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Astrophysical observations suggest that the fine structure constant (alpha) may (or may not) be evolving over the cosmological time scale. This raises a much debated question: is alpha variation due to the variation of the speed of light (c), elementary electric charge (e), or the Planck constant (h)? Previously, we proposed the metrological approach based on the analysis of the relationships between the fundamental units (e.g. of the length and time) and the fundamental constants. Our methodology allows one to find how each of the fundamental constants e, c, h evolves in time and offers a new outlook for this area. Here we give a brief outline of this approach and the main results it produces., Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX4, presented at the 16th National Congress of the Australian Institute of Physics (Canberra, 31 January - 4 February 2005)

One of the deepest unsolved puzzles of subatomic physics is why Nature prefers the left particles to the right ones. Mirror matter is an attempt to understand this mystery by assuming the existence of a "parallel''world where this preference is exactly opposite. Thus in the Universe consisting of the ordinary and the mirror matter the symmetry between the left and right is completely restored. Mirror matter is constrained to interact with us only very weakly. Still, its existence can be inferred by using experimental evidence such as the observation of astrophysical objects related to the dark matter (MACHO), neutrino physics and other sources. This talk will focus on several key aspects of mirror matter physics including the possible existence of mirror matter inside the Earth and the suggestion that the recently observed "isolated" planets may in fact be orbiting around mirror stars., 9 pages, revtex, Talk given by A.Yu.Ignatiev at the 15th Biennual Congress of the Australian Institute of Physics (Sydney, July 2002)

We report the results of the first computation related to the study of the spectator effects in the rare decay mode $B\to K ����$ within the framework of Standard Model. It is found that the account of these effects results in the enhancement factor for the short-distance reducible contribution to the branching ratio., 5 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX 4

We examine the issue of magnetic charge quantization in the presence of black holes. It is pointed out that quantization of magnetic charge can lead to the mass quantization for magnetically charged black holes. We also discuss some implications for the experimental searches of magnetically charged black holes., Comment: RevTeX, 11 pages, Invited paper for the first editorial volume of the book series "Contemporary Fundamental Physics" by the Nova Science Publishers

We examine several issues related to the processes of Dirac monopole-antimonopole production in high-energy collisions such as $e^+e^-$ annihilation. Perturbative calculations for such processes are known to be inherently ambiguous due to the arbitrariness of direction of the monopole string; this requires use of some prescription to obtain physical results. We argue that different prescriptions lead to drastically different physical results which suggests that at present we do not have an entirely satisfactory procedure for the elimination of string arbitrariness (this problem is quite separate from the problems caused by the large coupling constant). We then analyze the consequencies of discrete symmetries (P and C) for the monopole production processes and for the monopole-antimonopole states. The P and C selection rules for the monopole-antimonopole states turn out to be different from those for the ordinary fermion-antifermion or boson-antiboson system. In particular, the spin 1/2 monopole and antimonopole should have the same helicities if they are produced through the one-photon annihilation of an electron and positron. A stronger selection rule holds for spinless monopoles: CP symmetry absolutely forbids the monopole-antimonopole production through the one-photon annihilation of an electron and positron. Single-photon $e^+e^- \to g^+g^-$ amplitude has been a key input in calculating the contribution of virtual $g^+g^-$ pairs to various physical processes such as the decay $Z\to 3\gamma$ and the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron. Applying our conclusions to these cases can lead to significant modifications of the results obtained in previous works., Comment: 21 pages, revtex, 5 figures

Hybrid $SU(2) \times U(1)$ models are the models in which $SU(2) \times U(1)$ symmetry is broken down not only spontaneously (as in the Standard Model), but also explicitely by adding a hard mass term for the U(1) field in the lagrangian. We study the issue of electric charge nonconservation and dequantization in these models. For this purpose we construct and analyze a series of hybrid models with different scalar contents. We show that some of these models posess an interesting property: the photon can remain massless (at least, at the tree level) even though the electric charge is not conserved., Comment: 17 pages, revtex

It has recently been shown that the neutrino can have non-zero electric charge in a number of gauge theories, including the Minimal Standard Model. Assuming non-zero neutrino charge, we develop a new approach to the solar neutrino problem. The key idea is that the charged neutrinos will be deflected by the Lorentz force while they are crossing the solar magnetic fields. Such a deflection will result in the anisotropy of the solar neutrino flux. Because of this anisotropy, the solar neutrino flux registered on earth can be reduced as compared to the Standard Solar Model prediction. The mechanism is purely classical and does not require neutrino oscillations, spin-flip or neutrino decay. We discuss qualitatively the consequences of our scenario for present and future solar neutrino experiments as well as differences between our mechanism and other proposed solutions., Comment: 29 pages, UM-P/94-73, RCHEP-94/21, in REVTEX