In recent years, the lack of a conclusive detection of weakly interacting massive particle dark matter at the $10\mathrm{GeV}/{\mathrm{c}}^2$ mass scale and above has encouraged development of low-threshold detector technology aimed at probing lighter dark matter candidates. Detectors based on Cooper-pair-breaking sensors have emerged as a promising avenue for this detection due to the low (meV-scale) energy required for breaking a Cooper pair in most superconductors. Among them, devices based on superconducting qubits are interesting candidates for sensing due to their observed sensitivity to broken Cooper pairs. We have developed an end-to-end g4cmp-based simulation framework and have used it to evaluate performance metrics of qubit-based devices operating in a gate-based “energy relaxation” readout scheme, akin to those used in recent studies of qubit sensitivity to ionizing radiation. We find that for this readout scheme, the qubit acts as a phonon sensor with an energy threshold ranging down to $\simeq 0.4\mathrm{eV}$ for near-term performance parameters.

Motivated by the key role of shear induced polarization in understanding the local spin polarization puzzle of $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ hyperons in heavy ion collisions, we perform a complete analysis of spin polarization of massive fermion in a quantum electrodynamic plasma with shear flow. Apart from the well-known spin-shear coupling in free theory, we include two more collision dependent contributions: one is a nondynamical contribution fixed by shifted spin-averaged distribution in steady state; the other is a dynamical contribution following from spin evolution. Despite of the dependencies on collision, we find the dependencies on coupling drop out in the final results. These contributions can lead to significant enhancement of the spin-shear coupling in phenomenologically interesting regime.

We present our study of the $\rho (770)$ and $K^{*}(892)$ resonances from lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) employing domain-wall fermions at physical quark masses. We determine the finite-volume energy spectrum in various momentum frames and obtain phase-shift parametrizations via the Lüscher formalism and as a final step the complex resonance poles of the $\pi \pi$ and $K\pi$ elastic scattering amplitudes via an analytical continuation of the models. By sampling a large number of representative sets of underlying energy-level fits, we also assign a systematic uncertainty to our final results. This is a significant extension to data-driven analysis methods that have been used in lattice QCD to date, due to the two-step nature of the formalism. Our final pole positions, $M+i\mathrm{\Gamma }/2$, with all statistical and systematic errors exposed, are $M_{K^{*}}=893(2)(8)(54)(2)\mathrm{MeV}$ and ${\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{K^{*}}=51(2)(11)(3)(0)\mathrm{MeV}$ for the $K^{*}(892)$ resonance and $M_{\rho }=796(5)(15)(48)(2)\mathrm{MeV}$ and ${\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{\rho }=192(10)(28)(12)(0)\mathrm{MeV}$ for the $\rho (770)$ resonance. The four differently grouped sources of uncertainties are, in the order of occurrence: statistical, data-driven systematic, an estimation of systematic effects beyond our computation (dominated by the fact that we employ a single lattice spacing), and the error from the scale-setting uncertainty on our ensemble.

We discuss the hadronic structure-dependent radiative corrections to the axial-vector coupling that controls single-nucleon weak charged-current processes—commonly denoted by $g_A$. We match the Standard Model at the GeV scale onto chiral perturbation theory at next-to-leading order in the one-nucleon sector, in the presence of electromagnetic and weak interactions. As a result, we provide a representation for the corrections to $g_A$ in terms of infrared finite convolutions of simple kernels with the single-nucleon matrix elements of time-ordered products of two and three quark bilinears (vector, axial-vector, and pseudoscalar). We discuss strategies to determine the required nonperturbative input from data, lattice-QCD ($+\mathrm{QED}$), and possibly hadronic models. This work paves the way for a precise comparison of the values of the ratio $g_A/g_V$ extracted from experiment and from lattice QCD, which constrain physics beyond the Standard Model.

The inclusive cross sections of prompt $J/\psi$ and $\psi (3686)$ production are measured at center-of-mass energies from 3.808 to 4.951 GeV. The dataset used is $22{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ annihilation data collected with the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII storage ring. The results obtained are in agreement with the previous BESIII measurements of exclusive $J/\psi$ and $\psi (3686)$ production. The average values obtained for the cross sections measured in the center-of-mass energy ranges from 4.527 to 4.951 GeV for $J/\psi$ and from 4.843 to 4.951 GeV for $\psi (3686)$, where the impact of known resonances is negligible, are $14.0\pm 1.7\pm 3.1\mathrm{pb}$ and $15.3\pm 3.0\mathrm{pb}$, respectively. For $J/\psi$, the first and the second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. For $\psi (3686)$, the uncertainty is total. These values are useful for testing charmonium production models.

We propose a novel ansatz, where the full black hole geometry is written as a linear in mass perturbation of the associated extremal black hole base. Contrary to its standard version, the corresponding extremal Kerr-Schild form is no longer restricted to special algebraic type spacetimes, and is applicable to numerous black hole solutions with matter, such as the charged Kerr-Newman-Unti-Tamburino (NUT)-(A)dS spacetimes, black holes of $D=5$ minimal gauged supergravity, or the charged dilaton-axion rotating solutions. This ansatz has immediate implications for the double copy program and is likely to find its applications in black hole perturbation theory, shed new light on the Conformal Field Theory (CFT) description of nonextremal black holes, as well as be useful for constructing new exact solutions.

Anti–de Sitter vacuum, which corresponds to a negative cosmological constant (NCC), is theoretically important and well-motivated. However, whether it exists in reality or not has always been a highly concerning issue. In this paper, we perform the first search for NCC using recent Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument baryon acoustic oscillation measurements combined with Planck cosmic microwave background and Pantheon Plus supernova data. Though we did not find the evidence for NCC, we observed the indication for it. NCC is preferred at $>68\%$ significance level, and we also found that such a NCC can make the evolving dark energy component (coexisting with NCC) quintessencelike, i.e., the state equation $w\ge -1$. Our work highlights the potential of upcoming cosmological surveys to search for NCC.

Formation channels of merging compact binaries imprint themselves on the distributions and correlations of their source parameters, but current understanding of this population is hindered by simplified parametric models. We overcome such limitations using PixelPop [J. Heinzel, M. Mould, S. Álvarez-López, and S. Vitale, companion paper, Phys. Rev. D 111, 063403 (2025)]—our Bayesian nonparametric multidimensional population model. We analyze data from the first three LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing runs and make high resolution, minimally modeled measurements of the pairwise distributions of binary black hole masses, redshifts, and spins. We find no evidence that the mass spectrum evolves over redshift and show that such measurements are fundamentally limited by the detector horizon. We find support for correlations of the spin distribution with binary mass ratio and redshift, but at reduced significance compared to overly constraining parametric models. Confident data-driven conclusions about population-level correlations with flexible models like PixelPop will require more informative gravitational-wave catalogs.

Foundation models are neural networks that are capable of simultaneously solving many problems. Large language foundation models like ChatGPT have revolutionized many aspects of daily life, but their impact for science is not yet clear. In this paper, we use a new foundation model for hadronic jets to solve three key challenges in collider physics. In particular, we show how experiments can (1) save significant computing power when developing reconstruction algorithms, (2) perform a complete uncertainty quantification for high-dimensional measurements, and (3) search for new physics with model agnostic methods using low-level inputs. In each case, there are significant computational or methodological challenges with current methods that limit the science potential of deep learning algorithms. By solving each problem, we take jet foundation models beyond proof-of-principle studies and into the toolkit of practitioners.

A measurement of the ratio of branching fractions $R(J/\psi )=\mathcal{B}(B_c^{+}\to J/\psi {\tau }^{+}{\nu }_{\tau })/\mathcal{B}(B_c^{+}\to J/\psi {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu })$ in the $J/\psi \to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$, ${\tau }^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }{\overline{\nu }}_{\tau }$ decay channel is presented. This measurement uses a sample of proton-proton collision data collected at a center-of-mass energy of $13\mathrm{TeV}$ by the CMS experiment in 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $59.7{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The measured ratio, $R(J/\psi )=0.17_{-0.17}^{+0.18}{(\mathrm{stat})}_{-0.22}^{+0.21}{(\mathrm{syst})}_{-0.18}^{+0.19}(\mathrm{theo})=0.17\pm 0.33$, agrees with the value of $0.2582\pm 0.0038$ predicted by the standard model, which assumes lepton flavor universality. By testing lepton flavor universality, this measurement is a probe of new physics using $B_c^{+}$ mesons, which are currently only produced at the LHC.

We present a new approach to bootstrapping stringlike theories by exploiting a local crossing symmetric dispersion relation and field redefinition ambiguities. This approach enables us to use mass-level truncation and to go beyond the dual resonance hypothesis. We consider both open and closed strings, focusing mainly on open tree-level amplitudes with an integer-spaced spectrum, and two leading Wilson coefficients as inputs. Using entanglement minimization in the form of the minimum of the first finite moment of linear entropy or entangling power, we get an excellent approximation to the superstring amplitudes, including the leading and subleading Regge trajectories. We find other interesting S matrices that do not obey the duality hypothesis, but exhibit a transition from Regge behavior to power law behavior in the high energy limit. Finally, we also examine machine-learning techniques to do bootstrap and discuss potential advantages over the present approach.

We renormalize quantum chromodynamics (QCD) when gauge fixed in the nonlinear Curci-Ferrari gauge to four loops in the modified minimal subtraction ($\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$) scheme. We reproduce the four loop QCD $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ $\beta$-function from the Slavnov-Taylor identity for this gauge which relates the coupling constant renormalization to the gluon, Faddeev-Popov ghost and gauge parameter anomalous dimensions. This is carried out for a nonzero gauge parameter, without having to evaluate a vertex function. The anomalous dimension of the BRST invariant dimension two gluon and ghost mass term is deduced from a similar Slavnov-Taylor identity for this gauge. Consequently we construct the renormalization group functions in the minimal momentum subtraction scheme to four loops. As a corollary we deduce the five loop $\beta$-function and quark mass anomalous dimensions in the same scheme. We also outline the pros and cons of employing the Curci-Ferrari gauge to access the six loop QCD $\beta$-function in the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ scheme.

Spaceborne gravitational wave (GW) detectors employ heterodyne interferometry to measure the minute spacetime deformation between two free-falling test masses (TMs) in the frequency range of ${10}^{-4}\mathrm{Hz}$ to 1 Hz. Time-delay interferometry (TDI) is a key data processing technique that suppresses the primary laser phase noise by combining time-shifted interferometer measurements. The noises due to TM acceleration and optical metrology system (OMS) displacement are secondary but inevitable, governing the upper limit of the detector’s sensitivity. The optimal scenario is that all remaining technical noises should be suppressed below these inevitable ones. In this regard, a precise assessment of secondary noise is crucial for the success of ongoing spaceborne GW detection missions. The present study proposes a novel scheme for estimating such noises via noise transfer functions, which is independent of specific noise models. In particular, it is pointed out that the noise transfer functions specific to distinct TDI combinations furnish a matrix. When the matrix is not singular, the frequency profiles of the underlying inevitable noise can be extracted by inverting it. As an example, we estimate the TM acceleration and OMS noises from signals generated by numerical simulations where the presence of an unknown plasma noise is also assumed. It is argued that our algorithm facilitates in-flight instrument performance monitoring without requiring additional measurement, potentially enhancing the reliability and accuracy of GW detection.

Scalar-tensor theories are promising dark energy models. A promising scalar-tensor theory, called Horndeski-like gravity, is coming from the application of the Horndeski gravity in string theory and cosmology that takes into account two dilaton fields. In this work we study the stability of the scalar sector of this theory and compare it with that coming from the previously studied tensor sector. With the first-order formalism we investigate the allowed background solutions. Focusing on the background solution with a single scalar field, the entropy coming from particle production $S_{\mathrm{in}}$ and that of the apparent horizon $S$ will be studied, which translates into entropy bounds. These entropy bounds are compared with the stability of the scalar and tensor sector as well. The gravitational slip (minus one) to entropy ratio is also considered as a possible replacement for the usual shear viscosity to entropy ratio for black holes.

We study the dynamics of spherically symmetric black holes in scalar Gauss-Bonnet gravity with an additional coupling between the scalar field and the Ricci scalar using nonlinear simulations that employ excision. In this class of theories, black holes possess hair if they lie in a specific mass range, in which case they exhibit a finite-area singularity, unlike general relativity. Our results show that the Ricci coupling can mitigate the loss of hyperbolicity in spherical evolution with black hole initial data. Using excision can enlarge the parameter space for which the system remains well posed, as one can excise the elliptic region that forms inside the horizon. Furthermore, we explore a possible relation between the loss of hyperbolicity and the formation of the finite-area singularity inside the horizon. We find that the location of the singularity extracted from the static analysis matches the location of the sonic line well. Finally, when possible, we extract the monopolar quasinormal modes and the timescale of the linear tachyonic instability associated with scalarization. We also check our results by utilizing a continued fraction analysis and supposing linear perturbations of the static solutions.

The Thomas-Whitehead (TW) action embeds the projectively invariant connection into a gravitational theory that contains general relativity [S. Brensinger, K. Heitritter, V. G. J. Rodgers, and K. Stiffler, [Phys. Rev. D 103, 044060 (2021)]; and , Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 33, 1850223 (2018); V. G. J. Rodgers, in Particles, Fields and Topology, Chap. 19, pp. 201–211]. In this work, the diffeomorphism field ${\mathcal{D}}_{ab}$ is examined in Minkowski space where salient features of this field can be explored. In particular, we study the radiative degrees of freedom of this field while in a Minkowski space background. We show that it can be decomposed into irreducible representations, corresponding to tensor, vector, and scalar radiating solutions. Furthermore we examine geodesic deviation in the context of TW gravity about a Minkowski space background. We do this both at zeroth and first order in metric fluctuations $h_{ab}$. We discuss that response of a gravitational wave antenna to the geodesics deviations. Measurements of gravitational waves by detectors like LIGO, VIRGO, KAGRA, LISA as well as Pulsar Time Arrays (PTAs) have constrained the presence of nontransverse-traceless modes in other theories of gravity. Future work could similarly be done to constrain the diffeomorphism field modes in TW gravity.

We investigate the influence of the reheating temperature of the visible sector on the freeze-in dark matter (DM) benchmark model for direct detection experiments, where DM production is mediated by an ultralight dark photon. Here, we consider a new regime for this benchmark: we take the initial temperature of the thermal Standard Model (SM) bath to be below the DM mass. The production rate from the SM bath is drastically reduced due to Boltzmann suppression, necessitating a significant increase in the portal coupling between DM and the SM to match the observed relic DM abundance. This enhancement in coupling strength increases the predicted DM-electron scattering cross section, making freeze-in DM more accessible to current direct detection experiments.

We present a detailed test for Gaussianity of Planck polarization data using statistics of unpolarized points on the sky, i.e. such points where the linear polarization vanishes. The algorithm we propose for finding such points is stable and guarantees their 100% detection. Our approach allows us to analyze the data for Gaussianity of the signal at different angular scales and detect areas on the polarization maps with a significant contribution from unremoved non-Gaussian foregrounds. We found very strong deviations from Gaussianity for E and B modes in the Planck cosmic microwave background data both over the entire sky and in some specific regions of the celestial sphere.

In this brief article, we pursue the systematic investigation of possible gravitational wave sources in the gigahertz band. We focus on hyperbolic encounters of light black holes and evaluate precisely the expected signal when accounting for the detailed characteristics of haloscope experiments. Considering the GraHal setup as a benchmark, we insist on the correct signal-to-noise ratio expression, taking into account the appropriate timescales resulting from both physical and instrumental constraints. The associated maximum distance—of the order of a hundredth of an astronomical unit—at which an event can be detected is calculated for optimal, suboptimal, and general trajectories. The main conclusion is that detection seems clearly out of reach.