The determination of the Higgs self-coupling is one of the key ingredients for understanding the mechanism behind the electroweak symmetry breaking. An indirect method for constraining the Higgs trilinear self-coupling via single Higgs production at next-to-leading order (NLO) has been proposed in order to avoid the drawbacks of studies with double Higgs production. In this paper we study the Higgs self-interaction through the vector boson fusion (VBF) process $e^{-}p\to {\nu }_{e}hj$ at the future LHeC. At NLO level, we compute analytically the scattering amplitudes for relevant processes, in particular those induced by the Higgs self-interaction. A Monte Carlo simulation and a statistical analysis utilizing the analytic results are then carried out for Higgs production through VBF and decay to $b\overline{b}$, which yield for the trilinear Higgs self-coupling rescaling parameter ${\kappa }_{\lambda }$ the limit [$-0.57$, 2.98] with $2{\mathrm{ab}}^{-1}$ integrated luminosity. If we assume about 10% of the signal survives the event selection cuts, and include all the background, the constraint will be broadened to [$-2.11$, 4.63].

In typical statistical mechanical systems the grand canonical partition function at finite volume is proportional to a polynomial of the fugacity $e^{\mu /T}$. The zero of this Lee-Yang polynomial closest to the origin determines the radius of convergence of the Taylor expansion of the pressure around $\mu =0$. The computationally cheapest formulation of lattice QCD, rooted staggered fermions, with the usual definition of the rooted determinant, does not admit such a Lee-Yang polynomial. We show that the radius of convergence is then bounded by the spectral gap of the reduced matrix of the unrooted staggered operator. This is a cutoff effect that potentially affects all estimates of the radius of convergence with the standard staggered rooting. We suggest a new definition of the rooted staggered determinant at finite chemical potential that allows for a definition of a Lee-Yang polynomial and, therefore, of the numerical study of Lee-Yang zeros. We also describe an algorithm to determine the Lee-Yang zeros and apply it to configurations generated with the 2-stout improved staggered action at $N_t=4$. We perform a finite-volume scaling study of the leading Lee-Yang zeros and estimate the radius of convergence of the Taylor expansion extrapolated to an infinite volume. We show that the limiting singularity is not on the real line, thus giving a lower bound on the location of any possible phase transitions at this lattice spacing. In the vicinity of the crossover temperature at zero chemical potential, the radius of convergence turns out to be ${\mu }_B/T\approx 2$ and roughly temperature independent. Our simulations are performed at strange quark chemical potential ${\mu }_s=0$, but the method can be straightforwardly extended to strangeness chemical potential ${\mu }_S=0$ or strangeness neutrality.

We illustrate the application of quantum computing techniques to the investigation of the thermodynamical properties of a simple system, made up of three quantum spins with frustrated pair interactions and affected by a hard sign problem when treated within classical computational schemes. We show how quantum algorithms completely solve the problem, and discuss how this can apply to more complex systems of physical interest, with emphasis on the possible systematics and on their control.

The photoproduction of $\gamma p\to K^{+}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0(1385)$ is investigated based on an effective Lagrangian approach using the tree-level Born approximation, with the purpose of understanding the reaction mechanisms and resonance contents and their associated parameters in this reaction. In addition to the $t$-channel $K$ and $K^{*}(892)$ exchanges, $s$-channel nucleon ($N$) exchange, $u$-channel $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ exchange, and generalized contact term, the exchanges of a minimum number of $N$ and $\mathrm{\Delta }$ resonances in the $s$ channel are taken into account in constructing the reaction amplitudes to describe the experimental data. It is found that the most recent differential cross-section data from the CLAS Collaboration can be well reproduced by including one of the $N(1895){1/2}^{-}$, $\mathrm{\Delta }(1900){1/2}^{-}$, and $\mathrm{\Delta }(1930){5/2}^{-}$ resonances. The reaction mechanisms of $\gamma p\to K^{+}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0(1385)$ are discussed in detail, and the predictions of the beam and target asymmetries for this reaction are given. The cross sections of $\gamma p\to K^0{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^{+}(1385)$ are shown to be able to further constrain the theoretical models and pin down the resonance contents for $\gamma p\to K^{+}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0(1385)$.

We study the chiral magnetic effect (CME) in the hadronic phase. The CME current involves pseudoscalar mesons to modify its functional form. This conclusion is independent of microscopic details. The strength of the CME current in the hadronic phase would decrease for two flavors.

We use the linear sigma model with quarks to locate the critical end point in the effective QCD phase diagram accounting for fluctuations in the temperature and quark chemical potential. For this purpose, we use the nonequilibrium formalism provided by the superstatistics framework. We compute the effective potential in the high- and low-temperature approximations up to sixth order and include the contribution of ring diagrams to account for plasma screening effects. We fix the model parameters from relations between the thermal sigma and pion masses imposing a first-order phase transition at zero temperature and a finite critical value for the baryon chemical potential that we take of the order of the nucleon mass. We find that the critical end point displacement due to fluctuations in the temperature and/or quark chemical potential is almost negligible.

The interaction of the standard model’s particles with the axionic dark matter field may generate oscillating nuclear electric dipole moments (EDMs), oscillating nuclear Schiff moments, and oscillating nuclear magnetic quadrupole moments (MQMs) with a frequency corresponding to the axion’s Compton frequency. Within an atom or a molecule an oscillating EDM, Schiff moment, or MQM can drive transitions between atomic or molecular states. The excitation events can be detected, for example, via subsequent fluorescence or photoionization. Here we calculate the rates of such transitions. If the nucleus has octupole deformation or quadrupole deformation, then the transition rate due to the Schiff moment and MQM can be up to ${10}^{-16}$ transition per molecule per year. In addition, an MQM-induced transition may be of M2-type, which is useful for the elimination of background noise since M2-type transitions are suppressed for photons.

We report the first observation of the semimuonic decay $D^{+}\to \omega {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }$ using an $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $2.93{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ collected with the BESIII detector at a center-of-mass energy of 3.773 GeV. The absolute branching fraction of the $D^{+}\to \omega {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }$ decay is measured to be ${\mathcal{B}}_{D^{+}\to \omega {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }}=(17.7\pm 1.8_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm 1.1_{\mathrm{syst}})\times {10}^{-4}$. Its ratio with the world average value of the branching fraction of the $D^{+}\to \omega e^{+}{\nu }_e$ decay probes lepton flavor universality and it is determined to be ${\mathcal{B}}_{D^{+}\to \omega {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }}/{\mathcal{B}}_{D^{+}\to \omega e^{+}{\nu }_e}^{\mathrm{PDG}}=1.05\pm 0.14$, in agreement with the standard model expectation within one standard deviation.

In the background of a charged anti–de Sitter (AdS) dilaton black hole, we investigate the movement of a self-graviting three-brane and relevant holographic effects as the brane moves close to the AdS boundary. The induced metric on the brane corresponds to an exact Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) geometry, while the evolution of brane is determined by the Israel junction condition and the effective Einstein field equation on the brane together. When the brane approaches the AdS boundary, $\mathrm{AdS}/\mathrm{CFT}$ correspondence implies that a radiation dominated FLRW universe ($P=\frac{1}{3}\rho$) should be given. According to the holographic renormalization procedure, we involve an appropriate surface counterterm into the gravitational action for achieving $P=\frac{1}{3}\rho$ on the brane. This surface counterterm also plays an important role in calculating the mass of a charged AdS dilaton black hole. Finally, we obtain the thermodynamic quantities and give an extended Cardy-Verlinde formula on the brane.

We calculate the Schur index of the $\mathcal{N}=4$ $U(N)$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with finite $N$ via the AdS/CFT correspondence as the contribution of $\mathrm{D}3$-branes wrapped on contractible cycles in ${\mathit{S}}^5$ on some assumptions motivated by preliminary analyses. As far as we have checked numerically it agrees with the index calculated on the gauge theory side. In a certain limit it reproduces the analytic result given by Bourdier, et al.

In this work, we analyze a recent proposal to detect $SU(N)$ continuum Yang-Mills sectors labeled by center vortices, inspired by Laplacian-type center gauges in the lattice. Initially, after the introduction of appropriate external sources, we obtain a rich set of sector-dependent Ward identities, which can be used to control the form of the divergences. Next, we show the all-order multiplicative renormalizability of the center-vortex free sector. These are important steps towards the establishment of a first-principles, well-defined, and calculable Yang-Mills ensemble.

We present new constraints on anisotropic birefringence of the cosmic microwave background polarization using two seasons of data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope covering 456 square degrees of sky. The birefringence power spectrum, measured using a curved-sky quadratic estimator, is consistent with zero. Our results provide the tightest current constraint on birefringence over a range of angular scales between 5 arc minutes and 9°. We improve previous upper limits on the amplitude of a scale-invariant birefringence power spectrum by a factor of between 2 and 3. Assuming a nearly massless axion field during inflation, our result is equivalent to a $2\sigma$ upper limit on the Chern-Simons coupling constant between axions and photons of $g_{\alpha \gamma }<4.0\times {10}^{-2}/H_I$, where $H_I$ is the inflationary Hubble scale.

Since the present $\omega$ meson family has not been established, in this work we carry out an investigation of the mass spectrum and Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka allowed a two-body strong decay of the $S$-wave and the $D$-wave $\omega$ mesons, and make the comparison with the experimental data of these reported $\omega$ states and the $\omega$-like $X(2240)$ state observed by BESIII. By this study, we not only suggest the possible assignments to these observed $\omega$ states under the framework of the $\omega$ meson family, but also predict three $\omega$ mesons [$\omega (5S)$, $\omega (2D)$, and $\omega (4D)]$ which are still missing in experiment. The present study may provide valuable information to further construct the $\omega$ meson family. Considering the present running status of BESIII, we also suggest that BESIII should pay more attention to the issue of the $\omega$ meson by accumulating more data.

A continuum approach to quantum chromodynamics (QCD), based upon Schwinger-Dyson (SD) and Bethe-Salpeter (BS) equations, is employed to provide a tightly constrained prediction for the ${\gamma }^{*}{\gamma }^{*}\to \{{\pi }^0,\eta ,{\eta }^{\prime },{\eta }_c,{\eta }_b\}$ transition form factors (TFFs) and their corresponding pole contribution to the hadronic light-by-light (HLbL) piece of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon ($a_{\mu }$). This work relies on a practical and well-tested quark-photon vertex Ansatz approach to evaluate the TFFs for arbitrary spacelike photon virtualities, in the impulse approximation. The numerical results are parametrized meticulously, ensuring a reliable evaluation of the HLbL contributions to $a_{\mu }$. We obtain $a_{\mu }^{{\pi }^0-\text{pole}}=(6.14\pm 0.21)\times {10}^{-10}$, $a_{\mu }^{\eta -\text{pole}}=(1.47\pm 0.19)\times {10}^{-10}$, $a_{\mu }^{{\eta }^{\prime }-\text{pole}}=(1.36\pm 0.08)\times {10}^{-10}$, yielding a total value of $a_{\mu }^{{\pi }^0+\eta +{\eta }^{\prime }-\text{pole}}=(8.97\pm 0.48)\times {10}^{-10}$, compatible with contemporary determinations. Notably, we find that $a_{\mu }^{{\eta }_c+{\eta }_b-\text{pole}}\approx a_{\mu }^{{\eta }_c-\text{pole}}=(0.09\pm 0.01)\times {10}^{-10}$, which might not be negligible once the percent precision in the computation of the light pseudoscalars is reached.

We perform the first simultaneous extraction of unpolarized parton distributions and fragmentation functions from a Monte Carlo analysis of inclusive and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering, Drell-Yan lepton-pair production, and single-inclusive $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ annihilation data. We use data resampling techniques to thoroughly explore the Bayesian posterior distribution of the extracted functions, and use $k$-means clustering on the parameter samples to identify the configurations that give the best description across all reactions. Inclusion of the semi-inclusive data reveals a strong suppression of the strange quark distribution at parton momentum fractions $x\gtrsim 0.01$, in contrast with the ATLAS observation of enhanced strangeness in $W^{\pm }$ and $Z$ production at the LHC. Our study reveals significant correlations between the strange quark density and the strange $\to$ kaon fragmentation function needed to simultaneously describe semi-inclusive $K^{\pm }$ production data from COMPASS and inclusive $K^{\pm }$ spectra in $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ annihilation from ALEPH and SLD, as well as between the strange and light antiquark densities in the proton.

Difference in pressure during expansion and contraction stages of the cosmic evolution can result in a hysteresislike phenomenon in nonsingular cyclic models sourced with a massive scalar field. We discuss this phenomenon for spatially closed isotropic spacetimes in loop quantum cosmology (LQC) for a quadratic and a coshlike potential, with and without a negative cosmological constant using an effective spacetime description of the underlying quantum geometry. Two inequivalent loop quantizations are investigated—one based on holonomies of the Ashtekar-Barbero connection using closed loops, and another based on the connection operator. Due to the underlying quantum geometric effects, both of the models avoid classical singularities, but unlike the holonomy based quantization, the connection based quantization results in two quantum bounces. In spite of the differences in nonsingular effective dynamics of both of the models, the phenomena of hysteresis is found to be robust for the ${\varphi }^2$ potential. Quasiperiodic beats exist for the coshlike potential, irrespective of the nature of the classical recollapse whether by the spatial curvature, or a negative cosmological constant. An interplay of the negative cosmological constant and the spatial curvature in the presence of potentials results in rich features such as islands of cluster of bounces separated by an accelerated expansion and a universe which either undergoes a steplike expansion with multiple turnarounds or quasiperiodic beats depending on a “tuning” of the steepness parameter of the potential.

In this work we analytically obtain the quasinormal spectrum for the gravitational perturbation on a higher-dimensional generalization of the Nariai spacetime that is comprised of the direct product of the two-dimensional de Sitter space with several two-spheres. A key step in order to attain this result is to use a suitable basis for the angular functions depending on the rank of the tensorial degree of freedom that one needs to describe. Here we define such a basis, which is a generalization of the tensor spherical harmonics that is suited for spaces that are the product of several spaces of constant curvature.

We suggest that quintessential vacuum energy could be the source of right-handed neutrino masses that feed the seesaw mechanism, which may provide the observed small masses of light standard neutrinos. This idea is naturally implemented in the cosmological unification model based on the global $SO(1,1)$ symmetry, where the early inflation and late-time accelerated expansion of the Universe are driven by the degrees of freedom of a doublet scalar field. In this model, the $SO(1,1)$ custodial symmetry naturally provides the coupling between the Standard Model singlet fermion and quintessence, which sources neutrino masses. We also show that the model predicts a highly suppressed contribution to the relativistic degrees of freedom from quintessential quanta during any late Universe epoch, ensuring the consistency of the model.

The weak gravity conjecture imposes severe constraints on natural inflation. A trans-Planckian axion decay constant can be realized only if the potential exhibits an additional (subdominant) modulation with sub-Planckian periodicity. The resulting wiggles in the axion potential generate a characteristic modulation in the scalar power spectrum of inflation which is logarithmic in the angular scale. The compatibility of this modulation is tested against the most recent cosmic microwave background (CMB) data by Planck and BICEP/Keck. Intriguingly, we find that the modulation completely resolves the tension of natural inflation with the CMB. A Bayesian model comparison reveals that natural inflation with modulations describes all existing data equally well as the cosmological standard model $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$. In addition, the bound of a tensor-to-scalar ratio $r>0.002$ correlated with a striking small-scale suppression of the scalar power spectrum occurs. Future CMB experiments could directly probe the modulation through their improved sensitivity to smaller angular scales and possibly the measurement of spectral distortions. They could, thus, verify a key prediction of the weak gravity conjecture and provide dramatic new insights into the theory of quantum gravity.