H. Shariff, X. Jiao, R. Trotta, D.A. van Dyk

We present results obtained by applying our BAyesian HierArchical Modeling for the Analysis of Supernova cosmology (BAHAMAS) software package to the 740 spectroscopically confirmed supernovae type Ia (SNIa) from the "Joint Light-curve Analysis" (JLA) dataset. We simultaneously determine cosmological parameters and standardization parameters, including host galaxy mass corrections, residual scatter and object-by-object intrinsic magnitudes. Combining JLA and Planck Cosmic Microwave Background data, we find significant discrepancies in cosmological parameter constraints with respect to the standard analysis: we find Omega_M = 0.399+/-0.027, 2.8\sigma\ higher than previously reported and w = -0.910+/-0.045, 1.6\sigma\ higher than the standard analysis. We determine the residual scatter to be sigma_res = 0.104+/-0.005. We confirm (at the 95% probability level) the existence of two sub-populations segregated by host galaxy mass, separated at log_{10}(M/M_solar) = 10, differing in mean intrinsic magnitude by 0.055+/-0.022 mag, lower than previously reported. Cosmological parameter constraints are however unaffected by inclusion of host galaxy mass corrections. We find ~4\sigma\ evidence for a sharp drop in the value of the color correction parameter, beta(z), at a redshift z_trans = 0.662+/-0.055. We rule out some possible explanations for this behaviour, which remains unexplained.

A. Rest D. Scolnic R. J. Foley M. E. Huber R. Chornock G. Narayan J. L. Tonry E. Berger A. M. Soderberg C. W. Stubbs A. Riess R. P. Kirshner S. J. Smartt E. Schlafly S. Rodney M. T. Botticella D. Brout P. Challis I. Czekala M. Drout M. J. Hudson R. Kotak C. Leibler R. Lunnan G. H. Marion M. McCrum D. Milisavljevic A. Pastorello N. E. Sanders K. Smith E. Stafford D. Thilker S. Valenti W. M. Wood-Vasey Z. Zheng W. S. Burgett K. C. Chambers L. Denneau P. W. Draper H. Flewelling K. W. Hodapp N. Kaiser R. P. Kudritzki E. A. Magnier N. Metcalfe P. A. Price W. Sweeney R. Wainscoat C. Waters

We present griz light curves of 146 spectroscopically confirmed Type Ia Supernovae ($0.03 < z <0.65$) discovered during the first 1.5 years of the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey. The Pan-STARRS1 natural photometric system is determined by a combination of on-site measurements of the instrument response function and observations of spectrophotometric standard stars. We find that the systematic uncertainties in the photometric system are currently 1.2\% without accounting for the uncertainty in the HST Calspec definition of the AB system. A Hubble diagram is constructed with a subset of 113 out of 146 SNe Ia that pass our light curve quality cuts. The cosmological fit to 310 SNe Ia (113 PS1 SNe Ia + 222 light curves from 197 low-z SNe Ia), using only SNe and assuming a constant dark energy equation of state and flatness, yields $w=-1.120^{+0.360}_{-0.206}\textrm{(Stat)} ^{+0.269}_{-0.291}\textrm{(Sys)}$. When combined with BAO+CMB(Planck)+$H_0$, the analysis yields $\Omega_{\rm M}=0.280^{+0.013}_{-0.012}$ and $w=-1.166^{+0.072}_{-0.069}$ including all identified systematics (see also Scolnic et al. 2014). The value of $w$ is inconsistent with the cosmological constant value of $-1$ at the 2.3$\sigma$ level. Tension endures after removing either the BAO or the $H_0$ constraint, though it is strongest when including the $H_0$ constraint. If we include WMAP9 CMB constraints instead of those from Planck, we find $w=-1.124^{+0.083}_{-0.065}$, which diminishes the discord to $<2\sigma$. We cannot conclude whether the tension with flat $\Lambda$CDM is a feature of dark energy, new physics, or a combination of chance and systematic errors. The full Pan-STARRS1 supernova sample with $\sim\!\!$3 times as many SNe should provide more conclusive results.

Johann Rafelski, Jeremiah Birrell

We study how the hot Universe evolves and acquires the prevailing vacuum state, demonstrating that in specific conditions which are believed to apply, the Universe becomes frozen into the state with the smallest value of Higgs vacuum field $v=\langle h\rangle$, even if this is not the state of lowest energy. This supports the false vacuum dark energy $\Lambda$-model. Under several likely hypotheses we determine the temperature in the evolution of the Universe at which two vacuua $v_1, v_2$ can swap between being true and false. We evaluate the dynamical surface pressure on domain walls between low and high mass vaccua due to the presence of matter and show that the low mass state remains the preferred vacuum of the Universe.

Jarah Evslin

We present a simple formula for the average dark energy equation of state at redshifts between those of two observations of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). The formula is independent of any parametrization or basis of the dark energy equation of state and essentially independent of the cosmological model. We use this formula to study the well-known tension between Lyman alpha forest BAO and other cosmological probes. Using only the line of sight Lyman alpha forest BAO and BOSS CMASS dataset, there is already more than 2 sigma tension with the standard LambdaCDM cosmological model which implies that either (i) The BOSS Lyman alpha forest measurement of the Hubble parameter was too low as a result of a statistical fluctuation or systematic error or else (ii) the dark energy equation of state falls steeply at high redshift.

Harshil M. Kamdar, Matthew J. Turk, Robert J. Brunner

We present a new exploratory framework to model galaxy formation and evolution in a hierarchical universe by using machine learning (ML). Our motivations are two-fold: (1) presenting a new, promising technique to study galaxy formation, and (2) quantitatively analyzing the extent of the influence of dark matter halo properties on galaxies in the backdrop of semi-analytical models (SAMs). We use the influential Millennium Simulation and the corresponding Munich SAM to train and test various sophisticated machine learning algorithms (k-Nearest Neighbors, decision trees, random forests and extremely randomized trees). By using only essential dark matter halo physical properties for haloes of $M>10^{12} M_{\odot}$ and a partial merger tree, our model predicts the hot gas mass, cold gas mass, bulge mass, total stellar mass, black hole mass and cooling radius at z = 0 for each central galaxy in a dark matter halo for the Millennium run. Our results provide a unique and powerful phenomenological framework to explore the galaxy-halo connection that is built upon SAMs and demonstrably place ML as a promising and a computationally efficient tool to study small-scale structure formation.

Keith A. Olive

The absence of low energy supersymmetry in run I data at the LHC has pushed the nominal scale for supersymmetry beyond a TeV. While this is consistent with the discovery of the Higgs boson at \approx 125 GeV, simple models with scalar and gaugino mass universality are being pushed into corners of parameter space. Some possibilities within the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model (with four parameters) are discussed along with a one parameter extension in which the Higgs soft masses are non-universal. Also discussed are 2-, 3-, and 4-parameter versions of pure gravity mediated models with a wino, Higgsino, or bino LSP respectively.

Andrew J. Tolley, De-Jun Wu, Shuang-Yong Zhou

We construct static, spherically symmetric black hole solutions in scalar extended ghost-free massive gravity and show the existence of hairy black holes in this class of extension. While the existence seems to be a generic feature, we focus on the simplest models of this extension and find that asymptotically flat hairy black holes can exist without fine-tuning the theory parameters, unlike the bi-gravity extension, where asymptotical flatness requires fine-tuning in the parameter space. Like the bi-gravity extension, we are unable to obtain asymptotically dS regular black holes in the simplest models considered, but it is possible to obtain asymptotically AdS black holes.

I. L. Buchbinder, K. Koutrolikos

We develop the BRST approach for all massless integer and half-integer higher spins in 4D Minkowski space, using the two component spinor nota- tion and develop the Lagrangian formulation for supersymmetric higher spin models. It is shown that the problem of second class constraints disappears and the BRST procedure becomes much more simple than in tensorial nota- tion. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the BRST procedure automatically provides extra auxiliary components that belong in the set of supersymmetry auxiliary components. Finally, we demonstrate how supersymmetry transfo- rmations are realized in such an approach. As a result, we conclude that the BRST approach to higher spin supersymmetric theories allows to derive both the Lagrangian and the supersymmetry transformations. Although most part of the work is devoted to massless component supersymmetric models, we also discuss generalization for massive component supersymmetric models and for superfield models.