We construct and analyze the Standard Model of electroweak and strong interactions in multiscale spacetimes with (i) weighted derivatives and (ii) q-derivatives. Both theories can be formulated in two different frames, called fractional and integer picture. By definition, the fractional picture is where physical predictions should be made. (i) In the theory with weighted derivatives, it is shown that gauge invariance and the requirement of having constant masses in all reference frames make the Standard Model in the integer picture indistinguishable from the ordinary one. Experiments involving only weak and strong forces are insensitive to a change of spacetime dimensionality also in the fractional picture, and only the electromagnetic and gravitational sectors can break the degeneracy. For the simplest multiscale measures with only one characteristic time, length and energy scale t à , l à and E à , we compute the Lamb shift in the hydrogen atom and constrain the multiscale correction to the ordinary result, getting the absolute upper bound t à < 10 −23 s. For the natural choice α 0 ¼ 1=2 of the fractional exponent in the measure, this bound is strengthened to t à < 10 −29 s, corresponding to l à < 10 −20 m and E à > 28 TeV. Stronger bounds are obtained from the measurement of the fine-structure constant.(ii) In the theory with q-derivatives, considering the muon decay rate and the Lamb shift in light atoms, we obtain the independent absolute upper bounds t à < 10 −13 s and E à > 35 MeV. For α 0 ¼ 1=2, the Lamb shift alone yields t à < 10

We use a top-down holographic model for strongly interacting quark matter to study the properties of neutron stars. When the corresponding equation of state (EOS) is matched with state-of-the-art results for dense nuclear matter, we consistently observe a first-order phase transition at densities between 2 and 7 times the nuclear saturation density. Solving the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkov equations with the resulting hybrid EOSs, we find maximal stellar masses in excess of two solar masses, albeit somewhat smaller than those obtained with simple extrapolations of the nuclear matter EOSs. Our calculation predicts that no quark matter exists inside neutron stars.

We derive the covariant equations of motion for Maxwell field theory and electrodynamics in multiscale spacetimes with weighted Laplacian. An effective spacetime-dependent electric charge of geometric origin naturally emerges from the theory, thus giving rise to a varying fine-structure constant. The theory is compared with other varying-coupling models, such as those with a varying electric charge or varying speed of light. The theory is also confronted with cosmological observations, which can place constraints on the characteristic scales in the multifractional measure. We note that the model considered here is fundamentally different from those previously proposed in the literature, either of the varying-e or varying-c persuasion.

It has been conjectured that the speed of sound in holographic models with UV fixed points has an upper bound set by the value of the quantity in conformal field theory. If true, this would set stringent constraints for the presence of strongly coupled quark matter in the cores of physical neutron stars, as the existence of two-solar-mass stars appears to demand a very stiff Equation of State. In this article, we present a family of counterexamples to the speed of sound conjecture, consisting of strongly coupled theories at finite density.The theories we consider include N = 4 super Yang-Mills at finite R-charge density and non-zero gaugino masses, while the holographic duals are Einstein-Maxwell theories with a minimally coupled scalar in a charged black hole geometry. We show that for a small breaking of conformal invariance, the speed of sound approaches the conformal value from above at large chemical potentials.