abstract

This decade should provide the first definitive signals of New Physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) and the goal of these lectures is a review of flavour physics in various extensions of the SM that have been popular in the last ten years. After an overture, two pilot sections and a brief summary of the structure of flavour violation and CP violation in the SM, we will present the theoretical framework for weak decays that will allow us to distinguish between different New Physics (NP) scenarios. Subsequently we will present eleven concrete BSM models summarizing the patterns of flavour violation characteristic for each model. In addition to models with minimal flavour violation (MFV) accompanied by flavour-blind phases we will discuss a number of extensions containing non-MFV sources of flavour and CP violation and, in particular, new local operators originating in right-handed charged currents and scalar currents. Next, we will address various anomalies in the data as seen from the point of view of the SM that appear very natural in certain extensions of the SM. In this presentation selected superstars of this field will play very important role. These are processes that are very sensitive to NP effects and which are theoretically clean. Particular emphasis will be put on correlations between various observables that could allow us to distinguish between various NP scenarios. Armed with this knowledge we will propose a coding system in a form of a \(3\times 3\) matrix which helps to distinguish between various extensions of the SM. Finding which flavour code is chosen by nature would be an important step towards the fundamental theory of flavour. We give several examples of flavour codes representing specific models. We believe that such studies combined with new results from the Tevatron, the LHC, Belle II, Super–Flavour–Facility in Rome and dedicated Kaon and lepton flavour violation experiments should allow to improve significantly our knowledge about the dynamics at the shortest distance scales.

abstract

Some important topics from history of neutrino physics over the last fifty years are discussed. History of neutrinos is older, at 4th December 2010 it will be eightieth anniversary of the neutrino birth. In that day W. Pauli wrote the famous letter to participants of the physics conference at Tubingen with the suggestion that “there could exist in the nuclei electrically neutral particle”. We will concentrate mostly on the 50 years of neutrino history just to show the long tradition of the Zakopane Theoretical School.

abstract

The SuperB project of a new generation flavour factory is presented. An overview of physics programme, together with the description of the conceptual design of the accelerator and detector are given.

abstract

The status of preparations to Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB collider is reviewed in this article.

abstract

The soft-wall AdS/QCD model, modified by a positive-sign dilaton metric, leads to a remarkable one-parameter description of nonperturbative hadron dynamics. The model predicts a zero-mass pion for zero-mass quarks and a Regge spectrum of linear trajectories with the same slope in the leading orbital angular momentum \(L\) of hadrons and the radial quantum number \(N\). Light-front holography maps the amplitudes which are functions of the fifth dimension variable \(z\) of Anti-de Sitter space to a corresponding hadron theory quantized on the light front. The resulting Lorentz-invariant relativistic light-front wave equations are functions of an invariant impact variable \(\zeta \) which measures the separation of the quark and gluonic constituents within the hadron at equal light-front time. The result is to a semiclassical frame-independent first approximation to the spectra and light-front wavefunctions of meson and baryon light-quark bound states, which in turn predict the behavior of the pion and nucleon form factors. The theory implements chiral symmetry in a novel way: the effects of chiral symmetry breaking increase as one goes toward large interquark separation, consistent with spectroscopic data, and the hadron eigenstates generally have components with different orbital angular momentum; e.g., the proton eigenstate in AdS/QCD with massless quarks has \(L=0\) and \(L=1\) light-front Fock components with equal probability. The soft-wall model also predicts the form of the non-perturbative effective coupling \(\alpha _{\rm s}^{\rm AdS}(Q)\) and its \(\beta \)-function which agrees with the effective coupling \(\alpha _{g_1}\) extracted from the Bjorken sum rule. The AdS/QCD model can be systematically improved by using its complete orthonormal solutions to diagonalize the full QCD light-front Hamiltonian or by applying the Lippmann–Schwinger method in order to systematically include the QCD interaction terms. A new perspective on quark and gluon condensates is also reviewed.

abstract

We introduce a duality relation between two distinct branes, a cosmological brane with macroscopic matter and a holographic brane with microscopic gauge fields. Using brane-world cosmology with a single brane in a 5-dimensional AdS\(_5\) background, we find an explicit time-dependent holographic correspondence between the bulk metric surrounding the cosmological brane and the \(\cal {N}=\) 4 gauge field theory living on the boundary of the \(Z_2\)-symmetric mirror bulk, identified with the holographic brane. We then relate the cosmic acceleration on the cosmological brane to the conformal anomaly of the gauge theory on the holographic brane. This leads to a dual microscopic interpretation of the number of \(e\)-foldings of the cosmological eras on the cosmological brane.

abstract

Renormalization group procedure transforms local Hamiltonian densities of canonical quantum field theories into non-local ones. The non-locality is illustrated by a generic example of a term with a product of three fields, in which case it can be understood in terms of a wave function of a bound state of two effective particles.

abstract

I discuss several recent highly accurate theoretical predictions for masses of baryons containing the \(b\) quark, especially \({\mit \Omega }_b\,\,(ssb)\) recently reported by CDF. I also point out an approximate effective supersymmetry between heavy quark baryons and mesons and provide predictions for the magnetic moments of \({\mit \Lambda }_c\) and \({\mit \Lambda }_b\). Proper treatment of the color-magnetic hyperfine interaction in QCD is crucial for obtaining these results.

abstract

I discuss a Born (\(\hbar \to 0\)) approximation of hadrons, motivated by a general feature of the data: The spectra of hadrons reflect their valence (\(q\bar q\) or \(qqq\)) constituents, whereas hard scattering reveals a prominent sea quark distribution. Why do the sea quark d.o.f.s not imply a richer spectrum? I look for an approach that can reconcile the quark and parton model descriptions of hadrons, and consider how this physics could emerge from the QCD Lagrangian. The possibilities are reduced by insisting that the approximation should be simple, yet adhere to the rules of quantum field theory. One might suspect that no such method exists — but the Born approximation presents itself. The description of relativistic bound states that it brings has interesting features which merit further exploration.

abstract

Using the framework of generalized integrability, the BPS chiral model is constructed. This model is integrable in the sense of the existence of infinitely many conservation laws, solvable as it leads to exact soliton solutions carrying arbitrary topological charge and, by construction, very topological in nature. Moreover, solutions are of the Bogomolny type and saturate the corresponding topological bound, which immediately guarantees their stability. When applied to nuclear physics, the model seems to cure several serious problems appearing in the standard Skyrme model as well as in its typical generalizations. At the classical level, it qualitatively reproduces the main features of the liquid drop model of nuclei, providing proper relations between masses and radii of nuclei and the baryon number. In spite of its rather unusual form, the model also allows for the semiclassical quantization.

abstract

The early thermalization and HBT puzzles in relativistic heavy-ion collisions studied at RHIC are shortly reviewed. The results of recent hydrodynamic calculations that shed light on these two intriguing issues are presented. In particular, the role of the elliptic flow as a signature of early thermalization is critically examined.

abstract

Understanding physics in domains of critical (quantum unstable) fields requires investigating the classical and quantum particle dynamics at the critical acceleration, \(\dot u \rightarrow 1\) [natural units]. This regime of physics remains today experimentally practically untested. Particle and laser pulse collision experiments reaching critical acceleration are becoming feasible. Ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions breach the critical domain but are complicated by the presence of much other physics. The infamous problem of radiation reaction and the challenging environment of quantum vacuum instability arising in the high field domain signal the need for a thorough redress of the present theoretical framework.

abstract

We study multistrange hadrons produced in NA49 and STAR experiments at center of mass energies varying from \(\sqrt {s_{NN}}=7.61\) GeV to 200 GeV. We show that the yields of \({\mit \Xi }\), \(\overline {\mit \Xi }\) and \(\phi \) can help to constrain the physical conditions present in the hot dense fireball source of these multistrange hadrons created in heavy ion collision. We address the question of chemical equilibrium of individual quark flavors before and after hadronization and offer a few predictions for LHC.

abstract

This paper concerns the properties of strongly interacting matter at very high energy density. I begin with the Color Glass Condensate and the Glasma, matter that controls the earliest times in hadronic collisions. I then describe the Quark Gluon Plasma, matter produced from the thermalized remnants of the Glasma. Finally, I describe high density baryonic matter, in particular Quarkyonic matter. The discussion will be intuitive and based on simple structural aspects of QCD. There will be some discussion of experimental tests of these ideas.

abstract

The present status and future of the physics program of Central Production using the STAR detector at RHIC are described. The program focuses on particle production resulting from the Double Pomeron Exchange (DPE) process. Forward protons from the DPE interaction are detected in the Roman Pot system installed at 55.5 m and 58.5 m on both sides of the STAR interaction point. The recoil system of charged particles from the DPE process is measured in the STAR Time Projection Chamber (TPC). The first data were taken during the 2009 RHIC Run 9 using polarized proton–proton collisions at \(\sqrt {s}=200\) GeV. The preliminary spectra of two pion and four pion invariant mass reconstructed by STAR TPC in central region of pseudo-rapidity \(|\eta | \lt 1\), are presented. Plans to take data with the current system at \(\sqrt {s}=500\) GeV and plans to upgrade the forward proton tagging system, so that it can reach higher masses and obtain large data samples in searching for glueballs that could be produced in the DPE process, are discussed.

abstract

We present some basic elements of the treatment of particle multiplicities in jets from high energy collisions within perturbative QCD. Then we discuss the universal features of the inclusive particle spectrum for the limiting case of momentum \(p\to 0\) (or \(p_{\rm T}\to 0\)) as expected from soft QCD gluon bremsstrahlung. The energy independence of the invariant particle density in this limit \(I_0=E\frac {dN}{d^3p}|_{\,p\to 0}\) is predicted as well as the dependence of this quantity on the colour factors characteristic of the underlying partonic processes. These properties are first recalled from \(e^+e^-\) collisions and then extended to \(pp\) and nuclear collisions according to W. Ochs, V.A. Khoze, M.G. Ryskin, Eur. Phys. J. C68, 141 (2010). Present data support these predictions. It will be interesting to see whether new incoherent contributions show up in the new energy regime of LHC.

abstract

We review basic ideas and recent developments on the determination of the parton substructure of the nucleon in view of applications to precision hadron collider physics. We review the way information on PDFs is extracted from the data exploiting QCD factorisation, and discuss the current main two approaches to parton determination (Hessian and Monte Carlo) and their use in conjunction with different kinds of parton parameterisation. We summarise the way different physical processes can be used to constrain different aspects of PDFs. We discuss the meaning, determination and use of parton uncertainties. We briefly summarise the current state of the art on PDFs for LHC physics.

abstract

In the quark parton model (QPM), polarized structure function \(g_1\) is directly related to contributions of the individual quark flavors to the overall spin of the nucleon. Sum rules based on this simple model have provided fertile ground for understanding the origin of the nucleon spin in terms of quark degrees of freedom. Our next-to-leading-order (NLO) analyses of the world \(g_1\) data based on the Jacobi polynomial expansion method have provided indirect information about the components of the nucleon’s spin. Moreover, we study the dependence of our results to the number of Jacobi polynomial expansion terms in this paper.

abstract

Utilizing recent deep inelastic scattering data and our recent NLO analysis, we present a QCD analysis of the proton in order to determine the parton distributions at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) of QCD. We also study the heavy quark contributions to the proton structure function \(F_2^i(x,Q^2)\), with \(i\) = \(c\), \(b\). Our NNLO analysis will be performed within the modified minimal subtraction factorization and renormalization scheme. This analysis is undertake within the framework of the so-called “zero-mass variable flavor number scheme” (ZM-VFNS) parton model predictions at high energy colliders where the heavy quarks (\(c\), \(b\), \(t\)) considered as massless partons within the nucleon.

abstract

We present a short review describing the use of noncommutative space-time in quantum-deformed dynamical theories: classical and quantum mechanics as well as classical and quantum field theory. We expose the role of Hopf algebras and their realizations (noncommutative modules) as important mathematical tool describing quantum-deformed symmetries: quantum Lie groups and quantum Lie algebras. We consider in some detail the most studied examples of noncommutative space-time geometry: the canonical and \(\kappa \)-deformed cases. Finally, we briefly describe the modifications of Einstein gravity obtained by introduction of noncommutative space-time coordinates.