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Connections between weak gravity conjecture (WGC) bounds and scattering positivity have been extensively studied over the past decade. This work further explores these connections by proposing positivity as a potential amplitude criterion…
Using the latest observational data we obtain a lower bound on the initial value of the quintessence field in thawing quintessence models of dark energy. For potentials of the form V(\phi) \phi^{\pm2} we find that the initial value…
We discuss the set of constraints for Einstein-aether theories, comparing the flat background case with what is expected when the gravitational fields are dynamic. We note potential pathologies occurring in the weak gravitational field…
We report strong cosmological constraints on the Brans-Dicke (BD) theory of gravity using Cosmic Microwave Background data from Planck.We consider two types of models. First, the initial condition of the scalar field is fixed to give the…
We investigate the phenomenological implications of a light scalar bottom quark, with a mass of about the bottom quark mass, within the minimal supersymmetric standard model. The study of such a scenario is of theoretical interest, since,…
Motivated by recent astrophysical observations of quasar absorption systems, we formulate a simple theory where the electron to proton mass ratio $\mu =m_{e}/m_{p}$ is allowed to vary in space-time. In such a minimal theory only the…
Minimal $N=1$ supergravity with a radiatively broken electroweak symmetry group is studied in the light gluino scenario. Constraints from the $b\rightarrow s\gamma$ decay and from the masses of the light CP-even neutral Higgs $m_h$, the…
Weak gravitational lensing provides a means of testing the long-range properties of gravity. Current measurements are consistent with standard Newtonian gravity and inconsistent with substantial modifications on Mpc scales. The data allows…
We present an Effective Field Theory based reconstruction of quintessence models of dark energy directly from cosmological data. We show that current cosmological data possess enough constraining power to test several quintessence model…
In the last decade Planck PR4 data together with ground-based experimental data such as, BK18, BAO and CMB lensing, tightened constraint of the tensor to scalar ratio, starting form $r < 0.14$ to $r < 0.032$, while the spectral index lies…
Gravitational wave (GW) constraints have recently been used to significantly restrict models of dark energy and modified gravity. New bounds arising from GW decay and GW-induced dark energy instabilities are particularly powerful in this…
We study observational constraints on cosmological models with a quintessence arising from moduli fields. The scalar field potential is given by a double exponential potential V=V_0 exp(-A e^{sqrt{2} kappa phi}). After reviewing the…
We examine radiative corrections arising from Lorentz violating dimension five operators presumably associated with Planck scale physics as recently considered by Myers and Pospelov. We find that observational data result in bounds on the…
The quest for understanding the late-time acceleration is haunted by an immense freedom in the analysis of dynamical models for dark energy in extended parameter spaces. Often-times having no prior knowledge at our disposal, arbitrary…
At present we know nothing about the nature of the dark energy accounting for about 70% of the energy density of the Universe. One possibility is that the dark energy is provided by an extremely light field, the quintessence, rolling down…
We study the cosmological information contained in the Minkowski Functionals (MFs) of weak gravitational lensing convergence maps. We show that the MFs provide strong constraints on the local type primordial non-Gaussianity parameter f_NL.…
We consider higher-dimensional massive Brans-Dicke theory with Ricci-flat internal space. The background model is perturbed by a massive gravitating source which is pressureless in the external (our space) but has an arbitrary…
The new Planck constraints on the local bispectrum parameter fnl are about 10^5 times tighter than the current constraints on the trispectrum parameter gnl, which means that the allowed numerical values of the second and third order terms…
The spectrograph ESPRESSO recently obtained a limit on the variation of the fine-structure constant, $\alpha$, through measurements along the line of sight of a bright quasar with a precision of $1.36$ ppm at $1\sigma$ level. This imposes…
We discuss the variation of cosmological upper bounds on $M_\nu$, the sum of the neutrino masses, with the choice of data sets included in the analysis, pointing out a few oddities not easily seen when all data sets are combined. For…