High Energy Physics

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