We investigate planar quantum electrodynamics with two degenerate staggered fermions in an external magnetic field on the lattice. We argue that in external magnetic fields there is dynamical generation of mass for two-dimensional massless Dirac fermions in the weak-coupling region. We extrapolate our lattice results to the quantum Hall effect in graphene.

The transverse profile of the chromoelectric flux tubes in SU(2) and SU(3) pure gauge theories is analyzed by a simple variational ansatz using a strict analogy with ordinary superconductivity. Our method allows to extract the penetration length and the coherence length of the flux tube.

We determine the (pseudo) critical lines of QCD with two degenerate staggered fermions at nonzero temperature and quark or isospin density, in the region of imaginary chemical potentials; analytic continuation is then used to prolongate to the region of real chemical potentials. We obtain an accurate determination of the curvatures at zero chemical potential, quantifying the deviation between the case of finite quark and of finite isospin chemical potential. Deviations from a quadratic dependence of the pseudocritical lines on the chemical potential are clearly seen in both cases: we try different extrapolations and, for the case of nonzero isospin chemical potential, confront them with the results of direct Monte Carlo simulations. Finally we find that, as for the finite quark density case, an imaginary isospin chemical potential can strengthen the transition until turning it into strong first order.

We determine the curvature of the (pseudo)critical line of QCD with nf = 2 + 1 staggered fermions at nonzero temperature and quark density by analytic continuation from imaginary chemical potentials. Monte Carlo simulations are performed by adopting the highly improved staggered quarks /tree action discretization, as implemented in the code by the MILC Collaboration, suitably modified to include a nonzero imaginary baryon chemical potential. We work on a line of constant physics, as determined in Ref. [1], adjusting the couplings so as to keep the strange quark mass ms fixed at its physical value, with a light to strange mass ratio of ml/ms =1/20. In the present investigation, we set the chemical potential at the same value for the three quark species, μl = μs ≡ μ. We explore lattices of different spatial extensions, 16^3 × 6 and 24^3 × 6, to check for finite size effects, and present results on a 32^3 × 8 lattice, to check for finite cutoff effects. We discuss our results for the curvature κ of the (pseudo)critical line at μ = 0, which indicate κ = 0.018(4), and compare them with previous lattice determinations by alternative methods and with experimental determinations of the freeze-out curve.

An estimate of the London penetration and coherence lengths in the vacuum of the SU(3) pure gauge theory is given downstream an analysis of the transverse profile of the chromoelectric flux tubes. Within ordinary superconductivity, a simple variational model for the magnitude of the normalized order parameter of an isolated vortex produces an analytic expression for magnetic field and supercurrent density. In the picture of SU(3) vacuum as dual superconductor, this expression provides us with the function that fits the chromoelectric field data. The smearing procedure is used in order to reduce noise.

We investigate the transverse profile of the chromoelectric field generated by a quark-antiquark pair in the vacuum of (2+1) flavor QCD. Monte Carlo simulations are performed adopting the HISQ/tree action discretization, as implemented in the publicly available MILC code, suitably modified to measure the chromoelectric field. We work on the line of constant physics, with physical strange quark mass ms and light to strange mass ratio ml/ms=1/20.

Within the dual superconductor scenario for the QCD confining vacuum, the chromoelectric field generated by a static q¯q pair can be fitted by a function derived, by dual analogy, from a simple variational model for the magnitude of the normalized order parameter of an isolated Abrikosov vortex. Previous results for the SU(3) vacuum are revisited, but here the transverse chromoelectric field is measured by means of the connected correlator of two Polyakov loops and, in order to reduce noise, the smearing procedure is used instead of cooling. The penetration and coherence lengths of the flux tube are then extracted from the fit and compared with previous results.

Recent Planck data confirm that the cosmic microwave background displays the quadru-pole power suppression together with large scale anomalies. Progressing from previous results, that focused on the quadrupole anomaly, we strengthen the proposal that the slightly anisotropic ellipsoidal universe may account for these anomalies. We solved at large scales the Boltzmann equation for the photon distribution functions by taking into account both the effects of the inflation produced primordial scalar perturbations and the anisotropy of the geometry in the ellipsoidal universe. We showed that the low quadrupole temperature correlations allowed us to fix the eccentricity at decoupling, $e_{ m dec} \, = \, ( 0.86 \, \pm \, 0.14) \, 10^{-2}$, and to constraint the direction of the symmetry axis. We found that the anisotropy of the geometry of the universe contributes only to the large scale temperature anisotropies without affecting the higher multipoles of the angular power spectrum. Moreover, we showed that the ellipsoidal geometry of the universe induces sizable polarization signal at large scales without invoking the reionization scenario. We explicitly evaluated the quadrupole TE and EE correlations. We found an average large scale polarization $\Delta T_{pol} \, = \, (1.20 \, \pm \, 0.38) \; \mu K $. We point out that great care is needed in the experimental determination of the large-scale polarization correlations since the average temperature polarization could be misinterpreted as foreground emission leading, thereby, to a considerable underestimate of the cosmic microwave background polarization signal.

We investigate the quantum Hall effect in graphene. We argue that in graphene in presence of an external magnetic field there is dynamical generation of mass by a rearrangement of the Dirac sea. We show that the mechanism breaks the lattice valley degeneracy only for the n = 0 Landau levels and leads to the new observed nu = +/- 1 quantum Hall plateaus. We suggest that our result can be tested by means of numerical simulations of planar Quantum Electro Dynamics with dynamical fermions in an external magnetic fields on the lattice.

We exploit analytic continuation to prolongate to the region of real chemical potentials the (pseudo)critical lines of QCD with two degenerate staggered fermions at nonzero temperature and quark or isospin density obtained in the region of imaginary chemical potentials. We determine the curvatures at zero chemical potential and quantify the deviation between the cases of finite quark and of finite isospin chemical potential. In both circumstances deviations from a quadratic dependence of the pseudocritical lines on the chemical potential are clearly seen. We try different extrapolations and, for the nonzero isospin chemical potential, confront them with the results of direct Monte Carlo simulations. We also find that, as for the finite quark chemical potential, an imaginary isospin chemical potential can strengthen the transition till turning it into strong first order.