Dark Matter and Mirror World.

Overwhelming astronomical evidence for dark matter and absence of any laboratory evidence for it despite many dedicated searches have fueled speculation that dark matter may reside in a parallel universe interacting with the familiar universe only via gravitational interactions as well as possibly via some ultra-weak forces. In this scenario, we postulate that the visible universe co-exists with a mirror world consisting of an identical duplicate of forces and matter of our world, obeying a mirror symmetry. This picture, motivated by particle physics considerations, not only provides a natural candidate for dark matter but also has the potential to explain the matter dark matter coincidence problem, i.

Neutron-Mirror-Neutron Oscillation and Neutron Star Cooling.

It was pointed out in a recent paper that the observed cooling rate of old, cold neutron stars (NS) can provide an upper limit on the transition rate of neutron to mirror neutron (n-n^{'}). This limit is so stringent that it would preclude any discovery of n→n^{'} oscillation in the current round of terrestrial searches for the process. Motivated by this crucially important conclusion, we critically analyze this suggestion and note an interesting new effect present in nearly exact mirror models for n→n^{'} oscillation, which significantly affects this bound.

Long-lived particles at the energy frontier: the MATHUSLA physics case.

We examine the theoretical motivations for long-lived particle (LLP) signals at the LHC in a comprehensive survey of standard model (SM) extensions. LLPs are a common prediction of a wide range of theories that address unsolved fundamental mysteries such as naturalness, dark matter, baryogenesis and neutrino masses, and represent a natural and generic possibility for physics beyond the SM (BSM). In most cases the LLP lifetime can be treated as a free parameter from the [Formula: see text]m scale up to the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis limit of [Formula: see text] m.

Lepton Flavor Violation Induced by a Neutral Scalar at Future Lepton Colliders.

Many new physics scenarios beyond standard model often necessitate the existence of a (light) neutral scalar H, which might couple to the charged leptons in a flavor violating way, while evading all existing constraints. We show that such scalars could be effectively produced at future lepton colliders, either on shell or off shell depending on their mass, and induce lepton flavor violating (LFV) signals, i.e.

A facility to search for hidden particles at the CERN SPS: the SHiP physics case.

This paper describes the physics case for a new fixed target facility at CERN SPS. The SHiP (search for hidden particles) experiment is intended to hunt for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments, and to study tau neutrino physics. The same proton beam setup can be used later to look for decays of tau-leptons with lepton flavour number non-conservation, [Formula: see text] and to search for weakly-interacting sub-GeV dark matter candidates.

Unified Explanation of the eejj, Diboson, and Dijet Resonances at the LHC.

We show that the excess events observed in a number of recent LHC resonance searches can be simultaneously explained within a nonsupersymmetric left-right inverse seesaw model for neutrino masses with W_{R} mass around 1.9 TeV. The minimal particle content that leads to gauge coupling unification in this model predicts g_{R}≃0.

Supersymmetric model for dark matter and baryogenesis motivated by the recent CDMS result.

We discuss a supersymmetric model for cogenesis of dark and baryonic matter where the dark matter (DM) has mass in the 8-10 GeV range as indicated by several direct detection searches, including most recently the CDMS experiment with the desired cross section. The DM candidate is a real scalar field. Two key distinguishing features of the model are the following: (i) in contrast with the conventional weakly interacting massive particle dark matter scenarios where thermal freeze-out is responsible for the observed relic density, our model uses nonthermal production of dark matter after reheating of the Universe caused by moduli decay at temperatures below the QCD phase transition, a feature which alleviates the relic overabundance problem caused by small annihilation cross section of light DM particles and (ii) baryogenesis occurs also at similar low temperatures from the decay of TeV scale mediator particles arising from moduli decay.

B-L violating proton decay modes and new baryogenesis scenario in SO(10).

We show that grand unified theories based on SO(10) generate quite naturally baryon number violating dimension seven operators that violate B-L, and lead to novel nucleon decay modes such as n→e(-)K(+), e(-)π(+) and p→νπ(+). We find that in two-step breaking schemes of nonsupersymmetric SO(10), the partial lifetimes for these modes can be within reach of experiments. The interactions responsible for these decay modes also provide a new way to understand the origin of matter in the Universe via the decays of grand unified theory (GUT) scale scalar bosons of SO(10).

Sneutrino dark matter in gauged inverse seesaw models for neutrinos.

Extending the minimal supersymmetric standard model to explain small neutrino masses via the inverse seesaw mechanism can lead to a new light supersymmetric scalar partner which can play the role of inelastic dark matter (IDM). It is a linear combination of the superpartners of the neutral fermions in the theory (the light left-handed neutrino and two heavy standard model singlet neutrinos) which can be very light with mass in ~5-20 GeV range, as suggested by some current direct detection experiments. The IDM in this class of models has keV-scale mass splitting, which is intimately connected to the small Majorana masses of neutrinos.

Urine leakage in persons with spinal cord injury and using long-term Foley catheters: a simple solution.

Study Design: To visualize residual urine in a bladder using a regular Foley catheter and then using a modified Foley catheter.

Objectives: To determine whether a modified Foley catheter eliminates or reduces a catheter-associated deposition of residual urine around the balloon and whether this reduction eliminates catheter leakage.

Settings: A patient with chronic spinal cord injury using a Foley catheter and experiencing significant refractory urine leakage around the catheter.

Proton decay and flavor violating thresholds in SO(10) models.

Discovery of neutrino mass has put the spotlight on the supersymmetric (SUSY) SO(10) model as a natural candidate for grand unification of forces and matter. However, the suppression of proton decay is a major problem in such SUSY grand unified models. In this Letter we show how to alleviate this problem by simple threshold effects which raise the colored Higgsino masses and the grand unification scale to greater than or similar to 10(17) GeV.

Isolated and silent spinal neurocysticercosis associated with pseudotumor cerebri.

Incidence of spinal neurocysticercosis (NCC) is rare. Isolated spinal NCC is still rarer. We present here a case report where a young lady presented with all the clinical features of pseudotumor cerebri (PTC), where medical treatment for PTC failed and the presence of cysticercous in spinal canal was detected only on the operation table, while doing a lumbo-peritoneal shunt (LP shunt) to save her vision.

Unified TeV scale picture of baryogenesis and dark matter.

We present a simple extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model which provides a unified picture of cosmological baryon asymmetry and dark matter. Our model introduces a gauge singlet field N and a color triplet field X which couple to the right-handed quark fields. The out-of-equilibrium decay of the Majorana fermion N mediated by the exchange of the scalar field X generates adequate baryon asymmetry for MN approximately 100 GeV and MX approximately TeV.

Reconciling the CAST and PVLAS results.

The PVLAS experiment has recently claimed evidence for an axionlike particle in the milli-electron-volt mass range with a coupling to two photons that appears to be in contradiction with the negative results of the CAST experiment searching for solar axions. The simple axion interpretation of these two experimental results is therefore untenable and it has posed a challenge for theory. We propose a possible way to reconcile these two results by postulating the existence of an ultralight pseudoscalar particle interacting with two photons and a scalar boson and the existence of a low scale phase transition in the theory.

Postsphaleron baryogenesis.

We present a new mechanism for generating the baryon asymmetry of the Universe directly in the decay of a singlet scalar field S(r) with a weak scale mass and a high dimensional baryon number-violating coupling. Unlike most currently popular models, this mechanism, which becomes effective after the electroweak phase transition, does not rely on the sphalerons for inducing a nonzero baryon number. CP asymmetry in S(r) decay arises through loop diagrams involving the exchange of W+/- gauge bosons and is suppressed by light quark masses, leading naturally to a value of eta(B) approximately 10(-10).

Observable N-N oscillation in high scale seesaw models.

We discuss a realistic high scale (nu(B-L) approximately 10(12) GeV) supersymmetric seesaw model based on the gauge group SU(2)L x SU(2)R x SU(4)c where neutron-antineutron oscillation can be in the observable range. This is contrary to the naive dimensional arguments which say that tau(N-N) is proportional to nu(B-L)5 and should therefore be unobservable for seesaw scale nu(B-L) > or = 10(5) GeV. Two reasons for this enhancement are (i) accidental symmetries which keep some of the diquark Higgs masses at the weak scale and (ii) a new supersymmetric contribution from a lower dimensional operator.

Suppressing proton decay in the minimal SO(10) model.

We show that in a class of minimal supersymmetric SO(10) models which have been found to be quite successful in predicting neutrino mixings, all proton decay modes can be suppressed by a particular choice of Yukawa textures. The required texture not only fits all lepton and quark masses as well as Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa parameters, but it also predicts neutrino mixing parameter U(e3) and Dirac CP phase sin(/delta(MNS)/ to be 0.07-0.

Geometric CP violation with extra dimensions.

We discuss how CP symmetry can be broken geometrically through orbifold projections in hidden extra dimensions in the context of brane-bulk models for particle unifications. The CP violation arises from a crash between the geometry of the compactification and the original higher dimensional CP definition. We present toy models to illustrate the idea and suggest ways to incorporate it into more realistic models.

Large extra dimensions, sterile neutrinos and solar neutrino data.

Solar, atmospheric, and LSND neutrino oscillation results require a light sterile neutrino, nu(B), which can exist in the bulk of extra dimensions. Solar nu(e), confined to the brane, can oscillate in the vacuum to the zero mode of nu(B) and via successive Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein transitions to Kaluza-Klein states of nu(B). This new way to fit solar data is provided by both low and intermediate string scale models.

Enhanced electric dipole moment of the muon in the presence of large neutrino mixing.

The electric dipole moment (edm) of the muon ( d(e)(&mgr;)) is evaluated in supersymmetric models with nonzero neutrino masses and large neutrino mixing arising from the seesaw mechanism. It is found that if the seesaw mechanism is embedded in the framework of a left-right symmetric gauge structure, the interactions responsible for the right-handed neutrino Majorana masses lead to an enhancement in d(e)(&mgr;) to values as large as 5x10(-23)e cm, with a correlated value of (g-2)(&mgr;) approximately 13x10(-10). This should provide a strong motivation for improving the edm of the muon to the level of 10(-24)e cm as has recently been proposed.

Generation of large flavor mixing from radiative corrections.

We provide a model independent criterion which would guarantee a large flavor mixing of two quasidegenerate Majorana neutrinos at the low scale, irrespective of the mixing at the high scale. We also show that such a situation is realizable for a phenomenologically interesting range of parameters of the weak scale theory. We further claim that for a similar condition to be implementable for the three generation case, the CP parity of one of the neutrinos needs to be opposite to that of the others.