Related papers: The fine-tuning problems of particle physics and a…
Astrophysics and cosmology can be used to test the standard model of particle physics under conditions and over distance and time scales not accessible to laboratory experiments. Most of the astrophysical observations are in good agreement…
Anthropic principles were grown from the problem of fine tuning. Although anthropic principles have been discussed in cosmology for years there is no exact definition for fine tuning. Starting from the supposed similarity in the topologies…
The fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life has received a great deal of attention in recent years, both in the philosophical and scientific literature. The claim is that in the space of possible physical laws, parameters and…
Astrophysics is gaining increased attention from the particle and nuclear physics communities, as budget cuts, delays, and cancellations limit opportunities for breakthrough research at accelerator laboratories. Observations of cosmic rays…
Quantum mechanics---the theory describing the fundamental workings of nature---is famously counterintuitive: it predicts that a particle can be in two places at the same time, and that two remote particles can be inextricably and…
Complexity theory as practiced by physicists and computational complexity theory as practiced by computer scientists both characterize how difficult it is to solve complex problems. Here it is shown that the parameters of a specific model…
All attempts to quantize gravity face several difficult problems. Among these problems are: (i) metric positivity (positivity of the spatial distance between distinct points), (ii) the presence of anomalies (partial second-class nature of…
We consider the quantum simulation of relativistic quantum mechanics, as described by the Dirac equation and classical potentials, in trapped-ion systems. We concentrate on three problems of growing complexity. First, we study the…
We note that in general there exist two basic aspects in any branch of physics, including cosmology - one dealing with the attributes of basic constituents and forces of nature, the other dealing with how structures arise from them and how…
In view of experimentally obtainable resolutions, equal to the Compton wavelength of an electron, the conventional interpretation of quantum mechanics no longer seems to provide a sufficiently subtle tool. Based on the intrinsic properties…
We formulate physically-motivated axioms for a physical theory which for systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom uniquely lead to Quantum Mechanics as the only nontrivial consistent theory. Complex numbers and the existence of…
The mathematical representation of the physical objects determines which mathematical branch will be applied during the physical analysis in the systems studied. The difference among non-quantum physics, like classic or relativistic…
Quarks and leptons, the fundamental building blocks of the subatomic world, manifest in three families - replicas with identical quantum numbers that differ only in their masses. After summarizing the present data, an overview is presented…
Cosmology and particle physics are deeply interrelated. Among the common problems are dark energy, dark matter and baryon asymmetry of the Universe. We discuss these problems in general terms, and concentrate on several particular…
The physics underlying quark and lepton masses and mixings (the "flavor problem") is the least well understood aspect of the Standard Model. Some questions of flavor physics, and ways in which the LHC can help shed light on this problem,…
Our conventional understanding of space-time, as well as our notion of geometry, break down once we attempt to describe the very early stages of the evolution of our universe. The extreme physical conditions near the Big Bang necessitate an…
This paper argues that the physics of condensed matter cannot be fully reduced to the supposedly fundamental quantum mechanical theory for all the atoms of which the system consists. In fact, there are many reasons to reject the idea that…
Planck scale physics represents a future challenge, located between particle physics and general relativity. The Planck scale marks a threshold beyond which the old description of spacetime breaks down and conceptually new phenomena must…
In connection with the contribution "Quantum Condensates in Nuclear Matter" some problems are given to become more familiar with the techniques of many-particle physics.
It is argued that the occurrence of disproportionately ("un-natural") large (or small) numbers, as well as deep cancellations, are comparatively natural traits of the way Nature is geared to operate in most complex systems. The idea is…