Primordial black holes (PBHs) are hypothetical objects formed at the early epoch of the Universe, which could be a type of dark matter (DM) candidate without the need for new particles. The abundance of PBH DM has been constrained strictly by many observations. In this work, with the radio observations of Fornax and Segue I, we constrain the abundance of PBH in dwarf spheroidal galaxies through the synchrotron self-Compton effect of Hawking radiation electrons. By selecting optimal sources, we obtain the constraints on the fraction of PBH DM down to $\sim {10}^{-3}$ for Segue I and $\sim {10}^{-5}$ for Fornax at asteroidal mass. We also predict that, with 100 hours of future observation by the Square Kilometer Array, the synchroton self-Compton approach could place constraints comparable to the current strictest results for PBHs of $<5\times {10}^{15}\mathrm{g}$. Better projected constraints can be obtained by including the inverse Compton scattering on cosmic microwave background photons.

We argue that an ensemble of backgrounds best describes hydrodynamic dispersion relations in a medium with few degrees of freedom and is therefore subject to strong thermal fluctuations. In the linearized regime, dispersion relations become describable by polynomials with random coefficients. We give a short review of this topic and perform a numerical study of the distribution of the roots of polynomials whose coefficients are of the order of a Knudsen series but fluctuate in accordance with canonical fluctuations of temperature. We find that, remarkably, the analytic structure of the poles of fluctuating dispersion relations is very different from deterministic ones, particularly regarding the distribution of imaginary parts with respect to real components. We argue that this provides evidence that hydrodynamic behavior persists, and is enhanced, by nonperturbative background fluctuations.

In the present work, we study the possible production of the light neutral gauge boson (${\mathrm{Z}}^{\prime }$) candidates, which originated from a simplified-model scenario based on the mono-${\mathrm{Z}}^{\prime }$ model, in association with dark matter. This study has been performed by studying events with dimuon plus missing transverse energy produced in the simulated electron-positron collisions at the foreseen International Linear Collider (ILC), operating at 500 GeV center of mass energy and integrated luminosity of $1000{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. In case no new physics has been discovered, we set upper limits at 95% confidence level on the masses of various particles in the model as, spin-1 (${\mathrm{Z}}^{\prime }$), as well as the fermionic dark matter.

In the light of the evidence of a gravitational wave background from the NANOGrav 15 yr dataset, we reconsider the split Majoron model as a new physics extension of the standard model able to generate a needed contribution to solve the current tension between the data and the standard interpretation in terms of inspiraling supermassive black hole massive binaries. In the split Majoron model the seesaw right-handed neutrinos acquire Majorana masses from spontaneous symmetry breaking of global $U(1{)}_{B-L}$ in a strong first order phase transition of a complex scalar field occurring above the electroweak scale. The final vacuum expectation value couples to a second complex scalar field undergoing a low scale phase transition occurring after neutrino decoupling. Such a coupling enhances the strength of this second low scale first order phase transition and can generate a sizeable primordial gravitational wave background contributing to the NANOGrav 15 yr signal. Some amount of extraradiation is generated after neutron-to-proton ration freeze-out but prior to nucleosynthesis. This can be either made compatible with the current upper bound from primordial deuterium measurements or even be used to solve a potential deuterium problem. Moreover, the free streaming length of light neutrinos can be suppressed by their interactions with the resulting Majoron background, and this mildly ameliorates existing cosmological tensions. Thus cosmological observations nicely provide independent motivations for the model.

Asymptotically nonlocal field theories approximate ghost-free nonlocal theories at low energies, yet are theories of finite order in the number of derivatives. These theories have an emergent nonlocal scale that regulates loop diagrams and can provide a solution to the hierarchy problem. Asymptotic nonlocality has been studied previously in scalar theories, Abelian and non-Abelian gauge theories with complex scalars, and linearized gravity. Here we extend that work by considering an asymptotically nonlocal generalization of QCD, which can be used for realistic phenomenological investigations. In particular, we derive Feynman rules relevant for the study of the production of dijets at hadron colliders and compute the parton-level cross sections at leading order. We use these to determine a bound on the scale of new physics from Large Hadron Collider data, both for a typical choice of model parameters, and in the nonlocal limit.

The Bell nonlocality and entanglement are two kinds of quantum correlations in quantum systems. Due to the recent upgrade in the Beijing Spectrometer III (BESIII) experiment, it is possible to explore the nonlocality and entanglement in hyperon-antihyperon systems produced in electron-positron annihilation with high precision data. We provide a systematic method for studying quantum correlations in spin-$1/2$ hyperon-antihyperon systems through the measures for the nonlocality and entanglement. We find that with nonvanishing polarizations of the hyperon and its antihyperon, the kinematic region of nonlocality in the hyperon-antihyperon system is more restricted than the ${\tau }^{+}{\tau }^{-}$ system in which polarizations of $\tau$ leptons are vanishing. We also present an experimental proposal to probe the nonlocality and entanglement in hyperon-antihyperon systems at BSEIII.

It is fascinating to predict the mass and width of the ordinary and exotic mesons solely based on their quark content and quantum numbers. Such prediction goes beyond conventional methodologies traditionally employed in hadron physics for calculating or estimating these quantities. The relation between the quantum numbers and the properties of the mesons, such as the mass and width, is complicated in the world of particle physics. However, the deep neural network (DNN) as a subfield of machine learning techniques provides a solution to this problem. By analyzing large datasets, deep learning algorithms can automatically identify complex patterns among the particles’ quantum numbers, and their mass and width, that would otherwise require complex calculations. In this study, we present two approaches using the DNNs to estimate the mass of some ordinary and exotic mesons. Also for the first time, the DNNs are trained to predict the width of ordinary and exotic mesons, whose widths have not been experimentally known. Our predictions obtained through the DNNs, will be useful for future experimental searches.

We study the characteristics of quark matter under the influence of a background magnetic field with an anomalous magnetic moment of quarks at finite temperature and quark chemical potential in the framework of a Polyakov loop extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. In the presence of a magnetic field, the speed of sound and isothermal compressibility become anisotropic with respect to the direction of the background magnetic field, splitting into parallel and perpendicular directions with respect to the magnetic field. Though the qualitative nature of parallel and perpendicular components of squared speed of sound appear similar, they differ in magnitude at lower values of temperature. The parallel and perpendicular components of isothermal compressibility decrease with increasing temperature, indicating a trend towards increased incompressible strongly interacting matter. On inclusion of the anomalous magnetic moment of quarks, the perpendicular component of isothermal compressibility becomes greater than the parallel component. Additionally, we investigate the quark number susceptibility normalized by its value at zero magnetic field, which may indicate the presence of magnetic fields in the system.

We investigate the azimuthal asymmetries such as $\cos 2{\varphi }_T$ and Sivers symmetry for $J/\psi$ and ${\pi }^{\pm }$ production in electron-proton scattering, focusing on scenarios where the $J/\psi$ and the pion are produced in an almost back-to-back configuration. The electron is unpolarized, while the proton can be unpolarized or transversely polarized. For the $J/\psi$ formation, we use nonrelativistic QCD (NRQCD), while ${\pi }^{\pm }$ is formed due to parton fragmentation. In this kinematics, we utilize the transverse momentum-dependent factorization framework to calculate the cross sections and asymmetries. We consider both quark and gluon-initiated processes and show that the gluon contribution dominates. In this work, we used the generalized parton model (GPM) for the transverse momentum distribution (TMD) parametrizations and did not consider the effect of TMD evolution. We provide numerical estimates of the upper bounds on the azimuthal asymmetries, as well as employ a Gaussian parametrization for the gluon TMDs, within the kinematical region accessible by the upcoming Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).

We present the model we developed to reconstruct the CUORE radioactive background based on the analysis of an experimental exposure of 1038.4 kg yr. The data reconstruction relies on a simultaneous Bayesian fit applied to energy spectra over a broad energy range. The high granularity of the CUORE detector, together with the large exposure and extended stable operations, allow for an in-depth exploration of both spatial and time dependence of backgrounds. We achieve high sensitivity to both bulk and surface activities of the materials of the setup, detecting levels as low as $10\mathrm{nBq}{\mathrm{kg}}^{-1}$ and $0.1\mathrm{nBq}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}$, respectively. We compare the contamination levels we extract from the background model with prior radio-assay data, which informs future background risk mitigation strategies. The results of this background model play a crucial role in constructing the background budget for the CUPID experiment as it will exploit the same CUORE infrastructure.

We propose a top-down approach to noninvertible symmetries in two-dimensional quantum field theories and their three-dimensional (3D) associated symmetry topological field theories. We focus on the gauge theory engineered on D1-branes probing a particular Calabi-Yau 4-fold singularity. We show how to derive the symmetry topological field theory, a 3D Dijkgraaf-Witten theory, from the IIB supergravity under dimensional reduction. We also identify branes behind the noninvertible topological lines by dimensionally reducing their world volume actions. The action of noninvertible lines on charged local operators is then realized as the Hanany-Witten transition.

It has been suggested to use seismic detectors on the Moon as a tool to search for gravitational waves in an intermediate frequency range between mHz and Hz. Employing three different spherically symmetric models for the lunar interior, we investigate the response of the Moon to gravitational waves in Einstein and Jordan-Brans-Dicke gravity. We find that the first eigenfrequencies of the different models depend only weakly on the model details, with the fundamental frequency ${\nu }_1$ close to 1 ms both for spheroidal and toroidal oscillations. In contrast, the resulting displacement varies up to a factor 5, being in the range $(3.6\times {10}^{12}–1.9\times {10}^{13})/h_0\mathrm{cm}$ for spheroidal oscillations with amplitude $h_0$ and assuming a quality factor $Q_n=3300$. Toroidal oscillations are suppressed by a factor $2\pi \nu R/c$, both in Einstein gravity and in general scalar-tensor theories.

The boundary-to-bound (B2B) correspondence, which connects orbital and radiative observables between bound and unbound orbits, has recently been introduced and demonstrated in the perturbative regime. We produce a large number of numerical relativity simulations of bound and unbound encounters between two nonspinning equal mass black holes in order to test this correspondence in the nonperturbative regime. We focus on testing the radiated energy and angular momentum, as well as orbital parameters such as the period and periastron advance. We find that, across a wide range of eccentricities, the B2B relationships do not hold in the nonperturbative regime, thereby placing a clear limit on the applicability of these relationships. We also approximate the separatrix between bound and unbound relativistic encounters as a function of their initial energies and angular momenta.

Hairy black-holes are a unique prediction of certain theories that extend general relativity (GR) with a scalar field. The presence of scalar hair is reflected nontrivially in the entropy of the black hole along with any topological coupling that may be present in the action. Demanding that a system of two merging black holes obeys the global second law of thermodynamics imposes a bound on this topological coupling coefficient. In this work we study how this bound is pushed from its GR value by the presence of scalar hair by considering estimates of binary black-hole merger parameters through inference studies of both mock and real gravitational-wave (GW) events. Although the scalar charge may produce a statistically significant deviation of the change in entropy over the GR prediction, we find no evidence of this happening in the data from real GW events taken from GWTC-1. We also find the entropy change to be susceptible to biases arising out of GW inferences which ends up being two orders of magnitude larger, therefore overwhelming any change, if at all, induced by the scalar hair.

This paper investigates gravitational lensing effects in the presence of plasma in the strong deflection limit, which corresponds to light rays circling around a compact object and forming higher-order images. While previous studies of this case have predominantly focused on the deflection of light in a vacuum or in the presence of a homogeneous plasma, this work introduces an analytical treatment for the influence of a nonuniform plasma. After recalling the exact expression for the deflection angle of photons in a static, asymptotically flat and spherically symmetric spacetime filled with cold nonmagnetized plasma, a strong deflection limit analysis is presented. Particular attention is then given to the case of a Schwarzschild spacetime, where the deflection angle of photons for different density profiles of plasma is obtained. Moreover, perturbative results for an arbitrary power-law radial density profile are also presented. These formulas are then applied to the calculation of the positions and magnifications of higher-order images, concluding that the presence of a nonuniform plasma reduces both their angular size and their magnifications, at least within the range of the power-law indices considered. These findings contribute to the understanding of gravitational lensing in the presence of plasma, offering a versatile framework applicable to various asymptotically flat and spherically symmetric spacetimes.

High-accuracy gravitational-wave modeling demands going beyond linear, first-order perturbation theory. Particularly motivated by the need for second-order perturbative models of extreme-mass-ratio inspirals and black hole ringdowns, we present practical spherical-harmonic decompositions of the Einstein equation, Regge-Wheeler-Zerilli equations, and Teukolsky equation at second perturbative order in a Schwarzschild background. Our formulations are covariant on the $t\text{−}r$ plane and on the two-sphere, and we express the field equations in terms of gauge-invariant metric perturbations. In a companion Mathematica package, perturbationequations, we provide these invariant formulas as well as the analogous formulas in terms of raw, gauge-dependent metric perturbations. Our decomposition of the second-order Einstein equation, when specialized to the Lorenz gauge, was a key ingredient in recent second-order self-force calculations [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 021101 (2020); ibid. 127, 151102 (2021); ibid. 130, 241402 (2023)].

We initiate a general investigation into gravitational wave signatures of modifications to scattering of gravitational radiation from black holes. Such modifications may be present due to the quantum dynamics that makes black holes consistent with quantum mechanics, or in other models for departures from classical black hole behavior. We propose a parameterization of the corrections to scattering as a physically meaningful, model-independent, and practical bridge between theoretical and observational aspects of the problem; this parametrization can incorporate different models in the literature. We then describe how these corrections influence the gravitational wave signal, e.g. of a body orbiting a much more massive black hole. In particular, they generically change the rate of energy emission; this effect can be leveraged over many orbits of inspiral to enhance the sensitivity to small corrections, as has been noticed in simple models. We provide preliminary estimates of the sensitivity of future gravitational wave observations to these corrections, and outline further work to be done to connect both to a more fundamental theory of quantum black holes, and to realistic observational situations.

We propose the use of automatic differentiation through the programming framework JAX for accelerating a variety of analysis tasks throughout gravitational wave (GW) science. Firstly, we demonstrate that complete waveforms which cover the inspiral, merger, and ringdown of binary black holes (i.e., IMRPhenomD) can be written in JAX and demonstrate that the serial evaluation speed of the waveform (and its derivative) is similar to the lalsuite implementation in C. Moreover, JAX allows for graphics processing unit–accelerated waveform calls which can be over an order of magnitude faster than serial evaluation on a CPU. We then focus on three applications where efficient and differentiable waveforms are essential. Firstly, we demonstrate how gradient descent can be used to optimize the $\sim 200$ coefficients that are used to calibrate the waveform model. In particular, we demonstrate that the typical match with numerical relativity waveforms can be improved by more than 50%. Secondly, we show that Fisher forecasting calculations can be sped up by $\sim 3–5\times$ (on a CPU) with no loss in accuracy. This increased speed makes Fisher forecasting for a population of events substantially simpler. Finally, we show that gradient-based samplers like Hamiltonian Monte Carlo lead to significantly reduced autocorrelation values when compared to traditional Monte Carlo methods. Since differentiable waveforms have substantial advantages for a variety of tasks throughout GW science, we propose that waveform developers use JAX to build new waveforms moving forward. Our waveform code, ripple, can be found on GitHub website and will continue to be updated with new waveforms as they are implemented.

Accurate information from gravitational wave signals from coalescing binary neutron stars (BNSs) provides essential input to downstream interpretations, including inference of the neutron star population and equation of state. However, even adopting the currently most accurate and physically motivated models available for parameter estimation of BNSs, these models remain subject to waveform modeling uncertainty: differences between these models may introduce biases in recovered source properties. In this work, we describe injection studies investigating these systematic differences between the two best waveform models available for BNSs currently, NRHybSur3dq8Tidal and TEOBResumS. We demonstrate that, for BNS sources observable by current second-generation detectors, differences for low-amplitude signals are significant for certain sources.