Symmetry in neutrino oscillation serves for a better understanding of the physical properties of the phenomenon. We present a systematic way of finding symmetry in neutrino oscillation, which we call symmetry finder (SF). By extending the known framework in vacuum into a matter environment, we derive the SF equation, a powerful machinery for identifying symmetry in the system. After learning lessons on symmetry in the Zaglauer-Schwarzer system with matter equivalent to the vacuum symmetry, we apply the SF method to the [P. B. Denton et al., Compact perturbative expressions for neutrino oscillations in matter, J. High Energy Phys. 06 (2016) 051.] (DMP) perturbation theory to first order. We show that the method is so powerful that we uncover the eight reparametrization symmetries with the $1\leftrightarrow 2$ state exchange in DMP, denoted as IA, IB, $\dots$, IVB, all new except for IA. The transformations consist of both fundamental and dynamical variables, indicating their equal importance. It is also shown that all the symmetries discussed in this paper can be understood as the Hamiltonian symmetries, which ensures their all-order validity and applicability to varying density matter.

Light-front holographic QCD provides a successful first approximation to hadron spectroscopy in the chiral limit of ($3+1$)-dim light-front QCD, where a holographic Schrödinger-like equation, with an emerging confining scale, $\kappa$, governs confinement in the transverse direction. In its supersymmetric formulation, light-front holography predicts that each baryon has two superpartners: a meson and a tetraquark, with their degenerate masses being generated by the same scale, $\kappa$. In nature, this mass degeneracy is lifted by chiral symmetry breaking and longitudinal confinement. In this paper, we show that the latter can be successfully captured by the ’t Hooft equation of ($1+1$)-dim, large $N_c$, QCD. Together, the holographic Schrödinger equation and the ’t Hooft equation provide a good global description of the data across the full hadron spectrum with a universal $\kappa$.

The anomalous spin Hall conductivity in the holographic model of Dirac semimetals with two Dirac nodes protected by the crystal symmetry has been elaborated. Such a system besides the chiral anomaly possesses another anomaly that is related to the ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ topological charge of the system. The holographic model of the system contains matter action with two $U(1)$-gauge fields as well as the appropriate combination of the Chern-Simons gauge terms. We also allow for the coupling of two gauge fields via the kinetic mixing parametrized by the coupling $\alpha$. The holographic approach in the probe limit enables us to obtain Hall conductivity. The aim of this work is to describe the phase transitions in the ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ Dirac semimetals between the topologically trivial and nontrivial phases. Interestingly the anomalous Hall conductivity plays a role of the order parameter of this phase transition. The holographically found prefactor of the Hall conductivity in the topologically nontrivial phase depends on the coupling $\alpha$ and the Chern-Simons couplings.

A systematic approach is developed in order to obtain spherically symmetric midisuperspace models that accept holonomy modifications in the presence of matter fields with local degrees of freedom. In particular, starting from the most general Hamiltonian quadratic in radial derivatives of the variables, we obtain a family of effective modified constraints that satisfy Dirac’s deformation algebra, which encodes the covariance of general relativity, and show that (scale-dependent) holonomy corrections can be consistently implemented. In vacuum, the deformed anomaly-free Hamiltonian is explicitly written in terms of three free functions and we obtain a weak observable that can be interpreted as the mass of the model. Finally, as a particular example, we present a specific covariant polymeric model that remains regular for any value of the connection components. Some of its physical implications and the relation with previous studies in the literature are commented upon.

Through numerical simulations, it is predicted that the gravitational waves (GWs) reflect the characteristics of the core-collapse supernova (CCSN) explosion mechanism. There are multiple GW excitation processes that occur inside a star before its explosion, and it is suggested that the GWs originating from the CCSN have a mode for each excitation process in terms of time-frequency representation. Therefore, we propose an application of the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT), which is a high-resolution time-frequency analysis method, to analyze these GW modes for theoretically probing and increasing our understanding of the explosion mechanism. The HHT defines frequency as a function of time, and is not bound by the trade-off between time and frequency resolutions. In this study, we analyze a gravitational waveform obtained from a three-dimensional general-relativistic CCSN model that showed a vigorous activity of the standing-accretion-shock-instability (SASI). We succeed in extracting the SASI induced GWs with high resolution on a time-frequency representation using the HHT and we examine their instantaneous frequencies.

We study semiclassical communication in positivity-violating $k$-essence scalar field theories, with superluminal modes propagating on a rolling background. The self-interactions due to the nonlinear nature of these theories pose a constraint on the rate of superluminal information transfer. We derive a novel bit rate bound on superluminal communication within a conceptual model, to which a general class of $k$-essence theories reduces. Our result implies the possibility that, even if these positivity-violating $k$-essence theories may not possess a maximal information propagation speed, there is nevertheless an upper bound on the rate of information transfer.

Spinning black holes create electromagnetic storms when immersed in ambient magnetic fields, illuminating the otherwise epically dark terrain. In an electromagnetic extension of the Penrose process, tremendous energy can be extracted, boosting the energy of radiating particles far more efficiently than the mechanical Penrose process. We locate the regions from which energy can be mined and demonstrate explicitly that they are no longer restricted to the ergosphere. We also show that there can be toroidal regions that trap negative energy particles in orbit around the black hole. We find that the effective charge coupling between the black hole and the superradiant particles decreases as energy is extracted, much like the spin of a black hole decreases in the mechanical analogue. While the effective coupling decreases, the actual charge of the black hole increases in magnitude reaching the energetically-favored Wald value, at which point energy extraction is impeded. We demonstrate the array of orbits for products from the electromagnetic Penrose process.

We present a direct calculation for the first derivative of the isovector nucleon form factors with respect to the momentum transfer $q^2$ using the lower moments of the nucleon 3-point function in the coordinate space. Our numerical simulations are performed using the $N_f=2+1$ nonperturbatively $O(a)$-improved Wilson quark action and Iwasaki gauge action near the physical point, corresponding to the pion mass $M_{\pi }=138\mathrm{MeV}$, on a $(5.5\mathrm{fm}{)}^4$ lattice at a single lattice spacing of $a=0.085\mathrm{fm}$. In the momentum derivative approach, we can directly evaluate the mean square radii for the electric, magnetic, and axial-vector form factors, and also the magnetic moment without the $q^2$ extrapolation to the zero momentum point. These results are compared with the ones determined by the standard method, where the $q^2$ extrapolations of the corresponding form factors are carried out by fitting models. We find that the new results from the momentum derivative method are obtained with a larger statistical error than the standard method, but with a smaller systematic error associated with the data analysis. Within the total error range of the statistical and systematic errors combined, the two results are in good agreement. On the other hand, two variations of the momentum derivative of the induced pseudoscalar form factor at the zero momentum point show some discrepancy. It seems to be caused by a finite volume effect, since a similar trend is not observed on a large volume, but seen on a small volume in our pilot calculations at a heavier pion mass of $M_{\pi }=510\mathrm{MeV}$. Furthermore, we discuss an equivalence between the momentum derivative method and the similar approach with the point splitting vector current.

We investigate the two-dimensional energy-momentum-tensor (EMT) distributions of the nucleon on the light front, using the Abel transforms of the three-dimensional EMT ones. We explicitly show that the main features of all EMT distributions are kept intact in the course of the Abel transform. We also examine the equivalence between the global and local conditions for the nucleon stability in the three-dimensional Breit frame and in the two-dimensional transverse plane on the light front. We also discuss the two-dimensional force fields inside a nucleon on the light front.

We analyze the features of strongly interacting matter in the presence of nonzero isospin chemical potential ${\mu }_I$, within a nonlocal two-flavor Polyakov-loop extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model. For a system at finite temperature $T$, we describe the behavior of various thermodynamic quantities and study the phase diagram in the ${\mu }_I-T$ plane. In particular, it is found that for values of ${\mu }_I$ larger than the pion mass and temperatures lower than a critical value of about 170 MeV the system lies in an isospin symmetry broken phase signalled by the presence of a nonzero pion condensate. Our results for the phase diagram are found to be in better agreement with those arising from lattice QCD calculations, as compared to the predictions from other theoretical approaches like the local PNJL model.

We report constraints on nonstandard neutrino interactions (NSI) from the observation of atmospheric neutrinos with IceCube, limiting all individual coupling strengths from a single dataset. Furthermore, IceCube is the first experiment to constrain flavor-violating and nonuniversal couplings simultaneously. Hypothetical NSI are generically expected to arise due to the exchange of a new heavy mediator particle. Neutrinos propagating in matter scatter off fermions in the forward direction with negligible momentum transfer. Hence the study of the matter effect on neutrinos propagating in the Earth is sensitive to NSI independently of the energy scale of new physics. We present constraints on NSI obtained with an all-flavor event sample of atmospheric neutrinos based on three years of IceCube DeepCore data. The analysis uses neutrinos arriving from all directions, with reconstructed energies between 5.6 GeV and 100 GeV. We report constraints on the individual NSI coupling strengths considered singly, allowing for complex phases in the case of flavor-violating couplings. This demonstrates that IceCube is sensitive to the full NSI flavor structure at a level competitive with limits from the global analysis of all other experiments. In addition, we investigate a generalized matter potential, whose overall scale and flavor structure are also constrained.

We perform a comprehensive study of gravitational waves in the context of the higher-order quadratic scalar curvature gravity, which encompasses the ordinary Einstein-Hilbert term in the action plus an $R^2$ contribution and a term of the type $R\square R$. The main focus is on gravitational waves emitted by binary systems such as binary black holes and binary pulsars in the approximation of circular orbits and nonrelativistic motion. The waveform of higher-order gravitational waves from binary black holes is constructed and compared with the waveform predicted by standard general relativity; we conclude that the merger occurs earlier in our model than what would be expected from GR. The decreasing rate of the orbital period in binary pulsars is used to constrain the coupling parameters of our higher-order $R^2$ gravity; this is done with Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar data leading to ${\kappa }_0^{-1}\lesssim 1.1\times {10}^{16}{\mathrm{m}}^2$, where ${\kappa }_0^{-1}$ is the coupling constant for the $R^2$ contribution.

The thermodynamics and the kinetics of Hawking-Page phase transition were studied previously based on the free energy landscape. The anti–de Sitter black hole can evaporate if imposing the absorbing boundary conditions at infinity. We suggest that the kinetics of Hawking-Page phase transition should be governed by the reaction-diffusion equation, where the Hawking evaporation plays the role of the reaction on the background of the free-energy landscape. By calculating the mean first-passage time from the large black hole phase to the thermal gas phase, we show that the phase transition can occur more easily under the Hawking radiation. In particularly, a kinetic turnover is observed when increasing the ensemble temperature or the frictions. This kinetic turnover can be viewed as the dynamical phase transition to identify the time scale where Hawking evaporation process is comparable to Hawking-Page phase transition.

The inference of binary neutron star properties from gravitational-wave observations requires the generation of millions of waveforms, each one spanning about 3 order of magnitudes in the frequency range. Thus, waveform models must be efficiently generated and, at the same time, be faithful from the post-Newtonian quasiadiabatic inspiral up to the merger regime. A simple solution to this problem is to combine effective-one-body waveforms with the stationary phase approximation to obtain frequency-domain multipolar approximants valid from any low frequency to merger. We demonstrate that effective-one-body frequency-domain waveforms generated in postadiabatic approximation are computationally competitive with current phenomenological and surrogate models, (virtually) arbitrarily long, and faithful up to merger for any binary parameter. The same method can also be used to efficiently generate intermediate mass binary black hole inspiral waveforms detectable by space-based interferometers.

It has been recently shown that quadruply lensed gravitational-wave (GW) events due to coalescing binaries can be localized to one or just a few galaxies, even in the absence of an electromagnetic counterpart. We discuss how this can be used to extract information on modified GW propagation, which is a crucial signature of modifications of gravity at cosmological scales. We show that, using quadruply lensed systems, it is possible to constrain the parameter ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_0$ that characterizes modified GW propagation, without the need of imposing a prior on $H_0$. A LIGO/Virgo/Kagra network at target sensitivity might already get a significant measurement of ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_0$, while a third-generation GW detector such as the Einstein Telescope could reach a very interesting accuracy.

Gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences provide a unique laboratory to test properties of compact objects. As alternatives to the ordinary black holes in general relativity, various exotic compact objects have been proposed. Some of them have largely different values of the tidal deformability and spin-induced quadrupole moment from those of black holes, and their binaries could be distinguished from the binary black hole by using gravitational waves emitted during their inspiral regime, excluding the highly model-dependent merger and ringdown regimes. We reanalyze gravitational waves from low-mass merger events in the GWTC-2, detected by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. Focusing on the influence of tidal deformability and spin-induced quadrupole moment in the inspiral waveform, we provide model-independent constraints on deviations from the standard binary black hole case. We find that all events that we have analyzed are consistent with the waveform of the binary black hole in general relativity. Bayesian model selection shows that the hypothesis that the binary is composed of exotic compact objects is disfavored by all events.

Perturbation theory of vacuum spherically symmetric spacetimes is a crucial tool for understanding the dynamics of black hole perturbations. Spherical symmetry allows for an expansion of the perturbations in scalar, vector, and tensor harmonics. The resulting perturbative equations are decoupled for modes with different parity and different harmonic numbers. Moreover, for each harmonic and parity, the equations for the perturbations can be decoupled in terms of (gauge-invariant) master functions that satisfy $1+1$ wave equations. By working in a completely general perturbative gauge, in this paper we study what is the most general master function that is linear in the metric perturbations and their first-order derivatives and satisfies a wave equation with a potential. The outcome of the study is that for each parity we have two branches of solutions with similar features. One of the branches includes the known results: In the odd-parity case, the most general master function is an arbitrary linear combination of the Regge-Wheeler and the Cunningham-Price-Moncrief master functions whereas in the even-parity case it is an arbitrary linear combination of the Zerilli master function and another master function that is new to our knowledge. The other branch is very different since it includes an infinite collection of potentials which in turn lead to an independent collection master of functions which depend on the potential. The allowed potentials satisfy a nonlinear ordinary differential equation. Finally, all the allowed master functions are gauge invariant and can be written in a fully covariant form.