Papers

We study how the ground-state properties of the rho meson respond when the number of light-quark flavors N_f is driven towards the conformal window. The interaction is a symmetry-preserving, confining vector–vector contact interaction whose effective coupling carries a flavor dependence designed to encode the screening produced by fermion loops in the deep infrared. That interaction feeds the Schwinger–Dyson equation for the dressed-quark propagator and the homogeneous Bethe–Salpeter equation in the rainbow-ladder truncation, regularized in the Schwinger proper-time scheme so that quark production thresholds are absent while chiral symmetry remains broken. Raising N_f weakens the coupling, suppresses the dynamically generated mass and restores chiral symmetry together with deconfinement at a critical flavor number N^{c}_{f}. The vector channel responds differently from the pseudoscalar one. Because the $\rho$ is not a Goldstone boson, its mass is not protected by the symmetry that is being restored, and it simply follows the shrinking constituent scale, while the canonically normalized amplitude E_rho and the leptonic decay constant f_rho soften along the way. In this framework the rho sits above the nominal q\bar{q} threshold for every flavor number examined, so the state survives only as long as confinement removes that threshold. Dissociation is therefore governed by the divergence of the confinement length scale rather than by a crossing of the bound-state mass, and we contrast both criteria. The three elastic electromagnetic form factors G_E, G_M and G_Q, computed in the generalized impulse approximation, flatten as N_f grows, the zero crossing of G_E migrates towards the infrared and the charge radius expands, whereas the magnitude of the quadrupole moment decreases. The rho thus becomes a larger and rounder object as the theory approaches conformality.

We propose a hybrid inflation model based on gauged scale symmetry, in which an axion-like field drives inflation while the Standard Model Higgs serves as the waterfall field. During slow-roll inflation, the Higgs is trapped in the electroweak-symmetric vacuum. When the inflaton reaches a critical value, the Higgs acquires a nonzero vacuum expectation value and and triggers electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) through the waterfall dynamics. We identify viable parameter regions that simultaneously accommodate current cosmic microwave background observations and Higgs data from the Large Hadron Collider. The relaxation mechanism connects the inflationary and electroweak scales by reducing the large vacuum-energy contribution required during inflation. Our framework thus provides a dynamical connection between inflation and EWSB.

We investigate primordial black hole (PBH) formation during an early matter-dominated era using fully nonlinear numerical relativity. The initial condition is set by a functional form of the curvature perturbation including ellipticity, which makes the configuration triaxial. Two kinds of matter descriptions are considered: dust fluid and collisionless particles. In the dust fluid description, numerical computation crashes associated with the appearance of a singularity at which the fluid density diverges, unless the singularity is hidden well inside the apparent horizon. We found that, for the dust fluid description, to observe the horizon formation before calculations crash, the initial amplitude must be larger than the previous analytic estimation by a factor of 2. On the other hand, with the particle system description, calculations do not crash, and we may observe black hole formation after subsequent evolution of the system. Then the threshold of black hole formation is significantly smaller than the previous analytic estimation by an order of magnitude.

Expected sensitivity calculations in frequentist analysis using neural simulation-based inference often require large simulated samples to approximate an unbinned Asimov dataset. We construct a finite weighted reference sample, for analyses based on learned density ratios, for which the generating parameters globally maximize the weighted likelihood. A toy example with five-dimensional observable space based loosely on high-energy physics models shows that an Asimov dataset consisting of as few as 256 weighted reference events closely reproduce the expected test statistic scans obtained with two million simulated reference events. The resulting test statistic distributions are also shown to agree with independent simulator-based pseudo-experiments. We note that this agreement with the simulator depends on the accuracy of the learned ratios and must be validated explicitly.

The conventional grid-based approach used for storing and evaluating ordinary parton distribution functions (PDFs), as implemented for example in LHAPDF, becomes much more demanding for double parton distributions (DPDs). While a collinear PDF depends on one longitudinal momentum fraction and one factorization scale, an unequal-scale DPD depends on two momentum fractions and two independent factorization scales for every parton-flavor combination. Direct tabulation of this four-dimensional dependence therefore requires considerably more disk space and runtime memory. In this work, we develop a hybrid neural-network method for compact storage and fast evaluation of $y$-independent unequal-scale DPDs. The network compresses the reference grid by reproducing most of its values, while the original values are stored only at points where the neural prediction does not reach the required accuracy. In this way, the neural model captures the bulk of the grid, with a sparse table covering the remaining difficult points. For the GS09-based dense grid studied here, only $0.694\%$ of the active flavor values need to be stored in the sparse table. Compared with the compressed dense grid, the hybrid method reduces the disk footprint by a factor of $10.6$, peak memory use by a factor of $31.6$, and initialization time by about a factor of $10.6$. At the same time, its evaluation throughput reaches about $85\%$ of the dense-grid rate. The method is implemented natively in C++ within PDFxTMDLib and requires neither Python nor PyTorch at runtime. The hybrid scheme therefore offers much lower memory and startup costs, with only a modest reduction in evaluation speed.

Near-threshold $J/\psi$ production is sensitive to scalar and traceless spin-two chromoelectric structure in the nucleon. We study whether present integrated and differential measurements can separate these contributions and constrain their relative phase. The GlueX integrated cross section does not determine a unique scalar contribution: production and elastic scalar terms are strongly correlated, while flatter non-forward profiles drive the fitted scalar strength to zero. In a 38-point large-$\xi$ differential analysis, the scalar term is collinear at fixed kinematics with the retained C-GFF direction, leading to nearly degenerate solutions and strong profile dependence. A common single-channel final-state factor preserves the scalar-spin-two relative phase, whereas coupled-channel rescattering can modify it. Its determination therefore requires polarization-sensitive observables together with process-specific complex helicity amplitudes.

We present a systematic framework to extract QCD thermodynamic properties at finite baryon density from ultra-central heavy-ion collisions, where the impact parameter is nearly zero and volume fluctuations are strongly suppressed. By mapping the measured multi-particle state of each event to an effective homogeneous fireball through the conservation of total energy, total entropy and net baryon number, a near-thermal state with variations is realized from event to event, which allows thermodynamic response relations to be tested. Using STAR Beam Energy Scan data on charged particle multiplicity and net proton fluctuations, we show that the thermalization condition is satisfied within uncertainties across collision energies, validating the interpretation of ultra-central events as small deviations from a thermally equilibrated state. We then generalize the response relations to finite baryon chemical potential, expressing the response coefficients in terms of the speed of sound and susceptibilities. Our results provide a baseline for using ultra-central collisions to probe the QCD equation of state and phase structure, including the search for the critical endpoint.

In this review we give an overview about dileptons as probes for the properties of the strongly interacting hot and dense matter created in heavy-ion collisions at various beam energies. As penetrating probes they leave the fireball unaffected from final-state interactions and thus provide a space-time-evolution weighted average of the in-medium properties of hot and dense QCD matter.

The non-standard self-interactions of neutrinos could be induced by (light) scalars that couple primarily to neutrinos. In this work, we investigate the effects of neutrinophilic scalars $\phi$ on muon decays at the tree, 1-loop and 2-loop levels, considering both Dirac and Majorana neutrinos. The most phenomenologically interesting processes are the 1-loop decay $\mu \to e \phi \phi$ and $\phi$-induced decay $\mu \to e \gamma$ at the 2-loop order from the same coupling $g_{\rm eff}$, and the 1-loop corrections of $\phi$ to the SM muon decay and the four-body muon decays $\mu^- \to e^- \nu_\mu \nu_\mu \phi,\, e^- \bar\nu_e \bar\nu_e \phi$, both induced by the coupling $h_{e\mu}$ of $\phi$ to Majorana neutrinos. The current experimental bounds on $\mu \to e \gamma$ provide the most stringent limits on the coupling $g_{\rm eff}$, up to roughly 0.064, for the scalar mass $m_\phi \gtrsim 8.7$ MeV. The precise $G_F$ measurements constrain the coupling $|h_{e\mu}|$ down to roughly $0.027$, with the scalar mass $m_\phi$ constrained up to roughly $5.9$ TeV. For $m_\phi \gtrsim {\cal O}({\rm GeV})$, the $G_F$ measurements are more stringent than other existing laboratory, astrophysical and cosmological constraints. Some other $\phi$-induced processes are also possible, which are, however, heavily suppressed by the tiny neutrino masses and/or the loop factor.

Matter changes the eigenvalues and mixing matrix of the neutrino propagation Hamiltonian while entering the flavor-basis Hamiltonian through a low-dimensional additive deformation. We develop a unified algebraic description of the quantities that are insensitive to this deformation. The invariant algebra is formulated as the joint kernel of commuting matter-translation derivations inside the flavor-rephasing invariant ring. For diagonal matter potentials, this gives a general decomposition into unaffected diagonal directions and an off-diagonal cycle algebra, together with an exact dimension formula for an arbitrary number of flavors and independent matter parameters. For matter spurions with common low-rank support, block-Krylov rows generate exterior-power covariants whose maximal minors are matter independent. Their mass-basis form is a Plücker expansion: rank one produces the familiar Vandermonde factorization, whereas higher rank generically produces a sum of independent Plücker terms. The standard $3+1$ system provides our principal nontrivial example. Its global off-diagonal algebra is the toric cycle ring of the complete four-vertex flavor graph, generated by edge moduli, triangle cycles, and quadrangle cycles; the commonly used eleven invariants constitute a generic local coordinate system rather than a global polynomial generating set. We further formulate independently varying matter compositions and off-diagonal nonstandard interactions as, respectively, commuting exact flows and controlled deformations of the invariant algebra. This framework separates the existence of exact invariants from the stronger and exceptional property of single-monomial spectral factorization.

We study the impact of flavour-specific neutrino self-interactions on the CMB anisotropy spectrum and consistently take into account neutrino mixing. Starting from the neutrino quantum kinetic equations, we derive the neutrino Boltzmann hierarchies for the neutrino mass states. Our work shows that most scenarios of flavour-specific neutrino self-interactions are well approximated by a combined fluid approach. In practice, this implies that existing CMB bounds on the effective neutrino coupling are weakened by a factor $\sqrt{2}$ for scenarios in which only two neutrino flavours interact (irrespective of which flavours). If only one neutrino flavour interacts the bounds are weaker by a factor $\sqrt{6}$, with the only caveat that the combined fluid approach is less reliable for only $\nu_e$ interacting.

Unraveling the partonic origin of the proton spin requires precise determinations of polarized parton distribution functions (PDFs), which depend on comparably precise theoretical predictions for polarized scattering, particularly in view of the high-precision measurements anticipated at the future Electron-Ion Collider. We present the first next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO) QCD predictions for longitudinally polarized semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) in a fully differential form, together with next-to-next-to-leading order predictions for the hadron transverse-momentum spectrum. These results are obtained by extending the two-dimensional transverse-momentum subtraction framework to the spin-dependent cross section. Together with the corresponding unpolarized calculation, these results enable consistent N$^3$LO predictions for longitudinal double-spin asymmetries and provide a precision baseline for future analyses of helicity PDFs and transverse-momentum-dependent helicity distributions.

Vector meson dominance models describe the mixing of photons with vector mesons; the hadronic admixture frequently dominates the interactions of photons with nucleons. This mixing also makes it possible to test for new physics affecting the vector mesons using photon measurements. The possibilities for new physics to be contrained in this indirect fashion include potential Lorentz and CPT violations in the hadronic effective action. The characteristic scale of bounds on Lorentz violation coefficients in the $\rho^{0}$ meson sector is two orders of magnitude weaker than the corresponding photon bounds, three orders of magnitude weaker for $\phi$ vector mesons, and four orders of magnitude weaker for $\omega$ mesons.

In this paper, we study the dimensional reduction of a nonlocal scalar field theory to 1+2 dimensions. This nonlocal model introduces a light mass parameter as a scale that primarily modifies the infrared regime of the theory. We constraint the external sources to a bidimensional plane to obtain the effective Green's function and propose an effective Lagrangian for the scalar field in 1+2 dimensions. Using the static propagator, we calculate the interaction energy between point-like charges in the planar space. Furthermore, we evaluate the causal and Feynman Green's functions, and discuss the unitarity of the effective planar model at tree level. Finally, we implement the Matsubara formalism to investigate the thermodynamics of the planar model. The exact thermal free energy shows the fractional degrees of freedom characteristic of kinematic confinement and imposes a strict low-temperature validity bound ($T \ll \Lambda$) to preserve the macroscopic thermodynamic stability.

Axion-star mass-radius relations are commonly computed using different orders of relativistic approximation, making it important to determine where these descriptions remain reliable. We perform a unified numerical comparison of axion-star ground-state configurations in the Newtonian Schrödinger-Poisson description, first- and second-order relativistic effective field theories, and the full Einstein-Klein-Gordon system for a real scalar field. Using the same attractive quartic self-interaction in all four descriptions, we scan $|\widetilde{\lambda}|=(M_{\rm Pl}/f_a)^2$ and determine the maximum masses and corresponding enclosed-mass radii. All descriptions recover the common large-$|\widetilde{\lambda}|$ dilute-star scaling, while substantial differences appear at weak and moderate coupling. The relativistic EFTs interpolate systematically between the Newtonian and full-GR results. For part of the maximum-mass sequence where $\max|\phi|/f_a=O(1)$, we test the temporal-harmonic and potential truncations explicitly in full GR. The higher-harmonic expansion shows rapid convergence, while restoring the complete single-cosine potential changes the maximum mass only at the percent level and $R_{95}$ at the several-percent level. Together with the systematic convergence of the relativistic EFT descriptions toward full GR, these results show that the large weak-coupling departure from the Schrödinger-Poisson prediction reflects the breakdown of the nonrelativistic structural description. Our results provide a systematic benchmark for determining when Newtonian, relativistically corrected, or fully general-relativistic descriptions are required for axion-star structure. The numerical implementation used in this work is available in the Axion Star Solvers repository at https://github.com/Parisa-Arabameri/AxionStar.

Fermionic dark matter particles remain one of the most compelling candidates for the dark matter content of the Universe, yet no positive results have been obtained from direct detection experiments. In this work, we investigate the possibility that such particles form compact gravitationally bound objects supported by degeneracy pressure. Through an extensive review of microlensing surveys, we derive constraints on the masses of these compact objects. We further analyze the accretion of baryonic matter onto these objects and evaluate their thermal and radiative properties. The estimated burst emission is found to be well below the energies associated with the Galactic Center GeV excess, suggesting that these compact objects are unlikely to be the source of the observed signal. Our analysis suggests that admixed dark matter and baryonic matter objects could potentially account for a fraction of the presently unobserved baryonic matter, thereby providing a possible explanation for a fraction of the missing baryons in the Universe.

We present theoretical estimations of the event rates for the interaction between a right-handed fermionic dark matter with an electron bound to a xenon atom. Motivated by recent astrophysical and cosmological constraints on a fermionic dark matter candidate in the sub-MeV mass range, we study such an interaction through an effective electromagnetic channel where the output consists of standard-model particles. This mechanism allows right-handed neutral dark matter fermions to couple with standard-model particles with the interchange of $W^{\pm}$ or $Z$ bosons, without the need to add extra fields. We generalize and extend previous results on this type of channels, by including for the ionization form factor arising from the interaction of the fermionic candidate with bound electrons. In addition, we compute the sensitivity curves for different direct detection experiments in such a challenging light particle mass range.

In this paper, we compare two different ways of generating semi-visible jet signature in non-resonant production mode, and flag the potential advantages of the new generation approach we propose. In addition, we suggest a more efficient matrix element to parton shower matching configuration for this hadronic final state signature. Finally, we perform a reinterpretation study of the ATLAS search for t-channel semi-visible jet production and obtain collider limits on the sneaky DM scenario.

Breaking of $SU(5)$ down to the Standard Model gauge group can be implemented by any non-trivial self-conjugate scalar representation with a suitable vacuum expectation value. The Georgi-Glashow model accomplishes this breaking with a 24-dimensional representation. That choice, although the most economical one, fails to unify the gauge coupling constants. Moreover, subsequent breaking of the Standard Model down to $SU(3) \times U(1)_\mathrm{em}$ with a $5$-dimensional representation fails to simultaneously provide viable masses for the down-type quarks and the charged leptons. We show that the substitution of the $24$-dimensional representation with a $75$-dimensional representation fixes the gauge coupling unification issue outrightly. We furthermore pin down, by computing the full mass spectrum of the multiplets in $75$-dimensional representation, the range of the unification scale $m_{\rm GUT}$ to be $10^{15}\,\text{GeV} \lesssim m_{\rm GUT} \lesssim 10^{16}\,\text{GeV}$. This unification window is partially excluded by Super-Kamiokande data and will be experimentally accessible at Hyper-Kamiokande. The second issue with the Georgi-Glashow model can be addressed, for example, with vectorlike fermions. The $24$-dimensional scenario admits three different types of vectorlike fermions that can properly account for the mismatch between the down-type quark and the charged lepton masses. The $75$-dimensional scenario, on the other hand, offers enhanced predictivity by allowing only a unique vectorlike addition of $10_F + \overline{10}_F$ that restores realistic charged fermion masses and modestly pushes the upper limit on the unification scale to $m_{\rm GUT} \lesssim 3\times10^{16}\,\text{GeV}$. The proposed framework with $75$-dimensional scalar representation can thus serve as a phenomenologically viable alternative to the standard Georgi-Glashow symmetry breaking paradigm.

Many dark sector models predict the formation of dark objects, such as solitons and dark stars, which can be searched for through their gravitational lensing of gravitational waves (GWs). Although these objects vary widely in size and compactness, most GW lensing studies have focused on point-like lenses. The finite size of an extended lens is important when it exceeds its Einstein radius. We evaluate the frequency-dependent effects on GW waveforms from extended lenses and demonstrate that they can be probed with current and future GW data. While finite-size effects can weaken the bounds on the fraction of dark matter in these objects compared to the point-like limit, current GW data provides complementary constraints to other gravitational tests for lens masses between $10^2M_\odot$ and $10^5M_\odot$; future LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA data and next-generation observatories will surpass their sensitivity. As expected, we find that the finite-size effects are important when the lens radius exceeds $\sim \text{few} \times 10^{6}R_\odot (M_L/100 M_\odot)^{1/2}$. Interpreting these constraints within specific models (a simple dissipative dark sector and axion stars), we show that current and future observations probe significant portions of the microphysical parameter space.

Flavor plays a crucial role in the structure of the Standard Model. As such, many important collider physics measurements incorporate the flavor information of detected hadrons. Recent progress in the study of energy correlators has enabled collider physics measurements of energy flux to be reformulated as operator statements. In this Letter, we introduce flavor flux correlators, which measure the angular distribution and correlations of flavor quantum numbers. We emphasize a unique feature of heavy flavor flux correlators as compared to correlators of other charges, namely the $b$ and $c$ flavor quantum numbers are gapped at the heavy quark mass scale, making them a particularly clean perturbative observables, with $\mathcal{O}(\Lambda_{\text{QCD}}/m_Q)$ suppressed non-perturbative power corrections. As an application, we reformulate the heavy quark forward-backward asymmetry as a macroscopic consequence of a mixed electroweak anomaly of the heavy-quark flavor current. Using the relation to the anomaly, we compute the flavor flux correlator analytically at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order and verify using parton shower simulations that non-perturbative corrections are suppressed, as expected from the gapped nature of the heavy flavor quantum numbers. Flavor flux correlators can be measured using archival electron-positron collision data, as well as at Belle II and future colliders.

The recent LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment analysis reported a high energy nuclear recoil candidate at $E_R \simeq 248~{\rm keV}$, motivating interpretations in terms of inelastic dark matter. We study this event in a pseudo-Dirac fermion model with a vector boson mediator $Z'$, assuming a low-reheating temperature and dark matter production through freeze-in at stronger coupling. In contrast to the thermal freeze-out case, the reheating temperature provides an additional parameter controlling the relic abundance and breaks the one-to-one relation between the dark matter mass and direct-detection cross section. As a result, the LZ candidate can be reproduced over a continuous region of parameter space, including mass splitting below the thermal benchmark.

We investigate the interference of a heavy radion with the QCD continuum in top-quark-pair production at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider, restricting the numerical study to the pure-radion limit $\xi=0$. The gluon-fusion amplitude combines the QCD trace anomaly with the exact finite-top-mass loop form factor, whose coherent sum fixes both the magnitude and the phase of the production coefficient. Above the top threshold the loop develops an absorptive part, rendering the production coefficient complex and allowing the interference to remain non-zero on the resonance pole, where a purely real point-like coefficient would give none. The complex coefficient is validated independently using a native loop-induced implementation and a common-event phase-basis construction. The resulting signature is a peak–dip deformation rather than a positive bump, while detector smearing turns the narrow truth-level structure into a broad sub-percent distortion. For $3\,\mathrm{ab}^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV, we construct an ATLAS-anchored phenomenological response and perform an exact binned Poisson Asimov analysis with a free background normalization and a correlated shape nuisance. For a $0.1\%$ shape benchmark with a $50$ GeV correlation length, the profiled median $95\%$ $CL_s$ reach in $\Lambda_r$ is $2.49$, $2.82$, $3.00$, $2.56$, and $2.19$ TeV for radion masses of $600$, $800$, $1000$, $1200$, and $1500$ GeV, respectively. A diagnostic decomposition at $800$ GeV gives $2.18$ TeV for the resonance-squared term alone and $2.83$ TeV for the interference term alone. A selected-background deformation stress test largely removes the apparent maximum near $1$ TeV, showing that its location and prominence are normalization-prescription dependent, while leaving the central conclusion unchanged: the projected sensitivity is predominantly interference driven.

Recently, we have shown that the hypothesis of the dark-matter (DM) origin of the Belle II excess events in $B\to K M_X$ decays allows for a successful description of the data. The DM parameters (masses and couplings) in two DM scenarios with either scalar (S-scenario) or vector (V-scenario) mediator have been extracted with rather small uncertainty from fits to the $B\to K M_X$ data. The same mechanism leads to a similar enhancement of the $B_s\to (\eta,\eta',\phi) M_X$ decay rates. We present a detailed analysis of $B\to K^* M_X$ and $B_s\to \phi M_X$ decays and show that these decays provide a clear probe of the S- and V-scenarios: Compared to the Standard Model, in the S-scenario an enhancement by a factor $\sim 1.6$ is expected, whereas the V-scenario leads to a much larger enhancement by a factor $\sim 3.5$. For the $B\to K^* M_X$ decays, we provide the expected number of events at Belle II for the sample for which a rather large enhancement of $B\to K M_X$ decays compared to the Standard Model expectations has been reported.

We present an extended study of the gravitationally localized soliton-like solutions to the minimally-coupled Einstein-Dirac-Higgs equations, embedded in asymptotically Minkowski spacetimes. The equations of motion describing these Yukawa-coupled Dirac stars are generalized to any even number of constituent fermions. We first expand the discussion of two-fermion ground-state solutions initially analyzed in Leith et al. [Phys. Rev. D. 107, 106020 (2023)]. Upon extending our analysis to excited states and many-fermion states, we find that both exhibit different behaviors to their two-fermion ground-state counterparts. In these excited states and many-fermion states, the Higgs field may exhibit stepwise increases and at times decrease within the soliton, which has not been seen for the two-fermion ground states. We also propose the potential cause of a significant degree of ADM-to-fermion mass disparity, which is present in states with strong Yukawa-coupling.

Self-interactions between dark matter (DM) particles facilitate the inter-particle redistribution of energy within the central region of DM halos. Recent studies of dark matter spikes around massive black holes, and the diversity in rotation curves of dark matter rich low-mass galaxies motivate the exploration of self-interaction cross-section $\mathcal{O}(10)\,\rm cm^2/gm$. At such high scattering rates, DM can lead to the formation of supermassive black hole seeds, through the gravothermal collapse of halo cores, under certain cosmological conditions. Quasars near cosmic dawn are powerful probes for examining the formation scenario of high redshift supermassive black holes, and their connection to structure formation. In this work we point out the favorable initial cosmological conditions that are likely to provide the black hole seeds resulting in supermassive black holes, mediated by core-collapse in self-interacting dark matter halos. Employing a semi-analytic prescription of core formation, and realistic mass accretion and halo merger histories, we compare the existing observations of high-redshift supermassive black holes with those predicted for our core-collapse framework. We find the median values of velocity-dependent self-interacting dark matter parameter space $\sigma/m_{\chi}\sim 56\, \rm cm^2/gm$, and $\omega=101\,\rm km/s$, assuming an Eddington accretion rate of unity. Sub-leading values are also presented for sub and super-Eddington accretion rates. We also report the derived self-interacting dark matter model parameters to account for the observed binned supermassive black hole mass functions at high-redshifts.

We interpret the recently reported 248~keV nuclear recoil event in the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment via inelastic dark matter scattering within the minimal Scotogenic model. A sub-MeV mass splitting between neutral inert scalars suppresses low-energy scattering while permitting signals from the high-velocity halo tail. Crucially, co-annihilation with nearly degenerate right-handed fermions accommodates the thermal relic density for dark matter masses up to $\sim {\cal O} (1)$~TeV, extending the viable range significantly beyond the pure inert doublet model limit while evading direct detection bounds. However, to resolve the severe tension with IceCube neutrino limits on solar capture, we extend this minimal framework by introducing a hidden $U(1)_X$ gauge symmetry that naturally leads us to tiny $\lambda_5$ coupling at the one-loop level. This realizes an isospin-violating scenario that suppresses dark matter capture in the Sun while preserving the coherent scattering signal in the Xenon-based LZ detector. We numerically verify that this extended framework naturally generates neutrino masses and satisfies constraints from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and indirect detection, providing a robust and testable solution to the LZ anomaly.

We investigate the prospects for constraining neutrinophilic axion-like particles via measurements of the tritium beta decay spectrum, as performed by the KATRIN experiment and its planned TRISTAN detector upgrade. We study in detail the resulting spectral modifications and the corresponding experimental sensitivity. The relevant complementary searches are also discussed for comparison and we derive the most up-to-date and robust constraints on keV-scale neutrinophilic axion-like particles, covering both lepton-number-conserving and lepton-number-violating interactions. Cosmological constraints are generally more stringent; however, this conclusion relies on the assumption that the particles remain unchanged from the early universe to the present day. We therefore construct a model in which the neutrinophilic axion-like particle, being a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson of an extended scalar sector, emerges from a spontaneous symmetry breaking featuring a non-trivial thermal history. We show that the model naturally evades the conventional cosmological bounds, allowing tritium beta decay measurements to provide the leading constraints.

Four-top production is one of the rarest processes of the Standard Model observable at the Large Hadron Collider, offering sensitivity to the top Yukawa coupling, Higgs width, and beyond-Standard-Model physics. We present precise predictions for the invariant-mass distribution and total cross section using threshold resummation at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy, matched to next-to-leading order (NLO) calculations.

We perform global fits of the electroweak sector of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) using a comprehensive set of LEP searches, 34 Run 2 LHC searches, and 63 Run 2 LHC measurements. Scanning the bino, wino and Higgsino mass parameters, and the ratio of the Higgs vacuum expectation values, we find that for a light, bino $\tilde{\chi}_{1}^0$, the mass of the next-to-lightest neutralino must be $m_{\tilde{\chi}_{2}^0} \gtrsim 760$ GeV. While MSSM electroweakinos can explain individual excesses observed by ATLAS and CMS in searches targeting compressed spectra, we find no scenarios that fit these excesses simultaneously. When we add a light gravitino, neutralinos are further excluded up to about 1 TeV, though this depends on their composition; Higgsino-dominated $\tilde{\chi}_{1}^0$ requires only $m_{\tilde{\chi}_{1}^0} \approx m_{\tilde{\chi}_{2}^0} \gtrsim 650$ GeV. Lastly, the newer LHC searches and measurements exclude a low-mass region that was preferred in a previous study. This is the most complete summary of collider constraints on the electroweakino sector of the MSSM performed to date.