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Urjit Yajnik

Publications and source records attributed to Urjit Yajnik.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Reflecting Gravitons: The Graviton Laser and the Gertsenshtein effect

Graviton lasers have been considered in the past, \cite{gl}, but practical terrestrial implementations appear infeasible. The absence of any known mechanism to reflect gravitons means that it remains unclear how a graviton beam could be directed repeatedly through a putative lasing medium. Astrophysical graviton lasing is still a possibilty as circular graviton orbits around blackholes afford the possibility of an arbitrarily long path length through the lasing medium of ultra-light dark matter \cite{bhgl,nhaxs}. In this essay, we consider the possibility of a graviton laser that could be constructed in a laboratory setting. The graviton lasing medium could be one of many possible gravitating systems, of which we give three possible examples. We calculate the possibility of reflecting the gravitons by using the conversion of gravitons into photons in an external magnetic field, the Gertsenshtein effect, \cite{Gertsenshtein1962}. We may convert the gravitons to photons, then reflect the photons, then reconvert the photons into gravitons via the same effect, and then pass them through the graviton lasing medium. With an identical apparatus on the other side, we can essentially extend the path length of the gravitons through the lasing medium as arbitrarily long as desired.

gr-qc

Inflationary Gravitational Wave Spectral Shapes as test for Low-Scale Leptogenesis

We study non-thermal resonant leptogenesis in a general setting where a heavy majoron $ϕ$ decays to right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) whose further out-of-equilibrium decay generates the required lepton asymmetry. Domination of the energy budget of the Universe by the $ϕ$ or the RHNs alters the evolution history of the primordial gravitational waves (PGW) of inflationary origin, which re-enter the horizon after inflation, modifying the spectral shape. The decays of $ϕ$ and RHNs release entropy into the early Universe while nearly degenerate RHNs facilitate low and intermediate-scale leptogenesis. A characteristic damping of the GW spectrum resulting in knee-like features would provide evidence for low-scale non-thermal leptogenesis. We explore the parameter space for the lightest right-handed neutrino mass $M_1\in[10^2,10^{14}]$ GeV and washout parameter $K$ that depends on the light-heavy neutrino Yukawa couplings $λ$, in the weak ($K < 1$) and strong ($K > 1$) washout regimes. The resulting novel features compatible with observed baryon asymmetry are detectable by future experiments like LISA and ET. By estimating signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for upcoming GW experiments, we investigate the effect of the majoron mass $M_ϕ$ and reheating temperature $T_ϕ$, which depends on the $ϕ-N$ Yukawa couplings $y_N$.

hep-ph

The Life and Science of Thanu Padmanabhan

Thanu Padmanabhan was a renowned Indian theoretical physicist known for his research in general relativity, cosmology, and quantum gravity. In an extraordinary career spanning forty-two years, he published more than three hundred research articles, wrote ten highly successful technical and popular books, and mentored nearly thirty graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. He is best known for his deep work investigating gravitation as an emergent thermodynamic phenomenon. He was an outstanding teacher, and an indefatigable populariser of science, who travelled very widely to motivate and inspire young students. Paddy, as he was affectionately known, was also a close friend to his students and collaborators, treating them as part of his extended academic family. On September 17, 2021 Paddy passed away very unexpectedly, at the age of sixty-four and at the height of his research career, while serving as a Distinguished Professor at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune. His untimely demise has come as a shock to his family and friends and colleagues. In this article, several of them have come together to pay their tributes and share their fond memories of Paddy.

physics.hist-ph

Domain walls and CP violation with left right supersymmetry:implications for leptogenesis and electron EDM

Low scale leptogenesis scenarios are difficult to verify due to our inability to relate the parameters involved in the early universe processes with the low energy or collider observables. Here we show that one can in principle relate the parameters giving rise to the transient $CP$ violating phase involved in leptogenesis with those that can be deduced from the observation of electric dipole moment (EDM) of the electron. We work out the details of this in the context of the left right symmetric supersymmetric model (LRSUSY) which provides a strong connection between such parameters. In particular, we show that baryon asymmetry requirements imply the scale $M_{B-L}$ of $U(1)_{B-L}$ symmetry breaking to be larger than $10^{4.5}~\mathrm{GeV}$. Moreover the scale $M_R$ of $SU(2)_R$ symmetry breaking is tightly constrained to lie in a narrow band significantly below $M_{B-L}^2 / M_{EW}$. These are the most stringent constraints on the parameter space of LRSUSY model being considered.

hep-ph

Supersymmetry Breaking and Dilaton Stabilization in String Gas Cosmology

In this Note we study supersymmetry breaking via gaugino condensation in string gas cosmology. We show that the same gaugino condensate which is introduced to stabilize the dilaton breaks supersymmetry. We study the constraints on the scale of supersymmetry breaking which this mechanism leads to.

hep-th

Graceful exit via monopoles in a theory with O'Raifeartaigh type supersymmetry breaking

We study the stability of supersymmetry breaking metastable vacua and supersymmetric vacua in the presence of solitons. The metastable vacua of supersymmetric QCD and those found elsewhere such as in models based on the SU(5) grand unified group support the existence of topological solitons. The vacua containing such topological defects can become unstable against decay into lower energy configurations. We show for a specific model that a finite region of the available parameter space of couplings becomes disallowed due to the presence of monopoles. In a manner similar to previous studies based on cosmic strings, it is shown that soliton solutions arising in supersymmetric theories can put constraints on the range of allowed values of the couplings arising in the theories. Implications for cosmology are discussed.

hep-th

Spontaneous Parity Violation in a Supersymmetric Left-Right Symmetric Model

We propose a novel implementation of spontaneous parity breaking in supersymmetric left-right symmetric model, avoiding some of the problems encountered in previous studies. This implementation includes a bitriplet and a singlet, in addition to the bidoublets which extend the Higgs sector of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The supersymmetric vacua of this theory are shown to lead generically to spontaneous violation of parity, while preserving R parity. The model is shown to reproduce the see-saw relation for vacuum expectation values, $v_L v_R \approx m_{EW}^2$ relating the new mass scales $v_L$, $v_R$ to the electroweak scale $m_{EW}$, just as in the non-supersymmetric version. The scale $v_R$ determines the mass scale of heavy majorana neutrinos, which gets related to the obeserved neutrino masses through type II see-saw relation.

hep-ph

Naturalness of parity breaking in a supersymmetric SO(10) model

We consider a supersymmetric SO(10) model which remains renormalisable upto Planck scale. The cosmology of such a model passes through a Left-Right symmetric phase. Potential problems associated with domain walls can be evaded if parity breaking is induced by soft terms when supersymmetry breaks in the hidden sector. The smallness of this breaking permits a brief period of domination by the domain walls ensuring dilution of gravitinos and other unwanted relics. The requirement that domain walls disappear constrains some of the soft parameters of the Higgs potential.

hep-ph