The physics of neutrino-nucleus cross sections is a critical probe of the Standard Model and beyond. A precise understanding is also needed to accurately deduce astrophysical neutrino spectra. At energies above $\sim 5\mathrm{GeV}$, the cross section is dominated by deep inelastic scattering, mediated by weak bosons. In addition, there are subdominant processes where the hadronic coupling is through virtual photons, ${\gamma }^{*}$: (on-shell) $W$-boson production (e.g., where the underlying interaction is ${\nu }_{\ell }+{\gamma }^{*}\to {\ell }^{-}+W^{+}$) and trident production (e.g., where it is $\nu +{\gamma }^{*}\to \nu +{\ell }_1^{-}+{\ell }_2^{+}$). These processes become increasingly relevant at TeV–PeV energies. We undertake the first systematic approach to these processes (and those with hadronic couplings through virtual $W$ and $Z$ bosons), treating them together, avoiding common approximations, considering all neutrino flavors and final states, and covering the energy range 10–${10}^8\mathrm{GeV}$. In particular, we present the first complete calculation of $W$-boson production and the first calculation of trident production at TeV–PeV energies. When we use the same assumptions as in prior work, we recover all of their major results. In a companion paper [this issue, Phys. Rev. D 101, 036010 (2020)], we show that these processes should be taken into account for IceCube-Gen2.

Detecting TeV–PeV cosmic neutrinos provides crucial tests of neutrino physics and astrophysics. The statistics of IceCube and the larger proposed IceCube-Gen2 demand calculations of neutrino-nucleus interactions subdominant to deep-inelastic scattering, which is mediated by weak-boson couplings to nuclei. The largest such interactions are $W$-boson and trident production, which are mediated instead through photon couplings to nuclei. In a companion paper [B. Zhou and J. F. Beacom, following Paper, Neutrino-nucleus cross sections for $W$-boson and trident production, Phys. Rev. D 101, 036011 (2020).], we make the most comprehensive and precise calculations of those interactions at high energies. In this paper, we study their phenomenological consequences. We find that: (1) These interactions are dominated by the production of on-shell $W$ bosons, which carry most of the neutrino energy; (2) the cross section on water/iron can be as large as $7.5\%/14\%$ that of charged-current deep-inelastic scattering, much larger than the quoted uncertainty on the latter, (3) attenuation in Earth is increased by as much as 15%; (4) $W$-boson production on nuclei exceeds that through the Glashow resonance on electrons by a factor of $\simeq 20$ for the best-fit IceCube spectrum; (5) the primary signals are showers that will significantly affect the detection rate in IceCube-Gen2; a small fraction of events give unique signatures that may be detected sooner.

We calculate the next-to-leading order (NLO) quantum chromodynamics (QCD) corrections to inclusive processes $W^{+}\to J/\psi ({\eta }_c)+c+\overline{s}+X$ and $W^{+}\to B_c(B_c^{*})+b+\overline{s}+X$ in the framework of nonrelativistic QCD (NRQCD) factorization formalism. The result indicates that the NLO corrections are significant, and the uncertainties in theoretical predictions with NLO corrections are greatly reduced. The charmonium and $B_c$ meson yielding rates at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are given.

With the imminent construction of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) and Hyper-Kamiokande, nucleon decay searches as a means to constrain beyond standard model extensions are once again at the forefront of fundamental physics. Abundant neutrons within these large experimental volumes, along with future high-intensity neutron beams such as the European Spallation Source, offer a powerful, high-precision portal onto this physics through searches for $\mathcal{B}$ and $\mathcal{B}-\mathcal{L}$ violating processes such as neutron-antineutron transformations ($n\to \overline{n}$), a key prediction of compelling theories of baryogenesis. With this in mind, this paper discusses a novel and self-consistent intranuclear simulation of this process within ${}_{18}{}^{40}\mathrm{Ar}$, which plays the role of both detector and target within the DUNE’s gigantic liquid argon time projection chambers. An accurate and independent simulation of the resulting intranuclear annihilation respecting important physical correlations and cascade dynamics for this large nucleus is necessary to understand the viability of such rare searches when contrasted against background sources such as atmospheric neutrinos. Recent theoretical improvements to our model, such as the first calculations of the ${}_{18}{}^{40}\mathrm{Ar}$ intranuclear radial annihilation probability distribution and the inclusion of a realistic $\overline{n}A$ potential, are discussed. A Monte Carlo simulation comparison to another publicly available $n\to \overline{n}$ generator within GENIE is shown in some detail. The first calculation of ${}_{18}{}^{40}\mathrm{Ar}$’s $n\to \overline{n}$-intranuclear suppression factor, an important quantity for future searches at the DUNE, is also completed, finding $T_R^{\mathrm{Ar}}\sim 5.6\times {10}^{22}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$.

The possibility of a light charged Higgs boson $H^{\pm }$ that decays predominantly to a charm quark and a bottom quark ($cb$) and with a mass in the range $80\mathrm{GeV}\le M_{H^{\pm }}\le 90\mathrm{GeV}$ is studied in the context of a three-Higgs doublet model (3HDM). Searches for this decay at the Large Hadron Collider do not have sensitivity to this mass region at present. It is shown that the searches for $H^{\pm }$ at LEP2 could be supplemented by either one or two $b$-tags, which would enable such large branching ratios for $H^{\pm }\to cb$ to be probed in the above mass region. We comment on the possibility of this 3HDM scenario to explain a slight excess in the searches for $H^{\pm }$ at LEP2, which is best fit by $M_{H^{\pm }}$ of around 90 GeV, and discuss the prospects for detecting $H^{\pm }\to cb$ decays at future $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ colliders.

I study supersymmetric models in which the QCD gauge group is the remnant diagonal subgroup from the spontaneous breaking of an $SU(3)\times SU(3)$ gauge group at a multi-TeV scale. In renormalizable models with soft supersymmetry breaking, the scalar potential is shown to have global minima with the required gauge symmetry breaking pattern. In addition to a massive color octet vector boson, this framework predicts three color octet spin-0 sgluons, and four color octet gluinos with both Dirac and Majorana mass terms. One of the gluino mass eigenstates typically has a coupling to quark-squark pairs that is at least as large as the prediction of minimal supersymmetry, but it need not be the lightest one.

We investigate the production of fermionic dark matter $\chi$ via $pp\to p\gamma p\to pj\chi \overline{\chi }X$ mediated by a leptophobic spin-1 particle, where one of the protons remains intact and is tagged by forward proton detectors. We find that the masses of $\chi$ and the mediator $Z^{\prime }$ are severely constrained when $Z^{\prime }$ interacts with $\chi$ and quarks through the vector couplings. We show that dark matter searches in this production channel are sensitive to a mediator mass $m_{Z^{\prime }}\lesssim 1.4\mathrm{TeV}$ at 14 TeV at the LHC with an integrated luminosity $L_{\mathrm{int}}=3000{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The lower mass bound on the dark matter is $m_{\chi }\simeq 550\mathrm{GeV}$ at the mediator mass $m_{Z^{\prime }}=1.2\mathrm{TeV}$.

Perturbative expansions in many physical systems yield “only” asymptotic series which are not even Borel resummable. Interestingly, the corresponding ambiguities point to nonperturbative physics. We numerically verify this renormalon mechanism for the first time in two-dimensional sigma models, that, like four-dimensional gauge theories, are asymptotically free and generate a strong scale through dimensional transmutation. We perturbatively expand the energy through a numerical version of stochastic quantization. In contrast to the first energy coefficients, the high-order coefficients are independent on the rank of the model. Technically, they require a sophisticated analysis of finite volume effects and the continuum limit of the discretized model. Although the individual coefficients do not grow factorially (yet), but rather decrease strongly, the ratios of consecutive coefficients clearly obey the renormalon asymptotics.

We calculate the contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment hadronic vacuum polarization from the connected diagrams of up and down quarks, omitting electromagnetism. We employ QCD gauge-field configurations with dynamical $u$, $d$, $s$, and $c$ quarks and the physical pion mass, and analyze five ensembles with lattice spacings ranging from $a\approx 0.06$ to 0.15 fm. The up- and down-quark masses in our simulations have equal masses $m_l$. We obtain, in this world where all pions have the mass of the ${\pi }^0$, $10^{10}{a}_{\mu }^{ll}(\mathrm{conn}.)=637.8(8.8)$, in agreement with independent lattice-QCD calculations. We then combine this value with published lattice-QCD results for the connected contributions from strange, charm, and bottom quarks, and an estimate of the uncertainty due to the fact that our calculation does not include strong-isospin breaking, electromagnetism, or contributions from quark-disconnected diagrams. Our final result for the total $\mathcal{O}({\alpha }^2)$ hadronic-vacuum polarization to the muon’s anomalous magnetic moment is $10^{10}{a}_{\mu }^{\mathrm{HVP},\mathrm{LO}}=699(15{)}_{u,d}(1{)}_{s,c,b}$, where the errors are from the light-quark and heavy-quark contributions, respectively. Our result agrees with both ab-initio lattice-QCD calculations and phenomenological determinations from experimental $e^{+}{e}^{-}$-scattering data. It is $1.3\sigma$ below the “no new physics” value of the hadronic-vacuum-polarization contribution inferred from combining the BNL E821 measurement of $a_{\mu }$ with theoretical calculations of the other contributions.

The newly observed $X(2100)$ by the BESIII Collaboration inspires our interest in studying the light meson system, especially axial-vector mesons. Since $X(2100)$ has $J^P=1^{+}$ possibilities but cannot be distinguished only by mass, we make use of flux-tube model to study the strong decay behavior of $X(2100)$ under this assignment. The experimental width of the newly reported $X(2100)$ can be reproduced in our calculation, which favors an assignment of $X(2100)$ as the second radial excitation of $h_1(1380)$ with $I(J^P)=0(1^{+})$. And $\mathcal{B}(X(2100)\to \varphi {\eta }^{\prime })$ has a sizable contribution to the total width. Furthermore, we focus on the production of $X(2100)$ and its flavor partner $h_1(1965)$ induced by pion and kaon on a proton target with the Feynman model and the Regge model, which is an available platform to further identify their nature. The numerical results indicate that the total cross section is similar in the two models. When the range of momentum ${\mathrm{p}}_{\mathrm{Lab}}$ is $10–30\mathrm{GeV}/c$, the total cross sections for ${\pi }^{-}p\to X(2100)n$ and $K^{-}p\to X(2100)\mathrm{\Lambda }$ are predicted to be at an order of magnitude of $0.1\mu \mathrm{b}$. However, the total cross section for ${\pi }^{-}p\to h_1(1965)n$ is near an order of magnitude of $10\mu \mathrm{b}$ when $p_{\mathrm{Lab}}$ is from 10 to $30\mathrm{GeV}/c$ and much larger than that of reaction $K^{-}p\to h_1(1965)\mathrm{\Lambda }$. These predictions can provide some valuable information to search for $X(2100)$ and $h_1(1965)$ in experiments at J-PARC, COMPASS, OKA@U-70, and SPS@CERN.

We present a detailed lattice QCD study of the unpolarized isovector quark parton distribution function (PDF) using a large-momentum effective theory framework. We choose a quasi-PDF defined by a spatial correlator which is free from mixing with other operators of the same dimension. In the lattice simulation, we use a Gaussian-momentum-smeared source at $M_{\pi }=356\mathrm{MeV}$ and $P_z\in \{1.8,2.3\}\mathrm{GeV}$. To control the systematics associated with the excited states, we explore five different source-sink separations. The nonperturbative renormalization is conducted in a regularization-independent momentum subtraction scheme, and the matching between the renormalized quasi-PDF and $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ PDF is calculated based on perturbative QCD up to one-loop order. Systematic errors due to renormalization and perturbative matching are also analyzed in detail. Our results for light-cone PDF are in reasonable agreement with the latest phenomenological analysis.

We calculate the effective potentials of the ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_c{\overline{D}}^{(*)}$, ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_c^{\prime }{\overline{D}}^{(*)}$, and ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_c^{*}{\overline{D}}^{(*)}$ system s with the chiral effective field theory up to the next-to-leading order. We simultaneously consider the short-, intermediate-, and long-range interactions. With the newly observed $P_c$ spectra as inputs, we construct the quark-level contact Lagrangians to relate the low energy constants to those of ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_c{\overline{D}}^{(*)}$ with the help of the quark model. Our calculation indicates there are seven bound states in the $I=0$ strange hidden charm $[{\mathrm{\Xi }}_c^{\prime }{\overline{D}}^{(*)}{]}_J(J=\frac{1}{2},\frac{3}{2})$ and $[{\mathrm{\Xi }}_c^{*}{\overline{D}}^{(*)}{]}_J(J=\frac{1}{2},\frac{3}{2},\frac{5}{2})$ systems. Our analyses also disfavor the ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c{\overline{D}}^{(*)}$ bound states. However, we obtain three new hadronic molecules in the isoscalar $[{\mathrm{\Xi }}_c{\overline{D}}^{(*)}{]}_J(J=\frac{1}{2},\frac{3}{2})$ systems. The masses of $[{\mathrm{\Xi }}_c\overline{D}{]}_{1/2}$, $[{\mathrm{\Xi }}_c{\overline{D}}^{*}{]}_{1/2}$, and $[{\mathrm{\Xi }}_c{\overline{D}}^{*}{]}_{3/2}$ are predicted to be ${4319.4}_{-3.0}^{+2.8}\mathrm{MeV}$, ${4456.9}_{-3.3}^{+3.2}\mathrm{MeV}$, and ${4463.0}_{-3.0}^{+2.8}\mathrm{MeV}$, respectively. We also notice the one-eta-exchange influence is rather feeble. Binding solutions in the $I=1$ channels are nonexistent. We hope the future analyses at LHCb can seek for these new $P_{cs}\mathrm{s}$ in the $J\psi \mathrm{\Lambda }$ final states, especially near the thresholds of ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_c{\overline{D}}^{(*)}$.

Within the covariant density functional theory of hypernuclear matter we build a series of equations of state for hypernuclear compact stars, by calibrating the coupling constants of the $\mathrm{\Xi }$-hyperon to the experimental binding energy of the single-$\mathrm{\Xi }$ hypernuclei ${}_{{\mathrm{\Xi }}^{-}}{}^{15}\mathrm{C}$ and ${}_{{\mathrm{\Xi }}^{-}}{}^{12}\mathrm{Be}$. Coupling constants of the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$-hyperon to nucleons have been calibrated on a vast collection of experimental data on single $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ hypernuclei and we employ those values. Uncertainties on the couplings of the $\mathrm{\Sigma }$-hyperon to nuclear matter, due to lack of experimental data, are accounted for by allowing for a wide variation of the well depth of $\mathrm{\Sigma }$ at rest in symmetric saturated nuclear matter. To account for uncertainties in the nucleonic sector at densities much larger than $n_0$, a rich collection of parametrizations is employed, some of them in agreement with existing constraints from nuclear physics and astrophysics. Neutron star properties are investigated with all these calibrated equations of state. The effects of the presence of hyperons on the radius, on the tidal deformability, on the moment of inertia, and on the nucleonic direct Urca process are discussed. The sensitivity of the hyperonic direct Urca processes to uncertainties in the nucleonic and hyperonic sectors is also addressed. It is shown that the relative variations of the radius, tidal deformability and moment of inertia from the values that characterize purely nucleonic stars are linearly correlated with the strangeness fraction. The maximum radius deviation, obtained for most massive neutron stars, is $\approx 10\%$. The reduction of the maximum mass, triggered by nucleation of strangeness, is estimated at $\approx 15\%–20\%$, out of which 5% comes from insufficient information on the $\mathrm{\Sigma }$-hyperon interactions. A total of 44 calibrated hyperonic equations of state are published as Supplemental Material.

Stimulated by recent progress made by the LHCb Collaboration in discoveries of new bottom baryons, e.g., the ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_b(6227{)}^{-}$ and the ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_b(6097{)}^{\pm }$, we reexamine the orbitally excited spectrum of the charmed and bottom baryons using the Regge approach in the heavy quark-diquark picture. The results indicate that the spin-averaged mass spectrum of the orbitally excited charmed and bottom baryons can be described by a linear Regge relation, which is derived from the rotating QCD string model. By giving further mass-splitting analysis of spin-dependent interactions, we explain the baryons ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_b(6227{)}^{-}$ and the ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_b(6097{)}^{\pm }$, and the ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_c(2800)$ and ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_c^{\prime }(2930)$ to be the $1P$-wave baryons, all with the spin-parity $J^P=3/2^{-}$ preferably. Mass prediction of the bottom baryon ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_b$ in its $P$-wave- and $D$-waves are presented, providing clues for the coming experiments like the LHCb to find them.

As the increasing of neutrino energy or matter density, the neutrino oscillation in matter may undergo “vacuum-dominated,” “resonance,” and “matter-dominated” three different stages successively. Neutrinos endure very different matter effects, and therefore present very different oscillation behaviors in these three different cases. In this paper, we focus on the less discussed matter-dominated case (i.e., $|A_{\mathrm{CC}}|\gg |\mathrm{\Delta }{m}_{31}^2|$), study the effective neutrino mass and mixing parameters as well as neutrino oscillation probabilities in dense matter using the perturbation theory. We find that as the matter parameter $|A_{\mathrm{CC}}|$ growing larger, the effective mixing matrix in matter $\tilde{V}$ evolves approaching a fixed $3\times 3$ constant real matrix which is free of $CP$ violation and can be described using only one simple mixing angle $\tilde{\theta }$ which is independent of $A_{\mathrm{CC}}$. As for the neutrino oscillation behavior, ${\nu }_e$ decoupled in the matter-dominated case due to its intense charged-current interaction with electrons while a two-flavor oscillation are still presented between ${\nu }_{\mu }$ and ${\nu }_{\tau }$. Numerical analysis are carried on to help understanding the salient features of neutrino oscillation in matter as well as testing the validity of those concise approximate formulas we obtained. At the end of this paper, we make a very bold comparison of the oscillation behaviors between neutrinos passing through the Earth and passing through a typical white dwarf to give some embryonic thoughts on under what circumstances these studies will be applied and put forward the interesting idea of possible “neutrino lensing” effect.

We first present the implementation and validation of the SuSAv2-MEC 1p1h and 2p2h models in the GENIE neutrino-nucleus interaction event generator and a comparison of the subsequent predictions to measurements of lepton and hadron kinematics from the T2K experiment. These predictions are also compared to those of other available models in GENIE. We further compare semi-inclusive predictions of the implemented 1p1h model to those of the microscopic model on which SuSAv2 is based—relativistic mean field—to begin to test the validity of widely used “factorization” assumptions employed by generators to predict hadron kinematics from inclusive input models. The results highlight that a more precise treatment of hadron kinematics in generators is essential in order to attain the few-% level uncertainty on neutrino interactions necessary for the next generation of accelerator-based long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments.

We report on a study of the sequential hyperon decay ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0\to \mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma$; $\mathrm{\Lambda }\to p{\pi }^{-}$ and its corresponding antihyperon decay. We derive a multidimensional and model-independent formalism for the case when the hyperons are produced in the reaction $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to {\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0{\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}}^0$. Cross-section distributions are calculated using the folding technique. We also study sequential decays of single-tagged hyperons.

We study in s general way the construction of string bit Hamiltonians which are supersymmetric, We construct several quadratic and quartic polynomials in string bit creation and annihilation operators ${\overline{\varphi }}_{a_1\cdots a_n}^A$, ${\varphi }_{a_1\cdots a_n}^A$, which commute with the supersymmetry generators $Q^a$. Among these operators are ones with the spinor tensor structure required to provide the lightcone worldsheet vertex insertion factors needed to give the correct interactions for the IIB superstring, whenever a closed string separates into two closed strings or two closed strings join into one.

Combining insights from both the effective field theory of quantum gravity and black hole thermodynamics, we derive two novel consistency relations to be satisfied by any quantum theory of gravity. First, we show that a particular combination of the number of massless (light) fields in the theory must take integer values. Second, we show that, once the massless spectrum is fixed, the Wilson coefficient of the Kretschmann scalar in the low-energy effective theory is fully determined by the logarithm of a single natural number.

Validating the black hole no-hair theorem with gravitational-wave observations of compact binary coalescences provides a compelling argument that the remnant object is indeed a black hole as described by the general theory of relativity. This requires performing a spectroscopic analysis of the postmerger signal and resolving the frequencies of either different angular modes or overtones (of the same angular mode). For a nearly-equal-mass binary black hole system, only the dominant angular mode ($l=m=2$) is sufficiently excited, and the overtones are instrumental to performing this test. Here we investigate the robustness of modeling the postmerger signal of a binary black hole coalescence as a superposition of overtones. Further, we study the bias expected in the recovered frequencies as a function of the start time of a spectroscopic analysis and provide a computationally cheap procedure to choose it based on the interplay between the expected statistical error due to the detector noise and the systematic errors due to waveform modeling. Moreover, since the overtone frequencies are closely spaced, we find that resolving the overtones is particularly challenging and requires a loud ringdown signal. Rayleigh’s resolvability criterion suggests that—in an optimistic scenario—a ringdown signal-to-noise ratio larger than $\sim 30$ (achievable possibly with LIGO at design sensitivity and routinely with future interferometers such as the Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer, and LISA) is necessary to resolve the overtone frequencies. We then conclude by discussing some conceptual issues associated with black hole spectroscopy with overtones.