish or give contributions proportional to the free-energy of a single free field in the conjectured dual CFT. Interpreting these non-vanishing values as shifts of the bulk coupling constant $G_N\sim 1/(N-k)$ , we find the values $k=-1,-1/2,0,1/2,1,2$ . Exceptions to this rule are the Type B and AB theories in odd d; for them, we find a mismatch between the bulk and boundary free energies that has a simple structure, but does not follow from a simple shift of the bulk coupling constant. Full article