Narrow Results

I discuss the possibility of generating the observed baryon number in the universe through the lepton-number violating processes in a class of SO(10) grand unification theories. The key ingredient is the CP violating decay of the heavy right-handed neutrinos out of thermal equilibrium.

Mixing of fermion and antifermion states occurs in gravitational interactions, leading to non-conservation of fermion number above temperatures determined by the particle masses. We study the evolution of a -system and calculate the cross-sections for the reactions . Their values are identical in both directions. However, if changes quickly into a lighter antiparticle, then the reaction symmetry is broken, resulting in an increased production of matter over antimatter.

We construct a classical dynamical system whose phase space is a certain infinite-dimensional Grassmannian manifold, and propose that it is equivalent to the large N limit of two-dimensional QCD with an O(2N+1) gauge group. In this theory, we find that baryon number is a topological quantity that is conserved only modulo 2. We also relate this theory to the master field approach to matrix models.

We analyze the CP asymmetry in flavor-specific decays for the mixing in the extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model where baryon and lepton numbers are local gauge symmetries (BLMSSM). Considering the constraint of a 125 GeV Higgs, the numerical results indicate that the theoretical prediction of agrees with the current experimental result. For certain parameter sets, the BLMSSM contributions can be sizeable in mixing and CP asymmetry in B decays, which may help understand questions in cosmology.

A 5th force coupling to baryon number $B$ has been proposed to account for the correlations between the acceleration differences $\mathrm{\Delta }{a}_{ij}$ of the samples studied in the Eötvös experiment, and the corresponding differences in the baryon-to-mass ratios $\mathrm{\Delta }{(B∕\mu )}_{ij}$. To date the Eötvös results have not been supported by modern experiments. Here, we investigate the phenomenological implications of a possible magnetic analog ${\mathcal{ℬ}}_5$ of the conventional 5th force electric field, ${\mathcal{ℰ}}_5$, arising from the Earth’s rotation. We demonstrate that, in the presence of couplings proportional to ${\mathcal{ℬ}}_5$, both the magnitude and direction of a possible 5th force field could be quite different from what would otherwise be expected and warrants further investigation.

It has been claimed recently that the black hole information-loss paradox has been resolved: the evolution of quantum states in the presence of a black hole is unitary and information preserving. We point out that, contrary to some claims in literature, information-preserving black holes still violate the baryon number and any other quantum number which follows from an effective (and thus approximate) or anomalous symmetry.