Scalar-Gauss-Bonnet (sGB) gravity with an additional coupling between the scalar field and the Ricci scalar exhibits very interesting properties related to black hole stability, evasion of binary pulsar constraints, and general relativity as a late-time cosmology attractor. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that a spherically symmetric collapse is well posed for a wide range of parameters. In the present paper we examine further the well-posedness through $3+1$ evolution of static and rotating black holes. We show that the evolution is indeed hyperbolic if the weak coupling condition is not severely violated. The loss of hyperbolicity is caused by the gravitational sector of the physical modes, thus it is not an artifact of the gauge choice. We further seek to compare the Ricci-coupled sGB theory against the standard sGB gravity with additional terms in the Gauss-Bonnet coupling. We find strong similarities in terms of well-posedness, but we also point out important differences in the stationary solutions. As a by-product, we show strong indications that stationary near-extremal scalarized black holes exist within the Ricci-coupled sGB theory, where the scalar field is sourced by the spacetime curvature rather than the black hole spin.

We update the field-level inference code karmma to enable tomographic forward-modeling of shear maps. Our code assumes a log-normal prior on the convergence field, and properly accounts for the cross-covariance in the lensing signal across tomographic source bins. We use mock weak lensing data from $N$-body simulations to validate our mass-mapping forward model by comparing our posterior maps to the input convergence fields. We find that karmma produces more accurate reconstructions than traditional mass-mapping algorithms. Moreover, the karmma posteriors reproduce all statistical properties of the input density field we tested—1- and 2-point functions, and the peak and void number counts—with $\approx 10\%$ accuracy. Our posteriors exhibit a small bias that increases with decreasing source redshift, but these biases are small compared to the statistical uncertainties of current [Dark Energy Survey (DES)] cosmic shear surveys. Finally, we apply karmma to DES year 3 weak lensing data, and verify that the 2-point shear correlation function ${\xi }_{+}$ is well fit by the correlation function of the reconstructed convergence field. This is a nontrivial test that traditional mass mapping algorithms fail.

Higgs inflation with a Gauss-Bonnet term is studied in the Einstein frame. Our model features two coupling functions, ${\mathrm{\Omega }}^2(\varphi )$ and $\omega (\varphi )$, coupled to the Ricci scalar and Gauss-Bonnet combinations. We found a special relation ${\mathrm{\Omega }}^2\propto \omega$ sets the system a lot more simplified; therefore, we take it for granted in our analytical studies. As a result of a Weyl transformation to the Einstein frame, we notice the emergence of new interactions: a nonminimal kinetic coupling between the scalar field and gravity and a derivative self-interaction of the scalar field. In the Einstein frame, we investigate the cosmological implications of these interactions by deriving the background equation of motion and observable quantities. Our numerical result on $n_S$ vs $r$ suggests our model is consistent with the observational data for a wide range of the model parameter, $-1.4\times {10}^4\lesssim \alpha \equiv \frac{\omega }{{\mathrm{\Omega }}^2}\lesssim 8\times {10}^3$, where both the positive and negative values of $\alpha$ are allowed. As the Gauss-Bonnet contributions decay away with time after inflation, the propagation speed of gravitational waves turned out to be consistent with the recent constraints on the propagation speed of gravitational waves without inducing ghost instability.

In this paper, we investigate the behavior of a massive scalar field dark matter scenarios in the large mass limit around a central Reissner-Nordström black hole. This study is motivated by observations from the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, which does not exclude the possibility of the existence of such black holes. Through these inquiries, we uncover that the electric charge may significantly impact the scalar field profile and the density profile in the vicinity of the black hole. For the maximum electric charge allowed by the constraints of the Event Horizon Telescope, the maximum accretion rate decreases by $\sim 50\%$ compared to the Schwarszchild case for marginally bound orbits. The maximum accretion rate of the massive scalar field is approximately ${\dot{M}}_{\mathrm{SFDM}}\sim {10}^{-8}{M}_{\odot }{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$, which is significantly lower than the typical baryonic accretion rate commonly found in the literature. This implies that the scalar cloud located at the center of galaxies may have survived until present times.

We measure the line-of-sight accelerations of 26 binary pulsars due to the Milky Way’s gravitational potential, and produce a three-dimensional map of the acceleration field of the Galaxy. Acceleration measurements directly give us the change in the line-of-sight velocity at present day, without requiring any assumptions inherent to kinematic modeling. We measure the Oort limit (${\rho }_0=0.062\pm 0.017M_{\odot }/{\mathrm{pc}}^3$) and the dark matter density in the midplane (${\rho }_{0,\mathrm{DM}}=-0.010\pm 0.018M_{\odot }/{\mathrm{pc}}^3$); these values are similar to, but have smaller uncertainties than, previous pulsar timing measurements of these quantities. Here, we provide for the first time, values for the Oort constants and the slope of the rotation curve from direct acceleration measurements. We find that $A=15.4\pm 2.6\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{kpc}$ and $B=-13.1\pm 2.6\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{kpc}$ (consistent with results from Gaia), and the slope of the rotation curve near the Sun is $-2\pm 5\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{kpc}$. We show that the Galactic acceleration field is clearly asymmetric, but due to data limitations it is not yet clear which physical processes drive this asymmetry. We provide updated models of the Galactic potential that account for various sources of disequilibrium; these models are incompatible with commonly used kinematic potentials. This indicates that use of kinematically derived Galactic potentials in precision tests (e.g., in tests of general relativity with pulsar timing) may be subject to larger uncertainties than reported. The acceleration data indicates that the mass of the Galaxy within the Solar circle is $2.3\times {10}^{11}{M}_{\odot }$, roughly twice as large as currently accepted models. Additionally, the residuals of the acceleration data compared to existing Galactic models have a dependence on radial position; this trend can be explained if the Sun has an additional acceleration away from the Galactic Center.

Parity doublet model is an effective chiral model that includes the chiral-variant and -invariant masses of baryons. The chiral-invariant mass has large impacts on the density dependence of models which can be constrained by neutron star observations. In the previous work, models of two flavors have been considered up to a few times nuclear saturation density, but in such dense regions it is also necessary to consider hyperons. With the chiral-invariant masses baryons can stay massive in extreme environments (e.g., neutron stars) where the chiral symmetry restoration takes place. In this work, we generalize the previous ${\mathrm{SU}(2)}_L\times {\mathrm{SU}(2)}_R$ parity models of nucleons to ${\mathrm{SU}(3)}_L\times {\mathrm{SU}(3)}_R$ models of the baryon octet within the linear realization of the chiral symmetry. The major problem in constructing such models has been too many candidates for the chiral representations of baryons. Motivated by the concepts of diquarks and the mended symmetry, we choose the $(3_L,{\overline{3}}_R)+({\overline{3}}_L,3_R)$, $(3_L,6_R)+(6_L,3_R)$, and $(1_L,8_R)+(8_L,1_R)$ representations and use quark diagrams to constrain the possible types of Yukawa interactions. The masses of the baryon octets for positive and negative baryons up to the first excitations are successfully reproduced. As expected from the diquark considerations, the ground-state baryons are well dominated by $(3_L,{\overline{3}}_R)+({\overline{3}}_L,3_R)$ and $(1_L,8_R)+(8_L,1_R)$ representations, while the excited states require $(3_L,6_R)+(6_L,3_R)$ representations. Important applications of our model are the chiral restoration for strange quarks at large density and the continuity of diquarks from hadronic to quark matter. We also address the problem of large Yukawa couplings which are enhanced in three-flavor construction.

We compute the next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections to the vertices where a pair of the lightest neutralino couples to $CP$-even (light or heavy) Higgs scalars. In particular, the lightest neutralino is assumed to be a dominantly binolike mixed state, composed of bino and Higgsino or bino, wino, and Higgsino. After computing all the three-point functions in the electroweak minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), we detail the contributions from the counterterms that arise in renormalizing these vertices in one-loop order. The amendment of the renormalized vertices impacts the spin-independent direct detection cross sections of the scattering of nucleons with dark matter. We perform a comprehensive numerical scan over the parameter space where all the points satisfy the present $B$-physics constraints and accommodate the muon’s anomalous magnetic moment. Finally, we exemplify a few benchmark points, which indulge the present searches of supersymmetric particles. After including the renormalized one-loop vertices, the spin-independent DM-nucleon cross sections may be enhanced up to 20% compared to its tree-level results. Finally, with the NLO cross section, we use the recent LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) results on the neutralino-nucleon scattering to display the relative rise in the lowest allowed band of the Higgsino mass parameter in the $M_1\text{−}\mu$ plane of the electroweak MSSM.

We introduce our novel Bayesian parton density determination code, partondensity.jl. The motivation for this new code, the framework, and its validation are described. As we show, partondensity.jl provides both a flexible environment for the determination of parton densities and a wealth of information concerning the knowledge update provided by the analyzed dataset.

We present a detailed study of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) gap equation “replicae” or excited vacuum states, orthogonal to the ground-state one, in the chiral-quark sector of the Hamiltonian Coulomb-gauge model of chromodynamics. Analyzing the number of negative eigenmodes of the energy density’s Hessian we believe that we have identified all of the (negative energy-density) vacua of this nonlinear system, namely the ground BCS state and one (or two) replicae for slightly massive (or massless) quarks, given the interaction strength typical of the strong interactions. The meson spectrum over each of the replicae looks similar, so the differences are not significant enough given model uncertainties, but matrix elements are more sensitive and allow to distinguish them. We propose to look for such excited vacua in lattice gauge theory by trying to identify excitations with scalar quantum numbers which have energies proportional to the lattice volume (unlike conventional mesons for which the mass stabilizes to a constant upon taking the infinite volume limit).

We present the first lattice-QCD result for the Zemach and Friar radii of the proton and neutron. Our calculation includes both quark-connected and -disconnected diagrams and assesses all sources of systematic uncertainties arising from excited-state contributions, finite-volume effects, and the continuum extrapolation. At the physical point, we obtain for the proton $r_Z^p=(1.013\pm 0.010(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.012(\mathrm{syst}))\mathrm{fm}$ and $r_F^p=(1.301\pm 0.012(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.014(\mathrm{syst}))\mathrm{fm}$. These numbers suggest small values of the Zemach and Friar radii of the proton but are compatible with most of the experimental studies.

We discuss how the quark masses and their mass splitting affect the baryons in the Skyrme model as well as the Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto (WSS) model. In both cases, baryons are described by solitonic objects, i.e., Skyrmions and instantons, respectively. After the quantization of their zero modes, the nucleons become quantum states of a rotor. We show how the quark mass affects the moment of inertia and we provide a semianalytic approach valid in the small-mass limit. Additionally, we show how the two lightest quarks’ mass splitting affects the moments of inertia of the Skyrmion and induces an isospin breaking effect. This effect turns out not to be enough to split the degeneracy in the neutron-proton multiplet, but it splits some of the states in the $\mathrm{\Delta }$ multiplet. Unlike the basic Skyrme model, the WSS model already includes vector mesons and another mechanism to transfer isospin breaking from quark masses to the solitons is known. We compute the splitting of the moment of inertia in the small-mass limit in the WSS model and combine the two effects on the spectrum of baryons, in particular the $\mathrm{\Delta }$’s.

We study the Higgs branches of the 6D (1, 0) little string theories that live on the world volume of NS5-branes probing an ADE-singularity in the heterotic $E_8\times E_8$ and $\text{Spin}(32)/{\mathbb{Z}}_2$ string theories. On the $E_8\times E_8$ side, such little string theories (LSTs) are obtained via fusion of orbi-instanton SCFTs. For the ${\mathbb{C}}^2/{\mathbb{Z}}_K$ orbifolds, we determine a magnetic quiver for the Higgs branch from the alternative type IIA brane system engineering the LST; we show that the magnetic quiver obtained in this way is the same as the Coulomb gauging of the 3D mirrors associated with the orbi-instanton building blocks. Using quiver subtraction, we determine the Hasse diagram of Higgs branch renormalization group flows between the LSTs, and we analyze how the structure constants of the generalized global symmetries vary along the edges of the Hasse diagram. From the Hasse diagram of the Higgs branch, we are immediately able to identify LSTs with the same T-duality-invariant properties, and thus propose candidate T-dual pairs. We perform a similar analysis of the Higgs branch Hasse diagram and putative T-dual families for particular $E_6$-orbifold LSTs by taking advantage of a duality between a rank zero orbi-instanton theory and a rank one conformal matter theory.

We investigate the dynamical tide in a gravitational wave (GW)-driven coalescing binary involving at least one neutron star (NS). The deformed NS is assumed to spin rapidly, with its spin axis antialigned with the orbit. Such an NS may exist if the binary forms dynamically in a dense environment, and it can lead to a particularly strong tide because the NS f-mode can be resonantly excited during the inspiral. We present a new analytical solution for the f-mode resonance by decomposing the tide into a resummed equilibrium component varying at the tidal forcing frequency and a dynamical component varying at the f-mode eigenfrequency that is excited only around mode resonance. This solution simplifies numerical implementations by avoiding the subtraction of two diverging terms as was done in previous analyses. It also extends the solution’s validity to frequencies beyond mode resonance. When the dynamical tide back reacts on the orbit, we demonstrate that the commonly adopted effective Love number is insufficient because it does not capture the tidal torque on the orbit that dominates the back reaction during mode resonance. An additional dressing factor originating from the imaginary part of the Love number is therefore introduced to model the torque. The dissipative interaction between the NS and the orbital mass multipoles is computed including the dynamical tide and shown to be subdominant compared to the conservative energy transfer from the orbit to the NS modes. Our study shows that orbital phase shifts caused by the $l=3$ and $l=2$ f-modes can reach 0.5 and 10 radians at their respective resonances if the NS has a spin rate of 850 Hz and direction antialigned with the orbit. Because of the large impact of the $l=2$ dynamical tide, a linearized analytical description becomes insufficient, calling for future developments to incorporate higher-order corrections. After mode excitation, the orbit cannot remain quasicircular, and the eccentricity excited by the $l=2$ dynamical tide can approach nearly $e\simeq 0.1$, leading to nonmonotonic frequency evolution which breaks the stationary phase approximation commonly adopted by frequency domain phenomenological waveform constructions. Lastly, we demonstrate that the GW radiation from the resonantly excited f-mode alone can be detected with a signal-to-noise ratio exceeding unity at a distance of 50 Mpc with the next-generation GW detectors.

Using the “composite harmonic mapping method,” we construct exact solutions for cylindrically symmetric gravitational and electromagnetic waves within the Einstein-Maxwell system, focusing on the conversion dynamics between these types of waves. In this approach, we employs two types of geodesic surfaces in ${\mathrm{H}}_{\mathrm{C}}^2$: (a) the complex line and (b) the totally real Lagrangian plane, applied to two different vacuum seed solutions: (i) a vacuum solution previously utilized in our studies and (ii) the solitonic vacuum solution constructed previously by Economou and Tsoubelis. We study three scenarios: case (a) with seeds (i) and (ii), and case (b) with seed (ii). In all cases (a) and (b), solutions demonstrate notable mode conversions near the symmetric axis. In case (a) with seed (i) or seed (ii), we show that any change in the occupancy of the gravitational or electromagnetic mode relative to the C-energy near the axis always reverts to its initial state once the wave moves away from the axis. Particularly in case (b) with seed (ii), nontrivial conversions occur even when the wave moves away from the axis. In this case, the amplification factors of electromagnetic modes range from an upper limit of approximately 2.4 to a lower limit of about 0.4, when comparing the contributions of electromagnetic mode to C-energy at past and future null infinities.

In this paper, we present the cosmological perturbation formalism for theories within the framework of affine gravity. These theories are distinguished by their connection, devoid of any metric. Our approach involves segregating perturbations into symmetric and antisymmetric components (related to torsion), each further decomposed into irreducible elements, namely scalars, pseudoscalars, vectors, pseudovectors, 2-tensors, and 3-tensors. Finally, we have fully addressed the gauge freedom in this context.

Ultralight dark matter (ULDM) is one of the leading well-motivated dark matter candidates, predicted in many theories beyond the standard model of particle physics and cosmology. There has been increasing interest in searching for ULDM in physical and astronomical experiments, mostly assuming there are additional interactions other than gravity between ULDM and normal matter. Here we demonstrate that even if ULDM has only gravitational interaction, it shall induce gravitational perturbations in solar system that may be large enough to cause detectable signals in future gravitational-wave (GW) laser interferometers in space. We investigate the sensitivities of Michelson time-delay interferometer to ULDM of various spins, and show vector ULDM with mass $m\lesssim {10}^{-18}\mathrm{eV}$ can be probed by space-based GW detectors aiming at $\mathrm{\mu }\mathrm{Hz}$ frequencies. Our findings exhibit that GW detectors may directly probe ULDM in some mass ranges that otherwise are challenging to examine.

We use functional methods to match the two-Higgs-doublet model with heavy scalars in the nondecoupling regime to the appropriate nonlinear effective field theory, which takes the form of an electroweak chiral Lagrangian (HEFT). The effective Lagrangian is derived to leading order in the chiral counting. This includes the loop induced $h\to \gamma \gamma$ and $h\to Z\gamma$ local terms, which enter at the same chiral order as their counterparts in the Standard Model. An algorithm is presented that allows us to compute the coefficient functions to all orders in $h$. Some of the all-orders results are given in closed form. The parameter regimes for decoupling, nondecoupling, and alignment scenarios in the effective field theory context and some phenomenological implications are briefly discussed.

Production of gravitational waves in the early Universe is discussed in a cosmologically consistent analysis within a first-order phase transition involving a hidden sector feebly coupled with the visible sector. Each sector resides in its own heat bath leading to a potential dependent on two temperatures and on two fields: one a standard model Higgs field and the other a scalar arising from a hidden sector $U(1)$ gauge theory. A synchronous evolution of the hidden and visible sector temperatures is carried out from the reheat temperature down to the electroweak scale. The hydrodynamics of two-field phase transitions, one for the visible and the other for the hidden is discussed, which leads to separate tunneling temperatures and different sound speeds for the two sectors. Gravitational waves emerging from the two sectors are computed and their imprint on the measured gravitational wave power spectrum vs frequency is analyzed in terms of bubble nucleation signature, i.e., detonation, deflagration, and hybrid. It is shown that the two-field model predicts gravitational waves accessible at several proposed gravitational wave detectors: LISA, DECIGO, BBO, and Taiji, and their discovery would probe specific regions of the hidden sector parameter space and may also shed light on the nature of bubble nucleation in the early Universe. The analysis presented here indicates that the cosmologically preferred models are those where the tunneling in the visible sector precedes the tunneling in the hidden sector and the sound speed $c_s$ lies below its maximum, i.e., $c_s^2<\frac{1}{3}$. It is of interest to investigate if these features are universal and applicable to a wider class of cosmologically consistent models.

We estimate the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) constraint on the majoron in the mass range between 1 MeV to 10 GeV which dominantly decays into the standard model neutrinos. When the Majoron lifetime is shorter than 1 sec, the injected neutrinos mainly heat up background plasma, which alters the relation between photon temperature and background neutrino temperature. For a lifetime longer than 1 sec, most of the injected neutrinos directly contribute to the protons-to-neutrons conversion. In both cases, deuterium and helium abundances are enhanced, while the constraint from the deuterium is stronger than that from the helium. ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$ abundance gets decreased as a consequence of additional neutrons, but the parameter range that fits the observed ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$ abundance is excluded by the deuterium constraint. We also estimate other cosmological constraints and compare them with the BBN bound.

We identify a new resonance, axion magnetic resonance, that can greatly enhance the conversion rate between axions and photons. A series of axion search experiments rely on converting them into photons inside a constant magnetic field background. A common bottleneck of such experiments is the conversion amplitude being suppressed by the axion mass when $m_a\gtrsim {10}^{-4}\mathrm{eV}$. We point out that a spatial or temporal variation in the magnetic field can cancel the difference between the photon dispersion relation and that of the axion, hence greatly enhancing the conversion probability. We demonstrate that the enhancement can be achieved by both a helical magnetic field profile and a harmonic oscillation of the magnitude. Our approach can extend the projected ALPS II reach in the axion-photon coupling ($g_{a\gamma }$) by two orders of magnitude at $m_a={10}^{-3}\mathrm{eV}$ with moderate assumptions (see https://github.com/ChenSun-Phys/axion-magnetic-resonance.)