We present SN 2020jfo, a Type IIP supernova in the nearby galaxy M61. Optical light curves from the Zwicky Transient Facility, complemented with data from Swift and near-IR photometry are presented. The 350-day duration bolometric light curve exhibit
s a relatively short (~ 65 days) plateau. This implies a moderate ejecta mass (~ 5 Msun). A series of spectroscopy is presented, including spectropolarimetric observations. The nebular spectra are dominated by Halpha but also reveal emission lines from oxygen and calcium. Comparisons to synthetic nebular spectra indicate an initial progenitor mass of about 12 Msun. Stable nickel is present in the nebular spectrum, with a super-solar Ni/Fe ratio. Several years of pre-discovery data are examined, but no signs of pre-cursor activity is found. Pre-explosion Hubble Space Telescope imaging reveals a probable progenitor star, detected only in the reddest band and is fainter than expected for stars in the 10 - 15 Msun range, in tension with the analysis of the LC and the nebular spectral modeling. We present two additional core-collapse SNe monitored by the ZTF, which also have nebular Halpha-dominated spectra. This illustrates how the absence or presence of interaction with circumstellar material affect both the LCs and in particular the nebular spectra. Type II SN 2020amv has a LC powered by CSM interaction, in particular after about 40 days when the LC is bumpy and slowly evolving. The late-time spectra show strong Halpha emission with a structure suggesting emission from a thin, dense shell. The evolution of the complex three-horn line profile is reminiscent of that observed for SN 1998S. SN 2020jfv has a poorly constrained early-time LC, but shows a transition from a hydrogen-poor Type IIb to a Type IIn, where the nebular spectrum after the light-curve rebrightening is dominated by Halpha, although with an intermediate line width.
We present observations and analysis of SN 2020cxd, a Low luminous (LL), long-lived Type IIP SN. This object was a clear outlier in the magnitude-limited SN sample recently presented by the ZTF Bright Transient Survey. We demonstrate that SN 2020cxd
is an additional member of the group of LL SNe, and discuss the rarity of LL SNe in the context of the ZTF survey, and how further studies of these faintest members of the CC SN family might help understand the underlying initial mass function for stars that explode.
In this paper, we impose a magic symmetry on the neutrino mass matrix $M_{ u}$ with universal four-zero texture and diagonal reflection symmetries. Due to the magic symmetry, the MNS matrix has trimaximal mixing inevitably. Since the lepton sector ha
s only six free parameters, physical observables of leptons are all determined from the charged leptons masses $m_{ei}$, the neutrino mass differences $Delta m_{i1}$, and the mixing angle $theta_{23}$. As new predictions, we obtain $sin theta_{12} = 0.584$ and $sin theta_{13} = 0.149$. The latter one is almost equal to the latest best fit.
In this paper, we consider the diagonal reflection symmetries and three-zero texture in the SM. The three-zero texture has two less assumptions ($(M_{u})_{11} , (M_{ u})_{11} eq 0$) than the universal four-zero texture for mass matrices $(M_{f})_{11
} = (M_{f})_{13,31} = 0$ for $f = u,d, u, e$. The texture and symmetries reproduce the CKM and MNS matrices with accuracies of $O(10^{-4})$ and $O(10^{-3})$. By assuming a $d$-$e$ unified relation ($M_{d} sim M_{e}$), this system predicts the normal hierarchy, the Dirac phase $delta_{CP} simeq 202^{circ},$ the Majorana phases $alpha_{12} = 11.3^{circ}, alpha_{13} = 6.90^{circ}$ up to $pi$, and the lightest neutrino mass $m_{1} simeq 2.97,-,4.72,$[meV]. The effective mass of the double beta decay $|m_{ee}|$ is found to be $1.24 sim 1.77 ,$[meV].
We present observations of SN 2020faa. This Type II supernova displays a luminous light curve that started to rebrighten from an initial decline. We investigate this in relation to the famous supernova iPTF14hls, which received a lot of attention and
multiple interpretations in the literature, however whose nature and source of energy still remains unknown. We demonstrate the great similarity between SN 2020faa and iPTF14hls during the first 6 months, and use this comparison both to forecast the evolution of SN 2020faa and to reflect on the less well observed early evolution of iPTF14hls. We present and analyse our observational data, consisting mainly of optical light curves from the Zwicky Transient Facility in the gri bands as well as a sequence of optical spectra. We construct colour curves, a bolometric light curve, compare ejecta-velocity and Black-body radius evolutions for the two supernovae, as well as for more typical Type II supernovae. The light curves show a great similarity with those of iPTF14hls over the first 6 months, in luminosity, timescale and colours. Also the spectral evolution of SN 2020faa is that of a Type II supernova, although it probes earlier epochs than those available for iPTF14hls. The similar light curve behaviour is suggestive of SN 2020faa being a new iPTF14hls. We present these observations now to advocate follow-up observations, since most of the more striking evolution of supernova iPTF14hls came later, with light curve undulations and a spectacular longevity. On the other hand, for SN 2020faa we have better constraints on the explosion epoch than we had for iPTF14hls, and we have been able to spectroscopically monitor it from earlier phases than was done for the more famous sibling.
In this paper, we consider a set of new symmetries in the SM, {it diagonal reflection} symmetries $R , m_{u, u}^{*} , R = m_{u, u}, ~ m_{d,e}^{*} = m_{d,e}$ with $R =$ diag $(-1,1,1)$. These generalized $CP$ symmetries predict the Majorana phases to
be $alpha_{2,3} /2 sim 0$ or $pi /2$. A realization of reflection symmetries suggests a broken chiral $U(1)_{rm PQ}$ symmetry and a flavored axion. The axion scale is suggested to be $langle theta_{u,d} rangle sim Lambda_{rm GUT} , sqrt{m_{u,d} , m_{c,s}} / v sim 10^{12} , $[GeV]. By combining the symmetries with the four-zero texture, the mass eigenvalues and mixing matrices of quarks and leptons are reproduced well. This scheme predicts the normal hierarchy, the Dirac phase $delta_{CP} simeq 203^{circ},$ and $|m_{1}| simeq 2.5$ or $6.2 , $[meV]. In this scheme, the type-I seesaw mechanism and a given neutrino Yukawa matrix $Y_{ u}$ completely determine the structure of right-handed neutrino mass $M_{R}$. An $u- u$ unification predicts mass eigenvalues to be $ (M_{R1} , , M_{R2} , , M_{R3}) = (O (10^{5}) , , O (10^{9}) , , O (10^{14})) , $[GeV].
In this letter, we consider exact $mu-tau$ reflection symmetries for quarks and leptons. Fermion mass matrices are assumed to be four-zero textures for charged fermions $f = u,d,e$ and a symmetric matrix for neutrinos $ u_{L}$. By a bi-maximal transf
ormation, all the mass matrices lead to $mu-tau$ reflection symmetric forms, which seperately satisfy $T_{u} , m_{u, u}^{*} , T_{u} = m_{u, u}$ and $T_{d} , m_{d,e}^{*} , T_{d} = m_{d,e}$. Reconciliation between the $mu-tau$ reflection symmetries and observed $sin theta_{13}$ predicts $delta_{CP} simeq 203^{circ}$. Moreover, imposition of universal texture $(m_{f})_{11} = 0$ for $f=u,d, u,e$ predicts the normal hierarchy with the lightest neutrino mass $|m_{1}| = 6.26$ or $2.54$ meV.
In this paper we study the effects of hemispheric imbalance of magnetic helicity density on breaking the equatorial reflection symmetry of the dynamo generated large-scale magnetic field. Our study employs the axisymmetric dynamo model which takes in
to account the nonlinear effect of magnetic helicity conservation. We find that the evolution of the net magnetic helicity density, in other words, the magnetic helicity imbalance, on the surface follows the evolution of the parity of the large-scale magnetic field. Random fluctuations of the $alpha$-effect and the helicity fluxes can inverse the causal relationship, i.e., the magnetic helicity imbalance or the imbalance of magnetic helicity fluxes can drive the magnetic parity breaking. We also found that evolution of the net magnetic helicity of the small-scale fields follows the evolution of the net magnetic helicity of the large-scale fields with some time lag. We interpret this as an effect of the difference of the magnetic helicity fluxes out of the Sun from the large and small scales.
In this paper, we consider a lopsided flavor texture compatible with thermal leptogenesis in partially composite Pati--Salam unification. The Davidson--Ibarra bound $M_{ u R1} gtrsim 10^9$ GeV for the successful thermal leptogenesis can be recast to
the Froggatt--Nielsen (FN) charge of the lopsided texture. We found the FN charge $n_{ u1}$ of the lightest right-handed neutrino $ u_{R1}$ can not be larger than a upper bound, $n_{ u1} lesssim 4.5$. From the viewpoint of unification, the FN charges of the neutrinos $n_{ u i}$ should be the same to that of other SM fermions. Then, two cases $n_{ u i} = n_{qi} = (3,2,0)$ and $ n_{ u i} = n_{l i} = (n+1,n,n)$ are considered. Observations of PS model shows that the case of $n=0$, $n_{li} = n_{di} = (1,0,0)$ will be the simplest realization. To decrease the FN charges of these fermions from the GUT invariant FN charges $n_{qi} = (3,2,0)$, we utilize the partial compositeness. In this picture, the hierarchies of Yukawa matrices are a consequence of mixings between massless chiral fermions $f_{L}, f_{R}$ and massive vector fermions $F_{L,R}, F_{L,R}$. This is induced by the linear mixing terms $lambda^{f} bar f_{L} F_{R}$ and $lambda^{f} bar F_{L} f_{R}$. As a result of the partial compositeness, the decreases of FN charges require fine-tunings between mass and Yukawa matrices either for the increases of $lambda^{f, f}$ or for the decreases of $M_{F,F}$. Therefore, the case for $n=2$ and $n_{di} = n_{li} = (3,2,2)$, which requires only increases of FN charges will be appropriate to build a natural model.
The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center is a well utilized system for quantum technology, in particular quantum sensing and microscopy. Fully employing the NV centers capabilities for metrology requires a strong understanding of the behavior of the NV cente
r with respect to changing temperature. Here, we probe the NV electronic spin density as the surrounding crystal temperature changes from 10 K to 700 K by examining its $^{13}$C hyperfine interactions. These results are corroborated with textit{ab initio} calculations and demonstrate that the change in hyperfine interaction is small and dominated by a change in the hybridization of the orbitals constituting the spin density. Thus indicating that the defect and local crystal geometry is returning towards an undistorted structure at higher temperature.
