With a modest revision of the mass sector of the Standard Model, the systematics of the fermion masses and mixings can be fully described and interpreted as providing information on matrix elements of physics beyond the Standard Model. A by-product i
s a reduction of the largest Higgs Yukawa fine structure constant by an order of magnitude. The extension to leptons provides for insight on the difference between quark mixing and lepton mixing as evidenced in neutrino oscillations. The large difference between the scale for up-quark and down-quark masses is not addressed. In this approach, improved detail and accuracy of the elements of the current mixing matrices can extend our knowledge and understanding of physics beyond the Standard Model.
We present a model in which the equation of state parameter w approaches -1 near a particular value of z, and has significant negative values in a restricted range of z. For example, one can have w ~ -1 near z = 1, and w > -0.2 from z = 0 to z = 0.3,
and for z > 9. The ingredients of the model are neutral fermions (which may be neutrinos, neutralinos, etc) which are very weakly coupled to a light scalar field. This model emphasises the importance of the proposed studies of the properties of dark energy into the region z > 1.
