Search Talks

Most current dark matter detection strategies, including both direct and indirect efforts, are based on the assumption that the galactic dark matter number density is quite high, allowing for the detection of rare scattering events. Such a paradigm arises naturally if the dark matter self-interactions are weak. However, strong interactions within the dark sector can give rise to large composite objects, whose detection requires a different experimental paradigm. We call these object Dark Blobs. In such theories, the energy transfer due to a single collision with a Standard Model particle tends to be small, below the energy threshold of many nuclear recoil experiments. Fortunately, due to their exponentially large composite nature, the interactions between these objects and a terrestrial detector can be coherently enhanced. Therefore, while the effect on a single probe is small, the large collective effect can be quite dramatic and, importantly, above experimental thresholds. In this talk, I will briefly motivate the early Universe formation of certain types of Dark Blobs and then focus on multiple detection avenues for these objects.

In this talk I will review the results of recent work in collaboration with  Cecilia De Fazio, Benjamin Doyon and István M. Szécsényi. We studied the entanglement of excited states consisting of a finite number of particle excitations. More precisely, we studied the difference between the entanglement entropy of such states and that of the ground state in a simple bi-partition of a quantum system, where both the size of the system and of the bi-partition are infinite, but their ratio is finite. We originally studied this problem in massive 1+1 dimensional QFTs where analytic computations were possible. We have found the results to apply more widely, including to higher dimensional free theories. In all cases we find that the increment of entanglement is a simple function of the ratio between region's and system's size only. Such function, turns out to be exactly the entanglement of a qubit state where the coefficients of the state are simply associated with the probabilities of particles being localised in one or the other part of the bi-partition. In this talk I will describe the results in some detail and discuss their domain of applicability. I will also highlight the main QFT techniques that we have used in order to obtain them analytically and  present some numerical data. 

In the context of the AdS(4)/BCFT(3) correspondence, we study the holographic entanglement entropy for spatial regions having arbitrary shape. An analytic expression for the subleading term with respect to the area law is discussed. When the bulk spacetime is a part of AdS(4),
this formula becomes the Willmore functional with a proper boundary term evaluated on the minimal surface viewed as a submanifold of the three dimensional flat Euclidean space with a boundary. 
Numerical checks of this formula are performed through a code which allows to construct minimal area surfaces anchored to generic curves. For some simple regions like infinite strips and disks, analytic results are obtained and they confirm the general expression for the subleading term. In particular, when the spatial region contains corners adjacent to the boundary, a logarithmic divergence occurs whose coefficient is determined by a so-called corner function which depends on the boundary conditions. An analytic expression for the holographic corner function and its checks are also discussed.

We present a new solution to the Hierarchy Problem utilizing non-linearly realized discrete symmetries. The cancelations occur due to a discrete symmetry that is realized as a shift symmetry on the scalar and as an exchange symmetry on the particles with which the scalar interacts. We show how this mechanism can be used to solve the Little Hierarchy Problem as well as give rise to light axions.

I will argue that in the context of string theory, the Big Bang singularity of standard and inflationary cosmology is automatically resolved. To see this at the level of an effective field theory, ideas from "Double Field Theory" are useful.

The power spectrum for fluctuations in the number density of galaxies can be very different in shape from the power spectrum for fluctuations in the mass density at very small wave vectors (i.e., large length scales) if the primordial density fluctuations are non-Gaussian. I review this phenomena. (It  is fairly well known in the more astrophysical part of the cosmology community but less so in the particle physics part of the field.) Then I show that primordial non-Gaussianities that arise from quantum loop diagrams in de-Sitter space can give rise to this phenomena. I also discuss if it is observable given constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity that arise from the Cosmic Microwave Background