Recently, it is found that the strong cosmic censorship (SCC) is violated in Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter (RNdS) black hole by a minimal coupled neutral massless scalar field at the linear perturbation level. For the Einstein-Maxwell-Scalar-Gauss-Bonnet theory, which is famous for the spontaneous scalarization phenomenon, there exists the scalar field coupled with the Gauss-Bonnet term. Whether the SCC of the RNdS black hole can be repaired by the nonminimal coupled scalar field perturbation at the linear level becomes an interesting question. In this paper, we first investigate the extendibility of the metric beyond the Cauchy horizon in the Einstein-Maxwell-Scalar-Gauss-Bonnet theory. Then, we examine the SCC of the RNdS black hole by calculating the quasinormal mode of the nonminimal coupled scalar field and find that the SCC can be recovered under some parameters.

We construct meronic black holes and solitons in the Einstein $SU(N)$-Yang-Mills theory in $D=4$ and $D=5$ dimensions. These analytical solutions are found by combining the generalized hedgehog ansatz with the Euler parametrization of the $SU(N)$ group from which the Yang-Mills equations are automatically satisfied for all values of $N$ while the Einstein equations can be solved analytically. We explicitly show the role that the color number $N$ plays in the black hole thermodynamics as well as in the gravitational spin from isospin effect. Two remarkable results of our analysis are that, first, meronic black holes can be distinguished by colored black holes by looking at the spin from isospin effect (which is absent in the latter but present in the former). Second, using the theory of nonembedded ansatz for $SU(N)$ together with the spin from isospin effect, one can build fields of arbitrary high spin out of scalar fields charged under the gauge group. Hence, one can analyze interacting higher spin fields in asymptotically flat space-times without “introducing by hand” higher spin fields. Our analysis also discloses an interesting difference between the spin from isospin effect in $D=4$ and in $D=5$.

Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker cosmology is examined from the point of view of gravitoelectromagnetism, in the approximation of spacetime regions small in comparison with the Hubble radius. The usual Lorentz gauge is not appropriate for this situation, while the Painlevé-Gullstrand gauge is rather natural. Several nontrivial features and differences with respect to “standard” asymptotically flat gravitoelectromagnetism are discussed.

Using the first three years of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), we use ratios of small-scale galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements around the same lens sample to constrain source redshift uncertainties, intrinsic alignments and other systematics or nuisance parameters of our model. Instead of using a simple geometric approach for the ratios as has been done in the past, we use the full modeling of the galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements, including the corresponding integration over the power spectrum and the contributions from intrinsic alignments and lens magnification. We perform extensive testing of the small-scale shear-ratio (SR) modeling by studying the impact of different effects such as the inclusion of baryonic physics, nonlinear biasing, halo occupation distribution descriptions and lens magnification, among others, and using realistic $N$-body simulations of the DES data. We validate the robustness of our constraints in the data by using two independent lens samples with different galaxy properties, and by deriving constraints using the corresponding large-scale ratios for which the modeling is simpler. The results applied to the DES Y3 data demonstrate how the ratios provide significant improvements in constraining power for several nuisance parameters in our model, especially on source redshift calibration and intrinsic alignments. For source redshifts, SR improves the constraints from the prior by up to 38% in some redshift bins. Such improvements, and especially the constraints it provides on intrinsic alignments, translate to tighter cosmological constraints when shear ratios are combined with cosmic shear and other 2pt functions. In particular, for the DES Y3 data, SR improves $S_8$ constraints from cosmic shear by up to 31%, and for the full combination of probes ($3\times 2\mathrm{pt}$) by up to 10%. The shear ratios presented in this work are used as an additional likelihood for cosmic shear, $2\times 2\mathrm{pt}$ and the full $3\times 2\mathrm{pt}$ in the fiducial DES Y3 cosmological analysis.

We present and characterize the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal measured using the first three years of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES Y3) covering $4132{\mathrm{deg}}^2$. These galaxy-galaxy measurements are used in the DES Y3 $3\times 2\mathrm{pt}$ cosmological analysis, which combines weak lensing and galaxy clustering information. We use two lens samples: a magnitude-limited sample and the redmagic sample, which span the redshift range $\sim 0.2–1$ with 10.7 and 2.6 M galaxies, respectively. For the source catalog, we use the metacalibration shape sample, consisting of $\simeq 100\mathrm{M}$ galaxies separated into four tomographic bins. Our galaxy-galaxy lensing estimator is the mean tangential shear, for which we obtain a total SNR of $\sim 148$ for maglim ($\sim 120$ for redmagic), and $\sim 67$ ($\sim 55$) after applying the scale cuts of $6\mathrm{Mpc}/h$. Thus we reach percent-level statistical precision, which requires that our modeling and systematic-error control be of comparable accuracy. The tangential shear model used in the $3\times 2\mathrm{pt}$ cosmological analysis includes lens magnification, a five-parameter intrinsic alignment model, marginalization over a point mass to remove information from small scales and a linear galaxy bias model validated with higher-order terms. We explore the impact of these choices on the tangential shear observable and study the significance of effects not included in our model, such as reduced shear, source magnification, and source clustering. We also test the robustness of our measurements to various observational and systematics effects, such as the impact of observing conditions, lens-source clustering, random-point subtraction, scale-dependent metacalibration responses, point spread function residuals, and B modes.

We quantitatively study how the primordial density fluctuations are imprinted on the anisotropy of the phase transition gravitational wave (PTGW). Generated long before recombination and free from Silk damping, the anisotropic PTGW might reveal the density perturbation seeded from inflation or alternatives. We find new behaviors of the PTGW anisotropy power spectrum. The PTGW anisotropy is stronger than the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background temperature at all scales, and the high-$\ell$ multiples are enhanced about 1 order due to the early integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. Furthermore, differences in primordial power spectra at small scales manifest themselves more significantly on the angular power spectrum of PTGW anisotropy compared to that of the cosmic microwave background. These properties might provide a novel clue to understanding the primordial density perturbation of our early Universe and thereby complete our understanding of inflation theory. Taking nanohertz PTGW from dark matter models as a typical example, we obtain amplitudes of PTGW anisotropy which are about 4 or 3 orders weaker than the isotropic PTGW energy spectra.

With several dozen binary black hole events detected by LIGO-Virgo to date and many more expected in the next few years, gravitational-wave astronomy is shifting from individual-event analyses to population studies. Using the GWTC-2 catalog, we perform a hierarchical Bayesian analysis that for the first time combines several state-of-the-art astrophysical formation models with a population of primordial black holes (PBHs) and constrains the fraction of a putative subpopulation of PBHs in the data. We find that this fraction depends significantly on the set of assumed astrophysical models. While a primordial population is statistically favored against certain competitive astrophysical channels, such as globular clusters and nuclear stellar clusters, a dominant contribution from the stable-mass-transfer isolated formation channel drastically reduces the need for PBHs, except for explaining the rate of mass-gap events like GW190521. The tantalizing possibility that black holes formed after inflation are contributing to LIGO-Virgo observations could only be verified by further reducing uncertainties in astrophysical and primordial formation models, and it may ultimately be confirmed by third-generation interferometers.

We present constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ using a combination of BICEP/Keck 2018 (BK18) and Planck PR4 data allowing us to fit for $r$ consistently with the six parameters of the $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ model. We discuss the sensitivity of constraints on $r$ to uncertainties in the $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ parameters as defined by the Planck data. In particular, we are able to derive a constraint on the reionization optical depth $\tau$ and thus propagate its uncertainty into the posterior distribution for $r$. While Planck sensitivity to $r$ is slightly lower than the current ground-based measurements, the combination of Planck with BK18 and baryon-acoustic-oscillation data yields results consistent with $r=0$ and tightens the constraint to $r<0.032$ at 95% confidence.

In this work, we study indirect photon signatures of leptophilic dark matter (DM) coming from Centaurus A (Cen A), where a DM density spike is believed to have survived to date contrary to the case of our galaxy. We consider a model where DM is a Majorana fermion which interacts with right-handed electrons via a scalar mediator. Assuming that the photons measured from the core of Cen A are coming from SM processes, we derive constraints on the average annihilation cross section which are 7 orders of magnitude stronger than the ones from measurements of the Galactic Center. Focusing on the allowed parameter space range, we calculate the flux of photons coming from the radiative DM-electron scattering in the active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets and the circular polarization asymmetry of these photons. We find that this flux is two orders of magnitude lower than the background but its circular polarization asymmetry can reach values close to 100%, indicating the need to experimentally exploit the high fraction of circular polarization in order to detect these interactions. Since the origin of the photons in the GeV-TeV range from Cen A is not completely clear and an exotic origin is compatible with the measurements as well, we also consider the scenario in which synchrotron radiation can only partially explain the photon flux and we fit the excess with signals coming from DM annihilation, finding a best fit for a DM candidate with a mass $m_{\tilde{\chi }}=123\mathrm{GeV}$ and a coupling $a_R=0.018$.

In this work, we use the coherent WaveBurst (cWB) pipeline enhanced with machine learning (ML) to search for binary black hole (BBH) mergers in the Advanced LIGO-Virgo strain data from the third observing run. We detect, with equivalent or higher significance, all gravitational-wave (GW) events previously reported by the standard cWB search for BBH mergers in the third GW Transient Catalog. The ML-enhanced cWB search identifies five additional GW candidate events from the catalog that were previously missed by the standard cWB search. Moreover, we identify three marginal candidate events not listed in third GW Transient Catalog. For simulated events distributed uniformly in a fiducial volume, we improve the sensitive hypervolume with respect to the standard cWB search by approximately 28% and 34% for the stellar-mass and intermediate mass black hole binary mergers respectively, detected with a false-alarm rate less than $1/100{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$. We show the robustness of the ML-enhanced search for detection of generic BBH signals by reporting increased sensitivity to the spin-precessing and eccentric BBH events as compared to the standard cWB search. Furthermore, we compare the improvement of the ML-enhanced cWB search for different detector networks.

The next Galactic core-collapse supernova (SN) should yield a large number of observed neutrinos. Using Bayesian techniques, we show that with a SN at a known distance up to 25 kpc, the neutrino events in a water Cherenkov detector similar to Super-Kamiokande (SK) could be used to distinguish between seven one-dimensional neutrino emission models assuming no flavor oscillations or the standard Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect. Some of these models could still be differentiated with a SN at a known distance of 50 kpc. We also consider just the relative distributions of neutrino energy and arrival time predicted by the models and find that a detector like SK meets the requirement to distinguish between these distributions with a SN at an unknown distance up to $\sim 10\mathrm{kpc}$.

General relativity guarantees a unique one-to-one correspondence between static observables of neutron stars (NSs) accessible by multimessenger astronomy, such as mass-radius or tidal deformability, and the equation of state (EoS) of beta equilibrated matter. It is well known that these static properties are not enough to discern conventional NSs from hybrid stars. However, if one assumes that hadrons present in the neutron star core are only neutrons and protons, the lepton fraction is expected to be determined unequivocally by the condition of chemical equilibrium. Using a simple analytical method based on a polynomial expansion of the EoS, we show that multiple solutions are possible to the beta-equilibrium equation, leading to a characteristic indetermination on the composition of the interiors of NSs, even in the purely nucleonic hypothesis. We further show that additional empirical information on symmetric matter at high densities are not very efficient to pin down the composition, if uncertainties on measurements are accounted for. We conclude that constraints on the symmetry energy at high densities only, can make meaningful impact to decipher the composition of neutron star core. Our results give a lower limit to the uncertainty on the NS core composition that can be obtained with astrophysical and terrestrial experiments.

We look for and place observational constraints on the imprint of ultralight dark matter (ULDM) soliton cores in rotation-dominated galaxies. Extending previous analyses, we find a conservative constraint which disfavors the soliton-host halo relation found in some numerical simulations over a broad range in the ULDM particle mass $m$. Combining the observational constraints with theoretical arguments for the efficiency of soliton formation via gravitational dynamical relaxation and assuming that the soliton-halo relation is correct, our results disfavor ULDM from comprising 100% of the total cosmological dark matter in the range ${10}^{-24}\mathrm{eV}\lesssim m\lesssim {10}^{-20}\mathrm{eV}$. The constraints probe the ULDM fraction down to $f\lesssim 0.3$ of the total dark matter.

Low-energy nuclear recoils (NRs) are hard to measure, because they produce few ${\mathrm{e}}^{-}/{\mathrm{h}}^{+}$ pairs in solids—i.e., they have low “ionization yield.” A silicon detector was exposed to thermal neutrons over 2.5 live days, probing NRs down to 450 eV. The observation of a neutron capture-induced component of NRs at low energies is supported by the much-improved fit upon inclusion of a capture NR model. This result shows that thermal neutron calibration of very low recoil energy NRs is promising for dark matter searches, coherent neutrino experiments, and improving understanding of ionization dynamics in solids.

Frequency-dependent squeezing is the main upgrade for achieving broadband quantum noise reduction in upcoming observation runs of gravitational wave detectors. The proper frequency dependence of the squeezed quadrature is obtained by reflecting squeezed vacuum from a Fabry-Perot filter cavity detuned by half of its line width. However, since the squeezed vacuum contains no classical amplitude, copropagating auxiliary control beams are required to achieve the filter cavity’s length, alignment, and incident beam pointing stability. In our frequency-dependent squeezing experiment at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, we used a control beam at a harmonic of squeezed vacuum wavelength and found visible detuning variation related to the suspended mirrors angular drift. These variations can degrade interferometer quantum noise reduction. We investigated various mechanisms that can cause the filter cavity detuning variation. The detuning drift is found to be mitigated sufficiently by fixing the incident beam pointing and applying filter cavity automatic alignment. It was also found that there is an optimal position of the beam on the filter cavity mirror that helps to reduce the detuning fluctuations. Here, we report a stabilized filter cavity detuning variation of less than 10 Hz compared to the 113 Hz cavity line width. Compared to previously published results [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 171101 (2020), such detuning stability would be sufficient to make filter cavity detuning drift induced gravitational wave detector detection range fluctuation reduce from 11% to within 2%.

We present a new analysis to extract pion parton distribution functions (PDFs) within the framework of the statistical model. Starting from the statistical model first developed for the spin-$1/2$ nucleon, we extend this model to describe the spin-0 pion. Based on a combined fit to both the pion-induced Drell-Yan data and the pion-induced $J/\mathrm{\Psi }$ production data, a new set of pion PDFs has been obtained. The inclusion of the $J/\mathrm{\Psi }$ production data in the combined fit has provided additional constraints for better determining the gluon distribution in the pion. We also compare the pion PDFs obtained in the statistical model with other existing pion PDFs.

The constructions of the new high-intensity muon beamlines are progressing in facilities around the world, and new physics searches related to the muons are expected. The facilities can observe the transverse positron polarization of the polarized ${\mu }^{+}$ decay to test the standard model. The transition of muonium into antimuonium (Mu-to-$\overline{\mathrm{Mu}}$ transition), which is one of the interesting possibilities in the models beyond the standard model, can be also tested. An observation of the transition in the near future would have a great impact since it would indicate that there is an approximate discrete symmetry in the lepton sector. If the Mu-to-$\overline{\mathrm{Mu}}$ transition operator is generated, a new muon decay operator can exist, and it may interfere with the standard model muon decay operator to induce the corrections to the transverse positron polarization in the ${\mu }^{+}$ decay. We examine the possibility that the Mu-to-$\overline{\mathrm{Mu}}$ transition and the correction to the transverse positron polarization are related, and we show that the two are related in the model of a neutral flavor gauge boson. We also investigate the models to generate the Mu-to-$\overline{\mathrm{Mu}}$ transition, such as an inert $SU(2{)}_L$ doublet, an $SU(2{)}_L$ triplet for the type-II seesaw model, a dilepton gauge boson, and a left-right model. The nonzero value of the transverse polarization for one of the two directions, $P_{{\mathrm{T}}_2}$, violates the time-reversal invariance, and the experimental constraint of the electron electric dipole moment can provide a severe constraint on $P_{{\mathrm{T}}_2}$, depending on the model.

We study the sensitivity of JUNO and TAO to the oscillations induced by two well-motivated scenarios beyond the standard model: large extra dimensions (LEDs) and light sterile neutrinos in the context of $3+1$ neutrino mixing. We find that $\mathrm{JUNO}+\mathrm{TAO}$ can set competitive bounds on the parameter space of each scenario. In particular, we find that $\mathrm{JUNO}+\mathrm{TAO}$ can be competitive with MINOS, DUNE, or KATRIN in the context of LED. If LEDs are present in nature, we show that the parameters could be measured with a similar precision as the standard oscillation parameters. We also show that $\mathrm{JUNO}+\mathrm{TAO}$ can test nearly all of the parameter space preferred by gallium experiments in the context of $3+1$ mixing. Finally, we discuss the possibility to distinguish the two scenarios from each other.

Finite-volume pionless effective field theory provides an efficient framework for the extrapolation of nuclear spectra and matrix elements calculated at finite volume in lattice QCD to infinite volume, and to nuclei with larger atomic number. In this work, it is demonstrated how this framework may be implemented via a set of correlated Gaussian wave functions optimized using differentiable programming and via solution of a generalized eigenvalue problem. This approach is shown to be significantly more efficient than a stochastic implementation of the variational method based on the same form of correlated Gaussian wave functions, yielding comparably accurate representations of the ground-state wave functions with an order of magnitude fewer terms. The efficiency of representation allows such calculations to be extended to larger systems than in previous work. The method is demonstrated through calculations of the binding energies of nuclei with atomic number $A\in \{2,3,4\}$ in finite volume, matched to lattice QCD calculations at quark masses corresponding to $m_{\pi }=806\mathrm{MeV}$, and infinite-volume effective field theory calculations of $A\in \{2,3,4,5,6\}$ systems based on this matching.

In QCD with $N_c$ colors the antisymmetric valence quark color space singlet state $\sim {\epsilon }_{i_1\cdots i_{N_c}}|i_1,\dots ,i_{N_c}⟩$ of the proton corresponds to the reduced density matrix ${\rho }_{ij}=(1/N_c){\delta }_{ij}$ for a single color degree of freedom. Its degenerate spectrum of eigenvalues, ${\lambda }_i=1/N_c$, the purity $\mathrm{tr}{\rho }^2=1/N_c$, and the von Neumann entropy $S_{\mathrm{vN}}=\log (N_c)$ all indicate maximal entanglement of color. On the other hand, for $N_c\to \infty$ the spatial wave function of the proton factorizes into valence quark wave functions determined by a mean field [E. Witten, Nucl. Phys. B160, 57 (1979)] where there is no entanglement of spatial degrees of freedom. A model calculation at $N_c=3$ using a simple three quark model light front wave function by Brodsky and Schlumpf predicts percent level entanglement of spatial degrees of freedom. Using light cone perturbation theory, we also derive the density matrix associated with the four parton $|qqqg⟩$ Fock state. Tracing out the quarks, we construct the reduced density matrix for the degrees of freedom of the gluon, which encodes its entanglement with the sources. Our expressions provide the dependence of the density matrix on the soft cutoff $x$ for the gluon light cone momentum, and on the collinear and ultraviolet regulators. Numerical results obtained in a simple approximation indicate stronger entanglement for the gluon (with $x_g<⟨x_q⟩$) than for quarks in the three quark Fock state.