Measurements of the properties of binary neutron star systems from gravitational-wave observations require accurate theoretical models for such signals. However, current models are incomplete, as they do not take into account all of the physics of these systems: some neglect possible tidal effects, others neglect spin-induced orbital precession, and no existing model includes the post-merger regime consistently. In this work, we explore the importance of two physical ingredients: tidal interactions during the inspiral and the imprint of the post-merger stage. We use complete inspiral–merger–post-merger waveforms constructed from a tidal effective-one-body approach and numerical-relativity simulations as signals against which we perform parameter estimates with waveform models of standard LIGO-Virgo analyses. We show that neglecting tidal effects does not lead to appreciable measurement biases in masses and spin for typical observations (small tidal deformability and signal-to-noise ratio $\sim 25$). However, with increasing signal-to-noise ratio or tidal deformability there are biases in the estimates of the binary parameters. The post-merger regime, instead, has no impact on gravitational-wave measurements with current detectors for the signal-to-noise ratios we consider.

The theory of ratio gravity (RG) proposes that the curvature of $3+1$ spacetime originates from a deformation of a cross ratio, where similar mathematical structure to general relativity emerges. This paper studies RG using the framework of the Newman-Penrose spin formalism. After proposing the general formalism, we move on to study a homogeneous and isotropic universe with RG. It is noted that the theory contains a component of dynamical dark energy with a novel equation of state.

We perform an internal robustness analysis (iR) to a compilation of the most recent $f{\sigma }_8(z)$ data, using the framework of Ref. [1]. The method analyzes combinations of subsets in the data set in a Bayesian model comparison way, potentially finding outliers, subsets of data affected by systematics or new physics. In order to validate our analysis and assess its sensitivity we performed several cross-checks, for example by removing some of the data or by adding artificially contaminated points, while we also generated mock data sets in order to estimate confidence regions of the iR. Applying this methodology, we found no anomalous behavior in the $f{\sigma }_8(z)$ data set, thus validating its internal robustness.

The cosmic microwave background temperature bispectrum is currently the most precise tool for constraining non-Gaussianity (NG) in the primordial curvature perturbations. The Planck temperature data tightly constrain the amplitude of local-type NG: $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\mathrm{loc}}=2.5\pm 5.7$. In this paper, we compute previously neglected foreground biases in temperature-based $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\mathrm{loc}}$ measurements. We consider signals from the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect, gravitational lensing, the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effects, and the cosmic infrared background. In standard analyses, a significant foreground bias arising from the ISW-lensing bispectrum is subtracted from the $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\mathrm{loc}}$ measurement. However, a number of other terms sourced by the ISW, lensing, thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effects, and cosmic infrared background fields are also present in the temperature bispectrum. We compute the dominant biases on $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\mathrm{loc}}$ arising from these signals, focusing on “squeezed” bispectrum shapes. Most of the biases are nonblackbody in nature, and are thus reduced by multifrequency component separation methods; however, recent analyses have found that extragalactic foregrounds are present at non-negligible levels in the Planck component-separated maps. Moreover, the Planck FFP8 simulations do not include the correlations amongst components that are responsible for these biases. We compute the biases for individual Planck frequencies, finding that some are comparable to the statistical error bar on $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\mathrm{loc}}$, even for the main cosmic microwave background channels (100, 143, and 217 GHz). For future experiments, they can greatly exceed the statistical error bar (considering temperature data only). Alternatively, the foreground contributions can be marginalized over, but without strong priors this leads to a non-negligible increase in the error bar on $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\mathrm{loc}}$. A full assessment for Planck and other experiments will require calculations in tandem with component separation, ideally using simulations. We also compute these biases for equilateral and orthogonal NG, finding large effects for the latter. Similar calculations must be performed for trispectrum NG. We conclude that the search for primordial NG using Planck data may not yet be over.

We extend the definition of Lagrangian local bias proposed by Matsubara [Phys. Rev. D 78, 083519 (2008).] to include curvature and higher-derivative bias operators. Evolution of initially biased tracers using perturbation theory (PT) generates multivariate bias parameters as soon as nonlinear fluctuations become important. We present a procedure that reparametrizes a set of spectral parameters, the arguments of the Fourier transformed Lagrangian bias function, from which multivariate renormalized biases can be derived at any order in bias expansion and PT. We find our method simpler than previous renormalization schemes because it only relies on the definition of bias, fixed from the beginning, and in one equation relating renormalized and unrenormalized spectral parameters. We also show that our multivariate biases can be obtained within the peak background split framework; in that sense this work extends that of Schmidt, Jeong and Desjacques [Phys. Rev. D 88, 023515 (2013).]. However, we restrict our method to Gaussian initial conditions. Nonlinear evolution also leads to the appearance of products of correlators evaluated at the same point, commonly named contact terms, yielding divergent contributions to the power spectrum. In this work we present an explicit method to remove these divergences by introducing stochastic fields.

In this paper, we present an efficient method for constraining both thermal and nonthermal dark matter (DM) scenarios with the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest based on a simple and flexible parametrization capable of reproducing the small-scale clustering signal of a large set of noncold DM (NCDM) models. We extract new limits on the fundamental DM properties through an extensive analysis of the high resolution, high redshift data obtained by the MIKE/HIRES spectrographs. By using a large suite of hydrodynamical simulations, we determine constraints on both astrophysical, cosmological, and NCDM parameters by performing a full Monte Carlo Markov chain analysis. We obtain a marginalized upper limit on the largest possible scale at which a power suppression induced by nearly any NCDM scenario can occur, i.e., $\alpha <0.03\mathrm{Mpc}/h$ ($2\sigma$ C.L.). We explicitly describe how to test several of the most viable NCDM scenarios without the need to run any specific numerical simulations due to the novel parametrization proposed and due to a new scheme that interpolates between the cosmological models explored. The shape of the linear matter power spectrum for standard thermal warm DM models appears to be in mild tension ($\sim 2\sigma$ C.L.) with the data compared to nonthermal scenarios. We show that a DM fluid composed by both a warm (thermal) and a cold component is also in tension with the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest, at least for large $\alpha$ values. This is the first study that allows us to probe the linear small-scale shape of the DM power spectrum for a large set of NCDM models.

We have explicitly demonstrated that scalar coupled Gauss-Bonnet gravity in four dimensions can have nontrivial effects on the early inflationary stage of our Universe. In particular, we have shown that the scalar coupled Gauss-Bonnet term alone is capable of driving the inflationary stages of the Universe without incorporating slow roll approximation, while remaining compatible with the current observations. Subsequently, to avoid the instability of the tensor perturbation modes we have introduced a self-interacting potential for the inflaton field and have shown that, in this context as well, it is possible to have an inflationary scenario. Moreover, it turns out that presence of the Gauss-Bonnet term is incompatible with the slow roll approximation and hence one must work with the field equations in the most general context. Finally, we have shown that the scalar coupled Gauss-Bonnet term attains smaller and smaller values as the Universe exits from inflation. Thus, at the end of the inflation, the Universe makes a smooth transition to Einstein gravity.

We examine the class of initial conditions that give rise to inflation. Our analysis is carried out for several popular models including Higgs inflation, Starobinsky inflation, chaotic inflation, axion-monodromy inflation, and noncanonical inflation. In each case we determine the set of initial conditions that give rise to sufficient inflation, with at least 60 $e$-foldings. A phase-space analysis is performed for each of these models and the effect of the initial inflationary energy scale on inflation is studied numerically. This paper discusses two scenarios of Higgs inflation: (i) the Higgs is coupled to the scalar curvature, and (ii) the Higgs Lagrangian contains a noncanonical kinetic term. In both cases we find Higgs inflation to be very robust since it can arise for a large class of initial conditions. One of the central results of our analysis is that, for plateau-like potentials associated with the Higgs and Starobinsky models, inflation can be realized even for initial scalar field values that lie close to the minimum of the potential. This dispels a misconception related to plateau potentials prevailing in the literature. We also find that inflation in all models is more robust for larger values of the initial energy scale.

When binary black holes form in the field, it is expected that their orbits typically circularize before coalescence. In galactic nuclei and globular clusters, binary black holes can form dynamically. Recent results suggest that $\approx 5\%$ of mergers in globular clusters result from three-body interactions. These three-body interactions are expected to induce significant orbital eccentricity $\gtrsim 0.1$ when they enter the Advanced LIGO and Virgo band at a gravitational-wave frequency of 10 Hz. Measurements of binary black hole eccentricity therefore provide a means for determining whether or not dynamic formation is the primary channel for producing binary black hole mergers. We present a framework for performing Bayesian parameter estimation on gravitational-wave observations of eccentric black hole inspirals. Using this framework, and employing the nonspinning, inspiral-only EccentricFD waveform approximant, we determine the minimum detectable eccentricity for an event with masses and distance similar to GW150914. At design sensitivity, we find that the current generation of advanced observatories will be sensitive to orbital eccentricities of $\gtrsim 0.05$ at a gravitational-wave frequency of 10 Hz, demonstrating that existing detectors can use eccentricity to distinguish between circular field binaries and globular cluster triples. We compare this result to eccentricity distributions predicted to result from three black hole binary formation channels, showing that measurements of eccentricity could be used to infer the population properties of binary black holes.

Bosonic ultralight dark matter (ULDM) would form cored density distributions at the center of galaxies. These cores, seen in numerical simulations, admit analytic description as the lowest energy bound state solution (“soliton”) of the Schroedinger-Poisson equations. Numerical simulations of ULDM galactic halos find empirical scaling relations between the mass of the large-scale host halo and the mass of the central soliton. We discuss how the simulation results of different groups can be understood in terms of the basic properties of the soliton. Importantly, simulations imply that the energy per unit mass in the soliton and in the virialized host halo should be approximately equal. This relation lends itself to observational tests because it predicts that the peak circular velocity, measured for the host halo in the outskirts of the galaxy, should approximately repeat itself in the central region. Contrasting this prediction with the measured rotation curves of well-resolved nearby galaxies, we show that ULDM in the mass range $m\sim ({10}^{-22}÷{10}^{-21})\mathrm{eV}$, which has been invoked as a possible solution to the small-scale puzzles of $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$, is in tension with the data. We suggest that a dedicated analysis of the Milky Way inner gravitational potential could probe ULDM up to $m\lesssim {10}^{-19}\mathrm{eV}$.

We make use of the EDELWEISS-III array of germanium bolometers to search for electron interactions at the keV scale induced by phenomena beyond the Standard Model. A 90% C.L. lower limit is set on the electron lifetime decaying to invisibles, $\tau >1.2\times {10}^{24}\mathrm{years}$. We investigate the emission of axions or axionlike particles (ALPs) by the Sun, constraining the coupling parameters $g_{ae}<1.1\times {10}^{-11}$ and $g_{ae}\times g_{aN}^{\text{eff}}<3.5\times {10}^{-17}$ at 90% C.L. in the massless limit. We also directly search for the absorption of bosonic dark matter particles that would constitute our local galactic halo. Limits are placed on the couplings of ALPs or hidden photon dark matter in the mass range $0.8–500\mathrm{keV}/{\mathrm{c}}^2$. Prospects for searching for dark matter particles with masses down to $150\mathrm{eV}/{\mathrm{c}}^2$ using improved detectors are presented.

We apply the Wigner-function approach and chiral kinetic theory to investigate the angular momentum and polarization of chiral fluids composed of Weyl fermions with background electric/magnetic fields and vorticity. It is found that the quantum corrections in Wigner functions give rise to nonzero antisymmetric components in the canonical energy-momentum tensors, which are responsible for the spin-orbit interaction. In global equilibrium, conservation of the canonical angular momentum reveals the cancellation between the orbital component stemming from side jumps with nonzero vorticity and the spin component in the presence of an axial chemical potential. We further analyze the conservation laws near local equilibrium. It turns out that the canonical angular momentum is no longer conserved even in the absence of background fields due to the presence of a local torque coming from the spin-orbit interaction involving temperature/chemical-potential gradients, which is implicitly led by collisions.

This paper describes a method of numerically evaluating high-order QED contributions to the electron anomalous magnetic moment. The method is based on the subtraction of infrared and ultraviolet divergences in Feynman parametric space before integration and on nonadaptive Monte Carlo integration that is founded on Hepp sectors. A realization of the method on the graphics accelerator NVidia Tesla K80 is described. A method of removing round-off errors that emerge due to numerical subtraction of divergences without losing calculation speed is presented. The results of applying the method to all 2-loop, 3-loop, and 4-loop QED Feynman graphs without lepton loops are presented. A detailed comparison of the 2-loop and 3-loop results with known analytical ones is given in the paper. A comparison of the contributions of six gauge-invariant 4-loop graph classes with known analytical values is presented. Moreover, the contributions of 78 sets of 4-loop graphs for comparison with the direct subtraction on the mass shell are presented. Also, the contributions of the 5-loop and 6-loop ladder graphs are given, as well as a comparison of these results with known analytical ones. The behavior of the generated Monte Carlo samples is described in detail, and a method of the error estimation is presented. Detailed information about the graphics processor performance on these computations and about the Monte Carlo convergence is given in the paper.

We study the origin, consequences, and testability of a hypothesis of “partial $\mu \text{−}\tau$” reflection symmetry. This symmetry predicts $|U_{\mu i}|=|U_{\tau i}|(i=1,2,3)$ for a single column of the leptonic mixing matrix $U$. Depending on whether this symmetry holds for the first or second column of $U$, different correlations between ${\theta }_{23}$ and ${\delta }_{CP}$ can be obtained. This symmetry can be obtained using discrete flavor symmetries. In particular, all of the subgroups of SU(3) with three-dimensional irreducible representation, which are classified as class C or D, can lead to partial $\mu \text{−}\tau$ reflection symmetry. We show how the predictions of this symmetry compares with the allowed area in the ${\sin }^2{\theta }_{23}\text{−}{\delta }_{CP}$ plane as obtained from the global analysis of neutrino oscillation data. Furthermore, we study the possibility of testing these symmetries at the proposed DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande (HK) experiments (T2HK, T2HKK), by incorporating the correlations between ${\theta }_{23}$ and ${\delta }_{CP}$ that are predicted by the symmetries. We find that when the simulated data of DUNE and HK are fitted with the symmetry predictions, the ${\theta }_{23}-{\delta }_{CP}$ parameter space gets largely restricted near the charge parity conserving values of ${\delta }_{CP}$. Finally, we illustrate the capability of these experiments to distinguish between the two cases leading to partial $\mu \text{−}\tau$ symmetry, namely $|U_{\mu 1}|=|U_{\tau 1}|$ and $|U_{\mu 2}|=|U_{\tau 2}|$.

We revisit the minimal supersymmetric $SU(5)$ grand unified theory with three right-handed neutrinos in which universality conditions for soft-supersymmetry breaking parameters are imposed at an input scale above the unification scale. If the Majorana masses for the neutrinos are around $10^{15}\mathrm{GeV}$, large mixing angles and phases in the neutrino sector lead to flavor violation and $CP$ violation in the right-handed down-squark and left-handed slepton sectors. Since the observed Higgs boson mass and the proton decay constraints indicate that sfermions have masses larger than a few TeV, flavor and $CP$ constraints are less restrictive. We explore the constraints on models with universal soft-supersymmetry breaking input parameters coming from proton stability, electric dipole moments, $\mu \to e\gamma$ decays, and the Higgs mass observed at the LHC. Regions compatible with all constraints can be found if nonzero $A$-terms are taken.

We point out how future lepton colliders can provide unique insight into the scalar sector of TeV scale models for neutrino masses with local $B-L$ symmetry. Our specific focus is on the TeV scale left-right model, which naturally embeds this $B-L$ symmetry. In particular, we make a detailed study of the lepton collider implications of the neutral ($H_3$) and doubly-charged ($H^{\pm \pm }$) scalars from the right-handed triplet Higgs that is responsible for the spontaneous breaking of the $B-L$ symmetry and implementing the seesaw mechanism. Due to mixing with other scalars, the neutral scalar $H_3$ could acquire sizable flavor violating couplings to the charged leptons. Produced on-shell or off-shell at the planned $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ colliders, it would induce distinct lepton flavor violating signals like $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to {\mu }^{\pm }{\tau }^{\mp }(+H_3)$, with the couplings probed up to $\sim {10}^{-4}$ for a wide range of neutral scalar mass, which is well beyond the reach of current searches for charged lepton flavor violation. The Yukawa couplings of the doubly-charged scalar $H^{\pm \pm }$ to the charged leptons might also be flavor violating, which is correlated to the heavy right-handed neutrino masses and mixings. With a combination of the pair, single and off-shell production of $H^{\pm \pm }$ like $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to H^{++}{H}^{--}$, $H^{\pm \pm }{e}^{\mp }{\mu }^{\mp }$, ${\mu }^{\pm }{\tau }^{\mp }$, the Yukawa couplings can be probed up to ${10}^{-3}$ at future lepton colliders, which is allowed by current lepton flavor data in a large region of parameter space. For both the neutral and doubly-charged cases, the scalar masses could be probed up to the few-TeV range in the off-shell channel.

We present a practical Monte Carlo determination of the scaling dimensions ${\mathrm{\Delta }}_Q$ of flux $Q$ Abelian monopoles through finite-size scaling analysis of the free energy to introduce the background field of classical Dirac monopole-antimonopole pair at critical points of three-dimensional lattice theories. We validate the method in free fermion theory, and by verifying the particle-vortex duality between the monopole scaling dimension at the inverse-XY fixed point and the charge scaling dimension at the XY fixed point. At the $O(2)$ Wilson-Fisher fixed point of the XY model, we determine the critical exponents ${\mathrm{\Delta }}_1=0.13(2)$, ${\mathrm{\Delta }}_2=0.29(1)$ and ${\mathrm{\Delta }}_3=0.47(2)$, which we find to be proportional to the finite-size critical spectrum of monopoles on square torus.

In this paper we test the semilocal duality based on the method of [L. Y. Dai and U.-G. Meißner, Phys. Lett. B 783, 294 (2018)] for calculating final-state interactions at varying numbers of colors ($N_C$). We compute the amplitudes by dispersion relations that respect analyticity and coupled channel unitarity, as well as accurately describing experiment. The $N_C$ dependence of the $\pi \pi \to \pi \pi$ scattering amplitudes is obtained by comparing these amplitudes to the ones of chiral perturbation theory. The semilocal duality is investigated by varying $N_C$. Our results show that the semilocal duality is not violated when $N_C$ is large. At large $N_C$, the contributions of the $f_2(1270)$, the $f_0(980)$ and the $f_0(1370)$ cancel that of the $\rho (770)$ in the finite energy sum rules, while the $f_0(500)$ has almost no effect. This gives further credit to the method developed in [L. Y. Dai and U.-G. Meißner, Phys. Lett. B 783, 294 (2018)] for investigating the $N_C$ dependence of hadron-hadron scattering with final-state interactions. This study is also helpful to understand the structure of the scalar mesons.

The newly observed ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_b(6097)$ provides us a good chance to further construct the high excited states of the bottom baryon family. In this work, we explain the ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_b(6097)$ to be a $1P$ state with $J^P=5/2^{-}$ or $3/2^{-}$ by giving the mass spectrum analysis and the strong decay calculation, and predict the existence of $1P$ and $2S$ partners of the ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_b(6097)$, where their masses and the corresponding decay behaviors are presented. Because of the success of describing the ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_b(6097)$ and the former observed ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_b(6227)$ under the quasi-two-body treatment to the bottom baryons, we continue to predict the ${\mathrm{\Omega }}_b$ partners of ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_b(6097)$ by the same method, which are the $1P$ and $2S$ states of the $bss$ baryon system. Identifying these predicted bottom baryons will be a research topic full of challenge and opportunity for future experiments, especially the LHCb.

The speed of sound $C_s$ in the SU(3) and ($2+1$) QCD is calculated within the field correlator method using the nonperturbative color magnetic confinement and Polyakov loop interaction in the deconfined region.The resulting $C_s$ displays a discontinuity at $T=T_c$ in the SU(3) case. It is shown numerically and analytically that $C_s^2$ never exceeds $\frac{1}{3}$ both for SU(3) and ($2+1$) QCD for vanishing chemical potential. A good agreement is found of our numerical results with the corresponding lattice data.