We study the isotropization and thermalization of heavy quarks in a non-Markovian medium in high-energy nuclear collisions. In particular, we analyze the case of a nonstationary medium with a noise whose time correlator decays as a power law (heavy-tailed noise). We assume the correlations decay with an exponent $\beta -1$, $0\le \beta <1$; we treat $\beta$ as a free parameter. We analyze the effect of memory on the thermalization and isotropization of heavy quarks in the medium via a generalized Langevin equation. In general, we find that memory slows down the dynamics of heavy quarks; moreover, thermalization and isotropization happen on the same timescale once a realistic initialization is considered. We also find that, while the effect on charm quarks can be relevant, beauty quarks are hardly affected by memory in the quark-gluon plasma phase. Finally, we comment on the effect of memory on the estimate of $D_s$ of charm and beauty.

We propose a chiral quark model including the $\omega$ and $\rho$ meson contributions in addition to the $\pi$ and $\sigma$ meson contributions. We show that the masses of the ground state baryons such as the nucleon, ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c$ and ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_b$ are dramatically improved in the model with the vector mesons compared with the one without them. The study of the tetraquark $T_{cc}$ is also performed in a coupled channel calculation and the resultant mass is much closer to its experimental value than the result without vector meson contribution. This approach can be applied to the future study of multiquark systems.

The search for new physics signals in Higgs precision measurements plays a pivotal role in the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) and future colliders programs. The Higgs properties are expected to be measured with great experimental precision, implying higher-order perturbative computations of the electroweak parameters from the theoretical side. In particular, the renormalized Higgs boson mass parameter in the Standard Model shows significant variation around the electroweak scale, resulting in a lower-bound theoretical uncertainty that exceeds future collider expectations. A more stable result under the renormalization group can be computed from a nonzero external momentum Higgs self-energy, for which available calculations include three-loop corrections in the QCD sector. In this work, we present an additional contribution by estimating the leading non-QCD three-loop corrections to the mass of the Higgs boson in the top-Yukawa sector of order $y_t^6$. The momentum-dependent Higgs self-energy is computed in the tadpole-free scheme for the Higgs vacuum expectation value in the Landau gauge, and the explicit dependence upon the Higgs boson and top quark masses is shown. The obtained result is expressed in dimensional regularization as a superposition of a set of master integrals with coefficients that are free of poles in four space-time dimensions, and the corrections are evaluated numerically by the sector decomposition method.

MicroBooNE is a neutrino experiment located in the Booster Neutrino Beamline (BNB) at Fermilab, which collected data from 2015 to 2021. MicroBooNE’s liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) is accompanied by a photon detection system consisting of 32 photomultiplier tubes used to measure the argon scintillation light and determine the timing of neutrino interactions. Analysis techniques combining light signals and reconstructed tracks are applied to achieve a neutrino interaction time resolution of $\mathcal{O}(1\mathrm{ns})$. The result obtained allows MicroBooNE to access the nanosecond beam structure of the BNB for the first time. The timing resolution achieved will enable significant enhancement of cosmic background rejection for all neutrino analyses. Furthermore, the ns timing resolution opens new avenues to search for long-lived-particles such as heavy neutral leptons in MicroBooNE, as well as in future large LArTPC experiments, namely the SBN program and DUNE.

If the dark matter is composed of axions, then axion stars are expected to be abundant in the Universe. We demonstrate in fully nonlinear ($3+1$) numerical relativity the instability of compact axion stars due to the electromagnetic Chern-Simons term. We show that above the critical coupling constant $g_{a\gamma }^{\mathrm{crit}}\propto M_s^{-1.35}$, compact axion stars of mass $M_s$ are unstable. The instability is caused by parametric resonance between the axion and the electromagnetic field. The existence of stable compact axion stars requires approximately Planck-suppressed couplings to photons. If the coupling exceeds the critical value, then all stable axion stars are necessarily noncompact. Unstable axion stars decay leaving behind a less massive, less compact, remnant. The emitted radiation peaks at a frequency $\omega \sim 1/R_s$, where $R_s$ is the axion star radius.

Time delay interferometry (TDI) is often utilized in the data preprocessing of space-based gravitational wave detectors, primarily for suppressing laser frequency noise. About 20 years ago, assuming arm lengths remain constant over time, researchers presented comprehensive mathematical descriptions for the first-generation and modified first-generation TDI. However, maintaining a steady distance between satellites is pragmatically challenging. Hence, the operator equation that neutralizes laser frequency noise, though provided, was deemed difficult to resolve. In this paper, we solve this equation in the context of a nonstatic scenario where distances between spacecrafts vary over time. Surprisingly, contrary to what previous researchers thought, the study reveals that the equation has only the zero solution, which suggests that no nonzero TDI combination can entirely suppress laser frequency noise under time-varying arm lengths. This necessitates the persistent search for second-generation TDI combinations through alternative methods besides directly solving the operator equation. We establish the connections between TDI combinations of different generations and propose a search strategy for finding higher-generation TDI combinations by using generators of lower-generation TDI. The findings contribute to the ongoing discussion on gravitational waves and provide a novel insight into the hurdles faced in space-based gravitational wave detection.

As is well known, trinification, i.e., the extension of the Standard Model (SM) to $[SU(3){]}^3=SU(3{)}_c\times SU(3{)}_L\times SU(3{)}_R$ as occurs in $E_6$ models, allows for a partial unification of the gauge forces even though quarks and leptons remain in separate multiplets so that no heavy gauge or scalar fields exist which can generate proton decay. The extension of this idea to quartification, by including an additional $SU(3{)}^{\prime }$ factor, has also been considered in the literature maintaining the basic attributes of trinification but now allowing, e.g., for a more symmetric treatment of quarks and leptons at the price of new matter fields and gauge interactions. In this paper, we will consider this $SU(3{)}^{\prime }$ to be the “dark” gauge group, now containing the familiar $U(1{)}_D$ subgroup, under which the SM fields are all neutral, which is associated with kinetic mixing (KM) and the existence of a light, $\lesssim 1\mathrm{GeV}$ dark photon. This setup naturally predicts the existence of color-singlet portal matter fields, carrying both electromagnetic and $U(1{)}_D$ dark charges, that are necessary to generate this KM at the one-loop level and whose masses are directly tied with those of the many new gauge bosons that originate from the extended gauge sector. In this paper, after a discussion of the detailed structure of this model, we present a broad survey of the collider phenomenology of the large set of new fields that must necessarily arise from this setup in a simplified version involving only a single generation of fermions. We demonstrate that several new signatures may be anticipated at the LHC as well as at future hadron and lepton colliders if such models are realized in nature.

As was discovered some time ago by Giddings and Strominger (GS), an axion can support a wormhole geometry in the presence of a massless dilaton, as long as the dilaton coupling remains below a critical value. We find that when the dilaton becomes massive, the set of solutions is vastly increased: not only do solutions exist above the critical value of the coupling, but new branches of solutions with several minima in the geometry also appear. All of these generalized GS-like solutions possess the property that, when analytically continued, they lead to a contracting baby universe. We show that in addition there exist families of solutions which, upon analytic continuation, lead to expanding baby universes. A curious property of axion-dilaton wormhole families is that their Euclidean action often decreases when the solutions acquire additional oscillations in the fields. When we replace the dilaton by an ordinary scalar field with a double well potential, we find analogous wormhole families leading to expanding baby universes. This time the Euclidean action has the expected behavior of increasing with the number of oscillations in the fields, although it also contains a puzzling aspect in that some solutions possess a negative action.

We consider soft electrons in massless QED at tree level. The emission amplitude at leading order in the soft electron energy factorizes in a way similar to the soft photon case. We recast the soft electron factorization formula as a Ward identity of an asymptotic charge. This leads to the first example of an asymptotic fermionic symmetry in a theory with no conventional supersymmetry, suggesting that tree-level massless QED may possess an asymptotic supersymmetry algebra. Although our approach does not yet allow us to completely characterize the algebra, it suggests that subleading soft photons should feature in the anticommutator of two fermionic symmetry generators.

The $C$ metric in vacuum general relativity describes a pair of accelerated black holes supported by conical singularity. In this paper, we present a new family of exact solutions to the Einstein-phantom scalar system that describes accelerated wormholes in anti–de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. In the zero acceleration limit with a vanishing potential, the present solution recovers the asymptotically flat wormhole originally constructed by Ellis and Bronnikov. The scalar potential of the phantom field has an infinite number of critical points and is expressed in terms of the superpotential, which is obtained by suitable analytic continuation of a one parameter family of the $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauged supergravity. As one traverses two asymptotic regions connected by a throat, the scalar field evolves from AdS space, corresponding to the origin of the potential, toward the neighboring AdS local minimum of the potential. We find that the flipping transformation, which interchanges the role of “radial” and “angular” coordinates at the expense of double Wick rotation, is an immediate cause for the existence of two branches of static AdS wormholes discovered previously. Contrary to the ordinary $C$ metric, the conical singularity along the symmetry axis can be completely resolved when the (super)potential is periodic or zero. We explore the global causal structure in detail.

In our previous work [D. Wu and S.-Q. Wu, Phys. Rev. D 108, 064034 (2023).], we have formulated consistent thermodynamic first law and Bekenstein-Smarr mass formulas for all higher even-dimensional uncharged Taub-Newman-Unti-Tamburino (Taub-NUT) anti–de Sitter (AdS) spacetimes through the inclusion of a secondary hair $J_n=Mn$ as did in the four-dimensional NUT-charged cases [S.-Q. Wu and D. Wu, Phys. Rev. D 100, 101501(R) (2019)]. In this article, we will show that the corresponding Reissner-Nordström (RN)-NUT (AdS) cases in all higher even dimensions can be coherently treated just like the uncharged cases if another secondary hair $Q_n\propto qn$ is further introduced as we did in the four-dimensional dyonic NUT-charged case [D. Wu and S.-Q. Wu, Phys. Rev. D 105, 124013 (2022)]. As a by-product of our consequence, it is also demonstrated that there is no need to introduce the secondary hair $Q_n$ in the mass formulas for the four-dimensional purely electric-charged RN-NUT (AdS) spacetimes.

Currently, there is a great deal of interest in the seeking of consistent thermodynamics of the Lorentzian Taub-Newman-Unti-Tamburino (NUT) spacetimes. Despite a lot of “satisfactory” efforts that have been made, all of these activities have been restricted to the four-dimensional cases, with the higher even-dimensional cases remaining unexplored. The aim of this article is to fill the gap for the first time. To the end of this subject, we first adopt our own idea that “The NUT charge is a thermodynamical multi-hair” to investigate the consistent thermodynamics of $D=6$, 8, 10 Lorentzian Taub-NUT spacetimes without a cosmological constant. Similarly to the $D=4$ cases, as in our previous works, we find that the first law and Bekenstein-Smarr mass formulas are perfectly satisfied if we still assign the secondary hair $J_n=Mn$ as a conserved charge in both mass formulas. Turning to the cases with a nonzero cosmological constant, our treatment continues to work very well and all the results can be fairly generalized to the corresponding Taub-NUT anti–de Sitter spacetimes in higher even dimensions, although we do not know how to define and introduce a similar higher-dimensional version of the dual (magnetic) mass that is well known in four dimensions. Based upon the preceding results, we will also derive the reduced version of the mass formulas when the secondary hair $J_n$ is viewed as a redundant thermodynamic variable.

The quantum spin effects inside matter can be modeled via the Weyssenhoff fluid, which permits us to unearth a formal analogy between general relativity and Einstein-Cartan theory at the first post-Newtonian order. In this framework, we provide some analytical formulas pertaining to the dynamics of binary systems having the spins aligned perpendicular to the orbital plane. We derive the expressions of the relative orbit and the coordinate time, which in turn allow us to determine the gravitational waveform, and the energy- and angular-momentum fluxes. The potentialities of our results are presented in two astrophysical applications, where we compute (i) the quantum spin contributions to the energy flux and gravitational waveform during the inspiral phase and (ii) the macroscopic angular momentum of one of the bodies starting from the time-averaged energy flux and the knowledge of a few timing parameters.

We construct spherically symmetric equilibrium solutions of the Schršdinger-Poisson (SP) system of equations with a core-tail structure that could serve as models of fuzzy dark matter (FDM) halos. The core is assumed to be a solitonic ground state equilibrium configuration of the SP equations, and the tail is integrated from a transition radius onwards. The total mass of the system parametrizes the family of solutions and constrains the tail density profile. The tail has a radial velocity profile, whereas the core is stationary. We investigate the evolution of these equilibrium configurations and find that the tail initially perturbs the core, and consequently, the whole solution oscillates around a virialized solution that we call “relaxed,” whose average also has a core-tail structure. We measure the departure of the relaxed configuration from the equilibrium solution in order to estimate the utility of the latter. We also find that the core-halo scaling relation of equilibrium configurations has an exponent $\alpha =1/3$, whereas relaxed configurations exhibit a scaling with $\alpha =0.54$.

Reconstruction of gravitational lensing effects in the CMB from current and upcoming surveys is still dominated by temperature anisotropies. Extragalactic foregrounds in temperature maps can induce significant biases in the lensing power spectrum obtained with the standard quadratic estimators. Techniques such as masking cannot remove these foregrounds fully, and the residuals can still lead to large biases if unaccounted for. In this paper, we study the “shear-only” estimator, an example of a class of geometric methods that suppress extragalactic foreground contamination while making only minimal assumptions about foreground properties. The shear-only estimator has only been formulated in the flat-sky limit and so is not easily applied to wide surveys. Here, we derive the full-sky version of the shear-only estimator and its generalization to an $m=2$ multipole estimator that has improved performance for lensing reconstruction on smaller scales. The multipole estimator is generally not separable, and so is expensive to compute. We explore separable approximations based on a singular-value decomposition, which allow efficient evaluation of the estimator with real-space methods. Finally, we apply these estimators to simulations that include extragalactic foregrounds and verify their efficacy in suppressing foreground biases.

We consider the screening of the axio-dilaton fields when both the dilaton and the axion couple to matter with Yukawa couplings. We analyze the screening of the dilaton in the vicinity of a compact object and find that this can only take place when special boundary conditions at infinity are imposed. We study the cosmological dynamics of the axio-dilaton system when linearly coupled to matter and find that the special boundary conditions at infinity, which guarantee the screening of compact objects, do not generically emerge from cosmology. We analyze the background cosmology and the cosmological perturbations at late times in these models and show that the baryon acoustic oscillations constrain the coupling of the dilaton to matter to be smaller than in its natural supergravity realization. Moreover, we find that the Hubble rate in the present Universe could deviate from the normalized Planck value, although by an amount too small to account for the $H_0$ tension, and that the growth of the structure is generically reduced compared to $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$.

We present, for the first time, a complete treatment of strongly interacting dark matter capture in planets, taking Earth as an example. We focus on light dark matter and the heating of Earth by dark matter annihilation, addressing a number of crucial dynamical processes which have been overlooked, such as the “ping-pong effect” during dark matter capture. We perform full Monte Carlo simulations and obtain improved bounds on strongly-interacting dark matter from Earth heating and direct detection experiments for both spin-independent and spin-dependent interactions, while also allowing for the interacting species to make up a subcomponent of the cosmological dark matter.

The high computational cost of wide-parameter-space searches for continuous gravitational waves (CWs) significantly limits the achievable sensitivity. This challenge has motivated the exploration of alternative search methods, such as deep neural networks (DNNs). Previous attempts [1,2] to apply convolutional image-classification DNN architectures to all-sky and directed CW searches showed promise for short, one-day search durations, but proved ineffective for longer durations of around ten days. In this paper, we offer a hypothesis for this limitation and propose new design principles to overcome it. As a proof of concept, we show that our novel convolutional DNN architecture attains matched-filtering sensitivity for a targeted search (i.e., single sky-position and frequency) in Gaussian data from two detectors spanning ten days. We illustrate this performance for two different sky positions and five frequencies in the 20–1000 Hz range, spanning the spectrum from an “easy” to the “hardest” case. The corresponding sensitivity depths fall in the range of $82–86/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$. The same DNN architecture is trained for each case, taking between 4–32 hours to reach matched-filtering sensitivity. The detection probability of the trained DNNs as a function of signal amplitude varies consistently with that of matched filtering. Furthermore, the DNN statistic distributions can be approximately mapped to those of the $\mathcal{F}$-statistic under a simple monotonic function.

Using the two-component model, we analyze Bose-Einstein correlations in $pp$ collisions at the center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, measured by the CMS Collaboration at the LHC, and compare results with the $\tau$ model. We utilize data described by the double ratios with an average pair transverse momentum $0\mathrm{GeV}\le k_T\le 1.0\mathrm{GeV}$ and six intervals described by the reconstructed charged-particle multiplicity as $N_{\mathrm{trk}}^{\text{offline}}$. The estimated ranges are 1–4 fm for the magnitude of extension of emitting source expressed by the exponential function $\exp (-RQ)$ and 0.4–0.5 fm for that by the Gaussian distribution $\exp (-(RQ{)}^2))$, respectively. Moreover, we estimate the upper limits of the 3-pion BEC to test the two-component model and investigate the role of the long-range correlation. Analyses of data at 7 TeV are added for comparisons with results at 13 TeV.