Papers

Single-field models of inflection point inflation experience a phase of ultra-slow roll (USR), leading to amplified curvature perturbations. Recently, Lorenzoni et al. modified the scenario by adding a light spectator field, showing that it ruins USR by setting a floor for the first slow-roll parameter $\epsilon$. Mixing with isocurvature perturbations still amplifies the curvature power spectrum. We offer an alternative point of view, arguing that the inflaton still undergoes effective USR. The spectator lifts the potential by a constant amount, and the inflaton perturbations follow single-field dynamics in the lifted inflection point potential, decoupling from the spectator perturbations. Mode mixing only affects the power spectrum dip, making it milder. We demonstrate this effective single-field behavior numerically for example models. Our results offer a simple way to study the models' parameter dependence.

Quasinormal modes (QNMs) of black hole perturbations in the large overtone limit, namely, asymptotic QNMs, are highly sensitive to a black hole's interior geometry. We probe the singularity structure of a class of exact (2+1)-dimensional quantum black hole solutions to semi-classical gravity by computing their asymptotic QNM spectra. We do this using methods of complex analysis in which the radial coordinate is analytically continued to the complex plane. The leading order QNM frequencies all fit the generic form $\omega=(\text{offset})+n(\text{gap})$, for overtone number $n$, which we also confirm numerically. Under a general assumption about the global Stokes topology of the complexified radial coordinate, we show how to reconstruct the scaling exponent of more general (spacelike or timelike) black hole singularities from the offset. We then compute subleading corrections to the asymptotic QNMs, from which we provide a robust method for extracting the scaling of the metric function near the singularity. Our findings exemplify the transition between "Kasner eons", successive regimes encountered on approach to a spacelike singularity, as non-perturbative quantum effects become dominant. For charged quantum black holes, the asymptotic QNMs exhibit a crossover between two regimes in which the neutral and charge contributions to the metric function dominate, respectively. Within the crossover region, the QNMs develop an oscillatory behavior that may be a signature of the inner horizon.

We consider the canonical quantization of the Schwarzschild geometry in a minisuperspace description based on a foliation with leaves labeled by the radial variable. This formulation remains regular across the Killing horizon. In this way, the resulting quantum theory admits a physical Hilbert space of states that solve the radial constraint equation and simultaneously describe the exterior and interior regions of the black hole. We discuss the construction of quantum relational observables, which act as gauge-invariant symmetric operators on the physical Hilbert space. In order to analyze quantum effects on the geometry, we construct a family of semiclassical intelligent states that saturate the Robertson-Schrödinger uncertainty relation for both the black-hole mass and the asymptotic Killing norm, while exhibiting small relative fluctuations. The expectation values of relational observables in these states admit a clear geometric interpretation, and they lead to an effective, quantum-corrected spacetime. In particular, we find that the position of the horizon may be shifted, depending on the correlation of the state. In addition, both the proper acceleration of a static observer and the horizon surface gravity are enhanced with respect to a classical Schwarzschild black hole with the same horizon area. Using the relation between surface gravity and temperature, we then obtain corrections to the thermodynamic properties of the black hole, leading to a logarithmically corrected Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Finally, we discuss the definition of a state of minimal energy that could be interpreted as a stable remnant characterized by a finite horizon radius, suggesting a possible mechanism for preventing the complete evaporation of the black hole.

Regular black holes avoid the central singularity by replacing it with a de Sitter core. We ask what cosmology follows if the same idea is brought to the early universe. Regular metrics define a position-dependent cosmological term, $\Lambda_{\rm eff}(r)=8\pi G \rho_{\rm MS}(r)$, and there is no unique way to carry it over to the expanding universe. We follow three different prescriptions: a Newtonian one following McCrea and Milne, a running vacuum evaluated at Hubble radius and a quasi-local one based on Misner-Sharp mass. We apply each of them to six regular black hole metrics and explore their consequences. In the Newtonian case the Friedmann equations are solved in closed form for the Hayward metric, and in terms of standard special functions or numerically for the others, and describe a universe that starts in a de Sitter phase and ends as dust (i.e. an inflationary model instead of dark energy). We find that in all three prescriptions a monotonically decreasing core density gives an equation of state that never crosses $w=-1$, and thus the phantom behaviour suggested by DESI would require a density shell which a regular core does not have. The three prescriptions agree on the de Sitter core but differ at late times, and we quantify the difference against the DESI DR2 results. We also point out that a single regularisation length cannot serve as both the inflationary and the dark-energy scale.

The second data release of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), based on more than fourteen million galaxies and quasars, prefers a dark energy component whose equation of state is dynamical. In the simplest two-parameter description of this behavior, the Chevallier–Polarski–Linder (CPL) parametrization, the data favor the quadrant $w_0>-1$, $w_a<0$, which implies that the equation of state crosses the phantom divide $w=-1$ at a redshift $z\simeq0.4$. We show that the local limit of nonlocal gravity, a teleparallel extension of general relativity governed by a scalar function called gravitational susceptibility $S(x)$, offers a natural explanation. In this model a cosmological constant is not allowed; dark energy is necessarily dynamical. The phantom crossing seen by an observer is an effective phenomenon generated by the time evolution of $S(z)$. We establish a correspondence: to every general-relativistic dark energy model with equation of state $w(z)$, there corresponds a modified TEGR cosmology with $w=-1$ and a suitable susceptibility $S(z)$ that are indistinguishable at the level of the background expansion. We construct the susceptibility functions that reproduce the CPL behavior favored by DESI data, and we confront the model with the combined CMB,BAO, and SNe data using Boltzmann solver codes. The recovered susceptibility displays a characteristic low-redshift dip with depth $\beta = -0.025 \pm 0.007$ at $z\simeq 0.4 $, and its derivative changes sign at a redshift equal to the phantom-crossing epoch.

In classical general relativity, it is well known that radially moving massless particles in the exterior region take infinite coordinate time to reach the event horizon in black hole spacetimes. In this short paper, we use two stochastic versions of ingoing radial null geodesic equation to study the stochastic radial motion of massless particles in Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordström spacetimes. We show that the probability that a radially moving massless particle enters the black hole in finite coordinate time remains zero. This indicates the stochastic perturbations of quantum effects preserve certain properties of classical black holes.

We consider a dilatonic dyon black hole solution with a gravitational radius of $2 \mu$ and two charges, $Q_1$ (electric) and $Q_2$ (magnetic), within the framework of a four-dimensional gravitational model comprising one scalar field and one 2-form. The dilaton coupling constant $\lambda$ is fixed by $\lambda^2 = \frac{3}{2}$. This solution is related to the $A_2$ Toda chain. The circular orbits of null geodesics are explored, and the fifth-order polynomial master equation governing the photon sphere radius $R_0$ is analyzed. It is shown to admit a unique solution satisfying $R_0 > 2 \mu$. The circular null geodesics are proven to be unstable. Finally, the black hole shadow is examined, yielding relations for the shadow angle and the critical impact parameter.

We analyze stationary, axisymmetric Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory with zero cosmological constant in the conformal Carter class, employing a generalized Ernst approach on the space of potentials. We begin by establishing a complete local correspondence between Plebański-Demiański principal coordinates and Weyl data, covering the electric, magnetic, and twist potentials as well as the 1-forms \(A\), \(B\), and \(C\). In the source-free Weyl reduction, requiring the invariant area density to be harmonic singles out the \(\Lambda=0\) sector, and the principal chiral splitting isolates both electromagnetic misalignment and the part due to acceleration. Next, we obtain the Einstein reconstruction equations for general local EMD configurations in this setting. In a physical Carter domain with an ordinary scalar, the bilinear factor \(\Om=1-\acc pq\) enforces \(C=0\) and \(B_-=0\). With fixed \(\alphao\neq0\), the scalar field equation further rules out the charged PD Coulomb-type 1-form. Lastly, assuming an exact quadratic Stäckel scalar 1-form, the conditions of exactness together with reconstruction restrict the system to a single aligned branch, but consistency with the full potential equations removes this branch for arbitrary smooth Carter structure functions. Consequently, within the quadratic Stäckel class studied here, there is no local nonconstant solution with an ordinary dilaton. This conclusion does not extend to phantom scalars, conformal factors of higher degree, or non-Stäckel 1-forms.

Black-hole movies provide a unique venue to study the time evolution of accreting plasma. Modeling this evolution with slow-light radiative transfer requires closely spaced simulation outputs, because the plasma changes as light propagates through it. Saving these outputs in full is costly, whereas sparse sampling introduces time-interpolation errors. We present the Dense Dump Codec (DDC), a compression method for dense GRMHD time series. DDC stores exact anchor states and compactly represents the intermediate evolution, while allowing direct access to selected times and variables. Applied to eight production sequences spanning SANE and MAD simulations at several black-hole spins with 0.1M output, DDC archives are about 10 times smaller than the original dense data and even about 50% smaller than the original 0.5M output in aggregate. We further integrate a native DDC reader into polarized slow-light radiative transfer. Tests at 86, 230, and 345 GHz show that DDC may reduce aggregate Stokes-image errors by 54-79% relative to slow-light calculations using original 0.5M input. These results indicate that DDC enables high-cadence slow-light calculations without the prohibitive cost of saving every dense GRMHD state in its original form.

Polarized black-hole images carry information about both the magnetized plasma and the curved spacetime through which the radiation propagates. We present KPolaris, an open-source GPU-accelerated general-relativistic polarized radiative-transfer code built on the Kokkos framework. It supports analytic plasma models and GRMHD simulation data, with both fast-light and slow-light radiative transfer. The code also provides diagnostics that connect image structure to the emitting plasma and to propagation effects along the rays. These include emissivity-weighted plasma maps, emission contributions from selected regions, selected-ray histories, and sensitivities of the Stokes parameters to plasma parameters. Numerical convergence tests and comparisons with an independent radiative-transfer code assess the accuracy of the calculations. GPU acceleration reduces the computational cost of image generation, facilitating multi-frequency and time-dependent studies of polarized black-hole images.

We investigate, for the first time, the non-radial $f$-mode oscillations of neutron stars (NSs) with a dark energy (DE) core utilising a fully general relativistic treatment. We construct the stellar profile by considering a relativistic mean field model for nuclear matter and a modified Chaplygin fluid like prescription for DE. We compute the stellar structure, $f$-mode oscillations, tidal deformability, and gravitational wave (GW) energy and strain of the NS with DE core by varying the DE equation of state (EoS) parameters. Our study reveals that the inclusion of DE softens EoS and reduces the maximum mass compared to the pure neutron star. The obtained mass-radius values are consistent with observational constraints from massive pulsars such as PSR J0030+0451 and PSR J0740+6620. We find that the extent of the DE core, determined by the transition density, plays a crucial role in modifying the stellar structure and oscillation properties, with lower transition densities producing appreciable changes over a wider mass range. The $f$-mode frequencies and damping times exhibit systematic modifications, for higher mass configurations, while the correlation between the $f$-mode frequency and tidal deformability remains consistent with observational constraints from GW170817 and GW190814. Further, the normalised oscillation energy distribution remains nearly universal, with only minimal deviations for the higher mass configurations. Finally, we estimate the characteristic GW strain associated with the $f$-mode oscillations and find that the predicted signals lie within the sensitivity band of future third generation GW detectors.

In this paper, it is shown that in spacetimes of maximal proper acceleration, there is a reduction of the mean lifetime of the muon. We consider several candidates for the maximal proper acceleration. For all of them, the induced corrections are small, but for the case when the maximal proper acceleration is identified with the Schwinger's acceleration, the effect is detectable in future muon collider facilities.

The static Love numbers of four-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes vanish classically. We show that this is not true in the quantum theory. Working in the worldline effective field theory, we compute the leading quantum correction to the Compton amplitude for massless scalars and photons scattering off a Schwarzschild black hole at first post-Minkowskian order, and find logarithmic divergences associated with the renormalization of the static Love numbers. We conclude that renormalization-group running necessarily generates Love numbers suppressed by the square of the Planck length in units of the horizon radius, $\ell_{\rm pl}^{2}/r_{\rm h}^{2}$. This is consistent with the classical vanishing being a consequence of an accidental symmetry of static general relativity, broken by quantum loops. Extrapolated to gravitational perturbations, our results suggest that the quadrupolar static Love numbers of Schwarzschild are of size $\lambda \sim M r_{\rm h}^{2} \ell_{\rm pl}^{2}$.

The occurrence of chaos in multipendular FP resonators (without light propagation delay) is illustrated. The probability of evolving a chaotic solution in a given time, starting from initial conditions contained in a neighbourhood of a stable equilibrium point, is estimated, and its dependence on the most relevant system parameters is investigated. The possible relevance of these results for interferometric gravitational wave antennas is discussed.

In this work, we investigate the thermodynamics of arbitrary spherically symmetric surfaces in non-flat FLRW spacetimes within general relativity. Adopting the gravity-to-thermodynamics perspective, the Clausius relation and the unified first law follow directly from the gravitational field equations and matter dynamics, with a central role played by the matter-flux measure derived from energy-momentum conservation. The cosmological apparent-horizon and event-horizon thermodynamics are both recovered as special cases. In particular, the event-horizon temperatures derived from the gravitational dynamics satisfy both thermodynamic relations without introducing phenomenological modifications, and the corresponding temperature reduces to the Gibbons-Hawking temperature in the de Sitter limit. We further show that previous inconsistencies originate from incompatible temperature prescriptions rather than from any intrinsic deficiency in the thermodynamics of the cosmological event horizon. These results demonstrate that the gravity-thermodynamics correspondence is a generic feature of gravitational dynamics rather than a property unique to causal horizons.

We investigate the weak and strong field gravitational lensing of light by a primary hair black hole (BH) solution obtained within the framework of the gravitational decoupling (GD) approach. In this method, the BH solution is constructed by introducing geometric deformations to a known seed spacetime, which, in the present case, is the Schwarzschild geometry. The deformation functions are determined by imposing the dominant energy condition, leading to the emergence of two characteristic parameters, the primary hair $Q$ and the coupling constant $\alpha$, both of which deform the Schwarzschild spacetime. To explore the lensing properties of this BH, we employ the Gibbons-Werner approach in the weak field regime and Bozza's formalism in the strong field regime. In the weak field limit, we derive the deflection angle up to second-order corrections and find that the coupling parameter $\alpha$ contributes more significantly to the leading-order deflection than the primary hair parameter $Q$. The primary hair is also found to exhibit an effectively repulsive gravitational behavior. In the strong field regime, we compute the deflection angle of photons propagating near the photon sphere, where the deflection diverges logarithmically, allowing photons to complete multiple loops around the BH and form relativistic images. Using the supermassive BH Sgr A* as the astrophysical lens, we further investigate the strong lensing observables, namely the asymptotic angular position $\vartheta_{\infty}$, the angular separation $s$, and the relative magnitude $r_{\mathrm{mag}}$. We also constrain the primary hair parameter $Q$ for different values of the coupling constant $\alpha$ using the shadow observations of Sgr A* reported by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration.

We investigate axial gravitoelectromagnetic perturbations of charged black holes surrounded by dust-like Kiselev-type anisotropic matter in Rastall gravity. We derive the axial matter compatibility condition and obtain two coupled Schrödinger-type master equations under a closure that neglects perturbations of the covariant anisotropy-direction vector. The equations admit an $r$-independent algebraic decoupling in the Reissner–Nordström and general-relativistic dust-like limits, whereas additional radial structure obstructs such a decoupling in generic charged Rastall backgrounds with nonzero surrounding matter. For the nonextremal backgrounds considered, we establish axial mode stability under this closure: a matrix $S$-deformation excludes exponentially growing coupled modes for $\ell\geq2$, and the physical electromagnetic dipole has a positive effective potential. A Chebyshev pseudospectral calculation, checked against the Reissner–Nordström spectrum and spectral convergence, characterizes the fundamental frequencies. Increasing the Rastall coupling lowers both the oscillation frequency and the damping rate in the small-coupling region; in the large-coupling region, the oscillation frequency rises while the damping rate varies nonmonotonically. A larger charge generally raises the oscillation frequency, whereas stronger surrounding-matter contributions tend to produce longer-lived modes. An auxiliary frozen-source truncation generally violates the matter constraint but yields sub-percent frequency differences for the representative configurations examined, showing that spectral proximity does not establish constraint compatibility.

We study the holographic description of the RN-like black hole in bumblebee gravity, which is a vector-tensor theory with spontaneous Lorentz violation. By combining the first laws of the outer and inner horizons, the thermodynamics method yields the right- and left-moving entropies, temperatures, and chemical potentials of the dual two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT), determines the central charges from the mass-independent entropy product, and reproduces the outer and inner horizon entropies through the Cardy formula. An independent dynamical test based on the hidden conformal symmetry of a charged scalar probe confirms these results. A central outcome is the equality of the right- and left-moving central charges, $c_R=c_L$, which we trace to the spontaneous character of Lorentz breaking. Because the action of bumblebee gravity preserves diffeomorphism and local Lorentz invariance, and the symmetry is broken only by a vector vacuum expectation value, no chirally asymmetric structure arises in the dual theory, in sharp contrast to topologically massive gravity in $(2+1)$ dimensions. All CFT data depend smoothly on the Lorentz-violating parameter and reduce to the known RN results when Lorentz violation is switched off.

Second-order black-hole perturbation theory will be an important component of precision gravitational-wave modeling and tests of strong-field gravity with next-generation detectors. Beyond quasinormal modes (QNMs), whose quadratic interactions have been the focus of recent work in black-hole spectroscopy, a generic retarded solution consists of a continuum of real-frequency scattering states whose nonlinear interactions in Kerr remain comparatively less explored. We use numerical relativity to study the quadratic response of Kerr black holes to nearly monochromatic $(\ell,m)=(2,\pm2)$ incident gravitational waves, measuring the complex self-coupling to the outgoing $(\ell,m)=(4,4)$ daughter at twice the parent frequency for black-hole spins up to $a=0.95$. At low frequencies, the coupling is strongly suppressed and exhibits opposite spin dependence for prograde and retrograde scattering. At higher prograde frequencies, we identify a daughter-mode resonance whose frequency and width extracted from the nonlinear response track the fundamental $(\ell,m,n)=(4,4,0)$ QNM. Near the fundamental $(2,2,0)$ QNM frequency, the in-mode coupling grows with spin, in contrast to the decreasing quadratic QNM coupling, demonstrating that the nonlinear response depends on the full parent scattering state rather than on its frequency alone. A complementary semi-analytic second-order Teukolsky calculation reproduces the nonlinear response from our numerical relativity simulations. Our numerical-relativity results and their semi-analytic extension provide a basis for generic homogeneous radiative perturbations of Kerr at second order, with applications to dynamical tides, near-extremal dynamics, and second-order gravitational self-force theory.

We investigate polarized synchrotron emission from an optically thin accretion flow around a rotating braneworld black hole, focusing on how higher-dimensional gravity modifies photon propagation and polarization transport. We integrate the null-geodesic and parallel-transport equations for the polarization four-vector and, within a common emissivity and magnetic-field prescription, examine the effects of tidal charge, black-hole spin, observer inclination, and prograde or retrograde orbital motion. We analyze the linearly polarized intensity, electric-vector position angle (EVPA), Stokes parameters, the joint $Q$–$U$ polarization-state space, and the cumulative net linear polarization degree, and compare representative braneworld configurations with Kerr and Kerr–Newman spacetimes. Within the parameter range considered, tidal charge and spin do not generate a qualitatively new large-scale polarization morphology. Instead, they primarily reorganize the polarized intensity, orientation, and polarization-state distribution in the strong-field region near the shadow boundary and photon ring. Viewing inclination controls the dominant projected morphology, while high inclinations enhance projection and Doppler asymmetries and make the distinction between prograde and retrograde flows more pronounced. The Stokes components and their joint state space expose local bending, stretching, and trajectory concentration that are less apparent in intensity images. The cumulative net linear polarization degree decreases with increasing cumulative radius, and larger tidal charge or spin lowers its amplitude for the representative models considered. Together, these complementary polarization observables provide a potential route for separating spacetime, viewing-geometry, and accretion-flow effects and for constraining braneworld tidal charge with horizon-scale polarimetry.

We review the conceptual and theoretical status of twin-universe models, from Sakharov's early ideas on baryogenesis, CPT symmetry, and reversed arrows of time to recent quantum-cosmological scenarios involving pair-created entangled universes. Particular attention is given to the distinction between Sakharov-type cosmological symmetry, modern bimetric theories of gravity, and speculative models involving negative mass sectors. We summarize the main consistency conditions faced by bimetric gravity, including the Boulware-Deser ghost, Higuchi-type bounds, covariant conservation laws, and no-go results for positive- and negative-mass sectors. We then examine the Janus cosmological model and related black-hole replacement proposals, emphasizing the difference between heuristic twin-universe narratives and fully specified relativistic field theories. We argue that while twin-universe ideas remain a fertile framework for questions about the arrow of time, matter-antimatter asymmetry, and the quantum origin of the universe, models combining bimetric gravity, negative mass, dark-sector phenomenology, and alternatives to Kerr black holes face a substantial burden of mathematical and observational proof.

We derive a Lipatov type effective action for the Reggeized gravitons. In place of the order by order construction of the effective currents from diffeomorphism invariance, we propose a current which is a single ordered exponential $W_{ij}$ along the light cone, generated by the optical tidal matrix integrated once. The nested ordering of it reproduces the known perturbative answer with some new terms added. These new terms are non-local along the light cone and have a structure which the diffeomorphism construction cannot produce, the form of the third order contribution to the current is also calculated. The effective action, the current to Reggeon vertex and the current to current interaction are obtained in closed form, in three equivalent writings, one of them covariant. Generally defined $W_{ij}$ reduces to four parameters of the ray bundle, its density, its shear, the orientation of the shear and a rotation of the image. The effective current uses three of them, being the second light cone derivative of a single scalar, it is not sensitive to the orientation. Comparing with the standard eikonal gravitational Wilson line, which is the phase, $W_{ij}$ is the Hessian of the same eikonal: it carries the shear and the focusing that the Abelian phase does not, and it is inverse to the Jacobi propagator of the congruence at first order in the field. A generalization of the proposed ordered operator is discussed as well as applications of the gravitational effective action.

Inspired by black hole thermodynamics and other results suggesting that general relativity has some intrinsic connection with thermodynamics, this work aims to establish a quasi-local thermodynamic formalism in general spacetimes. With this purpose, we generalize the Bondi-Sachs formalism to past light cones associated with an arbitrary worldline. From this generalization, we demonstrate the emission of Hawking radiation in a quasi-local context through a few examples, suggesting that it may occur under mild conditions. In addition, we argue that an "irreversible inequality" is satisfied in typical gravitational systems, indicating that an analogue of the second law may be established. Together with a definition of internal energy derived from the Landau-Lifshitz pseudotensor, these results are used to construct a postulational framework that generalizes classical thermodynamics in order to include the dynamics of spacetime. As a consequence, it is possible to define the rest-mass density from thermodynamic variables, decoupling it from the dynamics of constituent numbers.

Quantum tunneling of particles across a black hole (BH) horizon provides an intuitive interpretation of Hawking radiation (HR), yielding a conceptually simple derivation of the thermal spectrum within a semiclassical framework. However, for BHs obeying the no-hair theorem, usual implementations of the complex-path (Hamilton-Jacobi) method typically rely on approximating the metric near the BH horizon. In this work, we demonstrate that the Hawking spectrum can be derived without such approximations by exploiting gauge invariance in quantum field theory and the separability of the Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) equation arising from hidden symmetries of these spacetimes. This perspective shows explicitly why the BH behaves as an effective $(1+1)$-dimensional blackbody at the event horizon, provides the conditions needed to extend the HR to higher-spin particles, and offers a framework that can naturally incorporate back-reaction and quantum-gravity effects.

We investigate analytically and numerically the floral deformation of particle rings induced by higher-order polynomial modes of pp-waves. The transverse tidal eigendirections determine $m$ interlaced sectors of radial stretching and compression, while a weak-pulse solution provides the complete first-order response of the ring. Direct geodesic integration for $m=2,3,4$ confirms the predicted orientation and discrete symmetry. A Fourier analysis shows that the response remains overwhelmingly dominated by the angular mode $n=m$; in particular, the loops found for $m=4$ arise from geometrical folding of the fundamental mode rather than strong harmonic mixing. The temporal moments of the pulse further distinguish displacement from velocity memory without changing this angular signature.

Transient orbital resonances can introduce phase-dependent corrections to the evolution of extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs), potentially altering their long-term dynamics and emitted gravitational-wave signals. In this work, we quantify the resonance-induced modifications to the energy, axial angular momentum, and Carter constant fluxes and compute the corresponding resonance coefficients across a broad region of the orbital parameter space. Using the publicly available $\texttt{pybhpt}$ code, we solve the Teukolsky equation in the frequency domain to coherently combine the degenerate radial and polar harmonics that arise at resonance. We analytically derive a selection rule governing the relative radial-polar phase dependence of the resonant flux modifications. We argue that the relative strength of the resonant flux modifications reflects a balance between symmetry-induced cancellations and the degree to which the resonant orbit samples the underlying two-dimensional orbital phase space. For the dynamically important $3{:}2$ and $2{:}1$ resonances, we also characterize how the resonance coefficients vary with the primary black-hole spin, orbital eccentricity and inclination. Our results constitute the largest set of Teukolsky-based resonance coefficients calculated to date and provide essential input for future studies of transient orbital resonances in EMRIs.

Future neutral hydrogen (HI) intensity mapping (IM) and optical surveys probe large-scale structure over unprecedented volumes, offering powerful constraints on cosmological models. We study the cross-correlation between the HI IM field and the galaxy density and cosmic shear fields from optical surveys. By formulating the HI-HI-galaxy and HI-HI-shear cross-bispectra, we recover sensitivity to long-wavelength radial modes otherwise removed by foreground subtraction in HI maps, evaluating their detectability for HIRAX and Rubin-LSST. Combining the probes breaks degeneracies in redshift-dependent quantities, including the $f$-$\sigma_8$ degeneracy. Our constraints range from $0.74\%$ to $9.8\%$ on $f$ and $0.073\%$ to $3.5\%$ on $\sigma_8$ across the six redshift bins that we consider. Our constraints on the first- and second-order HI bias parameters range from $0.42\%$ to $5.6\%$ on $b_{\rm HI}^{(1)}$ and from $2.0\%$ to $29\%$ on $b_{\rm HI}^{(2)}$, while the galaxy bias constraints range from $2.6\%$ to $11\%$ on $b_{\rm gal}.$ The HI-HI-galaxy density cross-bispectrum measurement allows us to constrain a linear scale-dependent model for the stochastic cross-correlation coefficient between HI and stars, $r_{{\rm HI \,HI\,}\delta_g} = r_0 + r_1 k,$ with a break scale of $0.14\,\mbox{Mpc}^{-1}.$ We obtain $r_0$ constraints that range from $3.8\%$ to $13.5\%$ and $r_1$ constraints that range from $7.5\%$ to $19.9\%$. For cosmology, adding cross-bispectra enhances Lambda CDM constraints, notably via the HI-HI-shear cross-bispectrum. For the $w_0\, w_a$CDM model, the power-spectrum-only constraints on $w_0$ and $w_a,$ including Planck priors, improve from $(\sigma_{w_0},\sigma_{w_a})=(0.036,0.15)$ and $(0.032,0.12)$ to $(\sigma_{w_0},\sigma_{w_a})=(0.014,0.057)$ and $(0.015,0.059)$ when adding the HI-HI-galaxy and HI-HI-shear cross-bispectra, respectively.

We analyze the cosmological implications of theories of gravity with quadratic curvature invariants $R^2$ and $C^{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}C_{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}$, and six-derivative operators $R\Box R$ and $C^{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}\Box C_{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}$. We first analyze homogeneous and isotropic cosmological solutions, showing that the theory admits expanding, recollapsing and non-singular bouncing solutions. We clarify in the Einstein-frame formulation the mechanism that circumvents the Hawking–Penrose singularity theorems, and identify the role played by the additional higher-derivative degrees of freedom in that mechanism. We show that the complete set of linear equations governing tensor perturbations on standard backgrounds admit analytically stable solutions. The analysis reveals that the stability properties are determined by the pole structure of the propagator and by specific relations among the higher-derivative couplings, while the singularity-free backgrounds are found to be unstable against tensor perturbations. For scalar cosmological perturbations, the higher-derivative theories presents super-horizon scalar instabilities in de Sitter spacetimes for both quadratic and sixth-order gravity. To extract inflationary observables, we adopt an EFT approach to the sixth-order theory, treating these terms as perturbative corrections around the Starobinsky background. Within this framework, we compute the modification of the primordial scalar and tensor power spectra, obtaining predictions for the scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio. We find that sixth-order operators produce controlled deviations from the Starobinsky model while preserving the EFT expansion, thereby providing a consistent phenomenological framework to probe ultraviolet gravitational corrections through cosmological observables.

In a recent work \cite{Shaikh:2026nsi}, it was shown that for a non-relativistic particle, the operator equations of motion can be cast in the same differential form as Newton's equation of motion. This establishes a correspondence between quantum operator dynamics and classical mechanics at the level of the equations of motion. In this work, we investigate whether this correspondence extends to quantum field theory and linearized gravity. We explicitly show that the Heisenberg equations of motion for quantum field operators reproduce the corresponding classical equations of motion for a broad class of field theories. The Klein-Gordon equation, Maxwell's equations, Yang-Mills equations, and linearized Einstein equations are shown to arise at the operator level without taking the limit $\hbar\rightarrow0$. We then extend the analysis to curved spacetime and show that the quantum field operators satisfy the corresponding covariant field equations at the operator level. In the weak-field approximation, we show that the Heisenberg evolution of the metric-perturbations reproduces the linearized Einstein equations at the operator level. For a quantum particle in curved spacetime, the Heisenberg equations for position and momentum reproduce classical geodesic motion in the semiclassical limit, thereby extending the operator-level quantum-classical correspondence from fields to particle dynamics.

A recently proposed class of black-bounce solutions sourced by anisotropic fluids, whose exterior reproduces the Reissner-Nordström geometry all the way down to a minimal-area bounce, was put forward by Lessa and Olmo. In this work, we show that this solution conceals a thin-shell structure precisely at the bounce. Motivated by this observation, we construct a new class of black-bounce solutions with static, spherical symmetry featuring the emergence of a minimal-area bounce supported by a thin shell. This nontrivial topological structure is shown to arise from the degeneracy of the metric at the bounce, where the inverse metric becomes ill-defined, leading to curvature tensors with distributional discontinuities precisely at that point. As a consequence, a delta-function thin shell of energy-condition-violating matter is necessarily present at the bounce. To generate such solutions, we draw on proposals from quantum gravity that predict the existence of a fundamental minimum length scale, employing energy density profiles that encode these quantum-gravitational effects in an effective manner, replacing the point-like description of matter at minimal-length scales with a smeared one. We consider two well-motivated profiles, of Lorentzian and Gaussian type, to generate a novel class of solutions exhibiting the features of either regular black holes or wormholes, whose center conceals a thin-shell bounce. In addition, we investigate the thermodynamics of these compact objects.