Domain walls are sheet-like topological defects produced when a discrete symmetry is spontaneously broken in the early universe. Although the existence of stable domain walls is disfavored by cosmological considerations, it is possible to consider unstable domain walls which disappear early enough not to lead cosmological disasters. In this talk, we discuss the possibility that a significant...
Modifications of general relativity often involve coupling additional scalar fields to the Ricci curvature, leading to scalar-tensor theories of Brans-Dicke type. If the additional scalar fields are light, they can give rise to long-range fifth forces, which are subject to stringent constraints from local tests of gravity. In this talk, we show that fifth forces only arise for the Standard...
We consider the S3 symmetric extension of the Standard Model in which all the irreducible
representations of the permutation group are occupied by SU(2) scalar doublets,
one of which is taken as inert. We study the parameter space of the model probing points
against physical constraints ranging from unitarity tests to experimental Higgs searches
limits. We find that the latter constraints...
