Past Events

Generative AI models, including those behind image creation tools, have shown remarkable capabilities in transforming random inputs into coherent outputs. Inspired by these advancements, we've developed Parnassus, a deep-learning model designed for particle physics. Parnassus processes point clouds representing particles interacting with a detector and outputs reconstructed particle data.  Parnassus accurately replicates the particle flow algorithm and generalizes well beyond its training set. This approach exemplifies how techniques from image generation can be adapted to accelerate simulations in high-energy physics.

Stellar evolution makes us believe that we have over 10 million stellar-mass black holes (BH) in our own Galaxy, whose total mass should far exceed the mass of the central black hole. For half a century we have known that stellar-mass BHs exist, from the few dozen X-ray binaries, where tidally torn material from a very close stellar companions accretes onto the black hole and makes it shine? But is there actually this vast population of dormant BHs, either in wide binaries with a normal star or just free floating? The hunt for these BHs is now on, using ESA’s Gaia mission and other facilities: we have now detected the first dormant BHs in binary systems, after some spectacular earlier misidentification of BH impostors. And, there is first direct evidence for free-floating BHs by means of microlensing. These first discoveries already pose interesting puzzles about how these BH systems could have formed. The next few years offer spectacular prospects of finding far more dormant BHs, whether they are free-floating or in binaries, which should teach us how and when stellar-mass black holes form.

About a century after Albert Einstein's presentation of General Relativity and Karl Schwarzschild's first solution, have three experimental techniques made remarkable progress in proving the existence of the Schwarzschild/Kerr black hole solution. I will describe the impressive progress of high resolution near-infrared and radio imaging and interferometry, and of precision measurements of gravitational waves in the Galactic Center and other galaxies. I will then discuss what we now know about the cosmic co-evolution and growth of galaxies and black holes, and finish with the riddle of massive black holes detected by JWST only a few hundred Myrs after the Big Bang.

The questions “How did life on Earth begin?” and “Are we alone in the universe?” are arguably two of the most intriguing in science. While until recently these questions tended to be relegated to the “too difficult” box, the attempts to answer them have now become extraordinarily vibrant and dynamic frontiers of science. I will describe how the quest for cosmic life follows two parallel, independent lines of research: cutting-edge laboratory studies aimed at determining whether life can emerge from pure chemistry, and advanced astronomical observations searching for signs of life on other planets and moons in the solar system and around stars other than the Sun. I will examine how using knowledge acquired through ingenious chemical experimentation, geological studies, advanced astronomical observations, and imaginative theorizing researchers have managed to delineate a plausible pathway leading from the formation of the Earth to the appearance of the early biological cells.  

We are building a new ground-based observatory in Neot Smadar, located in the south of the Negev desert. One of the telescopes hosted at this site is the Large Array Survey Telescope (LAST). LAST is a cost-effective survey telescope capable of quickly scanning the sky and studying the dynamic sky, from solar system objects to explosions at cosmological distances. I will describe the Neot Smadar site, the LAST system, and some of the science cases for which LAST was built.

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The CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has discovered the Higgs boson and confirmed the predictions for many of its properties given by the "Standard Model" of particle physics. However, this does not mean that particle physics is solved. Mysteries that the Standard Model does not address are still with us and, indeed, stand out more sharply than ever. To understand these mysteries, we need experiments at still higher energies. In this colloquium, I will argue that we should be planning for a particle collider reaching energies of about 10 times those of the LHC in the collisions of elementary particles. Today, there is no technology that can produce such energies robustly and at a reasonable cost. However, many solutions are under study, including colliders for protons, muons, electrons, and photons. I will review the status of these approaches to the design of the next great energy-frontier accelerator.

Abstract:The MicroBooNE detector is a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) located on-axis in the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) at Fermi National Laboratory. One of the primary goals of the experiment is to investigate the excess over background expectations of electromagnetic-like events observed by MiniBooNE at low energies. In this talk, I will present the latest results from MicroBooNe's four analyses, with a focus on the 2-body CCQE search, which utilizes deep learning and traditional techniques.

The universal law of gravitation has undergone stringent tests for many decades over a signicant range of length scales, from atomic to planetary. Of particular interest is the short distance regime, where modications to Newto- nian gravity may arise from axion-like particles or extra dimensions. We have constructed an ultra-sensitive force sensor based on optically-levitated micro- spheres with a force sensitivity of 10

We propose a novel way to search for feebly interacting massive particles, exploiting two properties of systems involving collisions between high energy electrons and intense laser pulses. The first property is that the electron-intense-laser collision results in a large flux of hard photons, as the laser behaves effectively as a thick medium. The second property is that the emitted photons free-stream inside the laser and thus for them the laser behaves effectively as a very thin medium. Combining these two features implies that the electron-intense-laser collision is an apparatus which can efficiently convert UV electrons to a large flux of hard, co-linear photons. We further propose to direct this unique large and hard flux of photons onto a physical dump which in turn is capable of producing feebly interacting massive particles, in a region of parameters that has never been probed before. We denote this novel apparatus as ``optical dump'' or NPOD (new physics sea! rch with optical dump). The proposed LUXE experiment at Eu.XFEL has all the required basic ingredients of the above experimental concept. We discuss how this concept can be realized in practice by adding a detector after the last physical dump of the experiment to reconstruct the two-photon decay product of a new spin-0 particle. We show that even with a relatively short dump, the search can still be background-free. Remarkably, even with a 40 TW laser, which corresponds to the initial run, and definitely with a 350 TW laser, of the main run with one year of data taking, LUXE-NPOD will be able to probe uncharted territory of both models of pseudo-scalar and scalar fields, and in particular probe natural of scalar theories for masses above 100 MeV.

In this seminar, I will consider the possibility that the totality of dark matter consists of atomic-size black holes of primordial origin. I will review the basics of this proposal, and I will discuss some key questions yet unsolved.

We disclose an implementation of RT-bolometers which comprise high chemical-energy materials, e.g. explosive or catalase, H2O2}-system, that can be operated at temperature between 4oC and room temperature (RT). Energy deposited by the incident weakly interacting particle to the nuclei can trigger a local release of chemical energy;. The energy release in such a `nano-explosion’ indicates that a coherent scattering event has taken place and allows for the localization of this event; For DM detection {catalase, H2O2}-system is preferred, and there are many catalases, which have maximum activity at temperatures from about 10oC to about 90oC. This permits to optimize enzymatic reactions and influences the read-out design. {catalase, H2O2}-system works because the range of recoiling nuclei is so short that most of the energy is transferred in a single “voxel” called “vertex”, leading to a large local temperature increase. When neutrino or WIMPs scatter on nuclei, the majority of the recoil nucleus energy is transferred to the lattice, which leads to the creation of ballistic phonons which rapidly thermalize, i.e. increase the temperature in vertex. For 5 GeV/c2 < MDM < 15 GeV/c2 the energy of the recoiling nuclei is 0.5-2.0 keV and all this energy is deposited within a few nm. Thus, the dE/dx = O(0.1 keV/nm) is deposited in the vertex. The energy deposition is much smaller in the case of single charged, relativistic particles and corresponds to dE/dx < 1 eV/nm for single charged particles. These permits background rejection. We developed a very efficient read-out for such detectors. The expected detector cost is low, ca. $50,000 per ton. The deployment will be deep underwater, say at Marina Trench at depth of 11 km. Optionally, such a detector can be used as a “spaghetti detector” and placed in very deep bore-holes down to 20 km water equivalent. Similar detectors can be used for Emission Geo-Neutrino Tomography aka Neutrino Geology.

Abstract: Chern-Simons theories coupled to matter have a wide variety of applications ranging from anyonic physics to quantum gravity via the AdS/CFT correspondence. These theories enjoy a strong-weak duality that has been tested to a very good accuracy via large N computations. Scattering amplitudes are some of the most basic observables in QFT's. S matrices computed to all orders in the 't Hooft coupling serve as important testing grounds for the strong-weak duality. Although beginning with 4 point amplitudes this is doable, the complexity of the problem increases with the number of external legs. As a first step towards computing all loop arbitrary n point amplitudes, we address the problem of computing arbitrary n point tree level amplitudes. We show that BCFW recursion relations can be used to compute all tree level scattering amplitudes in terms of $2 ightarrow2$ scattering amplitude in $U(N)$ ${mathcal N}=2$ Chern-Simons (CS) theory coupled to matter in fundamental representation. As a byproduct, we also obtain a recursion relation for the CS theory coupled to regular fermions, even though in this case standard BCFW deformations do not have a good asymptotic behavior. We then proceed to take the first steps towards all loop computations of arbitrary n point amplitudes. As a first step we explain the result of arXiv:1505.06571, where it was shown that the $2 ightarrow 2$ scattering is tree level exact to all orders except in the anyonic channel, where it gets renormalized by a simple function of 't Hooft coupling. We show that tree level $2 o 2$ scattering amplitudes in 3d ${cal N}=2$ Chern-Simons theory coupled to a fundamental chiral multiplet are dual superconformal invariant. We further show that the large $N$ all loop exact amplitude also has dual superconformal symmetry, which implies dual superconformal symmetry is all loop exact which is in contrast to other known highly supersymmetric examples such as ${cal N}=4$ SYM and ABJM where the dual superconformal symmetry is in general anomalous. The presence of superconformal and dual superconformal symmetry indicate the existence of a Yangian symmetry, further providing indications that the N=2 theory may be integrable.

Abstract: A recent direction in dark matter phenomenology has been to consider multi-component dark matter, containing subsectors with interesting interactions and structure. These include models where part of dark matter is dissipative. In these particular models, the dissipative subsector will cool to form a dark matter disk, whose size, density, and temperature can be predicted from the parameters of the model. I will discuss details of the model and of the disk formation process, as well as various observational constraints and possible evidence for such a disk. I will also discuss potential astrophysical constraints from recent Gaia data, and under what assumptions these constraints should be taken seriously.

Abstract: The lifetime of false vacua can be calculated by Coleman's semiclassical method. This method implicitly uses a deformation of the potential. I will discuss an alternative approach to the calculation of the lifetime of the false vacua. References: Direct Approach to Quantum Tunneling Anders Andreassen, David Farhi, William Frost, Matthew D. Schwartz Published in Phys.Rev.Lett. 117 (2016) no.23, 231601 e-Print: arXiv:1602.01102 [hep-th] Precision decay rate calculations in quantum field theory Anders Andreassen, David Farhi, William Frost, Matthew D. Schwartz Published in Phys.Rev. D95 (2017) no.8, 085011 e-Print: arXiv:1604.06090 [hep-th]

High-sensitivity searches for ``fifth forces'' can test a variety of models of new physics that produce new weakly coupled or short range (

The modern theories directed toward unifying gravitation with the three other fundamental interactions suggest variation of the fundamental constants. While the energy scale of such physics beyond the Standard Model is much higher than that currently attainable by particle accelerators the variation of the fundamental constants may nevertheless be detectable via precision measurements at low energies. I will give an overview of various searches for new physics with atomic clocks and focus on proposals for future experiments with highly charged ions. Proposal for tests of Lorentz symmetry with Yb+ and highly charged ions are also presented.

: The properties of the Higgs resonance discovered at the LHC are in good agreement with those of the Standard Model Higgs boson. Current measurements of the couplings of the Higgs to third generation quarks, however, carry large uncertainties, and deviations of the order of a few tens of percent may still be present. I will discuss the possibility of obtaining departures of these couplings from the Standard Model values in Minimal Supersymmetric Models, and also the difference of this situation with the alignment condition, for which the tree-level Higgs boson properties remain SM-like, independently of the masses of the additional Higgs bosons in the theory. Finally, I will discuss the impact of light Higgs bosons on Dark Matter direct detection in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with heavy superpartners.

The origin and composition of 85% of the matter in the universe is completely unknown. Among several viable options, Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are motivated dark matter candidates that can be tested by different and complementary search strategies. Crucially, different searches probe WIMP couplings at different energy scales, and such a separation of scales has striking consequences in connecting different experimental probes. This motivates the development of theoretical tools to properly connect the different energy scales involved in constraining WIMP models. I will introduce these tools and I will illustrate with several examples how crucial the inclusion of these effects in WIMP searches is.

Abstract: I will first review basic aspects of models of inflation in supergravity and introduce the framework of sgoldstino-less inflation. Then I will discuss the conditions that a theory with the inflaton and the sgoldstino superfield should satisfy to be consistently described by a sgoldstino-less model. I will then combine in a simple model the alpha-attractor inflation scenario and gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking. In this framework, one can derive the superpartner spectrum as well as compute inflation observables, the reheating temperature and address the gravitino overabundance problem. The non trivial interplay among these predictions characterize the phenomenology of the model and will impose stringent constraints on the allowed parameter space.

Neutron-induced reactions remain at the forefront of experimental investigations for the understanding of stellar nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution of the Galaxy. We report on experiments performed with the Liquid-Lithium Target (LiLiT) and a ~3 kW proton beam from the Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF), yielding high-intensity 30-keV quasi-Maxwellian neutrons. First experiments were dedicated to benchmark the experimental system by measuring the Maxwellian Averaged Cross Section (MACS) of 94Zr and 96Zr, important isotopes for understanding the s-process evolution. The high neutron intensity enables MACS measurements of low-abundance or radioactive targets. Using α-, β-, γ-spectrometry and atom-counting techniques (accelerator mass spectrometry, atom-trap trace analysis), we are extending our experimental studies. In this talk some of our recent experiments and preliminary results will be presented..

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I will present some recent results about supersymmetric indices, partition functions and related observables that can be computed exactly on a large class of supersymmetric background geometries, in three- and four-dimensional gauge theories with four flat-space supercharges. I will emphasize interesting relationships between these observables, and their common origin in a A-twisted topological field theory in two dimensions

Motivated by the lack of signals of New Physics in indirect searches and by the fact that the SM posses various accidental and approximate symmetries, I will talk about extensions at the electroweak scale of the SM that automatically preserve such symmetries. I will finally comment about cosmological as well as phenomenological implications of such a framework.

Abstract: In my talk I will discuss some new features of conformal anomaly and entanglement entropy in the presence of boundaries. The talk is based on recent papers.This is a project to develop a wide expanse of new quantum field theories in 2n-dimensional space-time manifolds. For each 2d qft, there is to be a qft of extended objects in every 2n-dimensional space-time manifold M. The quantum fields live on ``quasi Riemann surfaces'', which are certain spaces of integral (n-1)-currents in M. The notion of integral current comes from Geometric Measure Theory. The quasi Riemann surfaces are complete metric spaces with analytic properties strictly analogous to Riemann surfaces. The new qfts are to be constructed on the quasi Riemann surfaces just as 2d qfts are constructed on ordinary Riemann surfaces. Local fields in space-time are obtained by restricting to small extended objects. arXiv:1510.04566, arXiv:1601.06418 and arXiv:1604.07571

Abstract:: ntibranes in backgrounds that have charge dissolved in fluxes are a key ingredient in constructing a landscape (Multiverse) of deSitter vacua in String Theory, and also of constructing microstate solutions corresponding to non-supersymmetric near-extremal black holes. There are several regimes of parameters in which one can study the physics of these antibranes, and I will show that in the regime of parameters where their gravitational backreaction is important, antibranes have a naked singularity that cannot be resolved either by brane polarization or by cloaking with a black hole horizon, and that signals a tachyonic instability. I will also present recent evidence that the theory on the wordvolume of anti-D3 branes is finite to all loops. I will conclude by discussing the implications of these results for the Multiverse paradigm and for the Fuzzball proposal.

Abstract: I will present a general solution to the problem of determining all S-dual descriptions for a specific (but very rich) class of N=1 SCFTs. These SCFTs are indexed by decorated toric diagrams, and can be engineered in string theory by probing orientifolds of isolated toric singularities with D3 branes. The S-dual phases are described by quiver gauge theories coupled to specific types of conformal matter which I will describe explicitly.

We propose a framework in which the QCD axion has an exponentially large coupling to photons, relying on the “clockwork” mechanism. We discuss the impact of present and future axion experiments on the parameter space of the model. In addition to the axion, the model predicts a large number of pseudoscalars which can be light and observable at the LHC. In the most favorable scenario, axion Dark Matter will give a signal in multiple axion detection experiments and the pseudo-scalars will be discovered at the LHC, allowing us to determine most of the parameters of the model..

A Mach probe (MP) is an electric probe system to deduce the plasma flow velocity from the ratio of ion saturation currents. Generally, a typical MP is composed of two directional electric probes located at opposite sides of an insulator, which is mostly used as a parallel MP, but there are other MPs such as perpendicular MP (PMP), Gundestrup probe (GP) or rotating probe (RP), and visco-MP (VMP), depending on the shape of the probe holder, location of different probes or the method of collecting ions. For the parallel MP (to be called simply an MP), the relation between the ratio of the upstream ion saturation current density (Jup) to the downstream (Jdn) and the normalized drift velocity (M∞ = vd/√Te/mi) of the plasma has generally been fitted into an exponential form (R = Jup/Jdn ≈ exp[KM∞]). For the GP or RP, with oblique ion collection, the relation becomes R = exp[K(M∞ −M⊥ cot θ)], where K = 2.3~2.5, M∞ is the normalized parallel flow, and M⊥ is the normalized perpendicular flow to the magnetic field, and θ is the angle between the magnetic field and the probe surface. The normalized drift velocity of flowing plasmas is deduced from the ratio (Rm) measured by an MP as M∞ = ln[Rm]/K, where K is a calibration factor depending on the magnetic flux density, collisionality of charged particles and neutrals, viscosity of plasmas, ion temperature, etc. Existing theories of MPs in unmagnetized and magnetized flowing plasmas are introduced in terms of kinetic, fluid and particle-in-cell models or self-consistent and self-similar methods along with key physics and comments. Experimental evidence of relevant models is shown along with validity of related theories. For probes other than the typical parallel MP, the relation between the ratio of ion saturation currents and M∞ can be expressed as a combination of the functional forms: exponential and/or polynomial form of M∞ for PMP; two Rs of two separate MPs for VMP. Collisions of ions/electrons/neutrals, asymmetries of ion temperatures and the existence of hyperthermal electrons, existence of ion beam, supersonic flow and negative ions can affect the deduction of flow velocities by an MP.

Two-dimensional materials such as graphene sheets can serve as excellent detectors for dark matter (DM) with couplings to electrons. The ionization energy of graphene is O(eV), making it sensitive to DM as light as an MeV, and the ejected electron may be detected without rescattering in the target, preserving directional information. I will describe the first experimental proposal for directional detection of MeV-GeV scale DM, which can be implemented in the PTOLEMY relic neutrino experiment and has comparable sensitivity to proposals using semiconductor targets. I will also describe some potential avenues for using gapless systems like Weyl semimetals to detect DM down to the keV limit for warm DM

a Pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (PNGB) and the resulting Higgs properties deviate from those predicted by the SM. The current Higgs and EW data favor a SM-like Higgs, requiring a hierarchy between the PNGB Higgs decay constant f and its vacuum expectation value v. The v/f hierarchy is responsible for a significant part of the fine-tuning in these models. We show that adding an independent, adjustable quartic to the Higgs potential can eliminate the v/f tuning, such that the only remaining tuning arises from radiative corrections to the Higgs mass. We demonstrate how this quartic can be obtained from extra-dimensions, revisiting the 6d origin of the little-Higgs models, this time in a warped AdS5xS1 background. We construct a 6D Composite Higgs model and also consider its deconstruction into a two-site Randall-Sundrum model. The PNGB Higgs in this model corresponds to the extra-dimensional components of a gauge field, and the quartic arises from the non-abelian gauge action in 6d. We show that this quartic is collective just like in little Higgs models, and so it is stable against quantum corrections. Our quartic scales like (R6/R), where R6 is the size of the flat circle, and R is the curvature radius of AdS. We show that a general hierarchy of (R6/R) can be naturally stabilized, and any desired quartic can be obtained.

We examine if the cosmological relaxation mechanism, which was proposed recently as a new solution to the hierarchy problem, can be compatible with high reheating temperature well above the weak scale. As the barrier potential disappears at high temperature, the relaxion rolls down further after the reheating, which may ruin the successful implementation of the relaxation mechanism. It is noted that if the relaxion is coupled to a dark gauge boson, the new frictional force arising from dark gauge boson production can efficiently slow down the relaxion motion, which allows the relaxion to be stabilized after the electroweak phase transition for a wide range of model parameters, while satisfying the known observational constraints

In my talk I will discuss some new features of conformal anomaly and entanglement entropy in the presence of boundaries. The talk is based on recent papers arXiv:1510.04566, arXiv:1601.06418 and arXiv:1604.07571

Abstract: We propose a nonperturbative framework to study general correlation functions of single-trace operators in N = 4 SYM at large N. The basic strategy is to decompose them into fundamental building blocks called the hexagon form factors, which were introduced earlier to study structure constants using integrability. The decomposition is akin to a triangulation of a Riemann surface, and we thus call it hexagonalization. We propose a set of rules to glue the hexagons together based on symmetry, which naturally incorporate the dependence on the conformal and the R-symmetry cross ratios. Our method is conceptually different from the conventional operator product expansion and automatically takes into account multi-trace operators exchanged in OPE channels. To illustrate the idea in simple set-ups, we compute four-point functions of BPS operators of arbitrary lengths and correlation functions of one Konishi operator and three short BPS operators, all at one loop. In all cases, the results are in perfect agreement with the perturbative data. We also suggest that our method can be a useful tool to study conformal integrals, and show it explicitly for the case of ladder integrals.

We derive a spectral sum rule in the shear channel for conformal field theories in general d> 2 dimensions held at finite temperature. The sum rule result from the OPE of the stress tensor at high frequency as well as the hydrodynamic behaviour of the theory at low frequencies. The sum rule states that a weighted integral of the spectral density over frequencies is proportional to the energy density of the theory. We show that the proportionality constant can be written in terms the Maldacena-Hofman variables t_2, t_4 which rely on data which determines the three point function of the stress tensor of the CFT. For theories which admit a two derivative gravity dual this proportionality constant is given by d/2(d+1) . We then use causality constraints and obtain bounds on the sum rule which are valid for any conformal field theory. We illustrate the sum rule by applying it to well studied conformal field theories in d=3, 4, 6. dimensions

Due to the recent development of type IIB 5-brane web technique, we are able to study wider class of 5d N=1 gauge theories from the brane constructions. After reviewing this recent development, we focus on a new 5-brane web configuration for 5d N=1 gauge theories with 6d UV fixed points. We observe from brane web that Kaluza-Klein mode of the 6d N=(1,0) SCFT compactified on S^1 is realized as an instanton particle in the corresponding 5d N=1 gauge theory. We also observe that various 5d N=1 gauge theories have identical 6d UV fixed point. We check these observations by computing BPS partition functions for some examples.

In his 1977 paper on vacuum decay in field theory: The Fate of the False Vacuum, Coleman considered the problem of a single scalar field and assumed that the minimum action tunnelling field configuration, the bounce, is invariant under O(4) rotations in Euclidean space. A proof of the O(4) invariance of the bounce was provided later that year by Coleman, Glaser, and Martin, who further extended the proof to N Euclidean dimensions. Their proof holds for N>2 and was again restricted non-trivially to the case of a single scalar field. As far as we know a proof of O(N) invariance of the bounce for the tunnelling problem with multiple scalar fields has not been reported, even though it was assumed in many works since, being of phenomenological interest. In the talk, I will provide such proof. More precisely, I will show that if a non-trivial minimum action solution of the Euclidean field equations exists, then it is O(N) symmetric. This talk is based on arXiv:1611.04570.

I will describe several recently posed conjectures that relate the BPS particle spectrum in 4d N=2 theories to supersymmetric local operators. I will apply these ideas to compute the superconformal indices of strongly coupled N=2 CFTs and explain how the results interplay with recent results relating 2d chiral algebras to 4d CFTs. Time permitting, I will also explain how to determine the spectrum of local operators bound to a defect using similar ideas.

In this talk, I will discuss the planar behavior displayed by 4-dimensional Lagrangian N=2 SCFTs with simple gauge group and argue that in this limit most characteristics of the theories are governed by a universal equation with a single tunable parameter. Remarkably, the same parameter discriminates whether their holographic dual admits a conventional supergravity limit.

Abstract: After a brief review of holographic techniques derived from the AdS-CFT correspondence, we specialize to a class of spacetimes proposed as duals to non-relativistic systems. We highlight classical and quantum features of these "Lifshitz spacetimes" which limit the reconstructability of bulk spacetime information from boundary data. We additionally discuss the fate of various spacetime reconstruction procedures in Lifshitz spacetimes. We close by examining the limitations placed on entropy-based spacetime reconstruction due to holographic screens

Abstract: We will discuss some expectations regarding properties of N=1 SCFTs in four dimensions obtained by compactifying (1,0) theories in six dimensions on a Riemann surface. We will illustrate in detail how these properties come about in the special case of compactifications of two M5 branes probing Z_2 singularity. In particular, we will obtain a large class of strongly coupled N=1 theories in four dimensions obtained in such compactifications. We will derive some of their robust properties, such as anomalies and supersymmetric indices.

We show that the relaxion generically stops its rolling at a point that breaks CP leading to relaxion-Higgs mixing. This opens the door to a variety of observational probes since the possible relaxion mass span a broad range from sub-eV to GeV scale. We derive constraints from current experiments (fifth force, astrophysical and cosmological probes, beam dump, flavour, LEP and LHC) and present projections from future experiments such as NA62, SHiP and PIXIE. We find that a large region of the parameter space is already under the experimental scrutiny. All the experimental constraints we derive are equally applicable for general Higgs portal models. On the theoretical side we present a new bound on the back-reaction scale, Lambda^4_{br} < m_h^2 v^2. In addition, we show that simple multiaxion (clockwork) UV completions, suffer from a mild fine tuning problem, which increases with the number of sites. These results favour a cut-off scale lower than the existing theoretical bounds.

arXiv:1610.07962 (hep-ph)

A combination of ideas originating from Condensed Matter physics, Supersymmetric Field Theory, and AdS/CFT has led to a detailed web of conjectured dualities. These relate the long distance behavior of different short distance theories. These dualities clarify a large number of confusing and controversial issues in Condensed Matter physics and in the study of 2+1 dimensional quantum field theory.

I will show how supersymmetric localization can be used to calculate correlation functions of half-BPS local operators in 3d N=4 superconformal field theories whose Lagrangian descriptions consist of vectormultiplets coupled to hypermultiplets. The operators primarily studied are certain twisted linear combinations of Higgs branch operators that can be inserted anywhere along a given line. These operators are constructed from the hypermultiplet scalars. They form a 1d non-commutative operator algebra with topological correlation functions. The 2- and 3-point functions of Higgs branch operators in the full 3d N=4 theory can be simply inferred from the 1d topological algebra. After conformally mapping the 3d superconformal field theory from flat space to a round three-sphere, supersymmetric localization is performed using a supercharge that does not belong to any 3d N=2 subalgebra of the N=4 algebra. The result is a simple model that can be used to calculate correlation functions in the 1d topological algebra mentioned above. This model is a 1d Gaussian theory coupled to a matrix model, and it can be viewed as a gauge-fixed version of a topological gauged quantum mechanics. These results generalize to non-conformal theories on S3 that contain real mass and Fayet-Iliopolous parameters. I will also provide partial results for the 1d topological algebra associated with the Coulomb branch, where correlators of operators built from the vectormultiplet scalars will be considered.

An observable gravitational waves signal on CMB scales, has always been the core distinguishing prediction between inflation and its alternatives. After reviewing the basic observables of the CMB, I will give a brief review of "bouncing cosmology", an alternative to inflation, and show how an observable gravitational waves signal on CMB scales is generated in this model due to interaction between gauge fields and the scalar field driving the cosmic evolution. I will then discuss how this result can still be distinguished from inflationary predictions.

“Early results from the Run-II of the Large Hadron Collider were recently presented by the ATLAS and CMS experiments. They show hints of an excess in the diphoton mass spectrum near 750 GeV. While these hints might turn out to be statistical fluctuations, they could also be first indications of physics beyond the Standard Model. I will explain in detail the experimental procedures that led to these exciting results. I will further describe the strategy in which we intend to investigate this excess in the near future and either reject or confirm the discovery of new physics.”

The proton electric and magnetic form factors are basic characteristics of the proton, and can be associated with the Fourier transforms of the charge and magnetic current densities in the nonrelativistic limit. Although QCD can make rigorous predictions when the four-momentum transfer squared, Q2, is very large, in the non-perturbative regime this task is too difficult, and several phenomenological models attempt to make predictions in this domain. Measurements of the proton form factors were traditionally based on cross section measurements using the Rosenbluth separation method to extract the electric and magnetic form factors. In this method, the magnetic form factor is suppressed as Q2 decreases, and precise data at very low Q2 is not available. During the last two decades, scattering experiments with polarized beams and targets have been used for precise measurements of the proton form factors at much lower Q2 . The second part of experiment E08-007 was dedicated to measure the ratio between the proton form factors at 0.01 < Q2 < 0.08 GeV2, lower than ever achieved, by using the double-spin asymmetry technique. The experiment was conducted during the spring of 2012 at Hall A of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, using a 1-2 GeV polarized electron beam, scattering off a polarized solid ammonia target. Data analysis is currently in final stages. Recently, inconsistencies between different measurements of the proton radius have prompted intense theoretical and experimental activities to resolve the discrepancy. This experiment might improve our understanding of this problem. In this talk, I will describe the experimental system, the main challenges in the data analysis, and present preliminary results for the asymmetries and their uncertainties.

In the process $e^+e^- ightarrow par{p}$, measured by BABAR (SLAC) and later on by CMD3 (BINP) collaborations, several unexpected features have been observed. First, a very rapid growth of the cross section near threshold, faster than just s-wave contribution. Second, a strong energy dependence of the ratio $|G_E(q^2)/G_M(q^2)|$ of the proton electromagnetic form factors in a rather narrow region of energy near threshold. Third, the energy dependence of the cross section is rather flat below 200 MeV in c.m. and starts to fall above this energy. We found that these effects can be explained by the influence of the final state interaction between slow moving nucleon and antinucleon. The final state interaction can be described by an optical potential. The imaginary part of the optical potential describes the process of nucleon-antinucleon annihilation into pions. Therefore, there is a contribution to the cross section of $e^+e^- ightarrow$ hadrons via production of virtual $Nar{N}$ with subsequent annihilation into mesons. Calculating this contribution one can obtain some restrictions on the imaginary part of $Nar{N}$ optical potential.

Antihydrogen, the bound state of an antiproton and a positron, is the simplest atom consisting purely of antimatter. Its matter counterpart, hydrogen, is one of the best studied atomic systems in physics. Thus comparing the spectra of hydrogen and antihydrogen offers some of the most sensitive tests of matter-antimatter symmetry. Furthermore, the availability of neutral antimatter offers for the first time a precise measurement of its gravitational interaction that was so far not possible due to the dominance of the electro-magnetic interaction for charged antiparticles. The formation and experimental investigation of antihydrogen is the main physics goal of several col-laborations at the Antiproton Decelerator of CERN. The ASACUSA collaboration is pursuing a meas-urement of the ground-state hyperfine structure of antihydrogen in an atomic beam, a quantity which was measured in hydrogen using a maser to a relative precision of 10^{-12}. The AEgIS collaboration aims at using an ultra-cold beam of antihydrogen atoms and a classical moiré deflectometer to determine the gravitational interaction between matter and antimatter in a first step to percent level precision. After a first production of cold antihydrogen in 2002 and a first trapping in 2010 the experiments are still in the process of optimizing the antihydrogen production from trapped antiprotons and positrons. The status and prospect of these experiments will be reviewed.

We propose an inclusive search for dark photons A' at the LHCb experiment based on both prompt and displaced di-muon resonances. Because the couplings of the dark photon are inherited from the photon via kinetic mixing, the dark photon A' -> mu+mu- rate can be directly inferred from the off-shell photon gamma* -> mu+mu- rate, making this a fully data-driven search. For Run 3 of the LHC, we estimate that LHCb will have sensitivity to large regions of the unexplored dark-photon parameter space, especially in the 210-520 MeV and 10-40 GeV mass ranges. This search leverages the excellent invariant-mass and vertex resolution of LHCb, along with its unique particle-identification and real-time data-analysis capabilities.

Recent experimental results from the LHC have placed strong constraints on the masses of colored superpartners. The MSSM parameter space is also constrained by the measurement of the Higgs boson mass, and the requirement that the relic density of lightest neutralinos be consistent with observations. Although large regions of the MSSM parameter space can be excluded by these combined bounds, leptophilic versions of the MSSM can survive these constraints. We consider a scenario in which the requirements of minimal flavor violation, vanishing CP-violation, and mass universality are relaxed, specifically focusing on scenarios with light sleptons. We find a large region of parameter space, analogous to the original bulk region, for which the lightest neutralino is a thermal relic with an abundance consistent with that of dark matter. We find that these leptophilic models are constrained by measurements of the magnetic and electric dipole moments of the electron and muon, and that these models have interesting signatures at a variety of indirect detection experiments. We also consider a related scenario in which dark matter is bino-like and dark matter-nucleon spin-independent scattering occurs via the exchange of light squarks which exhibit left-right mixing. We show that direct detection experiments such as LUX and SuperCDMS will be sensitive to a wide class of such models through spin-independent scattering. Moreover, these models exhibit properties, such as isospin violation, that are not typically observed for the MSSM LSP if scattering occurs primarily through Higgs exchange. The dominant nuclear physics uncertainty is the quark content of the nucleon, particularly the strangeness content.

The computation of the Renyi entropy of a QFT, when the Renyi parameter is an integer, can be reformulated in terms of defect operators and their expectation values. I will make this correspondence precise for the case of supersymmetric Renyi entropy of an SCFT and supersymmetric defects, both of which can be computed exactly using localization.

I will consider properties of a non equilibrium steady state generated by placing two initial heat baths in contact with each other. The dynamics of the system under consideration are governed by a conformal field theory. When the number of spacetime dimensions is very large the equations of motion for the system simplify. The ``phase diagram'' associated with the steady state, the dual, dynamical, black hole description of this problem, and its relation to the fluid/gravity correspondence will be discussed.

We will discuss a procedure to construct N=1 (singular) Lagrangians describing some of the N=2 strongly coupled SCFTs believed to be non-Lagrangian. we will apply the same procedure to study some of the properties of a putatively new N=1 SCFT which otherwise does not have, at the moment, a description in terms of a Lagrangian.

I will present recent progress in the fundamental derivation of the theory of nuclei, beginning with the recent progress in obtaining few-nucleon amplitudes directly from QCD via the lattice method. The theoretical framework devised for this data will be introduced with a brief motivation for the effective-field-theory formalism. Result obtained within this approach for the three and four-nucleon system and an outlook on the future of the program will conclude the talk.

Research of neutron-rich exotic isotopes can generate significant contributions to the understanding of the astrophysical rapid neutron capture process (r-process) of nucleosynthesis, and the extension of nuclear models to regions far from stability. In this talk I present an initiative to start a research program of neutron-rich exotic isotopes in Israel. In the short term, the plan is to study specific processes and characteristics in relevant facilities in the world. I will discuss medium- and high-energy neutron-induced fission rates and fission products distributions of several actinides, which serve as input to quantify fission recycling in the r-process; and the probabilities of beta-delayed multi-neutron emission (of applicable isotopes), which affect the beta decay chains during "freeze out", thus changing the resulting stable isotopes r-process abundances. For the longer term, I explore the possibility of constructing a neutron-rich exotic isotopes facility at SARAF Phase II, mainly based on medium- and high-energy induced fission. Neutron induced fission has the advantage of generating isotopes with a higher neutron number, thus extending our reach to regions farther from stability. Preliminary estimations indicate that such a facility will be potent in a world competitive manner.

I discuss phenomenological consequences in collider physics of the Higgs boson arising from enhanced down, up, strange, and charm Yukawa couplings. I highlight a possible induced modification of the charge asymmetry in $W^+ h$ vs.~$W^- h$ production as a result of large, enhanced Yukawa couplings. This motivates a collider study of the same-sign lepton final state, $p p o W^pm h o ell^pm u ell^pm u jj$, which can serve as a Standard Model discovery scenario for the $W^pm h$ production mode with 100 fb$^{-1}$ luminosity. We find the prospects of this final state as a probe of nonstandard Yukawa couplings, however, are diminished unless the Higgs couplings to vector bosons are increased beyond the SM expectation or the extra increase in the Higgs width from the enhanced Yukawas is simultaneously mitigated. I also briefly discuss the concomitant effects of new $s$-channel Higgs production from enhanced light quark Yukawa couplings.

The structure and evolution of planets is determined by material behavior at high pressure. Such high pressures can only be achieved at High Energy Density (HED) facilities like Sandia’s Z machine and high-power laser facilities. Z stores 22MJ of energy that is released in pulses of up to 25MA peak current with 200-1000ns rise times. The large currents generate strong magnetic fields that can be used to create high pressures in dynamic material experiments. This capability enables evaluation of material equation-of-state and other properties in extreme conditions. I will present three examples using experimental results from the Z machine to answer long-standing questions in planetary science. First, solar system evolution models have been unable to consistently account for observations of Jupiter and Saturn. Recent Z observations of a first-order liquid-liquid insulator to metal transition in hydrogen may shed light on this discrepancy. Second, measurements of iron vaporization may address troubling differences between models of the Earth’s moon forming event and observations of the Earth and moon’s compositions. Finally, precise measurements of high-pressure water were used to validate DFT models which in turn informed planetary structure models suggesting an explanation of the multi-polar magnetic fields of Neptune and Uranus. The Z Fundamental Science Program (ZFSP), which enables the academic community to take advantage of the facility enabling much of this work, will be described. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

The prospect of present and near future precision Higgs programs has brought about a renewed interest in the Standard Model effective field theory (SM EFT). In addition to providing the best approach for disentangling potential new physics in precision measurements, the study of the SM EFT has prompted calculations which provide general insight and raise interesting questions about effective field theory in general. I will focus on some of these more theoretical aspects, which include a manifestly gauge covariant method of computing Wilson coefficients to 1-loop order, determining the number of independent operators in an EFT, and one-loop non-renormalization theorems.

Evidence has gradually accumulated that in AdS/CFT, any spatial subregion of the CFT has complete quantum information about some subregion of the bulk spacetime. Exactly which bulk subregion this is has been a matter of some debate, which has focused on the "causal wedge" and the "entanglement wedge" as the primary candidates. In this talk I will present a few theorems which together essentially resolve this debate in favor of the entanglement wedge. The argument combines recent work on quantum corrections to the Ryu-Takayanagi formula with the idea that the correspondence can be interpreted as a quantum error-correcting code.

: The Wheeler DeWitt equation is the statement that theories of gravity are topological in the bulk and only have boundary DOF. This fits with the Covariant entropy conjecture, which associates an areas worth of DOF to the boundary of a causal diamond. For nested diamonds it implies that the algebra of operators on the smaller one be a proper subalgebra of that on the larger one. Jacobson showed, conversely, that the area law implies Einstein's equations (except for the c.c., which Banks and Fischler argued was an asymptotic boundary condition). In Minkowski space, the maximal causal diamond is Penrose's conformal boundary. Traditionally we deal with this by introducing an S matrix, but this only works in perturbation theory because of the inevitable existence of states with arbitrary numbers of arbitrarily soft gravitons (even when there are no IR divergences). Instead we introduce an algebra of densities describing the flow of quantum numbers out to null infinity. The simplest of these are the commuting BMS local translations, which one can diagonalize. The joint spectrum of the past and future BMS generators defines a null cone, and all other currents may be thought of as generalized functions on this cone. The algebra must include helicity raising operators and the simplest way to introduce them (perhaps the only consistent way) is to write a generalization of the Awada Gibbons Shaw supersymmetric BMS algebra. One must define Sterman Weinberg jet representations of this algebra, which reveal that particle energy is related to constraints on the density degrees of freedom. Retreating from infinity to a finite causal diamond, the current algebra is cutoff by cutting off the spectrum of the Dirac operator on the holographic screen - a UV/IR correspondence reminiscent of that in AdS/CFT.

I will discuss the discovery prospects of light dark matter at neutrino facilities. I will give first an overview on the current bounds on the quarks-light dark matter interaction and I will then explain why neutrino experiments can improve on these bounds focusing in particular on present and future Fermilab experiments such as MiniBoone and LBNF.

I will discuss the papers arXiv:1512.05330, arXiv:1512.05333 and arXiv:1512.05723 which put forward an interpretation of the di-photon excess recently reported by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations as a new resonance arising from the sgoldstino which is the scalar superpartner of the goldstino, the Goldstone fermion of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking.

For the past few years our group has been investigating various configurations of gas-avalanche detectors with potential applications as sampling elements in (Semi-) Digital Hadronic CALorimeters (S)DHCALs. This has led to a particularly promising detector structure ¬ the Resistive Plate WELL (RPWELL). Recent results show that this cost-effective, large-area, compact (thin), robust, simple-to-produce, fast gas-avalanche sensing-element can fully meet the DHCAL requirements, with performance characteristics surpassing those of other technologies. In particular, our studies demonstrated a completely discharge-free operation in argon-based gas mixtures, also under a high-rate hadronic beam. This unique feature ¬ key to the successful operation of the detector as an (S)DHCAL sensing element - also makes the RPWELL an attractive, industrially mass-produced detector for large-area applications in particle-, astroparticle- and nuclear- physics, as well as in homeland security.

Abstract: Charge symmetry breaking (CSB) in the light hadronic spectrum,e.g. the neutron-proton mass difference, has been recently explained by LQCD-LQED calculations in terms of the u-d quark mass difference plus electromagnetic interactions among the u,d,s quarks. A similar level of understanding CSB is lacking for two-baryon configurations (e.g. pp, pn and nn, and more so for Lambda-p and Lambda-n). In nuclei, the CSB contribution of about 70 keV to the Coulomb-dominated 764 keV 3He-3H mass difference is accounted for by hadronic contributions. Given this background, the CSB implied by the Lambda separation energy difference 350+/-60 keV in the A = 4 mirror hypernuclei ground states, obtained by attaching a Lambda hyperon to the (3H, 3He) mirror nuclei, is LARGE. It has defied theoretical attempts to reproduce it in terms of CSB in hyperon masses and in hyperon-nucleon interactions, including one pion exchange arising from (Lambda Sigma0) mixing. In this talk I will review new calculations of CSB in the A = 4 Lambda hypernuclei, plus extensions to heavier mirror Lambda hypernuclei, using several strong-interaction (Lambda N Sigma N) coupling potential models, including a chiral EFT model in leading order. These calculations demonstrate for the first time that the observed CSB splitting of mirror levels in Lambda hypernuclei can be reproduced using realistic theoretical interaction models.

Causality fixes the signs of certain coupling constants in effective field theory. I will show how these constraints follow from a causality sum rule for position-space correlators, and combine this method with the conformal bootstrap to derive new constraints on strongly interacting CFTs. Causality of spinning operators is related to the Hofman-Maldacena conditions for positive energy in conformal collider physics. I will also discuss applications to holography.

Dark matter (DM) is one of the most intriguing open problems in modern particle- and astrophysics. Direct, indirect, and collider searches have not yet conclusively established the particle nature of dark matter. After a short overview of dark-matter physics, I will focus on recent theoretical efforts to increase the discovery potential of dark-matter searches. If dark matter indeed has particle nature, then direct detection via scattering on atomic nuclei is one of the most promising discovery channels. Effective field theories (EFT) are the appropriate framework to describe the scattering process, involving physics at very different energy scales. I will show that radiative corrections can have a large impact on the interpretation of data, and stress the importance of a consistent EFT framework. DM searches at particle colliders provide complementary information. If the relic abundance of dark matter is determined by co-annihilation processes in the early universe, this can lead to to characteristic signatures at the LHC. I will discuss these signatures in general terms and point out that not all of them are covered by current serches. Finally, I will illustrate the general strategy with a specific case study, where the coannihilation process is mediated by a scalar leptoquark. I will briefly discuss cosmological probes, collider searches, and constraints from precision physics.

"Deviations of the top electroweak couplings from their Standard Model values imply that certain scattering amplitudes of third generation fermions and longitudinally polarized vector bosons and/or Higgses grow with energy. In this talk I will demonstrate how to use the high energies accessible at the LHC to enhance the sensitivity to non-standard top-Z couplings, which are currently very weakly constrained. I demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach by performing a detailed analysis of tW -> tW scattering, which can be probed at the LHC via pp -> ttWj. I will also present other scattering processes in the same class that could provide further tests of the top sector."

I will discuss a particular class of theories, which form a certain supersymmetric generalization of three-dimensional O(N) vector models. By combining tools of the conformal bootstrap with results obtained through supersymmetric localization, I will argue that theories in this class exhibit a symmetry enhancement at the infrared fixed point. This example is interesting because the putative infrared theory with no symmetry enhancement does not exhibit any obvious inconsistencies at first sight. Once the correct infrared theories have been identified, I will present a detailed numerical bootstrap analysis showing features (or "kinks") at positions that very nearly coincide with our expectation for these models. Moreover, I will present general numerical bounds in dimensions 3

We consider 4d N=1 superconformal theories on a cylinder. The partition function on this geometry computes the superconformal index, and can be obtained via the path integral with time direction compactified on a circle and periodic conditions for fermions. We will use an effective field theory approach to derive formulas for the asymptotics of such partition functions in the limit of very large circle and of very small circle. These limits are completely fixed in terms of coefficients of the Weyl anomaly (a,c). We will explain why supersymmetry is a necessary condition in 4d to establish these higher dimensional analogues of classic results in 2d CFTs. Finally we will discuss the extension to 6d and some applications.

The nucleon and its structure are the focus of intense study on all energy scales, in both current and upcoming experiments. It is one of the simplest systems in non-perturbative QCD and the accurate description of its properties are a touchstone for theoretical calculations. Recent precision experiments have provided a wealth of information, but have also illuminated two glaring discrepancies: the proton radius puzzle and the form factor ratio divergence. The former, still unsolved, may have opened the door to the discovery of physics beyond the Standard Model, while a solution for the latter seems in reach. In this talk, I will discuss the Mainz high precision form factor measurement and global form factor analysis, which are corner stones of the radius puzzle; the OLYMPUS experiment, which is poised to give the final confirmation of the solution to the ratio problem; the MUSE experiment, which will provide a missing piece for the proton radius puzzle; and the DarkLight experiment, which will search for physics beyond the Standard Model at the intensity frontier.

In 2010 the first measurement of the proton charge radius from spectroscopy of muonic hydrogen was found to be five standard deviations away from the regular hydrogen value. More than five years later, this "proton radius puzzle" is still unresolved. The proton radius puzzle has led to a reevaluation of the extraction of proton radii from scattering and spectroscopy data. I will describe some of these developments and their implications to neutrino-nucleus scattering. One of the most promising avenues to test the muonic hydrogen result is a new muon-proton scattering experiment called MUSE. I will describe how effective field theory methods will allow us to connect muonic hydrogen spectroscopy to muon-proton scattering in a model-independent way.

The half-supersymmetric Wilson loop in N= 4 SYM is arguably the central non-local operatorin the AdS/CFT correspondence. On the field theory side, the vacuum expectation values of Wilson loops in arbitrary representations of SU(N) are captured to all orders in perturbation theory by a Gaussian matrix model. Of prominent interest are the k-symmetric and k-antisymmetric representations, whose gravitational description is given in termsof D3- and D5-branes, respectively, with fluxes in their world volumes. At leading order in N and λ the agreement in both cases is exact. In this talk we explore the structure of the next-to-leading order correction in the matrix model and compare with existing string theory calculations. We also discuss ways to improve the holographic computations to match the sub-leading corrections in the matrix model.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.04284

The current LHC results make weak scale supersymmetry difficult due to relatively heavy mass of the discovered Higgs boson and the null results of new particle searches. Geometrical supersymmetry breaking from extra dimensions, Scherk-Schwarz mechanism, is possible to accommodate such situations. A concrete example, the Compact Supersymmetry model, has a compressed spectrum ameliorating the LHC bounds and large mixing in the top and scalar top quark sector with |A_t |∼2m_t ̃ which radiatively raises the Higgs mass. While the zero mode contributions of the model has been considered, in this paper we calculate the Kaluza-Klein tower effect to the Higgs mass. Although such contributions are naively expected to be as small as a percent level for 10 TeV Kaluza-Klein modes, we find the effect significantly enhances the radiative correction to the Higgs quartic coupling by from 10 to 50 %. This is mainly because the top quark wave function is pushed out from the brane, which makes the top Yukawa coupling to depend on higher powers in the Higgs field for a fixed top mass. As a result the Higgs mass is enhanced up to 15 GeV from the previous calculation. We also show the whole parameter space is testable at the LHC run II.

Soft supersymmetry-breaking terms provide a wealth of new potential sources of flavour violation, which lead to very tight constraints from precision experiments. This has posed a challenge to construct flavour models to both explain the structure of the Standard Model Yukawa couplings and how their consequent predictions for patterns in the soft supersymmetry-breaking terms do not violate these constraints. While such models have been studied in great detail, the impact of flavour violating soft terms on the Higgs mass at the two-loop level has been assumed to be small or negligible. In this letter, we show that large flavour violation in the up-squark sector can give a positive or negative shift to the SM-like Higgs of several GeV, without being in conflict with any other observation. We investigate in which regions of the parameter space these effects can be expected.

Recently, Kitaev has proposed a variant of the Sachdev-Ye model as a solvable model of holography. The SYK model correctly reproduces the Lyapunov exponent of a black hole, as computed from an out-of-time order 4-pt function. We will revisit some older matrix models, such as the one of Iizuka, Okuda, and Polchinski, and study the 4-pt function..

We discuss the AdS7/CFT6 correspondence with sixteen supercharges, focusing on the gravity side. The six-dimensional field theories are (1, 0) supersymmetric and represent the low-energy dynamics of NS5-D6-D8-brane configurations. The gravity duals are AdS7 solutions of massive IIA supergravity. In addition, we present lower-dimensional anti-deSitter solutions, as duals to compactifications of the sixdimensional field theories.

Abstract: The pion polarizability is of fundamental interest in the low-energy sector of quantum chromodynamics. It is directly linked to the quark-gluon substructure and dynamics of the pion, the lightest bound system of the strong interaction. For more than a decade, COMPASS has been tackling the measurement of the electromagnetic polarizability of the charged pion, which describes the stiffness of the pion against deformation in electromagnetic fields. Previous experiments date back to the 1980's in Serpheukhov (Russia), where the Primakoff method for realizing interactions of charged pions with quasi-real photons was first employed. Later, other measurements based on photon-nucleon and photon-photon collisions were also carried out at different laboratories. The COMPASS measurement demonstrates that the charged-pion polarizability is significantly smaller than the previous results, roughly by a factor two, with the smallest uncertainties realized so far.

The problem of radiation-reaction plagued classical electromagnetism since it was introduced by Maxwell in 1861. Radiation-reaction is the recoil force exerted on an accelerating charge by its own radiation field. In the last century radiation-reaction resisted more than a dozen of attempts on a solution, most notably by Dirac, Landau & Lifshitz. In this talk, I will present a historical account of the problem of radiation-reaction, both in the context of classical and quantum electrodynamics. I will also discuss how radiation-reaction can finally be put to an experimental test using high intensity lasers.

Integration By Parts (IBP) is an important method for computing Feynman integrals. This talk, based on arXiv:1507.01359, will describe a formulation of the theory involving a set of differential equations in parameter space, and especially the definition and study of an associated Lie group G. The group acts on parameter space and foliates it into G-orbits. The differential equations essentially provide the gradient of the integral within the orbit in terms of integrals associated with degenerate diagrams. In this way the computation of a Feynman integral at a general point in parameter space is reduced to the evaluation of the Feynman integral at some freely chosen base point on the same orbit, together with a line integral inside the G-orbit and the degenerate integrals along the path. The method will be demonstrated by application to the two-loop vacuum diagram.

The superconformal index is a generalization of the Witten index to 4 dimensional field theories. It has been known for 10 years how to count the states contributing to the index and express the result as a matrix model. I will present new results on the exact solution of this matrix model in the case of N=4 SYM. The solution can be written in different forms: as a single integral of Jacobi theta functions, as sums over large N instantons or for fixed N as polynomials of elliptic integrals. Time permitting I will explain the generalization to theories with N=2 SUSY, where for some the index can be solved completely, and for others only up to large N instantons.

In the last few years, remarkable experimental progress has been made on a type of high- plasma device known as the field-reversed configuration (FRC). Confinement times have been increased to near-classical values and the stability times attained are 105 times longer than predicted by MHD theory. Based on these advances, a number of groups have proposed upgrading their devices to achieve reactor-relevant parameters to produce net fusion power. In this talk, I will present recent experimental findings, numerical simulations, and analytic results on a single type of FRC, one heated by a radio-frequency technique having a particular symmetry, one predicted to improve energy confinement, drive current, and heat both ions and electrons. The benefits and limitations arising from the use of the aneutronic fuel mixture D-3He will be discussed. One unique application for this type of reactor is as a rocket engine for critical missions within and outside the solar system.

CUORE-0 is a cryogenic detector that uses an array of tellurium dioxide bolometers to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 130Te. The detector consists of 52 natTeO2 crystal bolometers held in a ultra-pure copper frame and it was assembled using the new low-background techniques developed for CUORE. Using bolometers operated at _ 10mK provides excellent energy resolution (< 0.2% FWHM) at the neutrinoless double-beta decay Q-value. CUORE-0 is located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy and has been taking data since March 2013. I will present the experiment and its neutrinoless double- beta decay search results with a 9.8 kg_yr exposure of 130Te. I will also discuss the prospects of CUORE, which has a 130Te mass 19 times greater than that of CUORE-0. CUORE is in the _nal stages of the construction and scheduled to begin data-taking in early 2016.

I discuss the recent theoretical prediction and the experimental confirmation by LHCb of an exotic baryon which contains five quarks, including hidden charm. This discovery can best be understood in the context of earlier discoveries of doubly heavy exotic mesons. When viewed this way, the discov-ery of the new exotic baryon strongly suggest existence of many more analogous exotic states, with both charmed and bottom quarks. Specific predictions are given for masses and decay modes of these states, as well as possible ways to observe them in experiments.

Sterile neutrinos are a new type of neutrinos, which do not interact with matter via standard model interactions, and could explain the LSND experiment (a 3.8sigma excess of events) and the MiniBooNE experiment (a 3sigma excess of low energy events) anomalies. Recently, several new anomalies have started to appear from other areas of physics suggesting that the sterile neutrino hypothesis might be more than an exotic theory. The MicroBooNE experiment, that just completed detector construction, will be dedicated to study directly the MiniBooNE anomaly. This 170t Liquid Argon (LAr) detector will also demonstrate the vast potential of this novel technology of neutrino detection for future very large-scale neutrino experiments. I will present the MicroBooNE experiment and describe how this new detector will address the MiniBooNE excess. If MicroBooNE will answer the MiniBooNE excess, it will not be able to cover the whole region allowed by the other experimental anomalies observed. A new experiment using multiple LAr detectors located at Fermilab in the US has been recently approved, the Short-Baseline Neutrino Programme, to answer in a definitive way the question of sterile neutrinos. I will describe the programme and show how this unique setup would provide a definitive answer to this now long lasting question of sterile neutrino.

The observations of neutrino oscillations have shown that the neutrinos have mass and have determined their mass splittings. The existence of zero-neutrino double beta decay will show that the neutrino is its own anti-particle, and the half-life will determine the absolute mass scale. The rate for this decay is proportional to the square of a nuclear matrix element that must be calculated. I will how this matrix element together with the one involved in two-neutrino beta decay, can be understood in terms of the nuclear shell model. There are a variety of two-body operators involved that probe the particle-hole and particle-particle (pairing) correlations in the nuclear wave functions. The absolute matrix elements depend on accurate configurations mixing for the valence orbitals together with renormalizations from all of the other orbitals. The results can related to other nuclear properties including isospin symmetry, Gamow-Teller beta decay, the odd-even oscillations in the binding energies, and to nucleon transfer experiments.

We consider a simple supersymmetric hidden sector: pure SU(N) gauge theory. Dark matter is made up of hidden glueballinos and hidden glueballs with mass near the confinement scale. For glueballino mass ~TeV and glueball mass ~100 MeV, the glueballinos freeze out with the correct relic density and self-interact through glueball exchange to resolve small-scale structure puzzles. An immediate consequence is that the glueballino spectrum has a hyperfine splitting. We show that the radiative decays of the excited state can explain the observed 3.5 keV X-ray line signal from clusters of galaxies, Andromeda, and the Milky Way.

A gas-puff z-pinch begins with the injection of a column of gas between the electrodes of a pulsed-power driver using a fast valve. This gas is preionized and then cylindrically compressed by discharge of a high current through the column. Using Argon gas, these current-driven implosions are a well-developed, high-intensity source of ~3keV, radiation [1]. Optimization of gas-puff sources depends on manipulation of the radial mass-density and gas-species profiles injected by the puff valve, achieved using multiple concentric nozzles backed by independently pressurized gas plena [2]. In particular, the Rayleigh-Taylor unstable boundary between the lower density current sheath and higher density shell of entrained gas, must be carefully controlled. We present experimental results of the response of this instability to radiative losses during the implosion phase using both Argon (Ar) and Krypton (Kr) gas puffs. Experiments are performed using a 7cm outer diameter, triple-annular nozzle designed, developed and characterized at the Weizmann Institute and fielded on the 200 ns, 1 MA COBRA generator at Cornell University. Time-gated density measurements are recorded by 532 nm small-shift shearing interferometers, acceleration of the boundary by streaked and time-gated x-ray cameras, and plasma temperatures are inferred from 527 nm Thomson scattering across the implosion region. RT amplitude e-folding times of 20 ns are recorded in Kr, 20% faster than in Ar under otherwise identical conditions. Ion temperatures of 100 eV are recorded in Kr shells, ~40% lower than in Ar, and it appears this cooling is responsible for the observed increase in RT growth rate. * This work was supported by students and staff of the COBRA facility at Cornell University, and sponsored by the NNSA Stewardship Sciences Academic Programs. [1] B. Jones et al. IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 42 1145-1152 (2014) [2] A. Velikovich et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 77 853-856 (1996) [3] C. Jennings et al. Phys. Plasmas accepted (2015)

MHD is a model that is widely used in the study of plasma physics with applications to fusion energy, solar physics, and industrial processes. The model describes the macroscopic behavior of plasmas confined by magnetic fields. One form of the model, known as &#8220;ideal MHD&#8221;, has received extensive study, even leading to the publication of several related textbooks. The ideal MHD model is useful because of its relative simplicity making it amenable to both theoretical and computational analysis. However, a considerable number of assumptions have to be made to derive the model. The question then is whether the resulting model is actually useful in understanding and predicting experimental performance or just offers some general guidelines concerning plasma behavior. In the seminar the assumptions used in the derivation of the model plus the model&#8217;s basic physical properties will be discussed with specific application to the Z-Pinch experiment at the Weizmann Institute. Does the model make reliable predictions for the Z-Pinch experiment? We shall see.

Several ways to search for time-reversal-violation in beta decay of trapped nuclei will be reviewed. The newly upgraded TRINAT trap system will be described showing the high sensitivity required for such a search. The experimental plans for such experiments will be described.

The Ta 180m nucleus is the rarest naturally occurring isotope. It exists in an isomeric state with half-life time of 1.2 10**15 years, at an excitation energy of 77 keV and spin J=9. We study the possibility that when irradiated by gamma rays or subjected to Coulomb excitation its decay can be accelerated by the existence of a doorway. We describe the mechanism of such a decay similar to the chaos-assisted tunneling.

Hydrodynamic instabilities are a primary impediment to the success of inertial confinement fusion (ICF), as they can severely degrade capsule performance [1]. Even with perfectly smooth capsules, the fill tube and capsule support provide perturbations that seed instabilities. Consequently, understanding the evolution of perturbations and their effects on capsule performance is critical to the success of an ICF program. We discuss here the use of spectroscopic methods to diagnose the growth of hydrodynamic instabilities in imploding capsules. To understand capsule evolution and guide experimental design and interpretation, we use high-resolution HYDRA [2] simulations, postprocessed with Cretin [3], to simulate the spectra produced by capsules with specified initial perturbations. The spectral simulations cover a wide range of conditions, from the multi-keV hot spot to the cold dense pusher. For capsules with mid-Z dopants, the resulting X-ray spectrum can be analyzed to obtain information about the plasma conditions. An analysis of the dopant K-shell line emission has been used to estimate the mass of ablator material mixed into the hot spot [4]. Other spectral features can be used to provide information about the shell and further constrain the mixed mass. Other recent work has focused on using spectroscopy to quantitatively characterize the growth of perturbations. Capsules containing a small amount of argon in the gas produce sufficient emission before peak compression to provide radiographic information. The analysis of simulated spectra from capsules with machined perturbations demonstrates the possibility of extracting quantitative measures of perturbation growth. References [1] B.A. Hammel, et al, High Energy Density Physics, 6 (2010) 171. [2] M. Marinak, et al, Phys. Plasmas 8 (2001) 2275. [3] H.A. Scott, J Quant Spectrosc Radiat Transfer 71 (2001) 681. [4] S.P. Regan et al. Phys. Rev, Lett. 111, 045001 (2013).

It is by now well known that the AdS/CFT duality provides an interesting way of calculating anomalous dimensions at high spin, for a gauge theory at strong coupling. A high spin operator, made of adjoint fields, is represented by (or dual to) a rotating open string in anti-de Sitter space. The anomalous dimension shows up, in the string side of the correspondence, simply as the difference between string energy and spin. On the other hand it is also know that it is possible to introduce matter degrees of freedom - fields in the fundamental representation of the gauge group - in the AdS/CFT duality by introducing probe (flavour) branes. This approach leads to a nice description of meson states. So, a natural question to be asked is : can one calculate the anomalous dimension for operators in the fundamental representation, like a quark anti-quark, using AdS/CFT? This question will be the main issue of this seminar. We will see that the presence of an energy scale makes it a non trivial task the identification of a quantity representing, in the string side, the dimension of the gauge theory operator. Serching for the solution to this problem, we found a new entry in the dictionary of AdS/CFT: the anomalous dimension at high spin is proportional to the string proper length. Also, we found strong indications that, in the case of a non conformal duality, the operator properties are obtained from measurements made by a local observer (not sensible to energy scales) in the anti-de Sitter space, while the description of the states comes from a coordinate time observer. (reference: JHEP 1408, 104 (2014) at ArXiv:1405.7388)

Extensive studies of entanglement correlations have led to remarkable insights in recent years. Much of the focus has been on correlations between different regions in spacetime and the corresponding geometric entropies, which can be computed efficiently using AdS/CFT. The subject of this talk are non-geometric definitions of subsystems and the relation of the corresponding entanglement entropy to minimal surfaces probing the internal space in AdS/CFT. A recent proposal attempts to relate such surfaces in AdS5xS5 to entanglement entropies between U(n) and U(m) subsectors of U(n+m) N=4 SYM. To sharpen this proposal we will study it for N=4 SYM on the Coulomb branch, which reveals an interesting phase structure and explicitly shows limitations to the proposed identification. This leads us to a refined proposal, based on the relation of the internal space to the R-symmetry of N=4 SYM.

The atomic nucleus is composed of two different kinds of fermions, protons and neutrons. If the protons and neutrons did not interact, the Pauli exclusion principle would force the majority fermions, usually neutrons, to higher average momentum. In this talk I will present results from high-energy electron scattering experiments, which show that short-range interactions between the fermions form correlated, high-momentum, neutron-proton pairs. Thus, in neutron-rich nuclei the probability of finding a high-momentum (k>kFermi) proton (a minority Fermion) is greater than that of a neutron (a majority Fermion). This has wide ranging implications for atomic, nuclear and astro physics, including neutrino-nucleus scattering, the EMC effect, the NuTeV anomaly, the nuclear symmetry energy and more. This feature is universal for imbalanced interacting Fermi systems and can also be observed experimentally in two-spin states ultra-cold atomic gas systems.

Neutrinoless double beta decay is a very sensitive test for lepton number violation. In models which include small deviations from the Standard model, this decay is related to the character of the neutrino as a Majorana fermion, and to its mass. In all models, the strength of the decay is proportional to the nuclear matrix element. The calculation of these matrix elements is the main uncertainty source in the experiments and their analysis. Moreover, for such a rare decay, understanding the sensitivity of the measurement is very important in order to state the effectiveness of this experiment, with respect to other methods, such as the cosmological constraints on the number of neutrino species and their masses. In this talk I will give an overview on the status of the calculations and possible new directions towards better control on the many body calculations and their predictions.

The Helmholtzzentrum for Heavy Ion Research GSI in Darmstadt, Germany operates a worldwide unique large-scale accelerator facility for heavy ions. Plasma physics with intense heavy ion and laser beams is one of the important research pillows. The future Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), one of the largest research projects worldwide, will provide an unprecedented variety of experimental possibilities for all research directions including High Energy Density Physics. Nowadays, before the FAIR start in 2020, the Petawatt High-Energy Laser System for Ion beam eXperiments &#8211; &#8220;PHELIX&#8221; with nanosecond and femtosecond frontends allows a variety of FAIR relevant experiments directed on creation and investigation of Warm Dense Matter. In the talk, diagnostic methods using high resolved X-ray spectroscopy of the target K-shell radiation caused by laser accelerated electrons and heavy ions will be discussed.

Theoretical research in the Joint Institute for High Temperature of RAS on the intense laser interaction with matter are discussed in view of current and future experiments, in particular with PHELIX at GSI-FAIR, Darmstadt. A wide-range models elaborated in JIHT RAS are used for the description of material response on the intense laser action. Comparison of experimental findings with the results of simulation is used both for the numerical model verification and for estimations of the interaction parameters that cannot be measured directly in experiments. Electron acceleration mechanisms are discussed and analysis of the experimental data on X-ray generation at relativistic laser intensities is presented. Generation of energetic electron bunches in the laser interaction with low density targets, and also with preplasma created by laser prepulses at grazing incidence to solid targets are under discussion. The theoretical support of laser-matter experiments and optimization of secondary sources of high energy particles and photons for warm dens matter diagnostics are considered.

I will review the approach being taken to test the predictions for the Standard Model Higgs boson and the summarize most recent results from Run 1. I will outline a new approach to disentangle theoretical uncertainties from the experimental measurements and RECAST, an effort to increase the scope for new physics searches in Run 2.

Renormalized perturbation theory for QFTs typically produces divergent series, because the series coefficients grow factorially at high order. It has been a historical challenge to understand the asymptotic nature of perturbative series, and it has been unclear in what precise sense semiclassical expansions capture the physics of even weakly-coupled QFTs. I will discuss a recent conjecture that the semiclassical expansion of path integrals for asymptotically free QFTs yields well-defined answers once the implications of resurgence theory are taken into account. Resurgence theory relates expansions around different saddle points of a path integral to each other, and has the striking practical implication that the high-order divergences of perturbative series encode precise information about the non-perturbative physics of a QFT. These ideas will be discussed in the context of several QCD-like theories, where systematic semiclassical control over the dynamics is achieved using adiabatic compactifications on a circle. Fitting a conjecture by &#8217;t Hooft, understanding the origin of the notorious renormalon divergences of perturbation theory of asymptotically-free QFTs allows us to see the microscopic origin of the mass gap of these QFTs in the semiclassical domain.

: Effective actions based on scalar fields or Goldstone bosons are frequently used to describe fluids. The precise interpretation of such actions from a gravitational point of view has been somewhat unclear. In this talk I will describe a holographic interpretation of such effective actions and discuss the connection to other approaches to fluid/gravity duality.

Time-urgent policy decisions are increasingly benefiting from the scientific assessments of risks and outcomes. However the ability to inject science into decision processes can be haphazard, requiring awareness of potential tools and involvement in the policy decisions. I hope to provide some insight on how science is drawn into decisions through a series of examples including the Fukushima Daiichi accident and aircraft safety to the Gulf oil spill and Ebola.

Time-urgent policy decisions are increasingly benefiting from the scientific assessments of risks and outcomes. However the ability to inject science into decision processes can be haphazard, requiring awareness of potential tools and involvement in the policy decisions. I hope to provide some insight on how science is drawn into decisions through a series of examples including the Fukushima Daiichi accident and aircraft safety to the Gulf oil spill and Ebola.

Time-urgent policy decisions are increasingly benefiting from the scientific assessments of risks and outcomes. However the ability to inject science into decision processes can be haphazard, requiring awareness of potential tools and involvement in the policy decisions. I hope to provide some insight on how science is drawn into decisions through a series of examples including the Fukushima Daiichi accident and aircraft safety to the Gulf oil spill and Ebola.

The solar wind is a stream of hot (T~106K) magnetized plasma emerging from the Sun and expand into the interplanetary space at high speed of several hundred km/s. However, the exact plasma acceleration and heating mechanisms are not fully understood. The solar wind is classified in two types according to their coasting velocity: slow and fast. The slow solar wind reaches ~400 km/s is highly variable and dense compared to the fast wind streams, and is associated with coronal streamers. The fast wind is associated with coronal holes - regions of low-density plasma, and it is the dominant form of the solar wind during periods of solar minimum activity reaching asymptotic speed ~1000 km/s. The solar wind was observed by space probes from 0.29 AU and beyond, and was studied using remote-sensing spectroscopic observations at its sources in the corona. The magnetic and velocity fluctuations in the solar wind exhibit turbulent power spectrum that agrees with Kolmogorov turbulence scaling, and steeper spectrum in the kinetic resonant dissipation range. The fast solar wind ion temperature is often anisotropic with Tperp>Tparallel. Observations show that the slow and fast wind differ in heavy ion composition, and that heavy ion temperatures and speed, are often hotter than protons and electrons. The acceleration and heating of the solar wind was modeled in the past with single-fluid MHD equations. However, multi-fluid and kinetic modeling are required to account for the plasma properties, and study the heating processes of the solar wind heavy ions. I will present an overview of solar wind plasma observations, and show the results of solar wind plasma models using MHD, multi-fluid, and kinetic hybrid approaches that include heavy ions such as O5+, Mg9+, and He++. I will show results of synthetic UV observations that use the results of the models facilitating the interpretation of spectroscopic data. I will discuss the impact of the modeling on our current understanding of the solar wind plasma acceleration and heating and its sources in the solar corona.

The procedure for diagnostics of laser induced plasma (LIP) by optical emission spectroscopy technique is described. LIP was generated by focusing Nd:YAG laser radiation (1.064 nm, 50 mJ, 15 ns pulse duration) on the surface of pellet containing among other elements lithium. Details of the experimental setup and experimental data processing are presented. High speed plasma photography was used to study plasma evolution and decay. From those images optimum time for plasma diagnostics is located. The electron number density, Ne, is determined by fitting profiles of Li I lines while electron temperature, Te, was determined from relative intensities of Li I lines using Boltzmann plot (BP) technique. All spectral line recordings were tested for the presence of self-absorption and then if optically thin, Abel inverted and used for plasma diagnostic purposes.

SU(3) symmetry has been known to describe adequately charmed meson decay amplitudes with 30% SU(3) breaking corrections. I will describe a new approach treating perturbatively high order SU(3) breaking. I will focus on predicted amplitude relations affected by fourth order SU(3) breaking terms varying between 10-3 and 10-4. SU(3) relations failing at such high level of precision could provide evidence for new physics in the flavor sector.

The reported galactic center gamma-ray excess has a distribution and rate suggestive of an origin in dark matter annihilations. However, the conventional DM annihilation channels into standard model b quarks or tau leptons are increasingly in tension with various experimental constraints on antiproton and positron fluxes. I'll discuss a framework that is free from such constraints. The key idea is that the mediators between the dark matter and the SM are themselves part of a strongly coupled sector: a hidden valley. DM annihilation produces a dark hadron shower that in turn decays to photons, but without significant associated emission of other SM matter. I'll also discuss an explicit realization of this framework, its phenomenology, as well as pertinent cosmological, astrophysical and collider bounds.

Neutrino physics has entered the precision measurement era in the last years. This talk presents a brief overview on neutrino physics which will include the neutrino postulate, neutrinos puzzles and neutrino oscillation measurements. In addition, the long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment T2K is presented, with its recent disappearance results and its future prospects like running in anti-neutrino beam mode.

The hydrodynamic vorticity and helicity and their possible manifestations in matter forming in non-central heavy ion collisions will be discussed.

Recent measurements of the structure of 12C [1] using an optical readout TPC (O-TPC) [2] and gamma beams allowed the first study of the rotation vibration spectrum of 12C which appears strikingly similar to the spectrum predicted by a new algebraic cluster model [3] employing a geometrical (D3h) symmetry with predicted recurring rotational bands including the states: 0+, 2+, 3-, (degenerate) 4+ and 4-, 5- etc [4,5]. Such structures and symmetries are common in molecular physics, but have been observed in nuclear physics for the first time. This model also allow us to elucidate the structure of the Hoyle state and as such it is in conflict with ab-initio effective field theory calculations on the lattice [5] that predict different structure of the Hoyle state. The calculations on the lattice on the other hand use the Hoyle state to conclude the masses of light quarks and the strength of the electromagnetic interaction (within the anthropic view of the universe). Extension of this study to the newly constructed ELI-NP gamma ray facility in Bucharest with a Warsaw-UConn electronic readout TPC (eTPC) will be discussed.

I&#8217;ll describe how to define and compute Euclidean partition functions of 4d N=1 theories on spaces that look like a circle times a simple three manifold. These partition functions can be interpreted as supersymmetric indices: supertraces over the Hilbert space resulting from quantizing the theory on the three manifold, analogous to the Witten index. I&#8217;ll show how to calculate these indices using localization and describe some applications of the results.

I will discuss the recent application of the conformal bootstrap program to superconformal field theories (SCFTs) in 3d, focusing on maximally supersymmetric theories. In particular, the constraints from unitarity and crossing symmetry on the 4-point function of the stress-tensor multiplet can be implemented numerically, and lead to stringent bounds on OPE coefficients and operator dimensions. Moreover, in these SCFTs it is possible to derive relations between certain OPE coefficients analytically. These relations are obtained by restricting the operator algebra to the cohomology of a certain supercharge, and then solving the associativity constraints in the resulting truncated algebra. We will see that the numerical results are consistent with the above analytic relations. In addition, for the interacting SCFT that constitutes the IR limit of O(3) maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills, the above constraints are powerful enough to allow for an explicit computation of 3-point functions of 1/2-BPS operators.

I will discuss schwinger pair production in abelian gauge field and scalar field background and utilize them to understand the structure of perturbation theory in supersymmetric field theories as well as in holomorphic quantities in string theory as computed by the Gopakumar-Vafa invariants.

Perturbative gauge theory is currently making fascinating fast-pace progress, known as "scattering amplitudes". The first step in determining Yang-Mills scattering amplitudes is the separation of color and kinematics leading to the definition of color-ordered sub-amplitudes. We gain new insight into color structures through the role of the shuffle and split operations on the algebra of words made of the color alphabet. Then we formulate a novel question about the transformation of color structures under permutations, and we find the full answer for tree level and 1-loop. We discuss implications for sub-amplitudes. It is amusing to note that new insights and results were achieved even in such a heavily studied topic.

A scattering amplitude of elementary fields is a basic object to understand important physics not only in particle physics but also in a general quantum field theory (QFT), such as crossing symmetry and unitarity. In this talk I will talk about two body scattering amplitudes in Chern-Simons vector models, in which there has been a big progress recently. One of novel interesting phenomena discovered in this class of QFTs is non-supersymmetric duality. A main goal of this talk will be to explain our conjectural answer of the two body scatterings, which encode non-SUSY duality as well as crossing symmetry and unitarity.

Despite their long painful history dibaryon searches have recently received new interest, in particular by the recognition that there are more complex quark configurations than just the familiar &#773;qq and qqq systems. The "hidden color" aspect makes dibaryons a particularly interesting object in QCD. A resonance like structure recently observed in double-pionic fusion to deuteron, at M=2.38 GeV with &#915;= 70 MeV and (J_p)=0(3+) meanwhile proved to be the so called &#8220;inevitable dibaryon&#8221; d*(2380). To investigate its structure we have measured its decay branches into the d&#960;^0 &#960;^0,d&#960;^+ &#960;^-,pp&#960;^- &#960;^0,pn&#960;^0 &#960;^0 and pn channels. d*(2380) dibaryon is robust enough to survive even in a nuclear surrounding, which may have interesting consequences for nuclear matter under extreme conditions. It has been shown that d* resonance can explain some dilepton yield in heavy-ion collisions (&#8221;DLS Puzzle&#8221;). Various theoretical calculations on d* internal structure can be verified by future experiments in MAINZ and JLab. d*(2380) is unique multiquark system where the interplay between six-quark and molecular baryon-baryon components can be actually measured. Further investigations on d* dibaryon SU(3) multiplet companions as well as the mirror partners are expected to be done in near future by COSY, JLab, J-PARC and PANDA facilities.

Quantum phase transitions (QPTs) are structural changes in the properties of a physical system induced by a variation of parameters in the quantum Hamiltonian. In the present talk, we examine the order and chaos and persisting symmetries, accompanying a first-order QPT in nuclei. The Hamiltonian employed describes a QPT between spherical and deformed shapes, associated with U(5) and SU(3) dynamical symmetries, respectively. A classical analysis reveals a rich but simply-divided phase space structure with a Henon-Heiles type of chaotic dynamics ascribed to the spherical minimum, coexisting with a robustly regular dynamics ascribed to the deformed minimum in the Landau potential. A quantum analysis discloses regular U(5)-like multiplets in the spherical region and regular SU(3)-like rotational bands in the deformed region, which retain their identity amidst a complicated environment of other states. A symmetry analysis shows that these regular subsets of states, are associated with partial U(5) dynamical symmetry (PDS) and SU(3) quasi-dynamical symmetry (QDS), respectively.

The discovery of a very Standard-Model-like (SM) Higgs boson at the LHC has marked a major triumph for the Standard Model. However, there are appear to be non-SM phenomena in nature, such as Dark Matter, that would be explained only in a more general theory of nature. One way of probing the structure of such a theory is to search for an extension of the SM Higgs sector by directly looking for additional Higgs Bosons in nature. In this talk, I will review the most recent results from the ATLAS Experiment in the search for such bosons, with a focus on searches for a heavy neutral Higgs and an electrically charged Higgs boson.

For more than three decades, the number of transistors on a chip has grown exponentially, doubling on the average of every 18 months. With each new technology generation, the role of lithography has increased in importance not only because of the requirements for smaller feature sizes and tighter overlay, but also because of the increasing costs of lithography tools. Optical projection lithography and its extensions, e.g., water immersion, are expected to remain the lithographic technologies until at least 2020. Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) extends optical lithography to a higher resolution and provides a larger depth of focus because it utilizes a shorter imaging wavelength: 13.5 nm versus 193-248 nm. In this talk, brief history of the development of the 13.5 nm light sources is addressed along with the current state of the EUV technology. In addition to that, examples of the extreme ultraviolet radiation applications beyond the lithography and for advancing the nano-technology will be given.

Elliptic de Sitter space is a maximally symmetric spacetime that isn't time-orientable. Quantum field theory in this spacetime does not exist globally, but only for individual observers. This provides a working model for Susskind's horizon complementarity principle. I motivate a recipe for translating states and observables between the world-pictures of the different observers. In particular, we recover the thermal state at the cosmological horizon temperature as a state on which all observers agree.

I will present a superspace formulation of the local RG equation, in which the constraints of holomorphy and R-symmetry are manifest. I will discuss several properties of supersymmetric RG flows which can be derived using this methodology.

The long-lived noble-gas isotope 81Kr is the ideal tracer for old water and ice in the age range of 10^5 - 10^6 years, a range beyond the reach of 14C. 81Kr-dating, a concept pursued over the past four decades by numerous laboratories employing a variety of techniques, is now available for the first time to the earth science community at large. This is made possible by the development of an atom counter based on the Atom TrapTrace Analysis (ATTA) method, in which individual atoms of the desired isotope are selectively captured and detected with a laser-based atom trap. ATTA possesses superior selectivity, and is thus far used to analyze the environmental radioactive isotopes 81Kr, 85Kr, and 39Ar. These three isotopes have extremely low isotopic abundances in the range of 10^-16 to 10^-11, and cover a wide range of ages and applications. In collaboration with earth scientists, we are dating groundwater and mapping its flow in major aquifers around the world.

The nuclear neutron-proton contact is introduced, generalizing Tan's work, and evaluated from medium energy nuclear photodisintegration experiments. To this end we reformulate the quasi-deuteron model of nuclear photodisintegration and establish the bridge between the Levinger constant and the contact. Using experimental evaluations of Levinger's constant we extract the value of the neutron-proton contact in finite nuclei and in symmetric nuclear matter. Assuming isospin symmetry we propose to evaluate the neutron-neutron contact through measurement of photonuclear spin correlated neutron-proton pairs.

Recent results on N=(0,2) deformed (2,2) two-dimensional sigma models are reported. Such heterotic models were discovered previously on the world sheet of non-Abelian strings supported by certain four-dimensional N=1 theories. Geometric aspects and holomorphic properties of these models are studied. We derive a number of exact expressions for the beta functions in terms of the anomalous dimensions analogous to the NSVZ beta function in four-dimensional Yang-Mills. Instanton calculus provides a straightforward method for the derivation. The anomalous dimensions are calculated up to two loops implying that one of the beta functions is explicitly known up to three loops. We prove that despite the chiral nature of the model anomalies in the isometry currents do not appear for CP(N-1) at any N. This is in contradistinction with the minimal heterotic model (with no right-moving fermions) which is anomaly-free only for N=2, i.e. in CP(1). We also consider the N=(0,2) supercurrent supermultiplet (the so-called hypercurrent) and its anomalies, as well as the "Konishi anomaly." This gives us another method for finding exact &#946; functions.

We revisit relations between instanton partition functions for N=2 SUSY gauge theories of class S in the presence of surface operators, and conformal field theory. For surface operators of codimension four one expects to get Liouville (Toda) conformal blocks with degenerate fields, in the codimension two case conformal blocks of noncompact WZNW models. The two types of conformal blocks are sometimes related by an integral transformation. We argue that these relations between conformal blocks imply an IR duality between the two types of surface operators.

I will discuss a particular case of the AdS3/CFT2 higher spin duality which connects to a putative tensionless limit of AdS3 string theories. I will describe how the higher spin symmetries provide a natural way to organise the extended stringy symmetries of such a limit.

We exploit gauge theory/string theory correspondence to study quantum quenches in strongly coupled gauge theory plasma. Specifically, we consider the response of a thermal equilibrium state of the theory under variations of the coupling of a relevant operator. We discuss the transition from the 'adiabatic' regime (quenches slow on a thermal time-scale) to 'abrupt' changes (quenches fast on a thermal time-scale), and comment on the universal behaviour in latter case. We discuss evolution of the apparent and the event horizons in the dual geometry; the two-point correlation functions of operators of large conformal dimensions; and the evolution of the entanglement entropy of the system. We compare the thermalization process from the viewpoint of local (the one-point correlation functions) and these nonlocal probes.

Atomic and Molecular Data Unit, Nuclear Data Section, IAEA, P.O. Box 100, A-1400, Vienna, Austria In recent years, new regimes of matter have been created with large plasma generation devices, such as NIF (National Ignition Facility), high power short pulse lasers, X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL) and Z machines. New states of matter have been created over a wide range of plasma conditions: hotter and denser, highly transient, warm dense, or astronomically high x-ray photoionized plasmas. The new state of matter requires new theories and modelling capabilities. In terms of diagnostics, plasma spectroscopy has been applied to understand the new states of matter. To address the issues in plasma spectroscopy of the new state of plasmas, a generalized model of atomic processes in plasmas, FLYCHK, has been developed over a decade to provide experimentalists fast and simple but reasonable predictions of atomic properties of plasmas. For a given plasma condition, it provides charge state distributions and spectroscopic properties, which have been extensively used for experimental design and data analysis. It has been applied to a wide range of plasma conditions relevant to long or short-pulse laser-produced plasmas, tokamak plasmas, or astrophysical plasmas. The FLYCHK code is currently available through NIST web site (http://nlte.nist.gov/FLY) for more than 600 users. An overview of new machines used by high energy density physics will be given, and the FLYCHK code descriptions and applications are presented. Briefly, IAEA activities on atomic, molecular and plasma-surface interaction data for fusion and other applications will be presented.

The University of New Mexico is leading a consortium of universities (MIT, Ohio State, UC-Irvine, and Louisiana State) that is investigating electron beam-wave interactions in metamaterial and metamaterial-inspired slow wave structures. The purpose of these studies is to explore new beam-wave interactions that would not exist in slow wave structures made from traditional materials. By exploring new beam-wave interactions it might be possible to design new high power microwave (HPM) oscillators and amplifiers. This seminar will describe the various paths our research is taking, and will make connections to ideas that are familiar from the early days of plasma physics.

This talk outlines the main experimental results regarding the research of nanosecond time-scale discharge in gases as air, H2 and He2, conducted at P&#8805;105 Pa. Discharges were ignited in gas filled chambers, with interelectrode gap &#8804;3cm, by application of high-voltage (HV) pulses &#8804;200 kV in amplitude and duration &#8804;5ns at FWHM to a blade cathode. The discharge is ignited by runaway electrons (RAE), responsible for pre-ionization of the gas, thus allowing for the discharge to develop during single nanoseconds. In the last 4 years we have investigated this discharge using a variety of non-disturbing diagnostics with temporal resolution close to a single nanosecond: fast-framing imaging, x-ray foil spectroscopy, electron beam imaging, electron beam foil spectroscopy, optical emission spectroscopy and Coherent anti-Stokes Raman Scattering. Profound conclusions were drawn regarding the dynamics of the discharge and dependence on the gas and pressure, energy spectrum of RAE and the x-ray radiation, RAE emission mechanism, plasma parameters such as electron density and temperature, intensity of electric fields present in the plasma channels and conductivity of the discharge plasma.

The Renyi entropy is a generalization of entanglement entropy which can be used to further characterize the ground state of a quantum field theory. I'll present an observable, analogous to the Renyi entropy, which is defined for a 3d gauge theory preserving four supercharges, and which preserves a subset of the supersymmetry. Using localization techniques, this supersymmetric Renyi entropy can be calculated exactly for a variety of strongly coupled 3d gauge theories. I&#8217;ll present the results of this calculation and some examples from interesting 3d models.

After reviewing ideas about how conformal symmetry can solve the fine tuning problems of the standard model, I will discuss whether the Higgs can be a dilaton and then see how the cosmological constant problem can be addressed using the AdS/CFT correspondence.

The LHC has uncovered the final piece of the Standard Model, and excluded many of our ideas for physics beyond. The talk will focus on ``where we go from here". We will describe some unconventional reasons to think that supersymmetry may yet play some role, and controlling issues for the scale at which it might appear.

Starting with a choice of a gauge group in four dimensions, there is often freedom in the choice of magnetic and dyonic line operators. Different consistent choices of these operators correspond to distinct physical theories, with the same correlation functions of local operators in R^4. In some cases these choices are permuted by shifting the theta-angle by 2pi. In other cases they are labeled by new discrete theta-like parameters. Using this understanding we gain new insight into the dynamics of four-dimensional gauge theories and their phases. The existence of these distinct theories clarifies a number of issues in electric/magnetic dualities of supersymmetric gauge theories, both for the conformal N=4 theories and for the low-energy dualities of N=1 theories.

The exact solution of the BCS pairing Hamiltonian was found by Richardson in 1963. While little attention was paid to his solution for the remainder of the century, there began in the early 2000s a flurry of activity that focused on its applications in different areas of quantum physics. In this talk, following a brief historical overview of pairing in quantum systems, I will review Richardson's solution and its generalization to the wider class of Richardson-Gaudin integrable models and then discuss applications of these various models to problems of contemporary importance in nuclear physics.

It is more than 25 years since the classic paper of Matsui and Satz (PLB 178 (1986) 416) that predicted J/&#968; suppression in the Quark Gluon Plasma as a consequence of color charge screening that prevents ccbar binding. After intense efforts, both experimental and theoretical, the quarkonium saga remains exciting, producing surprising results and a detailed understanding of J/&#968; production in nuclear collisions is still lacking. After a brief review including the first results from the SPS, this talk will focus on the most recent results obtained at RHIC and the LHC.

The extremely precise extraction of the proton radius by Pohl et al. from the measured energy difference between the 2P and 2S states of muonic hydrogen disagrees significantly with that extracted from electronic hydrogen or elastic electron-proton scattering. This is the proton radius puzzle. The origins of the puzzle and the reasons for believing it to be very significant are explained. Various possible solutions of the puzzle are identified, and the future work needed to resolve the puzzle is discussed.

It is known that modeling uncertainties and astrophysical foregrounds can potentially introduce appreciable bias in the deduced values of cosmological parameters. While it is commonly assumed that these uncertainties will be accounted for to a sufficient level of precision, the level of bias has not been properly quantified in most cases of interest. We show that the requirement that the bias in derived values of cosmological parameters does not surpass nominal statistical error, translates into a maximal level of overall error $O(N^{-1/2})$ on $|Delta P(k)|/P(k)$ and $|Delta C_{l}|/C_{l}$, where $P(k)$, $C_{l}$, and $N$ are the matter power spectrum, angular power spectrum, and number of (independent Fourier) modes at a given scale $l$ or $k$ probed by the cosmological survey, respectively. For example, future redshifted-21-cm observations, projected to sample $sim 10^{14}$ modes, will require knowledge of the matter power spectrum to a fantastic $10^{-7}$ precision level; realizing the expected potential of future cosmological surveys, which aim at detecting $10^{6}-10^{14}$ modes, sets the formidable challenge of reducing the overall level of uncertainty to $10^{-3}-10^{-7}$.

Atomic g-factor measurements on hydrogen-like ions serve as a test of bound-state QED. Recently we completed an experiment on 28Si13+ and by comparison to theory we obtain a new value of the electron mass, about 15 times more accurate than the previously accepted value.

The history of dielectronic recombination (DR) is fill of, skepticism, hope, excitement, and finally, clear realization of its importance for hot high-Z plasmas. Using the NIST electron beam ion trap (EBIT), that is capable of reproducing conditions of future multi-million-Kelvin fusion reactors, we study dielectronic recombination in >50-times ionized heavy elements (such as tungsten) using highly forbidden low-energy magnetic-dipole lines. The newly proposed method allows for simultaneous in situ measurements of dielectronic resonances for several ions without "standard" beam ramping or ion extraction. Large-scale DR simulations show a strong effect of anisotropic unidirectional propagation of the electron beam on the plasma ionization balance.

The geologically recent (~1 Gya) Rheasilvia basin on asteroid 4 Vesta is on of the most spectacular impact structures in the solar system, with a diameter nearly equal in size to that of Vesta itself. To date, much of the numerical modeling of this impact has concentrated on the morphology of the Rheasilvia basin. However, the stress wave produced by an impact of this size is capable of causing deformation at considerable distance from the basin itself. We use high resolution hydrocodes modeling coupled with a strain analysis routine in order to understand the modes and magnitudes of deformation expected globally on Vesta following the Rheasilvia impact. These simulations give insight into several interesting observations by NASA&#8217;s Dawn spacecraft. First, our results suggest that the major system of graben circling Vesta&#8217;s equator opened shortly after the passage of the Rheasilvia related impact shock wave. Secondly, we find that the deficiency of small craters at Vesta&#8217;s north pole is likely a result of antipodal focusing of Rheasilvia impact related stresses. The details behind both of these findings are dependent on material parameters of Vesta&#8217;s interior, including core strength, mantle porosity, and damage to the body from previous major impacts. By matching model output to observation, we can perform a crude sort of seismology and gain insight into both Vesta&#8217;s internal rheology as well as its impact history.

Neutrinoless double beta decay, a rare nuclear process, if found, would confirm the Majorana nature of neutrinos. Successful observation of neutrinoless double beta decay would require a detector with substantial amount of candidate isotope, as well as excellent energy resolution and extremely low background. The CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) experiment aims at addressing all these challenges with low temperature bolometers. CUORE is currently being constructed underground at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy. It packs 988 TeO2 crystals of 5x5x5 cm3 each, totaling 741 kg of detection mass, of which the candidate isotope Te-130 is 204 kg. The whole detector will be cooled down to a base temperature of 10 mK and the particle interaction signal will be read out from temperature rise of each crystal due to energy release.

In this talk I review recent experimental evidence presented by the FINUDA Collaboration in the e+e --> Phi --> K+K- DAFNE machine at Frascati, Italy, for a particle stable Lambda-6H, with one proton and four neutrons stabilized by a Lambda hyperon [1]. Ongoing few-body calculations of Lambda-6H as well as shell-model estimates for its stability will also be briefly reviewed. The Lambda-6H hypernucleus was highlighted by Akaishi [2] as a test ground for the significance of Lambda N Sigma N coupling in Lambda hypernuclei, spurred by the role it plays in s-shell hypernuclei and by the far-reaching consequences it might have for dense neutron-star matter with strangeness. The discovery of Lambda-6H has stirred renewed interest in charting domains of particle-stable neutron-rich Lambda hypernuclei, particularly for unbound nuclear cores. Millener and I have studied within a shell-model approach several neutron rich Lambda hypernuclei in the nuclear p shell that could be formed in (pi-,K+) (ongoing experiment E10 at J-PARC, Japan) or in (K-,pi+) reactions on stable nuclear targets. The hypernuclear shell-model input was taken from a theoretically inspired successful fit of gamma-ray transitions in p-shell Lambda hypernuclei. Predictions for binding energies of Lambda-9He, Lambda-10Li, Lambda-12Be and Lambda-14B will be reviewed, concluding that none of the large effects conjectured by Akaishi to arise from Lambda N Sigma N coupling is borne out by our realistic shell-model calculations.

Nuclear transparency, Tp(A), is a measure of the average probability for a struck proton to escape the nucleus without further interaction. It is usually defined as the ratio of the measured quasi-elastic A(e,e'p) cross section to a calculation that assumes no final state interactions (FSI). Nuclear transparencies were extracted for mean field protons, below the Fermi sea level, where the spectral functions are well known. In this talk I will present a novel observable, the transparency ratios, Tp(A)/Tp(12C), for knockout of high-missing-momentum protons from the breakup of Short Range Correlated pairs (2N-SRC) in 27Al, 56Fe and 208Pb nuclei relative to 12C. The ratios were measured at large Q2 and xB>1.2 where the reaction is dominated by scattering off 2N-SRC. The transparency ratios of the knocked-out (leading) protons coming from 2N-SRC breakup are 20-30% lower than those of mean field protons and are in better agreement with Glauber calculations. The new transparencies scale as A-1/3, which is consistent with scattering from nucleons at the nuclear surface. Conditioned transparency ratios for recoiling protons from A(e,e'pp) scattering are consistent with unity, evidence of the low FSI of the recoil nucleon with the A-2 system. This analysis is part of a data mining initiative that will be described in the talk.

Our approach is based on extension of the QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics) sum rules (SR) method to systems with finite density of the baryon quantum number. It is based on the dispersion relations for the function, describing the system which carries the quantum numbers of the hadron. Exchange by the strongly correlated quark systems (mesons) is expressed in terms of exchange by the system of weakly interacting quarks with the same quantum numbers. The nucleon self-energies are obtained without employing a controversial conception of interaction between point-like nucleons. The calculation does not involve phenomenological parameters. Application of the approach enables to express such characteristics of nucleon in nuclear matter as the Dirac effective mass m* and the vector self energy Sigma in terms of the density dependent QCD condensates. The condensates of the lowest dimension d=3 are the most important ones. These are the vector and the scalar quark condensate. The vector condensate is exactly proportional to the density due to conservation of the vector current. The linear part of the scalar condensate is presented in terms of the pion-nucleon sigma term, which can be expressed through the amplitude of the pion-nucleon elastic scattering. The most important next-to-leading condensates of dimension d=4 are expressed through the moments of the proton deep inelastic structure functions. Thus the most important density-dependent condensates are either calculated or related to observables. As a result, we find m* ~ -600 MeV, Sigma ~ 300 MeV at the phenomenological saturation value of density, in agreement with the results of the standard nuclear physics. We obtain also the density dependence of these characteristics.

Our approach is based on extension of the QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics) sum rules (SR) method to systems with finite density of the baryon quantum number. It is based on the dispersion relations for the function, describing the system which carries the quantum numbers of the hadron. Exchange by the strongly correlated quark systems (mesons) is expressed in terms of exchange by the system of weakly interacting quarks with the same quantum numbers. The nucleon self-energies are obtained without employing a controversial conception of interaction between point-like nucleons. The calculation does not involve phenomenological parameters. Application of the approach enables to express such characteristics of nucleon in nuclear matter as the Dirac effective mass m* and the vector self energy Sigma in terms of the density dependent QCD condensates. The condensates of the lowest dimension d=3 are the most important ones. These are the vector and the scalar quark condensate. The vector condensate is exactly proportional to the density due to conservation of the vector current. The linear part of the scalar condensate is presented in terms of the pion-nucleon sigma term, which can be expressed through the amplitude of the pion-nucleon elastic scattering. The most important next-to-leading condensates of dimension d=4 are expressed through the moments of the proton deep inelastic structure functions. Thus the most important density-dependent condensates are either calculated or related to observables. As a result, we find m* ~ -600 MeV, Sigma ~ 300 MeV at the phenomenological saturation value of density, in agreement with the results of the standard nuclear physics. We obtain also the density dependence of these characteristics.

Medical imaging is a fast growing field which received a boost in the last years due to advances in the new detector materials and read-out electronics. The new detectors combined with the new software greatly improve the photon count statistics allowing reducing the patient dose due to radioactive ex-posure, bringing at the same time the diagnostic capabilities to the new level. Such a rapid progress in the SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) and CT (Computed Tomography) is of particular interest in the framework of this talk. The most advanced among the existing CT systems utilize scintillating materials coupled with photodiodes to create 2D images used as an input to the 3D image reconstruction. Spectroscopic solid state detectors would allow transforming these systems producing &#8220;black and white&#8221; images based only on energy-integrated I/I0 information into state of the art photon counting systems known as multi-energy or &#8220;true colour&#8221; CT. The entry requirements on detectors to be used in these applications is stable operation under X-ray fluxes of 107 to 108 counts&#8226;s-1&#8226;mm-2. In this talk I shall discuss the advantages and possible future developments of CdZnTe and CdTe room-temperature semiconductor detectors for developing these innovating medical imaging tech-niques. These detectors have been proven to be the main candidates for that purpose, in particular since their large average atomic mass number combined with the high energy resolution provides ex-cellent quantum efficiency superior to other semiconductor materials.

The European Spallation Source (ESS) is a European construction project in Lund in Sweden for a 5 MW long pulse spallation neutron source. The facility will deliver a 2.86 ms long pulse at 14 Hz and it will deliver 30 times more neutrons in the pulse than any previous source and it will be the first spallation source with an average neutron flux as high as the most intense research reactors. 22 instruments will be developed for the long pulse concept, some of them placed as far away as 300 meters. The facility should start operating in 2019 with 7 instruments operational for first day of operation. 17 countries have signed an MoU for the design update and the construction of ESS. The accelerator is a linear accelerator with a Warm front-end and three families of super conducting cavities (spoke and elliptical) and will deliver a 2.86 ms long pulse with a pulse current of 50 mA at 2.5 GeV. The target will be a rotating tungsten wheel which is Helium gas cooled. I will in this presentation give an overview of the facility and the ESS project and give some details on the accelerator part of the project.

The properties of composite systems can normally be explained in terms of the sum of the properties of their constituents, with small corrections for how they combine (binding energy, relative angular momentum etc.), but not so the nucleon. The constituent quarks account for less than 15% of the nucleon mass and less than half of its spin. In order to understand these "building blocks" of our universe we are unable to take them apart, due to confinement, and have to resort to probing their bulk properties and behaviour as a system. In the A2 Collaboration of the Institut fuer Kernphysik at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, we investigate the nucleon using a photon beam derived from the Mainzer Mikrotron (MAMI) electron beam in combination with the Glasgow Photon Tagger. This quasi-monoenerghetic photon beam is then directed onto a variety of targets, including polarised 3He, protons & deuterons, with the resulting particles being detected in a combined Crystal Ball - TAPS 4pi detector array. Reactions studied include single and multiple meson photoproduction, Compton Scattering and rare meson decays. The high flux photon beam combined with the large acceptance detector system and polarised target capability allow for world leading, and often unique measurements. We will provide an overview of the detector system and physics program with a focus on the determination of the nucleon polarisabilities through Compton Scattering.

The radius of the proton, generally assumed to be a well measured and understood quantity has recently come under scrutiny due to highly precise, yet conflicting, experimental results. These new results have generated a host of interpretations, none of which are completely satisfactory. I will present a general overview to the topic, from the early measurements of the 1950s to the high precision experiments performed today. I will further discuss the various radii and measurements and present some of the attempted explanations for the discrepancies observed. Lastly, I will discuss a planned experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute which may help shed new light on the issue.

Vigorous research in nanoscience and nanotechnology is expected to lead to exciting new applications, but considering that the first person to envision science at the nano scale was one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the last century, one should wonder whether we can expect to see any new physics emerging from this activity as well. I will attempt to answer this question by reviewing some exciting developments in the field of nanomechanics, emphasizing my particular interests, ranging from classical nonlinear dynamics, through mesoscopic physics of phonons, to the ultimate limit of QEM (quantum electromechanics).

I will describe a number of phenomena, X, that arise when a magnetic field is threaded through AdS4 spacetime. These include X="Catalysis" and X="Screening". I will also describe some work in progress with X="Electron Stars" in which the gravitational backreaction of fermions in the lowest Landau level is computed through bosonization.