Papers

We investigate the leading-power fragmentation of triply heavy $\Omega$ baryons in high-energy hadronic collisions. Extending our previous work on the $\Omega_{3c}$ sector, we release the full OMG3Q1.0 family of collinear fragmentation functions by completing the description of the charm channel and delivering the novel $\Omega_{3b}$ functions. These hadron-structure-oriented functions are constructed from improved proxy-model calculations for heavy-quark and gluon fragmentation, matched to a flavor-aware DGLAP evolution based on the HF-NRevo scheme. For phenomenological applications, we employ the (sym)JETHAD multimodular interface to compute and analyze NLL/NLO$^+$ semi-inclusive $\Omega_{3Q}$ plus jet distributions at the HL-LHC and FCC. This work consolidates the link between hadron structure, rare baryon production, and resummed QCD at the energy frontier.

We investigate the core dynamics behind exotic matter formation via the TQ4Q1.1 set of collinear fragmentation functions for fully charmed or bottomed tetraquarks in three quantum configurations: scalar ($0^{++}$), axial vector ($1^{+-}$), and tensor ($2^{++}$). We adopt leading-power single-parton fragmentation within a nonrelativistic QCD framework tailored to tetraquark Fock states. Initial-scale inputs are constructed from updated gluon- and heavy-quark channels, and evolved through threshold-consistent DGLAP within HF-NRevo. We present the first systematic propagation of uncertainties from color-composite long-distance matrix elements governing tetraquark hadronization. This study advances the connection between hadronic structure, precision QCD, and exotic matter.

We investigate the high-energy production of tetraquark-jet systems at the LHC and its forthcoming High-Luminosity upgrade. In this review, we examine the leading-power fragmentation of fully heavy tetraquarks ($T_{4Q}$) in hadronic collisions, highlighting their relevance as novel probes of multiquark dynamics in QCD. Our analysis relies on the hadron-structure-oriented TQ4Q1.1 fragmentation functions, built within a nonrelativistic QCD framework that incorporates both gluon- and heavy-quark-initiated channels. Threshold-consistent DGLAP evolution is performed through the HF-NRevo scheme, enabling a unified treatment of mass thresholds and scale variations. We also provide a systematic discussion of uncertainties arising from color-composite long-distance matrix elements (LDMEs) and from perturbative hard- and fragmentation-scale inputs (H- and F-MHOUs). Phenomenological predictions are obtained using the (sym)Jethad framework at NLL/NLO$^+$ accuracy for semi-inclusive tetraquark-jet production at the LHC and beyond. This review connects the emerging spectroscopy of fully heavy exotics with modern fragmentation-based approaches to hadron structure and high-energy QCD.

We examine the Regge theoretical properties for the scaling observed in pp elastic scattering differential cross-sections at the LHC. A positive signature amplitude (i.e. the Pomeron) with scaling properties has been derived. It is found to describe the dip-bump region of momentum transfer at LHC energies in agreement with data. We derive the analytic continuation in the whole plane of the t-channel partial waves of index $l_t$ specific to the Regge formalism. The analytic form of the amplitude exhibits a specific scaling property without singularities, except for a series of poles in the $l_t$ real axis at fractional values.

Traditional diagnostics of black hole phase transitions rely on thermodynamic quantities defined at the event horizon or asymptotic boundary. Here, we demonstrate that the near-singularity geometry offers a sharp, independent probe of both first-order phase transitions and supercritical crossover. For scalarized AdS black holes exhibiting a first-order phase transition, the Kasner exponent $p_t$, which characterizes the approach to the singularity, undergoes a dramatic transformation. On one side of the transition, $p_t$ oscillates strongly with temperature, reflecting violent interior dynamics. On the other side, it becomes a smooth, monotonically varying function. These two distinct behaviors converge as the critical point is approached. Beyond the critical point, in the supercritical region, $p_t(T)$ develops a distinct extremum, defining a Kasner crossover line that is entirely independent of traditional thermodynamic (Widom line) or dynamic (Frenkel line) criteria. Our work establishes the near geometry of singularity of scalarized black hole as a novel class of diagnostics for phase transitions, revealing that a change in the macroscopic thermodynamic state fundamentally reshapes the deepest interior structure of spacetime.

We study the light asymptotic limit of the one-point torus conformal block in $A_{n-1}$ Toda field theory. Through the AGT correspondence, this problem can be translated into the computation of the instanton partition function of four-dimensional ${\cal N}=2^{\ast}$ $U(n)$ supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory, which we then examine in the limit $b\to 0$ at fixed conformal dimensions. We show that, in this regime, the instanton sum simplifies drastically: for each Young diagram, only boxes with specific arm lengths contribute to the bifundamental factors. Exploiting this property, we derive an explicit representation for the light one-point torus $W_n$ conformal block valid for arbitrary $n\ge 2$. As a consistency check, we specialize our construction to the Liouville case $n=2$ and compare it with the previously known hypergeometric representation of the torus block in the light limit. We also discuss the $W_3$ case and its relation to a known alternative representation obtained by the shadow formalism.

Quadratic gravity is a well-motivated extension of general relativity~(GR) wherein the Einstein-Hilbert action is augmented by quadratic curvature terms. This theory is equivalent to GR in an effective-field-theory framework, while the two theories are different at the non-perturbative level. As we have recently shown, black holes in quadratic gravity have a rich linear response, including extra scalar, vector, and tensor quasinormal modes that can be excited in physical processes, even when the stationary solution is the same as in GR. Here, by studying the gravitational-wave emission from point particles plunging into a Schwarzschild black hole in quadratic gravity, we show that observable deviations from GR are exponentially suppressed in the GR limit. This provides a nonperturbative realization of the equivalence between quadratic gravity and GR predicted in the effective-field-theory framework.

We present a model in which the cosmological constant emerges as a purely geometric effect from the four-dimensional compactification of five-dimensional Einstein-Chern-Simons gravity. The compactification of the extra dimension generates an effective cosmological constant $\Lambda$ depending on the compactification radius $r_c$, the coupling parameter $l$, and the trace $\tilde{h}$ of the compactified field $h^a$, rather than being introduced as a free parameter. The resulting field equations are structurally equivalent to those of General Relativity with a cosmological constant, so all known vacuum solutions – Schwarzschild–de Sitter, Kerr–de Sitter, and FLRW spacetimes – remain valid. As a concrete application, we derive the Kottler (Schwarzschild–de Sitter) black hole solution. We identify two dynamical regimes. In the weak-field regime, $\Lambda \propto l^{2}\tilde{h}/r_{c}^{3}$, whose sign is controlled by $l^2\tilde{h}$, requiring fine-tuning to reproduce $\Lambda_{\text{obs}} \approx 10^{-52}\,\text{m}^{-2}$. In the strong-field regime, dependence on $l$ and $\tilde{h}$ cancels algebraically, yielding $\Lambda \approx 3/(4r_{c}^{2})$ independently of the Chern-Simons coupling. This regime naturally reproduces $\Lambda_{\rm obs}$ for $r_{c} \approx 0.78\,H_{0}^{-1} \approx 8.2 \times 10^{25}\,\text{m}$, without fine-tuning. The Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the cosmological horizon gives $S_{\rm cosm} = 4\pi k_B r_c^2/l_{\rm Pl}^2 \sim 10^{122}\,k_B$, consistent with the Gibbons-Hawking result and admitting a direct geometric interpretation in terms of $r_c$. This framework geometrically reframes the cosmological constant problem: rather than asking why $\Lambda$ is small, one asks why $r_c$ is large – a reformulation compatible with a large extra dimension without violating established gravitational tests.

We compute angular phase-space integrals with three and four denominators analytically, working within dimensional regularisation via the Mellin-Barnes (MB) representation. The approach converts multifold MB integrals into real parametric integrals and expresses all results in terms of Goncharov polylogarithms (GPLs). For three denominators, all-massless results are obtained to $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^2)$ and the single-massive case to $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon)$; for four denominators, both the massless and single-massive cases are solved to $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^0)$. Integrals with multiple massive momenta follow from a partial fraction decomposition reducing them to the single-massive case. Recursion relations relating integrals with higher denominator powers to master integrals are derived. These are essential ingredients to solving full phase-space integrals.

Large language models have demonstrated impressive performance across many domains of mathematics and physics. One natural question is whether such models can support research in highly abstract theoretical fields such as quantum field theory and string theory. Evaluating this possibility faces an immediate challenge: correctness in these domains is layered, tacit, and fundamentally non-binary. Standard answer-matching metrics fail to capture whether intermediate conceptual steps are properly reconstructed or whether implicit structural constraints are respected. We construct a compact expert-curated dataset of twelve questions spanning core areas of quantum field theory and string theory, and introduce a five-level grading rubric separating statement correctness, key concept awareness, reasoning chain presence, tacit step reconstruction, and enrichment. Evaluating multiple contemporary LLMs, we observe near-ceiling performance on explicit derivations within stable conceptual frames, but systematic degradation when tasks require reconstruction of omitted reasoning steps or reorganization of representations under global consistency constraints. These failures are driven not only by missing intermediate steps, but by an instability in representation selection: models often fail to identify the correct conceptual framing required to resolve implicit tensions. We argue that highly abstract theoretical physics provides a uniquely sensitive lens on the epistemic limits of current evaluation paradigms.

The entanglement entropy of spacetime regions $A$ in odd-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) contains a universal constant term, $(-1)^{\frac{d-1}{2}}F(A)$. This quantity can be robustly defined by considering the mutual information of pairs of slightly deformed versions of $A$. In the case of general three-dimensional CFTs, $F(A)$ is positive definite and bounded below by the round disk result, $F(A)\geq F_0\equiv F(\partial A=\mathbb{S}^1)$. Additionally, strong evidence has been provided that for every region $A$, $F(A)/F_0$ is maximized, within the space of CFT$_3$'s, by the free scalar field result. In this paper we show that while $F(A)$ remains a local minimum around $F_0\equiv F(\partial A=\mathbb{S}^3)$ for small deformations of the spherical entangling surface, it can take values of arbitrarily large magnitude with either sign for more general regions, and hence it is neither upper- nor lower-bounded in general CFT$_5$'s. We argue that an analogous conjecture regarding the extremization of $F(A)/F_0$ for general regions within the space of theories fails in $d=5$. We instead analyze the viability of the weaker bound, $F_{\epsilon}/F_0\leq \left[F_{\epsilon}/F_0\right]_{\text{free scalar}}$, $\forall$CFT$_5$ for general small geometric deformations of the spherical entangling surface. This is equivalent to a general constraint involving the stress-tensor two-point function $C_T$ and the Euclidean partition function on the sphere, namely, $C_T/F_0\leq \left[C_T/F_0\right]_{\text{ free scalar}}\approx 0.314$, which we show to hold for all known CFT$_5$'s. We also comment on possible extensions of this result to higher dimensions.

These proceedings start with a discussion of my recent experiences with large language models and potential implications for their usage in our field. This is followed by an AI generated summary of my talk at the workshop “Recent Progress in Computational String Geometry,” held at the Chennai Mathematical Institute in January 2026. The focus is on four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ Minkowski vacua in type IIB compactifications that live deep in the interior of moduli space and admit an exact worldsheet description in terms of Landau–Ginzburg models. The main examples are the $1^9$ and $2^6$ models, mirror to rigid Calabi–Yau threefolds and therefore free of Kähler moduli. This makes them ideal laboratories for testing whether fluxes can stabilize all fields and for probing conjectures about the string landscape and the swampland. Based mostly on arXiv:2406.03435, arXiv:2407.16756, we review how higher-order terms in the flux superpotential can stabilize fields that remain massless at quadratic order, how isolated Minkowski vacua arise in the $2^6$ model, and why these constructions provide sharp data for the tadpole and massless Minkowski conjectures. We also emphasize the role of arXiv:2407.16758 by other authors, where the first Minkowski vacua of this type with all fields massive were identified.

We present an exact solution in the large-$N$ limit of the Lévy Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (LSYK) model introduced in Ref. [1], wherein the couplings are drawn from a Lévy Stable distribution parameterized by a tail exponent $\mu \in [0, 2]$. Starting from the Hamiltonian and its associated partition function, we highlight the key differences from the standard Gaussian SYK model and derive the large-$N$ Schwinger-Dyson equations via a bosonic oscillator representation of the action. These equations are solved both numerically and analytically in the large-$q$ and infrared limits. We subsequently analyze the chaotic properties of the model by computing the Krylov exponent from the large-$q$ Green's function and extracting the Lyapunov exponent from the $4$-point function. The parameter $\mu$ continuously interpolates between a free theory at $\mu = 0$ and the conventional, maximally chaotic Gaussian SYK model at $\mu = 2$, with non-maximal chaos persisting throughout the intermediate regime $0 < \mu < 2$. Thermodynamic quantities, including the entropy, free energy, average energy, and specific heat capacity, are computed and compared with their Gaussian SYK counterparts. The interpretations of the thermodynamics are discussed with respect to the holographic dual and non-Fermi liquid theory. Finally, we discuss an alternative representation of the LSYK model based on a distinct decomposition of the Lévy Stable distribution, which establishes a non-trivial connection to Gaussian SYK, and provide supporting analytical and numerical results in the appendices.

Symmetries play a central role in quantum many-body physics, yet uncovering them systematically remains challenging. We introduce a bootstrap framework to reconstruct the representation theory of hidden finite group symmetries of quantum many-body lattice Hamiltonians, using only a known symmetry subgroup $N$ and spectral correlations between its sectors. We introduce the cross spectral form factor (xSFF) as a subgroup-resolved diagnostic of hidden symmetry, computed via exact diagonalization to seed the bootstrap. Applying constraints from these data alongside the algebraic conditions of the fusion rules, our bootstrap sharply restricts candidate groups $G$. Without prior assumptions about $G$, our method can systematically recover its representation-theoretic data, including the number and dimensions of irreducible representations, their branching rules with respect to $N$, the fusion algebra, and the full character table. This framework applies to chaotic and integrable systems and accommodates unitary and anti-unitary symmetries. Through examples, we demonstrate that $G$ can be uniquely identified. Our bootstrap recovers the $\mathbb{Z}_4$ symmetry at the self-dual point of the three-state quantum torus chain, detects signatures of projective representations in the effective Hamiltonian of the driven Bose-Hubbard model, and rediscovers the $\eta$-pairing $\mathrm{SO}(4)$ symmetry of the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model. Leveraging the universal random-matrix ramp in chaotic systems, we demonstrate the possibility of ramp-only bootstrap alongside an example with hidden commuting symmetries. We establish the xSFF as a diagnostic for conserved order parameters in a symmetry-breaking spin-$1$ chain and introduce an ancilla-assisted measurement circuit for experimental realization. Our framework establishes a practical route to identify symmetries from dynamical spectral observables.

The chiral vortical effect (CVE) – an axial current driven by rotation in chiral matter – appears in systems ranging from relativistic fluids to Weyl semimetals. We present an exact quantum solution of a rotating Weyl fermion in a finite cylinder. We recover the exact current density on the rotation axis obtained by Vilenkin and show that its cross-sectional average vanishes in the thermodynamic limit, establishing that the bulk vortical response is purely a magnetization current. For spin-polarized boundary conditions, we uncover an additional effect beyond the known CVE: a robust family of chiral modes that transport axial charge, $\Delta Q=\chi N^2,\Delta\theta/4\pi$, under rotation by angle $\Delta\theta$, where $\chi$ is the Weyl node chirality and $N$ is the number of chiral modes. The pump is independent of temperature, Fermi level, and Weyl velocities, but depends on the UV-sensitive number $N$. These results clarify the quantum structure of the bulk CVE and reveal a boundary-enforced chiral spectral structure underlying vortical response in Weyl systems.

Scalars carrying a conserved global charge $Q$ can form stable localized field configurations composed of a large number of particles. These non-topological solitons are spherically symmetric and are called Q-balls. While usually analyzed in three spatial dimensions, these solitons can be straightforwardly generalized to $d$ spatial dimensions. For $d=1$, we can analytically solve the non-linear differential equation for an important class of single-field potentials; for $d>1$, we can analytically approximate the solutions in the thin-wall or large Q-ball regime, including the first sub-leading correction consistently. Since the underlying differential equations have the same form as vacuum-decay bounce solutions, our results find applications there, too.

In the GEVAG (Generalized Entropy Varying-G) framework, any generalization to horizon entropy leads to a varying gravitational "constant" $G_\text{eff}$ that is a function the horizon area. In this work, it is shown that if we promote $G_\text{eff}$ to be valid in the neighborhood of the horizon, then Hawking temperature consists of two terms, the second of which is related to the variation of $G_\text{eff}$. When applied to the logarithmic correction of the entropy, as is common across various quantum gravity approaches, the first term in the Schwarzschild black hole temperature exactly agrees with that obtained from utilizing generalized uncertainty principle (GUP), while the second term improves on the GUP result by driving the Hawking temperature to zero as the black hole approaches a minimum mass. This resolves the inconsistency in the GUP result concerning a nonzero temperature minimum mass remnant. This work also derives simple general formulas for both the thermodynamic energy and the Bekenstein bound for any correction to the area law under the same assumption that $G_\text{eff}$ can be extended off-shell in the horizon neighborhood. The (generalized) Bekenstein bound can be interpreted as a statement regarding the renormalization group scaling dimension of the entropy functional $f(A)$ and the naturalness of the theory.

The origin of cosmic structure is widely regarded as quantum, yet the Universe today appears classical. Standard lore attributes this to a "quantum-to-classical" transition on super-horizon scales during inflation. Gravity plays a central role: super-horizon dynamics squeeze quantum states, while the cosmological horizon enforces a system-environment split, leading to decoherence. But are these mechanisms always sufficient? We revisit this question, identifying assumptions and limitations in conventional arguments. We highlight recent work showing that beyond slow roll, non-linear dynamics of cosmological perturbations can generate and amplify quantum coherence at the closed-system level. Preliminary results further suggest that, for the minimal irreducible contribution to decoherence coming from stochastic kicks at the coarse-graining scale, the rate of coherence generation can outpace the decoherence rate. This raises the possibility that signatures of a quantum origin may persist in cosmic structure. We propose a phase-space analysis based on the Wigner function as a concrete route to identifying and probing such signatures.

We introduce Sven (Singular Value dEsceNt), a new optimization algorithm for neural networks that exploits the natural decomposition of loss functions into a sum over individual data points, rather than reducing the full loss to a single scalar before computing a parameter update. Sven treats each data point's residual as a separate condition to be satisfied simultaneously, using the Moore-Penrose pseudoinverse of the loss Jacobian to find the minimum-norm parameter update that best satisfies all conditions at once. In practice, this pseudoinverse is approximated via a truncated singular value decomposition, retaining only the $k$ most significant directions. We show that Sven can be understood as a natural gradient method generalized to the overparametrized regime, recovering natural gradient descent in the underparametrized limit. We test Sven on a variety of regression and classification tasks, including small-scale language modeling with transformers, and find that it is competitive with leading baselines such as Adam, Muon, and K-FAC. We also discuss Sven's memory overhead, which presents a barrier to scaling under a naive implementation, and introduce an optimized implementation that keeps memory usage on par with standard baselines under mild restrictions on model architecture. Beyond standard machine learning benchmarks, we anticipate that Sven will find natural application in scientific computing settings where custom loss functions decompose into several conditions.

In this paper, we attempt to explore the landscape of two-dimensional conformal field theories (2d CFTs) by efficiently searching for numerical solutions to the modular bootstrap equation using machine-learning-style optimization. The torus partition function of a 2d CFT is fixed by the spectrum of its primary operators and its chiral algebra, which we take to be the Virasoro algebra with $c>1$. We translate the requirement that this partition function is modular invariant into a loss function, which we then minimize to identify possible primary spectra. Our approach involves two technical innovations that facilitate finding reliable candidate CFTs. The first is a strategy to estimate the uncertainty associated with truncating the spectrum to the lowest dimension operators. The second is the use of a new singular-value-based optimizer (Sven) that is more effective than gradient descent at navigating the hierarchical structure of the loss landscape. We numerically construct candidate truncated CFT partition functions with central charges between 1 and $\frac{8}{7}$, a range devoid of known examples, and argue that these candidates likely come from a continuous space of modular bootstrap solutions. We also provide evidence for a more stringent constraint on the spectral gap near $c = 1$ than the existing bound of $\Delta_{\rm gap} \le \frac{c}{6} + \frac{1}{3}$.

We use a new formula for the symplectic structure on the phase space of open string field theory to evaluate the energy of a D-brane carrying a constant electric flux. This is shown to be consistent with the energy computed using the Dirac-Born-Infeld action through a generalization of the Ellwood invariant to nonpolynomial open string field theories.

Spontaneous scale symmetry breaking is commonly associated with a flat direction in the action. We show that this need not be so if the dilaton is coupled to a three-form field in a manner compatible with gauge invariance and dilatations. The resulting effective dynamics lifts the flat direction without introducing explicit scale-violating operators. When gravity is included, the corresponding potential takes the form of an exponential plateau.

We construct a static, spherically symmetric black hole (BH) solution embedded in a cored Plummer dark matter (DM) halo and a Letelier cloud of strings (CoS). Starting from the Plummer-Schwarzschild metric of Senjaya et al.~\cite{Senjaya2026}, we incorporate the string-cloud tension parameter $\alpha$ into the lapse function, obtaining $A(r) = h_{\rm Plummer}(r) - \alpha$. The resulting spacetime admits a single, non-degenerate event horizon (EH) for $\alpha < 1$ and a naked singularity for $\alpha \ge 1$. We determine the photon sphere (PS) and BH shadow radii, compute the weak deflection angle via the Gauss-Bonnet theorem (GBT), and analyze the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO). Scalar perturbations are studied through the effective potential, greybody factor (GF) bounds obtained from the Boonserm-Visser method, the Hawking emission spectrum, and quasinormal mode (QNM) frequencies computed with the WKB approximation. The thermodynamic analysis covers the Hawking temperature, Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, heat capacity, and Gibbs free energy; the heat capacity is found to be strictly negative for all parameter values, confirming the absence of any Davies-type phase transition. A consistent hierarchy emerges across all six analyses: the CoS tension $\alpha$ governs the leading-order modifications to every observable, while the Plummer halo density $\rho_0$ provides a subdominant, additive correction.

For a 2d gauged sigma model with target space $M$ and discrete gauge group $G$, we consider a generalisation of Vafa's discrete torsion $H^2(BG; U(1))$ that assigns different local discrete torsion phases to different singular loci of the orbifold $M/G$. Our generalised discrete torsion lives in $H^2_G(M; U(1))$, and gives a consistent implementation of Gaberdiel and Kaste's prescription for inserting such local discrete torsion phases by hand at higher genus. We revisit the original application to $T^6/\mathbb{Z}_2^2$ and $T^7/\mathbb{Z}_2^3$ orbifold CFTs, and determine what smooth Calabi-Yau and $G_2$ geometries result from different choices of the generalised discrete torsion. We find that the local discrete torsion phases can be different from each other, but are not completely independent either; in the $T^7/\mathbb{Z}_2^3$ case for example, the orbifold CFTs only realise 3 out of the 9 possible Betti numbers of $G_2$ resolutions constructed by Joyce.

The thermodynamic resourcefulness of quantum channels primarily depends on their underlying causal structure and their ability to generate quantum correlations. We quantify this interplay within the resource theory of athermality for bipartite quantum channels in the presence of a side channel acting as memory, referred to as the resource theory of conditional athermality. For channels with trivial output Hamiltonians, we characterize the optimal one-shot rates for distilling the identity gate from a given channel, as well as the cost of simulating the channel using the identity gate, under conditional Gibbs-preserving superchannels. We show that these rates have a direct trade-off relation with the conditional channel entropies, attributing operational significance to signaling in quantum processes. Furthermore, we establish an asymptotic equipartition property for the conditional channel min-entropy for classes of channels that are either tele-covariant or no-signaling from the non-conditioning input to the conditioning output. As a consequence, we demonstrate asymptotic reversibility of the resource theory for these channels. The asymptotic conditional athermality capacity of a tele-covariant channel is half the superdense coding capacity of its Choi state. Our work establishes the conditional channel entropy as a primitive information-theoretic concept for quantum processes, elucidating its potential for wider applications in quantum information science.

Recently, a version of the deformation method developed in arXiv:2104.07816 has been used to great effect to compute the local zeta functions of Calabi-Yau threefolds by computing their periods as series with rational coefficients and using this to find a matrix representing the Frobenius action on a $p$-adic cohomology. However, this method rapidly becomes inefficient as the prime $p$ grows, due to the rational period coefficients growing quickly. In this paper, we point out that this problem can be circumvented by a simple process that we call $p$-adically truncated recurrence. This is a recurrence relation whose solutions are $p$-adic numbers modulo $p^A$ for a given $A \in \mathbb{N}$ and thus grow only slowly as $p$ grows. We show that the $p$-adic accuracy $A$ can be chosen such that all $p$-adic digits which contribute to the final result are kept, and therefore we are able to obtain the correct result by using these solutions. The improvements to speed and memory usage allow for computing the local zeta functions for tens of thousands of primes on a desktop computer, and make computing local zeta functions possible even for primes of size $10^6$ to $10^7$. Previously such computations were practically possible for around 1000 first primes. We have implemented this method in a Sage-compatible Python package PFLFunction.

We investigate whether spontaneous symmetry breaking can persist up to arbitrarily high temperature in ultraviolet-complete quantum field theories in four spacetime dimensions. We focus on completely asymptotically free models with gauge group $\mathrm{SU}(N_{c1})\times \mathrm{SU}(N_{c2})$ and two complex scalar fields, each transforming in the fundamental representation of one gauge factor and singlet under the other. The scalar potential contains quartic self-interactions together with a negative portal coupling between the two sectors. In the Veneziano limit, this class of theories was previously shown to admit fixed-flow trajectories for which one scalar acquires a negative thermal mass at asymptotically large temperature, leading to symmetry non-restoration. Here we extend that analysis to finite numbers of colours and flavours. We derive the finite-$N$ fixed-flow equations, compute the leading $1/N$ corrections to the large-$N$ solutions, and solve the full finite-$N$ system numerically. We find explicit finite-$N$ benchmark theories for which the scalar potential remains bounded from below, the gauge sector is asymptotically free, and one scalar thermal mass stays negative at arbitrarily high temperature. This provides an explicit perturbative example of infinite heat order in a four-dimensional ultraviolet-complete quantum field theory with a finite field content.

We consider a quenched SU(2)$\times$U(1) gauge Higgs theory on the lattice, coupled to a static vector-like fermion which, in this case, is in the same gauge group representation as the Higgs field. Physical (i.e. locally gauge invariant) electrically charged and electrically neutral states of matter particles in the electroweak theory were described decades ago, but those constructions do not exhaust all the possibilities, and new types of electrically charged/neutral states, orthogonal to former constructions, are described here. The difference has to do with how the static source, which by itself does not create a physical state, is dressed by dynamical fields. We find that, unsurprisingly, the neutral static fermion is much lighter than any of the charged fermion states. But a lattice study of the propagation of the charged fermion states indicates the existence of (at least) two particle states with different masses in charged particle spectrum.

We show that cosmological wavefunctions in $\phi^n$ theories naturally generalize flat-space $\mathrm{Tr}(\phi^3)$ scattering amplitudes: via a simple map from tube variables to Mandelstam invariants, each wavefunction coefficient $\psi_{\mathcal{G}}$ becomes an on-shell amplitude-like object $\mathcal{A}_G$ associated with a generating graph $G$. At tree level these objects coincide with the Cachazo-He-Yuan construction based on Cayley functions that generalizes Parke-Taylor factors. We uncover new graph-based hidden zeros that extend and unify all known cosmological zeros. Based on this zero structure, we uncover a factorization principle dual to unitarity. Instead of factorization across poles, $A\to A_L\times A_R$, a zero at $p_{a\in G_L}\!\cdot\! p_{b\in G_R}=0$ factorizes the generating graph, $G\to G_L\times G_R$, and is equivalent to the shuffle decomposition $\mathcal{A}_G=\mathcal{A}_{G_L}\unicode{x29E2}\mathcal{A}_{G_R}$. Near-zero factorization is a simple consequence of this new structure. Using dual factorization, we show that locality together with the full set of hidden zeros uniquely fixes tree-level cosmological wavefunctions without assuming unitarity. We show that these zeros are equivalent to special enhanced large-$z$ behavior under Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten (BCFW) shifts, extending the zeros–BCFW correspondence beyond flat-space amplitudes. We also find evidence for further extensions of the zero structure and loop-level uniqueness. Our results show that cosmology provides a natural arena for on-shell methods and even reveals new structure in flat-space amplitudes.

We use a functional approach based on the background-field formalism and the expansion by regions to integrate out the heavy Higgs field (associated with the mass eigenstate H) at the one-loop level in a singlet extension of the SM, which features an additional real scalar singlet and a spontaneously broken $Z_2$ symmetry. We obtain an effective Lagrangian to $O(1/M_H^2)$ in the limit of large Higgs mass ($M_H\gg M_h=125$GeV) providing a consistent treatment of effects from Higgs mixing and the renormalization of the underlying model. The scaling behaviour of the model parameters in the large-$M_H$ limit determines whether the effective Lagrangian can be accommodated in the SM Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) or involves non-SMEFT operators within the more general Higgs Effective Field Theory (HEFT) framework. We choose a limit that ensures decoupling of beyond-SM (BSM) effects at $O(M_H^0)$ by demanding that the Higgs mixing angle $\alpha$ is of $O(M_h/M_H)$ and putting minimal constraints on the other input parameters. The considered model is restricted to massless fermions. Bottom-up (diagrammatic) matching with only bosonic SMEFT operators at $O(1/M_H^2)$ necessarily fails, although the BSM sector does not directly couple to massless fermions. However, it is possible to match SMEFT with bosonic and fermionic operators to the SESM in the considered large-$M_H$ limit. For the emerging Effective Field Theory (EFT) we give two alternative Lagrangians: one that includes only bosonic BSM EFT operators, but necessarily involves operators of non-SMEFT type, and another one that is of SMEFT form, but involves also fermionic EFT operators. We validate our results for the effective Lagrangians at NLO in the coupling expansion by verifying that the difference between EFT and full-theory predictions vanishes faster than $1/M_H^2$ for several electroweak observables in the large-$M_H$ limit.