The idea of effective field theory (EFT) was developed decades ago in low-energy strong-interaction - hadronic and nuclear - physics. After introducing chiral perturbation theory (ChPT), we focus in this dissertation on three non-perturbative cases that standard ChPT cannot deal with by itself. First, we investigate pion-nucleon (πN) scattering around the delta resonance, which is an important non-perturbative feature of low-energy nuclear physics. We show that in order to describe πN scattering around the delta peak, a power counting is necessary that goes beyond the power counting of ChPT. Using this new power counting, we calculate the phase shifts in the spin-3/2 P-wave channel up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). Second, in order to clarify the issue of renormalization and power counting of nucleon-nucleon potentials, we use a toy model to illustrate how to build effective theories for singular potentials, which some nuclear potentials belong to. We consider a central attractive 1/r² potential perturbed by a 1/r⁴ correction. We show that leading-order counterterms are needed in all partial waves where the potential overcomes the centrifugal barrier, and that the additional counterterms at next-to-leading order are the ones expected on the basis of dimensional analysis. Finally, we illustrate how non-perturbative EFT can be used to study neutron-antineutron oscillation inside the deuteron. We build an EFT for a model-independent, systematic study of two-unit baryon-number (|ΔB| = 2) violation in the context of nuclear physics. To cope with the non-perturbative deuteron structure, we apply the pionless version of this EFT to calculate deuteron decay. The decay width is obtained up to next-to-leading order. We show that the contribution of direct two-nucleon annihilation to the deuteron decay appears only at NNLO.

While general relativity is a very successful theory of gravity, having thus far passed all observational tests with flying colors, it is thought to be incomplete. Indeed, we lack an ultimate high energy theory in which general relativity and quantum mechanics are both valid. We consider extensions to the action of general relativity, and seek to place constraints on these alternative theories using astrophysical tests. General relativity has been extensively tested in the solar system, but not with precision in strong gravity systems. We discuss constraints that could be placed on alternative theories using neutron stars. We find that we may not be able to distinguish between general relativity and some alternative theories in the spacetimes around black holes. We also discuss constraints from cosmological tests, and show that instabilities can appear.Adding higher-order terms to the action of general relativity can introduce new dynamical degrees of freedom and instabilities. From the standpoint of effective field theory however, these alternative theories are inconsistent because they are not unitary. In an effective field theory, no new degree of freedom is introduced. This also means that extra polarizations of gravitational waves, which are predicted by some alternative theories, would not be present in an effective field theory.We then consider an effective field theoretic formulation for gravitational radiation called Non-Relativistic General Relativity (NRGR). We study the gravitational wave emission in non-relativistic coalescing compact binaries, which are thought to be powerful emitters of gravitational waves. While NRGR is based on the post-newtonian (PN) approximation to general relativity, and should therefore be in complete agreement with other post-newtonian methods, the effective field theory approach provides two major advantages: it provides a consistent framework for the dynamics using a lagrangian formulation; also, one can in principle compute observables to all orders in the orbital velocity in a systematic way. We provide a brief overview of NRGR methods, and present the NRGR calculation of the subleading spin-orbit correction to the newtonian potential.

<p>Quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of quarks and gluons, is known to be</p><p>the correct description of strong nuclear interactions. At high energy and momenta,</p><p>one can use QCD directly to compute quantities of physical interest related to the</p><p>strong force. At low energies and momenta, one should use a different description in</p><p>terms of the degrees of freedom relevant at that scale. Two approaches to achieve</p><p>this end are effective field theories and gauge/gravity dualities. The former involves</p><p>a field theory more or less like QCD itself, but with states which are composites</p><p>of quarks and gluons. Then a perturbative expansion is made not in terms of the</p><p>gauge coupling but instead in terms of the momentum of the fields. This approach</p><p>dates back to the 1970s and is on firm theoretical footing. Gauge/gravity dualities</p><p>are a newer and less understood technique, which relates the physics of the strong</p><p>interactions to a different but likely equivalent theory in a higher dimensional space-</p><p>time, where the quantity of interest can be computed more readily. We employ</p><p>both effective field theories and gauge/gravity dualities to study the physics of ex-</p><p>otic quarkonium states, that is bound states containing a heavy quark-antiquark pair</p><p>which nevertheless cannot be be understood working only with the standard quark</p><p>model of hadrons. Candidates for such states, long speculated to exist, have recently</p><p>been observed at particle colliders, so that the theory of exotic quarkonium is now</p><p>of great experimental importance.</p> / Dissertation

At the present time it is unknown how the U(1)A anomaly of Quantum Chromodynamics behaves at high temperatures. We therefore want to look for thermal changes of the effects of the anomaly. For example, by studying the properties of the η' meson at high temperatures it would be possible to deduce important information on the axial anomaly, thanks to the deep connection between them. In this thesis the width of the η' as a function of the temperature is studied in the framework of large-Nc Chiral Perturbation Theory, at next-to-leading order, and in the corresponding Resonance Chiral Theory. We calculate the width increase due to scattering with particles from the heat bath, which we assume to consist of a pion gas. We compare the results obtained in both frameworks and as expected we find a smaller, but still consistent width increase when the more realistic resonance exchange is taken into account. The results suggest that the in-medium width of the η' may increase up to ΔΓ<img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?%5Capprox" /> 10 MeV at a temperature of T<img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?%5Capprox" /> 120 MeV. We find therefore a width increase of considerable size, comparable to the inverse lifetime of the fireball created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In other words, our results suggest that it may be possible to study experimentally how the properties of the η' change at high temperatures.

In this thesis jet production and cosmological constraints on decaying dark matter are studied. The powerful framework of effective field theory is applied in both cases to further our knowledge of particle physics. We first discuss how to apply the Soft Collinear Effective Theory (SCET) for calculating hadronic jet production rate. By applying SCET power counting, we develop a consistent approach to perform phase space integrations. This approach is then successfully applied to one-loop calculations with regard to a variety of jet algorithms. This allows us to study if the soft contribution can be factorized from the collinear ones. In particular we point out the connection between such factorization and the choice of ultraviolet regulator. We then further our study of the (exclusive) kt and C/A jet algorithms in SCET with the introduction of an additional regulator. Regularizing the virtualities and rapidities of graphs in SCET, we are able to write the next-to-leading-order dijet cross section as the product of separate hard, jet, and soft contributions. We show how to reproduce the Sudakov form factor to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy previously calculated by the coherent branching formalism. Our resummed expression only depends on the renormalization group evolution of the hard function, rather than on that of the hard and jet functions as is usual in SCET. Finally we present a complete analysis of the cosmological constraints on decaying dark matter. For this, we have updated and extended previous analyses to include Lyman-alpha forest, large scale structure, and weak lensing observations. Astrophysical constraints are not considered in this thesis. The bounds on the lifetime of decaying dark matter are dominated by either the late-time integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect for the scenario with weak reionization, or CMB polarisation observations when there is significant reionization. For the respective scenarios, the lifetimes for decaying dark matter are constrained by Gamma^{-1} > 100 Gyr and (f*Gamma)^{-1} > 5.3 x 10^8 Gyr (at 95.4% confidence level), where the phenomenological parameter f is the fraction of decay energy deposited into the baryonic gas. This allows us to constrain particle physics models with dark matter candidates, by analyzing effective operators responsible for the dark matter decays into Standard Model particles.

In this thesis jet production and cosmological constraints on decaying dark matter are studied. The powerful framework of effective field theory is applied in both cases to further our knowledge of particle physics. We first discuss how to apply the Soft Collinear Effective Theory (SCET) for calculating hadronic jet production rate. By applying SCET power counting, we develop a consistent approach to perform phase space integrations. This approach is then successfully applied to one-loop calculations with regard to a variety of jet algorithms. This allows us to study if the soft contribution can be factorized from the collinear ones. In particular we point out the connection between such factorization and the choice of ultraviolet regulator. We then further our study of the (exclusive) kt and C/A jet algorithms in SCET with the introduction of an additional regulator. Regularizing the virtualities and rapidities of graphs in SCET, we are able to write the next-to-leading-order dijet cross section as the product of separate hard, jet, and soft contributions. We show how to reproduce the Sudakov form factor to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy previously calculated by the coherent branching formalism. Our resummed expression only depends on the renormalization group evolution of the hard function, rather than on that of the hard and jet functions as is usual in SCET. Finally we present a complete analysis of the cosmological constraints on decaying dark matter. For this, we have updated and extended previous analyses to include Lyman-alpha forest, large scale structure, and weak lensing observations. Astrophysical constraints are not considered in this thesis. The bounds on the lifetime of decaying dark matter are dominated by either the late-time integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect for the scenario with weak reionization, or CMB polarisation observations when there is significant reionization. For the respective scenarios, the lifetimes for decaying dark matter are constrained by Gamma^{-1} > 100 Gyr and (f*Gamma)^{-1} > 5.3 x 10^8 Gyr (at 95.4% confidence level), where the phenomenological parameter f is the fraction of decay energy deposited into the baryonic gas. This allows us to constrain particle physics models with dark matter candidates, by analyzing effective operators responsible for the dark matter decays into Standard Model particles.

Orientador: Rafael Alejandro Porto Pereira / Banca: Eduardo Ponton Bayona / Banca: Ricardo D'Elia Matheus / Banca: Rodrigo Nemmen da Silva / Banca: Riccardo Sturani / Resumo: Nesta tese, nós investigamos os efeitos de reação de radiação devido ao spin na dinâmica de um sistema binário de corpos compactos usando uma abordagem de teoria efetiva de campos. Focamos no estágio de espiral da evolução do sistema binário que, por sua vez, provê uma hierarquia de escalas propícia à implementação de uma abordagem perturbativa, tal como a expansão pós-newtoniana. Fazemos uso de um formalismo próprio para investigar efeitos dissipativos. Provemos uma extensão desse formalismo para incluir graus de liberdade de spin. Com isso, em uma abordagem de teoria efetiva de campos, calculamos as acelerações de reação de radiação devido a efeitos de spin-órbita e spin-spin, em primeira ordem. Apresentamos, pela primeira vez, a contribuição de spin na reação de radiação devido ao tamanho finito dos corpos compactos. Também investigamos como os spins de tais corpos são afetados pela reação de radiação, na ordem pós-newtoniana de interesse. Por fim, realizamos um teste de consistência - relacionando a potência total radiada com a perda de energia induzida pelas forças dissipativas - assegurando, assim, a validade dos nossos resultados / Abstract: In this thesis, we investigate the radiation reaction effects due to spin on the dynamics of binary compact bodies, using an effective field theory framework. We focus on the inspiral phase of the binary's evolution, which provides a hierarchy of scales that invites us to implement a perturbative approach such as the Post-Newtonian expansion. We use a formalism suitable to incorporate dissipative effects, providing an extension to include spin degrees of freedom. We use this extension of the effective field theory framework to compute the radiation reaction accelerations due to spin-orbit and spin-spin effects at leading order. We present, for the first time, the spin contribution to radiation reaction due to finite size effects. We also investigate how the spin evolution of the compact bodies is affected by the radiation reaction, at the order of interest. Finally, we perform a consistency test - relating the total radiated power to energy loss induced by the non-conservative forces - ensuring the validity of our results / Doutor

Theoretical predictions for generic multi-scale observables in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) typically suffer from large Sudakov logarithms associated with the emission of soft or collinear radiation, whose presence spoils the perturbative expansion in the coupling strength which underlies most calculations in QCD. A canonical way to improve predictions wherever these logarithms appear is to resum them to all perturbative orders, which can conveniently be achieved using Effective Field Theory (EFT) methods. In an age of increasing automation using computers, this task is still mostly performed manually, observable-by-observable. In this thesis we identify the 2-loop soft function as a crucial ingredient for the resummation of QCD Sudakov logarithms to Next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy in Soft-Collinear Effective Theory (SCET), for wide classes of observables involving two massless colour-charged energetic particles, such as dijet event shapes at lepton colliders, or colour singlet production at hadron colliders. We develop a method to evaluate these soft functions using numerical methods based on sector decomposition and the choice of a convenient parametrisation for the phase space. This allows the factorisation of all implicit (real emission) and explicit (virtual correction) divergences made manifest by dimensional and analytic regularisation. The regulator pole coefficients can then be evaluated numerically following a subtraction and expansion, and two computational tools are presented to perform these numerical integrations, one based on publicly available tools, the other based on our own code. Some technical improvements over naive straightforward numerical evaluation are demonstrated and implemented. This allows us to compute and verify two of three colour structures of the 2-loop bare soft functions for wide ranges of observables with a factorisation theorem. A number of example results - both new and already known - are shown to demonstrate the reach of this approach, and a few possible extensions are sketched. This thesis therefore represents a crucial step towards automation of resummation for generic observables to NNLL accuracy in SCET.

Submitted by ANDRES FELIPE VASQUEZ TOCORA (anfvasquezto@unal.edu.co) on 2018-10-02T21:56:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 thesis.pdf: 3832471 bytes, checksum: 13b65d2c4a9d5e2b2c7414dd2cdfba50 (MD5) / Rejected by Hellen Sayuri Sato null (hellen@ift.unesp.br), reason: Solicitamos que realize correções na submissão seguindo as orientações abaixo - Favor inserir a ficha catalográfica no pdf , logo após a página de rosto - No PDF está faltando as palavras-chave logo após o resumo e abstract on 2018-10-03T14:34:04Z (GMT) / Submitted by ANDRES FELIPE VASQUEZ TOCORA (anfvasquezto@unal.edu.co) on 2018-10-03T16:52:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis.pdf: 4205198 bytes, checksum: 499748f6d69605fda811e56805ac4e12 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Hellen Sayuri Sato null (hellen@ift.unesp.br) on 2018-10-03T17:32:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 vasqueztocora_af_me_ift.pdf: 4205198 bytes, checksum: 499748f6d69605fda811e56805ac4e12 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-03T17:32:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 vasqueztocora_af_me_ift.pdf: 4205198 bytes, checksum: 499748f6d69605fda811e56805ac4e12 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / The main goal of this dissertation is to show the enhancement of the cross-section for the double Higgs production through pair annihilation by including effective interactions and through the non-perturbative Sommerfeld effect. Bounds to some Wilson coefficients were obtained from such enhancement, this in the scenarios of the future e+ e− -colliders (FCC-ee, ILC, CLIC). In order to achieve this, some computational tools were implemented: FeynRules, FeynArts, FormCalc, and LoopTools. It is also shown the enhancement of the double Higgs production in 2HDM and MSSM, discussing the general framework of these two models. In addition, it is studied the threshold behavior of the cross-section for the double Higgs production when a hidden sector couples to the Higgs boson, yielding resonances below the threshold energy due to non-perturbative effects. We study the Sommerfeld effect in the double Higgs production in the scenario of e+ e− -colliders. The enhancement is discussed as generated from a hidden sector coupled to the Higgs boson. Below and above threshold enhancements are presented. Such analysis is of importance in the ILC project, which will operate up to the threshold energy √s = 250 GeV. The results has been achieved by the use of computational tools like FeynArts, FormCalc, and LoopTools. / O objetivo principal dessa dissertação é, mostrar o aprimoramento da seção de choque para a produção em dobro dos bósons de Higgs, por meio de aniquilação de pares, incluindo interações efetivas e através do efeito não perturbativo de Sommerfeld. De tais aprimoramentos, os limites para alguns coeficientes de Wilson foram obtidos, isso nos cenários de futuros aceleradores de e+e- (FCC-ee, ILC, CLIC). Para atingir estes resultados, algumas ferramentas computacionais foram implementadas: FeynRules, FeynArts, FormCalc e LoopTools. Também, é mostrado o aprimoramento da produção em dobro de bósons de Higgs no “2HDM” e “MSSM”, discutindo o marco geral desses dois modelos. Além disso, foi estudado o comportamento, perto do limite de produção, da seção de choque da produção em dobro dos bósons de Higgs, quando um setor escondido é acoplado ao Higgs, produzindo ressonâncias abaixo da energia limite de produção, devido à efeitos não perturbativos.

Submitted by NATÁLIA TENÓRIO MAIA null (nmaia@ift.unesp.br) on 2017-09-15T20:22:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis.pdf: 1131110 bytes, checksum: 34daa9c413449ad52c084f6625357b9d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Monique Sasaki (sayumi_sasaki@hotmail.com) on 2017-09-19T17:47:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 maia_nt_dr_ift.pdf: 1131110 bytes, checksum: 34daa9c413449ad52c084f6625357b9d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-19T17:47:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 maia_nt_dr_ift.pdf: 1131110 bytes, checksum: 34daa9c413449ad52c084f6625357b9d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-03 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Nesta tese, nós investigamos os efeitos de reação de radiação devido ao spin na dinâmica de um sistema binário de corpos compactos usando uma abordagem de teoria efetiva de campos. Focamos no estágio de espiral da evolução do sistema binário que, por sua vez, provê uma hierarquia de escalas propícia à implementação de uma abordagem perturbativa, tal como a expansão pós-newtoniana. Fazemos uso de um formalismo próprio para investigar efeitos dissipativos. Provemos uma extensão desse formalismo para incluir graus de liberdade de spin. Com isso, em uma abordagem de teoria efetiva de campos, calculamos as acelerações de reação de radiação devido a efeitos de spin-órbita e spin-spin, em primeira ordem. Apresentamos, pela primeira vez, a contribuição de spin na reação de radiação devido ao tamanho finito dos corpos compactos. Também investigamos como os spins de tais corpos são afetados pela reação de radiação, na ordem pós-newtoniana de interesse. Por fim, realizamos um teste de consistência - relacionando a potência total radiada com a perda de energia induzida pelas forças dissipativas - assegurando, assim, a validade dos nossos resultados. / In this thesis, we investigate the radiation reaction effects due to spin on the dynamics of binary compact bodies, using an effective field theory framework. We focus on the inspiral phase of the binary’s evolution, which provides a hierarchy of scales that invites us to implement a perturbative approach such as the Post-Newtonian expansion. We use a formalism suitable to incorporate dissipative effects, providing an extension to include spin degrees of freedom. We use this extension of the effective field theory framework to compute the radiation reaction accelerations due to spin-orbit and spin-spin effects at leading order. We present, for the first time, the spin contribution to radiation reaction due to finite size effects. We also investigate how the spin evolution of the compact bodies is affected by the radiation reaction, at the order of interest. Finally, we perform a consistency test - relating the total radiated power to energy loss induced by the non-conservative forces - ensuring the validity of our results.