Type A GABA-receptor-dependent synaptic transmission sculpts dendritic arbor structure in Xenopus tadpoles in vivo.

The emergence of dendritic arbor structure in vivo depends on synaptic inputs. We tested whether inhibitory GABAergic synaptic transmission regulates Xenopus optic tectal cell dendritic arbor development in vivo by expressing a peptide corresponding to an intracellular loop (ICL) of the γ2 subunit of GABAAR which is required to anchor GABAA receptors to the postsynaptic scaffold. GFP-tagged ICL (EGFP-ICL) was distributed in a punctate pattern at putative inhibitory synapses, identified by VGAT-immunoreactive puncta. ICL expression completely blocked GABAAR - mediated transmission in 36% of transfected neurons and significantly reduced GABAAR - mediated synaptic currents relative to AMPAR-mediated synaptic currents in the remaining transfected neurons without altering release probability or neuronal excitability. Further analysis of ICL-expressing neurons with residual GABAAR- mediated inputs showed that the capacity of benzodiazepine to enhance GABAergic synaptic responses was reduced in ICL-expressing neurons, indicating that they were likely depleted of γ2 subunit-containing GABAAR. Neurons expressing a mutant form of ICL were comparable to controls. In vivo time-lapse images showed that ICL-expressing neurons have more sparsely branched dendritic arbors which expand over larger neuropil areas than EGFP-expressing control neurons. Analysis of branch dynamics indicated that ICL expression affected arbor growth by reducing rates of branch addition. Furthermore, we found that decreasing GABAergic synaptic transmission with ICL expression blocked visual experience dependent dendritic arbor structural plasticity. Our findings establish an essential role for inhibitory GABAergic synaptic transmission in the regulation of dendritic structural plasticity in Xenopus in vivo

Limits on the parameters of the equation of state for interacting dark energy

Under the assumption that cold dark matter and dark energy interact with each other through a small coupling term, $Q$, we constrain the parameter space of the equation of state $w$ of those dark energy fields whose variation of the field since last scattering do not exceed Planck's mass. We use three parameterizations of $w$ and two different expressions for $Q$. Our work extends previous ones.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication on Physics Letters

Codimension Two Branes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity

Codimension two branes play an interesting role in attacking the cosmological constant problem. Recently, in order to handle some problems in codimension two branes in Einstein gravity, Bostock {\it et al.} have proposed using six-dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet (EGB) gravity instead of six-dimensional Einstein gravity. In this paper, we present the solutions of codimension two branes in six-dimensional EGB gravity. We show that Einstein's equations take a "factorizable" form for a factorized metric tensor ansatz even in the presence of the higher-derivative Gauss-Bonnet term. Especially, a new feature of the solution is that the deficit angle depends on the brane geometry. We discuss the implication of the solution to the cosmological constant problem. We also comment on a possible problem of inflation model building on codimension two branes.Comment: 16 pages, no figures. v2: References added; v3: Reference added, Sec.4 and 5 combined into one; v4: References added, minor corrections, to appear in Physical Review

Braneworld models of dark energy

We explore a new class of braneworld models in which the scalar curvature of the (induced) brane metric contributes to the brane action. The scalar curvature term arises generically on account of one-loop effects induced by matter fields residing on the brane. Spatially flat braneworld models can enter into a regime of accelerated expansion at late times. This is true even if the brane tension and the bulk cosmological constant are tuned to satisfy the Randall--Sundrum constraint on the brane. Braneworld models admit a wider range of possibilities for dark energy than standard LCDM. In these models the luminosity distance can be both smaller and larger than the luminosity distance in LCDM. Whereas models with $d_L \leq d_L(\rm LCDM)$ imply $w = p/\rho \geq -1$ and have frequently been discussed in the literature, models with $d_L > d_L(\rm LCDM)$ have traditionally been ignored, perhaps because within the general-relativistic framework, the luminosity distance has this property {\em only if} the equation of state of matter is strongly negative ($w < -1$). Matter with $w < -1$ is beset with a host of undesirable properties, which makes this model of dark energy unattractive within the conventional framework. Braneworld models, on the other hand, have the capacity to endow dark energy with exciting new possibilities without suffering from the problems faced by models with $w < -1$. For a subclass of parameter values, braneworld dark energy and the acceleration of the universe are {\em transient} phenomena. In these models, the universe, after the current period of acceleration, re-enters the matter dominated regime so that the deceleration parameter $q(t) \to 0.5$ when $t \gg t_0$, where $t_0$ is the present epoch. Such models could help reconcile an accelerating universe with the requirements of string/M-theory.Comment: 17 pages, latex, 8 figures. Minor changes to match version published in JCA

Electroweak baryogenesis

Electroweak baryogenesis (EWBG) remains a theoretically attractive and experimentally testable scenario for explaining the cosmic baryon asymmetry. We review recent progress in computations of the baryon asymmetry within this framework and discuss their phenomenological consequences. We pay particular attention to methods for analyzing the electroweak phase transition and calculating CP-violating asymmetries, the development of Standard Model extensions that may provide the necessary ingredients for EWBG, and searches for corresponding signatures at the high energy, intensity, and cosmological frontiers.Comment: 42 pages, 13 figures, invited review for the New Journal of Physics focus issue on 'Origin of Matter

Protecting the primordial baryon asymmetry in the seesaw model compatible with WMAP and KamLAND

We require that the primordial baryon asymmetry is not washed out in the seesaw model compatible with the recent results of WMAP and the neutrino oscillation experiments including the first results of KamLAND. We find that only the case of the normal neutrino mass hierarchy with an approximate $L_{e}$-symmetry satisfies the requirement. We further derive, depending on the signs of neutrino mass eigenvalues, three types of neutrino mass matrixes, where the values of each element are rather precisely fixed.Comment: 21pages; added reference

Excluding Electroweak Baryogenesis in the MSSM

In the context of the MSSM the Light Stop Scenario (LSS) is the only region of parameter space that allows for successful Electroweak Baryogenesis (EWBG). This possibility is very phenomenologically attractive, since it allows for the direct production of light stops and could be tested at the LHC. The ATLAS and CMS experiments have recently supplied tantalizing hints for a Higgs boson with a mass of ~ 125 GeV. This Higgs mass severely restricts the parameter space of the LSS, and we discuss the specific predictions made for EWBG in the MSSM. Combining data from all the available ATLAS and CMS Higgs searches reveals a tension with the predictions of EWBG even at this early stage. This allows us to exclude EWBG in the MSSM at greater than (90) 95% confidence level in the (non-)decoupling limit, by examining correlations between different Higgs decay channels. We also examine the exclusion without the assumption of a ~ 125 GeV Higgs. The Higgs searches are still highly constraining, excluding the entire EWBG parameter space at greater than 90% CL except for a small window of m_h ~ 117 - 119 GeV.Comment: 24 Pages, 4 Figures (v3: fixed typos, minor corrections, added references

Crossing the phantom divide in brane cosmology with curvature corrections and brane-bulk energy transfer

We consider the Randall-Sundrum brane-world model with bulk-brane energy transfer where the Einstein-Hilbert action is modified by curvature correction terms: a four-dimensional scalar curvature from induced gravity on the brane, and a five-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet curvature term. It is remarkable that these curvature terms will not change the dynamics of the brane universe at low energy. Parameterizing the energy transfer and taking the dark radiation term into account, we find that the phantom divide of the equation of state of effective dark energy could be crossed, without the need of any new dark energy components. Fitting the two most reliable and robust SNIa datasets, the 182 Gold dataset and the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS), our model indeed has a small tendency of phantom divide crossing for the Gold dataset, but not for the SNLS dataset. Furthermore, combining the recent detection of the SDSS baryon acoustic oscillations peak (BAO) with lower matter density parameter prior, we find that the SNLS dataset also mildly favors phantom divide crossing.Comment: 11 pages,3 figures, revtex4, revised version, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

Theory and phenomenology of two-Higgs-doublet models

We discuss theoretical and phenomenological aspects of two-Higgs-doublet extensions of the Standard Model. In general, these extensions have scalar mediated flavour changing neutral currents which are strongly constrained by experiment. Various strategies are discussed to control these flavour changing scalar currents and their phenomenological consequences are analysed. In particular, scenarios with natural flavour conservation are investigated, including the so-called type I and type II models as well as lepton-specific and inert models. Type III models are then discussed, where scalar flavour changing neutral currents are present at tree level, but are suppressed by either specific ansatze for the Yukawa couplings or by the introduction of family symmetries. We also consider the phenomenology of charged scalars in these models. Next we turn to the role of symmetries in the scalar sector. We discuss the six symmetry-constrained scalar potentials and their extension into the fermion sector. The vacuum structure of the scalar potential is analysed, including a study of the vacuum stability conditions on the potential and its renormalization-group improvement. The stability of the tree level minimum of the scalar potential in connection with electric charge conservation and its behaviour under CP is analysed. The question of CP violation is addressed in detail, including the cases of explicit CP violation and spontaneous CP violation. We present a detailed study of weak basis invariants which are odd under CP. A careful study of spontaneous CP violation is presented, including an analysis of the conditions which have to be satisfied in order for a vacuum to violate CP. We present minimal models of CP violation where the vacuum phase is sufficient to generate a complex CKM matrix, which is at present a requirement for any realistic model of spontaneous CP violation.Comment: v3: 180 pages, 506 references, new chapter 7 with recent LHC results; referee comments taken into account; submitted to Physics Report