Mark P. Hertzberg, Ali Masoumi

Recently, there have been claims in the literature that the cosmological constant problem can be dynamically solved by specific compactifications of gravity from higher-dimensional toy models. These models have the novel feature that in the four-dimensional theory, the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ is much smaller than the Planck density and in fact accumulates at $\Lambda=0$. Here we show that while these are very interesting models, they do not properly address the real cosmological constant problem. As we explain, the real problem is not simply to obtain $\Lambda$ that is small in Planck units in a toy model, but to explain why $\Lambda$ is much smaller than other mass scales (and combinations of scales) in the theory. Instead, in these toy models, all other particle mass scales have been either removed or sent to zero, thus ignoring the real problem. To this end, we provide a general argument that the included moduli masses are generically of order Hubble, so sending them to zero trivially sends the cosmological constant to zero. We also show that the fundamental Planck mass is being sent to zero, and so the central problem is trivially avoided by removing high energy physics altogether. On the other hand, by including various large mass scales from particle physics with a high fundamental Planck mass, one is faced with a real problem, whose only known solution involves accidental cancellations in a landscape.

Olga Chashchina, Zurab Silagadze

We comment on the paper "Dark Matter collisions with the Human Body" by K.~Freese and C.~Savage (Phys.\ Lett.\ B {\bf 717}, 25 (2012) [arXiv:1204.1339]) and describe a dark matter model for which the results of the previous paper do not apply. Within this mirror dark matter model, potentially hazardous objects, mirror micrometeorites, can exist potentially leading to diseases triggered by multiple mutations, such as cancer.

Mijin Yoon, Dragan Huterer

Upcoming or future deep galaxy samples with wide sky coverage can provide independent measurement of the kinematic dipole - our motion relative to the rest frame defined by the large-scale structure. Such a measurement would present an important test of the standard cosmological model, as the standard model predicts the galaxy measurement should precisely agree with the existing precise measurements made using the CMB. However, the required statistical precision to measure the kinematic dipole typically makes the measurement susceptible to bias from the presence of the local-structure-induced dipole contamination. In order to minimize the latter, a sufficiently deep survey is required. We forecast both the statistical error and the systematic bias in the kinematic dipole measurements. We find that a survey covering $\sim 75\%$ of the sky in both hemispheres and having $\sim 30$ million galaxies can detect the kinematic dipole at $5\sigma$, while its median redshift should be at least $z_{med} \sim 0.75$ for negligible bias from the local structure.

Kiyotomo Ichiki, Chul-Moon Yoo, Masamune Oguri

The discrepancy between the amplitudes of matter fluctuations inferred from Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) cluster number counts, the primary temperature, and the polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) measured by the Planck satellite can be reconciled if the local universe is embedded in an under-dense region as shown by Lee, 2014. Here using a simple void model assuming the open Friedmann-Robertson-Walker geometry and a Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique, we investigate how deep the local under-dense region needs to be to resolve this discrepancy. Such local void, if exists, predicts the local Hubble parameter value that is different from the global Hubble constant. We derive the posterior distribution of the local Hubble parameter from a joint fitting of the Planck CMB data and SZ cluster number counts assuming the simple void model. We show that the predicted local Hubble parameter value of $H_{\rm loc}=70.1\pm0.34~{\rm km\,s^{-1}Mpc^{-1}}$ is in better agreement with direct local Hubble parameter measurements, indicating that the local void model provides a consistent solution to the cluster number counts and Hubble parameter discrepancies.

Enrico Barausse, Kent Yagi

Gravity theories beyond General Relativity typically predict dipolar gravitational emission by compact-star binaries. This emission is sourced by "sensitivity" parameters depending on the stellar compactness. We introduce a general formalism to calculate these parameters, and show that in shift-symmetric Horndeski theories stellar sensitivities and dipolar radiation vanish, provided that the binary's dynamics is perturbative (i.e. the post-Newtonian formalism is applicable) and cosmological-expansion effects can be neglected. This allows reproducing the binary-pulsar observed orbital decay.

Gia Dvali

We provide a model-independent argument indicating that for a black hole of entropy N the non-thermal deviations from Hawking radiation, per each emission time, are of order 1/N, as opposed to exp(-N). This fact abolishes the standard a priory basis for the information paradox.

Andrey E. Egorov, Jennifer M. Gaskins, Elena Pierpaoli, Davide Pietrobon

Gamma rays and microwave observations of the Galactic Center and surrounding areas indicate the presence of anomalous emission, whose origin remains ambiguous. The possibility of dark matter (DM) annihilation explaining both signals through prompt emission at gamma-rays and secondary emission at microwave frequencies from interactions of high-energy electrons produced in annihilation with the Galactic magnetic fields has attracted much interest in recent years. We investigate the DM interpretation of the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess by searching for the associated synchrotron in the WMAP-Planck data. Considering various magnetic field and cosmic-ray propagation models, we predict the synchrotron emission due to DM annihilation in our Galaxy, and compare it with the WMAP-Planck data at 23-70GHz. In addition to standard microwave foregrounds, we separately model the microwave counterpart to the Fermi Bubbles and the signal due to DM, and use component separation techniques to extract the signal associated with each template from the total emission. We confirm the presence of the Haze at the level of 7% of the total sky intensity at 23GHz in our chosen region of interest, with a harder spectrum $I \sim \nu^{-0.8}$ than the synchrotron from regular cosmic-ray electrons. The data do not show a strong preference towards fitting the Haze by either the Bubbles or DM emission only. Inclusion of both components provides a better fit with a DM contribution to the Haze emission of 20% at 23GHz, however, due to significant uncertainties in foreground modeling, we do not consider this a clear detection of a DM signal. We set robust upper limits on the annihilation cross section by ignoring foregrounds, and also report best-fit DM annihilation parameters obtained from a complete template analysis. We conclude that the WMAP-Planck data are consistent with a DM interpretation of the gamma-ray excess.

Christopher F. McKee, Antonio Parravano, David J. Hollenbach

The surface density and vertical distribution of stars, stellar remnants, and gas in the solar vicinity form important ingredients for understanding the star formation history of the Galaxy as well as for inferring the local density of dark matter by using stellar kinematics to probe the gravitational potential. In this paper we review the literature for these baryonic components, reanalyze data, and provide tables of the surface densities and exponential scale heights of main sequence stars, giants, brown dwarfs, and stellar remnants. We also review three components of gas (H2, HI, and HII), give their surface densities at the solar circle, and discuss their vertical distribution. We find a local total surface density of M dwarfs of 17.3 pm 2.3 Mo/pc^2. Our result for the total local surface density of visible stars, 27.0 pm 2.7 Mo/pc^2, is close to previous estimates due to a cancellation of opposing effects: more mass in M dwarfs, less mass in the others. The total local surface density in white dwarfs is 4.9 pm 0.6 Mo/pc^2; in brown dwarfs, it is ~1.2 Mo/pc^2. We find that the total local surface density of stars and stellar remnants is 33.4 pm 3 Mo/pc^2, somewhat less than previous estimates. We analyze data on 21 cm emission and absorption and obtain good agreement with recent results on the local amount of neutral atomic hydrogen obtained with the Planck satellite. The local surface density of gas is 13.7 pm 1.6 Mo/pc^2. The total baryonic mass surface density that we derive for the solar neighborhood is 47.1 pm 3.4 Mo/pc^2. Combining these results with others' measurements of the total surface density of matter within 1-1.1 kpc of the plane, we find that the local density of dark matter is 0.013 pm 0.003Mo/pc^3.The local density of all matter is 0.097 pm 0.013 Mo/pc^3. We discuss limitations on the properties of a possible thin disk of dark matter.

Gokce Basar, Gerald V. Dunne

The second-order hydrodynamical description of a homogeneous conformal plasma that undergoes a boost- invariant expansion is given by a single nonlinear ordinary differential equation, whose resurgent asymptotic properties we study, developing further the recent work of Heller and Spalinski [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 072501 (2015)]. Resurgence clearly identifies the non-hydrodynamic modes that are exponentially suppressed at late times, analogous to the quasi-normal-modes in gravitational language, organizing these modes in terms of a trans-series expansion. These modes are analogs of instantons in semi-classical expansions, where the damping rate plays the role of the instanton action. We show that this system displays the generic features of resurgence, with explicit quantitative relations between the fluctuations about different orders of these non-hydrodynamic modes. The imaginary part of the trans-series parameter is identified with the Stokes constant, and the real part with the freedom associated with initial conditions.

Clifford Cheung, Karol Kampf, Jiri Novotny, Chia-Hsien Shen, Jaroslav Trnka

We derive the first ever on-shell recursion relations for amplitudes in effective field theories. Based solely on factorization and the soft behavior of amplitudes, these recursion relations employ a new rescaling momentum shift to construct all tree-level scattering amplitudes in theories like the non- linear sigma model, Dirac-Born-Infeld theory, and the Galileon. Our results prove that all theories with enhanced soft behavior are on-shell constructible.