arXiv Daily Digest - 2026-05-28

The azimuthal hadronic flow observed in ultra-relativistic ion-ion collisions provides a sensitive probe of many-body ground-state correlations in the colliding nuclei. In particular, collective correlations associated with nuclear "intrinsic deformation" are expected to leave pronounced fingerprints on specific final-state observables. However, such effects are commonly interpreted within a classical rigid-rotor picture, despite the intrinsically quantum nature of nuclei. In this Letter, the validity of this interpretation is assessed systematically across the nuclear chart by comparing the quantum quadrupole rotor with its classical rigid-rotor limit. Quantum contributions associated with the fermionic nature of the nucleons are shown to be largely independent of shell effects, and hence of the intrinsic deformation. While they account for nearly all of the quantum rotor effective quadrupole deformation in light and/or spherical nuclei, they drop below 10% in intrinsically well deformed heavy nuclei. The present letter demonstrates that a quantitative interpretation of nuclear-structure effects in final-state observables requires going beyond the classical rigid-rotor paradigm. Beyond the quantum contributions quantified presently, correlations associated with collective vibrations and with the non-collective nucleonic motion must be further included and characterized.

Gravitino masses above the electroweak scale provide the simplest solution to the gravitino problem, but such large mass scales lie far beyond the reach of collider experiments. We show that the stochastic gravitational wave background offers a direct probe of this otherwise inaccessible regime. Despite decaying before Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), these gravitinos naturally generate a period of early matter domination in the early universe. This non-standard epoch leaves a characteristic imprint on any primordial gravitational wave background, characterised by two frequencies corresponding to the onset and end of this phase. We demonstrate that these features can be used to directly infer both the gravitino mass and its initial abundance in a direct mapping. Future gravitational wave observatories span a vast frequency range, enabling sensitivity to gravitino masses from the BBN bound of $\mathcal{O}(100)\,\text{TeV}$ all the way up to $\mathcal{O}(10^{10})\,\text{TeV}$, with recent signal by NANOGrav already probing masses in the range $500$-$10^4$ TeV. Gravitational wave observables therefore probe an enormous region of parameter space, far beyond the reach of collider experiments. We are entering an era in which supergravity can be probed through gravitational wave backgrounds alongside collider experiments.

The energy-energy correlator (EEC) inside jets is a sensitive observable for studying jet modification in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). However, its interpretation in heavy-ion collisions remains challenging, requiring a consistent understanding of jet evolution across multiple dynamical scales together with a proper treatment of the background subtraction. In this work, we employ an updated CoLBT-hydro framework in which a medium scale $Q_M$ = 2.0 GeV is introduced to separate the vacuum and in-medium stages of the parton shower, enabling a more self-consistent treatment of jet evolution. Using a theoretical background subtraction within the model, the resulting simulation reproduces the recent CMS measurement of the in-jet EEC, and through a decomposition of different contributions, highlights the impact of medium modification on the observable. To further validate the experimental procedure, we also implement the CMS mixed-event background-subtraction method directly in the simulation and find the results are consistent with that obtained with the theoretical background subtraction. Using $p_T$-ranked jets in each event, we further investigate the dependence of medium modification on the in-medium path length, reflected in the different EECs of leading and sub-leading jets. Finally, we explore the dependence of the leading-jet EEC on the dijet rapidity gap as a signal of the jet-induced diffusion wake.

In the standard Breit-Wigner approach to scattering the phase shift is to have a form $\tanδ_{\rm BW} =Γ_1/(E_1-E)$ at a real energy resonance. This leads to complex energy poles in the scattering amplitude at $E_{\rm BW}=E_1-iΓ_1$, poles that are identified with unstable physical particles. By solving the square well scattering problem we identify some challenges to this approach. We find that setting $\tanδ_{\rm BW} =Γ_1/(E_1-E)$ is not always a good description of the real energy scattering amplitude, that $Γ_1$ can be negative, that $E_{\rm BW}$ is not in fact an energy eigenvalue (and thus not a physical particle), and that states that decay in energy possess spatial wave functions that unacceptably grow exponentially. All of this is resolved by noting that because of its antilinear $PT$ symmetry solutions to the square well Schrödinger equation appear in complex conjugate energy pairs $E_{\mp}=E_2\mp i Γ_2$ with $E_- \neq E_{\rm BW}$, doing so in a way that gives a time independent probability amplitude that neither grows nor decays in time or space, and leads to just one now observable physical resonance not two.

We demonstrate how the two-dimensional gravity emerges within ``GR from RG'' program initiated in \cite{Adami:2025pqr, Sheikh-Jabbari:2026uol}. To achieve this, we consider a generic 2d CFT with a 3d holographic description, which we assume to be well-described by pure Einstein-AdS$_3$ gravity in the bulk. We study the holographic RG flow for the 2d CFT action and show that the renormalization group (RG) corrected action at an arbitrary energy scale contains a 2d scalar-tensor gravity theory. In the simplest case, the flow induces Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity, where the bulk radial lapse function seeds the dynamical dilaton field of the JT gravity. We show that the standard T$\bar{\text{T}}$ deformation of the 2d CFT is recovered as a special case in the Fefferman-Graham limit where the lapse is fixed. We further establish the robustness of the RG induced gravity picture by verifying its consistency under holographic renormalization and by generalizing the result to a one-parameter family of boundary conditions. Our results provide a first-principles derivation of the JT gravity at a finite cutoff as an intrinsic manifestation of the holographic RG flow in a non-Fefferman-Graham gauge

We revisit the resulting bispectrum of inflation with kinetic-coupled vector fields by organizing the dynamics in terms of $h$, which measures the vector kinetic contribution relative to that of the scalar field. We evaluate the bispectrum in the strong-vector regime and derive a low-energy effective field theory (EFT) for the large-$h$ regime. For $h\gg1$, the entropic perturbation becomes heavy and can be integrated out; the remaining curvature mode has an imaginary sound speed and undergoes transient growth before horizon crossing. In contrast to $h\ll1$ regime, where transfer from the vector sector persists outside the horizon and produces a local-type contribution enhanced as $h^2N_K^3$, we find that in addition to the known flattened-enhanced signals scaling as $h^3$, a flattened-enhanced signal scaling as $h^2$ and a pronounced local projection scaling as $h$. Their competition yields a local-dominated signal for intermediate $h$ and a flattened-dominated signal at larger $h$. The bispectrum therefore distinguishes vector-supported inflationary dynamics even for an exactly isotropic background.

The wormhole contribution to the gravitational path integral may be interpreted as smooth remnant of correlations among the erratic large-$N$ behaviors of dual CFTs. In this work, we investigate this idea in (2+1)-dimensional gravity. We show that one-sided boundary gravitons are intrinsically incomplete in the sense that the associated observable algebra has a nontrivial center regardless of choices of boundary conditions. Based on asymptotic symmetries, we bootstrap a general Poisson bracket to construct completions of the boundary gravitons. In the simplest completion, the commutant of the boundary graviton observable algebra is given by an observable algebra of monodromy data which we interpret as an effective description of one-sided black holes. We show that, to describe Lorentzian multi-boundary wormholes, only the monodromy data with a positivity restriction is needed. The positivity restriction results in emergent erratic large-$N$ behaviors for some observables. We filter out the erratic observables by restricting to a subspace on which they act trivially. The monodromy observables generate nonlocal symmetries lack of corresponding local currents. We show that gauging the nonlocal symmetries is equivalent to filtering out the erratic observables. For one CFT, gauging the nonlocal symmetries at the quantum level removes all black hole states. Filtering the partition function of CFTs leads to an apparent ensemble averaging. For two CFTs, a Hilbert subspace describing wormholes survives after gauging global part of the nonlocal symmetries. The filtered partition function of the two CFTs is an ensemble average over quantum gates entangling the monodromy degrees of freedom the two CFTs. The correlation between the erratic observables of the two CFTs is preserved, which contributes to the filtered partition function as a wormhole term.

We calculate the Sudakov-limited maximum phase-space density associated with the linearly polarized gluon TMD coefficient $h_1^{\perp g}$ in the saturation region. Using Mueller's occupancy argument together with the small-$x$ Weizsäcker-Williams (WW) and dipole gluon distributions of Metz and Zhou, we find $n_{h,{\rm DP}}^{\rm max}=2n_g^{\rm max}\sim2α_s^{-3/2}$ for the dipole distribution in the same phase-space normalization. This dipole result is a process-dependent TMD proxy, not a literal gluon number density. For the WW distribution, the deep-saturation tensor coefficient lacks the logarithmic enhancement needed for the Mueller saddle, so the maximum is pushed toward the saturation boundary. We also perform a numerical Collins-Soper evolution study and find that the $J_2$ Bessel weight in the tensor TMD definition reduces the resolved peak, giving $c_h^{\rm num}\simeq6.6$--$7.1$ for representative EIC scales.

The correct gravitational representation of the supersymmetric index is a smooth complex solution, rather than the naïve Euclidean continuation of the Lorentizan BPS black hole. We construct such saddles for black holes with \(\mathrm{AdS}_3\times S^3\) boundary conditions in the STU model. We arrive at the same finite-temperature BTZ \(\times S^3\) geometries in two independent ways: from two-center four-dimensional BPS solutions with complex dipole charges, and from six-dimensional black strings after imposing the BPS relation among conserved charges. We analyze the resulting smoothness and periodicity conditions and show that they are precisely those required for globally well-defined supersymmetry and for the thermodynamic potentials of the supersymmetric index.

The hierarchy problem between the electroweak (EW) and Planck scales remains a central puzzle in modern physics. We discuss a promising solution operating through the cosmological selection of the EW vacuum in a multiverse landscape, where the EW scale is dynamically approached as the configuration that maximizes the vacuum energy. By extending the Standard Model with a complex scalar singlet and right-handed neutrinos, charged under a global $U(1)_{B-L}$ symmetry, the model not only explains the smallness of the EW scale. It can also account for neutrino masses via the seesaw mechanism and the matter-antimatter asymmetry via leptogenesis. In addition, it provides a viable dark matter candidate that is testable in future neutrino experiments.

We study a nonequilibrium coherent effect generated by a finite chemical potential in a complex scalar field with a conserved $U(1)$ charge. The scalar excitation is treated as a probe coupled to an equilibrium thermal reservoir, so the self-energy is an equilibrium kernel and there is no backreaction on the bath. Solving the Schwinger-Keldysh-Kadanoff-Baym equations in the normal phase, when the chemical potential is smaller than the dispersion relation, we keep the particle and antiparticle quasiparticle poles separate. The source-driven inhomogeneous statistical propagator is fixed by the reservoir and relaxes to the usual decoherent equilibrium form. By contrast, the homogeneous solution carries initial-condition memory; finite chemical potential turns this memory into a transient particle-antiparticle interference pattern by splitting the two charge-sector phases. The effect is not a new equilibrium mode, but a phase-sensitive remnant of the initial data that is erased by damping as $t\to\infty$. We define a normalized interference contrast extracted from the mixed charge-sector terms, illustrate the relaxation using the plasmon damping rate of hot scalar $φ^4$ theory, and show that the same normal-phase solution displays the infrared enhancement that precedes Bose-Einstein condensation.

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) and Hyper-Kamiokande (Hyper-K) will measure neutrino oscillation parameters with an unprecedented precision that requires neutrino energy estimation to be controlled at the few-MeV level. A central challenge in achieving this is the modelling of the reinteractions of hadrons produced in neutrino-nucleus scatters with the residual nuclear medium, or final-state interactions (FSI). In this work we use state-of-the-art neutrino interaction event generators to review the impact of FSI modelling on the kinematic and calorimetric neutrino energy estimators used by Hyper-K and DUNE respectively, considering both the semi-classical intranuclear cascades (INCs) that dominate current simulations and a microscopic treatment based on a relativistic mean field calculation. We find that plausible variations of the FSI model introduce uncertainties on the neutrino energy estimation proxies that are at or above the precision on the energy scale control required for Hyper-K and DUNE projected neutrino oscillation sensitivities, highlighting the importance of careful FSI modelling to allow robust near detector constraints. We further demonstrate that the two experiments are sensitive to different aspects of the FSI models. Neutrino energy estimation at Hyper-K is most impacted by pion absorption and nuclear effects beyond the semi-classical paradigm, whilst the DUNE energy estimation is more affected by the modelling of how hadronic energy is shared between sources of visible and invisible energy in the detector. We discuss the implications of these findings for neutrino oscillation analyses and outline some of the key experimental and theoretical developments needed to bring FSI modelling uncertainties under control.

We use finite group topological lattice gauge theory, also known as the quantum double model, as a lens to explore a notion of topological order enriched by a non-invertible symmetry. For invertible symmetry enriched topological order, there is an established axiomatisation in terms of a G-crossed braided fusion category. We lay the foundations for a generalisation of this notion. By condensing an arbitrary algebra of charges in a quantum double model, we demonstrate that the category of localised excitations in the resulting theory forms a hypergroup-graded extension of the category of deconfined excitations. For every element in the hypergroup, the associated domain wall acts in a typically non-invertible way on these localised excitations. Both this action and the monoidal structure are compatible with the hypergroup grading. The actual categorical action is encoded in a Hopf monad on the category of localised excitations, and gauging the non-invertible symmetry amounts to computing the category of modules over this Hopf monad. Finally, we outline how this framework naturally extends to theories obtained by condensing algebras in a generic string-net model.

This paper establishes that Krylov complexity contains the entire information about the dynamics of a quantum operator, extending the list of equivalent quantities that can serve this purpose, such as the Lanczos coefficients, the return amplitude, and the spectral density. To demonstrate this equivalence, an explicit recursive algorithm is constructed to calculate Lanczos coefficients from the Taylor expansion of the Krylov complexity around $t=0$. Furthermore, the paper discusses the distinction between Krylov and spread complexity, clarifying why a similar recursive algorithm cannot exist for the latter without additional dynamical input. These results provide a ``proof of principle'' for using Krylov complexity as a complete characterization of operator evolution in quantum systems.

Accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiments have the potential to revolutionise our understanding of fundamental physics, offering an opportunity to characterise charge-parity violation in the lepton sector; to determine the neutrino mass ordering; and to explore the possibility of physics beyond three-flavour neutrino mixing. However, as more data is collected, the current and next-generation of experiments will require increasingly precise control over the systematic uncertainties within their analyses. It is well known that some of the most challenging uncertainties to overcome stem from our uncertain modelling of neutrino--nucleus interactions, which also affect the event rates used to infer the oscillation probability. The sources of these uncertainties are often related to subtle details of the pertinent nuclear physics which are extremely difficult to control with sufficient precision. Confronting such uncertainties requires both state-of-the-art theoretical modelling and precise measurements of neutrino interaction event rates at experiment's near detectors, before oscillations occur. In this work, we review the role of neutrino interaction systematic uncertainties in current and future measurements of neutrino oscillation as well as the experimental and theoretical prospects for reducing them to an acceptable level for the next generation of experiments.

In the present paper, we first describe the principal basis of non-integral geometry. Non-integral geometry is a new field of generalized function (distribution) theory where the effects breaking the symmetry of integration measure have been investigated. In turn, the non-symmetric integration measure (the non-invariant measure) leads to the complex form of the universal, dimension-independent inverse operator with the additional contributions compared to the methods of integral geometry. The additional term with the complex integration measure serves to the extension that improves the image reconstruction procedure. Then, we proof that this additional term $f_A$ in the universal inverse Radon transforms plays a role of the regularizing contribution. In particular, we show that owing to the presence of $f_A$ the corresponding complex singularities can be eliminated in the image reconstruction process.

We discuss the production of a lepton pair in quark-antiquark annihilation in the electroweak Standard Model. We present the ultraviolet-renormalised and infrared-subtracted finite contribution of the complete set of second-order virtual corrections with a closed fermionic loop, to the cross section of the process $u\bar u\to μ^+μ^-$. The evaluation of these contributions is based on an automated methodology, whose validity is discussed with explicit tests. These corrections are one of the building blocks necessary for the simulation of the inclusive lepton-pair production cross section at next-to-next-to-leading order in the electroweak interaction.

We interpret the $B$-lattice flavor framework as a compositeness hierarchy: all three fermion generations are elementary chiral fields, but third-generation Yukawa couplings are undressed ($Q=0$), while lighter generations acquire their Yukawa couplings through chains of spin-$0$ subconstituents (``hops'') whose depth is counted by the $\mathbb{Z}_9$ discrete gauge symmetry. The $\mathbb{Z}_9$ charge admits a two-index decomposition $q_9\mapsto(a,b)$ that identifies two hop species ($α$, $β$) and organizes all fundamental scales from $v_{\rm EW}$ to $M_{\rm Pl}$ on a ``ninths ladder'' $Λ\timesε^{n/9}$. The lattice structure yields the CKM and PMNS mixing parameterizations (with all mixing exponents expressible as charge differences $ΔQ$ dressed by a universal Fritzsch--Xing phase shift of $\pm 1/9$), a seesaw benchmark $m_3\simeq 51$~meV, the axion mass window $m_a\sim 7$--$12\;μ$eV, and the prediction $\tanβ\simeq 10$--$16$ (from the chain internal factor combined with the DFSZ-II two-Higgs-doublet structure), all from two parameters ($Λ$ and $ε= 14/75$). Generation-dependent Peccei--Quinn charges restore the axion--photon coupling ($C_{aγ}\simeq 0.6$--$1.0$) from ``back to invisible'' suppression. An illustrative UV realization in terms of hypercolor-confined scalars communicated to the SM by a gauge-invariant messenger chain is presented as an existence proof.

We compute the two-loop massless QCD corrections to the amplitude of Higgs boson decay to bottom quark pair and a gluon ($H \rightarrow b + \bar{b} + g$) in the higher powers of the dimensional regularization parameter $ε$. The calculation is performed by projecting the amplitude onto the appropriate Lorentz structures related to the process. We also show the numerical behaviour of the form factors for a few sample phase-space points. These amplitudes are necessary ingredients for computing the three-loop virtual corrections to bottom-quark annihilation to Higgs plus jet production at the hadron collisions.

We investigate perturbative dynamics, tidal effects, and relativistic frequency shifts in a dyonic Kalb-Ramond black hole generated by a Lorentz-violating antisymmetric tensor background. The geometry is controlled by the mass $M$, the electric charge $Q$, the magnetic charge $p$, and the Lorentz-violating parameter $\ell$, with the dyonic sector entering through the effective combination $P_{\ell}^{2}=Q^{2}/(1-\ell)^{2}+p^{2}/(1-2\ell)$. First, we analyze the gravitational Doppler effect for radial signal exchange between freely falling and static observers, showing how the dyonic charges weaken the redshift by shifting the frequency ratio toward unity. We then compute the radial and angular tidal forces in a freely falling frame and determine the characteristic radii at which the usual stretching and compression patterns are reversed. The gravitational time delay is also evaluated for null trajectories, showing that the electric and magnetic sectors reduce the delay relative to the reference configuration. In the perturbative sector, we derive the scalar, vector, tensor, and spinor effective potentials and compute the corresponding quasinormal frequencies through the sixth-order WKB method. The numerical spectra indicate that the Lorentz-violating parameter gives the dominant correction, increasing the oscillation frequencies and modifying the damping rates, while the dyonic charges produce milder shifts. Finally, the time-domain profiles confirm the presence of damped quasinormal ringing followed by late-time power-law tails.

The production of a $D^+ D^-$ pair by photon - photon interactions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is investigated considering ultraperipheral proton - proton ($pp$), proton - lead ($pPb$) and lead - lead ($PbPb$) collisions. Assuming that the scattering amplitude for the $γγ\rightarrow D^+ D^-$ process can be described by the Brodsky - Lepage formalism in the heavy - quark approximation, we derive the associated differential distributions and total cross - sections. In particular, in addition to the rapidity and transverse momentum distributions, usually presented in the literature, we also present predictions for the total transverse momentum and momentum imbalance distributions. Our results indicate that a future experimental analysis of this final state is, in principle, feasible during the high luminosity run of LHC.

A search for pair-produced vector-like $T$-quarks in 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}$=13 TeV is presented. The search targets signal events where at least one $T$-quark decays into a Higgs boson and a top quark, $T\rightarrow Ht$, with subsequent decays of the Higgs boson into a bottom quark-antiquark pair, $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$, and the top quark into a light charged lepton, a neutrino and a bottom quark, $t\rightarrow\ell^+ν_\ell b$, where $\ell=e/μ$. The decay products of boosted heavy resonances are reconstructed using variable-radius, reclustered jets, and a neural network is employed to discriminate signal from Standard Model background processes. A profile-likelihood fit to the effective mass distribution is performed, and no excess above the Standard Model prediction is observed. Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level are set on the $T$-quark pair-production cross-section, corresponding to lower mass limits of 1.40 TeV in the SU(2) singlet representation, 1.56 TeV in the SU(2) doublet representation, and 1.66 TeV assuming the branching fraction of $T$-quarks to $Ht$ to be 100%.

In this paper, we compute the leading-order and first-order radiative corrections to the Casimir energy of a massive Lorentz-violating scalar field governed by a $φ^4$ interaction on a network. For simplicity, the network is chosen to consist of three edges connected at a single central junction, with the scalar field defined in 1+1 dimensions on each edge. Dirichlet boundary conditions are imposed at the outer ends of the edges, thereby confining the field on the network. Beyond addressing the massive case of a Lorentz-violating scalar field, a key novelty of this work lies in the calculation of the radiative corrections to the Casimir energy using position-dependent counterterms. These counterterms emerge from a systematic renormalization program that consistently incorporates the effects of boundary conditions into the renormalization procedure. To eliminate divergences arising from vacuum energy contributions, we employ the box subtraction scheme in conjunction with cutoff regularization. Our results show that both the leading-order and first-order Casimir energies are negative, regardless of the presence or absence of Lorentz-violating effects, and are in agreement with general physical expectations.

We use the Stetson, HST, and Gaia DR3 data sets for 22 Galactic globular clusters to select their members and fit their CMDs with isochrones from DSED and BaSTI for $[α/$Fe$]=+0.4$ and an adopted helium mass fraction $Y$. As a result, we estimate the metallicity [Fe/H], age, distance from the Sun, and reddening E(B-V) for these clusters. Special attention is paid to identify variable stars among the cluster members. We combine these results with our earlier estimates for five other clusters into a homogeneous set of parameters for 27 clusters and investigate relationships among these parameters and their statistical properties. In particular, we count the giants on the red (RGB), horizontal (HB), and asymptotic branches using the clean data sets cross-identified to cover the entire cluster fields and count each giant only ones. This allows us to calculate the $R$-parameter, the ratio between the numbers of the HB and RGB, with unprecedented accuracy and to examine its relations with other parameters. These relations are much stronger for accreted clusters rejecting a constant $R$ value for them, possibly because of their heterogeneous origins and environments. For all in-situ clusters, a constant value of $R=1.31^{+0.06}_{-0.05}$ is consistent with the data. According to previous calculations, this value may imply anomalous energy losses in HB stars corresponding to an axion--photon coupling of $g_{aγ}=(0.66^{+0.11}_{-0.13})\times10^{-10}\,\mathrm{GeV}^{-1}$. However, the observed dependencies of $R$ on cluster parameters require improved statistics and a theoretical understanding of these dependencies. By comparing $R$-parameter estimates from HST and Gaia in cluster centres and peripheries, respectively, we suggest that the peripheral HB population is depleted by about half when the cluster crosses the Galactic disk, then the HB recovers over 60-80 Myr.

We present a quantum mechanical approach to understanding the Hilbert space and the defect Hilbert spaces associated with line operators of BF theory combined with level-$k$ Chern-Simons theory. The defect Hilbert spaces are closely related to the category of $*$-representations of the $C^*$-algebra of the compactly supported sections of the Fell line bundle over the conjugation action groupoid $G//_{\mathrm Ad} G$, and the structure of this category and the groupoid action on the objects of this category is interpreted quantum mechanically. We show that the action of the line operators on the Hilbert space of the $BF+kCS$ TQFT is given concretely by a convolution between the kernels that represent the line operators, and that the codimension-$2$ twist and the codimension-$1$ prequantum line bundle arise as two transgressions of the same universal level $k\in H^4(BG,\mathbb{Z})$. For finite gauge group, the resulting convolution-eigenvalue formula is identified with the Verlinde formula for the (twisted) Drinfeld double $D^ω(G)$ via an explicit phase-by-phase match with the known finite modular data. For compact Lie group, the convolution-kernel eigenvalues coincide in the regular sector with the semiclassical Hopf-link $S$-kernel, identifying two complementary derivations of the same modular data.

In this work we determine the finite-volume lattice QCD spectrum at the flavor symmetric $\mathrm{SU}(3)$ point in the meson-baryon singlet and octet irreducible representations. We construct the appropriate interpolation operators and perform the calculation on ensembles in quite large volume ($L=48$). We find three below-threshold energy levels, with the singlet having lower energy and the two octets being non-degenerate at one sigma, which for these large volumes ($M_π L\approx 14.5$) strongly suggests a bound state close to that energy at each of the irreducible representations. We confront this finite-volume spectrum with the prediction from UCHPT through the Lüscher method finding qualitative agreement. Finally we perform a re-fit of UCHPT free parameters to the available (experimental and lattice) data including the energy levels calculated in this work. This allows us to follow the pole trajectories to the physical point, identifying the $Λ(1405)$ as a lower octet, and $Λ(1380)$ as a singlet bound state in the $\mathrm{SU(3)}$ limit. Furthermore, $Λ(1670)$ is identified on a qualitative level as the heavier octet bound state and its relation to three-body final states is discussed.

In this work, we further develop the application of the topological diagram approach (TDA) to charmed baryon weak decays $\mathcal{B}_c \to \mathcal{B} V$ with a vector meson in the final state. By incorporating the Korner-Pati-Woo theorem, we show that only five independent sets of TDA parameters are required. Relations among different decay channels arising from isospin, U-spin, and V-spin symmetries are explicitly derived within the TDA framework. Partial wave contributions and form factors associated with different topological diagrams are extracted from global fits to the experimental data. It is found that the form factors $A_2$ and $B_2$ induced from the tensor interaction of the vector mreson with octet baryons are comparable in magnitude to $A_1$ and $B_1$, implying the importance of the tensor coupling in $\mathcal{B}_c \to \mathcal{B} V$ decays. Branching fractions for all $\mathcal{B}_c\to \mathcal{B} V$ channels are predicted, and most measured modes are found to be in good agreement with current data. More physical observables, including up-down asymmetries, longitudinal polarizations as well as observables in the subsequent decays are also predicted. Our results provide a systematic framework for understanding charmed baryon weak decays with vector mesons and can be further tested with future experiments.

Autonomous radio self-triggering for extensive air showers must reject variable radio-frequency interference while preserving sensitivity to weak pulses and remaining compatible with station-level edge hardware. This work presents a hybrid neural trigger in which waveform recovery and signal classification are treated as a single deployment-constrained problem. A compact convolutional denoiser maps a noisy single-channel trace to a cleaned estimate of the air-shower pulse, which is then evaluated by a compact classifier. The method is tested with measured high-interference background traces and detector-folded air-shower pulses from the Pierre Auger Offline simulation chain, with signals concentrated in the near- and sub-threshold regime. Model selection and deployment are linked through hyperparameter optimisation, quantisation-aware training, fixed-point quantisation, hls4ml firmware export, high-level synthesis, and register-transfer-level validation. The denoiser alone turns a simple peak-envelope decision into an efficient weak-pulse trigger, showing that the cleaned waveform carries trigger-relevant information beyond a final classifier score. In the full denoiser-classifier chain, the hybrid trigger improves signal-background separation and efficiency at fixed false-positive rates: at a false-positive rate of 10^-4, it retains about 41% of held-out signal traces in the weak-signal benchmark, while the classical peak-envelope trigger retains none. The cleaned waveform preserves timing and peak-amplitude structure for station-level diagnostics, feature extraction, and selective readout. The firmware meets timing on representative FPGA targets with microsecond-scale latency and compact arithmetic-resource demand. These results establish hybrid neural denoising as a practical route toward radio-only triggering for weak and inclined air-shower signals in noisy environments.

We investigate the dynamical generation of hidden-charm pentaquark resonances in the $πN \to J/ψN$ reaction utilizing an off-shell coupled-channel formalism. Motivated by the absence of pentaquark signals in $J/ψ$ photoproduction, we evaluate rescattering effects with two-body kernel amplitudes constructed from effective Lagrangians that explicitly incorporate $t$-channel meson and $u$-channel baryon exchanges. We demonstrate that the $u$-channel $Λ_c$ exchange, of which an analogous contribution is absent in the photoproduction kernel, greatly enhances the rescattering contributions through the $\bar{D}^{(*)}Σ_c$ intermediate states. Consequently, the $\bar{D}^{(*)}Σ_c^{(*)}$ channels yield contributions of comparable magnitude to the $\bar{D}^{(*)}Λ_c$ channels, directly leading to prominent pentaquark signals. The partial-wave analysis reveals that the $P_{c\bar{c}}(4312)$ and $P_{c\bar{c}}(4457)$ states emerge as clear peak structures with $J^P=1/2^-$ and $3/2^-$, respectively. In contrast, the $P_{c\bar{c}}(4380)$ and $J^P=5/2^-$ states are strongly suppressed because the $Λ_c$ exchange does not provide the required tensor interactions. The result for the total cross section reaches the microbarn level at the peak positions.

Recent Super-Kamiokande analyses of the diffuse supernova neutrino background, based on data across all SK phases, indicate a mild preference over the zero-DSNB hypothesis at the level of about $2.3σ$ with electron-like antineutrino events at $E_{\barν_e} \simeq 20\,\mathrm{MeV}$. We investigate whether this excess can be explained by MeV-scale dark matter annihilation into neutrinos in a $\mathrm{U}(1)_{L_μ- L_τ}$ model. The dark matter is a Dirac fermion with $m_χ\simeq 22\,\mathrm{MeV}$ that annihilates via a light $Z'$ mediator into $ν_μ\barν_μ$ and $ν_τ\barν_τ$, which are partly converted into $\barν_e$ through flavor oscillations. We find that this scenario simultaneously accounts for the excess and the observed relic abundance via thermal freeze-out. We further discuss the relevant laboratory and cosmological constraints, including neutrino trident production, NA64-$μ$, Borexino, and the contribution to $ΔN_\mathrm{eff}$.

It has been proposed that feebly interacting ultralight scalars may constitute the dark matter content of the universe. Models describing the interactions of a dark matter scalar with Standard Model fields may feature quadratic interactions at leading order, such that the scalar acquires an effective mass in the neighbourhood of a classical matter distribution. The effect of their introduction is to provide effective shifts in fundamental constants of physics, as well as to mediate scalar fifth forces between test bodies. We here demonstrate how these fifth forces can result in pericentre precession in the orbital motion of satellites around the Earth. We apply this to the measured pericentre precession of the LAGEOS II experiment, constraining the mass, and couplings to the light Standard Model fields, of a quadratically coupled ultra-light dark matter scalar. We observe such an experiment to be effective in constraining parameter space at strong couplings, where existing constraints from satellite and tabletop level experiments break down.

We present the first extraction of the unpolarised gluon transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD) parton distribution from Higgs-boson production data at the LHC within the framework of TMD factorisation. The analysis is based on the currently available set of ATLAS and CMS measurements of the Higgs $q_T$ distribution at $\sqrt{s} = 8$ and $13$ TeV in the diphoton and four-lepton decay channels, restricted to the small-$q_T$ region where TMD factorisation is applicable. Theoretical predictions are computed up to N$^3$LL accuracy, with the contribution of the linearly polarised gluon TMD $h_1^{\perp g}$ accounted for. Fiducial selections are consistently incorporated for both two- (diphoton) and four-body (four-lepton) final states. The fit reproduces both the shape and the normalisation of the experimental data, and yields a moderate sensitivity to the nonperturbative content of gluon TMDs. We further assess the convergence of the perturbative expansion and the stability of the extracted distribution under variations of the $q_T$ cut. This analysis provides a baseline for future extractions combining LHC Higgs measurements with other gluon-sensitive processes spanning a broader range of hard scales.

We investigate neutrinoless double beta ($0νββ$) decay within an extended Standard Model framework based on the $SU(3)_C\otimes SU(3)_L\otimes SU(3)_R \otimes U(1)_X$ gauge symmetry, commonly referred to as the filliped trinification model. Following a concise overview of the theoretical structure, we derive expressions for the effective Majorana mass and half-life associated with the dominant decay channels. A comprehensive numerical analysis is then carried out, accompanied by a discussion of the phenomenological implications.

We study the sensitivity of current and future collider observables to top-quark SMEFT operators through a one-operator-at-a-time analysis. Using data from the Tevatron, LEP, and LHC Run~2, as well as projections for the HL-LHC and future lepton colliders, we identify the measurements that provide the strongest individual constraints. This approach clarifies the role of specific observables in the top-quark SMEFT program and highlights the significant improvement in sensitivity expected at future facilities.

We study the modular symmetry in magnetized compactifications. The zero-modes with different Scherk-Schwarz phases transform each other. A generic model does not include modes with all the Scherk-Schwarz phases. Incomplete multiplet representations appear. Thus, the modular symmetry is violated as group-like symmetry. However, the modular symmetry still controls coupling terms in those models. Modular forms of the full symmetry appear as coupling constants.

Fermionic degrees of freedom are essential ingredients in cosmological collider physics and are well motivated by many phenomenological models beyond the Standard Model, but their signals remain largely unexplored due to the difficulty of computing loop diagrams. In this work, we ask how fermionic bubble loops contribute to cosmological collider signals and provide an exact answer for arbitrary couplings. We develop two parallel analytical methods whose agreement provides a non-trivial check of the result. The first method is similar in spirit to spectral decomposition and is built directly from an identity for the product of propagators, which turns the bubble signal into an infinite sum of tree-level exchange signals. The second method is based on the Mellin-Barnes representation, where the result is reconstructed from the residues of distinct families of poles. We also show that the fermionic bubble can be generated from the scalar bubble by the action of appropriate differential operators. As a phenomenologically important application, we consider Yukawa interactions between fermions and the inflaton, finding that the resulting bispectrum signal vanishes identically. Through the spectral decomposition, this vanishing can be traced to a field redefinition of the associated tree-level counterparts.

We consider the field theory of a quantum massless left handed fermion coupled to a background graviton field, $h_{μν}$, on four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. By using the BPHZL renormalization scheme, we prove that, up to order four in the number of graviton fields, there are no parity-odd contributions to the renormalized gravitational effective action. As a side result, we show that, modulo arbitrary UV finite diffeomorphism invariant parity-even counterterms, the gravitational effective action in question is equal, up to order four in the number of graviton fields, to half the corresponding gravitational action for a Dirac fermion non-chirally coupled to gravity. Also as a side result, we conclude the the Weyl anomaly is purely parity-even and that its value is half the value of the Weyl anomaly for a Dirac fermion non-chirally coupled to gravity.

In this thesis we study embedding formalisms for $\mathcal{N}$-extended anti-de Sitter (AdS) superspaces in four and five dimensions. Specifically, building on earlier work in the four-dimensional case, we develop bi-supertwistor realisations for these AdS superspaces as well as their harmonic and projective extensions. We also describe the precise correspondence between such global approaches to AdS superspaces and their realisations within the supergravity setting. Finally, we present applications of our formalism, including new models for superparticles propagating in AdS superspaces in diverse dimensions.

The hadronic tensor molecule $\mathcal{M}=J/ψJ/ψ$ is investigated in the framework of QCD sum rule method. We evaluate its mass and current coupling using the two-point SR approach. Our result $m=(6290 \pm 50)~ \mathrm{MeV}$ for the mass of $\mathcal{M}$ indicates that it can decay to a pair of mesons $J/ψJ/ψ$. Apart from this dominant channel there are subdominant modes of the molecule $\mathcal{M}$ generated due to annihilation of constituent $\overline{c}c$ quarks to pairs of light quarks $ \overline{q}q$ and $\overline{s}s$. This mechanism launches processes $ \mathcal{M} \to D_{(s)}^{(\ast )+}D_{(s)}^{(\ast )-}$, $DD_{1}(2420)$, $ D_sD_{s1}(2460)$ and $D_{(s)}^{(\ast )0}\overline{D}_{(s)}^{(\ast )0}$. The decays of $\mathcal{M}$ are explored by applying technical tools of the three-point sum rule approach which is necessary to estimate strong couplings at $\mathcal{M}$-meson-meson vertices. Comparing the mass $m$ of the molecule $\mathcal{M}$ and its decay width $Γ[\mathcal{M}]=(149 \pm 21)~ \mathrm{MeV}$ with available experimental data, we discuss the molecule $\mathcal{M}$ as a possible candidate to the tensor resonance $X(6200)$.

We investigate the formation and evolution of axion streams generated by the tidal disruption of axion miniclusters through stellar encounters in the Milky Way halo. Combining a large-scale Monte Carlo treatment of repeated stellar flybys with a tracer reconstruction of the stripped debris, we follow the phase-space evolution of the streams across a broad range of galactocentric radii and assess their contribution to the local dark matter distribution. We find that the kinetic energy of the stripped debris typically exceeds its residual self-gravitational binding energy at formation, so that the subsequent evolution is dominated by anisotropic free expansion and orbital shear. As a result, stream densities can decrease by factors as large as $\sim10^{-9}$ over Galactic timescales, strongly suppressing the steady-state abundance of dense streams near the Solar circle. At the Solar radius, only a small fraction of realizations yields a nonzero encounter probability over a 10 year exposure, implying that observable streams are dominated by rare recent and nearby disruption events rather than by a persistent population of long-lived overdense substructure. Despite this rapid dilution, the streams remain dynamically cold and produce detector-frame linewidths many orders of magnitude narrower than the cavity bandwidths of current haloscope experiments. For representative haloscope configurations, we find characteristic stream linewidths in the range $Δν_{\rm stream}\sim10^{-7}-10^{1}\,{\rm Hz}$, while the corresponding Doppler drift remains well below the cavity response width.

We propose a worldline formulation of higher-spin gravity (HSG) in $\mathrm{AdS}_4$, based on a simple twistor action. Taken at face value, the model describes only the free propagation of massless higher-spin fields. The central observation of this work is that the model admits a natural double-line interpretation, which supplies a geometric prescription for gluing worldlines at interaction vertices, in close parallel with the joining of strings in string theory. Building on this picture, we construct $\mathrm{AdS}$-covariant vertex operators for all massless higher-spin fields, show that they satisfy the Bargmann-Wigner equations, and use them to compute the n-point correlation functions of type-A and type-B HSG as worldline path integrals of these vertex operators. In the boundary limit these correlators reproduce the higher-spin current correlators of free boson and free fermion vector models. We further discuss the embedding of the worldline theory into Poisson sigma model, where the doubled-line structure acquires a geometric origin as the two edges of an open string worldsheet, together with several consequences of this enlarged framework -- fractional branes, loop expansion, unoriented projection, and the prospect of a worldsheet formulation of HSG.

Effective field theory (EFT) provides a systematic framework for parametrizing possible higher-energy corrections to general relativity through higher-curvature interactions. In this work, we investigate gravitational lensing in both weak- and strong-field regimes for EFT-corrected Reissner-Nordström black hole spacetimes, focusing on both weakly charged and near-extremal configurations. Using the strong deflection limit formalism, we derive the corresponding corrections to the deflection angle, photon sphere radius, critical impact parameter, and strong lensing coefficients induced by higher-derivative curvature-electromagnetic interactions. Our analysis is restricted to purely geometrical corrections associated with modifications of the background spacetime geometry, without including polarization-dependent corrections to the photon propagation law. We show that strong gravitational lensing observables in charged black hole backgrounds can provide complementary probes of effective interactions between gravity and electromagnetic fields. These results suggest that future high-precision observations of strong lensing phenomena may place constraints on higher-curvature EFT couplings beyond general relativity.

Large corrections to the inflationary tensor power spectrum have been speculated to emerge either as second-order scalar-induced classical effects, or as 1-loop quantum corrections. These two sources are not independent of each other. Choosing the example of a massless minimally coupled scalar field, we show how the full 1-loop result can be divided into its classical and vacuum parts. Working first in dimensional regularization, we show that the classical part is IR divergent, with IR referring to small comoving momenta that have an influence for a very long time. In the full 1-loop quantum result, these divergences cancel. Introducing then a momentum cutoff that permits for a numerical evaluation of the classical contribution, we show that the IR sensitivity manifests itself as a cubic divergence. We suggest a procedure of "non-perturbative renormalization" for extracting physical information not affected by the divergence. If this can be implemented in realistic systems, it could consolidate numerical studies of inflationary scalar-induced gravitational waves.

A search for new scalar particles of $\mathcal{O}$(GeV) mass in exclusive final states with muons and light hadrons is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data produced at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 201$-$2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The search targets exotic decays of the Higgs boson to a pair of prompt or long-lived identical scalar particles with proper decay lengths $cτ$ up to 100 mm and masses within the range of 0.4$-$2.0 GeV. This mass window corresponds to a unique parameter space where hadronic decays of these particles mostly result in a pair of light hadrons. The considered experimental signature is a collimated pair of muons and another pair of charged kaons or pions, each of which may be prompt or displaced. The analysis improves the sensitivity to very light scalar boson masses and demonstrates a novel approach to probe hadronic decays of light scalar bosons. Upper limits on the branching fraction of the Higgs boson to scalar bosons at the level of $\mathcal{O}$(10$^{-4}$) are obtained for several scalar boson masses between 0.4 and 2.0 GeV, with proper decay lengths of up to $\sim$1 mm.

We revisit electric and magnetic surface charges and edge modes in four-dimensional Maxwell theory and QED on a spacetime with a finite spatial boundary. Using the S-wall, which implements electromagnetic duality, we clarify the dual structure of surface charges. We show that, for the standard Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions, large gauge transformations and the corresponding shifts of edge modes are gauge redundancies rather than physical boundary symmetries. We also consider singular large gauge transformations and interpret them as insertions of Wilson or 't Hooft loops on the boundary. For modified boundary conditions, we show that large gauge transformations can become genuine physical boundary symmetries generated by topological surface operators, and that the corresponding edge modes can become physical. We further construct new boundary conditions that are electromagnetic duals of the modified boundary conditions.

We study the low-energy properties of QCD-like theories in the presence of a $P$-odd and $U(1)$ axial breaking four-fermion operator $\left( \barψ ψ\right) \left( \barψ i γ_5 ψ\right)$. We apply the functional renormalization group for a low-energy effective theory involving the $CP$-violating operator. We find that allowing for the running gauge coupling, the $CP$-violating four-fermion interaction becomes relevant in the chirally broken phase. In the presence of a finite quark mass, the RG running of the $θ$-parameter is shown to be strongly suppressed toward the infrared. The present work clarifies how strong-$CP$ effects generated at UV can non-trivially be transferred to the infrared physics in QCD-like theories.

We found solutions to the linear but with complicated kernel and non-homogeneous evolution equations for the cross sections of productions of $n$-cut Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL) Pomerons in the final states of high energy DIS on a nucleus, resumming all multiple rescatterings in the leading logarithmic approximation. For the model leading-twist BFKL kernel, we calculate analytical solutions of these equations by developing the homotopy approach. We also calculate the solution in the large $z=\ln\left(x_{01}^2\,Q_s^2(Y,\mathbf{b})\right)$ and large $n\gtrsim\langle n(z) \rangle$ limits, where $x_{01}$ is the dipole size, $Q_s$ the saturation scale and $\langle n(z) \rangle$ is the average multiplicity of the produced gluons. Having these cross sections we calculate the multiplicity distributions of the produced gluons and describe how the upcoming Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) can test our theoretical formalism.

We introduce `dualGNN', an autoregressive message-passing GNN for sampling fine, regular triangulations (FRTs) of convex polytopes. dualGNN operates on a generalization of the dual graph of a triangulation, with edges labeled by `signed circuits' -- combinatorial invariants from oriented matroid theory which we show are both necessary and sufficient for exposing regularity. The model is independent of the number of points in the polytope and invariant under the polytope's orientation-preserving symmetries ($\mathrm{SL}(d,\mathbb{Z}) \ltimes \mathbb{Z}^d$). When implemented with a certain masking procedure, one can also guarantee that every rollout produces a fine triangulation (in $2$D). On unseen polygons with $N_\mathrm{pts} \leq 40$, dualGNN is the most uniform FRT sampler we tested, and even a model trained on a single polygon generalizes well to other polygons. The model is small ($\sim92$k parameters), trains in $\sim7.5$ hours on a single consumer GPU, and runs without modification on an M1 MacBook Pro. We apply dualGNN to string theory, uniformly sampling Calabi-Yau threefolds at $h^{1,1}=86$ and consistent with uniformity at $h^{1,1}=128$. This is an order of magnitude beyond previous learned methods with a model $\sim1000\times$ smaller. Code, training scripts, and pretrained models are available at https://github.com/natemacfadden/dualGNN .

We develop the (super)twistor approach to D$0$-brane, which is the massive type IIA superparticle in ten dimensional spacetime. The basic variables are haxadecuplet of constrained $OSp(32|1)$ supertwistors similar but not identical to the ones which have been used for the description of 11D massless superparticle, also known as M$0$-brane. We show how the constrained supertwistor formulation is related to the spinor moving frame approach to D$0$-brane. We perform the quantization of the model by two different methods and discuss the relation of the results with the quantization of the spinor moving frame formulation of D$0$-brane. The quantum state spectrum describes the massive counterpart of the linearized type IIA supergravity.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a well-understood mechanism for generating distinct phases of matter. Recently, the notion of symmetry has been broadened to include operations without inverses, leading to the concept of non-invertible symmetries. How do symmetry-breaking phases associated with non-invertible symmetries differ from those arising from conventional invertible symmetries? We address this question using concrete lattice models of the gapped phases with non-invertible Rep($H_8$) symmetry as an example. We find that, despite the symmetry being non-invertible, the symmetry-breaking phases can still be characterized by the long-range correlation of local order parameters, which obey a more general algebraic structure than in the invertible setting. Furthermore, via generalized gauging, certain non-invertible symmetry-breaking transitions can be mapped to deconfined quantum critical points of invertible symmetries, and vice versa. We establish precise conditions under which this duality holds and illustrate them with several families of examples, providing a systematic route to studying beyond-Landau phase transitions.

We benchmark current annealing-based optimization workflows on a greenhouse-inspired quadratic unconstrained binary optimization problem for binary heater scheduling, where the horizon H denotes the number of hourly control decisions. For the main one-day instance (H=24), all solver outputs are decoded back into heater schedules and evaluated in the original greenhouse simulator using the same physical objective and feasibility criterion. Classical simulated annealing and path-integral simulated quantum annealing produce feasible near-optimal solutions in all repetitions, with best objectives close to the exact optimum. In contrast, the tested D-Wave Leap Hybrid BQM workflow is less reliable and does not outperform the classical baselines under 15--60~s requested time limits. Direct D-Wave QPU execution on reduced instances remains feasible in all runs and recovers the exact optimum for H=10 and H=12, but the exact-hit rate drops from 5/10 to 2/10 and then to 0/10 at H=14, with substantially higher variance than the classical baselines. The results do not indicate quantum advantage, but provide a reproducible, physically decoded benchmark that exposes the current strengths and limitations of classical, hybrid, and direct quantum annealing workflows on structured control QUBOs.

We investigate the charge and spin transport properties of a Weyl semimetal under an external magnetic field using a low-energy effective theory. By performing a chiral transformation, we remove the axial term from the fermionic Lagrangian, while its physical effects are retained through the system's electromagnetic response. This response, derived from integrating out the fermionic degrees of freedom, takes the form of axionic electrodynamics and enters the Dirac equation via minimal coupling. The resulting dynamics separate naturally into magnetic and electric components: the magnetic sector admits a supersymmetric factorization, while the electric part exhibits a PT-supersymmetric structure. Robin boundary conditions are applied to the spinor, setting the energy spectrum and defining exact spinor solutions. We obtain the chiral projections of probability and current densities, exhibiting a chiral imbalance in the material. We show that in the x-direction, only one chirality contributes to the chiral current ($j^x_l = 0$). Spin density and currents where also computed. Our results demonstrate how the interplay between axionic response and supersymmetry governs transport phenomena in our specific setup, offering novel insights into the effective field theory description of Weyl semimetals.

We construct the exact Robin bulk-to-boundary propagator for a Breitenlöhner--Freedman scalar on AdS$_{d+1}$ and the BTZ black hole, realizing the double-trace RG flow between standard and alternate quantization geometrically as a one-parameter family of bulk boundary conditions. We derive the UV and IR chain expansions of the kernel intrinsically from the boundary-value problem, without an auxiliary-field decoupling, and identify a branch split at each order that separates the local data the boundary CFT observes from finite-bulk-depth structure visible only to bulk probes -- the part of $K_f$ that distinguishes holographic reconstruction from boundary calculation. On BTZ we obtain the closed-form Robin kernel and the corresponding family of quasinormal-mode trajectories, each connecting an alternate-quantization pole at $g=0$ to a standard one at $g\to\infty$. We locate an exceptional-point locus along this family at which two trajectories coalesce into a Jordan block, and show it acts as a non-Hermitian phase boundary for the double-trace flow itself: crossing it reorganizes the global pole-pairing topology of the spectrum. Unlike holographic EPs reached by analytic continuation in momentum or frequency, this transition lives on the interpolation between quantizations and is reachable at finite real momentum and temperature by tuning the physical Robin coupling.

We introduce a minimally coupled dark sector based on a nonlinear electrodynamics to generate regular spacetime textures that interpolate from a regular core to an asymptotic Lorentz-violating conical geometry. This construction provides a simple mechanism, in Einstein gravity with minimally coupled matter, for obtaining Lorentz-violating Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordström black holes. The framework further allows us to construct Lorentz-violating regular black holes, including the Bardeen and Hayward black holes, as well as a class of electrically-charged regular black holes.

We show that the local gauge-invariance of the quantum geometric tensor (QGT) defined in the Block-momentum space of a generic $N$-level (sublattice degrees of freedom) band insulator implies the existence of zero modes of non-abelian Dirac operator in such momentum space. Solutions of these zero modes equations in the two-dimensional Brillouin zone torus, in terms of Jacobi Theta function determine the probability amplitudes associated with the $N$-component ground state wave-function under adiabatic approximation in this Hilbert space. These solutions subjected to normalization, defines a complex projective ($CP$) space of $N-1$ dimension ($CP^{N-1}$ space) when one or more degeneracy points exist in the dispersion spectrum of such band-isulator. We show how the non-abelian generalization of the vortexability criterion of Chern bands automatically follows from these zero-mode equations, and also demonstrate their connection with momentum space-version of Lowest landau level algebra. Subsequently we write an Euclidean action from which these zero mode equations follow. We point out that the non-interacting part of different paradigms used to understand fractional Chern insulator(FCI) like phases in a host of two-dimensional material can be understood within this approach. We analyse two effective hamiltonian : lattice Dirac (QZW) model and two-band model for rhombohedral $N$-layer graphene in our propsoed framework and obtain important conclusions.

The ring wormhole is the zero-mass limit of the Kerr metric. Its geometry is locally flat, but the topology is nontrivial, with a throat connecting two asymptotic regions and a distributional curvature singularity on the ring encircling the throat. We construct stationary generalizations of this static wormhole that are different from Kerr and invariant under reflections across the wormhole throat. The problem reduces to solving the vacuum Ernst equations subject to the corresponding symmetry conditions. The slowly rotating perturbative solutions were constructed previously, while we now present a detailed analysis of non-perturbative solutions obtained within a numerical framework. For slow rotation, they exhibit the non-relativistic relation $M\sim J^2$ between the mass and angular momentum, which transforms into the Regge relation $J=M^2$ in the fast-rotation regime, when $J\to\infty$ and the ring is stretched without bound by the centrifugal force. However, if the ring size in the static limit is sent to zero at the same time, then $M$ and $J$ remain bounded as the throat linear velocity approaches unity. The wormhole geometry then approaches the extremal Kerr solution, thus ``mimicking'' it. The wormholes carry a curvature singularity at the ring, but this can be removed by via simple ``scalarization'' procedure that promotes the vacuum solutions to regular wormholes with a phantom scalar field.

We present a field-theoretic construction of a class of artificial neural networks from solitonic degrees of freedom in nonlinear scalar field theory. The purpose is not to rename a standard neural layer in the language of solitons, but to start from a continuum action, restrict the theory to a nonperturbative sector containing localized stable solutions, perform a collective-coordinate reduction, and derive the neural layer as the finite-dimensional input-output map of the reduced solitonic dynamics. In this construction, the computational unit is a projected collective coordinate of a localized field configuration rather than an elementary point variable; the activation function is the solitonic response profile or scattering map; the weight matrix is the Hessian or overlap matrix of an effective interaction energy among solitons; the bias is induced by external sources, vacuum asymmetry, or boundary forcing; and depth is a discrete evolution parameter on the solitonic moduli space. We develop the construction explicitly for the \(φ^4\) kink, where the \(\tanh\) activation and the logistic sigmoid arise from the kink profile, and then derive the multilayer feedforward form from an operator-splitting approximation to collective-coordinate gradient flow. We emphasize the novelty criterion: the neural architecture is obtained only after specifying the field action, the solitonic ansatz, the moduli-space metric, the interaction functional, and the projection map. The result is a controlled route from nonlinear field theory to neural-network structure, with robustness tied to the energetic and topological stability of the solitonic sector.

Magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene Josephson junctions (MATBG-JJ) with a gate-tunable valley-polarized weak link exhibit an intrinsic Josephson diode effect originating from broken symmetries associated with valley polarization and band-structure anisotropy. Exploiting this nonreciprocal superconducting platform, we construct quantum Stirling (QSC), Otto (QOC), and Carnot (QCC) thermodynamic cycles, where the valley-polarization potential $Δ_v$ acts as the principal control parameter, in contrast to conventional Josephson thermal machines driven by superconducting phase bias. We systematically compare the performance of MATBG-based Josephson diode thermal machines (MATBG-JDTM) with MATBG-based Josephson junction thermal machines (MATBG-JJTM) and AA-stacked bilayer graphene Josephson junction thermal machines (AABLG-JJTM). Owing to the flat-band-enhanced density of states and electrically tunable nonreciprocal transport in MATBG, both MATBG-JDTM and MATBG-JJTM exhibit significantly enhanced work output and efficiency over a broad operating regime compared to AABLG-JJTM. In particular, the gate-controlled MATBG-JDTM provides a flux-free alternative to conventional phase-driven architectures, mitigating limitations associated with magnetic-flux control and flux-noise effects. Our results establish MATBG Josephson diode platforms as a promising route toward electrically tunable quantum thermal machines and nonreciprocal superconducting caloritronics.

This year marks the 350th anniversary of the discovery of the first animalcula (little animals) by van Leeuvanhoek in 1676.Flavour physics makes it possible to search for new animalcula at distance scales far shorter than those resolved by van Leeuwenhoek in 1676 and even shorter than those directly accessible at the Large Hadron Collider and the planned colliders in this century. I summarize various strategies for achieving this goal. While precise measurements of a wide variety of observables and their precise theoretical calculations, both within the Standard Model (SM) and beyond it, are indispensable in this context, in my view it is crucial to develop strategies for the search for New Physics (NP) that go beyond the global fits that are very popular today. While effective field theories such as WET and SMEFT are formulated in terms of Wilson coefficients of the relevant operators, with correlations characteristic of the SM and of specific NP scenarios, the most direct tests of the SM and its extensions are, in my opinion, correlations among different observables, like branching ratios of numerous decays, that are characteristic of particular new animalcula at work

By examining the transition from freeze-out to freeze-in dark matter (DM) production within the framework of perturbative reheating, where DM interacts with the visible sector through effective operators of dimension six, we have investigated how a broad range of new physics probes can reveal the nature of the pre-BBN Universe. Incorporating constraints from direct and indirect DM searches, invisible decay measurements, collider experiments, and gravitational wave observations, our analysis demonstrates that both current and forthcoming experimental sensitivities can serve as powerful tools for probing as well as constraining the post-inflationary era, together with new physics beyond the SM. Our analysis demonstrates that collider experiments at both the intensity and energy frontiers can impose strong bounds on derivative operators whose interactions are typically {\it p-wave suppressed}, and therefore only weakly constrained by astrophysical observations. In particular, these complementary searches can significantly restrict the allowed reheating temperature, DM mass and effective interaction scale required to reproduce the observed DM abundance for DM produced during the epoch of reheating.

We study the possibility of probing the dynamical inverse seesaw mechanism for the origin of light neutrino masses via the detection of stochastic gravitational waves (GW) in the low-frequency regime currently being probed by pulsar timing arrays. As the lepton number-violating term in inverse seesaw typically remains in the sub-MeV ballpark, its dynamical origin naturally brings the possibility of a low-scale first-order phase transition, which can be probed at low-frequency GW experiments. We also find interesting complementarity with heavy neutral lepton searches, as GW experiments remain sensitive to parameter space with small active-sterile mixing, which is out of reach for most particle physics experiments.

We study a minimal framework where a Majorana fermion dark matter particle interacts with a light scalar mediator coupled mainly to electrons. We examine both freeze-out and freeze-in production to determine the regions of parameter space that yield the correct relic abundance with particular emphasis on a detailed comparison with results in the recent literature. The analysis includes cosmological and astrophysical constraints as well as laboratory bounds from electron-recoil experiments, fixed target searches, and precision measurements. The combined results identify a narrow but viable parameter region, favoring sub-GeV dark matter, and define clear targets for future experimental tests. This highlights the strong complementarity between direct-detection experiments and collider searches. We additionally investigate the mediator-mass region around 17 MeV, motivated by the hints reported by the ATOMKI experiment and the PADME collaboration, including couplings between the mediator and light quarks. Direct searches already constrain a large region of the parameter space, even when dark matter is produced via freeze-in, pointing again to sub-GeV dark matter.

We describe the dynamics of many-body quantum chaotic systems at all time scales by studying the Green's and out-of-time order correlation (OTOC) functions of the four-body, $N$-Majorana Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. By combining the scramblon formalism and random-matrix-theory techniques, we obtain analytical expressions for these functions at all times. The early exponential growth of the OTOC is followed by an exponential decay at a rate governed by that of the Green's function (the real part of the leading complex Ruelle-Pollicott resonances). For late times that scale exponentially with $N$, both functions have a dip-ramp-plateau pattern for $N \mathrm{mod}8 = 2, 6$ that deviates substantially from the ergodic prediction due to local-in-energy correlations of matrix elements and eigenvalues, even after the Heisenberg time.

Despite their feeble interactions, dense astrophysical neutrinos can behave collectively, exchanging flavor through waves of the neutrino plasma. Can collective interactions also induce pairing instabilities and reorganize the neutrino momentum distribution, in analogy to the superfluid instability of fermions? We show that, for standard weak interactions, pairing instabilities can arise only in the presence of discontinuities in the occupation number, such as the sharp Fermi surface responsible for superconductivity in metals. However, discretized energy spectra can mimic such discontinuities and artificially generate superfluid instabilities. These spurious instabilities disappear in the continuum limit.

Motivated by trans-Planckian issues in inflation, we determine the Hilbert space and amplitudes of quantum perturbations in the general low-energy effective theory of (multi-)field inflation without relying on the sub-horizon limit. The scalar sector is the most intricate, featuring field mixings and second-class constraints, which we handle using Dirac brackets. These results enable us to estimate the magnitude of higher-derivative corrections. In the specific case of slow-roll inflation, such estimate can be expressed in terms of the first slow-roll parameter $ε$ for a given cutoff $Λ$. We apply our results to several inflationary models with finite $Λ$: Higgs inflation, the Starobinsky model, natural inflation and hilltop inflation.

Matrix string theory (arXiv:hep-th/9703030, arXiv:hep-th/9701025, arXiv:hep-th/9710009) is a conjectured duality between two-dimensional maximally supersymmetric $U(N)$ Yang-Mills theory and type-IIA string theory in ten-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. The IR description of this gauge theory is governed by the symmetric product orbifold $(\mathbb{R}^8)^N/S_N$ CFT. The leading irrelevant deformation from this IR fixed point is the Dijkgraaf-Verlinde-Verlinde operator, which comes with an unknown Wilson coefficient. We determine this coefficient using non-renormalization arguments from the UV gauge theory. The result is consistent with the matrix string theory conjecture and gives a first-principles check of the relation between $g_{\rm YM}$ and the string coupling. We also comment on the prospects for fixing further Wilson coefficients using similar methods.

Future gravitational wave (GW) standard siren catalogues will probe the late-time expansion history of the Universe across redshift ranges largely inaccessible to traditional electromagnetic observations. To determine how effectively this background distance information can distinguish between viable cosmological models, we introduce a model-independent reconstruction framework utilizing Gaussian Process Regression (GPR). Analyzing mock LISA and Einstein Telescope (ET) catalogues across six fiducial cosmological backgrounds-$Λ$CDM, CPL, CPL+$Λ$, interacting dark matter, interacting dark energy and axion inspired early dark energy. We reconstruct the comoving distance and its derivatives. Crucially, we propagated the full GP covariance, including derivative cross-covariances, to robustly evaluate the Hubble parameter $H(z)$ and other diagnostics such as $q(z)$, $\mathcal{O}_{m}(z)$ $w_{\rm total}(z)$ and $κ(z)$. While our analysis demonstrates that GW bright standard sirens faithfully recover fiducial expansion histories, applying pointwise marginal Hellinger distance reveals that background measurements alone do not provide decisive statistical separation among models. Instead, derivative sensitive diagnostics pinpoint specific redshift windows (e.g., $z\simeq1.6-1.8$ for ET and $z\simeq2.6-2.9$ for LISA) where future catalogues will maximize their discriminatory power. As machine learning methodologies become increasingly integral to astrophysics and cosmology, this Bayesian GPR pipeline offers a principled, nonparametric approach to precisely identifying where the most valuable cosmological information lies.

We study the $φ$ meson at finite temperature and finite momentum using QCD sum rules. The presence of medium breaks the Lorentz invariance, and induces distinct in-medium modifications of the transverse and longitudinal modes at finite momentum. We find that, with increasing momentum, the masses of both modes increase and a clear transverse--longitudinal splitting develops. The splitting is found to grow with temperature and to be mainly generated by the dimension-four spin-dependent thermal condensates.

Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) have become the preferred photodetectors in next-generation neutrino experiments, yet no unified closed-form analytical expression free of truncation and numerical convolution has been established for their full charge response spectrum, which must simultaneously capture correlated cross-talk and afterpulsing effects absent in conventional photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). We present a unified closed-form model for the SiPM charge response within the characteristic-function framework, treating pedestal noise, single-electron-response (SER) charge, internal optical cross-talk, and afterpulsing on equal footing. The characteristic-function representation factorises the full charge spectrum into three independent physical components: pedestal, single-electron response (SER), and avalanche count statistics. Prompt internal optical cross-talk is modelled as a Galton-Watson branching process with Poisson offspring; building on the Generalised Poisson count statistics identified by Vinogradov, we derive a Lambert $W$ closed form for the total-progeny PGF via Lagrange-Bürmann inversion, providing the analytical handle needed for efficient event-level reconstruction. Afterpulsing is modelled as a per-avalanche geometric chain, derived as the maximum-entropy Poisson-Gamma mixture: the exponential prior-maximum-entropy for a positive continuous yield with fixed mean-marginalised over a Poisson count yields the geometric per-avalanche distribution, whose $N$-avalanche total is Negative Binomial. This naturally encompasses the Poisson afterpulsing limit and recursive afterpulse chains while preserving analytical closure. The resulting eight-parameter expression is further applied to derive an explicit per-channel charge-time likelihood for event-level energy reconstruction without numerical convolution at inference time.

In observational cosmology, the dark energy density and equation of state are effective quantities reconstructed at the background level under a set of assumptions. These include the FLRW framework, the standard Friedmann equation of General Relativity, and separately conserved non-relativistic matter at late times. Recent analyses involving DESI BAO measurements combined with CMB and supernova data have shown mild preference for dynamical dark energy featuring phantom or phantom-crossing behaviour. While the statistical significance of these trends remains limited, and unresolved systematics or modelling uncertainties may still be important, the resulting discussions have highlighted the need for a clearer interpretation of effective dark energy reconstruction. In particular, effective phantom behaviour does not necessarily imply the existence of a fundamental phantom field, microscopic ghost instabilities, violation of the null energy condition by the fundamental stress tensor, or a catastrophic cosmic future. The purpose of this work is to clarify these distinctions explicitly and systematically, independently of whether the current observational preference for dynamical dark energy survives future data. We discuss the definition of effective dark energy in cosmology, the interpretation of phantom and phantom-crossing behaviour, and physical mechanisms through which effective phantom behaviour may arise without fundamental pathologies. While many of these distinctions are familiar within the dark energy reconstruction community, they are often left implicit in broader discussions of dynamical dark energy. We hope that this work will remain useful beyond the present observational situation as a clarification of what observationally reconstructed dark energy does and does not imply.

The onset of nuclear effects in light-ion collisions is studied by measuring the ratio of $D^0$ meson production between NeNe and OO collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of $5.36\,{\rm TeV}$ recorded by the LHCb detector. The $D^0$ meson yields are measured differentially in transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) for $0.5<p_{\rm T}<20\,{\rm GeV}$ in the rapidity ($y$) region $2.0<y<4.5$, and are normalized to the total number of recorded inelastic nucleus-nucleus collisions in each data sample. The resulting production ratio shows evidence of variation as a function of $p_{\rm T}$, which is inconsistent with predictions based on nuclear modification of nucleon structure alone. This measurement is consistent with the onset of quark-gluon plasma production with increasing nucleus size in high-energy nuclear collisions.

We establish a correspondence between conformal partial waves on flat, thermal, and defect backgrounds using the shadow formalism. We demonstrate that scalar one-point thermal blocks can be systematically obtained from their four-point flat-space and two-point defect counterparts by considering specific operator configurations. This framework allows us to derive the thermal Casimir equation as a diagonal reduction of the flat-space Casimir system without introducing chemical potentials. We further show that defect two-point blocks with a spin-$l$ exchange operator correspond to thermal one-point blocks for an external spin-$l$ operator.

Dwarf galaxies have long been recognised as important testing grounds for models of dark matter. For instance, it is here where the cusp-core problem is most apparent. In this work we select two dwarf galaxy samples: LITTLE THINGS and dwarf galaxies in SPARC. We use these to examine whether there are preferences for MOND or dark matter halos in these objects. Notably, our analysis employs the latest developments in Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling methodology and robust model comparison via ELPD differences. Our findings suggest a $>4σ$ preference for cored halo models over MOND. However, this relies on significant preferences from 7 out of 19 SPARC galaxies and 11 of 18 from LITTLE THINGS (few of which are overwhelming). It is notable that only a single galaxy prefers MOND over a cored halo. Thus, this evidence is suggestive, but does not conclusively decide against MOND. We also test for evidence of a MOND external field effect, and find weak evidence against its presence. Despite these statistical preferences, most SPARC galaxies remain compatible with a universal MOND scale. In LITTLE THINGS, a free MOND model is preferred to a universal value at $\sim 8σ$, but this is of doubtful physical significance. For MOG, the story is different, here we find $\gtrsim 8σ$ preferences for all halos (or MOND) against universal MOG models with significant exclusions in individual galaxies across both samples. Thus, a proposed universal rotation curve model derived from MOG is quite strongly disfavoured.

In this article we study the structure of the $\mathcal{N}=2$ abelian higher-spin cubic $(\mathbf{s_1}, \mathbf{s_2}, \mathbf{s_2})$ vertices and the corresponding $\mathcal{N}=2$ higher-spin supercurrents, introduced in arXiv:2408.00668. These interactions are possible only for $\mathbf{s_1} \geq 2 \mathbf{s_2}$. Conserved supercurrents are constructed as descendants of the \textit{principal supercurrent}, which is uniquely characterized by simple differential conditions and admits an explicit representation in terms of $\mathcal{N}=2$ higher-spin super-Weyl tensors. We derive the analytic form of the abelian vertices and identify the corresponding analytic higher-spin $\mathcal{N}=2$ supercurrents. We show that the vertex structure is fully determined by the analytic supercurrents $J^{++}_{α(s-1)\dotα(s-1)}$, $J^+_{α(s-1)\dotα(s-2)}$, and $\bar{J}^+_{α(s-2)\dotα(s-1)}$. The analytic form of the vertices provides a simple framework for analyzing their component structure. As an example, we explore the component content of such interactions on the Bel--Robinson diagonal. Using the superfield inverse Noether procedure, we study higher-spin gauge transformations for the $\mathcal{N}=2$ vector multiplet associated with the $(\mathbf{s}, \mathbf{1}, \mathbf{1})$ interaction. In the rigid limit, for odd $\mathbf{s}$ these transformations reduce to the $\mathcal{N}=2$ superspace generalization of zilch-type higher-spin symmetries.

The relative entropy between two states is a key concept in quantum information theory and quantum field theory. In the setting of quantum field theory, its computation requires the handling of relative modular Hamiltonians, which are typically very difficult to compute explicitly. In this paper, we exploit locality properties of general algebraic QFTs to estimate relative modular Hamiltonians between two states, $ω$ and $\tildeω$, and hence also their relative entropy, in terms of the modular Hamiltonian of a reference state $\hatω$, which might be better understood. For suitable pairs of states we can estimate the relative modular Hamiltonian for the algebra of a region $V_2$ from above, resp. from below, in terms of the modular Hamiltonian of $\hatω$ on a larger region $V_3$, resp. a smaller region $V_1$. Pairs of states and choices of regions which are susceptible to our scheme are related to the presence of superluminal signalling in the sense of Sorkin's paradox. If $ω=\hatω$, then there exists a unitary that maps $ω$ to $\tildeω$ on $V_3$ and that does not allow superluminal signalling from the spacelike complement $V_3'$ to $V_2$, resp. from $V_1$ to $V_2'$, if our upper, resp. lower, bound applies. To investigate the strength of our estimates we consider coherent states for CCR systems, focussing particularly on free scalar fields. Our estimates apply even if the relative modular Hamiltonian cannot be computed exactly. For sufficiently regular excitations we recover an exact result by squeezing. Our method thus yields an independent proof for the relative entropy formula in cases where the relative modular Hamiltonian cannot be computed exactly. For massless fields we establish the analogous result also for double cone regions. These results indicate that our estimates do not lose too much information.

We study order parameters in one-dimensional quantum lattice models with finite invertible or non-invertible symmetry. We investigate what properties a string operator must satisfy in order to acquire a non-vanishing expectation value in a given gapped phase. We deduce that multiplets of string order parameters organise into a Lagrangian algebra in the Drinfel'd centre of the symmetry category. In particular, we highlight the role of the multiplication rule as governing the fusion of the twisted sector local operators that constitute the string operator in the infrared limit. Our derivations exploit the tensor network approach to the classification of gapped phases and its reformulation in terms of module categories over the symmetry category. Within this framework, a gapped phase is associated with a pattern of spontaneous symmetry breaking wherein a Morita class of algebras of topological lines is preserved in the ground state subspace. The crux of the proof is to show that the expectation value of any string operator explicitly depends on the tube algebra module associated with the Lagrangian algebra, which is realised as the full centre of the corresponding module category. Finally, we demonstrate that these techniques extend to phases of symmetric mixed states.

We present a combined analysis of recent CE$ν$NS data on germanium from two complementary experiments: COHERENT, which uses neutrinos from pion decay at rest, and CONUS+, which detects reactor antineutrinos. Exploiting the complementarity of these two datasets in a joint statistical analysis, we extract the germanium root-mean-square neutron radius and neutron skin with improved precision, disentangling spectral shape distortions from overall normalizations and reducing systematic uncertainties. We also determine the weak mixing angle at low momentum transfer, providing a test of the Standard Model in a less-explored kinematic regime. A key systematic uncertainty in CE$ν$NS ionization measurements is the nuclear quenching factor; we therefore present our results as a function of variations of the Lindhard model. For the nuclear form factor, we adopt the analytical Klein-Nystrand parametrization and benchmark it against predictions from the large-scale nuclear Shell Model, assessing the impact of nuclear structure uncertainties on our results. Our analysis demonstrates the power of combining datasets across different neutrino sources to maximize sensitivity to both nuclear and electroweak physics.

We give an introduction to the cosmological multiverse, aimed at an audience of artists. We discuss general relativity -- our modern theory of gravity -- and the cosmological constant, which is widely believed to be responsible for the observed accelerated expansion of the universe. We then turn to a big puzzle that the cosmological constant poses, and, eventually, how the multiverse could solve this puzzle. There's no such thing as a free lunch, however: the multiverse can become arbitrarily large and old. The unsolved problem of making unambiguous predictions for observations in eternally accelerating universes is known as the measure problem of eternal inflation.

This short communication investigates impurity coupling in generalized field theories where scalar coupling is introduced directly at the level of the kinetic and gradient contributions of the energy. We show that the fundamental aspects of the original theory, which has been previously investigated in the impurity-free setting, can be extended to the inhomogeneous scenario. In particular, an interpretation in terms of geometrically-constrained effective one-field theories with impurities is possible in the separable case. We show that BPS multi-kink configurations are possible in the model, as well as in the usual half-BPS scalar theories.

We propose a formally valid machine-learning-assisted global proposal mechanism for Monte Carlo sampling in lattice gauge theory. The construction is based on a coupling-flow update on the SU(2) lattice-link manifold, in which active links are transformed conditionally on a frozen-link background. For fixed frozen links, the proposal is explicitly invertible and preserves the product Haar measure, so it can be embedded into a Metropolis-Hastings correction without requiring an explicit model of the full proposal density. We implement the method in two-dimensional pure SU(2) lattice gauge theory and benchmark it against a baseline local Metropolis algorithm used as a controlled reference kernel. In the present testbed, the learned proposal reproduces the target ensemble within statistical resolution across the tested configurations. In matched local-step comparisons, the learned proposal reproduces the target ensemble at a quality comparable to the baseline, but does not outperform the pure local baseline in the conservative matched-step case examined with seed-level statistics within this proof-of-principle setup. At the same time, a favorable mixed-step hybrid configuration yields a modest improvement in effective sample size per unit runtime. Because the learned transformation remains in a near-identity regime, the present results should be interpreted as a proof-of-principle demonstration of formal correctness and limited, configuration-dependent efficiency gain within a controlled comparison, rather than as evidence of superiority over optimized conventional update schemes. This work provides a concrete foundation for extending machine-learned nonlocal updates to larger lattices and non-Abelian gauge theories relevant to lattice QCD.

Given the canonical seesaw mechanism as a most natural extension of the standard model in its neutrino sector, we find out a special but brand new solution to the exact seesaw equation: $m^{}_i/M^{}_i = - R^2_{αi}/U^2_{αi}$ for the masses and flavor mixing matrix elements of light and heavy Majorana neutrinos of the $i$-th family (for $i = 1, 2, 3$ and $α= e, μ, τ$). This family-separated seesaw scenario allows us to establish simple relations between the original seesaw parameters and the active degrees of freedom, and thus offers some testable predictions such as a direct correlation between the CP-violating effects in light neutrino flavor oscillations and heavy Majorana neutrino decays.

Quark-gluon dynamics within protons and high-energy radiation phenomena in the universe are typically regarded as two entirely distinct fields. This paper aims to demonstrate that gluon condensation (GC) may serve as a direct bridge between these two fields. We review three key aspects of GC research: first, the Zhu-Shen-Ruan (ZSR) equation, as a nonlinear evolution equation based on structural symmetry, exhibits self-consistent connections with the DGLAP, BFKL and GLR-MQ-ZRS equations, providing a theoretical foundation for the generation of GC; second, the chaotic solutions and the shadowing-antishadowing synergy inherent in this equation can drive gluons to aggregate near the critical momentum, thereby forming a novel type of high-density, strongly interacting matter; third, these changes in microstructure manifest themselves as a broken-power-law feature in high-energy cosmic gamma-ray spectra, thereby offering new insights into the hadronic scenarios underlying certain astrophysical sources. Consequently, GC not only concerns the novel behaviour of quantum chromodynamics under extreme conditions but may also serve as a vital window for probing the deep structure of protons using cosmic-ray signals. With the advancement of higher-precision gamma-ray observations, hadron collision experiments and related theoretical research, the physical picture of GC and its observational criteria are expected to undergo more rigorous testing. Should this picture be confirmed, certain features in the high-energy gamma-ray spectrum will need to be re-examined within the deeper context of hadronic dynamics; simultaneously, GC may also provide a new entry point for research into pion condensation in nuclear physics and even condensed matter physics. Consequently, the significance of the search for GC extends beyond the model itself, reaching into multiple fields of natural science.

In the spirit of the geometric approach to two-dimensional conformal field theory, we explicitly associate to every holomorphic vertex operator algebra a section of a power of Hodge line bundle on the moduli space of curves of arbitrary genus - or equivalently a Teichmüller modular form in any genus. As a first application, we connect the geometry of the moduli space of curves to the classification program for holomorphic vertex algebras. We then discuss how to use the theory of holomorphic vertex algebras to reach new results about the moduli space of curves. In the last part of the paper we study how the above mentioned forms can be used to reconstruct the vertex algebra.

Imaginary-time evolution by a local Hamiltonian cannot induce a phase transition in one dimension, but longer-range interactions may subvert such constraints. Starting from the ground state of the Kitaev Majorana chain, we modify the wave function by an imaginary-time evolution generated by a quadratic Hamiltonian with power-law couplings that enhance pairing correlations, typically of the form $1/r^α$, where $r$ is the distance between two sites. As the state remains Gaussian, entanglement and correlation functions can be computed analytically. We find that the decay exponent $α$ controls three distinct infrared regimes: for $α>1$, the deformation produces only smooth crossovers at finite deformation strength, while the topological regime is reached only asymptotically as the deformation strength tends to infinity. At $α=1$, the deformation induces an immediate flow to the topological phase: an infinitesimal deformation strength drives the system to a topological regime, and in a particular case, an emergent Kramers-Wannier symmetry enforces Ising-like scaling at long distances. For $α<1$, the deformed state shows the same critical-like behavior for all non-zero deformation strength. We observe that even with arbitrarily long-range interactions, these models do not display a sharp phase transition at non-zero deformation strength.

Recent years have brought a dense sequence of experimental discoveries in heavy-flavor hadron spectroscopy. Heavy-flavor spectroscopy has entered a period in which new hadronic structures are no longer isolated surprises but recurring features across several flavor sectors, seen by multiple experiments in several decay environments. For systems with charm and bottom quarks, smaller widths and cleaner signatures expose regularities that would be harder to isolate in the light-quark sector. This contribution focuses on the classes of states that now define the modern ``exotic'' landscape: hidden-charm pentaquarks, charged charmonium-like structures, resonances in onia-onia systems, doubly-heavy tetraquarks, and open-flavor tetraquarks.

Constrained symplectic quantization is a functional formulation of quantum field theory in which quantum fluctuations are sampled through a deterministic Hamiltonian flow in an auxiliary intrinsic time $τ$. In this paper we extend the quantum-mechanical framework introduced in [1] to a relativistic scalar quantum field theory in Minkowski space-time. The construction is based on the analytic continuation of fields and action from $\mathbb{R}$ to $\mathbb{C}$ together with constraints that select stable intrinsic-time trajectories and, at the same time, define convergent integration cycles for the corresponding microcanonical functional. We show that, in the continuum limit, the microcanonical generating functional reproduces the Feynman generating functional. For the free scalar field in $1+1$ dimensions we derive the constrained equations of motion, implement the resulting dynamics numerically, and verify real-time two-point correlators, equal-time commutator relations, and Dyson--Schwinger equations including the expected contact terms.

In neutrino oscillation experiments, exclusive measurements of neutrino-nucleus interactions play a critical role, by providing the theoretical and experimental input needed for a reliable estimation of the neutrino energy. In this paper, we derive the general form of the azimuthal angle distribution for quasi-elastic scattering, focusing on a dependency that has been routinely overlooked. We demonstrate that the outgoing nucleon exhibits a preference for emission outside the lepton scattering plane, with an asymmetric azimuthal distribution. In the context of neutrino-nucleus scattering, we argue that this asymmetry is caused by parity violation in the weak interaction. Furthermore, we show that in cross section calculations the asymmetry is sensitive to nuclear modeling choices and to the shell structure of the initial nucleus, thus providing a novel source of information for energy reconstruction in neutrino experiments. We study the experimental feasibility of observing this effect by applying a realistic momentum detection threshold and an intranuclear cascade. We estimate that the asymmetry is observable with $\mathcal{O}$($10^4$) events at the 99% confidence level for neutrino interactions on $^{12}$C, suggesting that the effect is within reach of the current generation of neutrino detectors.

We introduce a nonabelian surface holonomy that is constructed from a one-form gauge potential that takes values in a loop algebra of the $U(N)$ gauge group. The surface holonomy parallel transports a nonabelian string. Although it is not manifest in our formulation, we will see that our nonabelian surface holonomy is invariant under reparametrizations of the surface.

Violation of the Maldacena-Shenker-Stanford (MSS) chaos bound has been observed in various black hole spacetimes, but its physical origin remains unclear. In particular, it is uncertain whether these violations arise from modifications of general relativity or reflect a more fundamental feature of black hole spacetimes. In this work, we systematically investigate the instability of circular geodesics across a broad class of black hole solutions in Einstein, scalar-tensor, and higher-curvature gravity. We show that the violations are governed by the relative behavior of unstable circular orbits and the horizon structure in near-extremal regimes. When the relevant orbit remains outside the horizon as the surface gravity vanishes, the instability scale persists, and the chaos bound can be violated. On the other hand, as the orbit approaches the degenerate horizon, the instability becomes suppressed by the associated divergent gravitational time dilation, ultimately leading to saturation of the bound. Motivated by these results, we propose a geometric conjecture that determines the applicability of the MSS bound directly from the photon-sphere and horizon structure of the spacetime. Our findings identify a universal geometric criterion that governs the applicability of the MSS bound in black hole spacetimes, revealing a fundamental constraint on extending the quantum chaos bound to classical gravitational settings.

We present updated and improved Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) constraints on heavy, long-lived beyond the Standard Model (BSM) relics $φ$ decaying into pairs of Standard Model particles, covering a comprehensive set of two-body decay channels. We treat the leading effects of these injections in detail, discussing the modification of the neutron-to-proton ratio from hadronic interconversions, as well as hadro- and photodisintegration of the light elements. Our analysis incorporates several important refinements with respect to earlier work. We adopt up-to-date primordial abundance measurements, including the new $^4$He determination and the latest nuclear reaction rates. The hadronic and electromagnetic injection spectra are computed using PYTHIA 8, providing a proper treatment of final-state radiation and hadronisation. We further implement an improved treatment of $p\leftrightarrow n$ interconversions, accounting for dynamical equilibrium, kaon-induced processes, and updated rates. Additionally, we make use of a refined hadrodisintegration formalism which allows us to also consider disintegration processes while BBN is still active. Together, these improvements yield updated exclusion contours on lifetime, mass, and abundance of the relic for each decay channel considered. Furthermore, we discuss the irreducible freeze-in contribution from inverse decays.

We observed that the null strings, tensionless strings with Carrollian worldsheets, exhibit an extra gauge symmetry, \textit{Carroll-Weyl} gauge symmetry, which cannot be obtained from ultra-relativistic Carrollian limit of tensile strings. Due to the existence of this symmetry, the BMS$_3$ algebra of constraints, which is obtained as the Carrollian limit of two Virasoro algebras of the standard tensile strings, should be replaced with an BMS$_3$ algebra extended by a weight one operator. To establish further the existence and necessity of the Carroll-Weyl gauge symmetry, we carefully work through Hamiltonian analyses of constrained/gauged systems. We also discuss the extended BMS$_3$ algebra of constraints.

The Lund plane offers a physics-motivated, hierarchical representation of QCD radiation within jets, while transformer-based taggers have reached state-of-the-art performance by learning directly from raw particle constituents and their pairwise relations. We investigate whether transformers implicitly capture hierarchical QCD structure from constituent-level inputs, or whether explicit physics representations remain complementary. To test this, we introduce PLuM, a multimodal architecture that projects particle constituents and Lund plane splittings into a shared latent space, processing both jointly with a unified transformer. Cross-attention allows the model to probe whether structured QCD information provides discriminating power beyond what particles alone encode. We observe systematic gains for top-quark and $\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}$ tagging, while finding no comparable improvement for $\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{c}\bar{\mathrm{c}}$ or $\mathrm{H}\to 4\mathrm{q}$ topologies. This selective enhancement suggests that explicit hierarchical information about b-jet formation remains complementary to raw particle representations even in highly expressive architectures, while other topologies are already well-captured at constituent level. For high-impact LHC analyses such as Lorentz-boosted di-Higgs searches in the four $\mathrm{b}$ quark final state ($\mathrm{H}\mathrm{H}(4\mathrm{b})$), the gains are substantial: at a $25\%$ di-Higgs efficiency working point, PLuM achieves $25\%$ higher background rejection than the baseline. Our results indicate that physically structured representations of QCD radiation retain discriminating value in the transformer era, motivating further study into how different aspects of jet dynamics are encoded by deep learning algorithms.

We investigate charm-quark dynamics in asymmetric Cu+Au collisions at top RHIC energy using a Langevin approach embedded in a realistic hydrodynamic background. The intrinsic asymmetry of the colliding nuclei leads to a spatially lopsided initial energy-density profile, which generates a dipolar flow structure in the transverse plane even at midrapidity. As charm quarks propagate through this medium, they acquire a finite directed flow, $v_1$. We find that the $p_T$-integrated heavy-quark $v_1$ is approximately an order of magnitude larger than that of charged hadrons. In addition, the $p_T$-differential $v_1$ exhibits strong sensitivity to the initial spatial distribution of heavy quarks, emphasizing the importance of pre-equilibrium dynamics in determining final-state anisotropies. Beyond geometric effects, $v_1$ also provides direct sensitivity to medium interactions through the temperature-dependent drag coefficient. Its pronounced dependence on this transport input indicates that precision measurements of heavy-flavor directed flow could place meaningful constraints on heavy-quark transport coefficients, thereby improving Langevin-based descriptions and predictive power for heavy-flavor observables in heavy-ion collisions.

The recent cosmological picture contains a significant tension indicating that our standard $Λ$CDM picture may be incomplete. Early Dark Energy models can alleviate the Hubble tension, by assuming an early acceleration that could explain the divergence between the early and late-time cosmological data. We investigate the implications of Early Dark Energy models on the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis processes by considering several cosmological models, including a model assuming a simple cosmological constant, alongside with varying equations of state dark energy models. We construct a simulator through a nested sampling algorithm, with the help of which we estimate the upper bounds for model parameters, and determine the maximum allowable dark energy density contribution during the radiation-dominated era. Our results are obtained through the \href{https://github.com/croi900/eden}{eden} program. We show that for a linear or polytropic equation of state, the dark energy density is constrained to less than $10^{-13}$ MeV$^4$ and $10^{-5}$ MeV$^4$, respectively, at the 95\% confidence level. Furthermore, we identify a temperature-dependent equation of state of dark energy as the most physically compelling framework, which remains consistent with primordial abundances for coupling parameters $\lesssim 10^{-2}$. This model successfully allows for high-temperature deviations from the standard $Λ$CDM expansion history, while rapidly diluting to obtain standard general relativistic results in the weak freeze-out era.

We study the finite-temperature Casimir effect for a massless scalar field confined between two parallel plates in a Schwarzschild-like wormhole spacetime. Imposing Dirichlet boundary conditions, we compute the renormalized Casimir free energy in the comoving frame. We find that the thermal correction to the renormalized Casimir free energy decreases gradually with the temperature and becomes independent of the background geometry in this frame. Thermodynamic quantities derived from the Casimir free energy, namely, the renormalized Casimir entropy, internal energy, and heat capacity at constant volume, exhibit distinct temperature dependence. At low temperatures, all thermodynamic quantities recover the expected behavior, consistent with the fundamental laws of thermodynamics. These results provide a compact framework for analyzing quantum vacuum forces in gravitational backgrounds.

Higher order cumulants between the mean transverse momentum and elliptic flow are calculated in a relativistic viscous hydrodynamic model of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The results of the hydrodynamic simulations are compared with calculations using event-by-event predictors of the final collective observables constructed from the initial state entropy distribution. The predictors describes quantitatively centrality dependence of the higher cumulants considered in the paper. We derive a quantitative relations between the cumulants of the mean transverse momentum and different moments of the harmonic flow. The hydrodynamic simulations satisfy those relation very well. Those relations could be used to test experimentally the collective origin of the observed correlations between the mean transverse momentum and harmonic flow.

We investigate the attractor of spin density in relativistic spin hydrodynamics using Zubarev's non-equilibrium statistical operator formalism in the spin probe limit. We derive the (0+1)D Bjorken flow equations and the associated attractor equation while retaining second order gradient corrections in the relevant relaxation constitutive equations including couplings associated with nonlinear response and nonlocal memory effects. We analyze the early time fixed point structure and analytically determine the early time attractor solution, thereby clarifying branch selection and the role of different dynamical corrections. We find that source-like driving terms modify the leading correction to the attractor solution without changing the fixed point structure, whereas self feedback terms involving the rotational stress tensor modify the dominant balance and modify the early time fixed point structure. We further study the late time asymptotic behavior in the conformal limit and show that the newly added terms affect the first subleading asymptotics without changing the leading late time branches. These results provide a unified picture of early and late time attractor dynamics in the conformal limit.

The neutrinos produced in $τ$ decays cannot be directly detected, making the reconstruction of $τ$ kinematics challenging and affecting measurements of quantum correlations such as spin entanglement. For the process $e^+e^- \to τ^+τ^- \to π^+ \barν_τπ^-ν_τ$, the kinematic constraints allow the $τ$ momenta to be reconstructed up to a well-known two-fold ambiguity, regardless of the presence of an intermediate resonance state. In this paper, we present a geometric interpretation of this ambiguity and propose a numerical reconstruction method based on singular value decomposition (SVD). Using only the information from visible final-state particles and decay kinematics, the method reconstructs the two possible solutions for the $τ^+τ^-$ pair. The reconstruction performance is validated with Monte Carlo simulations in typical collider environments. We further investigate the impact of the spurious solution on spin-entanglement measurements and show that reliable entanglement signals can still be extracted even when the true and spurious solutions cannot be experimentally distinguished. This work provides a practical approach for $τ$-lepton kinematic reconstruction and spin-entanglement measurements in $e^+e^-$ collider experiments.

The nonlinear Breit-Wheeler process is a fundamental phenomenon of strong-field quantum electrodynamics and is usually studied for classically prescribed laser backgrounds. Here we examine how the statistical properties of a squeezed coherent driving field modify nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production. Using a polarization-resolved Monte Carlo framework with stochastic averaging over the field-amplitude distribution derived from the Husimi Q-function, we simulate collisions of gamma photons with squeezed light and identify clear source-state-dependent modifications of the pair production signal. These effects include the smoothing of harmonic structure, the enhancement of higher-order multiphoton channels, and the suppression of the single-laser-photon absorption channel when stronger-field realizations raise the dressed-mass threshold. Within the selected spectral window, the degree of positron polarization increases monotonically with the squeezing parameter, while the angular distributions broaden as the statistical weight of larger field amplitudes increases. Our results show that, even at fixed mean electric-field amplitude, the statistical fluctuations inherent to the squeezed coherent state can substantially reshape spectral, angular, and spin-resolved observables in strong-field pair production. These findings illustrate a direct link between source-state-dependent field statistics and strong-field pair production observables, and provide a theoretical framework for studying how squeezed-state preparation of the driving field can influence high-energy QED processes.

We ask whether two classical time-machine geometries, the Ori (2005) compact-vacuum-core metric and the Ahmed (2018) four-dimensional generalisation of Misner space, remain admissible exact solutions when the gravitational sector is enlarged to the recently proposed $f(R,\mathcal{L}_{m},Φ,X)$ class, an extension of $f(R,\mathcal{L}_{m})$ that couples curvature, the matter Lagrangian density, a scalar field $Φ$, and its kinetic invariant $X = g^{μν}\nabla_μΦ\nabla_νΦ$. Working with the explicit model $f = R + \mathcal{L}_{m} + (λ/2)\,X$ and a vanishing scalar potential, we compute the curvature invariants, the modified field equations, and the effective stress-energy components produced by the harmonic scalar profile $Φ(x,y) = a(x^{2}-y^{2})/2$ in both backgrounds. The Ricci scalar vanishes for the Ori metric and obeys $R = e^{f}(f_{,xx}+f_{,yy})$ for the Ahmed metric; the kinetic invariant takes the explicit forms $X = a^{2}(x^{2}+y^{2})$ and $X = a^{2}e^{f}(x^{2}+y^{2})$, respectively. Both metrics solve the field equations of the modified theory with anisotropic matter sources, and the chronology-violating regions $g_{zz}<0$ (Ori) and $g_{ψψ}<0$ (Ahmed) survive the modification. Energy-density profiles measured by a closed-timelike-curve observer match those measured by a static observer outside the chronology horizon, so the additional scalar degree of freedom in $f(R,\mathcal{L}_{m},Φ,X)$ gravity does not enforce a chronology-protection mechanism in either background. The conclusion mirrors the parallel result for the Li time-machine and supplies a consistency test for scalar-extended modified gravity in non-globally-hyperbolic settings.

Within the framework of numerical simulations, this work investigates the influence of the QCD analogue of the inverse Compton effect (ICE) in the quark--gluon scattering process qg \rightarrow qg on the transverse momentum p_T and pseudorapidity eta distributions of secondary particles produced in proton--proton collisions at energies sqrt{s}=30 GeV, 510 GeV, 14 TeV. In the present context, ICE refers to a class of parton-level kinematic configurations in which the incoming quark carries a larger fraction of energy than the gluon, in contrast to the complementary DCE regime. The simulations were performed using the PYTHIA~8.316 event generator. It is shown that the relative contributions of ICE and DCE strongly depend on the collision energy. As the energy increases from sqrt{s}=30 GeV to sqrt{s}=14 TeV, the ICE contribution becomes comparable to or exceeds the DCE contribution over a broad p_T range. The analysis of pseudorapidity distributions demonstrates that deviations of the ICE/DCE ratio from unity appear predominantly in the central region |eta| simeq 0, corresponding to symmetric partonic configurations x_1 sim x_2, whereas in peripheral regions the ratio approaches unity. The obtained results indicate that, with increasing collision energy, the contribution of ICE-like processes grows due to the enhanced role of gluon collisions in the small-x region.

We discuss the isospin-breaking effects on threshold cusp structures in multichannel scattering near two-body thresholds. In hadronic systems with isospin symmetry, two or more nearly degenerate thresholds can appear, and their small splitting due to isospin breaking can generate multiple cusp structures in a narrow energy region. In this paper, using the $K$-matrix representation, we derive a general expression for the scattering amplitude near the thresholds and show that the cusp structures can be classified by the signs of the slopes of the cross section above and below threshold. We also show that additional restrictions appear in two- or three-channel systems and in the Flatté amplitude. For three-channel scattering with two nearby thresholds, we clarify how the two cusp structures are related when the threshold splitting is small and how they merge into a single cusp in the degenerate limit. Finally, we discuss the cusp structures in the $Λp$ elastic cross section in the coupled $ΛN$-$ΣN$ system with charge $Q=+1$. We show that, when isospin breaking is small, the two cusp structures are constrained by isospin symmetry. We also perform quantitative calculations using both simplified examples and realistic input based on N$^2$LO chiral effective field theory, and find that isospin breaking can significantly modify the relative sharpness of the cusps and may even change the cusp type itself.

A novel inequality was proposed in \cite{Balasubramanian:2025hxg} for tripartite holographic states, using which it was argued, that purely GHZ-like tripartite entanglement is not allowed in holography. In this short note, we generalize this inequality to mixed states by canonical purification following \cite{Yuan:2024yfg} and exhibit a class of holographic geometries that violate this generalized inequality. We argue that the analogous mixed-state extension for four parties fails for the same reason. Finally, we conjecture a new inequality for tripartite holographic states and give supporting evidence.

Based on $(10087\pm44)\times10^{6}$ $J/ψ$ events collected with the BESIII detector, the $J/ψ\rightarrowγK^{0}_{S}K^{0}_{S}π^{0}$ and $J/ψ\rightarrowγπ^{0}π^{0}η$ processes are studied. The $X(2370)$ is observed in both the $K^{0}_{S}K^{0}_{S}π^{0}$ and $π^{0}π^{0}η$ invariant mass spectra, with statistical significances greater than $14σ$ and $20σ$, respectively. Combining measurements from these processes with measurements from the previously reported $J/ψ\rightarrowγK^{0}_{S}K^{0}_{S}η^{\prime}$ process, the mass and width of the $X(2370)$ are determined to be $2359^{+13}_{-14}~\text{MeV}/c^{2}$ and $170^{+44}_{-29}~\text{MeV}$, respectively. In addition, the decay $X(2370)\to a_{0}(980)^{0}π^{0}$ with $a_{0}(980)^{0}\to π^{0}η$ is observed with a statistical significance exceeding $9σ$. The similarities in decay modes between the $X(2370)$ and $η_{c}$ are consistent with the features of a pseudoscalar glueball.

We study entanglement harvested by Unruh DeWitt detectors following Rindler trajectories in compactified and superposed Minkowski spacetime. We consider different directions of acceleration (both parallel and antiparallel), separation between detectors and direction of spatial compactification mutually perpendicular to each other. Using the standard entanglement harvesting protocol, we analyze how these features influence the extracted correlations. When detector separation is perpendicular to the direction of acceleration, the harvested entanglement is uniformly suppressed due to increased spacelike separation. Compactification enhances field correlations leading to an increased concurrence and an extended harvesting range at higher accelerations. Additionally, we show that spacetime superposition introduces interference effects that further enlarge the entanglement harvesting region in parameter space, particularly in the high acceleration regime. We also find that the effect of antiparallel acceleration yielding significantly higher entanglement than parallel acceleration prevails in compactified and superposed spacetime.

Tiny neutrino masses can be explained by the type-II seesaw mechanism, where a triplet scalar under $SU(2)_{L}$ is predicted. Collider searches for this exotic scalar have been extensively conducted, especially for its doubly charged component $Δ^{\pm\pm}$. Utilizing the forward detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), we study the probing sensitivity for the elastic photon fusion production of the scalars $pp\to p(γγ\toΔ^{++}Δ^{--})p$ followed by the lepton-flavor-violating (LFV) decay channels $Δ^{\pm\pm}\to e^{\pm}μ^{\pm}$. With a high center-of-mass energy of 100 TeV and several luminosity scenarios, we can extensively broaden the exclusion bounds in the parametric space of Br$(Δ^{\pm\pm}\to e^{\pm}μ^{\pm})$ versus the triplet scalar mass $m_Δ$. Specifically, at the 100 TeV LHC with an integrated luminosity of 3 ab$^{-1}$, the mass exclusion limit at 95\% C.L. can reach around 1150 GeV with the assumption of inverted neutrino mass hierarchy.

In multi-body decays of heavy mesons, conventional CP asymmetry observables obtained by integrating over the full phase space are insensitive to the higher-order wave expansion contributions in the decay amplitude squared, and consequently fail to retain information on interference effects among different resonances. To overcome this limitation, one can introduce a phase-space partitioning scheme based on the zeros of Legendre polynomials, supplemented by a sign-function weighting procedure. On such a basis, two observables are defined, namely an asymmetry observable $\mathcal{A}_{\pm}^{\mathrm{asy},l}$, and the corresponding CP asymmetry $\mathcal{A}_{\mathrm{CP}}^{\mathrm{asy},l}$. We further separate the observables into interference and non-interference parts and analyze their respective roles. As an application, the decay channel $B^\pm\rightarrowπ^\pmπ^+π^-$ are analyzed in the region near the $ρ^0(1450)$ resonance. Using the LHCb data, the results show that odd-$l$ schemes are particularly effective in isolating interference contributions, while even-$l$ schemes are more sensitive to non-interference terms. This new assignment scheme has the potential to be extended to other decay processes, thus enriching the available physical observables.

A search for a new heavy scalar resonance decaying to two Z bosons, each subsequently decaying to a pair of electrons or muons, is presented. The results are based on a proton-proton collision data set collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The search is performed over a wide range of resonance masses from 130 GeV to 3 TeV, considering both narrow- and broad-width scenarios, and considering the gluon fusion and vector boson fusion production processes. For the broad-width scenario, the interference between the new resonance, the 125 GeV Higgs boson production, and the continuum background is taken into account. No significant excess with respect to the standard model background expectation is observed in the examined phase space. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level are set on the product of the heavy scalar resonance production cross section and the branching fraction for its decay into two Z bosons. The exclusion limits range from 0.05$-$0.1 pb in the low-mass region to 0.00 pb in the high-mass region.

Muon-catalyzed nuclear fusion (\mucf) replaces atomic electrons with negative muons, compressing atomic orbitals by about two orders of magnitude and enabling deuterium--tritium (D--T) fusion under near-room-temperature conditions. This paper reviews the physical principles of \mucf{} and formulates its essential dynamics as a four-step cycle: muonic-atom formation, muon transfer, resonant \dtmu{} molecular formation, and D--T fusion with muon release and recycling. A kinetic model is used to quantify the number of catalysis cycles per muon and the corresponding energy gain. We focus on the central limitation of catalytic efficiency, namely the alpha-sticking effect, and discuss possible breakthrough routes including nuclear-spin and muon dual polarization, in-flight muon-catalyzed fusion, and heavy-ion-driven magneto-inertial fusion. Within the idealized assumptions of the present model, a four-dimensional synergistic scheme combining dual polarization, high-density confinement, electric-field-assisted muon recovery, and resonant enhancement may increase the number of catalysis cycles per muon from the present experimental record of about 150 to more than 500, potentially enabling an energy gain \(Q>2\). On this basis, we propose a conceptual fusion--fission fuel-breeding hybrid reactor, denoted as \mucf-FBR, which exploits the 14.1-MeV neutron yield of \mucf{} to breed \({}^{239}\mathrm{Pu}\) from a \({}^{238}\mathrm{U}\) blanket in a decoupled fusion--fission operating mode. This concept may offer advantages in engineering robustness, radiation-damage tolerance, and natural-uranium utilization.

We formulate and prove a constant-curvature, holonomy-valued Lorentzian analogue of Minkowski theorem for generalized tetrahedra in the constant-curvature Lorentzian spaces ${\rm dS}^3$ and ${\rm AdS}^3$. Four non-trivial based ${\rm SO}^+(1,2)$ holonomies, or equivalently ${\rm SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ spin lifts, determine intrinsic face normals, a dihedral Gram matrix $G$, and oriented triple products of intrinsic face normals. Under closure, nondegeneracy, and the outward convex branch condition, these data reconstruct a unique strictly convex tetrahedron up to ambient isometry. The sign of $\det G$ selects the de Sitter or anti-de Sitter model, and the prescribed holonomies are exactly the based Levi-Civita face holonomies of the reconstructed tetrahedron. The extrinsic face normals also define a polar-dual projective tetrahedron. In particular, the all-null AdS sector gives ideal dual tetrahedra, and the all-timelike AdS sector gives hyperideal dual tetrahedra. In the all-spacelike sector, changing to ${\rm SU}(2)$ real form recovers the reconstruction theorem for Euclidean spherical and hyperbolic tetrahedra.

We formulate a one-parameter extension of Weyl transformations in first-order gravity and show that it defines a conformally coupled scalar sector with dynamical torsion. The construction reduces to the standard torsionless conformal coupling in the limit $λ\to 1$. In the corresponding Einstein-Cartan-Maxwell theory, we derive exact static solutions in asymptotically flat and asymptotically locally AdS spacetimes. These solutions describe scalar-dressed black holes, regular black holes, and traversable wormholes, depending on the values of the integration constants and of the deformation parameter. We show that torsion can regularize the scalar field and, for suitable branches, also improve the geometric singularity structure. In the AdS sector, the existence of topological black holes requires a nonvanishing electric charge. These results provide new exact examples of regular and torsional configurations in four-dimensional gravity.

This paper details two novel frameworks for developing autonomous, agentic AI in scientific workflows. Both systems leverage a hybrid Local Body, Remote Brain architecture via Google Colab, utilizing Python-based local orchestrators to invoke large language model (LLM) cloud backends. The first agent, DeepTS/DeepCollector, automates the large-scale curation, extraction, and deduplication of time-series datasets. The second, DeepScribe, is an autonomous presentation analyzer that converts visually dense, mathematically complex physics lectures into structured scientific reports. Through practical systems engineering-such as granular attribute extraction (Cellular RAG), remote data inspection, and distributed concurrency controls-we demonstrate how agentic AI can overcome the context and reasoning limitations of current state-of-the-art systems to rigorously support scientific workflows. Finally, we outline a generalization of DeepTS to support deep knowledge graphs and discuss the application of this conceptual approach to high-energy physics (DeepQCD).

We investigate solar X-ray observations as a probe of axions and axion-like particles. These particles can be produced in the interior of the Sun via the conversion of thermal photons, as well as through processes involving axion-electron and axion-nucleon interactions. The resulting axions can then reconvert into photons in the Sun's atmospheric magnetic field, generating a signal in the X-ray energy range. In this work, we derive new limits on axions using X-ray observations with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) during the 2020 solar minimum. In the regime where ALP production is dominated by couplings to electrons or nucleons, we obtain bounds on the product of couplings $g_{ae}\cdot g_{aγ}\lesssim 1.1\times10^{-24}\,\rm GeV^{-1}$ and $g_{aN}^{\rm eff}\cdot g_{aγ}\lesssim 2.3\times 10^{-19}\,\rm GeV^{-1}$ at 95% CL, for axion masses $m_a\lesssim10^{-6}\,\rm eV$. These constraints strongly improve current ground-based experimental limits, establishing solar X-ray observations as a powerful and robust method for axion searches.

We study Krylov construction in periodically driven conformal field theories and their lattice realisations via critical fermions. Two types of driving are considered: a square-wave drive and a continuous sinusoidal drive. Using the Arnoldi construction, we examine Arnoldi coefficients and return amplitudes in periodically driven conformal field theories in the heating and non-heating phases. In the heating phase, the Arnoldi coefficients approach unity exponentially; in contrast, in the non-heating phase, they exhibit oscillatory behaviour. For the lattice realisations, we further analyse the Krylov complexity of the correlation matrix, quasi energy level statistics, and the graph structure induced by the Floquet operator. Although the two drives exhibit similar Krylov growth on the CFT side, their lattice realisations exhibit markedly different spectral and graph signatures, indicating distinct mechanisms governing the transition between the heating and non-heating phases.

We study Abelian $S$-duality of Maxwell theory on $A$-type asymptotically locally Euclidean (ALE) spaces. Unlike on closed four-manifolds, the Maxwell path integral on an ALE space is not naturally a scalar partition function. Rather, it decomposes into theta-function blocks labeled by flat $U(1)$ holonomy sectors on the asymptotic lens-space boundary. We interpret these blocks as components of the Hilbert-space boundary state prepared by the ALE path integral. With this interpretation, the apparent failure of ordinary modularity is replaced by vector-valued modular covariance under the action of the modular group. We test this picture explicitly for Eguchi-Hanson space by gluing it to its orientation reversal. The resulting closed four-manifold is diffeomorphic to $S^2\times S^2$, and the natural pairing of the two ALE boundary states reproduces the standard Maxwell partition function on $S^2\times S^2$. We then refine the construction by turning on electric and magnetic $1$-form symmetry backgrounds. In their presence, the ALE theta blocks are not ordinary functions, but sections of a line bundle over the Cartan torus associated with the $A_{N-1}$ root lattice, reflecting the mixed electric-magnetic $1$-form anomaly. We also discuss gauging discrete $\mathbb Z_k$ subgroups of the $1$-form symmetries and show that the vector-valued boundary-state structure remains the natural covariant framework after gauging. In this sense, ALE spaces behave as chiral building blocks for four-dimensional Maxwell theory: individual ALE blocks carry sector-resolved boundary data, while gluing pairs these sectors to produce an ordinary closed-manifold partition function, much like the pairing of left- and right-moving conformal blocks in two-dimensional CFT.

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are a leading explanation of the Galactic Center excess (GCE) observed in Fermi-LAT data. We constrain this scenario by jointly modeling prompt and inverse-Compton $γ$ rays from MSP-injected $e^\pm$ on the Galactic bulge, using recent Fermi-LAT GCE spectra from state-of-the-art interstellar emission models and data analysis. Current data place strong upper limits on the efficiency ratio $η_e/η_γ$ across broad $e^\pm$ injection scenarios, surpassing those from globular-cluster observations with MAGIC and competitive with projected CTAO sensitivities toward the Galactic bulge.

Twist fields are a powerful formal tool to compute Rényi entropies in quantum many-body systems, but their conventional formulation in tensor network states involves operations acting on virtual degrees of freedom, which are not directly accessible in experiments. In this work, we construct explicit local operators acting on the physical Hilbert space whose expectation values reproduce the action of twist fields in matrix product states. Our construction is exact in the injectivity limit and when the tensor is chosen at the center of orthogonality, and provides a direct operational method to evaluate Rényi entropies without accessing auxiliary tensor indices. We test our formulation numerically in the transverse-field Ising model, demonstrating rapid convergence to the exact entanglement entropy as the injectivity scale is reached. Furthermore, we show that twist operators determined from relatively small reference systems can be reliably transferred to larger systems, once the reference size exceeds a characteristic scale set by the correlation length. Since the resulting operators admit a decomposition in terms of a finite number of local observables, our results provide a scalable and experimentally accessible framework to probe entanglement in quantum simulators.

Black holes respond to infalling quantum matter fields by changing their entropy. Since such matter is quantum in nature, the entropy response should be sensitive to its quantum fluctuations. We show, within stochastic semiclassical gravity, that a horizon cannot record relevant quantum information with arbitrarily small entropy fluctuations. For the infalling photons encoding which-path information in the Danielson-Satishchandran-Wald decoherence experiment, we derive a trade-off relation between the stochastic variance of the black hole entropy change and the photon number.

This paper is organized around three main objectives. First, I review in a pedagogical way the unitarity bounds for form factors in $B$-meson decays, together with the parametrizations most commonly used in phenomenological analyses. These include BGL, BCL, CLN, and the Dispersive Matrix (DM) method. I also clarify the relation between BGL and DM, showing that they are two equivalent implementations of the same unitarity information. Second, I demonstrate that the standard BGL and DM constructions are strictly rigorous only when no subthreshold cuts are present. For $B$-meson decays, this requirement is fulfilled exclusively by the $B\toπ$ FFs. To treat the generic case, I fully develop the GG parametrization introduced in previous work and show how the same logic extends to a DM-like construction. Third, I perform three combined analyses and obtain form-factor predictions over the full semileptonic region: one for $B\toπ$ and $B_s\to K^{(*)}$, one for $B\to K^{(*)}$ and $B_s\to φ$, and one for $B\to D^{(*)}$ and $B_s\to D_s^{(*)}$. All numerical results, posterior samples, analysis files, and plots are provided in the supplementary material (https://github.com/gubernari/suppl-unitb).

The Swampland Distance Conjecture (SDC) states that, for any infinite-distance limit in the moduli space of a quantum gravity effective field theory (EFT), there should exist an infinite tower of states that become exponentially light. According to the Emergent String Conjecture, such a tower should consist either of tensionless strings or of Kaluza-Klein modes, each with a mass-decay rate that depends in a precise way on the dimension of the effective field theory. In this paper, we use the results obtained in arXiv:2508.18401 on the SDC for symmetric moduli spaces and how these rates are encoded in the weight polytope of the corresponding particle-state representations to determine the symmetric space EFTs and representations that have these decay rates. Remarkably, assuming that the particle states transform in an irreducible representation, the list of possible polytopes and moduli spaces is finite. Different EFTs are related by embedding one moduli space in another or by taking a decompactification limit. Requiring compatibility of the particle representations under such branching, we find that, while most of the theories can be obtained from an EFT based on $E_{8(8)}$, there remain three in our list that appear to be impossible to get from M- or string-theory compactifications. Using the same embedding procedure, we also identify the string and brane representations that should be present in the spectrum.

Primordial black holes (PBHs) in the asteroid-mass range, with typical masses $10^{17}\,{\rm g}\lesssim M \lesssim 10^{23}\,{\rm g}$, have drawn significant recent attention as a viable dark matter candidate. The peak frequencies of photons emitted via Hawking radiation from asteroid-mass PBHs range from infrared to $γ$-ray bands. We calculate expected local transit rates for extended PBH mass distributions which could comprise all the dark matter. We evaluate prospects for detecting Hawking-radiated photons from local PBH transits through the inner Solar System and from PBH explosions in the far outer edges of the Solar System. We consider several existing and proposed ground-based and space-based instruments sensitive to photons from the radio band to ultrahigh energy $γ$-rays. We find that proposed instruments, such as the AMEGO-X satellite, could reliably detect PBH transits within ${\it O} (0.1 \, {\rm AU})$ of the Earth, while the HAWC and LHAASO observatories are both sensitive to PBH explosions out to ${\it O}(0.1 \, {\rm pc})$ and ${\it O}(0.5 \, {\rm pc})$ respectively. We conclude by specifically considering potential companion electromagnetic signatures in the case of a PBH explosion about $10^3\,{\rm AU}$ from Earth, which has been suggested as a potential source for the $\sim 220 \, {\rm PeV}$ ultrahigh-energy KM3-230213A neutrino event observed by the KM3NeT collaboration in 2023. Whereas we find that the recent KM3NeT event would not have yielded detectable electromagnetic signals -- due to its location on the sky, proposed distance from Earth, and the offline status of the HAWC observatory at that time -- we demonstrate that future PBH explosions at comparable distances could yield measurable electromagnetic signals at Earth, depending on alignment of the PBH burst with detector fields of view.

Family puzzle asks why the Standard Model (SM) features exactly 3 families of quarks and leptons. Motivated by topological constraints, we study 4-dimensional fermionic anomalies with discrete $Z_n$ symmetry, classified by the 5d spin bordism group. We show that only the group-cohomology subclass H$^5(Z_n,U(1))\cong Z_n$ can be canceled by an anomalous $Z_n$-symmetric 4d $Z_n$-gauge topological quantum field theory (TQFT), while beyond-group-cohomology $A_{Z_n} p_1$ involving the Pontryagin class $p_1$ cannot (except $n=2,3$). More generally, we prove that any cocycle $α_d\in$H$^d(Z_n,U(1))$ in odd spacetime dimension $d\ge3$ is trivialised by the symmetry extension $1\to Z_n\to Z_{n^2}\to Z_n\to 1,$ and we construct the corresponding symmetric anomalous boundary TQFT. For $d=5$ and $n=3$, this yields a Spin$\times Z_3$-symmetric 4d $Z_3$-gauge TQFT that cancels the mixed discrete $(\bf B+L)$-gauge-gravitational anomaly of the SM in the absence of 3 "sterile" right-handed neutrinos $ν_R$. We further analyze a generalized SM with $N_c$ colors and $N_f$ families and argue that missing $N_f$ copies of the $ν_R$ can be naturally replaced by that 4d anomalous $Spin\times_{Z_2^F} Z_{2 N_f,{{\bf B} + {\bf L}}}$ symmetric $Z_{N_c}$-gauge TQFT under the anomaly cancellation, via an appropriate $Z_{N_c}$-color symmetry extension construction $1\to Z_{N_c}\to Spin\times Z_{N_cN_f}\to Spin\times_{Z_2^F} Z_{2N_f}\to1$ of anomalous topological order. For minimal nonzero positive integers $N_c$ and $N_f$, we find the minimal color extensions: $N_c=3, N_f \ge 3$; $N_c=4, N_f \ge 2$; and $N_c=12, N_f \ge 6$. If we further require that an SM baryon is a fermion so $N_c$ is odd, then $Z_{N_c}=Z($SU$(N_c))$ color center, we prove 3 families and 3 colors, $N_c=N_f=3$, is the unique case that stands out. We also prove that $A_{Z_3}p_1= 0\mod3$ for the mod 3 cohomology class in an appropriate context.

We investigate whether early- and late-time dark energy could arise from a single scalar field. Adopting a bottom-up perspective, we first identify the sequence of dynamical regimes that any unified scenario must traverse to account for both an early dark energy phase relevant for pre-recombination solutions of the Hubble tension and the late-time acceleration of the Universe. We derive the corresponding requirements on the scalar energy density and equation of state. We then adopt a complementary top-down perspective and translate these requirements into constraints on the phase-space structure of minimally coupled scalar fields with tracking-like dynamics. We show that satisfying all requirements necessitates a potential with three distinct slopes, arranged in a steep-steeper-shallow hierarchy. This conclusion remains unchanged in the presence of conformal couplings to dark matter. These results place strong constraints on attempts to construct unified models of early- and late-time dark energy. We discuss implications for model-building.

We introduce two-body nuclear conditional probabilities that allow the definition of an intrinsic reference frame and the multipole moments of angular-momentum-$J$-conserving states. This enables the characterization of quadrupole deformations of states with $J\leq1/2$, which are not accessible via spectroscopic one-body quadrupole moments. We illustrate the method with nuclear density functional theory (DFT) calculations for $J=0$ states of $^{16}$O and $^{20}$Ne, the latter obtained by restoring rotational symmetry of prolate or oblate intrinsic configurations. We show that the two-body quadrupole shape characterizations are not equal to the one-body moments obtained from broken-symmetry states, mainly because of Pauli repulsion effects. Calculations of two-body multipole moments can be performed within various theoretical frameworks, but their experimental determination requires measuring two-body correlations.

We study intersecting surface operators in 6d holomorphic field theories with the aim of unraveling associated quantum integrable structures. We first study the intersections of surface operators in 6d holomorphic Chern-Simons theory on $\mathbb{C}^3$. Computing their correlation function, we find a local operator at the intersection of the surface operators with a form reminiscent of the leading nontrivial term in the quasi-classical expansion of a rational $R$-matrix, as predicted by Costello. We provide evidence that this $R$-matrix-like operator satisfies a Yang-Baxter-type relation. We then derive the associated coproduct of the chiral algebra supported by surface operators from their OPE. We also study intersecting surface operators in 6d holomorphic BF theory and derive the local leading form of the corresponding $R$-matrix-like operator. When this theory is placed on twistor space, where it describes the self-dual sector of 4d Yang-Mills theory, this operator is expected to provide a local building block for quantum integrable structures anticipated in that setting.

A central lesson of gravity is that local observables are ill-defined. Coordinates themselves are a redundancy of description, so any particular point in spacetime is only meaningful once defined relationally by clocks, rulers, or asymptotic data. Despite extensive formal work on this subject, explicit calculations of the resulting gravitationally-dressed observables are more scarce. In this paper we perturbatively compute dressed matrix elements of local operators in electrodynamics and general relativity, including both potential and radiative photons and gravitons. Our expressions indicate that dressing is not ornamental: it universally induces kinematic singularities that can substantively reshape observables. We further show how dressing is mathematically equivalent to gauge fixing, as demonstrated by a dynamical temporal gauge in which the gauge-fixing vector is itself a geodesic fluid.

High-energy nuclear physics explores the properties of strongly interacting matter created in relativistic collisions of nuclei. Femtoscopy, a subfield of high-energy physics, utilizes quantum-statistical correlations of particles to characterize the space-time geometry of the particle-emitting source. Recent measurements and phenomenological investigations indicated that the shape of the source for identical pions can be well-described by Lévy-stable distributions. The significant power-law tail of the pion source observed both in experiment and in simulations has been shown to originate from the process of Lévy walk during the hadronic scattering phase of the collisions. To better understand the physical processes behind the formation of such power laws, an important next step is to investigate the particle species dependence, especially the source shape of identical kaon and proton pairs. As a direct continuation of our previous phenomenological studies, in this Letter, we present a detailed three-dimensional investigation of the two-particle source shape in simulations of Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon collision energy using the EPOS3 model. We show the dependence of the extracted femtoscopic source parameters on particle species, as well as on centrality and average transverse momentum. We find that the scale parameters show an approximate transverse momentum scaling between pion, kaon, and proton pairs, while the power-law exponents depend more strongly on particle species. When new experimental measurements of kaon and proton correlations become available, these results will provide the basis of a data-model comparison.

We study Krylov complexity in BMN Plane Wave Matrix Model at large mass deformation. We consider various consistent reductions of the matrix model that allow us to perform a Hamiltonian analysis which leads to different notions of the Krylov complexity. In the first part of the paper, we study the Krylov state complexity considering systematic reduction of $N=3$ and $N=4$ representations of the matrix model, which reveals a universal characteristic scaling for the Lanczos coefficients and fix them completely in terms of the mass deformation parameter. In the second part of the paper, we study the Krylov operator growth in the matrix model and compute the corresponding Lanczos coefficients. In both cases, we observe a \emph{linear} scaling of Lanczos coefficients with the mass parameter. The early time growth in Krylov complexity receives quadratic correction due to the presence of the massive deformation in the matrix model. Our analysis reveals that such massive corrections appear at same order in time for both the notion of the Krylov complexity.

We investigate an extension of $Λ$CDM in which a fraction of cold Dark Matter (DM) decays into invisible dark radiation (DR) around the radiation-matter equality epoch, together with a non-standard dark energy (DE) equation of state characterized by $w_0$. The decaying DM component modifies the early expansion history and reduces the sound horizon at baryon drag, while the DE alters the expansion rate at the late times. A comprehensive analysis combining \texttt{Planck 2018+ACT DR6+DESI DR2+CMB lensing} datasets has been carried out to explore the viability of this framework in addressing the $H_0$ tension. This model yields a Hubble constant of $H_0 = 69.83 \pm 0.98~\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}\,Mpc^{-1}}$, reducing the discrepancy with SH0ES measurement to ${\sim}2.2σ$ and local distance network measurement (H0DN) to ${\sim}2.9σ$. Further, considering \texttt{SH0ES} and \texttt{Pantheon+}, the inferred value of the Hubble constant becomes $H_0 = 70.20 \pm 0.66~\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}\,Mpc^{-1}}$. The Bayesian evidence suggests that this framework offers a fit to the relevant cosmological datasets at a statistically similar level as $Λ$CDM. It is observed that correlated early- and late-time modifications to the cosmological expansion history provide a more effective route to reducing the $H_0$ tension than either class of modification alone.

We inspect $\mathfrak{su}(n)$ forms, providing greater detail for $n=2,3$, as a toy model for a field theory in finite dimensions and with gauge symmetries. Relying on homological perturbation theory, we show that there are no scattering amplitudes with trivalent tree-level diagrams, except for the interaction vertex, thus extending a known argument of Cattaneo--Mnëv to arbitrary $n$. In contrast to this, we show how to obtain non-trivial higher products when transferring to a larger space of fields.

We analyze the $K^-p\to K^+Ξ^-$ and $K^-p\to K^0Ξ^0$ processes in the energy region $1.8<\sqrt{s}<2.8$ GeV within an effective Lagrangian approach. The $Λ(1800)$ and $Σ(2250)$ resonances, along with the ground states $Σ$ and $Λ$, are included. Additionally, a possible $J^P=3/2^-$ $Σ^*$ or $Λ^*$ resonance with a mass around 1.9 GeV and a width of approximately 200 MeV is introduced to describe the structure at 2.0 GeV in the total cross section and reproducing the threshold behavior. The two possible solutions corresponding to $Σ^*(3/2^-)$ and $Λ^*(3/2^-)$ cannot be distinguished by the existing data. Predictions for the polarization of the final-state $Ξ$ and the cross section of $K^-n \to K^0Ξ^-$ are compared with the experimental data, we find that the results of solution-II with $Λ^*(3/2^-)$ are much better. We also discuss the possible interpretations of the introduced $3/2^-$ hyperon as a pentaquark candidate, e.g. an $S$-wave $KΞ(1530)$ hadronic molecule. However, since the polarization data suffer from rather large uncertainties, more data inputs are needed in future experiments, for example, J-PARC, HIAF and JLab.

Using the $\mathcal{N}=1$ superfield formalism, we prove that the superconformal symmetry of $\mathcal{N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills theory is preserved in the quantum theory. We demonstrate that the $\mathcal{N}=1$ calculation is sufficient to guarantee the full $\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetry, and show that the results are exact without receiving any higher-order corrections.

We propose a two-component asymmetric FIMP (feebly interacting massive particle) dark matter (DM) model in which both DM candidates are real scalar fields. The model is an extension of the Standard Model (SM) by two scalar DM components and a heavy scalar mediator, stabilized by a $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2'$ symmetry. DM is produced via the freeze-in mechanism through the Higgs portal, while the out-of-equilibrium decay of the heavy mediator generates an asymmetry in the first component, which is partially transferred to the second component via quartic interactions. By solving the Boltzmann equations numerically, we compute the relic density and perform a detailed scan over the parameter space. The observed relic density $Ω_{\text{DM}} h^2 = 0.12 \pm 0.001$ is successfully reproduced for benchmark parameters $m_{φ_1}=0.1$~GeV, $m_{φ_2}=0.5$~GeV, $λ_{1H}=7\times10^{-11}$, and $η=0.01$, with the second component contributing only about $5\%$ to the total abundance. We also examine phenomenological constraints. The DM self-interaction cross section lies orders of magnitude below the Bullet cluster bound ($σ/m < 0.47$~cm$^2$/g) and the more stringent double radio relic limit ($σ/m < 0.22$~cm$^2$/g). The invisible Higgs decay branching ratio is $\sim 4\times10^{-19}$, well below the LHC upper limit, and direct detection prospects are negligible due to the small Higgs portal couplings. Our model establishes a novel connection between two-component DM, the freeze-in mechanism, and DM asymmetry.

In order to meet the high-precision measurement of the current baryon spectroscopy, for the first time, we rigorously analyze the spin-dependent interactions and the fine structure of the negative-parity singly heavy baryons in the relativized quark model, which was previously unfeasible in the three-quark system. This gains access to the exploration of the strong interactions dominated by the non-perturbative QCD, and reveals how the various forms of strong interactions in a baryon compete with each other, affect the evolution of the energy levels, cause the energy level splitting and contribute to the mixing effect responsible for the formation of the fine structures. It is shown that the rigorous calculation can perfectly reproduce the data, the averaged deviation between the calculated and experimental energy levels is less than 5 MeV for the negative-parity singly heavy baryons. Therefore, the theoretical precision has reached the experimental high precision. This confirms the reliability of the calculation and also helps make reasonable assignments for the observed negative-parity baryons. The large amount of data obtained by the rigorous calculations contains a wealth of interaction information and is helpful for both of the theoretical and experimental studies. The key to the rigorous calculation in this work is the proposal of a new method, namely the two-step Gaussian expansion method. This new method not only overcomes the long-standing unresolved problem in the relativized quark model, but also provides an effective approach for the high-precision calculation of other few-body systems such as the compact tetraquarks and pentaquarks, especially for the treatment of spin-orbit interactions and tensor interactions which actually appear ubiquitously in all of quantum many-body systems.

We predict exotic doubly heavy--strange pentaquarks with minimal quark content $u\bar d sQQ'$ ($QQ'=cc,bc,bb$) within a coupled-channel unitary framework where the interaction is derived from an extension of the local hidden gauge approach to the heavy-quark sector. We obtain a robust spectrum of manifestly exotic states; two states appear in the $u\bar d scc$ sector, three in $u\bar d scb$, and four in $u\bar d sbb$. These emerge either as bound states or resonances, along with five additional virtual states manifested as threshold cusps. The binding mechanism is dominated by off-diagonal transitions among heavy-baryon--light-meson channels, while diagonal interactions are strongly suppressed. These results extend exotic hadron spectroscopy into the doubly heavy--strange sector and provide concrete targets for future experimental searches.

Integral identities for Macdonald polynomials play an important role in modern mathematics and mathematical physics. Especially interesting are the Cherednik-Macdonald-Mehta (CMM) identities, with profound connections to Double Affine Hecke Algebras (DAHA) and representation theory of quantum groups. These identities are central in refined Chern-Simons theory, where they lead to refined S and T matrices and ultimately to refined knot invariants. We suggest an elliptic generalization of CMM identities, where trigonometric Vandermonde products are replaced by theta functions. At the same time Macdonald polynomials are promoted to Shiraishi functions -- distinguished elliptic functions with several interesting avatars, from the non-stationary Ruijsenaars problem in integrable systems, to equivariant K-theory characters of the affine Laumon space in algebraic geometry, to surface defect partition functions in 5d super Yang-Mills theory. From the perspective of matrix models, we present an elliptic matrix model with a superintegrability property. We prove the suggested identities to the first order in the elliptic parameter.

We investigate the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon within an effective chiral theory derived from the QCD instanton vacuum, taking into account the finite current quark mass. The momentum-dependent dynamical quark mass, generated by the instanton-antiinstanton medium, naturally plays the role of a regulator, so that no additional regularization is required to tame the divergences arising from quark loops. The instanton parameters, the average instanton size $\barρ=0.35$ fm and the average interdistance $\bar{R}=0.86$ fm, together with the dynamical quark mass at zero virtuality $M_0=385$ MeV, are all fixed by the saddle-point equation beyond the chiral limit, leaving no adjustable free parameter in the present calculation. We compute the Sachs electric and magnetic form factors of the proton and neutron, the nucleon charge and magnetization radii, the magnetic moments, and the ratios $μ_{p,n} G_E^{p,n}(Q^2)/G_M^{p,n}(Q^2)$. The present results are compared with the experimental data, the chiral quark-soliton model ($χ$QSM), and the Kelly parametrization. The proton charge radius, $\sqrt{\langle r^2 \rangle_\mathrm{ch}^p}=0.841$ fm, is in remarkable agreement with the recent muonic-hydrogen value, and the $Q^2$ dependence of the proton form-factor ratio $μ_p G_E^p/G_M^p$ is reproduced very well, in clear contrast to the $χ$QSM. The overall agreement with the experimental data confirms that the effective chiral theory derived from the QCD instanton vacuum provides a consistent and predictive framework for describing the electromagnetic structure of the nucleon.

Core-collapse supernovae are the terminal explosions of massive stars. After successive phases of nuclear fusion proceeding up to silicon burning, these stars form an iron core that is supported by electron degeneracy pressure. The core eventually collapses to a proto-neutron star, and in most cases the outer layers of the star are ejected by a shock wave, with a kinetic energy of order $10^{51}\,\mathrm{erg}$. Neutrinos and multi-dimensional fluid flow play a key role in extracting energy from the collapsed core to drive the explosion. After adumbrating the astrophysical context of stellar evolution and transient observations, this chapter sketches the modern theory of neutrino-driven supernova explosions, and discusses the key role of nuclear physics and neutrino interaction rates in the supernova problem. It also outlines the role of neutrinos and gravitational waves as probes into the supernova core.

Solving linear systems of polynomial equations is a ubiquitous problem in both mathematics and physics. The standard approach, Gaussian elimination, scales cubically with system size and often constitutes a computational bottleneck. The algorithm's inherent parallelism makes it well-suited for modern computing architectures, namely graphics processing units (GPUs), which offer significantly higher throughput than CPUs. Additionally, the use of finite fields -- integers modulo a prime -- in place of floating-point arithmetic offers a scalable solution to the issue of numerical precision loss, which becomes increasingly problematic at large system sizes. With Linac, we present a high-performance, open-source, parallel implementation of Gaussian elimination over finite fields and floating-point arithmetic. This tool has been developed for applications to analytic reconstruction of scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory.

According to usual calculations, the use of a hard cutoff $Λ$ in gauge theories leads to a violation of gauge invariance. This seems to generate a tension between gauge theories and the Wilsonian effective field theory (EFT) paradigm, where $Λ$ has the physical meaning of ultimate scale of the theory, the scale above which the latter has to be replaced by its UV completion. In the present work, considering the Euler-Heisenberg correction to the free Maxwell action, we present a way to introduce the Wilsonian hard UV cutoff $Λ$ that preserves gauge invariance at the quantum level. For both scalar and fermionic QED, we recover the well-known Euler-Heisenberg result obtained within proper-time regularization, apart from terms that are generically cutoff-suppressed. These terms, periodic in the inverse background field, might become relevant in regimes where the latter probes scales not much smaller than $Λ$. On the theoretical side, the methods developed in the present work represent a first step towards a new (closer in spirit to the Wegner-Houghton construction) realization of the Wilsonian renormalization group program in gauge theories.

Null strings, strings with Carrollian worldsheets, are traditionally described by the Isberg-Lindström-Sundborg-Theodoridis (ILST) action, which is obtained via a tensionless limit of standard tensile strings. In a recent work, we observed that the ILST action enjoys an overlooked partial-gauge symmetry whose existence calls into question the consistency of {standard} null strings analysis found in the literature. In this paper, we show that the Carrollian geometry provides us with two Weyl scaling options, in contrast to a single Weyl scaling available for the ordinary tensile string worldsheet. Defining the null string theory by the action that realizes the two Carroll-Weyl scalings as well as the 2D diffeomorphisms as local (gauge) symmetries, we construct the new null string action. We show that the ILST action is obtained after fixing one of the two Carroll-Weyl scalings of the action that we construct, and that the residual part of this symmetry is precisely the overlooked partial-gauge symmetry. We hence clarify the Carroll-geometric origin of the overlooked symmetry and pave the way for a consistent quantization of null strings.

We investigate static, spherically symmetric (SS) spacetimes in covariant teleparallel \(F(T)\) gravity in the presence of electromagnetic sources. Starting from the coframe/spin-connection (CSC) pair formalism, we derive the field equations and associated conservation laws, which constrain admissible electromagnetic configurations and reconstructed teleparallel sectors. A general reconstruction procedure is established, allowing the systematic construction of nonlinear teleparallel \(F(T)\) models for arbitrary coframe ansätze. Focusing on power-law (PL) configurations, we obtain several classes of exact solutions, including constant-radius, black-hole-like (BH-like), and wormhole-like (WH-like) branches, and analyze their horizon structures, torsion singularities, and stability properties. The inclusion of electromagnetic sources leads to new charged solutions that generalize Reissner--Nordström (RN) spacetimes and reveal modified near-horizon and asymptotic behaviors. The results are further organized within an invariant classification framework, highlighting the role of torsion in shaping the solution space. Overall, this work provides a unified and covariant approach to the construction and interpretation of physically relevant compact-object, effective cosmological, and regularized strong-field sectors in nonlinear teleparallel gravity, with potential implications for strong-field tests beyond General Relativity (GR).

Collision centrality is a key parameter for studying nuclear matter properties, as it determines the initial interaction geometry and the size of the produced system. Accurate centrality determination is essential for comparing experimental data obtained from different experiments and for benchmarking against theoretical models. This work presents a modification of the approach for centrality determination using charged particle multiplicity based on Bayes' theorem. The proposed improvements enable an estimation of event registration efficiency as a function of the impact parameter. Furthermore, two approaches utilizing forward detectors are proposed: a two-dimensional method based on the combined analysis of track hit counts and spectator deposited energy in the Forward Hadron Calorimeter FHCal, and a method employing signals from the quartz hodoscope and FHCal. These methods were applied to data from the first physics run Xe+CsI of the BM@N experiment (Baryonic Matter at Nuclotron) with a xenon beam at the energy of 3.8 A GeV. A comparison of the developed methods with the classical Monte Carlo Glauber approach demonstrates agreement within 5% across all considered methods, confirming their reliability and mutual consistency. The use of forward detectors for centrality determination may serve as an independent tool for assessing the initial collision geometry and can reduce autocorrelation effects in studies of proton multiplicity fluctuations. The developed approaches can be employed for data processing in the BM@N experiment, as well as in other heavy-ion experiments at intermediate energies.

Event classification by centrality is one of the key tasks of the MPD (Multi-Purpose Detector) experiment at the NICA collider. Centrality characterizes the initial geometry of heavy-ion collisions through the correlation of measured observables with the impact parameter. Typically, charged-particle multiplicity serves as the observable of choice. However, this approach can introduce autocorrelation in net-proton multiplicity fluctuation studies. In this work, we propose a novel approach based on the combined use of signals from the forward hadron calorimeter (FHCal) and the electromagnetic calorimeter (ECal). This method is expected to suppress autocorrelation in the study of proton multiplicity fluctuations, while the combination of data from both detectors will enable unambiguous centrality event classification across the full centrality range.

Large density fluctuations of charged particles are the promising signatures for exploring the QCD phase transition and critical point in heavy ion collisions. These fluctuations are expected to exhibit fractal and scale invariant behaviour, which is probed using intermittency methodology. Intermittency is the phenomenon of power law growth of the normalized factorial moments ($F_{\rm{q}}$) of the number density distributions over decreasing bin size. This is studied for the charged particles simulated using PYTHIAN and EPOS4 (UrQMD ON/OFF) for Pb Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV. Scaling behaviour of $F_{\rm{q}}$ are studied as a function of phase space partitioning and second order moments to quantify the particle production nature within the default constraints of the two models. The scaling exponent related to the phase transition and parameters connected to fractal nature obtained for these models are also reported.

Recently, for a limited class for bipartite links, the complicated Khovanov-Rozansky matrix factorization technique was reduced to an analogue of elementary Kauffman-Khovanov cycle calculus for an arbitrary $N$. In this note, we demonstrate the consistency of such reduction with the computation of the bipartite Khovanov polynomials for $N=2$. Namely, we explain how the Kauffman-Khovanov $2^2$-hypercube is shrinked to the bipartite 3-hypercube.

We study the \(N=2\), large--\(d\) sector of BFSS/BMN-type matrix quantum mechanics on the lattice in the Gaussian regime. We develop a radial endpoint formulation in which the bulk, gauge, and longitudinal degrees of freedom are integrated out, leaving transverse endpoint variables governed by an effective holonomy potential. We show that this planar endpoint formulation is equivalent to the angular Molien--Weyl description of the gauge-projected partition function, up to a universal spectator factor. This relation allows the low-temperature expansion of the endpoint partition function to be obtained from the Molien--Weyl result, whose quadratic coefficient \(d(d+1)/2\) counts Gaussian singlet states above the vacuum. We then analyze the continuum limit of the quadratic coefficient and show that it separates into a Gaussian contribution, a \(D\)-channel, and a \(β\)-channel. The naive Gaussian term becomes trivial, while the exact holonomy kernel generates finite continuum contributions through singular dependence on the endpoint Gaussian width and anisotropic coupling. We then study the geometry of the holonomy potential and show that its relevant saddle is a constrained boundary saddle on the aligned branch, rather than an unconstrained critical point. The associated transverse expansion captures the local saddle geometry, but any finite polynomial truncation has a trivial continuum limit. Finally, we introduce a non-polynomial toy model based on \(V_{\rm toy}(B)=-\log\cosh B\), which provides a completion of the transverse expansion and reproduces exactly the continuum \(D\)-channel contribution \(-2d\). This prepares the geometric interpretation of the \(D\)-channel as a Wishart--Stiefel entropy associated with an emergent four-dimensional geometry embedded \(\mathbb R^d\) in the endpoint formulation.

Accurate reconstruction of magnetic fields in inaccessible regions is vital for many high-precision experiments in physics. Traditional methods, such as spherical harmonic expansion, often suffer from truncation errors that limit their precision. This study proposes an advanced Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) framework for high-precision 3D magnetic field mapping. Unlike conventional data-driven models, the proposed PINN integrates Maxwell's equations directly into the loss function, enforcing divergence-free and curl-free conditions across the entire domain. A key innovation is the inclusion of explicit physics-residual losses at measurement locations, ensuring rigorous physical consistency beyond random collocation sampling. Validation using simulated data achieves a reconstruction accuracy of $10^{-4}$, a tenfold improvement over existing PINN benchmarks. Furthermore, experimental validation using a custom coil assembly demonstrates robust reconstruction with sub-percent relative accuracy, reaching the $10^{-3}$ level under ambient conditions. This AI-driven methodology provides a robust, high-precision solution for field monitoring and measurement in complex experimental environments where direct sensor placement is restricted.

We investigate the form-factor dependence of Reggeized tensor Pomeron and Odderon exchanges in high-energy elastic $pp$ and $p\bar p$ scattering. The spin structure is implemented through explicit covariant spin-2 and spin-3 projectors, kept factorized from the Reggeized scalar kernels, so that vertex effects can be separated from trajectory dynamics. Seven Odderon--proton form-factor parametrizations are tested against a global dataset including TOTEM $pp$ data at $\sqrt{s}=2.76$, $7$, $8$, and $13$~TeV and Tevatron $p\bar p$ data at $\sqrt{s}=1.80$ and $1.96$~TeV. A clear hierarchy is found. Six dipole, polynomial, Gaussian, and hybrid parametrizations give comparable fit qualities, $χ^2_{\rm red}\simeq 1.44$--$1.48$, whereas a one-parameter exponential form, $F_{\mathbb O}(t)=\exp[-B|t|/2]$, yields $χ^2_{\rm red}=0.98$ for 138 degrees of freedom. The fitted couplings and Regge slopes remain comparatively stable across the form-factor choices, indicating that the improvement is driven mainly by the Odderon--proton vertex rather than by large compensating shifts in trajectory parameters. The exponential form admits an impact-parameter interpretation as a Gaussian transverse profile, with an effective radius $\sqrt{\langle b^2\rangle}=\sqrt{2B}\,\hbar c$. The extracted radii are of hadronic size and suggest a peripheral soft Odderon interaction. The shrinking $t$-range over which the single-Regge-exchange description remains accurate at increasing energy indicates the onset of absorptive and unitarity corrections. These results provide a compact phenomenological framework for connecting the $pp/p\bar p$ dip--bump difference with the transverse structure of $C$-odd color-singlet exchange.

Black-hole spectroscopy aims to infer properties of the remnant spacetime from the quasinormal-mode (QNM) spectrum of the gravitational-wave ringdown signal. In most implementations, however, this inference is performed with waveform models that already incorporate Kerr or other theory-specific QNM spectral relations, thereby entangling spectral measurement with remnant or beyond-Kerr parameter inference. At the same time, conventional ringdown analyses commonly excise the pre-merger data, which in principle contain information about the excitation amplitudes and phases of the QNMs. We introduce \texttt{SPRING} (\textit{Spectral-level Pre-merger-informed RINGdown inference}), a framework designed to separate ringdown spectral inference from theory-side interpretation while propagating pre-merger information through amplitude-scale estimation. As a demonstration, we apply \texttt{SPRING} to GW250114 using an agnostic two-component damped-sinusoid (2DS) model for Kerr remnant inference. \texttt{SPRING} improves the Bayesian support for the agnostic 2DS signal model relative to analyses that do not use pre-merger information, with an increase of \(Δ\ln B\sim 5\)--\(10\). The resulting remnant posterior remains closely consistent with the inspiral-merger-ringdown estimate, despite the extra freedom introduced by the second DS component. This work bridges pre-merger information and ringdown inference, establishing a fully spectral-level route for future black-hole spectroscopy.

We study axisymmetric 7-brane solutions in the dilaton-gravity sector of 10d supergravity, including the backreaction of the Casimir energy induced by monodromies around the transverse circle. Without Casimir energy, we find that the system is analytically solvable and admits locally flat asymptotics with arbitrary deficit angles, but the corresponding solutions contain a naked singularity at finite proper distance. We investigate whether this singularity can be replaced by a regular finite-horizon black-brane core once Casimir backreaction is included. We find that, within our ansatz, Casimir backreaction obstructs an asymptotically locally flat black-brane completion of the naked 7-brane solution.

In a recent article, arXiv:2605.12414, it is stated that a certain scale transformation has been "systematically overlooked" in discussions of the tensionless string. Here we point out that this kind of symmetry is treated in numerous places, in the classical as well as the quantum theory.

We investigate the renormalized fermion-gluon vertex, the fermion effective mass, and the fermion condensate when the fermion propagates in an external Yang-Mills gauge field. We use an exact Green's function for the Dirac operator in a non-Abelian plane-wave gauge field to construct the renormalized vertex function, calculate the on-shell fermion self-energy, and the background-dependent condensate. We consider both the background and operator fields in the axial gauge $k^{μ} \mathcal{A}_{μ}^{a}=0$, thereby preserving the gauge. Its applications to strong-field QCD and non-Abelian Schwinger physics are discussed.

We compute the finite-$N$ Witten index of BMN matrix quantum mechanics after summing over all partition-labeled supersymmetric vacuum sectors. Starting from the unitary-matrix integral for each sector, we develop two complementary evaluation methods: a symmetric-group character expansion, which reduces each fixed fugacity order to a finite combinatorial sum, and a residue expansion in which the contributing poles are organized by rooted trees, with a colored-tree generalization for multi-partition sectors. Direct integration and constant-term extraction provide independent checks in explicit examples. We evaluate every vacuum sector for $N\leq 9$. In the equal-fugacity expansion, the coefficients near charges $j\sim N^2$ show entropy growth of order $N^2$, and the sector sum does not cancel this growth. The finite-$N$ data also reveal a nontrivial sectoral organization: near $j=N^2$, the sector giving the largest contribution changes with $N$, from single-partition sectors at small rank to double-partition sectors starting at $N=5$. We call this phenomenon dominance switching. These results provide a quantitative finite-$N$ foundation for using the BMN index as a diagnostic of protected plane-wave black-hole microstates and suggest a bulk interpretation in terms of plane-wave black holes dressed by macroscopic M2 giant gravitons, analogous to dual dressed black holes in $AdS_5\times S^5$.

We present a dynamical systems approach to black hole thermodynamic criticality based on bifurcation equations. We construct an effective thermodynamic landscape in which black holes relax toward equilibrium fixed points. To describe this process, we introduce a flow parameter $τ$, interpreted as a phenomenological relaxation time, which governs the approach toward equilibrium configurations in thermodynamic state space. Near critical points, the thermodynamic flow simplifies into universal mathematical forms, which allows different black holes to be grouped into different universality classes based on their critical behaviour. Our analysis further shows critical slowing down, with relaxation timescales determined entirely by the local bifurcation structure.

We study how bulk propagation in global AdS$_3$ is encoded in boundary energy densities of the dual CFT$_2$ on the cylinder. A key feature of the global geometry, which is absent in the Poincaré-patch description, is that a null excitation emitted from the boundary reaches the antipodal boundary point after $Δτ=π$ and returns to the original boundary point after $Δτ=2π$. We show that this periodic boundary-to-boundary propagation is reflected in the CFT energy density as chiral peaks that meet at the antipodal point and reappear after one global period. For a wave-packet state, the leading energy density consists of two chiral peaks moving along the boundary light-cone directions; their relative weights encode the impact parameter of the corresponding bulk null ray. For a state prepared by a heavy operator with Euclidean regulator, the exact cylinder stress tensor gives two periodic chiral pulses moving along the boundary light-cone directions. These pulses reach the antipodal point and return to the original point at the same global times as the radial null geodesic in the bulk. Thus the boundary energy density captures the boundary-to-boundary propagation and periodicity of localized bulk excitations in global AdS$_3$.

The logarithm of the time-evolution operator has been termed Magnusian, on account of the fact that its expansion describes the Magnus series. The diagrammatic expansion and computation of the classical Magnusian has been completely established in terms of tree graphs and their Hopf algebra. Recent works initiated extensions into quantum field theory, revealing general structures of loop expansions while finding intriguing relations between different diagrams. In this work, we advance the loop expansion further by providing an efficient diagrammatic algorithm to calculate the weight factor of each graph in the quantum Magnusian, known as the Murua coefficient. This is achieved by incorporating two complementary perspectives on the Magnusian at the same time: the color basis and the black-and-white basis. We extract the Murua coefficients from the Magnus series by utilizing these two bases while implementing an exponentiated Wick contraction. In turn, we identify the loop-level extension of Murua's recursive formula. Eventually, we establish a set of edge contraction rules which facilitate a direct recursive computation of the Murua coefficients at the purely diagrammatic level, without referencing or directly manipulating the underlying Magnus expansion. This shows that the matrix elements of the quantum Magnusian can be computed from graph manipulations alone.

We study classical energy-condition admissibility for subluminal, positive-energy warp shells. For the constructions examined here, the energy-condition failures are localized at the smooth source--vacuum transition rather than in the bulk interior. We introduce two \emph{source-first} shell ans"atze whose metric potentials are obtained from the Einstein constraints for a prescribed matter model: a shift-free S-shell and a T-shell whose shift is derived from the momentum constraint. We assess them with a five-criterion standard comprising regularity, constraint satisfaction, an explicit matter model, frame-independent energy-condition margins, and global diagnostics; the standard responds to the source-consistency critique of Barzegar, Buchert, and Vigneron. Applied to eight constructions spanning the canonical warp-drive classes, none passes the full standard. An independent frame-independent verification of the Fuchs constant-velocity shell confirms interior energy-condition compliance (0 of 13 interior probes violate) but reveals Hawking--Ellis Type~IV violations in the smoothing tail beyond the nominal shell. A frame-independent scan over shell compactness and thickness (600 configurations) yields no admissible configuration in either source-first class. The same boundary deficit appears in the shift-free S-shell and persists in the static $v_0=0$ limit, which ties it to the transition geometry rather than to the shift. Along a representative off-axis null ray the null-energy line integral is nevertheless positive for every source-prescribed shell; this is an exploratory diagnostic rather than a proof of the averaged null energy condition, but it shows that the pointwise boundary failures need not appear in that integral.

The search for non-baryonic dark matter remains a key focus in modern physics, with the light pseudoscalar axion serving as a well-motivated candidate. Here, we present a laboratory-scale detection scheme to constrain axion-nucleon interactions using a levitated optomechanical sensor, complementing conventional spin-precession and inverse-square-law tests. By monitoring a micro-spherical test mass levitated near alternative aluminum and silver substrate mirrors, our dual-channel differential readout extracts the spin-independent force gradient generated by two-axion exchange. This approach translates the short-range interaction directly into a resolvable splitting in the optical transmission peaks. Our evaluation indicates that for symmetric nucleon coupling , the dual-cavity platform establishes competitive upper bounds, improving upon existing constraints by up to two orders of magnitude within the $m_{a}$ in [0.1, 1]eV mass range.

We extend the celestial Roiban-Spradlin-Volovich-Witten (RSVW) formalism developed in our previous work to minitwistor superspace. Using the Drummond-Henn formula for all tree-level amplitudes in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory, we construct tree-level N^k-MHV celestial leaf amplitudes and show that their minitwistor-Fourier transforms are given by integrals over moduli spaces of families of minitwistor lines. We also adapt the Korchemsky-Sokatchev twistor-transform techniques for gluon amplitudes to the minitwistor-Fourier transforms of leaf amplitudes. We then describe two dynamical formulations of these celestial amplitudes. First, we show that semiclassical correlators of Wilson operators supported on algebraic cycles in minitwistor superspace act as generating functionals for tree-level N^k-MHV leaf-gluon amplitudes. Second, we analyse a semiclassical minitwistor sigma model, identify its vertex operators, and construct from them celestial gluon operators that close on the S-algebra in the semiclassical approximation; their leading-trace semiclassical correlators again reproduce the tree-level N^k-MHV leaf amplitudes. A companion paper extends this construction beyond tree level, in particular to one-loop amplitudes via a celestial version of the Brandhuber-Spence-Travaglini formalism.

The goal of this work is apply field theory methods to discuss turbulence in relativistic real fluids. We shalltake as representtive model an Israel-Stewart framework, where the conservation laws for the energy-momentum tensor are supplemented by a Cattaneo-Maxwell equation for its viscous part, which relaxes to its Landau-Lifshitz value. We assume the parameters of the model scale with the peed of light $c$ in such a way that as $c\to\infty$ the fluid becomes an incompressible fluid obeying the Navier-Stokes equations. We find that for finite $c$ each mode of the fluid behaves as an overdamped oscillator with two decaying rates, one that converges to the K41 value and another that diverges when $c\to\infty$. There are therefore two basic flow patterns, one where the fast decaying modes are absent, and which repreduces Kolmogorov turbulence, and another made only of fast decaying modes. We point out the scaling relations that allow the latter flow pattern to sustain an entropy cascade.

We present a microscopic statistical-mechanical foundation for interpreting the horizon area of a scrambling black hole as coherent information, equivalently negative conditional quantum entropy, in Hawking's pair-creation picture. We derive the entropy increase induced in a black hole when an infalling object is absorbed and scrambled into its microscopic degrees of freedom. Up to finite-reservoir corrections, this increase takes a canonical form at the Hawking temperature, regardless of the entropy carried by the infalling object. Applying this entropy formula to an incoming mode paired by time reversal with an outgoing Hawking radiation mode, we show that their partition-function contributions cancel in the coherent-information balance associated with the horizon area. The resulting area response is then determined only by the energy flux, in agreement with the black-hole first law.

We investigate the quark sector of a four-Higgs-doublet model with an exact D_5 symmetry. In the framework of explicit CP violation, we considered the most general real vacuum, derived the quark mass matrices, and performed a numerical fit to the quark masses and the CKM mixing matrix at the scale mu = 1 TeV using a differential evolution algorithm, based on the 2024 PDG experimental data.The results show that the model simultaneously fits the quark mass spectrum and the CKM mixing angles with an excellent overall chi^2 = 6.97, accurately reproducing the six-quark mass hierarchy and perfectly matching the nine squared moduli of the CKM matrix. The resulting Jarlskog invariant J_CP = 3.144 \times 10^{-5} agrees with the experimental value 3.12 \times 10^{-5} within 0.19σ, indicating that the new source of CP violation from the complex phases in the quark Yukawa couplings alone is sufficient to generate the observed CP violation. Moreover, the hierarchical structures of the vacuum expectation values and the quark Yukawa couplings naturally explain the observed quark mass hierarchy through their interplay.

In this work, first we discuss the connections between various low-dimensional quantum gravity models, including 3d Chern-Simons, 2d JT and 2d BF theory, 2d Liouville and 2d WZW, and 1d Schwarzian through holography and dimension reduction, and discuss some universalities in their partition functions. Then, we specifically examine the JT partition function and the newly found partition function of $\mathcal{N}=(2,2)$ on $S^2$ and $\text{AdS}_2$ and discuss their similarities and therefore examine our proposed universalities further. We change the parameters in each model and based on the change in the structure of the partition function, strengthen our conjectures. We also use eigenfunctions, spectra and the behaviors of Wheeler-DeWitt wavefunctions to generate more universalities between these low-dimensional quantum gravity models, specifically in their partition functions. Then, we use entanglement entropy, complexity and RG flows, particularly in the context of wormholes, to find more universalities in quantum gravity models. Finally, we use the new results about the connections between wormholes and defects to discuss our universalities further.

In this work, we investigate the thermodynamic properties, Hawking-radiation sparsity, and greybody-factor bounds of a hairy Kiselev black hole surrounded by a quintessential fluid. The spacetime geometry contains, in addition to the Schwarzschild mass term, a quintessence contribution controlled by the intensity parameter $N$ and the state parameter $ω_q$, an exponential hair correction governed by the coupling $α$ and the primary hair scale $\ell$, and a cosmological constant $Λ$. We first examined the horizon structure and derived the black hole mass from the horizon condition. The Hawking temperature, heat capacity, and Gibbs free energy were then analyzed in order to identify the influence of the hair and surrounding-field parameters on local and global thermodynamic behavior. The results show that the exponential hair mainly affects the small-horizon regime, while the quintessential sector and the cosmological constant produce significant changes in the large-scale behavior of the black hole. In particular, the heat capacity exhibits divergences associated with second-order phase transitions, and the Gibbs free energy reveals the possibility of competing thermodynamic branches. We also analyzed the sparsity of Hawking radiation and showed that the emitted flux is highly intermittent rather than continuous. The sparsity parameter is controlled by the combination of the Hawking temperature, the effective emitting area, and the greybody factors. Finally, we studied massless scalar perturbations in this background by reducing the Klein-Gordon equation to a radial equation with an effective potential.

We study the real-time quantum dynamics of Q-balls in the Friedberg-Lee-Sirlin model within the inhomogeneous Hartree approximation. The mean fields are evolved self-consistently with the leading quantum two-point functions, which are implemented numerically through a stochastic ensemble representation. After introducing a renormalized formulation and a classical-limit scaling, we simulate single-Q-ball configurations in $3+1$ dimensions and compare their quantum-corrected evolution with the corresponding classical dynamics. We find a clear separation between a classical regime, where quantum fluctuations remain small and the evolution closely follows the classical solution, and a quantum regime, where the fluctuation sector carries a sizable fraction of the Noether charge. We also observe a periodic exchange of Noether charge between the mean fields and the fluctuation modes within the Hartree approximation. We further investigate the stability of quantum-corrected Q-balls and find an intermediate window in which configurations that are classically stable become unstable once Hartree fluctuations are included. Our results provide a first step toward real-time quantum simulations of Q-balls in renormalizable two-field soliton models.

We argue that the SYK model provides a conditional realization of Cryptographic Censorship in JT gravity. By using the Weingarten calculus and random matrix universality, we prove that the SYK disorder ensemble is an approximate unitary $k$-design for all $k=\poly(N)$, with deviation controlled by the spectral form factor. We then formulate the planted-SYK hardness conjecture and provide evidence from spectral universality and the low-degree polynomial framework. Under this conjecture, the approximate design becomes a gravitationally pseudorandom unitary. Together with the efficient causal wedge reconstruction in JT gravity, this leads to the conclusion that typical states in the SYK microcanonical window must have event horizons in their bulk duals, with the horizonless fraction doubly exponentially small. We further identify the regularized geodesic length of the maximal interior slice as the explicit distinguishing operator. Its prediction gap grows linearly with time due to the stretching of the black hole interior, linking Cryptographic Censorship to the complexity equals volume conjecture.

Decays of Z bosons to four charged leptons (electrons and muons) are studied in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 and 13 TeV. The analysis is based on data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb$^{-1}$ at 8 TeV and 138 fb$^{-1}$ at 13 TeV. The measured value of the inclusive branching fraction for all four-lepton decay modes, $\mathcal{B}$(Z $\to$ 4$\ell$), is [4.67 $\pm$ 0.11 (stat) $\pm$ 0.10 (syst)] $\times$ 10$^{-6}$, which has a precision of about 3% limited by both statistical and systematic uncertainties. Measurements of the individual branching fractions for the decays Z $\to$ 4$μ$, Z $\to$ 4e, and Z $\to$ 2$μ$2e are also reported. Differential decay rates are presented as functions of kinematic and angular quantities in the Z boson rest frame. Measurements of triple-product asymmetries, which are sensitive to possible violations of charge conjugation and parity invariance, are performed for Z $\to$ 4$\ell$ decays. The results are compared with standard model predictions and used to set limits on the production of new gauge bosons.

An inclusive search is presented for spin-zero bosons decaying to $ττ$ in a previously unexplored mass range between 20 and 60 GeV using proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13.6 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 61.9 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by CMS in 2022$-$2023. A high-rate trigger stream in combination with a novel low-momentum hadronic tau reconstruction algorithm have enabled a measurement of the $Υ$(1S,2S,3S) $\to$ $τ^+τ^-$ process in the challenging environment of a hadron collider, with a 5.8$σ$ significance above background and production cross section of 3.5 $\pm$ 0.7 (stat) $\pm$ 0.7 (syst) nb for visible rapidity $\lvert y_{\text{vis}}\rvert$ $\lt$ 1.2 and visible transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}^\text{vis}$ $\gt$ 15 GeV. No significant excess above the standard model background is observed. Upper limits on the product of the spin-zero resonance production cross section and branching fraction to $ττ$ are set at 95% confidence level between 40 and 400 pb.

We investigate the particle motion around a Schwarzschild black hole immersed in a swirling Bertotti-Robinson-Bonnor-Melvin background. This spacetime provides a physically well-motivated framework for studying how the two different electromagnetic components and the swirling deformation affect particle dynamics near compact objects. By employing Poincaré sections, the maximum Lyapunov exponent, the Fast Lyapunov indicator, recurrence analysis and bifurcation diagrams, we show that chaotic motion can already appear in the non-swirling Schwarzschild-Bertotti-Robinson black hole. This indicates that the swirling background is not a necessary condition for chaos in this family of spacetimes, it mainly shifts the parameter region where chaos occurs. We further find that the effects of the two electromagnetic fields are very complicated. In particular, the existence of bound orbits is strongly restricted by the strengths of the two electromagnetic fields and their relative direction. These results provide rich numerical evidence that the chaotic motion of particles is associated with the nonlinear interaction between the accessible phase space, the electromagnetic backreaction and the swirling deformation.

We investigate the field-theoretic realization of regular black holes sourced by dark matter halo profiles within nonlinear electrodynamics (NED) minimally coupled to gravity. Starting from a static, spherically symmetric geometry determined by a halo density profile $ρ(r)$, we reconstruct the associated mass function and derive the effective matter source supporting the spacetime. In the magnetic sector, the reconstruction is direct and yields a NED Lagrangian of the form $L(F)=-ρ(r(F))$, while in the electric sector the theory is obtained parametrically through the field equations. We analyze the admissibility and consistency of the reconstructed models by studying regularity at the origin, asymptotic behavior, and the relevant energy conditions. The formalism is applied to representative halo profiles, including the Einasto, Dehnen, Burkert, and pseudo-isothermal families. For halo distributions with finite central density, the resulting geometries naturally exhibit de Sitter cores and asymptotically Schwarzschild behavior, providing a controlled and physically transparent link between dark matter halo phenomenology and regular black-hole spacetimes. Our results show that a broad class of halo profiles admits an effective NED completion, offering a unified geometric and field-theoretic interpretation of regular black holes sourced by dark matter halos.

The traditional conjecture that RR-flux is quantized in stable K-cohomology fails to account for the presence of NS-brane sources: These impose nonlinear relations -- reductions of the famous quadratic relation on M-brane flux -- that can only be captured by unstable nonabelian cohomology theories. Here we consider a deformation of unstable K-theory which properly quantizes the fluxes coupling to D0/D2/NS5-branes, find a twisted version that quantizes also the fluxes coupling to NS1/D4-branes, and show that this oxidizes to a proper electromagnetic quantization of M-brane fluxes.

Electroweak symmetry breaking may arise from emergent nonlocal Källèn-Lehmann spectral densities in Hamiltonians with multiscalar interactions. The nonlocality scale $Λ_{NL}$ emerges naturally from the exponentially increasing degeneracy of mass eigenstates in the Higgs two-point function at scales $p^2 \geq Λ^2_{NL}$. Following the renormalization of the nonlocal Higgs propagator, we provide a framework for deriving analytic expressions for non-perturbative scattering amplitudes. We demonstrate that for energies exceeding the nonlocality scale, scattering amplitudes are exponentially suppressed. Furthermore, the real part of the Higgs self-energy is suppressed at deep spacelike momenta ($p^2 \sim -Λ^2_{NL}$), offering a solution to the Hierarchy problem. Such nonlocal scalar sectors are accessible to current and future LHC runs. We argue that the nonlocal Källèn-Lehmann spectral density can be constrained through a simultaneous global fit of LHC measurements in exclusive channels, including di-Higgs, electroweak di-boson, and di-photon production. This approach represents a paradigm shift in the search for new physics at high-energy colliders.

We investigate the renormalization group (RG) domain walls interpolating between the $\mathbb{Z}_N$ parafermion theory (the critical $N$-state Potts model) and the Virasoro minimal model $\mathcal{M}_{N+1}$. These flows are genuinely non-perturbative and an explicit construction of Gaiotto type RG domain wall remains elusive. We bypass this limitation by employing a bottom-up approach centered on the emergence of ``phantom currents". By tracking the preserved non-invertible symmetries ($\mathfrak{so}(3)_N$) along the flow, we extract the exact spectrum of these currents localized on the defect. We demonstrate that the presence of a spin-1 phantom current allows the interface to be marginally deformed, dynamically generating a continuous defect conformal manifold. Furthermore, we show that an extra spin-2 operator, crucially as a $W^{(3)}$-algebra descendant of the spin-1 phantom current, rigidly constrains the UV-IR stress tensor mixing via the cluster decomposition principle. This algebraic framework enables the exact computation of the parameter-dependent transmission rate across the conformal manifold, which we observe strictly vanishes in the large-$N$ limit as a consequence of macroscopic target space collapse.

The physical origin of spacetime discreteness remains a central open problem in quantum gravity, with most existing approaches relying on specific microscopic structures or model-dependent assumptions. In this letter, spacetime discreteness can arise instead as a consequence of consistent microscopic measurement. By treating infinitesimal spacetime intervals as scale-dependent measurement outcomes rather than predefined geometric entities, we formulate a Micro-Measurement Principle in which spacetime quantum fluctuations are encoded directly in the scaling structure. An equivalent dual representation of microscopic lengths leads to discrete, equidistant measurement outcomes, with the corresponding scaling-deformed uncertainty relation thereby reducing to the standard Heisenberg form. The microscopic lengths are further governed by a geometric renormalization-group flow admitting finite-length fixed points. This construction preserves Lorentz invariance and general covariance without ad hoc cutoffs or symmetry breaking. Our results show that the classical continuous-spacetime description corresponds to an unstable limiting regime, whereas a finite microscopic length and a discrete spacetime structure arise naturally from the fundamental requirements of micro-measurement consistency.

Standard calculations of cosmological first-order phase transitions usually assume critical bubbles to nucleate on a homogeneous symmetric vacuum background. However, this assumption can fail in weak transitions, where thermal fluctuations trigger subcritical bubbles before the standard nucleation temperature $T_n$. Motivated by this possibility, we systematically examine whether the homogeneous nucleation background approximation is self-consistent. By evolving the Gelmini-Gleiser subcritical bubble kinetics and comparing it with the standard critical bubble nucleation picture, we identify the parameter regions in which the background becomes apparently mixed. A detailed scan of these regions shows that sizable subcritical volume fractions arise when the two phases are nearly degenerate at $T_n$, the potential barrier is low, the difference of free energy between the symmetric and broken phases is moderate and the transition strength is weak. Our analysis further yields a simple criterion, $\log_{10}\hat f_ξ(T_n)\simeq -1.95$, for a percent level subcritical bubble volume fraction. Parameter points above this boundary should be treated as mixed background candidates rather than as ordinary homogeneous bounce points.

We develop a spectral framework for fermion mass hierarchies based on the exceptional Jordan algebra $J_3(\mathbb{O}_{\mathbb{C}})$. Starting from the octonionic realization of one Standard Model generation in $\mathbb{C}\otimes\mathbb{O}$, we embed the resulting three-generation structure into Hermitian Jordan elements whose eigenvalues define intrinsic spectral invariants. The ordered spectral scales generate cubic ladder structures in the symmetric representation $\mathrm{Sym}^3(\mathbf{3})$, and consistency of multiplicative hierarchy composition naturally leads to power-law relations between fermion masses and spectral scales. The construction should be viewed as a phenomenological spectral deformation of the rigid exceptional-Jordan framework discussed below: we retain the same cubic-ladder, minimal-chain, and Dynkin-reflection structure, but promote the relative normalization, hierarchy exponent, and charged-lepton octonionic phase to fitted spectral moduli. A global logarithmic fit to six charged-fermion mass ratios at $μ=M_Z$ lowers the unpenalized log-residual relative to the rigid point, mainly through the top-to-charm ratio, while the individual ratios are not uniformly improved. The best-fit hierarchy exponent remains close to the square-root scaling regime, $p\simeq1$. In the neutrino sector, the framework accommodates both normal and inverted ordering while remaining consistent with oscillation data and current cosmological bounds on the total neutrino mass. Thus, the proposal is an effective spectral organization of fermion hierarchies, not a parameter-free replacement for the broader rigid construction discussed below.

We present the first realization of multicritical points in four-dimensional general relativity, specifically within the context of Plebański nonlinear electrodynamics, using a polynomial structural function denoted as $\mathcal{H}(P)$. We show that this construction provides a systematic mechanism to engineer multicritical behavior in gravitational systems. By establishing an explicit mapping between matter theories expressed as power series in the Maxwell invariant $F$ and the Plebański formulation, we construct new families of electrically charged asymptotically anti-de Sitter black holes and magnetically charged solitons. In the grand-canonical ensemble, we analyze their thermodynamic properties and uncover a rich phase structure. We demonstrate that the soliton sector develops multiple swallowtail structures, signaling first-order phase transitions and allowing the coexistence of several magnetically charged solitons with a single electrically charged black hole. These configurations define multicritical points that generalize previously known triple points. We further show that the number of coexisting phases is controlled by the degree of the polynomial structural function, providing a direct link between the nonlinear electrodynamics couplings and the thermodynamic phase structure. In contrast, the black hole branch does not display swallowtail behavior, and it does not allow multiple electrically charged black holes to coexist with a magnetically charged soliton.

We investigate the rate at which chiral fermion localisation is lost when two domain walls merge in extra-dimensional braneworld scenarios, using the $(1+1)$-dimensional Jackiw-Rebbi framework as a controlled analytical laboratory. As the inter-brane separation $d$ decreases, left- and right-handed zero modes hybridise and chiral asymmetry is progressively lost. We show that the spatial separation between the chiral zero modes follows a universal power law $|Δ_{\mathrm{abs}}|\propto d^γ$ in the merging limit $d\to 0^{+}$, with the critical exponent $γ$ determined solely by the Jackiw-Rebbi topological index $N_{\mathrm{JR}}$, and independent of the fermionic mass gap, the integrability of the scalar sector, and the detailed shape of the domain wall profile. Comparing the integrable sine-Gordon model with four members of the non-integrable double sine-Gordon family, all sharing $N_{\mathrm{JR}}=1$, we find $γ\in[0.930,0.985]$. For the sine-Gordon model we derive the closed-form overlap integral $I(d)=2d/\sinh(2d)$, from which the exact chiral separation follows as a ratio of hyperbolic functions without free parameters. This result identifies $γ$ as the crossover plateau of a local effective exponent $γ_{\mathrm{eff}}(d)$, explaining the sub-unit value analytically and tracing the universality to the Pöschl-Teller structure of the $N_{\mathrm{JR}}=1$ zero mode. The universality of $γ$ implies that the rate of four-dimensional Yukawa coupling collapse during brane merging is a topological invariant, insensitive to the microscopic scalar dynamics generating the walls.

Current and next-generation particle tracking detectors will incorporate precision timing capabilities with resolutions approaching tens of picoseconds. Using Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) simulations of Low-Gain Avalanche Diode (LGAD) detectors, we demonstrate that oblique particle incidence induces systematic timing variations of hundreds of picoseconds across multiple pixels. We derive an analytical linear model relating inter-pixel timing differences to incident track angles, enabling single-layer angular reconstruction with few-degree precision. Stochastic energy loss fluctuations (Landau fluctuations) impose fundamental limits on both angular resolution and reconstruction efficiency. Comparison with neural network approaches demonstrates that the linear model achieves near-optimal angular resolution, indicating that the physics of charge collection geometry, rather than algorithmic sophistication, dominates the achievable performance.

Active feedback between geometry and physics is woven throughout the study of Nature at its fundamental level, and is of key importance in string theory. Methods of complex algebraic geometry in particular have brought about an unrivaled abundance of solutions, counted well into hundreds of orders of magnitude, reciprocated by the discovery of the wholly unexpected mirror symmetry. However, recent developments demonstrate that there are rich additional possibilities, made possible by certain generalizations that, at first glance, appear to be non-algebraic. Nevertheless, they are remarkably well-aligned within an overall mirror-symmetric framework, are amenable to almost as comprehensive quantitative analysis, and hint at a deeper relationship with symplectic geometry.

The recent measurement of the branching ratio of $B^+ \to K^+ + \mathrm{inv}$ (where "inv" denotes invisible states) by the Belle~II collaboration is enhanced relative to the standard model expectation by 2.7$σ$. An older puzzle persists in measurements of the branching ratios and CP asymmetries of $B \to πK $ decays. We address these two anomalies in flavor-changing neutral current $B$ decays, with a short-lived axion-like particle (ALP) with mass close to that of the $π^0$. In the minimal model, the ALP has couplings to the photon, top quark and a heavy sterile neutrino $ν_N$. The ALP contributes to the $B \to π^0 K$ decays by mixing with the $π^0$. It contributes to $B^+ \to K^+ + \mathrm{inv}$ by its off-shell coupling to sterile neutrino pairs. We make predictions for all $B \to K^{(*)} + \mathrm{inv}$ modes and for the rare kaon decays $K^+ \to π^+ + \mathrm{inv}$ and $K_L \to π^0 + \mathrm{inv}$. We find an appreciable contribution to the magnetic moment of the muon, and negligible contributions to the magnetic moment of the electron and $b \to s e^+ e^-$.

We observe a remarkable mathematical structure in the gap equations of the large-$N$ Gross--Neveu model at imaginary chemical potential in odd spacetime dimensions $d = 4k+3$. We show they can be written as the sum of two parts: one defined by higher-order discrete Laplacian patterns and a cut-off dependent part given by truncated asymptotic expansion of a hypergeometric function. We argue that this picture corresponds to a deeper relationship between thermal field theories in these odd $d$ and exactly-solvable one-dimensional quantum problems. We find that the thermal mass at specific imaginary chemical potential values is fixed where internal energy balances entropic states of thermal modes which is physically equivalent with OPE inversion formula techniques where thermal mass values arise from transcendental sets of equations.

We consider the ODE/IM correspondence for the value $c=-2$ of the Virasoro central charge (free-fermion point) and the associated quantum KdV model $-$ the quantization of the second hamiltonian structure of the classical periodic KdV model. We prove that the ODE/IM correspondence is complete (in the sense of V. Bazhanov, S. Lukyanov, and A. Zamolodchikov), namely that any solution of the Bethe equations coincides with the spectrum of a rational extension of the (quantum) harmonic oscillator. To this end, on the ODE side we consider Crum$-$Darboux transformations of the harmonic oscillator and the associated Laguerre Wronskians, which are remarkable special functions parametrized by pairs of partitions which we study in depth. As a further result, on the IM side, we diagonalize explicitly the first three hamiltonian operators of quantum KdV (in the free field representation): the eigenstates are Schur functions and the eigenvalues are shifted symmetric functions on partitions. We give two applications of this result: i) we prove that the eigenvalues are given by the evaluation of the Newton symmetric polynomials at the poles of the associated monster potentials, as further conjectured by V. Bazhanov, S. Lukyanov, and A. Zamolodchikov; ii) we show that these hamiltonian operators also belong to the algebra of hamiltonian operators obtained by quantizing the first hamiltonian structure of the classical periodic dispersionless KdV model.

We complete a trilogy on quantum graviton scattering in the null surface formulation (NSF) of general relativity by computing the fourth-order Bondi shear $σ^+_4$ and establishing three results of general scope. The perturbative $S$-matrix of the NSF is UV-finite at every loop order. This follows from the kernel scaling $K^{(n)}\simω_{\mathrm{ext}}/q^{n-2}$, which we derive by induction on the recursive null-cone scattering equation; the $L$-loop integrand then scales as $dq/q^{4L}$, which is convergent for all $L\geq 1$ without regularization. We show that a simple loop-counting formula, $L=(n_1+n_2-6)/2$, classifies the topologically distinct contributions to $2\to 2$ graviton scattering by the perturbative orders $n_1$, $n_2$ of the out-operators. Tree level ($L=0$) is exhausted by $\mathcal{M}^{(22)}$, $\mathcal{M}^{(33)}$, and $\mathcal{M}^{(24)}$, which together reproduce the Weinberg--DeWitt amplitude $\mathcal{M}_{\mathrm{tree}}=-κ^2s^3/(4tu)$. The complete 1-loop amplitude requires, in addition to $σ^+_4$, the fields $σ^+_5$ and $σ^+_6$. At order $n\geq 4$ the standard Jordan--Pauli argument, which equates the advanced and retarded null-cone contributions, must be extended. The advanced cone receives additional contributions from $δσ^+_j$ ($j<n$), the nontrivial scattering corrections determined at previous orders. We formulate this as a generalized Jordan--Pauli relation that provides a systematic, order-by-order procedure for computing $σ^+_n$ from the free incoming datum $σ^-$. The computation of $σ^+_4$ uses three retarded-cone pairs, the conformal factor $δΩ^-_4$, and -- for the first time -- advanced-cone corrections from pairs $(1,3)$ and $(2,2)$ built from the known $σ^+_2$ and $σ^+_3$

This study investigates the evaporation process of a Schwarzschild black hole, incorporating quantum corrections arising from conformal anomaly and vacuum polarization. We demonstrate that these corrections significantly alter the Hawking radiation and the black hole's thermodynamic behavior. Specifically, the black hole exhibits a maximum temperature, after which the radiation begins to decrease, eventually leading to the cessation of Hawking radiation. The final state of the black hole at the end of the evaporation process is found to be an extremal remnant with a vanishing Hawking temperature. Furthermore, we show that the black hole entropy is modified, acquiring a logarithmic correction. Hawking radiation is also examined through the lens of the tunneling method, providing a consistent picture of these quantum effects.

The freeze-in mechanism for dark matter (DM) requires extremely feeble interactions with the Standard Model (SM), preventing thermal equilibrium in the early Universe and typically evading experimental detection. However, for sufficiently low reheating temperatures ($T_{\rm RH}$), the observed relic abundance can be realized with larger couplings, opening prospects for experimental searches. In this work, we investigate freeze-in production of $SU(2)_{\rm HS}$ vector dark matter (VDM) in a low-$T_{\rm RH}$ cosmology. The framework naturally contains three mass-degenerate stable VDM candidates without the need for any additional discrete symmetry. We perform a systematic study of the dark matter phenomenology and identify the parameter space consistent with the observed relic abundance. In contrast to conventional freeze-in scenarios, the required DM couplings can be sizable, rendering part of the parameter space already constrained by existing direct searches like PandaX-4T and LZ, while a significant region remains within the reach of future experiments such as DARWIN. Though one can realize the freeze-in mechanism for an abelian $U(1)_X$ vector DM models as well, we find that the non-abelian structure of the $SU(2)_{\rm HS}$ scenario leads to a distinct feature due to a larger number of dark matter particles, resulting in an enlarged viable parameter space due to the multiplicity of dark matter states.

Neutrinoless double-beta decay (\(0νββ\)) is a sensitive probe of lepton-number violation and the Majorana nature of neutrinos. In xenon-based experiments, the expected signal rate inside the region of interest (ROI) is extremely small, requiring sensitivity estimates based on Poisson statistics and a careful treatment of detector resolution, background fluctuations, and systematic uncertainties. In this work, we develop a statistical framework relating energy resolution, ROI width, background index, isotope exposure, and discovery sensitivity for \(^{136}\)Xe-based \(0νββ\) experiments. The formalism combines Poisson likelihood methods with realistic background modeling and includes reconstruction-related and final-state interaction (FSI) systematic effects through an effective ROI broadening approach. Using representative detector parameters for LZ, NEXT-100, KamLAND-Zen, and nEXO, we compare expected background counts, required discovery signal statistics, and half-life sensitivities at matched exposure. The corresponding sensitivities are translated into effective Majorana mass reach within both normal- and inverted-hierarchy neutrino mass ordering. The impact of uncertainties associated with the axial-vector coupling constant \(g_A\), nuclear matrix elements, and phase-space factors is also examined. Our results show that background suppression, ROI optimization, and control of detector-related systematics are essential for extending sensitivity toward the normal-ordering regime in future \(0νββ\) searches.

We examine discovery criteria at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) within a model-independent framework, with particular emphasis on the statistical signatures of new physics. This study is motivated by the recent shift from model-specific searches based on a small number of distributions to broad, model-agnostic strategies, which offer substantially greater sensitivity to unexpected phenomena. We revisit the well-known criterion of a local statistical significance of $5\,σ$ for the observation of new phenomena in invariant-mass distributions and discuss how this threshold should be modified to account for look-elsewhere effects arising not only from multiple bins within a given distribution, but also from the simultaneous consideration of multiple distributions. We present a simple but statistically conservative relation between local and global significances in the presence of multiple invariant-mass distributions at the LHC, which can serve as a useful first approximation for planning future measurements.

A review of recent results in flavour physics at the ATLAS and CMS experiments is presented. These include measurements of quarkonia and charm production cross sections, the B0 lifetime, and the mass splittings between excited and ground B meson states. Results targeting the characterisation of all-charm tetraquarks are also discussed. Finally, studies of rare heavy-flavour decays are reported. The various analyses exploit Run 2 and partial Run 3 LHC data and contribute to pushing the precision frontier in flavour physics.

We investigate the multipole structure of the nucleon tensor form factors within the chiral quark-soliton model based on the $1/N_c$ expansion. Extending the previous leading-order analysis~\cite{Ghim:2025gqo}, we include the rotational $1/N_c$ corrections. These corrections provide the leading nonvanishing contributions to the flavor components that are absent at leading order, thereby completing the flavor decomposition of the tensor multipole form factors at the present order. We numerically evaluate the isoscalar tensor charge, the isovector anomalous tensor magnetic moment, and the isoscalar tensor quadrupole moment, obtaining $g_T^{u+d}=0.81$, $κ_T^{u-d}=1.97$, and $E_T^{u+d}(0)=5.98$, respectively. The isoscalar tensor charge and quadrupole moment are mainly governed by the valence-quark contribution, whereas the isovector anomalous tensor magnetic moment receives a sizable Dirac-sea contribution. We also examine the momentum-transfer dependence of the corresponding form factors. They decrease monotonically with increasing $-t$. In particular, the isovector anomalous tensor magnetic form factor shows a pronounced falloff in the small-$|t|$ region, reflecting the importance of the Dirac sea in the tensor dipole structure.

We develop a novel model utilizing the forward $K^*$ production reaction off the nucleon, $πN \to K^* MB$, induced by a high-momentum $π$ beam, as a tool to study low-lying $Y^*$ resonances below and just above the $\bar{K}N$ threshold. Because conventional $K^- p$ scattering experiments face difficulties in directly accessing this kinematic region, the proposed reaction offers a valuable complementary approach for $Y^*$ spectroscopy. The constructed model is based on the one-meson exchange mechanism, which is known to dominate forward-angle production at high energies, and the half-off-shell scattering amplitudes from the ANL-Osaka dynamical coupled-channels (DCC) models (Model~A and Model~B). We predict various observables, including differential cross sections and angular distributions. Our results demonstrate significant enhancements in the sub-threshold region of the invariant mass spectra. Notably, we show that overlapping resonances, such as a potential new $3/2^+$ $Σ$ state and the well-established $Σ(1385)3/2^+$, can constitute a single peak in the $πΛ$ mass spectrum, indicating that the existence of previously unconfirmed sub-threshold states cannot be ruled out by analyzing only the existing mass spectrum data. Furthermore, we find that angular distributions provide strong discriminatory power to disentangle such overlapping states through partial-wave interference effects, while the $t'$ and $φ_M^*$ dependencies provide crucial constraints on the high-energy production mechanisms.Our predictions for these highly sensitive observables can facilitate high-statistics measurements, which are accessible at modern hadron facilities such as J-PARC, to unravel the $S=-1$ $Y^*$ mass spectrum.

This work explores the non-relativistic quantum propagator $K(x,t)$ as a solution of the Schrödinger equation. We suppose that the propagator takes the form ${\rm exp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{i}}{\hbar}S+R\right)$, generalizing the usual WKB ansatz by allowing an additive exponent $R$ whose role as a measure of quantumness is investigated. Since $S$ is subject to the assumption that it is a solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, here we are further interested in the role of $R$ and its interpretation as a measure of quantumness. Several systems are studied as concrete examples to illustrate this approach. Furthermore, a proposal to generalize it for fields is put forward. This is tested for some simple systems. Finally, the possibilities to use this approach for the case of systems whose dynamics are controlled by the Hamiltonian constraint are analyzed.