Related papers: Naturalness: A Snowmass White Paper
The hierarchy problem between the electroweak (EW) and Planck scales remains a central puzzle in modern physics. We discuss a promising solution operating through the cosmological selection of the EW vacuum in a multiverse landscape, where…
The past few years have seen several breakthroughs in particle astrophysics and cosmology. In several cases, new observations can only be explained with the introduction of new fundamental physics. In this talk I summarize some of these…
The object of this thesis is the study of some open problems in the electroweak matter sector from an effective theory perspective. The topics studied include: General aspects of dynamical symmetry breaking models, studying what traces…
The cosmological constant problem and the absence of new natural physics at the electroweak scale, if confirmed by the LHC, may either indicate that the nature is fine-tuned or that a refined notion of naturalness is required. We construct…
We discuss the naturalness of exponential potentials for quintessence, showing that the resulting almost flat direction in the space of scalar fields, as well as the small time dependent cosmon mass, can be related to an anomalous…
The cosmological constant (CC) term in Einstein's equations, Lambda, was first associated to the idea of vacuum energy density. Notwithstanding, it is well-known that there is a huge, in fact appalling, discrepancy between the theoretical…
In this essay, we present a new understanding of the cosmological constant problem, built upon the realization that the vacuum energy density can be expressed in terms of a phase space volume. We introduce a UV-IR regularization which…
The status of solutions to the ultra-high energy cosmic ray puzzle that involve particle physics beyond the standard model is reviewed. Signatures and experimental constraints are discussed for most proposals like the Z burst model and…
We reconsider the naturalness from the viewpoint of effective field theories, motivated by the alternative scenario that the standard model holds until a high-energy scale such as the Planck scale. We propose a calculation scheme of…
It is demonstrated that entropy and its density play a significant role in solving the problem of the vacuum energy density (cosmological constant) of the Universe and hence the dark energy problem. Taking this in mind, two most popular…
In these lecture notes an introduction is given to some ideas and attempts to understand the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe. After the discussion of some basic issues of cosmology and particle theory the scenarios…
This is an essay sketching the line of thinking which has led the present author to propose the constituent or atomic model of gravitation more than a decade ago. It turns out that viewing the problem of gravitation as a quantum many body…
The cosmological constant problem is the principal obstacle in the attempt to interpret dark energy as the quantum vacuum energy. We suggest that the obstacle can be removed, i.e. that the cosmological constant problem can be resolved by…
A recent paper "What can solve the strong CP problem?" goes counter to conventional wisdom by arguing that the universe was in an initial state that combines different eigenstates of $\theta$ (of the theta vacuum of QCD), and asserts that…
Some solutions of the hierarchy problem of particle physics can lead to significantly increased neutrino cross sections beyond the electroweak scale. We discuss some consequences for and constraints resulting from cosmic ray physics.
We propose a model of a confining dark sector, dark technicolor, that communicates with the Standard Model through the Higgs portal. In this model electroweak symmetry breaking and dark matter share a common origin, and the electroweak…
A cosmological constant fits all current dark energy data, but requires two extreme fine tunings, both of which are currently explained by anthropic arguments. Here we discuss anti-anthropic solutions to one of these problems: the cosmic…
This write--up gives a rather elementary introduction into particle physics aspects of the cosmological Dark Matter puzzle. A fairly comprehensive list of possible candidates is given; in each case the production mechanism and possible ways…
The discovery of a Higgs boson at the electroweak scale appears to point toward supersymmetry, as the most likely mechanism for protecting a scalar boson mass from enormous radiative corrections. The earlier discovery of neutrino masses…
The problem of dark energy is briefly reviewed in both theoretical and observational aspects. In the theoretical aspect, dark energy scenarios are classified into symmetry, anthropic principle, tuning mechanism, modified gravity, quantum…