From Particle Physics to Cosmology
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Advances in High Energy Physics Perspectives on Decay and Time Evolution of Metastable States: From Particle Physics to Cosmology Lead Guest Editor: Krzysztof Urbanowski Guest Editors: Neelima G. Kelkar, Marek Nowakowski, and Marek Szydlowski Perspectives on Decay and Time Evolution of Metastable States: From Particle Physics to Cosmology Advances in High Energy Physics Perspectives on Decay and Time Evolution of Metastable States: From Particle Physics to Cosmology Lead Guest Editor: Krzysztof Urbanowski Guest Editors: Neelima G. Kelkar, Marek Nowakowski, and Marek Szydlowski Copyright © 2018 Hindawi. All rights reserved. This is a special issue published in “Advances in High Energy Physics.” All articles are open access articles distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Editorial Board Antonio J. Accioly, Brazil Ricardo G. Felipe, Portugal Anastasios Petkou, Greece Giovanni Amelino-Camelia, Italy Chao-Qiang Geng, Taiwan Alexey A. Petrov, USA Luis A. Anchordoqui, USA Philippe Gras, France Thomas Rössler, Sweden Michele Arzano, Italy Xiaochun He, USA Diego Saez-Chillon Gomez, Spain T. Asselmeyer-Maluga, Germany Luis Herrera, Spain Takao Sakaguchi, USA Alessandro Baldini, Italy Filipe R. Joaquim, Portugal Juan José Sanz-Cillero, Spain Marco Battaglia, Switzerland Aurelio Juste, Spain Edward Sarkisyan-Grinbaum, USA Lorenzo Bianchini, Switzerland Theocharis Kosmas, Greece Sally Seidel, USA Roelof Bijker, Mexico Ming Liu, USA George Siopsis, USA Burak Bilki, USA Enrico Lunghi, USA Luca Stanco, Italy Adrian Buzatu, UK Salvatore Mignemi, Italy Jouni Suhonen, Finland Rong-Gen Cai, China Omar G. Miranda, Mexico Mariam Tórtola, Spain Anna Cimmino, France Grégory Moreau, France Smarajit Triambak, South Africa Osvaldo Civitarese, Argentina Piero Nicolini, Germany Jose M. Udías, Spain Andrea Coccaro, Italy Carlos Pajares, Spain Elias C. Vagenas, Kuwait Shi-Hai Dong, Mexico Sergio Palomares-Ruiz, Spain Sunny Vagnozzi, Sweden Lorenzo Fortunato, Italy Giovanni Pauletta, Italy YauW.Wah,USA Mariana Frank, Canada Yvonne Peters, UK Contents Perspectives on Decay and Time Evolution of Metastable States: From Particle Physics to Cosmology K. Urbanowski ,N.G.Kelkar ,M.Nowakowski ,andM.Szydłowski Editorial (2 pages), Article ID 6274317, Volume 2018 (2018) Feasibility Study of the Time Reversal Symmetry Tests in Decay of Metastable Positronium Atoms with the J-PET Detector A. Gajos ,C.Curceanu,E.Czerwiński,K.Dulski,M.Gorgol,N.Gupta-Sharma,B.C.Hiesmayr, B.Jasińska,K.Kacprzak,Ł.Kapłon,D.Kisielewska,G.Korcyl,P.Kowalski,T.Kozik,W.Krzemień, E.Kubicz,M.Mohammed,Sz.Niedńwiecki,M.Pałka,M.Pawlik-Niedńwiecka,L.Raczyński,J.Raj,Z.Rudy, S.Sharma,Shivani,R.Shopa,M.Silarski,M.Skurzok,W.Wiślicki,B.Zgardzińska,M.Zieliński, and P. Moskal Research Article (10 pages), Article ID 8271280, Volume 2018 (2018) From Quantum Unstable Systems to the Decaying Dark Energy: Cosmological Implications Aleksander Stachowski ,MarekSzydłowski , and Krzysztof Urbanowski Research Article (8 pages), Article ID 7080232, Volume 2018 (2018) A Probability Distribution for Quantum Tunneling Times José T. Lunardi and Luiz A. Manzoni Research Article (11 pages), Article ID 1372359, Volume 2018 (2018) From de Sitter to de Sitter: Decaying Vacuum Models as a Possible Solution to the Main Cosmological Problems G. J. M. Zilioti, R. C. Santos, and J. A. S. Lima Research Article (7 pages), Article ID 6980486, Volume 2018 (2018) Statistical Physics of the Inflaton Decaying in an Inhomogeneous Random Environment Z. Haba Research Article (9 pages), Article ID 7204952, Volume 2018 (2018) QFT Derivation of the Decay Law of an Unstable Particle with Nonzero Momentum Francesco Giacosa Research Article (7 pages), Article ID 4672051, Volume 2018 (2018) Time Dilation in Relativistic Quantum Decay Laws of Moving Unstable Particles Filippo Giraldi Research Article (10 pages), Article ID 7308935, Volume 2018 (2018) A New Inflationary Universe Scenario with Inhomogeneous Quantum Vacuum Yilin Chen and Jin Wang Research Article (15 pages), Article ID 3916727, Volume 2018 (2018) Searches for Massive Graviton Resonances at the LHC T. V. Obikhod and I. A. Petrenko Research Article (9 pages), Article ID 3471023, Volume 2018 (2018) Electroweak Phase Transitions in Einstein’s Static Universe M. Gogberashvili Research Article (5 pages), Article ID 4653202, Volume 2018 (2018) Moving Unstable Particles and Special Relativity Eugene V. Stefanovich Research Article (9 pages), Article ID 4657079, Volume 2018 (2018) Hindawi Advances in High Energy Physics Volume 2018, Article ID 6274317, 2 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/6274317 Editorial Perspectives on Decay and Time Evolution of Metastable States: From Particle Physics to Cosmology K. Urbanowski ,1 N. G. Kelkar ,2 M. Nowakowski ,2 and M. SzydBowski 3 1 Institute of Physics, University of Zielona Gora,´ Prof. Z. Szafrana 4a, 65-516 Zielona Gora,´ Poland 2Departamento de Fisica, Universidad de los Andes, Cra 1E, 18A-10, Bogota,´ Colombia 3Astronomical Observatory, Jagiellonian University, Orla 171, 30-244 Krakow,´ Poland Correspondence should be addressed to K. Urbanowski; [email protected] Received 26 August 2018; Accepted 26 August 2018; Published 12 December 2018 Copyright © K. Urbanowski et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. e publication of this article was funded by SCOAP. Many, if not most of the quantum states which consti- effect which loosely speaking states that “watched states decay tute the building blocks of nature, are unstable and decay differently,” a fact which can be even applied in cosmology. spontaneously. As such they require a special treatment in is behavior is followed by the exponential decay law. At quantum mechanics which displays new effects as compared large times, the latter again gets replaced by a new power to a classical theory. Examples of such unstable states can law preceded by a transition region in which the survival be found in the Standard Model of particle theory includ- probability can grow locally. is also finds applications in ing quarks, heavy gauge bosons, leptons heavier than the cosmology. e deviations from the exponential decay are a electron, baryons heavier than the proton, and all mesons genuine quantum effect. made up from a quark and an antiquark. In nuclear physics e ramifications of the spontaneous decay process in the word “radioactivity” is a synonym for the instability of understanding nature and its applications are widely spread. the nuclei which either de-excite emitting a photon, decay It is the photon emission of excited atoms which gives via a cluster emission (of which the alpha decay is the most information of the matter far away from our sun. It is the beta famous and the best studied example of a quantum tunneling decay which plays a decisive role in the nucleosynthesis of process) or undergo the weak transition known as beta decay elements heavier than iron. It is the alpha decay of thorium or inverse beta decay. In atomic physics, excited states are and uranium which in part heats up the inner core of the indeed considered as unstable and in a similar way we could earth, making it fluid, allowing for the continental dri and treat excited molecules. Finally, the whole universe can tunnel the magnetic field. It is the inverse beta decay supplying us from a false vacuum into a lower lying energy state which with the positron needed in medical tomography whose one from the point of view of quantum mechanics is understood version relies on the decay of the positronium. as a spontaneous decay. Indeed, in quantum mechanics a e present special issue consists of articles which deal decay process is quite natural as any state will decay unless with instability from a scale as small as that of elementary we have a conservation law (symmetry) which forbids it. particles to that of the universe itself. On the way, the authors Quantum mechanics allows also a unified treatment of the discover interesting phenomena related to the effects of spontaneous decay which can be applied to all unstable relativity, violation of symmetries, and the bizarre behaviour states and exhibits new phenomena (“new” as compared to of the universe under certain conditions. Chen and Wang, for the classical “exponential decay”) at short and large times. example, consider the tunneling of the universe within the At small times the exponential decay law is replaced by a scenario of an inhomogeneous quantum vacuum and, calcu- power law and is closely related to the Zeno and anti-Zeno lating the tunneling amplitude of the universe from nothing, Advances in High Energy Physics they find that the inhomogeneity leads to a faster tunneling. In contrast to this approach which uses the Friedmann- Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker metric, M. Gogberashvili con- siders a different approach using Einstein’s static universe metric and investigates the effects of the strong static gravi- tational field. A. Stachowski et al. bring in a new player, the metastable dark energy, in the investigation of the evolution of the universe. G. J. M. Zilioti et al. attempt to resolve some cosmological puzzles within decaying vacuum models. A completely different approach using concepts from statistical physics is introduced by Z. Haba to study the evolution of the expanding universe. Going over to smaller scales, the paper by T. V. Obikhod and I. A. Petrenko studies the properties of new particles predicted by the theories of extra dimensions. e survival probabilities of moving unstable particles are considered by E. V. Stefanovich, F. Giraldi, and F. Giacosa in three different papers. e feasibility of testing the time reversal symmetry in a purely leptonic system is reported by the Jagellonian-PET team from their pilot measurement involving the three photon decay of a positronium atom. Finally, the probability distribution of tunneling times of particles in connection with the recent laser induced tunnel ionization experiments is presented by J.