Based on a machine learning holographic QCD model, we construct a systematical framework to investigate the properties of the scalar glueballs continuously from zero temperature to finite temperature. By using both the quasinormal frequencies and the spectral functions, we extract the pole masses, thermal widths, screening masses and dispersion relation of the scalar glueballs in hot medium. It is shown that the pole masses almost remain the vacuum values at temperatures far below the critical temperature $T_c$, and then decrease with the increasing of temperature until a temperature lower than $T_c$. This result qualitatively agrees with earlier lattice simulations. While the pole masses increase monotonically above the critical temperature $T_c$, which agrees with recent lattice calculation. Meanwhile, it is shown that the thermal widths increase monotonically with temperature, which also agrees with the near $T_c$ lattice simulations. The screening mass exhibits a similar temperature-dependent behavior to the pole mass, while the dispersion relation increasingly deviates from the relativistic one as the temperature rises. It is interesting to note that we obtain the imaginary corrections in the thermal correlators, which contains both the temperal and spatial information and might be helpful for the four-dimensional calculations. Furthermore, by comparing the quasinormal modes and the spectral functions, we note that it requires more careful analysis when applying the spectral functions in studying thermal hadrons from holography, since there could be other types of quasinormal modes which are not related with bound states while they may contribute to the peaks of the spectral functions.

We determine the form of dissipative currents at the first order in relativistic spin hydrodynamics with finite chemical potential including gradients of the spin potential. Taking advantage of isotropy in the hydrodynamic local rest frame, using a suitable matching condition for the flow velocity and enforcing the semipositivity of entropy production, we find 23 dissipative transport coefficients relating dissipative currents to gradients of the thermo-hydrodynamic fields: four for the symmetric part of the energy-momentum tensor, five for the antisymmetric part, three for the conserved vector current, and 11 for the spin tensor. We compare our finding with previous results in literature.

We study the interaction of a neutron with the ${\overline{D}}_{s0}^{*}(2317)$ resonance and look at the amplitude below threshold and close above threshold. The study is done from the perspective that the $D_{s0}^{*}(2317)$ resonance is a molecular state of $DK$ in $I=0$. To study this interaction, we use the fixed center approximation to Faddeev equations that considers the $DK$ molecule as the cluster and the neutron as the external particle. We improve the fixed center approach to implement elastic unitarity around threshold, which is needed to obtain scattering parameters and to evaluate the $n{\overline{D}}_{s0}^{*}(2317)$ correlation function that we determine here. One interesting result of the study is the appearance of a resonant state below threshold with a binding of about 130 MeV and a width of about 80 MeV, which we suggest to look at in reactions measuring the invariant mass of $\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }\overline{D}$. The ALICE collaboration has initiated studies of this type, by looking at the $p{f}_1(1285)$ correlation function, and we can only encourage work in this direction, which should provide much valuable information on the nature of many resonant states.

We simulate the heavy quarkonium equilibration through transport in a static and homogeneous quark-gluon plasma (QGP) box within the semiclassical Boltzmann approach, incorporating both the leading-order and next-to-leading-order dissociation and regeneration reactions. The scattering amplitudes involved are taken from perturbative computations based on effective color-electric dipole coupling of the heavy quarkonium with thermal gluons. By coupling the Langevin simulation of single heavy quark diffusion and the Boltzmann transport of the heavy quarkonium in a real-time fashion, we demonstrate how the kinetic and chemical equilibrium of heavy quarkonium with single heavy quarks in the medium is achieved in terms of both the bound state’s yields and momentum distributions. The pertinent equilibration time turns out to be comparable to the lifetime of the QGP created in the most central heavy-ion collisions at the LHC energies. The role of the intricate interplay between the open and hidden heavy sector in the process of equilibration is highlighted. This work provides a dynamical way of understanding the phenomenological success of the statistical hadronization model for charmonium production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and also paves the way for realistic phenomenological applications to heavy quarkonium transport.

We revisit the non-Abelian dipole problem in the context of a simple semiclassical approach that incorporates some essential features of the infrared sector of Yang-Mills theories in the Landau gauge, in particular, the fact that both the running coupling and the gluon propagator remain finite at infrared scales and that the latter shows positivity violations that reflects the presence of massless modes. We obtain a simple flux tube solution in a controlled approximation scheme, which we compare to the results of lattice simulations.

We show that high-energy astrophysical neutrinos produced in the cores of heavily obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can undergo strong matter effects, thus significantly influencing their source flavor ratios. In particular, matter effects can completely modify the standard interpretation of the flavor ratio measurements in terms of the physical processes occurring in the sources (e.g., $pp$ versus $p\gamma$, full pion-decay chain versus muon-damped pion decay). We contrast our results with the existing flavor ratio measurements at IceCube, as well as with projections for next-generation neutrino telescopes like IceCube-Gen2. Signatures of these matter effects in neutrino flavor composition would not only bring more evidence for neutrino production in central AGN regions, but would also be a powerful probe of heavily Compton-thick AGNs, which escape conventional observation in x-rays and other electromagnetic wavelengths.

The characteristic energy of a relic dark matter interaction with a detector scales strongly with the putative dark matter mass. Consequently, experimental search sensitivity at the lightest masses will always come from interactions whose size is similar to noise fluctuations and low energy backgrounds in the detector. In this paper, we correctly calculate the net change in measured differential event rate due to low rate signal interactions that overlap in time with noise and backgrounds, accounting for both periods of time when the signal is coincident with noise/backgrounds and for the decreased amount of time in which only noise/backgrounds occur and we show that the introduction of random simulated signal events into the continuous raw data stream (a form of “salting”) provides a correct and practical implementation to estimate this net linear signal sensitivity. Unfortunately this does not apply to the situation with non negligible pileups as we show through explicit examples. Consequently, this exclusion technique should be complemented by less sensitive techniques that can separately exclude large rate, high pileup signal parameter space. An analysis threshold above the Gaussian-like noise component of the measured differential rate spectrum should also likely produce conservative limits. Though previous light mass dark matter searches did not correctly account for decreased background only live time effects in their signal sensitivity, conservative analysis choices likely protected their published limits from being nonconservative.

We present a new approach to separate tracklike and showerlike topologies in liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) experiments for neutrino physics using quantum machine learning. Effective reconstruction of neutrino events in LArTPCs requires accurate and granular information about the energy deposited in the detector. These energy deposits can be viewed as 2D images. Simulated data from the MicroBooNE experiment and a simple custom dataset are used to perform pixel-level classification of the underlying particle topology. Images of the events have been studied by creating small patches around each pixel to characterize its topology based on its immediate neighborhood. This classification is achieved using convolution-based learning models, including quantum-enhanced architectures known as quanvolutional neural networks. The quanvolutional networks are extended to symmetries beyond translation. Rotational symmetry has been incorporated into a subset of the models. This study demonstrates that quantum-enhanced models perform better than their classical counterparts with a comparable number of parameters, but are outperformed by classical models with two orders of magnitude more parameters. The inclusion of rotation symmetry appears beneficial only in a small number of cases and remains to be explored further. Possible future use of quantum machine learning in the reconstruction phase is discussed, with emphasis on future LArTPC experiments such as Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE)-far detector (FD).

We continue our investigation of the effective string model for the triply heavy quark system, mimicking that in pure $SU(3)$ gauge theory. We present analytical and numerical studies of the three-quark potential for isosceles and collinear geometries. In the general case, we derive the asymptotic expression of the potential in the infrared limit. Here we also demonstrate the universality of the string tension and interpret the transition between two distinct regimes, occurring when one of the triangle’s angles formed by the quarks is equal to $\frac{2}{3}\pi$, as a breaking of permutational symmetry. This symmetry breaking implies the emergence of a heavy quark dressed by gluons, transforming in the two-index antisymmetric representation. Additionally, we discuss various aspects of the $Y$- and $\mathrm{\Delta }$-laws, diquarks, and connections to lattice QCD.

In this paper, we present a recursive method for $\ell$-loop planar integrands in colored quantum field theories. We start with the classical equation of motion and then pick out the comb component, which will help us to define the loop kernels. Then we construct the $\ell$-loop integrands based on some recursion rules for the $\ell$-loop kernels. Finally, we reach a recursion formula for the $\ell$-loop planar integrands. Our method can be easily generalized to general quantum field theories, even non-Lagrangian theories, to obtain the planar part of the whole $\ell$-loop integrands.

It has been shown that the non-Abelian vortex string in 4D $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric QCD (SQCD) with the U(2) gauge group and $N_f=4$ flavors becomes a critical superstring. Its 10D target space is a product of the flat 4D space and an internal noncompact Calabi-Yau threefold, namely, the conifold. It was also shown that the Coulomb branch of the associated string sigma model, which opens up at strong coupling, can be described by $\mathcal{N}=2$ Liouville theory. We continue here the study of the recently proposed mass deformation of the U(2) theory with $N_f=4$, interpolating to SQCD with the U(4) gauge group and $N_f=8$ quarks, by analyzing the mass-deformed $\mathcal{N}=2$ Liouville theory on the string world sheet, and show that it is always described by the trumpet geometry of the target space, which is $T$-dual to the 2D $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric black hole. We use this correspondence to find the low-lying hadron spectrum in the deformed SQCD, and explain the expected increase in the number of hadronic states in the theory with more gauge fields and quarks by considering the near-Hagedorn behavior of the 2D black hole.

The renormalization group flow of the multiscalar interacting ${\phi }^3$ theory in $d=6$ dimensions is known to have a gradient structure, in which suitable generalizations of the $\beta$ functions $B^I$ emerge as the gradient of a scalar function $A$, ${\partial }_{I}A=T_{IJ}{B}^J$, with a nontrivial tensor $T_{IJ}$ in the space of couplings. This has been shown directly to three loops in schemes such as the modified minimal subtraction scheme ($\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$) and can be argued in general by identifying $A$ with the coefficient of the topological term of the trace anomaly in $d=6$ up to a normalization. In this paper we show that the same renormalization group has a gradient structure in $d=6-ϵ$. The requirement of a gradient structure is translated to linear constraints that the coefficients of the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ $\beta$ functions must obey, one of which is new and pertinent only to the extension to $d\ne 6$.

The high-temperature equilibrium partition function of a massless real scalar field nonminimally coupled to the scalar curvature is computed at second order in the derivative expansion on a generic stationary background. Using covariant perturbation theory, the expression of the thermal partition function at second order in powers of curvatures is also obtained, including its nonlocal contributions. For conformal coupling, the Weyl anomaly at fourth order in derivatives and second order in curvatures is evaluated using both expansions and the results found to be consistent.

We discuss the issue of defining and measuring conical deficits (conicity) in spacetimes with the torsion singularity such as the Misner string in Taub-NUT spacetime. We propose a geometric definition that generalizes the standard notion of conicity to stationary axially symmetric spacetimes with torsion singularity, where the conical deficit becomes observer dependent—it depends on the choice of a timelike Killing vector. This implies the existence of observers who perceive no conical singularity along the symmetry axis. As a result, in any spacetime with a nonvanishing NUT parameter, there are observers for whom the conicity has the same value on both semiaxes. This challenges the usual interpretation of conicity differences as indicators of string/rod-induced acceleration along the axis. We illustrate our definition across the full Plebański–Demiański class, including the recently identified accelerated Taub-NUT solution. Our attempts in determining a canonical observer lead to even less desirable definitions of conicity.

We develop a geometric extension of the Kerr-Schild ansatz that incorporates both electric and magnetic sectors of the Maxwell field in a unified framework, without resorting to duality rotations. We start observing that the known purely electric solution satisfies Maxwell’s equations due to a closedness condition obeyed by the Kerr-Schild null congruence. From the associated local exactness property, we construct a new 1-form naturally linked to the congruence as a sort of Poincaré dualization. This leads us to propose a geometrically motivated dyonic vector potential within the Kerr-Schild ansatz, defined as a superposition of an electric contribution along the congruence and a magnetic one that aligns to the dualized 1-form. We then show that for a stationary and axisymmetric Kerr-Schild ansatz, the electrovac circularity theorem uniquely constrains not only the scalar profile of the metric but also those associated with the electric-magnetic splitting of the gauge field. The resulting formalism provides a transparent derivation of the dyonic Kerr-Newman solution and extends naturally to the (A)dS case, highlighting the intrinsic interplay between geometry and matter in a Kerr-Schild setting.

We study circular orbits and accretion structures around symmetric wormholes. As exemplary solutions we choose three different wormhole spacetimes, namely rotating traversable wormholes from the Teo class, the rotating Simpson-Visser metric with the parameter spectrum corresponding to wormholes and a static wormhole from beyond Horndeski theories. We show the existence of a spectrum of circular orbits at the wormhole throat for each of these wormhole solutions and analyze the boundaries of this spectrum across the respective wormhole parameter range. For each of the solutions we identified that vast regions of the parameter space correspond to stable orbits. The presence of this orbit spectrum can be linked through accretion disk models to matter accumulations which may form at the throat. We present here examples of such disk solutions by implementing the Polish doughnut model. In some cases, these matter accumulations are encapsulating the throat and could imply central bright regions of the wormhole spacetime. Furthermore, the combined analysis of the equatorial Keplerian orbits and the throat orbits, leads to a set of different disk configurations, where matter accumulations at the throat may be present with outer tori around them, in some cases also as a connected structure. Our results may hint to possible instabilities of wormholes, especially if they have an ergoregion. Moreover, wormholes with such disks, may appear more starlike when it comes to their observational signature, due to the centralized and more spherical emission profile associated with the possible matter accumulations at the throat.

Weak lensing alters galaxy sizes and fluxes, influencing the clustering patterns of galaxies through cosmic magnification. This effect enables the reconstruction of weak lensing convergence $\widehat{\kappa }$ maps for Dark Energy Survey (DES) and Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) by linearly combining galaxy overdensities across magnitude bins in the $g$, $r$, and $z$ photometry bands (Qin et al.). In this study, we enhance the lensing reconstruction method by addressing biases in the magnification coefficient estimation, which arise from incomplete consideration of selection effects, especially those induced by photometric redshift (photo-$z$) selection. Using a random-forest-based photo-$z$ estimation for DECaLS and DES galaxies, we quantify the impact of photo-$z$ induced selection on magnification coefficient estimation. We characterize multiplicative bias by a factor $A$ such that $\widehat{\kappa }\propto A\kappa$, where $A$ measures the amplitude scaling of the reconstruction relative to the true convergence. Our results show that neglecting photo-$z$ selection introduces significant biases, with $A$ ranging from 0.4 to 3.5 depending on the survey, redshift, and magnitude cuts. By incorporating an improved magnification coefficient estimation that accounts for photo-$z$ selection, these biases are significantly reduced, with $A$ converging to $\sim 1$ as the magnitude cuts approach optimal values. This improvement is consistently observed across DES and DECaLS datasets and redshift bins, despite differences in survey strategies and depths. These findings highlight the importance of addressing photo-$z$ induced selection to achieve unbiased weak lensing reconstructions and accurate cosmic magnification measurements.

We perform a comprehensive Bayesian analysis to constrain the neutron star (NS) equation of state (EoS) using a wide range of terrestrial and astrophysical data. The terrestrial inputs include quantities related to symmetric nuclear matter (SNM) and symmetry energy up to two times saturation density (${\rho }_0\simeq 0.16{\mathrm{fm}}^{-3}$), derived from finite nuclei and heavy ion collisions (HIC). The astrophysical constraints incorporate NS radii and tidal deformabilities from recent Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) observations and GW170817, respectively. We consider five different EoS models: Taylor, $n/3$, Skyrme, relative mean field, and sound speed (CS), and analyze them by sequentially updating the priors with (i) chiral effective field theory ($\chi \mathrm{EFT}$)-based pure neutron matter, (ii) terrestrial, empirical, and earlier astrophysical data, (iii) case (ii) including NICER radii of PSR $\mathrm{J}0437+4715$ and $\mathrm{J}0614+3329$, (iv) all data combined, and (v) excluding empirical nuclear inputs. We also perform Bayesian model comparison, which favors the Skyrme model under all combined data [scenario (iv)], yielding tight constraints on symmetry energy parameters: $L_0=56\pm 3\mathrm{MeV}$ and $K_{\mathrm{sym}0}=-132\pm 15\mathrm{MeV}$, and also on SNM parameters: $K_0=265\pm 12\mathrm{MeV}$ and $Q_0=-366\pm 43\mathrm{MeV}$. The mass-radius and mass–tidal deformability posterior distributions are also well constrained. The radius and tidal deformability of a $1.4M_{\odot }$ neutron star are found to be $R_{1.4}=11.85\pm 0.11\mathrm{km}$ and ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{1.4}=354\pm 25$, respectively.

The Einstein Telescope (ET), along with other third-generation gravitational wave (GW) detectors, will be a key instrument for detecting GWs in the coming decades. However, analyzing the data and estimating source parameters will be challenging, especially given the large number of expected detections—on the order of ${10}^5$ per year—which make current methods based on stochastic sampling impractical. In this work, we use dingo-is to perform neural posterior estimation (NPE) of high-redshift events detectable with ET in its triangular configuration. NPE is a likelihood-free inference technique that leverages normalizing flows to approximate posterior distributions. After training, inference is fast, requiring only a few minutes per source, and accurate, as corrected through importance sampling and validated against standard Bayesian inference methods. To confirm previous findings on the ability to estimate parameters for high-redshift sources with ET, we compare NPE results with predictions from the Fisher information matrix (FIM) approximation. We find that NPE correctly recovers the eight degenerate sky modes induced by the triangular detector geometry, missed by the FIM analysis, resulting in an underestimation of sky localization uncertainties for most sources. FIM also overestimates the uncertainty in luminosity distance by a factor of $\sim 3$ on average when the injected luminosity distance is $d_{\mathrm{L}}^{\mathrm{inj}}>{10}^5\mathrm{Mpc}$, further confirming that ET will be particularly well suited for studying the early Universe.

Newborn magnetars are important gravitational wave sources due to their ultrastrong magnetic fields and fast spins, and the entire population in the Universe may significantly contribute to the stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB). In this work, we investigate the SGWB from newborn magnetars and assess its detectability by the advanced LIGO (aLIGO) and Einstein Telescope (ET) based on three typical formation mechanisms of magnetars, i.e., the $\alpha -\mathrm{\Omega }$ dynamo, convective dynamo, and magnetic flux conservation. For the two dynamo scenarios, when calculating the SGWB, we creatively incorporate the anticorrelations between the magnetic fields and initial spin periods $P_{\mathrm{i}}$ with the initial dipole-field distribution of newborn magnetars. For the flux-conservation scenario, a bimodal lognormal form is adopted to describe the distribution of initial dipole fields, and all magnetars are assumed to have the same $P_{\mathrm{i}}$. Our results show that the SGWB from newborn magnetars may be undetectable by the aLIGO and ET if the magnetars are formed due to these mechanisms since the signal-to-noise ratio of the SGWB with respect to the ET for an observation time of one year is only 0.37 for the $\alpha -\mathrm{\Omega }$ dynamo, $3\times {10}^{-4}$ for the convective dynamo, and at most 0.21 for the flux conservation.