Weak-gravitational lensing tends to wash out scale- and time-dependent features of the clustering of matter, such as the baryonic acoustic oscillations which appear in the form of wiggles in the matter power spectrum but that disappear in the analogous lensing $C_{\ell }$. This is a direct consequence of lensing being a projected effect. In this paper, we demonstrate how the noise complexity—often deemed “erasing the signal”—induced by a particular deprojection technique, the Bernardeau-Nishimichi-Taruya transform [Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 445, 1526 (2014)], can be used to extract the baryonic acoustic oscillation signal and non-Gaussian aperture-mass-like properties at chosen physical scales. We take into account parts of the data vectors that should effectively be without cosmological signature and also introduce an additional reweighting designed to specifically highlight clustering features—at both the probe (summary statistics) or map (amplitude of the field) level. We thus demonstrate why weak-gravitational lensing by the large-scale structure of the Universe, though only in a tomographic setting, does not erase scale- and time-dependent features of the dynamics of matter while providing a tool to effectively extract them from actual galaxy-shape measurements.

We calculate the $f$-mode frequency of quark stars using the full general relativity method, and evaluate the tidal overlap with an analogy method incorporating effective general relativistic corrections. We verify the universal relations obtained from conventional neutron stars in the case of quark stars, including the $f{M}_{1.4}–\mathrm{\Lambda }$ and $Q_{f}R/M–\mathrm{\Lambda }$ relations, and explore the cases with different values of parameters of the quark star equation of state. Since quark stars have significantly smaller radii compared to neutron stars in the low-mass range, the ${\omega }_{f}R–\mathrm{\Lambda }$ relation differs between neutron stars and quark stars. This difference has an impact on the dynamical tide, which is the lowest-order effect we know of that can distinguish quark stars and neutron stars from the gravitational wave during the inspiral phase. We calculate the tidal dephasing caused by this effect using the post-Newtonian method and estimate that ${34}_{-16}^{+12}$ events for the Einstein Telescope and ${10}_{-6}^{+5}$ events for Cosmic Explorer are required to distinguish between quark stars and neutron stars at the population level.

As the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration’s (LVK’s) gravitational-wave transient catalog grows, we are learning a wealth of information from the population properties of binary black hole mergers. Events in the catalog are represented with posterior samples describing the astrophysical parameters for each event. Population studies combine these samples to measure the distribution of astrophysical parameters such as black hole masses and spins. However, the posterior-sample representation of each event is only approximate. We construct a mock population with masses drawn from an astrophysically motivated distribution with sharp features. Using this, we demonstrate that when $\gtrsim 300$ events are combined, even with each event’s posterior represented by $1\times {10}^4-2\times {10}^4$ samples, the numerical error can become large enough that the resulting population inference is unreliable. We consider two solutions. In the short term, we show that nested samples (already produced by LVK analyses) can be used to more accurately describe each event in population studies. But this will only grant a temporary reprieve until the nested-sample representation becomes inadequate. In the longer term, we propose to represent each event with a normalizing flow. In order to represent each event with sufficient accuracy, each normalizing flow can be used to generate an arbitrarily large number of new posterior samples with a significantly reduced computational cost relative to traditional sampling methods. When compared to nested sampling, our normalizing flows produce posterior draws with a median of $\approx 80\%$ fewer likelihood evaluations per sample, while also providing greater opportunity for parallelization. We believe refinement of normalizing flow architectures and training techniques in future works could further reduce this per-sample cost significantly.

If dark matter consists of ultralight bosons, on galactic scales, it can be effectively described as a coherent classical field experiencing oscillations. Such a field could perturb the dynamics of celestial bodies via a direct coupling to ordinary matter, introducing signatures detectable through high-precision pulsar timing analysis. In this work, we extend a two-step Bayesian inference framework, originally developed for linearly coupled scalar ultralight dark matter (ULDM), to probe a quadratic scalar coupling and spin-1 vector dark matter. By explicitly marginalizing over nuisance orbital parameters, our approach provides robust sensitivity limits that avoid the artificial overestimation often associated with direct fitting techniques. For quadratic scalar ULDM, we establish new constraints on the coupling $\beta$ for masses between $2\times {10}^{-22}$ and $2\times {10}^{-21}\mathrm{eV}$ inaccessible to other experiments, while identifying mass regimes where the sensitivity is dominated by the orbital phase ${\mathrm{\Psi }}^{\prime }$ or the projected semimajor axis $x$. For vector ULDM, we characterize resonant signatures present even in circular orbits and obtain bounds on the coupling $g$ within the ${10}^{-23}$ to ${10}^{-18}\mathrm{eV}$ range, yielding results within the same orders of magnitude as current laboratory and space-based experiments.

We simulate a self-interacting three-flavor neutrino system within a core-collapse supernova using a hybrid classical-quantum algorithm on a qutrit computer. Based on the Dirac-Frenkel evolution equations, we employ a variation of the quantum-assisted simulator to calculate the system’s time evolution operator by performing qutrit Hadamard tests to find expectation values of unitary operators in the Hamiltonian. The time evolution simulation is then done classically. We find that the hybrid algorithm produces results comparable to an exact numerical integration out to times of $t\approx 30{\omega }_0^{-1}$ with time step $\delta t=0.005{\omega }_0^{-1}$, where ${\omega }_0$ is the energy scale of the single neutrino vacuum oscillations. We discuss the lessons learned in simulating neutrino systems using this hybrid quantum-classical algorithm, along with the advantages it offers over quantum Trotterization.

Flavor conversion can affect the neutrino-driven delayed explosion mechanism of collapsing massive stars, altering the efficiency of shock revival. We perform core-collapse supernova simulations in spherical symmetry for a set of progenitors with masses of $9.75M_{\odot }$, $11M_{\odot }$, $16.5M_{\odot }$, $28M_{\odot }$, $40M_{\odot }$, and $60M_{\odot }$, accounting for a mixing-length treatment for convection. Flavor conversion is modeled assuming instantaneous flavor equipartition below a critical baryon density, while conserving the lepton number. Regardless of the progenitor compactness, its mass, or the nuclear equation of state, we find that flavor conversion can increase heating (cooling) and enhance (hinder) the supernova explosion, if triggered near the gain (neutrino decoupling) region. Our findings suggest that the interplay among the region of the supernova core where flavor conversion occurs, the progenitor properties, and the nuclear equation of state is crucial in determining the fate of explosion and the properties of the compact remnant.

Since the first gravitational-wave (GW) detection of September 14, 2015, and with hundreds of gravitational-wave sources identified by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network, GW have produced many important results in astrophysics and fundamental physics. Along with planned new data takings, current detectors will be upgraded, and new projects, such as the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, are under study. Among noises limiting low frequency sensitivity, vibroacoustic noises are particularly important. In this work, we focus on the gravity gradient noise (also called Newtonian noise) of acoustic origin, which refers to the small fluctuations in the gravity field resulting from the acoustic pressure field present in the experimental areas of the detector. The induced noise is quantified in an original way, using a detailed numerical acoustic model of the experimental room, when the pressure field is excited by the air conditioning system. The method is used for Virgo, but it can be easily extended for future detectors and used to guide the design of caverns and experimental areas.

In this work, we propose a novel definition of the one-point charge correlator (QC) adapted to the Breit frame in deep-inelastic scattering (DIS). We demonstrate that this observable is infrared and collinear (IRC) safe, ensuring its perturbative calculability. Utilizing soft-collinear effective theory (SCET), we systematically analyze the QC in both the forward and back-to-back limits. In the forward limit, we introduce the nucleon charge correlator as a novel nonperturbative object that encodes the multidimensional microscopic structure of the nucleon. In the back-to-back limit, the QC establishes a direct correspondence with transverse momentum-dependent distributions (TMDs), enabling its description within the standard TMD factorization formalism. The singular distributions are derived within SCET and are verified by the full quantum chromodynamics calculations up to $\mathcal{O}({\alpha }_s^2)$. The corresponding collinear logarithms are resummed to all orders with the accuracy of NLL [$\mathcal{O}({\alpha }_s^n{L}^{n-1})$], while the transverse momentum-dependent logarithms are resummed to all orders with the accuracy of ${\mathrm{N}}^3\mathrm{LL}$ for the unpolarized distribution and ${\mathrm{N}}^2\mathrm{LL}$ for the Sivers asymmetry.

We derive the gluon transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD) operator structure of back-to-back quark-antiquark dijet production in deep inelastic scattering at arbitrary Bjorken-$x$ to twist-3 accuracy. Working at leading order in the strong coupling and in the kinematic regime where the transverse momentum imbalance of the jets is much smaller than their individual transverse momenta, we perform a systematic gradient expansion of the quark propagator in a background gluon field. This expansion organizes multiple interactions with the target in terms of longitudinal Wilson lines and gauge-invariant field-strength insertions, yielding a TMD description valid beyond the strict high-energy eikonal ($x\to 0$) approximation. We obtain explicit cross sections for longitudinally and transversely polarized virtual photons, identifying all contributing gluon TMD operators up to twist-3, including structures involving $F^{+-}$, $F^{ij}$, and three-gluon correlators. The full longitudinal phase $e^{ix{P}^{+}{z}^{-}}$ associated with Bjorken-$x$ is retained throughout. In the small-$x$ limit, our results reproduce the known subeikonal expressions obtained in the color glass condensate framework, establishing a direct connection between the general-$x$ TMD expansion and high-energy factorization. We further reduce the operator basis using equations of motion, minimizing the number of independent nonperturbative matrix elements entering the cross section. This work provides a systematic foundation for extending TMD analyses of dijet production beyond leading twist, establishing a unified operator framework valid at arbitrary Bjorken-$x$ that smoothly interpolates between moderate- and small-$x$ descriptions of gluon TMDs.

We explore a portal vectorlike lepton (pVLL) extension of the Standard Model (SM) and study its implications for Higgs and vector-boson associated production ($hV$, with $V=Z$-boson or dark photon) at a future muon collider facility. We show that while the ${\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}\to hZ$ production rate remains close to its SM prediction in a wide range of parameter space, the rate for ${\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}\to h{\gamma }_d$ can be substantially enhanced owing to the nondecoupling nature of the interaction involving the heavy lepton, the muon and the dark photon. We demonstrate that the $h{\gamma }_d$ production rate can exceed the corresponding $hZ$ rate by a factor of 1–100 within the perturbative unitarity limit, making it a promising channel for probing Higgs interactions and potential new physics effects. We also examine the role of the pVLL state in the context of dark matter (DM) phenomenology and identify regions of parameter space consistent with the observed relic abundance by extending the simplified setup with a viable DM candidate. The $h{\gamma }_d$ production can also be used to constrain the dark photon mass ($m_{{\gamma }_d}$) and/or the dark gauge coupling ($g_d$) consistent with various constraints including the current muon $g-2$ measurements within the pVLL framework. We perform a detailed collider analysis of the $h{\gamma }_d$ process in the $b\overline{b}+$ missing energy final state. A $2\sigma$ exclusion limit for $m_{{\gamma }_d}$ up to 80 GeV is obtained assuming $g_d=0.05$, $\sin {\theta }_L=4\times {10}^{-5}$, $\sin {\theta }_s=0.05$, for a heavy lepton mass $\sim 3\mathrm{TeV}$ at a 3 TeV muon collider with an integrated luminosity of $1{\mathrm{ab}}^{-1}$.

We construct an $SU(5)$ grand unified theory on domain walls in the five-dimensional space-time. In this setup, we introduce an adjoint scalar field and a singlet that together form a set of five domain-wall solutions, realizing a dynamical brane world. The same scalar fields also localize chiral fermion zero modes around the walls via the Jackiw-Rebbi mechanism, break $SU(5)$ down to the Standard Model gauge group via geometric Higgs mechanism and simultaneously trap gauge fields through a field-dependent gauge kinetic term. Furthermore, they enable localization of the Higgs field, providing a novel solution to the doublet-triplet splitting problem. As a result, all essential ingredients of the model are realized by a single adjoint scalar field and a singlet, making the construction very economical. We propose two realizations of the Higgs sector, derive the four-dimensional effective theory, and demonstrate that the Standard Model Yukawa couplings at the weak scale can be reproduced from the five-dimensional Yukawa couplings by the renormalization group analysis with a suitable choice of parameters.

In this work, we study a two-mode bosonic encoding of a quoctit inside a non-Abelian group-structured constellation of coherent states. This work is motivated by the importance of non-Abelian symmetry in particle physics and the desire to have transversal non-Abelian logical gates. We use the previously developed $2T$ constellation of states used to encode a so-called $2T$ qutrit. The fidelity of the $2T$ quoctit is benchmarked against other bosonic qudits for different noise models and find it compare favorably when power constraints are considered. This paves the way for the construction of higher-dimensional qudits (e.g., a quicosotetrit with $2T$ group structure) in bosonic systems with practical applications in quantum simulations of particle physics.

We report the presence of a flavor-violating correction to the $VAAA$-type anomaly, ${\delta }^{(\prime )}$, induced by the surface terms of the anomalous quark triangle diagram, previously found in the $\eta ,{\eta }^{\prime }\to {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}\gamma$ decay amplitudes, and investigate its impact on the corresponding semileptonic decay modes of $\eta$ and ${\eta }^{\prime }$. The magnitude of ${\delta }^{(\prime )}$ can be set from the experimental data on the ${\eta }^{(\prime )}\to {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}\gamma$ decay width. We then estimate another low-energy constant, the slope parameter ${\alpha }^{(\prime )}$. The impact of different schemes for describing $\eta -{\eta }^{\prime }$ mixing on the value of ${\delta }^{(\prime )}$ and ${\alpha }^{(\prime )}$ is discussed. The predictions are shown to be in complete agreement with the available experimental data.

We investigate the properties of neutral and charged mesons in magnetic fields, from weak-field to strong-field regimes. To develop analytic insights, we employ a nonrelativistic quark model with a confining potential of the harmonic oscillator type. Short-range correlations, such as Coulomb and color-magnetic interactions, are treated as perturbations. In particular, we focus on the magnetic field dependence of the relative and the center-of-mass motions. The qualitative trends differ significantly between neutral and charged mesons; for neutral mesons, the transverse momenta are conserved and continuous, while charged mesons exhibit quantized transverse dynamics. The Zeeman effects, arising from intrinsic spins and orbital angular momenta, are carefully examined. In particular, for charged mesons with spins $s\ge 1$, we discuss how the zero-point energy in the internal quark motion cancels the Zeeman energy from the orbital angular momentum, ensuring the energetic stability of mesons with high spins. The effectively reduced dimensionality of these mesons in the strong-field limit is also discussed.

The pressure-energy equations of state in the nucleon are derived from the gravitational form factors, which parametrize matrix elements of the energy-momentum tensor (EMT), together with EMT conservation. The pressure and energy densities naturally separate into two distinct components. The static pressure distribution, arising from the Lorentz trace part of the EMT, as manifested in the spatial stress $\frac{1}{3}{T}^{ii}$, is equal to minus the corresponding trace part of the energy density. This relation may be interpreted as a consequence of the full or partial depletion of the gluon and quark condensates through the pressure-volume relation. The resulting trace anomaly–and sigma term–induced pressure is shown, through its volume scaling, to play a pivotal role in QCD confinement. In contrast, the dynamic pressure distribution, associated with the traceless part of the stress tensor, equals $1/d$ of the corresponding traceless part of the energy density, where $d$ is the spatial dimension. These static and dynamic components together satisfy the pressure-balance condition in the nucleon. We further show that the same pressure-energy equations of state hold for vortices in type-II superconductors, where the static pressure-energy relation originates from the depletion of the Cooper-pair condensate. Moreover, these equations of state are identical to those of the $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ cosmological model, where the static pressure-energy relation is generated by the cosmological constant.

We investigate the in-medium properties of the $\varphi$ meson with finite momentum, going beyond the commonly studied case at rest. In a nuclear medium, Lorentz invariance is broken, leading to distinct longitudinal and transverse polarization modes that evolve differently with density and momentum. Within an effective Lagrangian approach, we calculate the polarization-dependent mass shifts and width modifications of the $\varphi$ meson arising from $K\overline{K}$ loops and mean-field interactions. The divergent loop integrals are regulated using two different schemes: a covariant form factor and dimensional regularization. Our results show that the mass shift of the transverse polarization is independent of the $\varphi$-meson momentum, whereas that of the longitudinal polarization decreases quadratically with momentum. This difference originates from the coupling of the longitudinal mode to the vector mean field and derivative-type interactions in the self-energy. These effects have direct implications for experimental observables, especially for upcoming measurements at J-PARC, and provide a new prediction for experiments studying hadron dynamics in dense matter.

The critical regions enveloping the critical end point (CEP) in the $\mu \text{−}T$ plane are mapped by computing the contours of normalized quark number susceptibility within the on-shell renormalized $2+1$ flavor quark-meson (RQM) and Polyakov-loop enhanced renormalized Polyakov-quark-meson (RPQM) models for $m_{\sigma }=400$ and 500 MeV. The apparent precision for the results of CEP coordinates merely reflects numerical binning of two decimal places rather than the effect of including full thermal and vacuum quantum fluctuations, as direct meson loops are omitted under a large-$N_c$ justification where quark-loop fluctuations dominate. The renormalized ’t Hooft coupling $c$ becomes substantially stronger in the RQM model when the meson self-energies due to quark loops are computed using the pole masses of mesons and parameters are fixed on shell [, [Phys. Rev. D 108, 074002 (2023)]] after a consistent treatment of quark one-loop vacuum fluctuations, while the light and strange chiral symmetry-breaking strengths also become weaker. We evaluate the impact of these novel features on critical fluctuations. Furthermore, the improved PolyLog-glue form of the Polyakov-loop potential from Haas et al. [Phys. Rev. D 87, 076004 (2013)] is employed to isolate the effects of the quark backreaction on critical fluctuations, and the results are contrasted against backreaction-free outcomes obtained using the logarithmic potential. Utilizing inputs from large-$N_c$ standard chiral perturbation theory, phase diagrams are also computed in the light chiral limit ($m_{\pi }=0$), quantifying the proximity of the tricritical point to the CEP. The critical regions from the RQM/RPQM models are compared with those reported by Schaefer and Wagner [Phys. Rev. D 85, 034027 (2012)], where curvature masses are used for parameter fixing. Phase diagrams incorporating vector interactions in the RQM/RPQM model reveal that the CEP and first-order transition survive up to a robust coupling of $g_{\omega }=2.79$, rendering them highly relevant for compact star equations of state and astrophysical phenomenology.

The standard $\mathrm{\Lambda }$-cold dark matter model has encountered serious challenges and the $H_0$ tension has become more significant with increasingly precise cosmological observations. Meanwhile, inconsistencies in measurements of the curvature parameter ${\mathrm{\Omega }}_K$ between different datasets also have emerged. In this Letter, we employ two global and cosmic age-based parametrizations, a parametrization based on cosmic age (PAge) and a more accurate parameterization based on cosmic age (MAPAge), to perform model-independent measurements of the Hubble constant $H_0$ and ${\mathrm{\Omega }}_K$ by utilizing the inverse distance ladder (IDL). To construct the PAge-improved IDL, we utilize the strong gravitational lensing (SGL), cosmic chronometers (CCs), and $\gamma$-ray burst (GRB) data to calibrate the latest Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) second data release baryon acoustic oscillation and Dark Energy Survey (DES) year 5 or DES-Dovekie type Ia supernova data. Our analysis indicates that DESI+DES-Dovekie+SGL+CC+GRB gives $H_0=72.20\pm 1.00\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$ in the MAPAge model, reducing the $H_0$ tension to the $0.6\sigma$ level. Extending to the $\mathrm{MAPAge}+{\mathrm{\Omega }}_K$ model, we obtain ${\mathrm{\Omega }}_K=0.005\pm 0.037$, which suggests that current late-time data are consistent with a flat universe. Finally, the Bayesian analysis indicates that the present late-Universe data provide weak to moderate evidence in favor of PAge and MAPAge relative to $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$.

We develop a real-time Wigner-functional lattice framework with positive Hartree-Gaussian initial sampling and introduce a connected-cluster survival criterion for extracting false vacuum decay rates across the crossover from quantum fluctuations to thermal nucleation. At high temperatures, the connected-cluster rate agrees well with the Hartree-resummed thermal nucleation benchmark, while the commonly used global-survival criterion can give substantially smaller rates because of multiseed dynamics and global averaging. At low temperatures, the connected-cluster and global-survival rates approach each other in the dilute-event regime, whereas the false vacuum fraction observable can be contaminated by transient spatial conversion and kink-antikink reflection. Our results clarify how different real-time observables encode distinct aspects of metastable decay.

We study the production of spin-$1/2$ particle-antiparticle pairs in curved spacetimes with nontrivial dependence on more than one coordinate. To this end, we develop two complementary approaches. First, we extend the scattered-wave-function (SWF) method, originally introduced for pair production in electromagnetic backgrounds, to curved spacetime backgrounds. Second, we complete the development of an open-worldline-instanton method by deriving the preexponential factor of the pair-production probability. We apply both methods to several two-dimensional metrics and find good agreement between the resulting probabilities. While the SWF approach provides numerically exact results and is particularly efficient for the examples considered here, the instanton approach offers favorable scaling to higher-dimensional backgrounds and more extreme parameter regimes. These methods provide new tools for studying pair production in multidimensional gravitational backgrounds beyond the reach of many existing approaches.