We use time-sliced perturbation theory (TSPT) to give an accurate description of the infrared non-linear effects affecting the baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) present in the distribution of matter at very large scales. In TSPT this can be done via a systematic resummation that has a simple diagrammatic representation and does not involve uncontrollable approximations. We discuss the power counting rules and derive explicit expressions for the resummed matter power spectrum up to next-to leading order and the bispectrum at the leading order. The two-point correlation function agrees well with N -body data at BAO scales. The systematic approach also allows to reliably assess the shift of the baryon acoustic peak due to non-linear effects.

The standard model could be self-consistent up to the Planck scale according to the present measurements of the Higgs boson mass and top quark Yukawa coupling. It is therefore possible that new physics is only coupled to the standard model through Planck suppressed higher dimensional operators. In this case the weakly interacting massive particle miracle is a mirage, and instead minimality as dictated by Occam's razor would indicate that dark matter is related to the Planck scale, where quantum gravity is anyway expected to manifest itself. Assuming within this framework that dark matter is a Planckian interacting massive particle, we show that the most natural mass larger than 0.01M_{p} is already ruled out by the absence of tensor modes in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This also indicates that we expect tensor modes in the CMB to be observed soon for this type of minimal dark matter model. Finally, we touch upon the Kaluza-Klein graviton mode as a possible realization of this scenario within UV complete models, as well as further potential signatures and peculiar properties of this type of dark matter candidate. This paradigm therefore leads to a subtle connection between quantum gravity, the physics of primordial inflation, and the nature of dark matter.

The lepton asymmetry generated by the out-of-equilibrium decays of heavy Majorana neutrinos with a quasi-degenerate mass spectrum is resonantly enhanced. In this work, we study this scenario within a first-principle approach. The quantum field theoretical treatment is applicable for mass splittings of the order of the width of the Majorana neutrinos, for which the enhancement is maximally large. The non-equilibrium evolution of the mixing Majorana neutrino fields is described by a formal analytical solution of the Kadanoff–Baym equations, that is obtained by neglecting the back-reaction. Based on this solution, we derive approximate analytical expressions for the generated asymmetry and compare them to the Boltzmann result. We find that the resonant enhancement obtained from the Kadanoff–Baym approach is smaller compared to the Boltzmann approach, due to additional contributions that describe coherent transitions between the Majorana neutrino species. We also discuss corrections to the masses and widths of the degenerate pair of Majorana neutrinos that are relevant for very small mass splitting, and compare the approximate analytical result for the lepton asymmetry with numerical result

Planckian Interacting Dark Matter (PIDM) is a minimal scenario of dark matter assuming only gravitational interactions with the standard model and with only one free parameter, the PIDM mass. PIDM can be successfully produced by gravitational scattering in the thermal plasma of the Standard Model sector after inflation in the PIDM mass range from TeV up to the GUT scale, if the reheating temperature is sufficiently high. The minimal assumption of a GUT scale PIDM mass can be tested in the future by measurements of the primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio. While large primordial tensor modes would be in tension with the QCD axion as dark matter in a large mass range, it would favour the PIDM as a minimal alternative to WIMPs. Here we generalise the previously studied scalar PIDM scenario to the case of fermion, vector and tensor PIDM scenarios, and show that the phenomenology is nearly identical, independent of the spin of the PIDM. We also consider the specific realisation of the PIDM as the Kaluza-Klein excitation of the graviton in orbifold compactifications of string theory, as well as in models of monodromy inflation and in Higgs inflation. Finally we discuss the possibility of indirect detection of PIDM through non-perturbative decay.

We begin a systematic investigation of the anomalous dimension of subleading power N -jet operators in view of resummation of logarithmically enhanced terms in partonic cross sections beyond leading power. We provide an explicit result at the one-loop order for fermion-number two N -jet operators at the second order in the power expansion parameter of soft-collinear effective theory.