arXiv subjects

Graham White

Publications and source records attributed to Graham White.

83 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Baryogenesis, dark matter and inflation in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

Explaining baryon asymmetry, dark matter and inflation are important elements of a successful theory that extends beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. In this paper we explore these issues within the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM), by studying the conditions for a strongly first order electroweak phase transition, the abundance of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), and inflation driven by a gauge invariant flat direction of MSSM made up of right handed squarks. We present the regions of parameter space which can yield successful predictions for cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, the observed relic density for the neutralino LSP, and successful baryogenesis constrained by collider measurements, such as the recent Higgs mass bound, branching ratios of rare, flavour violating decays, and the invisible Z decay width. We also explore where dark matter interactions with xenon nuclei would fall within current bounds of XENON100 and the projected limits for the XENON1T and LUX experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Gravitational waves at aLIGO and vacuum stability with a scalar singlet extension of the Standard Model

A new gauge singlet scalar field can undergo a strongly first-order phase transition (PT) leading to gravitational waves (GW) potentially observable at aLIGO and simultaneously stabilize the electroweak vacuum. aLIGO (O5) is potentially sensitive to cosmological PTs at $10^7$-$10^8$ GeV, which coincides with the requirement that the singlet scale is less than the Standard Model (SM) vacuum instability scale, which is between $10^8$ GeV and $10^{14}$ GeV. After sampling its parameter space, we identify three benchmark points with a PT at about $T\approx 10^7$ GeV in a gauge singlet extension of the SM. We calculate the nucleation temperature, order parameter, characteristic timescale, and peak amplitude and frequency of GW from bubble collisions during the PT for the benchmarks and find that, in an optimistic scenario, GW from such a PT may be in reach of aLIGO (O5). We confirm that the singlet stabilizes the electroweak vacuum whilst remaining consistent with zero-temperature phenomenology as well. Thus, this scenario presents an intriguing possibility that aLIGO may detect traces of fundamental physics motivated by vacuum stability at an energy scale that is well above the reach of any other experiment.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Effective field theory, electric dipole moments and electroweak baryogenesis

Negative searches for permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs) heavily constrain models of baryogenesis utilising various higher dimensional charge and parity violating (CPV) operators. Using effective field theory, we create a model independent connection between these EDM constraints and the baryon asymmetry of the universe (BAU) produced during a strongly first order electroweak phase transition. The thermal aspects of the high scale physics driving the phase transition are paramaterised by the usual kink solution for the bubble wall profile. We find that operators involving derivatives of the Higgs field yield CPV contributions to the BAU containing derivatives of the Higgs vev, while non-derivative operators lack such contributions. Consequently, derivative operators cannot be eliminated in terms of non-derivative operators (via the equations of motion) if one is agnostic to the new physics that leads to the phase transition. Thus, we re-classify the independent dimension six operators, restricting ourselves to third generation quarks, gauge bosons and the Higgs. Finally, we calculate the BAU (as a function of the bubble wall width and the cutoff) for a derivative and a non-derivative operator, and relate it to the EDM constraints.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

The weak Bruhat order for random walks on Coxeter groups

We show that for the simple random walk on a Coxeter group generated by the Coxeter generators and identity, the likelihoods of being at any pair of states respect the weak Bruhat order. That is, after any number of steps, the most likely element is the identity, probabilities decrease along any geodesic from the identity, and the least likely element is the longest element, if the group is finite. The result remains true when different generators have different probabilities, so long as the identity is at least as likely as any other.

math.CO↗

arXiv2016

Braid moves in commutation classes of the symmetric group

We prove that the expected number of braid moves in the commutation class of the reduced word $(s_1 s_2 \cdots s_{n-1})(s_1 s_2 \cdots s_{n-2}) \cdots (s_1 s_2)(s_1)$ for the long element in the symmetric group $\mathfrak{S}_n$ is one. This is a variant of a similar result by V. Reiner, who proved that the expected number of braid moves in a random reduced word for the long element is one. The proof is bijective and uses X. Viennot's theory of heaps and variants of the promotion operator. In addition, we provide a refinement of this result on orbits under the action of even and odd promotion operators. This gives an example of a homomesy for a nonabelian (dihedral) group that is not induced by an abelian subgroup. Our techniques extend to more general posets and to other statistics.

math.CO↗

arXiv2016

Shuffling large decks of cards and the Bernoulli-Laplace urn model

In card games, in casino games with multiple decks of cards and in cryptography, one is sometimes faced with the following problem: how can a human (as opposed to a computer) shuffle a large deck of cards? The procedure we study is to break the deck into several reasonably sized piles, shuffle each thoroughly, recombine the piles, do some simple deterministic operation, for instance a cut, and repeat. This process can also be seen as a generalised Bernoulli-Laplace urn model. We use coupling arguments and spherical function theory to derive upper and bounds on the mixing times of these Markov chains.

math.PR↗

arXiv2016

Variations of the Poincaré series for affine Weyl groups and q-analogues of Chebyshev polynomials

Let $(W,S)$ be a Coxeter system and write $P_W(q)$ for its Poincaré series. Lusztig has shown that the quotient $P_W(q^2)/P_W(q)$ is equal to a certain power series $L_{W}(q)$, defined by specializing one variable in the generating function recording the lengths and absolute lengths of the involutions in $W$. The simplest inductive method of proving this result for finite Coxeter groups suggests a natural bivariate generalization $L^J_W(s,q) \in \mathbb{Z}[[s,q]]$ depending on a subset $J\subset S$. This new power series specializes to $L_W(q)$ when $s=-1$ and is given explicitly by a sum of rational functions over the involutions which are minimal length representatives of the double cosets of the parabolic subgroup $W_J$ in $W$. When $ W$ is an affine Weyl group, we consider the renormalized power series $T_{ W}(s,q) = L^J_W(s,q) / L_W(q)$ with $J$ given by the generating set of the corresponding finite Weyl group. We show that when $W$ is an affine Weyl group of type $A$, the power series $T_W(s,q)$ is actually a polynomial in $s$ and $q$ with nonnegative coefficients, which turns out to be a $q$-analogue recently studied by Cigler of the Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind, arising in a completely different context.

math.CO↗

arXiv2016

Naturalness of the relaxion mechanism

The relaxion mechanism is a novel solution to the hierarchy problem. In this first statistical analysis of the relaxion mechanism, we quantify the relative plausibility of a QCD and a non-QCD relaxion model versus the Standard Model with Bayesian statistics, which includes an automatic penalty for fine-tuning. We find that in light of the hierarchy between the weak and Planck scales, relaxion models are favoured by colossal Bayes-factors. Constraints upon \eg the vacuum energy during relaxation, however, shrink the Bayes-factors such that relaxion models are only slightly favoured. Including the bounds on $\left|θ_\text{QCD}\right|$ shatters the plausibility of the QCD relaxion model as it typically yields $\left|θ_\text{QCD}\right| \gg 0$. Finally, we augment our models with scalar-field inflation and consider measurements of inflationary observables from BICEP/Planck. We find that, all told, the Standard Model is favoured by huge Bayes-factors as the relaxion models require fine-tuning such that the Hubble parameter is less than the height of the periodic barriers. Thus, whilst we confirm that relaxion models could solve the hierarchy problem, we find that their unconventional cosmology demolishes their plausibility.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Reasoning about Unreliable Actions

We analyse the philosopher Davidson's semantics of actions, using a strongly typed logic with contexts given by sets of partial equations between the outcomes of actions. This provides a perspicuous and elegant treatment of reasoning about action, analogous to Reiter's work on artificial intelligence. We define a sequent calculus for this logic, prove cut elimination, and give a semantics based on fibrations over partial cartesian categories: we give a structure theory for such fibrations. The existence of lax comma objects is necessary for the proof of cut elimination, and we give conditions on the domain fibration of a partial cartesian category for such comma objects to exist.

math.LO↗

arXiv2012

Automorphisms of geometric structures associated to Coxeter groups

In this paper, we consider the automorphism groups of the Cayley graph with respect to the Coxeter generators and the Davis complex of an arbitrary Coxeter group. We determine for which Coxeter groups these automorphism groups are discrete. In the case where they are discrete, we express them as semidirect products of two obvious families of automorphisms. This extends a result of Haglund and Paulin.

math.GR↗

arXiv2008

Causality, Modality and Explanation

We present a sequent calculus system for a modal reformulation of a system of nonmonotonic logic due to McCain and Turner: we prove cut elimination for our system. The proof system is in general infinitary: because we can prove cut elimination, many applications need, in practice, only the application of finitary rules. Consequently, nonmonotonic logic is, in many cases, much less scary than it might seem to be a priori. We derive from this a critique of Fodor's philosophical worries about the nonmonotonicity of human reasoning.

math.LO↗