No Arabic abstract
The search for the origin of cosmic rays is as active as ever, mainly driven by new insights provided by recent pieces of observation. Much effort is being channelled in putting the so called supernova paradigm for the origin of galactic cosmic rays on firmer grounds, while at the highest energies we are trying to understand the observed cosmic ray spectra and mass composition and relating them to potential sources of extragalactic cosmic rays. Interestingly, a topic that has acquired a dignity of its own is the investigation of the transition region between the galactic and extragalactic components, once associated with the ankle and now increasingly thought to be taking place at somewhat lower energies. Here we summarize recent developments in the observation and understanding of galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays and we discuss the implications of such findings for the modelling of the transition between the two.
We review some of the recent progress in our knowledge about high-energy cosmic rays, with an emphasis on the interpretation of the different observational results. We discuss the effects that are relevant to shape the cosmic ray spectrum and the explanations proposed to account for its features and for the observed changes in composition. The physics of air-showers is summarized and we also present the results obtained on the proton-air cross section and on the muon content of the showers. We discuss the cosmic ray propagation through magnetic fields, the effects of diffusion and of magnetic lensing, the cosmic ray interactions with background radiation fields and the production of secondary neutrinos and photons. We also consider the cosmic ray anisotropies, both at large and small angular scales, presenting the results obtained from the TeV up to the highest energies and discuss the models proposed to explain their origin.
Starting from the original Majoranas article of 1937, the see-saw mechanism is illustrated, first for one and later for three neutrino generations, and neutrinoless double beta decay is considered. Neutrino mixing and oscillations in three flavors are described. The Yukawa couplings to the Higgs field of quarks and leptons are considered, their transformation properties under the corresponding flavor groups are spelled out and the principle of Minimal Flavor Violation is illustrated, in connection with possible new physics beyond the Standard Theory. The idea that the Yukawa couplings may be the vacuum expectation value of some new fields is introduced and natural extrema of potentials which are invariant under quark and lepton flavor groups are characterized. A recent result indicating large mixing of almost degenerate neutrinos is derived from the heavy lepton invariance under flavor ${cal O}(3)$.
Some of the last results on low energy antiproton physics are reviewed. First Faddeev calculations for ={n}d scattering length are presented.
Nuclear physics, whose underling theory is described by quantum gauge field coupled with matter, is fundamentally important and yet is formidably challenge for simulation with classical computers. Quantum computing provides a perhaps transformative approach for studying and understanding nuclear physics. With rapid scaling-up of quantum processors as well as advances on quantum algorithms, the digital quantum simulation approach for simulating quantum gauge fields and nuclear physics has gained lots of attentions. In this review, we aim to summarize recent efforts on solving nuclear physics with quantum computers. We first discuss a formulation of nuclear physics in the language of quantum computing. In particular, we review how quantum gauge fields~(both Abelian and non-Abelian) and its coupling to matter field can be mapped and studied on a quantum computer. We then introduce related quantum algorithms for solving static properties and real-time evolution for quantum systems, and show their applications for a broad range of problems in nuclear physics, including simulation of lattice gauge field, solving nucleon and nuclear structure, quantum advantage for simulating scattering in quantum field theory, non-equilibrium dynamics, and so on. Finally, a short outlook on future work is given.
In recent years, space-born experiments have delivered new measurements of high energy cosmic-ray (CR) $bar p$ and $e^+$. In addition, unprecedented sensitivity to CR composite anti-nuclei anti-d and anti-He is expected to be achieved in the near future. We report on the theoretical interpretation of these measurements. While CR antimatter is a promising discovery tool for new physics or exotic astrophysical phenomena, an irreducible background arises from secondary production by primary CR collisions with interstellar matter. Understanding this irreducible background or constraining it from first principles is an interesting challenge. We review the attempt to obtain such understanding and apply it to CR $bar p,, e^+,$ anti-d and anti-He. Based on state of the art Galactic cosmic ray measurements, dominated currently by the AMS-02 experiment, we show that: (i) CR $bar p$ most likely come from CR-gas collisions; (ii) $e^+$ data is consistent with, and suggestive of the same secondary astrophysical production mechanism responsible for $bar p$ and dominated by proton-proton collisions. In addition, based on recent accelerator analyses we show that the flux of secondary high energy anti-He may be observable with a few years exposure of AMS-02. We highlight key open questions, as well as the role played by recent and upcoming space and accelerator data in clarifying the origins of CR antimatter.