In this work we calculate the renormalization of counterterms which arise in the lattice action of $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric QCD (SQCD). In particular, the fine-tunings for quartic couplings are studied in detail through both continuum and lattice perturbation theory at one-loop level. For the lattice version of SQCD we make use of the Wilson gauge action for gluon fields and the Wilson fermion action for fermion fields (quarks, gluinos); for squark fields we use naïve discretization. On the lattice, different components of squark fields mix among themselves and a total of ten quartic terms arise at the quantum level. Consequently, the renormalization conditions must take into account these effects in order to appropriately fine-tune all quartic couplings. All our results for Green’s functions and renormalization factors exhibit an explicit analytic dependence on the number of colors, $N_c$, the number of flavors, $N_f$, and the gauge parameter, $\alpha$, which are left unspecified. Results for the specific case $N_f=1$ are also presented, where the symmetries allow only five linearly independent quartic terms. For the calculation of the Green’s functions, we consider both one-particle reducible and one-particle irreducible Feynman diagrams. Knowledge of these renormalization factors is necessary in order to relate numerical results, coming from nonperturbative studies, to “physical” observables.

For the first time, we estimate the in-medium mass shift of the two-flavored heavy mesons $B_c,B_c^{*},B_s,B_s^{*},D_s$, and $D_s^{*}$ in symmetric nuclear matter. The estimates are made by evaluating the lowest order one-loop self-energies. The enhanced excitations of intermediate state heavy-light mesons in symmetric nuclear matter are the origin of their negative mass shift. This negative mass shift may be regarded as a signature of partial restoration of chiral symmetry in an empirical sense because the origin of the negative mass shift in the study is not directly related to the chiral symmetry mechanism. Our results show that the magnitude of the mass shift for the $B_c$ meson ($\overline{b}c$ or $b\overline{c}$) is larger than those of the ${\eta }_c(\overline{c}c)$ and ${\eta }_b(\overline{b}b)$, different from a naive expectation that it would be in between them. While, that of the $B_c^{*}$ shows the in between of the $J/\psi$ and $\mathrm{\Upsilon }$. We observe that the lighter vector meson excitation in each meson self-energy gives a dominant contribution for the corresponding meson mass shift, $B_c$, $B_s$, and $D_s$.

Treating $X(4140)$ as a compact $J^{PC}=1^{++}$ $cs\overline{c}\overline{s}$ state and using its mass as a reference scale, we systematically estimate the masses of doubly heavy tetraquark states $QQ\overline{q}\overline{q}$, where $Q=c$, $b$ and $q=u$, $d$, $s$. Their decay properties are studied with a simple rearrangement scheme. Based on our results, the lowest $I(J^P)=0(1^{+})$ $bb\overline{n}\overline{n}$ state is a stable tetraquark about 20 MeV below the ${\overline{B}}^{*}\overline{B}$ threshold. The mass and width of the low-mass $0(1^{+})$ $cc\overline{n}\overline{n}$ ($n=u$, $d$) tetraquark are compatible with the $T_{cc}(3875{)}^{+}$ observed by the LHCb Collaboration. The locations of the lowest $0(0^{+})$ and $0(1^{+})$ $bc\overline{n}\overline{n}$ states are found to be close to the $\overline{B}D$ and ${\overline{B}}^{*}D$ thresholds, respectively. We hope that the predicted ratios between partial widths of different channels may be helpful to identify compact tetraquark states from future measurements.

This study investigates the production of open-charm pentaquark molecular states, specifically $N{\overline{D}}^{*}$ and $\overline{N}{\overline{D}}^{*}$, within the $B^0\to {\overline{D}}^{0}p\overline{p}$ decay. We examine the invariant mass spectra of $p{\overline{D}}^0$ and $\overline{p}{\overline{D}}^0$, incorporating the rescattering process through a quasipotential Bethe-Salpeter equation approach. Our findings suggest the possible identification of the isoscalar $\overline{N}{\overline{D}}^{*}$ molecule with $3/2^{+}$ as the antiparticle partner of ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c(2940)$ in the $\overline{p}{\overline{D}}^0$ mass spectrum. Although a molecular state near the $\overline{N}\overline{D}$ threshold with $1/2^{-}$ exists, its signal is weak, indicating that the $B^0\to {\overline{D}}^{0}p\overline{p}$ decay may not be ideal for its detection. A distinct signal of the isovector $N{\overline{D}}^{*}$ molecule with $1/2^{-}$ may appear in the $p{\overline{D}}^0$ invariant mass spectrum, while the signal for the $3/2^{-}$ state remains very weak. We emphasize the importance of the three-body decay of the bottom meson as a valuable method for studying open-charm molecules and advocate for increased attention and more precise experimental measurements of the $B^0\to {\overline{D}}^{0}p\overline{p}$ decay.

We present a theory of false vacuum decay induced by spherical nucleation seeds. The type of seed considered has a boundary characterized by surface energy terms. The theory applies to false vacuum decay at zero and finite temperatures. Seeded nucleation may be important for enabling future false vacuum decay experiments on analog systems using Bose Einstein condensates (BEC). We show that our theory of seeded nucleation at finite temperature applied to a potassium BEC in two spatial dimensions agrees with numerical, real-time, simulations.

We study spherically symmetric static solutions of the most general sixth-derivative gravity using series expansions. Specifically, we prove that the only solutions of the complete theory (i.e., with generic coupling constants) that possess a Frobenius expansion around the origin, $r=0$, are necessarily regular. When restricted to specific branches of theories (i.e., imposing particular constraints on the coupling constants), families of potentially singular solutions emerge. By expanding around $r=r_0\ne 0$, we identify solutions with black hole horizons. Finally, we argue that, unlike in fourth-derivative gravity, the conditions $R=0$ and $g_{tt}{g}_{rr}=-1$ are too restrictive for sixth-derivative gravity solutions.

The Plebanski-Demianski metric is commonly thought to describe the most general type D black hole in general relativity (possibly coupled with Maxwell electromagnetism), but in the form we know at the moment, it fails to include the elusive accelerating spacetimes with gravitomagnetic mass without angular momentum. We propose a very general type D metric, stemming from a binary black hole system, which represents a novel branch of the type D spacetimes: accelerating Kerr-Newman-NUT black hole with cosmological constant. It has straightforward limits to all the known type D black holes in the Einstein-Maxwell theory and in particular to the accelerating Reissner-Nordstrom-NUT solution, yet unknown in the literature.

Nonthermal fermionic particle production is investigated in Einstein-Cartan modified gravity with a modified Holst term and nonminimal couplings between the spin connection and a fermion. By using the auxiliary field method, the theory is rewritten into a pseudoscalar-tensor theory with Einstein-Hilbert action and canonical kinetic and potential terms for a pseudoscalar field. The introduced field is called Einstein-Cartan pseudoscalaron. If the potential energy of the Einstein-Cartan pseudoscalaron dominates the energy density of the early universe, it causes inflationary expansion. After the end of inflation, the pseudoscalaron develops a large value and the nonminimal couplings destabilize the vacuum. Evaluating the nonthermal fermionic particle production process, we obtain the mass and the helicity dependences of the produced particle number density. We show the model parameters to enhance the preheating and reheating processes.

We investigate the potential of CO rotational lines at redshifts $z\sim 0–6$ being an appreciable source of extragalactic foreground anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. Motivated by previous investigations, we specifically focus on the frequency bands and small scales probed by ground-based surveys. Using an empirical parametrization for the relation between the infrared luminosity of galaxies and their CO line luminosity, conditioned on sub-mm observations of CO luminosity functions from $J=1$ to $J=7$ at $\nu =\{100,250\}\mathrm{GHz}$, we explore how uncertainty in the CO luminosity function translates into uncertainty in the signature of CO emission in the cosmic microwave background. We find that at $\ell =3000$ the amplitude of both CO autocorrelation and cross-correlation with the cosmic infrared background could be detectable in an ACT-like experiment with 90, 150 and 220 GHz bands, even in the scenarios with the lowest amplitude consistent with sub-mm data. We also investigate, for the first time, the amplitude of the $\mathrm{CO}\times$ cosmic infrared background correlation between different frequency bands and find that our model predicts that this signal could be comparable to the amplitude of the cosmic infrared background frequency cross-correlation at certain wavelengths. This implies current observations can potentially be used to constrain the bright end of CO luminosity functions, which are difficult to probe with current sub-mm telescopes due to the small volumes they survey. Our findings corroborate past results and have significant implications in template-based searches for cosmic microwave background secondaries, such as the kinetic Sunyaev Zel’dovich effect, using the frequency-dependent high-$\ell$ temperature–temperature power spectrum.

The idea of a rapid sign-switching cosmological constant (mirror AdS-dS transition) in the late universe at $z\sim 1.7$, known as the ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{\mathrm{s}}\mathrm{CDM}$ model, has significantly improved the fit to observational data and provides a promising scenario for alleviating major cosmological tensions, such as the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions. However, in the absence of a fully predictive model, implementing this fit required conjecturing that the dynamics of the linear perturbations are governed by general relativity. Recent work embedding the ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{\mathrm{s}}\mathrm{CDM}$ model with the Lagrangian of a type II minimally modified gravity known as VCDM has propelled ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{\mathrm{s}}\mathrm{CDM}$ to a fully predictive model, removing the uncertainty related to the aforementioned assumption; we call this new model ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{\mathrm{s}}\mathrm{VCDM}$. In this work, we demonstrate that not only does ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{\mathrm{s}}\mathrm{CDM}$ fit the data better than the standard $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ model, but the new model, ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{\mathrm{s}}\mathrm{VCDM}$, performs even better in alleviating cosmological tensions while also providing a better fit to the data, including cosmic microwave background, baryon acoustic oscillations, type Ia supernovae, and cosmic shear measurements. Our findings highlight the ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{\mathrm{s}}\mathrm{CDM}$ framework, particularly the ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{\mathrm{s}}\mathrm{VCDM}$ model, as a compelling alternative to the standard $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ model, especially by successfully alleviating the $H_0$ tension. Additionally, these models predict higher values for ${\sigma }_8$, indicating enhanced structuring, albeit with lower present-day matter density parameter values and consequently reduced $S_8$ values, alleviating the $S_8$ tension as well. This demonstrates that the data are well fit by a combination of background and linear perturbations, both having dynamics differing from those of $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$. This paves the way for further exploration of new ways for embedding the sign-switching cosmological constant into other models.

The Hubble constant, $H_0$, is a crucial parameter in cosmology. However, various cosmic observations have produced differing posterior values for $H_0$, resulting in what is referred to as the $H_0$ tension. To resolve this discrepancy, utilizing other cosmological probes to constrain $H_0$ is advantageous. In the quest to identify dark matter candidates, the QCD axion and axionlike particles, collectively referred to as axions, have become leading contenders. These elusive particles can coalesce into dense structures known as axion stars via Bose-Einstein condensation. When these axion stars exceed a critical mass, typically through accretion or merging, they experience a self-induced collapse. This process results in short radio bursts, assuming a decay constant $f_a\lesssim {10}^{13}\mathrm{GeV}$, with the frequency depending on the axion mass and the luminosity determined by both the axion mass and decay constant. Therefore, we propose that collapsing axion stars could serve as a novel standard candle to constrain $H_0$. Even more interesting is that the radio bursts emitted by collapsing axion stars with specific parameters match the characteristics of observed nonrepeating fast radio bursts. Thus, fast radio bursts generated by collapsing axion stars have the potential to be used as standard candles to constrain $H_0$.

A major issue in optical astronomical image analysis is the combined effect of the instrument’s point spread function (PSF) and the atmospheric seeing that blurs images and changes their shape in a way that is band and time-of-observation dependent. In this work we present a very simple neural network based approach to nonblind image deconvolution that relies on feeding a convolutional autoencoder (CAE) input images that have been preprocessed by convolution with the corresponding PSF and its regularized inverse, a method which is both conceptually simple and computationally less intensive. We also present here, a new approach for dealing with limited input dynamic range of neural networks compared to the dynamic range present in astronomical images.

Dark matter may induce an event in an Earth-based detector, and its event rate is predicted to show an annual modulation as a result of the Earth’s orbital motion around the Sun. We searched for this modulation signature using the ionization signal of the DarkSide-50 liquid argon time projection chamber. No significant signature compatible with dark matter is observed in the electron recoil equivalent energy range above $40{\mathrm{eV}}_{\mathrm{ee}}$, the lowest threshold ever achieved in such a search.

We discuss the potential of future proton decay experiments on the exploration of the flavor space of grand unification. We focus on an eaconomical $SU(5)$ grand unified model (GUT) with the fermion sector extended by including only one copy of 24-plet. Neutrino masses are generated via type-($\mathrm{I}+\text{III}$) seesaw mechanism with the lightest neutrino massless. Gauge unification requires masses of fermions in the 24-plet to be hierarchical, in particular, the electroweak singlet and triplet heavy leptons to be around the canonical seesaw scale and TeV scale, respectively. We address how extra parameters in the flavor space which cannot be touched in flavor measurements can be tested by a multichannel analysis in future proton decay measurements.

Motivated by the ongoing analysis by the BESIII Collaboration on the single-tagged $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to e^{+}{e}^{-}\eta {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ reaction, we present a phenomenological study of the diphoton fusion to $\eta {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$, focusing on the production mechanism of the $f_1(1285)$ resonance. Contributions from the $f_1(1285)\to a_0(980{)}^{\pm }{\pi }^{\mp }$ and $f_1(1285)\to \sigma /f_0(500)\eta$ channels are included without introducing free parameters within an effective Lagrangian approach. Assuming the destructive interference between the amplitudes, we predict the invariant mass distributions, angular distributions, and total cross sections of the ${\gamma }^{*}\gamma \to \eta {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ process, which will be tested by the forthcoming BESIII measurements.

There are several approaches to formulate gauge-invariant models for massive integer-spin fields in $d$ dimensions including the following: (i) in terms of symmetric tensor fields ${\varphi }_{{\mu }_1\dots {\mu }_k}$, with $k=s,s-1,\dots ,0$, restricted to be double traceless for $k\ge 4$; and (ii) in terms of a quartet of traceful symmetric tensor fields ${\psi }_{{\mu }_1\dots {\mu }_k}$, of rank $k=s,s-1,s-2,s-3$. We demonstrate that these formulations in Minkowski space ${\mathbb{M}}^d$ are equivalent to the gauge-invariant theory for a massive integer-spin field proposed in 1989 by Pashnev. We also make use of the Klishevich-Zinoviev theory in ${\mathbb{M}}^d$ to derive a unique generalization of the Singh-Hagen model for a massive integer-spin field in $d>4$ dimensions.

In this paper, we study some of the properties of the $G\to 0$ limit of the Kerr-Newman solution of Einstein-Maxwell equations. Carter noted the near equality between the gyromagnetic ratio, or g-factor, of the Kerr-Newman solution and of the electron. This observation is a consequence of the multipole structure of the Kerr-Newman field. We discuss additional coincidences between the Kerr-Newman multipole structure and the properties of the electron. In contrast to the Coulomb field, this spinning Maxwell field has a finite Lagrangian. Moreover, by evaluating the Lagrangian for the superposition of two such Kerr-Newman electromagnetic fields on a flat background, we are able to find their interaction potential. This yields a correction to the Coulomb interaction due to the spin of the field.

We examine extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs), where a charged compact object spirals into a supermassive black hole, in modified gravity theories with additional scalar or vector fields. Using the Teukolsky and generalized Sasaki-Nakamura formalisms, we provide the post-Newtonian expansion of the energy flux of the vector waves up to $O(v^5)$ beyond the quadrupole formula in the weak field and numerically calculate the energy flux in the strong field for a charged particle moving in circular orbits. Our findings reveal a degeneracy in the scalar and vector charge parameters for weak-field, slow-motion orbits. However, for strong-field, fast-motion orbits close to the innermost stable circular orbit, we observe distinct behaviors between scalar and vector fields. We investigate the potential of using EMRIs detected by space-based gravitational-wave detectors, such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna to identify whether a black hole carries a scalar or vector charge. The influence of scalar and vector flux on the orbital evolution and tensor GW phase is not suitable for us to distinguish scalar and vector fields for their correlations that exist between the scalar and vector flux. However, extra polarizations emitted by the scalar or vector field can break the correlations between the scalar field and vector field and then help us distinguish the scalar and vector field.

The four-point correlation function is the lowest order correlation function for scalar fields that can be used to probe statistical parity invariance in an isotropic universe. There are intriguing claims of detection of parity violation in the 4-point function of BOSS galaxy clustering data. We apply the same estimator to the public SDSS Data Release 16 Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data. Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data probes a different redshift range and is sensitive to a different density regime using a completely different technique. A detection would therefore be a strong indication of new physics. We identify an accurate covariance matrix as a crucial impediment to performing this measurement accurately, consistent with existing literature on galaxy 4-point function. We discuss several approaches to estimating the covariance matrix, several of which produce spurious detection. Using a robust, but very suboptimal, covariance matrix derived from subsample bootstrapping, we find no evidence for parity violation.