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This paper presents a comprehensive review of both the theory and experimental successes of Quantum Chromodynamics, starting with its emergence as a well defined theory in 1972-73 and following developments and results up to the present day. Topics include a review of the earliest theoretical and experimental foundations; the fundamental constants of QCD; an introductory discussion of lattice QCD, the only known method for obtaining exact predictions from QCD; methods for approximating QCD, with special focus on effective field theories; QCD under extreme conditions; measurements and predictions of meson and baryon states; a special discussion of the structure of the nucleon; techniques for study of QCD at high energy, including treatment of jets and showers; measurements at colliders; weak decays and quark mixing; and a section on the future, which discusses new experimental facilities or upgrades currently funded. The paper is intended to provide a broad background for Ph.D. students and postdocs starting their career. Some contributions include personal accounts of how the ideas or experiments were developed., Comment: Invited volume for the EJPC; 567 pages if text/figures and 4783 references occupying about 160 additional pages. arXiv abstract abridged, for the complete abstract please see the full text

The leptons, quarks and weak bosons are bound states of new constituents. An isosinglet weak boson should exist, the X particle, which might have a mass of about 400 GeV and a width of about 20 GeV.

We calculate the quark flavor mixing matrix $V$ based on the Hermitian quark mass matrices $M^{}_{\rm u}$ and $M^{}_{\rm d}$ with vanishing $(1,1)$, $(1,3)$ and $(3,1)$ entries. The popular leading-order prediction $|V^{}_{ub}/V^{}_{cb}| \simeq \sqrt{m^{}_u/m^{}_c}$ is significantly modified, and the result agrees with the current experimental value. We find that behind the strong {\it mass} hierarchy of up- or down-type quarks is the weak {\it texture} hierarchy of $M^{}_{\rm u}$ or $M^{}_{\rm d}$ characterized by an approximate seesaw-like relation among its $(2,2)$, $(2,3)$ and $(3,3)$ elements., Comment: 18 pages, the version accepted for publication in NPB

We discuss a new mass matrix with specific texture zeros for the quarks. The three flavor mixing angles for the quarks are functions of the quark masses and can be calculated. The following ratios among CKM matrix elements are given by ratios of quark masses: |Vtd/Vts| ' q md /ms and |Vub/Vcb| ' p mu/mc . Also we can calculate two CKM matrix elements: |Vcb| ' |Vts| ' 2 (ms/mb ). This relation as well as the relation |Vtd/Vts| ' q md /ms are in good agreement with the experimental data. There is a problem with the relation |Vub/Vcb| ' p mu/mc , probably due to wrong estimates of the quark masses mu and m, Comment: 6 pages

The texture zero mass matrices for the leptons and the seesaw mechanism are used to derive relations between the matrix elements of the lepton mixing matrix and the ratios of the neutrino masses., Comment: 9 pages

The democracy of quark flavors is a well-motivated flavor symmetry, but it must be properly broken in order to explain the observed quark mass spectrum and flavor mixing pattern. We reconstruct the texture of flavor democracy breaking and evaluate its strength in a novel way, by assuming a parallelism between the Q=+2/3 and Q=-1/3 quark sectors and using a nontrivial parametrization of the flavor mixing matrix. Some phenomenological implications of such democratic quark mass matrices, including their variations in the hierarchy basis and their evolution from the electroweak scale to a superhigh-energy scale, are also discussed., Comment: 14 pages. References added. Accepted for publication in Chinese Phys. C

The weak bosons are bound states of fermions. Here the excitations of the weak bosons are discussed. Especially we study the decays of these excited states into weak bosons and photons., Comment: 6 pages

The weak bosons are bound states of new constituents. The p-wave excitations are studied. The state with the lowest mass is identified with the boson, which has been discovered at the LHC. Specific properties of the excited bosons are discussed, in particular their decays into weak bosons and photons. The stable fermion, consisting of three haplons, provides the dark matter in our universe., Comment: 7 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1604.05818

We compute the time variation of the fundamental constants (such as the ratio of the proton mass to the electron mass, the strong coupling constant, the fine structure constant and Newton's constant) within the context of the so-called running vacuum models (RVM's) of the cosmic evolution. Recently, compelling evidence has been provided showing that these models are able to fit the main cosmological data (SNIa+BAO+H(z)+LSS+BBN+CMB) significantly better than the concordance $\Lambda$CDM model. Specifically, the vacuum parameters of the RVM (i.e. those responsible for the dynamics of the vacuum energy) prove to be nonzero at a confidence level $\gtrsim3\sigma$. Here we use such remarkable status of the RVM's to make definite predictions on the cosmic time variation of the fundamental constants. It turns out that the predicted variations are close to the present observational limits. Furthermore, we find that the time variation of the dark matter particles should be crucially involved in the total mass variation of our Universe. A positive measurement of this kind of effects could be interpreted as strong support to the "micro and macro connection" (viz. the dynamical feedback between the evolution of the cosmological parameters and the time variation of the fundamental constants of the microscopic world), previously proposed by two of us (HF and JS)., Comment: Matches the published version in EPJC

In a composite model of the weak bosons the p-wave bosons are studied. The state with the lowest mass is identified with the boson, which has been discovered at the LHC. Specific properties of the excited bosons are discussed, in particular their decays into weak bosons and photons. Recently a two photon signal has been observed, which might come from the decay of a neutral heavy boson with a mass of about 0.75 TeV. This particle could be an excited weak tensor boson., Comment: 6 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1203.5600

In a composite model of the weak bosons the p-wave bosons are studied. The state with the lowest mass is identified with the boson, which has been observed at the LHC. Specific properties of the excited bosons are studied, in particular their decays into weak bosons and photons. Such decays might have been observed recently with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider., Comment: 7 pages, no figures

We discuss mass matrices with four texture zeros for the quarks and leptons. The three mixing angles for the quarks and leptons are functions of the fermion masses. The results agree with the experimental data. The ratio of the masses of the first two neutrinos is given by the solar mixing angle. The neutrino masses are calculated: $m_1$ $\approx$ 0.004 eV, $m_2$ $\approx$ 0.010 eV, $m_3$ $\approx$ 0.070 eV., Comment: 8 pages, no figures

We discuss the neutrino oscillations, using texture zero mass matrices for the leptons. The reactor mixing angle $\theta^{}_{l}$ is calculated. The ratio of the masses of two neutrinos is determined by the solar mixing angle. We can calculate the masses of the three neutrinos: $m_1$ $\approx$ 0.003 eV - $m_2$ $\approx$ 0.012 eV - $m_3$ $\approx$ 0.048 eV., Comment: 8 pages, no figures, contribution to International Conference on Massive Neutrinos, Singapore, 9 - 13 February 2015

The idea that the vacuum energy density $\rho_{\Lambda}$ could be time dependent is a most reasonable one in the expanding Universe; in fact, much more reasonable than just a rigid cosmological constant for the entire cosmic history. Being $\rho_{\Lambda}=\rho_{\Lambda}(t)$ dynamical, it offers a possibility to tackle the cosmological constant problem in its various facets. Furthermore, for a long time (most prominently since Dirac's first proposal on a time variable gravitational coupling) the possibility that the fundamental "constants" of Nature are slowly drifting with the cosmic expansion has been continuously investigated. In the last two decades, and specially in recent times, mounting experimental evidence attests that this could be the case. In this paper, we consider the possibility that these two groups of facts might be intimately connected, namely that the observed acceleration of the Universe and the possible time variation of the fundamental constants are two manifestations of the same underlying dynamics. We call it: the "micro and macro connection", and on its basis we expect that the cosmological term in Einstein's equations, Newton's coupling and the masses of all the particles in the Universe, both the dark matter particles and the ordinary baryons and leptons, should all drift with the cosmic expansion. Here we discuss specific cosmological models realizing such possibility in a way that preserves the principle of covariance of General Relativity., Comment: Updated version to appear in Modern Physics Letters A (special issue on "Fundamental Constants in Physics and Their Time Variation" )

In quantum haplodynamics (QHD) the weak bosons, quarks and leptons are bound states of fundamental constituents, denoted as haplons. The confinement scale of the associated gauge group SU(2)_h is of the order of $\Lambda_h\simeq 0.3$ TeV. One scalar state has zero haplon number and is the resonance observed at the LHC. In addition, there exist new bound states of haplons with no counterpart in the SM, having a mass of the order of 0.5 TeV up to a few TeV. In particular, a neutral scalar state with haplon number 4 is stable and can provide the dark matter in the universe. The QHD, QCD and QED couplings can unify at the Planck scale. If this scale changes slowly with cosmic time, all of the fundamental couplings, the masses of the nucleons and of the DM particles, including the cosmological term (or vacuum energy density), will evolve with time. This could explain the dark energy of the universe., Comment: Version accepted for publication in Advances in High Energy Physics. Extended discussion and references added

In a composite model of the weak bosons the excited bosons, in particular the p-wave bosons, are studied. The state with the lowest mass is identified with the boson, which has been discovered recently at the "Large Hadron Collider" at CERN. Specific properties of the excited weak bosons are studied, in particular their decays into weak bosons and into photons., Comment: 12 pages, no figures, lecture given at International School of Subnuclear Physics, Erice, 24 June - 3 July 2013

The weak bosons are bound states of two fermions and their antiparticles, denoted as haplons. The confinement scale of the associated gauge group SU(2) is of the order of 0.5 TeV. Besides the weak bosons there exist also new bosons, an SU(2)-triplet and a singlet, with a mass of the order of 0.5 TeV. The neutral singlet boson and its antiparticle are stable and provide the dark matter in the universe., Comment: 5 pages, more discussions added

Taking into account the latest neutrino oscillation data, we study texture zeros of the lepton mass matrices. Assuming the Dirac neutrino mass matrix M_D, the charged-lepton mass matrix M_l and the mass matrix of heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos M_R to have three texture zeros, we show that the observed neutrino mixing angles can naturally be obtained. The phenomenological implications for the neutrino mass spectrum, the CP-violating phases, the tritium beta decay and the neutrinoless double-beta decay are explored., Comment: 14 pages, including 2 PS figures

In a composite model of the weak bosons the p-wave bosons are studied. The state with the lowest mass is identified with the boson, which might have been detected recently at the LHC. Specific properties of these excited bosons are studied, in particular their decays into weak bosons, into photons and into leptons or quarks., Comment: 8 pages

We discuss the neutrino oscillations, using texture zero mass matrices for the leptons, including radiative correction. The neutrino mixing angle theta_13 is calculated and agrees with the result of the new Daya Bay experiment., Comment: 6 pages

In an expanding universe the vacuum energy density \rho_{\Lambda} is expected to be a dynamical quantity. In quantum field theory in curved space-time \rho_{\Lambda} should exhibit a slow evolution, determined by the expansion rate of the universe H. Recent measurements on the time variation of the fine structure constant and of the proton-electron mass ratio suggest that basic quantities of the Standard Model, such as the QCD scale parameter \Lambda_{QCD}, may not be conserved in the course of the cosmological evolution. The masses of the nucleons m_N and of the atomic nuclei would also be affected. Matter is not conserved in such a universe. These measurements can be interpreted as a leakage of matter into vacuum or vice versa. We point out that the amount of leakage necessary to explain the measured value of \dot{m}_N/m_N could be of the same order of magnitude as the observationally allowed value of \dot{\rho}_{\Lambda}/\rho_{\Lambda}, with a possible contribution from the dark matter particles. The dark energy in our universe could be the dynamical vacuum energy in interaction with ordinary baryonic matter as well as with dark matter., Comment: Version accepted in Class. Quant. Grav. Extended discussion and references added

We study the hypothesis that weak bosons are composite systems, which have a size of the order of 10^{-17} cm. The electromagnetic selfenergies of the weak bosons lead to specific departures from the standard electroweak model, in agreement with observation. Above the energy of 1 TeV the standard electroweak model breaks down completely., Comment: 8 pages

In view of the latest T2K and MINOS neutrino oscillation data which hint at a relatively large theta_13, we perform a systematic study of the Majorana neutrino mass matrix M_nu with two independent texture zeros. We show that three neutrino masses (m_1, m_2, m_3) and three CP-violating phases (delta, rho, sigma) can fully be determined from two neutrino mass-squared differences (delta m^2, Delta m^2) and three flavor mixing angles (theta_12, theta_23, theta_13). We find that seven patterns of M_nu (i.e., A_{1,2}, B_{1,2,3,4} and C) are compatible with current experimental data at the 3-sigma level, but the parameter space of each pattern is more strictly constrained than before. We demonstrate that the texture zeros of M_nu are stable against the one-loop quantum corrections, and there exists a permutation symmetry between Patterns A_1 and A_2, B_1 and B_2 or B_3 and B_4. Phenomenological implications of M_nu on the neutrinoless double-beta decay and leptonic CP violation are discussed, and a realization of those texture zeros by means of the Z_n flavor symmetries is illustrated., Comment: 41 pages, including 4 tables and 14 figures, more discussions added, to appear in JHEP

The weak bosons consist of two fermions, bound by a new confining gauge force. The mass scale of this new interaction is determined. At energies below 0.5 TeV the standard electroweak theory is valid. A neutral isoscalar weak boson X must exist - its mass is less than 1 TeV. It will decay mainly into quark and lepton pairs and into two or three weak bosons. Above the mass of 1 TeV one finds excitations of the weak bosons, which mainly decay into pairs of weak bosons. Leptons and quarks consist of a fermion and a scalar. Pairs of leptons and pairs of quarks form resonances at very high energy., Comment: 11 pages, no figures

The "texture zero mass matrices" for the quarks and leptons describe very well the flavor mixing of the quarks and leptons. We can calculate the angles of the unitarity triangle. We expect the angle alpha of the unitarity triangle to be 90 degrees. The masses of the neutrinos can be calculated - they are very small, the largest neutrino mass is 0.05 eV. We calculated the matrix element of the mixing matrix, relevant for the reactor mixing angle. It can be measured in the near future in the DAYA BAY experiment., Comment: 9 pages, no figures

We show that non-Hermitian and nearest-neighbor-interacting perturbations to the Fritzsch textures of lepton and quark mass matrices can make both of them fit current experimental data very well. In particular, we obtain \theta_{23} \simeq 45^\circ for the atmospheric neutrino mixing angle and predict \theta_{13} \simeq 3^\circ to 6^\circ for the smallest neutrino mixing angle when the perturbations in the lepton sector are at the 20% level. The same level of perturbations is required in the quark sector, where the Jarlskog invariant of CP violation is about 3.7 \times 10^{-5}. In comparison, the strength of leptonic CP violation is possible to reach about 1.5 \times 10^{-2} in neutrino oscillations., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures. More discussions added. Accepted for publication in PLB

The weak bosons, leptons and quarks are considered as composite particles. The interaction of the constituents is a confining gauge interaction. The standard electroweak model is a low energy approximation. The mixing of the neutral weak boson with the photon is a dynamical mechanism, similar to the mixing between the photon and the rho-meson in QCD. This mixing provides information about the energy scale of the confining gauge force. It must be less than 1 TeV. At and above this energy many narrow resonances should exist, which decay into weak bosons and into lepton and quark pairs. Above 1 TeV excited leptons should exist, which decay into leptons under emission of a weak boson or a photon. These new states can be observed with the detectors at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN., Comment: 8 pages, no figures

We propose two phenomenological scenarios of lepton mass matrices and show that either of them can exactly give rise to \tan^2\theta_{13} = m_e/(m_e + 2m_\mu), \tan^2\theta_{23} = m_\mu/(m_e + m_\mu) and \tan^2\theta_{12} = (m_e m_2 + 2m_\mu m_1)/(m_e m_1 + 2m_\mu m_2) in the standard parametrization of lepton flavor mixing. The third relation, together with current experimental data, predicts a normal but weak hierarchy for the neutrino mass spectrum. We also obtain \theta_{13} \approx 2.8^\circ for the smallest neutrino mixing angle and J \approx 1.1% for the Jarlskog invariant of leptonic CP violation, which will soon be tested in the long-baseline reactor and accelerator neutrino oscillation experiments. A seesaw realization of both scenarios is briefly discussed., Comment: RevTeX 11 pages. Accepted for publication

We discuss the mass differences for isospin multiplets of the charmed and b-flavored baryons. The mass of the neutral b-flavored sigma baryon, which is not measured, is calculated. We point out, that the measurements of the mass differences between the charmed sigma and chi baryons might be wrong., Comment: 5 pages

We discuss the fundamemtal constants in the Standard Model of particle physics, in particular possible changes of these constants on the cosmological time scale. The Grand Unification of the observed strong, electromagnetic and weak interactions implies relations between time variation of the finestructure constant alpha and the QCD scale $\Lambda_c$. The astrophysical observation of a variation implies a time variation of $10^{-15} / year$. Several experiments in Quantum Optics, which were designed to look for a time variation of $\Lambda_c$, are discussed., Comment: 16 pages Paper withdrawn, since it should not be published

Current experimental data allow the zero value for one neutrino mass, either m_1 = 0 or m_3 = 0. This observation implies that a realistic neutrino mass texture can be established by starting from the limit (a) m_1 = m_2 = 0 and m_3 \neq 0 or (b) m_1 = m_2 \neq 0 and m_3 = 0. In both cases, we may introduce a particular perturbation which ensures the resultant neutrino mixing matrix to be the tri-bimaximal mixing pattern or its viable variations with all entries being formed from small integers and their square roots. We find that it is natural to incorporate this kind of neutrino mass matrix in the minimal Type-II seesaw model with only one heavy right-handed Majorana neutrino N in addition to the SU(2)_L Higgs triplet \Delta_L. We show that it is possible to account for the cosmological baryon number asymmetry in the m_3 =0 case via thermal leptogenesis, in which the one-loop vertex correction to N decays is mediated by \Delta_L and the CP-violating asymmetry of N decays is attributed to the electron flavor., Comment: RevTeX 14 pages, 2 figures. Title and authors changed, and discussions on the minimal type-II seesaw and leptogenesis added. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D

Astrophysical observations indicate a time variation of the proton-electron mass ratio and of the fine-structure constant. We discuss this phenomenon in models of Grand Unification. In these models a time variation of the fine-structure constant and of the proton mass are expected, if either the unified coupling constant or the scale of unification changes, or both change. We discuss in particular the change of the proton mass. Experiments in Quantum Optics could be done to check these ideas., Comment: 5 pages

Extrapolating the coupling strengths to very high energies, one finds that they do not converge to a single coupling constant, as expected in the simplest gauge theory of Grand Unification, the SU(5) theory. We find that the coupling constants do converge, provided that two new intermediate energy scales are introduced, the energies where the group SU(4), containing the color group, and the right-isospin gauge group are spontaneously broken down., Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure

We speculate that the mass spectrum of three neutrinos might have a normal hierarchy as that of three charged leptons or that of three up-type (or down-type) quarks. In this spirit, we propose a novel parametrization of the $3\times 3$ lepton flavor mixing matrix. Its mixing angles $\theta_l$ and $\theta_\nu$ can be related to the mass ratios $m_e/m_\mu$ and $m_1/m_2$ in a specific texture of lepton mass matrices with vanishing (1,1) elements: $\tan\theta_l = \sqrt{m_e/m_\mu}$ and $\tan\theta_\nu = \sqrt{m_1/m_2}$. The latter relation, together with solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillation data, predicts 0.0030 eV $\lesssim m_1 \lesssim$ 0.0073 eV, 0.009 eV $\lesssim m_2 \lesssim $ 0.012 eV and 0.042 eV $\lesssim m_3 \lesssim$ 0.058 eV. The smallest neutrino mixing angle is found to be $\theta_{13} \approx \theta_l/\sqrt{2} \approx 3^\circ$, which is experimentally accessible in the near future., Comment: RevTex 10 pages, 2 figures

We define a constituent quark within QCD. It is shown that the spin of such a quark and hence also the spin of the nucleon reduced due to $\bar{q}q$-pairs, in agreement with experiment. A solution to the spin problem is given., Comment: 7 pages

From astrophysics there are indications that the finestructure constant $\alpha $ has changed during the past 10 billion years. Within grand unification one can deduce that also the QCD scale has changed. Tests for a time variation of this scale are described. The result of the new experiment in Munich is discussed., Comment: 6 pages