Papers

We investigate the reconstruction of a stochastic gravitational-wave background generated by a first-order phase transition in flavour-deconstruction models using the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). In these scenarios, the spontaneous breaking of an extended flavour-non-universal gauge symmetry at the TeV scale can both generate the observed hierarchies of Standard Model fermion masses and mixing angles and induce a strong first-order phase transition. We consider representative benchmark points of the model, compute the corresponding thermodynamic transition parameters, and construct the resulting gravitational-wave spectra using a state-of-the-art sound-wave template. We then inject these spectra into simulated LISA data and perform Bayesian inference with SGWBinner, jointly reconstructing the cosmological signal, instrumental noise, and astrophysical foregrounds. We find that the strongest benchmark signal can be successfully reconstructed, whereas weaker signals are substantially degenerate with the unresolved extragalactic compact-binary foreground. We further show that tighter prior information on this foreground, motivated by observations with ground-based detectors, can reduce this degeneracy and improve signal reconstruction. Our results demonstrate that flavour-deconstruction models can produce signals accessible to LISA, while highlighting the importance of astrophysical-foreground modelling for their identification and characterization.

We show that for static & spherically symmetric black hole geometries, the angular components of the Brown-York tensor on a finite radius boundary can be interpreted as the product of the Tolman-Ehrenfest temperature and a quasi-local entropy. This entropy vanishes at spatial infinity and monotonically increases as radius decreases, taking its maximum value on the horizon where it is equal to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Thus, the behaviour of this entropy provides explicit verification of the covariant entropy conjecture.

Precision tracking of Earth–Moon and Earth–satellite ranges offers a novel, low-frequency avenue for detecting gravitational waves from inspiralling massive black hole binaries, complementary to space-based interferometers. In this paper, we propose a first study of the reconstruction of the binary parameters from a synthetic set of range observations. Set-up: Assuming an ideal unperturbed Keplerian motion for the earth-satellite binary, we develop a framework for reconstructing the chirp mass $\mathcal M_c$ and luminosity distance $D_L$ of chirping sources from the perturbations they induce on ranging observables, using both Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) and a two-satellite ranging configuration (GUEST) as concrete case studies. Result: We find that chirp-mass recovery tightly converges as a power law in SNR ($\sigma_{M_c}/M_c \propto \mathrm{SNR}^{\alpha}$, $\alpha \simeq -1$ to $-1.8$) for both LLR and GUEST. In contrast, the luminosity distance suffers from a severe, SNR-independent degeneracy with the sky-orientation angles in the LLR configuration, yielding fractional biases and uncertainties of tens to over a hundred percent regardless of signal strength. The two-satellite GUEST configuration breaks this degeneracy and restores a convergent, SNR-dependent recovery of $D_L$ comparable in scaling to that of the chirp mass. These results demonstrate that multi-baseline ranging architectures are essential for extracting luminosity-distance information from ranging-based gravitational wave searches, while chirp-mass measurements remain reliably accessible even with a single ranging baseline such as the Earth–Moon system.

We introduce a new set of boundary conditions for three-dimensional Einstein gravity with negative cosmological constant. The canonical generators plainly realize the semidirect sum of Virasoro and $u(1)$ Kac-Moody algebras in its standard form, without the need of additional redefinitions of the global charges. We show that requiring Euclidean BTZ and thermal AdS$_3$ to be diffeomorphic precisely induces the warped modular $S$-transformation of the chemical potentials. The corresponding warped Cardy formula then exactly reproduces the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, where the ground state is identified as Euclidean AdS$_3$. An explicit comparison with the boundary conditions of Brown-Henneaux and Compere-Song-Strominger is also addressed.

In this paper we consider some general aspects of Euclidean conformal field theories on curved spaces of dimension $D\ge 3$. We first look at the OPE of scalar primary fields on conformally flat spaces. Extending the results of \cite{Konechny:2026bqg}, we give a general construction of the descendants' contributions to the OPE in the scalar channel. We then discuss CFTs on non-conformally flat spaces in the ambient space formalism. We investigate the short-distance behaviour of three-point functions on such spaces using the general ansatz proposed by Parisini, Skenderis, and Withers \cite{Parisini:2022wkb, Parisini:2023nbd}. We find that some additional corrections need to be added to the ansatz to ensure the existence of a local covariant OPE.

We provide a first-principles definition of Cotton tensors on conformal Carroll geometries by gauging the conformal Carroll algebra. On the mathematical side, this analysis yields a conformally covariant object designed to quantify deviations from conformal flatness in Carrollian geometries. On the physical side, it offers a powerful geometric tool to describe gravitational radiative degrees of freedom at the conformal boundary of four-dimensional asymptotically flat spacetimes. Unlike the Bondi news, whose fully-covariant definition requires amendment by supplementary data that we identify with the Geroch tensor, the Carroll–Cotton tensors offer the natural geometric objects to quantify deviations from stationarity due to the emission of gravitational waves.

General relativity is a century-old subject. Yet modern explorations through generalized symmetries, scattering amplitudes, and effective field theory have raised open problems, motivating a reassessment of conventional views on gravitation, spacetime, and spin. First, do generalized symmetries exist in dynamical gravity as a low-energy EFT? Second, is there a field-theoretic explanation for the tree-level double copy relationship between general relativity and Yang-Mills theory? Third, what are the exact equations of motion or Lagrangians of four-dimensional spinning black holes in external fields, in point-particle effective theory? In this dissertation, three different perspectives on gravity are developed to shed light on each of these puzzles. In Part I, we view gravity as a gauge theory of Lorentz group to establish a one-form symmetry of dynamical gravity. In Part II, we investigate how far gravity can be viewed as a gauge theory of diffeomorphisms, in connection with color-kinematics duality and double copy. In Part III, we view four-dimensional gravity as a nonlinear interaction between self-dual and anti-self-dual parts. We apply this view to the derivation of four-dimensional spinning black hole solutions as well as their dynamics in point-particle effective theory. First, we derive a new self-dual black hole metric from classical double copy and show that the Kerr metric represents a pair of self-dual and anti-self-dual Taub-NUT solutions, elevating the Newman-Janis algorithm to a rigorous derivation. Second, we propose a dynamical probe counterpart of Newman-Janis algorithm. We give a Lagrangian derivation of spinning black hole Compton amplitudes that exhibit correct factorizations and are free of spurious poles for all helicity configurations while developing a chiral formalism that manifests and maximally utilizes the simplicity of the self-dual sector.

General relativity coupled to multiple scalar fields is a diffeomorphism-invariant constrained system. Consequently, a naive counting of the perturbative degrees of freedom unavoidably overestimates the true number of physical modes propagating in the theory, as gauge redundancies and constraint equations remove non-dynamical ones. While this problem has been solved for linear fluctuations, this work presents the first explicit calculation of all large-scale gauge-invariant phase-space variables in multifield inflation and at second order in perturbation theory, in a Hamiltonian language. Building upon the well-known Sasaki-Mukhanov variables, we show how to construct a finite-dimensional basis of quadratic corrections which are invariant under gauge transformations. Although our procedure is generic to any number of fields and at any scale, we restrict to super-Hubble scales for their explicit solution, which we deliver. Henceforth, we prove that it is possible to recover the usual flat-gauge and comoving-gauge fluctuations as large-scale gauge-invariant combinations, making for a robust consistency check of the gauge-fixed procedure to connect theoretical predictions above the horizon to observations. We derive the quadratic and cubic Hamiltonian of multifield inflation in a gauge independent manner, then we gauge fix our theory by going into the flat gauge, and we show perfect agreement with the literature on this topic, usually based on a Lagrangian approach. After these concrete steps, we propose a more formal proof of the existence of gauge-invariant variables at quadratic order, and we provide a sketch of the procedure that should allow to go to higher orders in perturbation theory.

We conduct an investigation of the global structure of Kerr-Newman-BR spacetime and its various subcases such as Schwarzschild-BR spacetime. In this work, we extend the result of our previous studies, where we found that $r\to \infty$ is not the proper conformal infinity. By using the reciprocal coordinate $y=1/r$, we show that the whole family of Kerr-Newman-BR spacetimes can be continuously extended through the surface $r\to \infty$. However, the conformal structure after passing $r\to\infty$ strongly depends on the type of spacetime one is considering (either rotation is present, or not) and on the polar direction one chooses to be fixed (namely, whether we consider generic polar angle $\theta$, or we focus on the behaviour near the equatorial plane $\theta=\pi/2$, or near the poles $\theta=0,\pi$). Finally, we discuss the universality of such a continuous extension.

In cosmology, the Hubble tension has become one of the most serious challenges in the last decade. Assuming that all the observational data are right, one of the ways out is to modify the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. In the literature, the theoretical modifications are mainly made in the early and the late/local universes. But on both sides, some no-go arguments have been proposed recently. In particular, the general no-go arguments for the late-time modifications are mainly based on the PAge parameterization. In the present work, we note that there are some flaws in the (original) PAge parameterization, and then propose various generalized PAge (GPAge) parameterizations, which can be extended to $z>z_{\rm CMB}$ and hence the cosmic microwave background (CMB) can be taken into account, while they are also more accurate at low redshifts. With these GPAge parameterizations, we revisit the Hubble tension by using not only the late-time observations but also the observational data of CMB. We find that the Hubble tension could be alleviated (or even resolved) in GPAges significantly different from the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, while they are overwhelmingly preferred over $\Lambda$CDM by the observational data in terms of all the information criteria. Surprisingly, we find that the new physics in the mid-time might be the key to resolve the Hubble tension.

We investigate black hole shadows and photon sphere properties for two families of covariant quantum-corrected black-hole metrics (hereafter called BH-I and BH-II) formulated within a general $\mu$-scheme, parameterised by a power-law exponent $s$ and an amplitude $\xi$. The extension to general (including non-integer) $s$ is a phenomenological interpolation between the $\mu_0$-scheme ($s=0$) and $\bar\mu$-scheme ($s=1$) and reveals a rich phenomenology masked when $s$ is usually fixed to 1 in previous literature. For BH-I, the photon sphere exists for all parameter values and exhibits an exact cancellation at $s=1$ where the coordinate location $r_{\rm ph}=3M$ is restored for any $\xi$. For BH-II, both the horizon and the photon sphere exhibit critical curves in the $(\xi,s)$ parameter plane; the photon sphere disappears when $\xi$ exceeds a closed-form critical value $\xi_c^{\rm PS}(s)$. We prove analytically that the photon sphere is always unstable ($\lambda_{\rm ph}>0$) throughout the physical parameter space of both metrics, and derive closed-form expressions for the Lyapunov exponent. Systematic parameter scans reveal that for fixed $\xi$ the shadow radius decreases monotonically with $s$ for BH-II and non-monotonically for BH-I. We derive small-parameter analytic expansions for the photon-sphere radius, shadow radius, and Lyapunov exponent, and demonstrate that a single shadow measurement suffers an observational degeneracy in the two-dimensional $(\xi,s)$ space; the degeneracy can be broken by a simultaneous measurement of the Lyapunov exponent. Using Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) measurements, we derive constraints on the $(\xi,s)$ parameter space and find that BH-II is constrained roughly $2$–$4$ times more tightly than BH-I.

We investigate the spherical accretion onto a static Konoplya Zhidenko black hole and examine how the deformation of the spacetime affects the dynamics of the accreting matter. By applying the conservation laws of particle number and energy-momentum, we formulate the accretion problem and derive the corresponding Hamiltonian describing the fluid motion. The critical points and sonic transitions are then analyzed for ultra stiff, ultra relativistic, radiation, and sub relativistic fluids. We study the dependence of the critical point structure and flow trajectories on the KZ deformation and compare the results with those obtained for asymptotically safe, Schwarzschild MOG, and Reissner Nordström black holes. The comparison shows that the location and behavior of the critical points vary significantly with the underlying BH geometry and the equation of state of the fluid. In particular, the KZ deformation produces noticeable changes in the radial structure of the accretion flow, with different effects observed for the considered fluid models. These results provide a comparative picture of spherical accretion in different black hole spacetimes and help clarify how modifications of the background geometry influence matter dynamics in the strong field region.

Ultralight scalar fields nonminimally coupled to curvature can endow rotating black holes with stationary hair and alter nearby orbits. Using recently constructed hairy black-hole spacetimes, we model the transition to plunge of an extreme-mass-ratio inspiral. For scalar masses $\mu M=0.01$ and $0.1$ and dimensionless curvature coupling $\zeta=10^{-3},10^{-4}$, we find $\mathcal{O}(10)$ rad of gravitational-wave dephasing relative to general relativity over $\mathcal{O}(10^3)$ orbits. A multimode Fisher forecast at $\mu M=0.2$, where neighbouring hair solutions permit a numerical $\mu$-derivative, suggests that $\zeta$ and $\mu$ could be measured to precisions of $\simeq0.2\%$ and $0.6$–$1.1\%$, respectively, for a source with signal-to-noise ratio of about 80 in LISA.

Astrophysical black holes exist within non-vacuum environments, and their motion through these environments generically result in a force on these black holes through processes such as dynamical friction and Bondi accretion. We explore these forces numerically for black holes moving through a complex scalar field of mass $m$ with constant acceleration $a$, while also revisiting the constant velocity case considered in the existing literature. The former is modeled by the C-metric, while we use Painlevé-Gullstrand metric with an additional divergence and vorticity free velocity field to mimic the constant velocity motion. Our simulations reveal several novel and interesting aspects of the drag force in both cases. For the constant velocity case, the force saturates at late times, with a value that depends on velocity in a manner distinct from known dependence. For the constant acceleration case, the force increases to a maximum value $F_\star$ and then reduces drastically, with $F_\star \approx 0.3~ m a$. Moreover, the density wake in this case shows revivals separated by decreasing time intervals.

The paper revisits the role of hyperon bulk viscosity during neutron-star inspiral. We find that hyperon bulk viscosity exerts only a minor influence on the gravitational-wave phase, causing a phase shift of $\sim 10^{-3}\,\rm rad$. This shift is too small to be detected by existing gravitational-wave observatories, and it seems unlikely that next-generation detectors will be able to isolate this effect from other factors. However, our analysis indicates that hyperon bulk viscosity can significantly heat the hyperon core of a neutron star, raising its temperature to approximately $5 \times 10^8\,\rm K$.

We construct regular, spherically symmetric, compact energy-cutoff equilibria for gravitational Vlasov–Poisson systems sourced by positive and negative mass distributions in the context of stellar dynamics. Motivated by Bondi's notion of negative mass and its relation to the weak field limit of Einstein gravity with a signed mass–energy source, we show that the internal structure of the steady states depends qualitatively on the type of negative mass present. In the Bondi convention, the signs of inertial, passive gravitational, and active gravitational mass are reversed together, preserving the equivalence principle. The resulting equilibria consist of a central overlap core containing both mass species, surrounded by a finite positive mass shell and an exterior vacuum. Thus, although a pure Bondi negative mass gas cannot form a compact steady state, Bondi negative mass can be spatially confined by a suitable positive mass distribution. In the gravitational-charge convention, only the passive and active gravitational masses change sign, so that the two species obey opposite free-fall laws and unlike masses repel. The resulting equilibria are spatially segregated into a negative mass core, a vacuum gap, a positive mass shell, and an exterior vacuum. For cutoff exponent $n=-1/2$, the radial matching is explicit, while for the regular cutoff $n=1/2$ the matter regions satisfy Lane–Emden-type equations. These results provide a kinetic framework for investigating the distribution of negative mass in astrophysical and cosmological settings.

Motivated by the geometric interpretation of spatially homogeneous cosmological models, we formulate a spacetime closedness theorem directly at the Lorentzian level. A classical space-form classification theorem organizes homogeneous and isotropic spatial geometries, but by itself it does not yield a Lorentzian statement about the ambient spacetime. The main technical step is to derive finite slice-volume from genuinely Lorentzian control hypotheses on the foliation. This is achieved in a strong version, for maximally regular globally hyperbolic $(n+1)$–spacetimes with a finite-time Big Bang and homogeneous complete spacelike slices, and in a weaker version in which maximal regularity is replaced by time-integrability of the accumulated expansion rate. In both cases, the argument separates an analytic step, deriving finite slice-volume from the Big Bang and temporal control, from a geometric step, upgrading finite volume to compactness by homogeneity and completeness. The theorem is stated in arbitrary spacetime dimension and is accompanied by a Lean~4 formalization of the strong and weak abstract statements.

Quantum Yang-Mills theory in Euclidean AdS$_4$ with Neumann boundary conditions is studied as a function of the complex couplings $\frac{1}{g_\pm^2} \equiv \frac{1}{g^2}\mp \frac{i \theta }{8 \pi^2}$. We define a "self-dual limit" by $g_- \to 0$ with $g_+ ~{\rm fixed}$. We argue that the limiting theory is well-defined perturbatively and equivalent to the BF formulation of self-dual Yang-Mills theory with a particular boundary condition relating $B$ and $F$ at the boundary $\partial$AdS$_4$. $g_+$ is the loop-counting parameter of the self-dual theory. This is in stark contrast to flat space, where $\theta$ has no effect on perturbative dynamics. In the self-dual limit, it is shown that all tree-level zero-plus and single-plus boundary correlators vanish. A closed form expression is given for any number of gluons for the double-plus tree correlators. Finally, we show that in the flat space limit of AdS$_4$, the total energy poles in the tree boundary correlators correctly reduce to the single-minus gluon amplitudes.

We investigate thermodynamic criticality in a spatially flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker universe with a non-extensive Loop Quantum Gravity inspired entropy on its apparent horizon. Using the full Kodama-Hayward temperature and the unified first law, we derive the modified Friedmann dynamics and construct the corresponding horizon equation of state. We see that a finite physical critical point only appears in the non-extensive branch $q>1$, while in the Bekenstein-Hawking limit $q\to1$, the critical point is continuously pushed to $v_c\to\infty$ and $T_c\to0$. Along the same spinodal curve, both the constant-pressure heat capacity and the isothermal compressibility become unbounded, and the extremum of this curve is located at the critical point. Below the critical temperature, the Gibbs free energy develops several thermodynamic branches, and the phase coexistence for different horizon states is verified by the equality of temperature, pressure, and Gibbs free energy. The critical exponents are $(\alpha_{cr},\beta_{cr},\gamma_{cr},\delta_{cr}) =(0,1/2,1,3)$, indicating that the system belongs to the standard mean-field universality class despite the non-algebraic form of the equation of state. The normalized Ruppeiner curvature diverges precisely on the spinodal curve and shows critical scaling $R_N\sim-|v-v_c|^{-4}$ on the critical isotherm, and $R_N\sim-|t|^{-2}$ on the critical isochore. Finally, the critical expansion scale is given by $H_c^2=2(\sqrt{5}-2)|\beta|$, which implies that the thermodynamic critical point occurs when the entropy deformation is of order unity. These results establish a self-consistent critical structure for the effective thermodynamic state space of the cosmological apparent horizon and retain the mean-field critical universality.

In an optically thin setting, gravitational lensing around a black hole creates multiple delayed images of any localized source, appearing at different positions on the observer's screen. Even if particular sources cannot be singled out, this effect may be revealed in a black-hole movie (time-dependent image) by examining the two-point spatiotemporal correlation function of intensity fluctuations in the movie. Recently, the correlation function derived from a movie obtained by ray tracing of a general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation demonstrated the plausibility of this idea, even when the movie was blurred to angular resolutions corresponding to next-generation terrestrial very-long-baseline interferometric arrays. In this work, we further develop this method and study how some possible corruptions of the movie, motivated by real observational limitations, affect the ability to identify the extreme-lensing signatures by correlations. The effects are compared for both the original and blurred movies. We discuss the implications of our analysis for upcoming observations of M87* and Sgr A*, the two main targets of the Event Horizon Telescope and its future extensions. Our case study suggests that the types of data corruption we have explored, in themselves, do not preclude an identification of extreme-lensing effects in correlation measurements. We use our results to roughly estimate that, most importantly, for a successful correlation measurement, M87* may need to be continuously monitored for $\gtrsim 2$ years, while Sgr A* may need to be measured at a cadence $\gtrsim 1$ frame per minute. Finally, we outline a new analysis method that reduces the data in the complete correlation function—a large dataset defined on a five-dimensional configuration space—to a two-dimensional histogram that could be useful for black-hole parameter inference.

We consider that the very early Universe was well described by an Emergent Universe, whose geometry was that of a static and classically stable Einstein Universe, which is possible in certain Two Measures Theories (TMT). These solutions do not have a big bang, but rather they extend to arbitrarily early times. The TMT we consider are theories with spontaneously broken scale invariance and contain a dilaton field, crucial for the implementation of the scale invariance, that after the symmetry breaking acquires a nontrivial effective potential, which we study in the Einstein frame. Using the conserved quantity associated with the dilaton, we recast the cosmological evolution in terms of an effective potential $V(\dot{\phi})$, which exhibits a divergent barrier separating the static solution from the subsequent expanding evolution. Quantizing the corresponding minisuperspace Hamiltonian, we evaluate the tunneling probability in the WKB approximation. The tunneling action is well defined and finite once the branch of the square root is fixed by requiring a consistent semiclassical interpretation of the tunneling probability. We find that the barrier gives rise to a logarithmic contribution to the tunneling exponent, yielding a power-law rather than the usual exponential dependence of the tunneling probability, which for the parameter values considered is close to unity. The Universe thus emerges with a finite scale factor into a superinflationary phase that develops into slow-roll inflation. This quantum creation of an inflationary Universe does not represent a quantum creation of spacetime, which exists before the tunneling.

We compute high frequency gravitational wave radiation in shockwave collisions of a light mass compact object with energy $\mu_L$ off a heavy compact object (black hole) with energy $\mu_H \gg \mu_L$. A formal solution is obtained in terms of shockwave propagators that provide snapshots of $O(\mu_L\mu_H^n)$ tidal response functions sensitive to classical and potentially semi-classical dynamics of black hole formation. In a perturbative expansion, the first nontrivial contribution of $O(\mu_L\mu_H)$ is the emission of a graviton from the Lipatov vertex generated by the fusion of two reggeized gravitons. For graviton frequencies $\omega\rightarrow 0$, the Lipatov amplitude reduces to the ultrarelativistic limit of the single-graviton exchange Weinberg amplitude. At $O(\mu_L\mu_H^2)$, the Lipatov amplitude includes a piece accounting for the rescattering of the graviton off a reggeized graviton and another, corresponding to graviton emission from a vertex fusing three reggeized gravitons. These nontrivial contributions again simplify to the Weinberg radiative amplitude for two-graviton exchange in the soft limit. We highlight throughout double copy structures to gluon radiation in dilute-dense collisions of Yang-Mills shockwaves. We relate our shockwave results to the eikonal multiple scattering framework of Veneziano et al.

We propose boundary theories, CFT$_{p}$ with $p\in \beta\mathbb{N}/\mathbb{N}$, which can be interpreted as an ensemble of theories in the context of AdS/CFT duality, when the boundary spacetime dimension is more than one. These theories are only emergent in the infinite $N$ limit of the boundary CFT and depend on $p$, which corresponds to the different ways one can take a generalized form of the infinite $N$ limit, in the presence of a chaotic or an oscillatory operator. This generalized infinite $N$ limit is called an ultralimit, and $p$ is a free ultrafilter on $\mathbb{N}$. We propose that the gravitational path integral computes an average of CFT$_{p}$ in each of its sectors; and in the appropriate cases, it produces baby universes and spacetime wormholes. We apply this proposal to the Antonini-Sasieta-Swingle (AS$^{2}$) like states.

The multimessenger observation of the binary neutron star merger event GW170817, associated with its electromagnetic counterparts GRB170817A and AT2017gfo, marked a milestone in astrophysics, yet its unified physical explanation remains elusive. We conduct an end-to-end simulation based on a first-principles general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics neutrino-radiation transfer merger simulation, followed by nucleosynthesis calculations and photon radiative transfer to generate kilonova light curves. We show that the large-scale dynamo simultaneously produces a relativistic jet with an isotropic-equivalent luminosity of $\sim 10^{51}~{\rm erg~s^{-1}}$ and $\approx 0.08M_\odot$ of neutron-rich ejecta, reproducing the GRB170817A afterglow and the AT2017gfo kilonova light curves. Our results establish a unified first-principles framework for interpreting binary neutron star mergers across gravitational wave, gamma-ray burst, and kilonova observations.

Can a finite quantum episode populate a classical future that the same prepared state never reaches deterministically? We show that it can, using inflation as a cosmological laboratory. In our supergravity realization, two classical continuations already exist, but the prepared state reaches only one without noise. A stable entropy direction temporarily becomes light without a tachyonic instability, allowing mode-derived phase-space fluctuations to access the competing continuation. Finite-horizon first passage assigns it a \(0.33\)–\(0.40\) conditional weight across three nearby CMB-normalized realizations, while suppressing the stochastic source restores its exact deterministic zero. The entropy sector then becomes heavy again, and the selected histories continue classically. A finite quantum episode can thus leave a lasting redistribution among classical futures.

The nonlinear relation between density and expansion is usually formulated for a homogeneous spherical top hat, which has a single local Hubble rate. A smooth spherical profile instead expands differently along ($H_{\parallel}$) and across ($H_{\perp}$) the radial direction-a direct signature of radial inhomogeneity. We show that, for growing-mode pressureless matter with a cosmological constant, the complete shellwise response is nevertheless fixed by one top-hat function. Given the local density contrast $\delta(t,r)$ and the enclosed contrast $\Delta(t,r)$, a transverse response and its derivative determine $H_{\perp}$ and $H_{\parallel}$. The linear and second-order limits are algebraic maps whose only dynamical input is the usual growth rate $f$. An exact equal-age construction supplies the nonlinear response without integrating an evolution equation. We check that it reconstructs full $\Lambda$LTB profiles to numerical precision. We also provide a derivative-aware, cosmology-independent three-term symbolic fit that requires only $f$, $\delta$, and $\Delta$. Across a representative set of matter-curvature-redshift combinations and for a shell located in the compensated transition, the maximum relative errors are $0.3\%$ and $0.7\%$ in the transverse and radial responses, respectively. This compact formulation separates the production of a density profile from its expansion response and makes the effect of radial gradients explicit.

We investigate static spherically symmetric vacuum solutions in higher-dimensional $f(R)$ gravity, beginning with the five-dimensional Starobinsky model governed by the action $f(R) = R + \alpha R^2 - 2\Lambda$. By enforcing the ghost-free stability criterion $f'(R) > 0$ on constant scalar curvature spacetimes, we show that a stable effective cosmological constant cannot be dynamically generated from pure $R^2$ geometric corrections in five dimensions; its existence is inextricably tied to a bare cosmological constant. Generalizing this analysis to arbitrary dimensions $D$ and single-term curvature corrections $f(R) = R + \alpha R^n$ with a vanishing bare cosmological constant, we derive a universal stability bound, $n > D/2$, required for the existence of stable emergent vacua. Finally, we demonstrate that expanding the gravitational action to a multi-term polynomial hierarchy circumvents this strict limitation. By including curvature corrections up to $\mathcal{O}(R^3)$, the extended geometric degrees of freedom simultaneously satisfy the trace constraint and the stability criterion. Furthermore, we establish the exact parameter space boundaries that ensure not only asymptotic vacuum stability but strict global stability ($f'(R) > 0$ for all $R$), allowing for the dynamical generation of exact, globally ghost-free vacuum spacetimes in $D \ge 5$ purely from higher-order geometric terms. The scalaron mass requirement, $m_s^2>0$ is not imposed in full in our analysis. A detailed investigation of its implications on the models considered in this work are left for future study.

This paper is aimed at investigating electromagnetic energy extraction, charged-particle collisions, charged-field superradiance, and horizon stability in a Lorentz-violating dyonic Kalb-Ramond black hole. The geometry differs from the dyonic Reissner-Nordström solution through a modified asymptotic normalization and an effective charge combining electric and magnetic sectors. We derive the dynamics of electrically and magnetically charged probes, including monopole-induced conical motion, and formulate electric and magnetic Penrose processes as decay or collision mechanisms in which a negative-energy fragment falls into the horizon while another escapes with enhanced energy. The electric and magnetic channels are controlled by \(\Phi_H=Q/[(1-\ell)r_+]\) and \(\Psi_H=p/[(1-2\ell)r_+]\), respectively. Negative-energy states arise from electromagnetic canonical energy rather than from a geometrical ergoregion. We also obtain escape conditions for the outgoing products, test the possibility of overcharging or overmagnetizing the black hole, and analyze the center-of-mass energy of charged-particle collisions. Nonextremal same-direction collisions remain finite, whereas head-on or near-critical configurations can become large. In the extremal limit, electrically or magnetically critical particles may generate the Bañados-Silk-West divergence when the radial reachability condition is fulfilled.

We prove that the notion of mass recently introduced by Mazurowski and Yao for continuous metrics coincides with Huisken's isoperimetric mass on smooth Riemannian $3$-manifolds with nonnegative scalar curvature whose metric has sharp $C^0$-asymptotically flat behavior. As a consequence, we deduce a Riemannian Penrose inequality for the mass parameter of asymptotically Schwarzschildian $3$-manifolds.

We investigate a bimetric cosmological model in which the gravitational and matter sectors are described by distinct metrics related through a time-dependent function $\alpha(t)$. This relation leads to dynamical gravitational parameters, with $G(t)\propto\alpha^{-3}$ and $c_{\rm grav}(t)\propto\alpha^{-1}$, where $c_{\rm grav}$ denotes the propagation speed of gravitational interactions. We consider a class of solutions for which $\alpha\rightarrow\infty$ at a finite cosmic time, resulting in $G\rightarrow0$ and $c_{\rm grav}\rightarrow0$. For an analytically tractable solution, we show that the final singularity occurs at finite conformal time and possesses a conformal structure compatible with a possible transition between successive cosmological cycles. The Tipler and Królak criteria indicate that the singularity is strong. We further discuss the physical consequences of the weakening gravitational interaction, including the dissolution of gravitationally bound structures and the shrinking of black-hole horizons. These effects suggest a possible mechanism leading toward an effectively radiation-dominated final state, which may be relevant for Conformal Cyclic Cosmology. The results provide a motivation for extending the analysis to more general scalar–tensor theories of gravity.