Papers

Using dimensional arguments and other simple estimates, it is pointed out that a branch of nuclei with mass number A>10^7 could be metastable if they have close to maximal isospin. This branch is continuous with neutron stars. The fastest decay mode of these hypothetical metastable nuclei (which we call monsters) is through neutron evaporation. We present an estimate of the lifetime and show it could be more than 100 ps for A>10^{39}. We speculate about their creation in binary neutron star mergers, where we argue that their lifetimes could be extended further, and their presence could be detectable in gravity wave experiments of the near future.

We investigate the observable signatures of zero ADM mass warp drive spacetimes traversing Earth's atmosphere. Numerical simulations indicate that an aircraft-scale spacetime bubble moving at relativistic velocities would have a pronounced observational signature, where interaction with the atmosphere can produce luminosities exceeding one terawatt. The signature of a spacetime bubble at rest or moving at low velocity relative to the Earth would not generate such extreme luminosities. These results establish observational constraints on spacetime-based propulsion operating within the terrestrial environment and provide a framework for identifying potential high-velocity signatures. In particular, a warp drive traveling through the atmosphere at speeds exceeding approximately 10% of the speed of light would produce a unique brilliant glow.

Superfluid helium-4 is an attractive medium for high-sensitivity detection of dark matter (DM) candidates (as well as other particles). There are several collaborations that have built and tested superfluid helium detectors, particularly focusing on the sub-GeV DM mass range. In this paper we discuss a novel idea for detecting Axion (Anti)Quark Nuggets (AQN) by using parasitically the superfluid helium-4 LHC cooling system as a unique large-scale earth bound DM detector. In the case of the AQN, we address the question of propagation in the metal parts surrounding the helium. An AQN induces significant heating around the propagation track that damages the enclosure.

We investigate the geometrical and thermodynamical aspects of particle production in pp collisions over a broad center-of-mass energy, ranging from $\sqrt{s}=62.4$ GeV to 13 TeV using PYTHIA8. We study the azimuthal dependence of charged-particle production relative to the leading particle. This includes the study of the Tsallis–Pareto parameters extracted from the charged-particle transverse-momentum spectra in fixed $\Delta\phi$ intervals relative to the leading charged particle. The simultaneous analysis of charged-particle multiplicity and event topology demonstrates that the underlying event (UE) dominated region can be extended beyond the conventional transverse side region across RHIC and LHC energies. To further disentangle effects from soft and hard particle production mechanisms, the study is performed in different transverse spherocity and charged-particle flattenicity classes. We demonstrate that the UE region extends beyond the conventional transverse region, validating an enlarged angular interval of $40^\circ\lesssim|\Delta\phi|\lesssim140^\circ$ from RHIC to LHC energies. Event-shape selections reveal that jetty events consistently exhibit larger $q$ and lower $T_{\rm s}$ than isotropic events. The $\Delta\phi$ profiles of charged-particle multiplicity and transverse spherocity remain universal in shape across collision energies despite the strong increase in overall event activity, whereas the Tsallis parameters retain a residual, leading-particle-driven energy dependence in the near- and away-side regions.

We discuss a mechanism for generating the baryon asymmetry in the early universe. We show that an axion-like particle can modify the related gauge field configurations in the Standard Model, thereby altering their dispersion relations. This change in the Chern-Simons number can source a violation of baryon number. We derive the relationship between the resulting baryon number and the evolution of the axion background. We estimate the baryon asymmetry produced via this mechanism and show that the observed value can be naturally achieved. We also show that axion photon coupling produces Cosmic Microwave Background spectral distortion. Our results show that the resulting distortion approaches a constant at low frequencies, unlike the conventional y-type and $\mu$-type distortions.

The collective expansion and hydrodynamic evolution in heavy-ion collisions is well-established. However, whether femtometer-scale droplets of QGP are produced in small systems at high energies remains a fundamental open question. Analysis of Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV, Xe$-$Xe at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.44 TeV and O$-$O collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.36 TeV using EPOS4 is reported to make predictions and postdictions. The results are compared with ALICE data for Pb$-$Pb and Xe$-$Xe collisions. Charged particle multiplicity (d$N_{\mathrm{ch}}$/d$\eta$), transverse-momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) spectra for pions ($\pi^{\pm}$), kaons ($K^{\pm}$), and protons ($\text{p}(\overline{\text{p}})$) are studied. The inclusion of hadronic afterburner, UrQMD (Ultra-relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics) is found to be necessary to correctly describe baryon yields. $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-fluctuations are also studied via normalized $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ correlator, $\sqrt{\langle \langle \Delta p_{\mathrm{T},i}\Delta p_{\mathrm{T},j} \rangle \rangle}\mathrm{/} \langle \langle p_{\mathrm{T}} \rangle \rangle$. Lastly, anisotropic flow harmonics ($v_{\mathrm{2}} \{2\}$, $v_{\mathrm{3}} \{2\}$) are computed as a function of $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ and centrality. Since EPOS4 has not been extensively studied for flow observables, this study thereby provides a non-trivial assessment of its collective dynamics. The results are compared with experiment wherever data is available. Taken together, this study provides a unified description of soft observables from Pb$-$Pb through Xe$-$Xe down to O$-$O and offer quantitative guidance on how such collisions may inform of the properties of the QGP.

The dihadron fragmentation function (DiFF) of a linearly polarized gluon has not yet been accessed experimentally, leaving an important aspect of spin-dependent gluon hadronization unexplored. We show that, at leading order, the color-singlet decay channel of the $P$-wave bottomonium state $\chi_{b0}$ produces two energetic gluons with correlated linear polarizations. Within collinear factorization, their fragmentation into separate dihadron pairs generates an Artru–Collins-type angular correlation that provides the first direct probe of the linearly polarized gluon DiFF, while the corresponding semi-inclusive decay rate constrains the unpolarized gluon DiFF. A spectator-model benchmark indicates percent-level asymmetries, potentially within reach of existing Belle data. A dedicated Belle~II data set would substantially improve the statistical precision, enabling more stringent constraints on the kinematic dependence of the linearly polarized gluon DiFF.

A large vorticity produced in non-central ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions induces an effective chemical potential in both partonic and hadronic matter, thereby influencing the quark-hadron transition and its associated properties. In this work, we investigate the influence of rotation on hadron yields within the framework of Hadron Resonance Gas (HRG) model. Our results show that vorticity significantly modifies hadron yields and their ratios. Most notably, rotation enhances the $p/\pi^+$ ratio while suppressing the $K^+/\pi^+$ ratio, suggesting that these observables may serve as sensitive probes of the rotational properties of the medium created in heavy-ion collisions. To quantify the effect of rotation, the calculated dependence of the $p/\pi^+$ ratio on vorticity is compared with the centrality dependence of the $p/\pi$ ratio measured by the ALICE collaboration in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV. From this comparison, we estimate the maximum vorticity produced at freeze-out for different collision centralities. In case of peripheral collisions, the freeze-out vorticity ($\omega$) is found to reach an upper bound value of approximately 0.088 GeV, whereas for central collisions it is about 0.028 GeV. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of rotation on fluctuations of conserved quantities and their correlations. This study provides a quantitative framework for assessing the role of rotation in the thermodynamics of hadronic matter and its phenomenological consequences for heavy-ion collisions.

In this paper, we calculate the pion one-loop corrections to the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon up to $\mathcal{O}(p^4)$ order in the nonlocal framework. To systematically investigate the role of vector-meson dominance in the model, we also include the leading-order nucleon-vector-meson coupling. Owing to the renormalization-scheme dependence of chiral low-energy coupling constants (LECs), we refit these constants to the nucleon magnetic moments, electromagnetic radii, and the $Q^2$-dependence of the electromagnetic form factors. Compared with the previous local analysis, the model results show that, in the nonlocal framework, the $Q^2$-dependence of the electromagnetic form factors in the large-$Q^2$ region is significantly improved and are consistent with experimental data.

We study the charge separation induced by chiral magnetic effect (CME) in $p^{\uparrow}$+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV event-by-event with an improved string-melting AMPT model. In this model, an impact-parameter-dependent formation-time delay is introduced to reduce the peak Bjorken energy density from $\sim$2 to $\sim$0.3 GeV/fm$^3$ and reproduces the illiptic flow $v_2(p_T)$ measured by PHENIX in $p+$Au simultaneously. The event-by-event CME source, whose quark momentum-exchange fraction scales with $|\mathbf{B}|_{\mathrm{event}}/|\mathbf{B}|_{\mathrm{max}}$ and is capped at the 7% value from Au+Au, transmits the field geometry directly to the observable. We find that the initial correlator shows a clear scheme hierarchy tracking $B^2$. The parton cascade preserves $\sim$80–90% of the signal, while coalescence and ART hadronic rescattering dissipate the bulk, leaving $\sim$10–30% in the final state. The $\gamma_{OS}/\gamma_{SS}$ splitting remains visible. These results support the use of the inter-scheme difference $\Delta\gamma_{\mathrm{IV}}-\Delta\gamma_{\mathrm{II}}$ as an essentially background-free CME observable as we proposed in previous work.

Solving path integrals in quantum field theories often involves the numerical handling of noncommuting Grassmann fields, which is in many cases a highly nontrivial and numerically inefficient task, especially in large systems and at higher dimensions. In this paper a radial basis function type neural network construction is used to approximate fermionic path integrals that include local couplings in their hopping terms. By isolating the interaction terms from the purely fermionic components using a radial basis function expansion, the path integral can be approximated by a few percent accuracy even for very large lattice sizes. The method has been developed and tested using staggered fermions in one, and in two dimensions, through calculating the partition functions, and expectation values.

We identify two commensurate structures in the measured quark and lepton mixing data, one multiplicative and one angular, and their exact relation. With the hierarchy parameter $\varepsilon\equiv|V_{ub}|^{3/10}=0.1869\pm0.0018$, the measured Fritzsch–Xing (FX) angles satisfy $\sin\theta_u=\varepsilon^{26/18}$, $\sin\theta_d=\varepsilon^{17/18}$, and $\sin\theta=\varepsilon^{34/18}$ with coefficients within $2.5\%$ of unity, and the phase is maximal, $\phi_{\rm FX}=92.3^\circ\pm2.7^\circ$ against $\pi/2$. Unit coefficients reproduce the remaining moduli at the percent level and fix the derived Jarlskog invariant, $J=\varepsilon^{111/18}\sin\phi_{\rm FX}$, matching the measured $3.08(14)\times10^{-5}$. The rephasing-invariant image of this structure is a unitarity triangle quantized on the $\pi/24$ lattice, a digital clock, $(\alpha,\beta,\gamma)=(12,3,9)\times7.5^\circ$, consistent with data at $1\sigma$ through $\alpha\simeq\phi_{\rm FX}$ and the theorem $\tan\beta\simeq\sqrt{\varepsilon}$; degree-level $\gamma$ confronts $67.5^\circ$–$68^\circ$. For the leptons, where only the angular structure can act, its PMNS analog, formed from columns $1$ and $3$, free of Majorana phases, on the same lattice requires $\delta_{\rm CP}\simeq296^\circ$ in the upper octant or $244^\circ$ in the lower, testable at DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande. The quark and lepton triangles share $\beta=22.5^\circ$, measured for quarks, predicted for leptons, and differ by a transfer of two lattice units, with corollary $\delta_{\rm CP}\simeq-\delta\simeq295^\circ$. The same $\varepsilon$ sets the neutrino mass ratio, $r\equiv m_2/m_3=\varepsilon^{19/18}$, and the PMNS first row follows in powers of $r$, $(r^{1/9},\,r^{1/3},\,\tfrac{\sqrt{3}}{2}r)$, both relations at $0.2\sigma$ and testable at JUNO. The analysis is confined to the parameterization level; no dynamics is assumed.

Recent precision measurements of the $e^+e^- \to \Omega^-\bar{\Omega}^+$ cross section by the BESIII collaboration provide a valuable opportunity to probe complex hadronic rescattering mechanisms. In this work, we investigate a potential structure near the $D_s\bar{D}_s$ threshold using a coupled-channel framework incorporating $\Omega\bar{\Omega}$, $\Xi\bar{\Xi}$, and $D_s\bar{D}_s$ interactions. The driving potentials are derived from effective Lagrangians respecting heavy quark spin symmetry, chiral symmetry, and hidden local symmetry, and the scattering amplitude is unitarized via the on-shell factorization of the Bethe-Salpeter equation. To go beyond local fits and map theoretical uncertainties, we use a two-step machine-learning framework. First, Simulation-Based Inference with a Mixture Density Network maps the global Bayesian posterior of the effective couplings. Second, to identify the non-perturbative threshold dynamics without the instabilities of traditional root-finding across multiple Riemann sheets, we employ a Cauchy-Riemann Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN). The network enforces mathematical analyticity, smoothly continuing the real-axis amplitude into the complex energy plane. We isolate a pole at $M = 3.847$ GeV with zero decay width, sitting $89$~MeV below the $D_s^-\bar{D}_s^+$ threshold. The corresponding S-matrix residues show an overwhelming coupling to the $D_s\bar{D}_s$ channel, indicating that the threshold dynamics are driven by a dynamically generated $D_s^-\bar{D}_s^+$ bound state.

We present, to our knowledge, the first Bayesian extraction of baryon number susceptibilities of QCD matter at finite baryon density from heavy-ion collision data on proton number cumulants. The framework embeds arbitrary equation-of-state susceptibilities $\chi_n^B$ into realistic hydrodynamic particlization hypersurfaces through maximum-entropy freeze-out, maps the resulting (anti)baryon fluctuations onto protons, applies the experimental kinematic acceptance, and accounts for exact baryon number conservation. Applying the framework to measurements of (net-)proton number fluctuations in 0–5% central Au-Au collisions from the RHIC Beam Energy Scan in the collider mode, we extract, at each collision energy, the second-order susceptibility normalized by the hadron resonance gas value, $\chi_{2}^B/\bar{\chi}_{2}^B$, and the higher-order susceptibility ratios $\chi_{3}^B/\chi_{1}^B$ and $\chi_{4}^B/\chi_{2}^B$. We obtain tight constraints on $\chi_{2}^B$, with extracted values in quantitative agreement with lattice QCD based estimates along the chemical freeze-out line for $\mu_B \lesssim 300$~MeV. At larger $\mu_B$, the extracted values indicate an enhancement of baryon number fluctuations relative to the noncritical lattice-based extrapolation and HRG baseline considered here. The third- and fourth-order susceptibilities are only weakly constrained. In particular, we find that the observed nonmonotonic collision-energy dependence of the proton factorial cumulant ratio $\hat{C}_{3}/\hat{C}_{1}$ can be described without irreducible three- or four-baryon correlations. This behavior emerges from the interplay between the energy dependence of $\chi_{2}^B$ and exact baryon number conservation.

We formulate a source-dependent QCD-to-BOEFT matching for the gluonic response of a stable compact heavy-quarkonium state. The matched complementary-space resolvent preserves coupled Born-Oppenheimer dynamics, while an exact Feshbach decomposition separates channels retained explicitly from sectors integrated out at the next matching step. Spectral separation, kernel analyticity, and joint propagation-source bounds provide sufficient conditions for a local channel-factorized OPE; otherwise low-energy BO poles and cuts remain dynamical. The weak-coupling pNRQCD response is recovered as a limiting reference problem. With the additional leading-$E1$, large-$N_c$/free-octet assumptions, the source-weighted spectral measure reproduces the established Bhanot-Peskin electric moments and dissociation cut. For a Coulombic spin-singlet $1S$ state we also obtain the sequential-$M1$ contribution $c_{B,GG}^{(1)ij} =5\pi\alpha_s^2(c_FV_{\rm iso}^{(s)})^2\delta^{ij}/16$ and the covariant-kinetic seagull contribution $c_{B,\mathrm{dia}}^{(1)ij} =-\pi\alpha_s^2\delta^{ij}/4$. These are identifiable components, not the complete magnetic matching coefficient.

Neutron stars have baryon chemical potentials that can exceed the neutron mass, providing favorable conditions to convert neutrons to new particles carrying baryon number, even if those processes are kinematically forbidden in vacuum. We study the effect of GeV-scale scalars with baryon number on neutron stars' equation of state and show that non-perturbatively large repulsive self-couplings are required to support the observed two-solar-mass neutron stars. We also study potentials with attractive self-interactions, which can trigger scalar production even for masses above the chemical potential and resemble Coleman's Q-matter.

Hadronically decaying particles with lifetimes $\tau\gtrsim0.02\,{\rm s}$ are excluded by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis almost independently of their abundance: the mesons from their decays convert protons into neutrons faster than the reverse, and helium is overproduced. For heavy neutral leptons (HNLs), this blankets the couplings the upcoming accelerator searches can reach. We propose a scenario with large lepton flavor asymmetries in which HNLs evade it. A Dirac HNL decays into $\pi^+$ and its antiparticle into $\pi^-$, so an asymmetry between the two populations injects an excess of $\pi^+$, which converts the neutrons back to their standard abundance, while a cancellation between the asymmetries and the HNL decays keeps the shift in $N_{\rm eff}$ small. This opens the parameter space with $m_l+m_\pi\lesssim m_N\lesssim1\,{\rm GeV}$ and $\tau_N\lesssim1\,{\rm s}$, including a substantial region within the reach of SHiP. A discovery there, combined with the BBN and CMB observables, would fix the primordial flavor asymmetries up to one remaining direction. The relic neutrino background and a possibly first-order cosmic QCD transition, a source of gravitational waves, may probe that direction, and with it the lepton asymmetry of the Universe.

The theoretical prediction of the muon anomalous magnetic moment $a_\mu$ depends crucially on the Hadronic Vacuum Polarization (HVP), and the tension between its dispersive and lattice-QCD determinations remains unresolved. We show that part of this puzzle can be addressed in the heavy-quark sector, where both descriptions are theoretically clean, by recognizing that the heavy-quark mass and its contribution to $a_\mu$ are not independent quantities: both follow from integrals of the same hadronic spectral function, differing only in their integration kernel. Promoting this kernel to a free choice within the relativistic QCD Sum Rules used to determine heavy-quark masses, we break with the conventional notion of a single valid sum rule and instead determine the mass and its HVP contribution simultaneously, from a common, self-consistent framework. This intrinsic construction exploits the anticorrelation between the two quantities to sharpen the final uncertainty, and turns the residual disagreement between the perturbative and hadronic descriptions of the observable into a direct observable-specific diagnostic of residual theory/model dependence, including duality-violation and continuum-modeling effects, unavailable to a determination of the mass alone. We obtain $a_\mu^{\rm HVP_{c+b},LO} =(14.46(13)+0.3009(17))\times 10^{-10}$ at leading and $a_\mu^{\rm HVP_{c+b}, NLO_{a,b}} = ( -0.5738(95) - 0.01822(13) )\times 10^{-10}$ at next-to-leading order, for charm and bottom contributions, respectively. We compare our next-to-leading-order results with its first available lattice determination, finding good agreement in the charm sector. As a byproduct, we obtain $\hat m_c(\hat m_c)=1267.1(6.8)$ MeV and $\hat m_b(\hat m_b) = 4182.3(7.2)$ MeV, with unprecedented phenomenological precision.

Paleo-detectors record and retain crystal damage in ancient minerals from nuclear recoils induced by dark matter scattering over geological timescales. Previous studies have shown that paleo-detectors can provide sensitivity to a variety of dark matter (DM) scenarios which is complementary to conventional direct-detection experiments. In this paper, we complete the first detailed study of how well paleo-detectors can reconstruct DM parameters or distinguish between different types of DM interactions with nuclei in the presence of a DM signal, considering both elastic and inelastic DM-nucleus scattering. For representative nuclear recoil track read-out scenarios, we demonstrate that weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) DM masses can be reconstructed for a variety of Non-Relativistic Effective Field Theory (NREFT) interactions between WIMPs and nuclei. In particular, paleo-detectors are projected to be capable of reconstructing WIMP masses $\lesssim$ 10 GeV, a regime that is challenging for conventional direct-detection experiments; further, we find that paleo-detectors could reconstruct WIMP masses up to 1 TeV for hypothetical signals within their accessible parameter space, extending the mass range over which reconstruction is possible by up to a factor of $\sim 2$ compared with analogous studies of conventional direct-detection experiments. In addition, we demonstrate that paleo-detectors could discriminate between canonical spin-independent or spin-dependent NREFT interactions and non-canonical interactions which can depend on the relative velocity or momentum transferred between the WIMP and nucleus. Specifically, at WIMP masses $\gtrsim$ 10 GeV, we project that canonical NREFT interactions can be excluded by paleo-detectors in the cases of nearly all non-canonical interactions without measurement of nuclear recoil direction, which conventional experiments typically require.

A comprehensive numerical analysis of the latest germanium based CE$\nu$NS data from the COHERENT Ge-mini and TEXONO experiments has been conducted to test the Standard Model (SM) and search for new physics. By combining CE$\nu$NS and E$\nu$NS signals with a consistent treatment of detector effects and systematic uncertainties, we obtain a low energy determination of the weak mixing angle from COHERENT Ge-mini, in agreement with the SM prediction. We derive novel constraints on neutrino electromagnetic properties, including the magnetic moment, millicharge, charge radius, and anapole moment, with TEXONO providing particularly competitive bounds. Inclusion of E$\nu$NS, significantly improves the sensitivity to the neutrino millicharge by up to three orders of magnitude. We also investigated light scalar and vector mediators, finding striking complementarity between reactor and stopped pion sources across different mediator mass regimes. Finally, we put bounds on sterile neutral leptons production through transition dipole, scalar, and vector portals, probing masses from the sub MeV to tens of MeV scale. Our results demonstrate that current germanium based CE$\nu$NS experiments provide a powerful low energy laboratory for precision electroweak tests and complementary probes of a broad class of physics beyond the SM.

We explore the $U(1)_{(B-L)_3}$ gauge symmetry under which only third generation fermions are charged. The cancelation of the $[U(1)_{(B-L)_3}]^3$ anomaly requires a chiral fermion, $\chi_L$, singlet under the gauge group but charged under $U(1)_{(B-L)_3}$. This chiral fermion can play the role of thermal dark matter with a relic abundance set via the freeze-out scenario through the annihilation to pairs of the third generation fermions. In the quark mass basis, the new gauge boson will have off-diagonal couplings to the $b$ and $s$ quarks which can lead to a new contribution to $B^+\to K^+\nu_\tau\bar{\nu}_\tau$. We discuss the relevant bounds from the LHC searches for a new gauge boson, dark matter searches, electroweak precision data, $\Upsilon$ decay, the CKM matrix and the $B_s^0-\bar{B}_s^0$ mixing. We entertain the possibility of explaining the $B^+\to K^+\nu\bar{\nu}$ excess recently reported by Belle II within this model.

The renormalization of operators built out of Wilson lines that meet at an angle (cusp) involve what is known as the cusp anomalous dimension, a universal object appearing in many processes in QCD due to the divergences from gluonic interactions. In this paper, we consider the vacuum expectation value of a pair of cusped Wilson lines separated in the transverse direction. This configuration can be related to a simple observable in heavy quark transverse momentum-dependent (TMD) fragmentation as well as the TMD soft function. We compute the expectation values of Wilson loops in $N=4$ super Yang-Mills theory at strong coupling via the AdS/CFT correspondence, an approach complementary to perturbative calculations of the cusp anomalous dimension. We first present a thorough analysis, directly in Minkowski signature, of the Nambu-Goto action and its saddle points for a Wilson line configuration with a single cusp. We find that there are two different classes of saddle points whose contributions dominate different regions of parameter space. We calculate the cusp anomalous dimension $\Gamma_{\rm cusp}[\Delta\eta, \Delta\theta]$ for the whole range of $\Delta\eta$ from this setup, focusing on the cases $\Delta \theta = 0$ and $\Delta \theta = \pi$, and compare it with previous results in literature. We then use the techniques we developed to compute the expectation value of the two-cusp Wilson loop with transverse separation, and determine the profile of the transverse coordinate on the extremal surface in the large rapidity limit. We discuss the possible generalizations of our setup and results to soft functions in other gauge theories with a holographic dual.

Electroweak precision observables (EWPO) remain among the most powerful indirect probes of physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM), and future $e^+ e^-$ colliders are expected to substantially enhance their sensitivity. Within the framework of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT), we show how EWPO predictions can be systematically improved to next-to-leading-logarithmic (NLL) accuracy by combining fixed-order tree-level and one-loop matching with two- and one-loop renormalization-group evolution. We derive NLL expressions that encode the full dependence on all 210 independent Wilson coefficients and illustrate their impact through fits to both current and projected collider measurements. This work provides a basis for global SMEFT analyses at NLL precision, thereby maximizing the indirect reach to BSM physics through EWPO measurements. The phenomenological relevance of this framework is illustrated explicitly in both the custodial Randall-Sundrum model and a custodial composite Higgs model.

Contrary to the common lore that observable lepton-number violation (LNV) is inevitably suppressed by tiny neutrino masses, we identify a class of seesaw models in which arbitrarily large LNV can naturally coexist with sub-eV neutrino masses. We construct a symmetry-protected texture-zero structure in the neutrino Yukawa couplings and heavy Majorana mass matrix that gives rise to the required accidental symmetry, thereby protecting the light neutrinos from acquiring mass even in the presence of arbitrarily large LNV in the heavy sector. Small neutrino masses arise naturally from lifting the texture-zero structure while preserving the underlying symmetry. The resulting framework offers a rich and experimentally accessible phenomenology, predicting Heavy Neutral Leptons with sizeable active-sterile mixing over a broad range of experimentally accessible masses, giving rise to observable LNV signatures at collider and intensity-frontier experiments.

Transient star-like objects of unknown origin have been identified in the first Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-1) as part of the Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project. The source of the transients recorded by POSS-1 remains unknown, which is the warrant to coin the observed phenomena as Mysterious Transients (MT). We advocate an idea that the dark matter (DM) in form of the axion quark nuggets (AQN) made of standard model quarks (or antiquarks) and gluons, similar to the old idea of the Witten's strangelets, could simultaneously explain all the observed MT signals (including very short time scale for flash itself, association with nuclear test timing, observed alignments of several MT events, correlation with UAP reports, etc) collected or recorded for many years. Essentially we argue that the MT is a cousin of Ball Lightning (BL) events, also observed for centuries, without commonly accepted physics explanation. The basic parameters of this model (such as the typical baryon charge of the nuggets) had been fixed long ago by explaining the observed excess of radiation at variety of scales: from galactic to the solar, to local Earth's environments. In this work we use the same framework with the same set of parameters to study the observed MT phenomena. We also suggest several tests which substantiate or refute our proposal. We also present some suggestions on type of instruments required to study this specific (and well defined) type of the UAP events representing the cousins of BL and MT events in the AQN framework.

Working to second order in cosmological perturbation theory, we reconsider the Large Scale White Noise (LSWN) effect proposed in [2511.13866] and [2511.15803]. We demonstrate that the kurvature density variable $\Delta \rho$ does indeed develop LSWN at second order. However, contrary to the claims of [2511.15803], we show that this is not inherited as an infrared (IR) pole in the second-order comoving curvature perturbation $R_2$. This apparent enhancement was an artifact of using a linear Poisson equation to relate two genuinely second order quantities. Further, we show that $R_2$ is protected from developing any such IR enhancement: $\lim_{k \rightarrow 0} \left( k^2 R_2 \right) = 0$, which follows from a conservation law in the soft limit. The constraint proposed in [2511.15803] and its implications for the small-scale primordial power spectrum are therefore invalid.

We investigate the implications of brane-inspired modifications of the evolutionary history of the early universe on the process of baryogenesis via leptogenesis. A modified cosmic history alters the evolution of the Boltzmann equations governing lepton asymmetry, providing the possibility of successful leptogenesis in regions of the parameter space inaccessible in the standard cosmological scenario. Furthermore, a modified cosmic history also alters the shape of an otherwise scale-invariant spectral energy density (SED) of primary gravitational waves (PGWs) produced during inflation. This establishes a novel yet indirect probe of high scale leptogenesis scenarios through the observation of the SED of PGWs via future observations. We consider two scenarios in this work with single and multiple epochs of stiff equation of state(s) after inflation and before the epoch of radiation domination. We identify the parameter space where successful leptogenesis is possible, along with the possible observability of the PGWs, hence providing an indirect window into this leptogenesis scenario through PGWs.

Ultralight bosons can trigger superradiant instabilities around rotating black holes, extracting angular momentum and leading in some cases to observable gravitational signatures. When the associated spin-down timescale is shorter than the black hole lifetimes and the spin-up timescales due to, e.g. accretion, this process imposes an upper limit on black hole spins. In addition, the formation and subsequent dissipation of boson clouds generates quasi-continuous gravitational wave emission. In this work, we explore the prospects for constraining and detecting ultralight bosons with observations of massive black hole binary mergers with the space-based LISA observatory. We consider two complementary approaches: measurements of black hole spins from merging binaries and follow-up gravitational wave searches targeting massive black hole binary merger remnants. We consider three population models for massive black holes, based on either heavy or light seeds, and forecast the exclusion and detection probabilities for both scalar and vector bosons. We find that black hole spin measurements can constrain scalar masses in the range $[5\times10^{-18},10^{-14}]$ eV and vector masses in the range $[6\times10^{-19},2\times10^{-14}]$ eV, with the exact range depending on the model. In contrast, restricting to vector bosons, follow-up gravitational wave searches are sensitive to a narrower vector boson mass range of $\sim[3\times10^{-17},3\times10^{-15}]$ eV, with the specific values again depending on the model. If a vector boson with a mass in the range $[10^{-16},2\times10^{-15}]$ eV existed, the probability of having an event that the follow-up searches would be sensitive to ranges from very small to near unity depending on the astrophysical model.

When a black hole rings after a merger, it emits gravitational waves at characteristic frequencies known as quasinormal modes (QNMs). In the eikonal limit, these modes are governed by the unstable circular light orbits that form the photon ring. In this work, we demonstrate that the ringing of a black hole has a precise thermal interpretation. A probe string propagating in the near-ring geometry acquires an induced Rindler horizon on its worldsheet, with a temperature set by the Lyapunov exponent of the photon ring. Out of this structure, the black hole QNMs emerge as thermal excitations, so that the characteristic ringing of a black hole is the retarded response of a thermal system living on the photon ring. We explicitly derive the QNM spectrum from two complementary perspectives: microscopically, via unstable transverse worldsheet fluctuations, and macroscopically, through the pole structure of the causal response function of an open thermal quantum system.

In this work, we formulate a finite temperature Schwinger-Keldysh effective field theory for type-B Goldstone modes based on geometric objects globally defined on the coset manifold. In particular, after taking the classical limit, we organize the required two time contour structure by a near-diagonal geometry in which the $r$-type field is interpreted as the physical Goldstone configuration and the $a$-type field is identified as corresponding tangent displacement. Within this geometric viewpoint, the Berry term essential for type-B Goldstones is obtained directly through the transgression of the Berry curvature. Moreover, we show that this exact Berry transgression is compatible with dynamical KMS condition. In order to construct the conservative, dissipative and noise sectors, we classify possible tensors globally defined on the coset manifold. Based on this framework, we discuss in detail two concrete model examples. The dispersion relations of the Goldstone modes and the associated two-point correlation functions are calculated in the presence of dissipation.