Related papers: A light scalar from walking solutions in gauge-str…
The fundamental nature of mass is one of the greatest mysteries in physics. The Higgs mechanism is a theoretically appealing way to account for the different masses of elementary particles and implies the existence of a new, yet unseen…
A genuine dilaton $\sigma$ allows scales to exist even in the limit of exact conformal invariance. In gauge theories, these may occur at an infrared fixed point (IRFP) $\alpha_{\text{IR}}$ through dimensional transmutation. These large…
There are indications that some theories with spontaneous symmetry breaking also feature a light scalar in their spectrum, with a mass comparable to the one of the Goldstone modes. In this paper, we perform the one-loop renormalization of a…
The enhancement of the scalar-isoscalar spectral function near the two-pion threshold is studied in the framework of an effective linear $\sigma$ model, using a large N approximation in the number of the Goldstone bosons. The effect is…
We explore a simple model containing two singlet scalars as dark matter supplemented with a vector-like lepton. Evading collider and dark matter constraints, the model is able to accommodate the correct dark matter relic abundance and the…
In this paper we study qualitative features of glueballs in N=1 SYM for models of wrapped branes in IIA and IIB backgrounds. The scalar mode, 0++ is found to be a mixture of the dilaton and the internal part of the metric. We carry out the…
Nonlinear supersymmetry is used to compute the general form of the effective D-brane action in type I string theory compactified to four dimensions in the presence of internal magnetic fields. In particular, the scalar potential receives…
We derive a solution of type IIB supergravity which is asymptotic to AdS_5 x S^5, has SO(6) symmetry, and exhibits some of the features expected of geometries dual to confining gauge theories. At the linearized level, the solution differs…
We consider the possibility that the recently observed excess in the diphoton invariant mass spectrum around 750 GeV is due to two narrow scalars. We demonstrate that there is no need to introduce invisible decay modes to enlarge the widths…
We summarize and extend our work on nonsupersymmetric solutions of a 5d consistent truncation of type IIB supergravity, that is relevant for gauge/gravity duality. The fields in this 5d theory are the five-dimensional metric and a set of…
The transition form factors of $B_{(s)} \to S$, with $S$ denoting a scalar meson, are investigated in the light-cone sum rules approach. The numerical values are approximately twice as large as that estimated in the light-front quark model…
We analyze newly expanded and refined data from lattice studies of an SU(3) gauge theory with eight Dirac fermions in the fundamental representation. We focus on the light composite states emerging from these studies, consisting of a set of…
We study some possible astrophysical implications of a very weakly coupled ultralight dilaton-type scalar field. Such a field may develop an (approximately stable) network of domain walls. The domain wall thickness is assumed to be…
We study five-dimensional solutions to Einstein equations coupled to a scalar field. Bounce-type solutions for the scalar field are associated with AdS_5 spaces with smooth warp functions. Gravitons are dynamically localized in this…
We examine the squeezed limit of the bispectrum when a light scalar with arbitrary non-derivative self-interactions is coupled to the inflaton. We find that when the hidden sector scalar is sufficiently light ($m\lesssim0.1\,H$), the…
We study the semileptonic decays of $D_{s}^{+}$, $D^{+}$, and $D^{0}$ mesons into the light scalar mesons [$f_{0} (500)$, $K_{0}^{\ast} (800)$, $f_{0} (980)$, and $a_{0}(980)$] and the light vector mesons [$\rho (770)$, $\omega (782)$,…
The apparent finding of a 125-GeV light Higgs boson closes unitarity of the minimal Standard Model (SM), that is weakly interacting: this is an exceptional feature not generally true if new physics exists beyond the mass gap found at the…
We investigate gauge/gravity duality for gauge theories in de Sitter space. More precisely, we study a five-dimensional consistent truncation of type IIB supergravity, which encompasses a wide variety of gravity duals of strongly coupled…
We investigate a concrete scenario of a light scalar with a mass around 1 MeV which can be connected to the origin of neutrino masses and simultaneously survive current bounds on relativistic degrees of freedom in the early universe. In…
A short review on light scalar mesons is performed both in experiment and theory. A naive model, constrained by D branching ratios, is derived in order to make predictions on the wave functions of the $f_0(600)$ and $a_0(980)$ mesons. This…