arXiv subjects

Xavier Calmet

Publications and source records attributed to Xavier Calmet.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Colorful quantum black holes at the LHC

We examine the LHC phenomenology of quantum black holes in models of TeV gravity. By quantum black holes we mean black holes of the smallest masses and entropies, far from the semiclassical regime. These black holes are formed and decay over short distances, and typically carry SU(3) color charges inherited from their parton progenitors. Based on a few minimal assumptions, such as gauge invariance, we identify interesting signatures for quantum black hole decay such as 2 jets, jet + hard photon, jet + missing energy and jet + charged lepton, which should be readily visible above background. The detailed phenomenology depends heavily on whether one requires a Lorentz invariant, low-energy effective field theory description of black hole processes.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Bound on four-dimensional Planck mass

In this note we derive a bound using data from cosmic rays physics on a model recently proposed to solve the hierarchy problem by lowering the Planck scale to the TeV region without the introduction of extra-dimensions. We show that the non observation of small black holes by AGASA implies a model independent limit for the four-dimensional reduced Planck mass of roughly 488 GeV.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Equivalence Principle and the Gauge Hierarchy Problem

We show that the gauge hierarchy problem can be solved in the framework of scalar-tensor theories of gravity very much in the same way as it is solved in the Randall-Sundrum scenario. Our solution involves a fine-tuning of the gravitational sector. However our mechanism does not require the introduction of extra-dimensions or new physics strongly coupled to the standard model in the low energy regime. We do introduce a new scalar field which is however coupled only gravitationally to regular matter. The physical reason for the splitting between the weak scale and the Planck scale is a violation of the Einstein's equivalence principle.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

TeV gravity in four dimensions?

We describe a model in which the fundamental scale M_\star of the theory which unifies gravity and quantum mechanics is in the TeV range, but without requiring additional spacetime dimensions. The weakness of gravity at low energies is due to a large vacuum expectation of a dilaton like field. The model requires a small dimensionless parameter (the self-coupling of the dilaton) but no fine-tuning. We discuss in detail the dynamical assumptions about nonperturbative quantum gravity required within the model. We observe that M_\star could be quite small, less than a TeV, and that the model could lead to copious strong coupling effects at the LHC. However, semiclassical black holes will not be produced.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

Lowest Landau Level of Relativistic Field Theories in a Strong Background Field

We consider gauge theories in a strong external magnetic like field. This situation can appear either in conventional four-dimensional theories, but also naturally in extra-dimensional theories and especially in brane world models. We show that in the lowest Landau level approximation, some of the coordinates become non-commutative. We find physical reasons to formal problems with non-commutative gauge theories such as the issue with SU(N) gauge symmetries. Our construction is applied to a minimal extension of the standard model. It is shown that the Higgs sector might be non-commutative whereas the remaining sectors of the standard model remain commutative. Signatures of this model at the LHC are discussed. We then discuss an application to a dark matter sector coupled to the Higgs sector of the standard model and show that here again, dark matter could be non-commutative, the standard model fields remaining commutative.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

Very Light Cosmological Scalar Fields from a Tiny Cosmological Constant

We discuss a mechanism which generates a mass term for a scalar field in an expanding universe. The mass of this field turns out to be generated by the cosmological constant and can be naturally small if protected by a conformal symmetry which is however broken in the gravitational sector. The mass is comparable today to the Hubble time. This scalar field could thus impact our universe today and for example be at the origin of a time variation of the couplings and masses of the parameters of the standard model.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Planck Length and Cosmology

We show that an unification of quantum mechanics and general relativity implies that there is a fundamental length in Nature in the sense that no operational procedure would be able to measure distances shorter than the Planck length. Furthermore we give an explicit realization of an old proposal by Anderson and Finkelstein who argued that a fundamental length in nature implies unimodular gravity. Finally, using hand waving arguments we show that a minimal length might be related to the cosmological constant which, if this scenario is realized, is time dependent.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Grand Unification on Noncommutative Spacetime

We compute the beta-functions of the standard model formulated on a noncommutative spacetime. If we assume that the scale for spacetime noncommutativity is of the order of 2.2 \times 10^{15} GeV we find that the three gauge couplings of the standard model merge at a scale of 2.3 \times 10^{17} GeV. The proton lifetime is thus much longer than in conventional unification models.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

Quantum Electrodynamics on Noncommutative Spacetime

We propose a new method to quantize gauge theories formulated on a canonical noncommutative spacetime with fields and gauge transformations taken in the enveloping algebra. We show that the theory is renormalizable at one loop and compute the beta function and show that the spin dependent contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the fermion at one loop has the same value as in the commutative quantum electrodynamics case.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

On the Precision of a Length Measurement

We show that quantum mechanics and general relativity imply the existence of a minimal length. To be more precise, we show that no operational device subject to quantum mechanics, general relativity and causality could exclude the discreteness of spacetime on lengths shorter than the Planck length. We then consider the fundamental limit coming from quantum mechanics, general relativity and causality on the precision of the measurement of a length.

hep-th↗

arXiv2006

Quantum Mechanics on Noncommutative Spacetime

We consider electrodynamics on a noncommutative spacetime using the enveloping algebra approach and perform a non-relativistic expansion of the effective action. We obtain the Hamiltonian for quantum mechanics formulated on a canonical noncommutative spacetime. An interesting new feature of quantum mechanics formulated on a noncommutative spacetime is an intrinsic electric dipole moment. We note however that noncommutative intrinsic dipole moments are not observable in present experiments searching for an EDM of leptons or nuclei such as the neutron since they are spin independent. These experiments are sensitive to the energy difference between two states and the noncommutative effect thus cancels out. Bounds on the noncommutative scale found in the literature relying on such intrinsic electric dipole moment are thus incorrect.

hep-th↗

arXiv2006

A Seesaw Mechanism in the Higgs Sector

In this letter we revisit the seesaw Higgs mechanism. We show how a seesaw mechanism in a two Higgs doublets model can trigger the electroweak symmetry breaking if at least one of the eigenvalues of the squared mass matrix is negative. We then consider two special cases of interest. In the decoupling scenario, there is only one scalar degree of freedom in the low energy regime. In the degenerate scenario, all five degrees of freedom are in the low energy regime and will lead to observables effects at the LHC. Furthermore, in that scenario, it is possible to impose a discrete symmetry between the doublets that makes the extra neutral degrees of freedom stable. These are thus viable dark matter candidates. We find an interesting relation between the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism and dark matter.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2006

Second Order Noncommutative Corrections to Gravity

In this work, we calculate the leading order corrections to general relativity formulated on a canonical noncommutative spacetime. These corrections appear in the second order of the expansion in theta. First order corrections can only appear in the gravity-matter interactions. Some implications are briefly discussed.

hep-th↗

arXiv2006

Symmetries, Microcausality and Physics on Canonical Noncommutative Spacetime

In this paper we describe how to implement symmetries on a canonical noncommutative spacetime. We focus on noncommutative Lorentz transformations. We then discuss the structure of the light cone on a canonical noncommutative spacetime and show that field theories formulated on these spaces do not violate mircocausality.

hep-th↗

arXiv2006

A Time Variation of Proton-Electron Mass Ratio and Grand Unification

Astrophysical observations indicate a time variation of the proton-electron mass ratio and of the fine-structure constant. We discuss this phenomenon in models of Grand Unification. In these models a time variation of the fine-structure constant and of the proton mass are expected, if either the unified coupling constant or the scale of unification changes, or both change. We discuss in particular the change of the proton mass. Experiments in Quantum Optics could be done to check these ideas.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

Cosmological Constant and Noncommutative Spacetime

We show that the cosmological constant appears as a Lagrange multiplier if nature is described by a canonical noncommutative spacetime. It is thus an arbitrary parameter unrelated to the action and thus to vacuum fluctuations. The noncommutative algebra restricts general coordinate transformations to four-volume preserving noncommutative coordinate transformations. The noncommutative gravitational action is thus an unimodular noncommutative gravity. We show that spacetime noncommutativity provides a very natural justification to an unimodular gravity solution to the cosmological problem. We obtain the right order of magnitude for the critical energy density of the universe if we assume that the scale for spacetime noncommutativity is the Planck scale.

hep-th↗

arXiv2005

Noncommutative General Relativity

We define a theory of noncommutative general relativity for canonical noncommutative spaces. We find a subclass of general coordinate transformations acting on canonical noncommutative spacetimes to be volume-preserving transformations. Local Lorentz invariance is treated as a gauge theory with the spin connection field taken in the so(3,1) enveloping algebra. The resulting theory appears to be a noncommutative extension of the unimodular theory of gravitation. We compute the leading order noncommutative correction to the action and derive the noncommutative correction to the equations of motion of the weak gravitation field.

hep-th↗

arXiv2005

Differential Entropy on Statistical Spaces

We show that the previously introduced concept of distance on statistical spaces leads to a straightforward definition of differential entropy on these statistical spaces. These spaces are characterized by the fact that their points can only be localized within a certain volume and exhibit thus a feature of fuzziness. This implies that Riemann integrability of relevant integrals is no longer secured. Some discussion on the specialization of this formalism to quantum states concludes the paper.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗