Papers

Cosmological first-order phase transitions can generate curvature perturbations through inhomogeneous quantum tunneling, as studied previously on superhorizon scales. In this work, we for the first time conduct three-dimensional lattice simulations that incorporate scalar metric perturbations and radiation perturbations, covering a range from bubble wall scales to super-horizon scales. We obtain the precise scalar perturbation power spectrum and the probability density function of energy density perturbations. Furthermore, we simulate the gravitational-wave energy spectra generated by each source during the first-order phase transition, including the scalar field itself, scalar metric perturbations, and the energy density and velocity perturbations of radiation. For gravitational waves, the contribution from other sources can exceed $1/3$ of that from the scalar field at superhorizon scales. Additionally, we compare the effects of different values of the transition strength and rate on the results. This paper provides more accurate numerical results for research aimed at detecting or constraining first-order phase transitions via gravitational waves and curvature perturbations.

Supercooled first-order phase transitions provide an attractive framework for generating observable gravitational waves (GWs), but the accompanying entropy injection dilutes any pre-existing baryon asymmetry, motivating baryogenesis during or after the phase transition. Cold baryogenesis offers a promising mechanism in which bubble collisions generate Higgs winding configurations and the Chern-Simons number through out-of-equilibrium dynamics. In the present study, we perform three-dimensional lattice simulations of a two-field model where the scalar field responsible for the phase transition is separated from the Higgs sector. Using realistic initial conditions obtained from bounce solutions, we follow the bubble expansion and collisions and study the generation of Chern-Simons number. It is found that efficient Chern-Simons production persists even for strongly non-degenerate potentials with large latent heat, which are favorable for enhancing GW signals. We also estimate the resulting baryon asymmetry using the simulated Chern-Simons dynamics and an effective CP-violating operator. Our results demonstrate that cold baryogenesis remains viable in the strongly supercooled regime, providing an important step toward establishing baryogenesis from cosmological first-order phase transitions.

We examine a Planck-scale regular black-hole remnant in neutron-star matter using a T-duality-inspired effective geometry and explicitly separate geometrical results from assumptions about absorption and emission. Within the static family, the surface-gravity temperature grows as $(M-M_{\rm ext})^{1/2}$ after a small mass increase. A constant-greybody Stefan–Boltzmann approximation gives a Hawking power proportional to $(M-M_{\rm ext})^2$ and can produce a stable lower balance point and an unstable growth threshold under stated hypotheses. For $l_0=\ell_{\rm Pl}$, however, the formal lower equilibrium has an excess mass of only $10^{-45}$–$10^{-46}\,\mathrm{kg}$ for order-unity absorption efficiency, so the canonical description is inconsistent with individual neutron captures. For a fiducial area-scale absorption cross section with unit coefficient, the mean capture interval is $5.4\times10^8\,\mathrm{yr}$ and the initial nonradiating growth timescale is $9.1\times10^{27}\,\mathrm{yr}$. Under this assumption, a Planck-mass remnant inside a neutron star is therefore effectively inert and, without additional feeding, cannot destroy the star within the age of the Universe. A stationary capture–relaxation state additionally requires an effective microscopic emission law; it is not established by zero temperature alone. Hydrodynamic accretion requires control of wave effects and a mean-free-path criterion; its onset corresponds to masses of order $10^{11}$–$10^{12}\,\mathrm{kg}$ for representative matter parameters. Direct zero-point-length corrections there are negligible, of order $10^{-40}$ at a femtometre. We discuss conditional growth thresholds, critical slowing near an unstable balance, dark-matter feeding, angular-momentum transfer, and the requirements for neutron-star survival constraints.

The existence of energy is the main criterion for (i) providing a common core to the materiality of all types of classical matter and (ii) denying that the gravitational field of General Relativity is a type of matter. Extending this criterion to quantum field theory, though formally straightforward, carries new conceptual consequences for the interpretation of gravity. Renormalization of the quantum matter stress-energy tensor forces a local, purely geometric term, built from the metric alone, into the conserved stress-energy, and this has two faces. It grants the metric a material significance alongside its spatio-temporal one (the egalitarian view); and it binds gravitational to non-gravitational energy so tightly that the two cannot be split apart without a choice of vacuum that a generic spacetime does not supply (the unificationist view). The latter poses a dilemma: either gravitational energy is meaningless, but then so is the energy of the non-gravitational quantum fields, and only classical fields remain matter; or both are meaningful, and the metric thereby acquires the material significance of a matter field. On neither horn does the classical divide between matter and spacetime survive quantization.

We study the logarithmic corrections to the asymptotic trajectories of massive particles. These corrections enter the calculation of the soft-log sector of the radiative field at null infinity in four-dimensional gravitational scattering. We first isolate the part of the metric which enters the particle equations of motion. We show that the nonlinear source can only affect this sector through homogeneous modes on the hyperboloid, and that matching to the proposed soft tower implies that these modes vanish, except for the first mode. We show that this mode cannot affect the trajectory coefficients at leading order in G. We then invert the matter energy-momentum tensor on the particle worldlines to obtain the trajectory coefficients at leading order in $G$ and at every logarithmic order using Legendre polynomials. The first two coefficients reproduce the known results at orders $G$ and $G^2$. .

Interpreting GW190521 remains challenging due to its exceptionally high total mass and correspondingly small number of observable gravitational-wave cycles, which gives rise to degeneracies between different physical interpretations. Motivated by the outstanding questions surrounding the event, we present a comprehensive reanalysis of GW190521 using waveform models drawn from multiple families, including a model that includes both eccentricity and spin-precession. We find evidence that the source was highly eccentric, with an inferred eccentricity of $0.81^{+0.05}_{-0.01}$ at 5 Hz, and show that non-eccentric interpretations arise from failing to probe the high-likelihood region at large eccentricities. We further demonstrate that when eccentricity is included in the analysis, there is no indication of spin precession, suggesting that the apparent precession in quasicircular analyses is at least partially driven by an eccentricity–spin-precession degeneracy. While all waveform models favor a comparable-mass binary, one model admits a secondary mode at more asymmetric masses. We find a robust probability $(\geq97\%)$ that the primary black hole lies within the pair-instability supernova mass gap ($\sim60-130\,M_\odot$), whereas the probability that the secondary lies in the gap depends on the waveform model. Through inference of GW190521-like injections, we show that the waveform systematics observed in the analysis of GW190521 could arise from the response of models to unmodeled eccentricity, rather than from intrinsic differences between waveform models. When analyzing a quasicircular spin-precessing injection similar to GW190521, we find no significant model dependence in the inferred parameters. Finally, because the inferred eccentricity lies beyond the calibration regime of current models, we test its robustness by recovering highly eccentric numerical-relativity waveforms.

We analyze spacetime shortcuts generated by longitudinal contraction and transverse expansion of the intrinsic spatial metric at fixed reference volume. Smooth bounded ultrastatic corridors are globally hyperbolic and geodesically complete and produce an exact travel-time advance between exterior clocks. An axial maximum makes the axial light ray globally minimizing; a strict maximum on an interior interval establishes Olum's endpoint-surface criterion for exactly matched corridors. Exact Einstein-source identities distinguish integrated Eulerian matter energy from asymptotic mass: infinite tubes have negative integrated energy, whereas finite corridors admit competing gradient contributions. A transverse Ricci identity proves local null-energy violation in every nontrivial localized finite corridor. The axial averaged null energy is strictly negative for localized axial-maximum profiles, and quantitative bounds relate its magnitude to the reference time advance and peak strain. We also obtain the complete finite-profile Ricci spectrum and the axial passenger tidal tensor. These results provide explicit causal and source constraints on a prepared geometry without specifying its physical formation or matter dynamics.

We investigate the cosmological dynamics of the nonlinear $\sigma$-model in a locally rotational symmetric Bianchi V background geometry. We employ the $SU(2)$ and the $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ internal symmetries, for which the kinetic metric of the multi-scalar fields is a space of constant curvature. We assume an inhomogeneous ansatz for the scalar fields, such that the $\sigma$-model, which allows the existence of nontrivial solutions in the Bianchi V geometry. For an exponential potential, we perform a detailed analysis of the phase space, we determine the stationary points, and we study their stability properties. The scalar field inhomogeneities prevent both the slow-roll and hyperbolic inflationary epochs. The existence of a cosmological constant is required to describe cosmic acceleration.

The Little Red Dots (LRDs) are compact, broad-line sources that appear to contain accreting black holes (BHs) embedded in dense gas. Proposed models for their central environments (including quasi-stars, radiative BH envelopes and super-Eddington accretion discs) predict gas densities at the radii probed by an extreme-mass-ratio inspiral that differ by many orders of magnitude. We compute the inspiral of a $10$–$30\Msun$ BH for a range of LRD interior models, including environmental effects from the gas, and test with a mismatch criterion whether the resulting waveforms can be distinguished from vacuum and from one another. Dense interiors (Bondi-like free-fall cavities and radiative envelopes) produce measurable deviations from vacuum in essentially every detectable event. Convective quasi-star interiors are measurable for $\MBH\lesssim10^5\Msun$ and $z\lesssim0.6$, while a co-rotating disc leaves no measurable imprint. In favorable cases the models are also mutually distinguishable. None of the 14 JWST LRDs at $z>3.9$ would be detectable with a $10\Msun$ companion, but 30 of 31 LRDs at $z<0.9$ would be if their black holes are $\sim100$ times less massive than their virial estimates, and in many of them the interior's imprint would be measurable. Across the LRD population to $z=6$, a 4-yr LISA mission would yield $0.08$–$0.8$ detectable events for $10^5\Msun$ hosts and $10\Msun$ companions ($1.5$–$15$ for $30\Msun$) if LRD nuclei host inspirals at the rate of ordinary galactic nuclei. In dense clusters, where captures are plunges, this falls to $\lesssim10^{-4}$.

Spacetime singularities displayed by classical black hole solutions are expected to be cured by high-energy effects, beyond the regime of validity of General Relativity. On the other hand, there are well-known examples of classical theories allowing for nonsingular black hole solutions. The most prominent is obtained by complementing the gravitational sector of General Relativity with a minimally coupled nonlinear-electrodynamics sector. It has recently been shown that purely electric/purely magnetic nonsingular black holes in an Einstein-nonlinear-electrodynamics setup are always plagued by a gradient instability. In this work, we derive the quadratic action for linear perturbations of static, spherically symmetric dyonic solutions of Einstein-nonlinear-electrodynamics theories with a general dependence on both invariants. We show that regularity of the center, absence of ghosts and angular gradient stability cannot hold simultaneously: arbitrarily close to a regular center, at least one photon polarization has a negative squared angular propagation speed. We further show that regularity drives one electromagnetic kinetic eigenvalue to zero at the center, which may limit perturbative control near the core. Evading the obstruction requires extending the theory, for example by introducing additional degrees of freedom.

We consider the extension of the $\delta$-shift connecting Tr$(\phi^3)$ and pion amplitudes to observables in cosmology. We start in flat-space and explain how one can extract the pion wavefunction and correlators from those of Tr$(\phi^3)$ theory, via a simple kinematic deformation. As opposed to the amplitude, the $\delta$-shift for the wavefunction is no longer a linear deformation on the kinematics since the wavefunction depends on magnitudes rather than the squares of momenta. We "linearize" this deformation by using the frequency representation - allowing us to recast the contribution from any graph as a sum over residues. We then show how this construction extends to de Sitter, and find that, remarkably, in the frequency representation, the pion de Sitter wavefunction and correlators can be formulated in precisely the same way as in flat-space. Amongst other things, this unified formulation reveals a simple universal soft-limit for flat-space and de Sitter, where, in the soft-limit, the wavefunction turns into a sum of wavefunctions in a mixed theory of pions and scalars.

High interpolation accuracy does not establish that physical parameters are identifiable. We study this distinction in a controlled Kiselev black hole benchmark with a validated timelike-emitter and three-dimensional null-geodesic shooting calculation. The exact $k=0$ boundary provides an analytically known null control because the spacetime becomes Schwarzschild and independent of $w_q$. Ringdown is informative for the deformation amplitude $k$, while photon geometry supplies an independent response direction that resolves much of the $w_q$ degeneracy. Relative to ringdown alone, ringdown plus photon geometry gives a median pointwise $4.54\times$ gain in minimum singular value and a $2.28\times$ improvement in Jacobian condition number. In grouped physical interpolation, identifiable-$w_q$ normalized mean absolute error decreases from 0.309 to 0.087. Random splitting is more optimistic, while directional extrapolation is substantially harder and split-conformal coverage degrades under distribution shift. A non-learned nearest-model inverse shows that the gain is not confined to the tested learned architectures. A uniform 161-phase audit gives a typical normalized prediction shift of $9.48\times10^{-4}$, while a targeted 321-phase audit resolves the remaining forward-feature comparisons. However, frozen HGB and random-forest tail shifts exceed prespecified robustness thresholds. Thus, physical observable complementarity is supported, but inverse-estimator robustness remains conditional. This is a theoretical identifiability benchmark, not an observational constraint.

Extending the well-known Riemannian positive mass theorem to low-regularity metrics is an ongoing effort, starting from the early 2000s, that has recently seen renewed interest. Contrary to many other approaches we do not wish to assume smoothness at infinity nor to introduce a new definition of mass tailored to our approach, but rather go back to the coordinate isoperimetric mass originally proposed by Huisken. We establish new asymptotic expressions for the coordinate isoperimetric mass of continuous asymptotically flat metrics, which constitute the main ingredient in proving a finiteness criterion, coordinate invariance and equality to the generalized ADM mass of Lee and LeFloch under reasonable assumptions. In particular, for $W^{1,p}_{-\tau}$ asymptotically flat metrics, with $p>n$, $\tau>(n-2)/2$, and nonnegative distributional scalar curvature, the coordinate isoperimetric mass is indeed coordinate invariant, and we establish a positive mass theorem in this regularity without any topological assumptions aside from asymptotic flatness. Our proof relies on a density theorem similar to that of Lee, Lesourd, and Unger, but under a weaker regularity and decay assumption, which may be of independent interest.

In a Friedmann universe with a time-varying cosmological term, the production of massive particle–antiparticle pairs and their exchange of energy with the spacetime vacuum are described by a cosmic rate equation, $\dot\rho_M+3H\rho_M=\Gamma_M(\rho_M^H-\rho_M)-\Gamma_M^{\rm de}\rho_M$. Together with the Friedmann equations, an energy-balance equation for the time-varying cosmological term, and a reheating equation for the radiation, it forms a closed set of four independent background equations. We derive this set from a complex scalar field with a global U(1) symmetry and a non-minimal coupling to curvature. In the adiabatic case, the occupation of non-relativistic modes gives $\rho_M^H=2\chi m^2H^2$. A kinetic equation, based on the pairwise coupling $\xi R|\Phi|^2$ to fluctuations of the spacetime vacuum, gives the relaxation rate $\Gamma_M$, and a Yukawa coupling gives the decay rate $\Gamma_M^{\rm de}$. In the fast-oscillating case, the Hubble function oscillates at twice the pair mass and locks in phase with the pairs, so that it exchanges no net energy with them. The energy of the created pairs is supplied instead by the decrease of the cosmological term in the time evolution, $-\dot\rho_\Lambda=[(3-2\epsilon) H+\Gamma_M^{\rm de}]\rho_M^H$. Averaging over the fast time gives the cosmic rate equation in the detailed-balance regime $\Gamma_M\gg H$. In this regime the closed set has an exact power-law solution with $\epsilon=-\dot H/H^2=\chi m^2/m_{\rm pl}^2$. We discuss the application of the closed set to inflation, reheating and standard cosmology.

We argue that some of the puzzling features associated with the normalization of gravitational wave functions can be substantially alleviated by restricting the path integral to a sum over connected, allowable geometries. This prescription gives sensible results when applied to classical transitions and it provides non-trivial no-boundary probabilities, in line with old expectations. We highlight the additional impact of both boundary conditions and integration contours on these issues.

Metric theories of gravity admit a massless breathing scalar $b$ besides the tensor modes $+$ and $\times$. Many scalar–tensor models predict a much smaller breathing amplitude; gravitational quantum field theory (GQFT) instead allows $h_b$ comparable to the tensor amplitudes. We evaluate the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA (LVK) antenna patterns with PyCBC, including Michelson suppression of $b$. Here $F_b$ is the breathing antenna pattern and $\mathcal{S}_b=\sum_d F_b^{d2}$ is the network breathing power. At the H1 zenith at the GW150914 epoch, $F_b\sim 5\times 10^{-6}$; for $72$ Gravitational-wave Transient Catalog (GWTC) events with packaged strain the median inclination gain in $\mathcal{S}_b$ is $\sim 34\times$. Ranking multi-detector GWTC events (network $\mathrm{SNR}\ge 8$, $\ge 2$ sites) by $\mathrm{SNR}\sqrt{\mathcal{S}_b^{*}}$ identifies loud O4 triggers and GW170817 as geometric targets. Parameter-estimation (PE) weighted $\mathcal{S}_b$ on twelve events shows that the true sky can suppress this ranking (GW170817) and that GW200129_065458, GW150914, and GW190814 have the highest PE-weighted $\mathcal{S}_b$ for $\xi$ in $h_b=\xi h_+$ (GR: $\xi\equiv 0$). An HLV design-noise injection grid gives $\ln B(\mathrm{GR}+b/\mathrm{GR})\approx 13$ ($4$) for $\xi=1$ ($0.5$) on an inclined sky ($\mathcal{S}_b\sim 0.18$); near zenith ($\mathcal{S}_b\sim 0.016$) the $\xi$ posterior remains unconstrained. The GWTC limits are semi-joint: masses and spins fixed at PE medians, while $d_L$, $\theta_{JN}$, sky, and $\xi$ vary within PE-informed priors. Eleven of twelve events are analyzed (GW170817 omitted: PE sky on the breathing null). None favors $\mathrm{GR}+b$; $|\xi|_{90\%}\approx 0.15$, $0.18$, and $0.23$ for GW150914, GW200129_065458, and GW200311_115853 disfavor $|\xi|\sim\mathcal{O}(1)$, while weaker bounds (including GW190814) still allow that scale.

The frequency-dependent tidal response of a neutron star is constrained by causality, reality and passivity, which turn a suitably rescaled response into a holomorphic self-map of the upper complex frequency half-plane after some suitable conditions. The Schwarz–Pick theorem then bounds the leading dynamical correction to the tidal deformability from above. In this work we confront this bound with the most recent calculations of the dynamical tidal response in the literature which have also shown that the static tidal deformability and its correction at second order in frequency are tightly correlated. We find that the bound is saturated to within a few per cent, a quantitative confirmation of f-mode dominance in the relativistic regime. The combination of the static deformability with an independent determination of the f-mode frequency thus may provide an equation-of-state-independent upper limit on the dynamical tide.

A constant line-of-sight acceleration (LOSA) of the centre-of-mass of a quasi-circular compact binary coalescence (CBC) leads to modulations in the gravitational-wave (GW) waveform at $-4$ post-Newtonian (PN) order. In our previous work, we calculated the phase and amplitude corrections only for the $(\ell,m) = (2,2)$ mode. The gravitational wave event GW190814 has recently attracted considerable attention because it has been suggested to provide evidence for a nonzero LOSA. However, several LOSA analyses of GW190814 employ higher-order-mode waveform models, such as IMRPhenomXPHM, while incorporating LOSA corrections only for the dominant (2,2) mode. This approximation assumes that their omission has a negligible impact on parameter estimation. In this paper, we present a self-consistent implementation of LOSA in a higher-mode waveform model by deriving the corresponding phase and amplitude corrections. We show that these corrections are essential for asymmetric binaries such as GW190814 and that neglecting them biases parameter inference. We also discuss inconsistencies in the derivation and implementation of LOSA corrections in waveform models in the literature that include higher-order modes.

The line-of-sight acceleration (LOSA) effect, imprinted in the gravitational wave (GW) signal of an inspiralling compact binary by an external gravitational potential, is one of the most promising means of probing the environment of compact binaries on a single-event basis. However, this effect is potentially degenerate with other low-frequency effects, particularly the binary's orbital eccentricity. LOSA effects and orbital eccentricity can mimic each other if only one or the other (but not both) are accounted for in the waveform template. In this work, we present the (2, 2) mode, leading eccentric harmonic, frequency-domain phase correction incurred by an accelerating eccentric compact binary, and discuss inconsistencies pertaining to this phase correction in the literature. We show that the degeneracy between LOSA and orbital eccentricity can be resolved if both effects are modeled in the template. To demonstrate this, we inject a GW170817-like signal, with eccentricity and LOSA added to it, and recover the parameters of the injected signal assuming an A+ like noise power spectral density (PSD) of the LVK detector network. We find that the true LOSA and eccentricity parameters, along with other binary parameters, are recovered within the $90\%$ credible interval (CI). This study highlights the importance of incorporating LOSA in eccentric waveform models to robustly and reliably estimate LOSA and eccentricity.

In general relativity, the geometric optics approximation describes the propagation of high-frequency electromagnetic waves along null geodesics. Beyond this approximation, localized wave packets acquire frequency- and polarization-dependent corrections to null geodesic motion, described by the gravitational spin Hall equations. In this paper, these equations are integrated analytically, to first order in wavelength, in a large class of type D black hole spacetimes, whenever the corresponding null geodesics admit analytic solutions. The same framework yields analytic expressions for the shape of black hole shadows with polarization-dependent corrections.

We investigate strong gravitational lensing of gravitational waves from a compact source orbiting a Kerr black hole, motivated by self-lensing in binary extreme-mass-ratio inspirals. In the geometric-optics limit, we construct a point-to-point lens map from null-geodesic integrals and use the Jacobi map to compute the strain magnification of individual images. While lensed signals are generally demagnified, we show that they can be strongly amplified near the extended caustics of the Kerr lens map. For suitable source–observer geometries, the orbit crosses a caustic twice per revolution, producing two amplification peaks. Their arrival-time separation depends on the black-hole spin, observer inclination, and orbital radius through both the source motion and propagation delays. These signatures might offer a means of constraining the source–observer geometry and probing the spacetime of the central black hole.

We develop a computational framework for the quantum relative entropy based on the replica trick and apply it to analyze the evaporation process method of Jackiw-Teitelboim black holes. We show that the relative entropies between the exact radiation state and the Hawking saddle state and the replica wormholes saddle state quantify information-theoretic costs inherent to coarse-grained semiclassical descriptions. During evaporation, the relative entropy for the Hawking saddle increases monotonically, reflecting a progressively higher thermodynamic cost of sustaining the Hawking description. Conversely, the relative entropy associated with the replica wormholes saddle decreases, which indicates that the description of connected geometries becomes progressively more accurate. Moreover, the sign of the difference between the two quantities reverses precisely at the Page time, providing an information-theoretic diagnosis for the transition between competing gravitational saddles. Our results recast the Page transition as a flow of relative entropy costs between competing semi-classical descriptions, revealing an information-theoretic structure underlying the emergence of effective irreversibility in coarse-grained black hole evaporation.

Skyrmion lines and semi-local strings are examples of infrared-finite cosmic strings that arise in theories with spontaneously broken global symmetries. Unlike global $U(1)$ strings, they do not support the long-range Nambu-Goldstone boson (NGB) profile responsible for a logarithmically infrared-divergent string tension. We argue that NGB emission from their low-frequency oscillations is strongly suppressed. Consequently, their gravitational-wave signals may be comparable to those from local strings.

We consider a Bardeen black hole (BBH) with variable mass and magnetic charge within the framework of an extended model of gravity and electrodynamics, where the boundary terms in the varied action are treated as geometric quantum fluctuations of spacetime. We propose that the extended Riemann manifold is generated by a new connection, $\hat{\delta\Gamma}^{\mu}_{\alpha\beta}$. These connection components contain geometric information regarding both gravitational and electromagnetic fluctuations on the background curved metric described by a Riemann manifold. Furthermore, we calculate the expectation values for the magnetic field components using a nonlinear and non-commutative quantum algebra for the gravitational and electromagnetic potentials. Our results are consistent with a radiating massive magnetic monopole that produces a radial component of the magnetic field confined to distances $r<\sqrt{3/\lambda_0}$, which are restricted by the vacuum energy density. The field $\hat{A}^{\mu}$ describes massive photons found in the vicinity of a BBH, forming a gravito-electromagnetic structure analogous to that of an atom, which could be a candidate for dark matter in the early universe.

The stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) is a major science target of future space-based interferometers because it encodes information about unresolved astrophysical populations and physical processes in the early Universe. Its stochastic nature, however, means that its detection and parameter inference rely on distinguishing its statistical contribution to the data from that of instrumental noise. In particular, both the SGWB and instrumental noise contribute to the data covariance, so an incomplete noise model can be misinterpreted as part of the SGWB and thereby bias the inferred spectrum and its parameters. Here we investigate this effect in the presence of correlations between the acceleration (ACC) noises of adjacent test masses (TMs) in each spacecraft. We simulate the correlated noise at the single-link level, propagate it through the moving-orbit response into the time-delay interferometry (TDI) observables, and analyze the resulting TDI auto spectra with two Bayesian frequency-domain templates: the Corr. Template includes the correlated-noise covariance, whereas the Non-Corr. Template neglects it. We find that, when correlated ACC noise is present in the mock data, the Non-Corr. Template exhibits systematic parameter offsets that generally become more pronounced with increasing correlation amplitude. In contrast, the Corr. Template recovers the injected SGWB and instrumental-noise parameters substantially more accurately. These results demonstrate that correlations in test-mass ACC noise can constitute a relevant systematic for space-based SGWB searches and motivate their explicit inclusion in mission-realistic noise models and inference pipelines.

We show that for bulk discrete series fields whose dual operators have integer conformal dimensions, the Generalised Energy Conservation (GEC) condition for de Sitter (dS) scattering amplitudes defined in even-dimensional extended Poincaré spacetime corresponds precisely to the absence of boundary conformal anomalies, including beta-function contributions, at the level of tree-level contact interactions. In contrast, holographic consistency in AdS/CFT enforces only the locality of the conformal anomaly. We find novel, unique four-point interactions involving three identical conformally coupled scalars and one discrete series scalar by performing both GEC and holographic bootstraps. This demonstrates that the solutions to GEC form a measure-zero subset of the holographically consistent solutions. Our holographic analysis agrees precisely with the expected renormalisation conditions for conformal field theory correlators. In addition, the constraint for a particular four-point configuration may be relevant for testing holographic consistency of scale-separated non-supersymmetric AdS$_4$ vacua.

Regular black holes in general relativity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics have been reported to exhibit an apparent mismatch in their thermodynamics: the temperature obtained by differentiating the mass along the family of regular metrics differs from the Hawking temperature by a factor $\Xi$, and the first law seems to need a modified entropy or a corrected internal energy. We examine this question for an electrically charged family of regular black holes in $D\geq4$ dimensions whose metrics reduce to the Bardeen and Hayward geometries in four dimensions. The source is written as a Hamiltonian density $H(P)$ with fixed couplings and no solution parameters. This theory has a two-parameter family of static solutions, of which the regular metrics form a one-parameter subfamily. We prove analytically that on the whole solution space the standard first law of thermodynamics holds with the Hawking temperature, the area entropy and the horizon potential, in agreement with the general first law for nonlinear electrodynamics. The factor $\Xi$ appears when the mass is differentiated along the regular metric family at fixed length parameter, a variation that moves through the space of theories and also changes the conserved charge. We show that $\Xi^{-1}$ is the Jacobian of this projection, equal to the fraction of the mass inside the horizon, give its general form for an arbitrary regular mass function, and show that $\Xi^{-1}dM_{ADM}$ is not a closed one-form on the two-parameter metric family, so this correction cannot be the differential of a local state function there. We also point out that the Legendre map between the $F$ and $P$ frames degenerates at a radius that lies outside the horizon of near-extremal solutions in $D\geq5$.

There are reasons to believe that the region of uniform curvature that we observe within our horizon is perhaps a tiny patch, much smaller than the length scales of inhomogeneity and global connectivity of an extremely complicated manifold. However, the recent supernova (SN) results suggest that the horizon scale could be comparable to or even much larger than curvature radius. Non trivial global structure too tends to be of the order of the local curvature scale. Probing (slightly) beyond the cosmic horizon can potentially reveal nontrivial global structure lurking around or just beyond the horizon scale. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy is a sensitive probe of the universe on length scales up to and somewhats beyond the horizon scale and is perhaps poised to detect or put interesting limits on nontrivial features the global structure. This point is exemplified by high CMB anisotropy signal of the Elliptical topology in a large fraction of the revised parameter space of the closed FRW universe (spherical geometry) currently preferred by SN observations.

A pronounced pyramid-shaped enhancement in the axion density power spectrum induced by the QCD phase transition is identified. The enhancement occurs near the horizon scale at the transition, with a characteristic comoving length scale comparable to the size of the Solar System, and amplifies the axion density perturbation by factors exceeding $3.5 \times 10^{13}$ relative to the CDM case. Under the hilltop initial condition, coupling to radiation triggers this enhancement. The initial condition is related to the axion mass, suggesting that observation of the axion pyramid in cosmology may constrain the QCD axion mass.

We investigate scalar induced gravitational waves (SIGWs) at third-order during a matter-dominated (MD) era. We classify the sources into four parts—built from three first-order scalars, and from a first-order scalar times the second-order tensor, vector, and scalar perturbations—and obtain all four kernel functions analytically in closed form. Unlike their radiation-dominated counterparts, the MD kernel functions grow secularly, translating into a rapid growth of the spectrum, $\Omega^{(3)}_{\mathrm{GW}}\propto x^{6}$ versus $\Omega^{(2)}_{\mathrm{GW}}\propto x^{2}$ at $x\equiv k\eta\gg1$. We derive the third-order power spectrum as a five-fold integral for a general primordial spectrum, and evaluate it numerically for a monochromatic one, where all contributions from the second-order vector source vanish identically. As an application, we consider the early MD era driven by primordial black holes (PBHs) before their evaporation. Requiring that the induced gravitational waves do not backreact on the cosmological perturbations, $\int\mathrm{d}\ln k\, \Omega^{\mathrm{tot}}_{\mathrm{GW}}<1$ then bounds the initial PBH abundance as $\Omega_{\mathrm{PBH},f}\lesssim4.6\times10^{-7}\, (m_{\mathrm{PBH}}/10^{7}\,\mathrm{g})^{-0.48}$, about three orders of magnitude stronger than the second-order-only bound. Our results indicate that higher-order SIGWs inevitably become nonperturbative during a sufficiently long MD era, with important implications for scenarios involving an early matter domination.