Papers

We analyze the charged particle multiplicity distributions in $p-p$ collisions and discuss the violation of the Koba–Nielsen–Olesen (KNO) scaling. We extract the deviations from the leading exponential behavior of the KNO scaled probability and identify a reciprocal symmetry $z\leftrightarrow 1/z$ in the KNO violating corrections observed in the ATLAS and CMS data at $\sqrt{s}=7,\,8,\,13$~TeV. The symmetry imposes a local constraint on the multiplicity distribution at $n=\langle n\rangle$, namely $P'(\langle n\rangle)=-P(\langle n\rangle)/\langle n\rangle$, which we verify directly in the data. We use this constraint to extract the entanglement entropy from the well-measured region $n\simeq\langle n\rangle$, avoiding the large uncertainties associated with the distribution tail.

At a quantum critical point, the universal scaling behavior of Rényi entanglement entropy is controlled by the universality class of the codimension-two Rényi (or conical) defects in the infrared theory. In this work we perform a systematic study of critical correlations along Rényi defect lines in (2+1)$D$ quantum spin models realizing quantum phase transitions described by the O(3) Wilson-Fisher universality class, using large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We present numerical evidence that, for a fixed Rényi index $n$, there exist multiple Rényi defect universality classes, with distinct critical exponents for the O(3) order parameter on the defect. These universality classes are realized by choosing microscopically different entanglement cuts in lattice models, which we classify as ordinary, special and extraordinary according to their relation to surface criticality. For the extraordinary entanglement cut, we further find evidence for a phase transition on the defect as a function of the Rényi index. Our results highlight the key role of defect universality classes in determining the universal scaling of Rényi entropy, and provide a framework for understanding the previously observed dependence of Rényi entropy scaling on microscopic lattice details.

The growth of adiabatic density perturbations during an era of early matter domination induces $\mathcal{O}(1)$ fluctuations in pre-inflationary QCD axion dark matter across a broad, string-theory-motivated parameter space. Remarkably, at $\Lambda$CDM matter-radiation equality the scale of these perturbations coincides with the quantum Jeans scale, so they collapse to solitonic “axion stars”. These axion stars have densities up to $10^4\,\mathrm{eV}^4$, and, including their surrounding halos, they contain as much as $50\%$ of dark matter. Direct searches for a smooth axion background can be suppressed, but transient enhancements or indirect astrophysical signals at axion masses $m_a\lesssim 10^{-5}\,{\rm eV}$ would point to a non-standard cosmological history.

Merging galaxy clusters are a promising laboratory for measuring the self-interaction cross-section (SICS) of dark matter. However, previous studies have focused on galaxy-mass offsets, which numerical simulations have shown to be intrinsically small because galaxies remain tightly coupled to the dominant dark matter potential even with significant self-interaction. Their interpretation is further complicated by unknowns of the merger phase, geometry, and initial conditions. In this paper, we overcome these obstacles by introducing the shock-to-shock distance, traced by double radio relics, as a merger chronometer that time-stamps the post-pericenter dynamical phase. Because the propagation speed of merger shocks is nearly independent of the SICS, while the halo-to-halo distance is depressed by SIDM-induced drag, the ratio of the two distances translates directly into a constraint on sigma/m. Applying this method to a gold sample of eleven cluster mergers hosting symmetric double radio relics, we determine an upper limit on the SICS of sigma/m < 0.22 (0.63) cm^2/g at the 68% (95%) confidence level. This is the first constraint from cluster collisions that fully marginalizes over mass uncertainty, viewing angle, collision speed, merger phase, impact parameter, and gas profile slope.

It is usually assumed that a healthy EFT should not allow superluminal propagation. In the presence of gravity, however, the notion of superluminality becomes subtle, since there is no invariant way to compare with an underlying Minkowski light cone. One can instead resort to an asymptotic criterion: whether the EFT can induce signal propagation faster than what allowed by the asymptotic structure of spacetime. In this work we study the asymptotic causal structure of gravitational EFTs by analysing signal propagation in black-hole backgrounds in the presence of higher-derivative operators. We show that in spacetime dimensions D>4 the effective light cones can lead to genuine asymptotic superluminality, which can be used to constrain the regime of validity of the EFT. By contrast, in D=4 the asymptotic causal structure is universally identical to that of Schwarzschild: prompt null curves remain insensitive to higher-derivative corrections and no asymptotic time advance is possible. We first study the representative operator $R_{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}F^{\mu\nu}F^{\rho\sigma}$, then show that this conclusion is true for any EFT, as it relies only on the asymptotic behaviour of the metric. Finally, we discuss two ways to define superluminality in D=4 spacetimes: introducing a covariant cut-off by putting the theory in an asymptotically-AdS background, or imposing a hard cut-off by working at finite distance.

The Karch-Randall braneworld concerns the physics of an AdS$_{d}$ brane embedded in an ambient gravitational AdS$_{d+1}$ spacetime. The gravitational theory induced on the AdS$_{d}$ brane has a very light but massive graviton. It has been established that the zero graviton mass limit of the $d$-dimensional graviton propagator is smooth at tree-level. Furthermore, this smoothness was conjectured to persist to the quantum level. This conjecture suggests that the massive graviton on the AdS$_{d}$ brane is due to spontaneous symmetry breaking, which is consistent with its holographic dual description. In this letter, we show that the zero mass limit of the partition function is a theory of a massless graviton and a decoupled massive vector. The zero mass limit is not the basic Randall-Sundrum II model, but a theory with these additional decoupled vector degrees of freedom coupled only to gravity. The proof relies on deriving the fully covariant description of the $d$-dimensional gravity theory which enables us to compute the one-loop partition function. At the end, we comment on the implications of this result to the physics of entanglement islands.

In this review, we discuss the relevance and impact of studying Calabi-Yau threefolds in the context of global model building in string phenomenology. First, taking a phenomenologist-friendly approach, we review how the topologies of the various divisors and curves of the compactifying CY threefolds play a crucial role for generating the various “suitable" classes of effective scalar potentials, within the framework of the popular moduli stabilization schemes such as KKLT and LVS. Subsequently, we discuss the impact of the specifics of the CY threefold geometries in the minimal LVS inflationary models such as fibre inflation, in particular, along the challenges such as the inflaton field-range bound. In this regard, we discuss a multi-field approach in which several fibre moduli assist to drive successful inflation having a sufficient number of efolds, without getting close to their individual Kähler cone boundaries.

This is a first study of the cosmology of classical fractional gravity, a nonlocal proposal endowed with self-adjoint fractional d'Alembertian operators which serves as the basis for an ultraviolet-complete theory of quantum gravity. We derive the classical covariant nonlocal equations of motion for an arbitrary fractional exponent $\gamma$ and reduce them to the Friedmann equations on a homogeneous and isotropic cosmological background. We find that de Sitter is an exact stable solution and that bouncing exact solutions are sustained by phantom ($w<-1$) or ghost ($\rho<0$) fluids, in the latter case with a new type of finite-future singularity in the barotropic index. Different representations of the form factor give exactly the same solutions, thus confirming that the formulation of fractional field theories relies on a universality class of form factors. We compare these preliminary results with what obtained in multi-fractional cosmological models mimicking the spacetime geometry of fractional quantum gravity.

We review the quantization of scalar field theory on $\lambda$-Minkowski space using the Batalin–Vilkovisky (BV) formalism. We consider $\phi^3$-theory in two different quantization schemes: standard and braided. While standard BV quantization is based on an ordinary $L_\infty$-algebra, braided BV quantization is based on a braided $L_\infty$-algebra. We compare the tree-level three-point and four-point correlation functions in the two approaches. For the four-point function, standard quantization leads to two inequivalent classes of diagrams with different noncommutative contributions, whereas braided quantization yields only a single class of diagrams with noncommutativity entering solely through an overall phase factor depending on the external momenta.

Can a smooth horizon hide its microstates? At fixed classical and superselected data, the exterior distinguishability $D_{\max}$ of same-sector infalling states and the departure $\varepsilon$ from isometric infall obey $D_{\max}^{2}+(1-2\varepsilon)^{2}\leq 1$, and every point is realized. Below maximal disruption, the boundary is reached only by which-state measurements: the distinguished pair crosses undisturbed while the exterior records which one fell in. The least a horizon can do to have microstate hair is measure what falls in. Classically hairy black holes are labeled backgrounds, not microstate hair.

In this chapter we provide a pedagogical introduction to the main theoretical aspects related to topology and $\theta$-dependence in Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD), and to their phenomenological relevance in the Standard Model ($\eta^\prime$ physics, neutron electric dipole moment) and beyond (strong CP problem and the axion solution). We then provide an overview of the main analytic predictions for $\theta$-dependence obtained using several different approaches (chiral effective theories, large-$N$ arguments, semiclassical methods) and their regimes of validity, as well as a selection of the most recent numerical results about QCD topology obtained via Monte Carlo simulations of the lattice-discretized theory.

We study the null junction conditions in (re-summed) quasi-topological gravity theories, showing that no null thin shells exist within the realms of standard distributional theory for the pure gravity regular black hole solutions we have analyzed. This implies that the usual derivation of the mass inflation instability, which makes use of null thin shells, is not applicable in these theories. The problem of stability of inner horizons of regular black holes in quasi-topological gravity is hence still open and must be addressed with a more refined analysis, which does not rely on thin shells or the vacuum condition.

We numerically study a formation of near extremal horizons from a gravitational collapse of radially symmetric gravitational waves in $4+1$ dimensions within the framework of pure Einstein gravity with positive cosmological constant. Evolution of a regular initial data with cosmological horizon leads to a formation of a black hole with mass exceeding $99\%$ of the extremal value corresponding to the black hole and cosmological horizons coinciding. We demonstrate how our results fit within the framework of characteristic gluing, and present some evidence that the third law of black hole thermodynamics may not hold in the cosmological context, where the extremality corresponds to the maximal mass of the Schwarzschild black hole in de–Sitter space.

A thermal spectrum is often taken as a signature that the emitted probe has reached detailed balance with the surrounding medium. We show that this interpretation is not generally valid by studying how the microscopic emission kernel determines the macroscopic spectrum. In $3+1$ dimensions, a simple thermal spectrum can be generated without probe thermalization when the relevant kernel belongs to a thermally degenerate class. A representative case is realized when the differential cross section depends on the scattering angle but carries no additional dependence on the Mandelstam variable $s$, as in low-energy Thomson scattering. Our results provide a kernel-based criterion for distinguishing genuine probe–medium exchange equilibrium from thermal spectra produced by the structure of the emission kernel itself.

We derive a class of inner-extremal regular black hole solutions characterized by a degenerate inner horizon. These geometries arise as polymerized vacuum configurations inspired by loop quantum gravity and constitute effective quantum-gravity solutions that admit a Birkhoff-type theorem, rendering them unique within the considered framework. We show that such inner-extremal horizon configurations exist only for a finely tuned value of the mass determined by the parameters of the theory. Building on this construction, together with the corresponding non-degenerate regular black hole solutions, we perform a generic analysis of the mass inflation phenomenon in four-dimensional spacetimes using a colliding null-shell setup near the inner horizon. We identify the conditions under which mass inflation becomes significant and examine how the presence of a minimal length scale affects this behavior, with particular emphasis on the case where such a scale is motivated by loop quantum gravity. Finally, we comment on the stability of these configurations under the null-shell perturbations considered in our analysis.

Degenerate spinor Bose gases with repulsive density-density interaction and anti-ferromagnetic spin-spin coupling in one spatial dimension are shown to be described by a quantum integrable matrix extension of the nonlinear Schrödinger model, whose fundamental fields are described by an $m\,\times\,n$ matrix of bosonic field operators. The eigenstates of this model are constructed for arbitrarily sized matrix field operators by means of algebraic Bethe-ansatz techniques, and the corresponding Bethe equations governing the spectra of conserved quantities are derived. The approach thus generalizes previously chosen techniques to account for arbitrary spin multiplets and their spin-spin interaction. Focusing on the specific case of the $2\times2$ model, which is shown to correspond to a spin-$1$ Bose gas, a set of integral equations is derived, which describe its equilibrium thermodynamic properties. From these, the ground state phase diagram is computed both, numerically and analytically in the parameter plane spanned by the chemical potential and an external magnetic field. Furthermore, we establish a sufficient condition for interacting bosons in one dimension to obey the Pauli exclusion principle. In particular, we show that in the presence of paired bound states, no two quasiparticle rapidities can coincide, provided that the Lieb parameter satisfies $\gamma>4/3$.

We present a systematic derivation of regular black hole solutions – and their horizonless counterparts – that achieve regularization via an anti-de Sitter core. These geometries emerge as polymerized vacuum solutions inspired by loop quantum gravity, constituting effective quantum gravity configurations that admit a Birkhoff-type theorem and are uniquely determined by their mass. Using an auxiliary relational dust clock, together with the absence of gravitational waves in spherical symmetry, we exploit the structural ultralocality of the system to decompose the dynamics into independent shell degrees of freedom. The dust field acts as a reference clock for deparameterization and does not source the vacuum geometries considered here. These assumptions tightly constrain the Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi shell Hamiltonian to a factorized form and the static vacuum metric function to a universal expression. We examine the possibility of a bounce and analyze how its presence is encoded, or missed, in finite-order effective truncations of the full model. The procedure for deriving the explicit physical Hamiltonian is described for a generic case before specializing to a specific model of interest. Finally, we construct a four-dimensional covariant completion of the spatially covariant Lagrangian, showing that it belongs to the class of generalized extended mimetic gravity models.

The 'Species Scale' has proved to be an important concept when studying consistent effective actions in Quantum Gravity. This is a short summary of my contribution to the Corfu Summer Institute in September 2025, in which I covered two topics, both related in different ways to the fact that the Species Scale is moduli dependent. In the first, based on work done in collaboration with C. Aoufia and A. Castellano, we show how the one-loop Wilson coefficients $\mathcal{F}_n^{(d)}$ multiplyiing BPS protected ${\cal R}^{2n}$ operators obey Laplace-like eigenvalue differential equations of the form $\mathcal{D}^2_{\bf {\cal M}} \mathcal{F}^{(d)}_n = \eta_d\, \mathcal{F}^{(d)}_n$. This is true both for $n=2$ with 32 and 16 SUSY generators in 10,9,8 dimensions and theories with 8 SUSY generators in 6,5,4 dimensions $(n=1)$. We argue that this fact is at the root of some Swampland conjectures put forward in the past, like bounds on the dumping rates for the tower scales and the exponential behaviour in the Swampland Distance Conjecture. For the second topic, based on work done in collaboration with G.F. Casas, we discuss the one loop potential of the no-scale moduli in GKP-like Type IIB 4d orientifolds. To compute this potential we sum both over light and heavy (tower) modes using the Species Scale as a UV cut-off. We find a generic form $V_{1-loop}\sim g^2m_{3/2}^2M_p^2(g^{i{\bar i}}(\partial_i\Lambda)(\partial_{\bar i}\Lambda))/\Lambda^2$, with $\Lambda$ the Species Scale. This has minima at the $desert$ $points$ in moduli space and exponentially decreases at large moduli, with a dS hill in between. We argue that this potential may lead to the stabilisation of some or all Kahler moduli at the desert points in 4d Type IIB orientifolds of phenomenological interest.

An asymptotically flat spacetime in $D=4$ can be mapped via Couch-Torrence conformal inversion to the geometry around an extremal non-expanding and non-rotating horizon. At the linearized level, an infinite tower of conserved Newman-Penrose charges can be found at null-infinity, while infinitely many Aretakis charges are conserved in the near-horizon. Couch-Torrence inversion allows one to establish a matching between the two sets of asymptotic charges. In this work we construct the Newman-Penrose and Aretakis scalar charges in higher-dimensional geometries of D3-branes in $D=10$ and D3-brane bound states in $D=4$ and $D=5$ and establish a precise matching between them through the inversion. By exploiting the residual unbroken supersymmetry of Type IIB supergravity, we demonstrate that it is possible to relate scalar (complex dilaton) charges to higher spin charges. In particular, we determine infinite towers of conserved asymptotic spinorial charges associated with the dilatino fluctuations, and determine the map through inversion.

We develop the ODE/IM correspondence for the higher-order Mathieu equation arising from the quantum Seiberg-Witten curve of the pure $SU(r+1)$ ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. From the subdominant solutions, we construct the Q-/Y-systems and derive the corresponding TBA equations. The dependence of the moduli parameters is found to be encoded in the boundary conditions of the Y-functions at $\theta \to -\infty$. From these boundary data, we derive an analytic expression for the effective central charge, which also governs the subleading contribution in the large-$\theta$ expansion of the TBA equations. Finally, we compare the large-$\theta$ expansion of the Q-function derived from the TBA equations with that obtained from the WKB method, which yields analytic agreement at subleading order and precise numerical agreement at the higher-order corrections.

We propose that the size of the universe and its expansion rate cannot be simultaneously specified with arbitrary precision–a quantum mechanical uncertainty encoded via a deformed commutation relation for the scale factor. This deformation introduces a geometric correction to the Friedmann equation, where the resulting cosmological dynamics are governed entirely by the sign and magnitude of a single free exponent. For a positive exponent, the model predicts late-time dark energy with $w>-1$, leaving a distinct expansion history that is testable by current and next-generation large-scale structure surveys. Conversely, a sufficiently negative exponent yields a nonsingular classical bounce, resolving the big bang singularity. Notably, the model requires no exotic particles or fields and preserves a scale-invariant primordial power spectrum. Rather than operating at the Planck length, this deformation naturally manifests as a horizon-scale phenomenon set by the cosmological horizon. Within this framework, cosmic acceleration emerges as the macroscopic imprint of quantum gravity at the cosmological horizon.

Using the path-integral formalism, we show that photons possess a nontrivial quantum metric in momentum space. We derive the semiclassical action and equations of motion by taking into account the quantum metric. In media with a spatially varying refractive index $n(\mathbf{x})$, the quantum metric induces a shift in the trajectory of light at second order in derivatives of $n$, which may be regarded as a nonlinear Hall effect of light. The quantum metric also gives rise to corrections to gravitational lensing in curved spacetime at the nonlinear order in wavelength. This gravitational nonlinear Hall effect results from the interplay between the geometry of position space and that of momentum space.

We study the celestial three-gluon amplitude in a dilaton background through the Mellin-Liouville formulation proposed by Stieberger, Taylor and Zhu (STZ). The original map contains an ambiguity in the identification of Liouville and Mellin variables; we resolve it by requiring global conformal covariance and compatibility with the semiclassical expansion of Liouville theory. This uniquely fixes the operator normalization and the parameter dictionary, and leads to a controlled expansion in the Liouville coupling $b$. Starting from the full Liouville DOZZ three-point function, we derive the leading and first subleading terms in the $b^2$ expansion. The leading term reproduces the tree-level Yang-Mills amplitude in the small total momentum limit, as anticipated in the STZ proposal. The one-loop correction can be written in closed form using modified Bessel functions, and its soft limit exhibits a clear separation into geometric and logarithmic contributions. The resulting framework extends the STZ proposal to finite-$b$ corrections in a consistent and computable way.

We consider non-equilibrium evolution of non-Gaussian fluctuations in a hydrodynamic system undergoing a boost-invariant expansion described by Bjorken flow. We derive the evolution equations for two- and three-point velocity correlators using the effective field theory framework and present analytical solutions for them. We show that the average Landau frame is better suited for studying non-Gaussian fluctuations of velocity when relativistic effects are important. In the Bjorken background, the average Landau frame corresponds to the density frame. We demonstrate that the three-point correlators depend nonlinearly on the non-equilibrium dynamics of the two-point functions, and exhibit non-trivial effects such as memory. The importance of these effects in the context of the search for the QCD critical point via fluctuations is discussed.

We propose a noise-mitigation quantum simulation strategy for near-term quantum devices based on Quantum Circuit Learning (QCL), which is in particular effective for integrable quantum spin chains. The method trains a shallow variational circuit to approximate a deeper time-evolution circuit by learning the conserved charges and only a small amount of dynamical information in the system. Under realistic noise models, the learned circuit maintains both conserved quantities and dynamical observables significantly closer to their true values than the noisy simulation of the original circuit. We demonstrate, on small-scale prototypes, that QCL can act as an effective, physics-informed error mitigation strategy, producing shorter, more robust circuits without exponential sampling overhead.

We revisit the production of primordial black holes (PBHs) by a U(1) gauge field with a pseudo-scalar coupling to the inflaton. We improve upon the existing literature by working in the homogeneous backreaction regime with numerically computed gauge mode functions, adopting state-of-the-art PBH abundance calculations, and incorporating the uncertainty in the statistics of $\delta\rho$. We find that PBHs can account for all of the dark matter in the asteroidal mass range, even when the inflaton gradient energy density is highly subdominant ($10^{-4}$–$10^{-3}$ of the kinetic energy), supporting the validity of the backreaction scheme. This mechanism also unavoidably generates a stochastic gravitational wave background with an amplitude that will be measured at LISA and that will allow to indirectly discriminate between different statistics of $\delta \rho$.

Anomalous tunneling refers to the phenomenon in which the transmission coefficient through a potential barrier approaches unity as the energy of an incident particle or quasiparticle tends to zero. This counterintuitive effect has been reported in systems exhibiting spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), such as superfluids, yet the general conditions for its occurrence remain unclear. In this Letter, we establish that anomalous tunneling of Nambu-Goldstone (NG) modes is a universal low-energy theorem dictated solely by symmetry and scaling, using a low-energy effective field theory (EFT) framework. We formulate the scattering of NG modes by external potentials in terms of spatially dependent EFT coefficients and demonstrate that symmetry-preserving localized potentials are irrelevant in the long-wavelength limit, leading to perfect transmission. In contrast, symmetry-breaking perturbations are relevant and suppress transmission, resulting in the absence of anomalous tunneling. We illustrate this universal behavior with explicit examples of superfluid phonons and magnons.

We investigate the phenomenology of the Standard Model extended by a real gauge-singlet scalar field, focusing on exotic Higgs decay channels. For a light scalar mass in the range \(0 < m_{\phi} < 40\) GeV, the Higgs boson can decay to both two and three scalar final states. We derive analytical expressions for these decay rates and impose a global constraint on the model parameters by requiring that their sum does not exceed the total Standard Model Higgs boson decay width. This requirement translates into a fourth-order inequality with respect to the singlet vacuum expectation value, \(v_{\phi}\). We demonstrate that satisfying this inequality imposes an upper bound of \(\cos \theta < 0.12 - 0.13\) across the entire mass range, providing a complementary constraint to existing direct search limits. Utilizing stronger independent constraints on the mixing (e.g., \(\cos \theta < 0.1\)), we then predict upper bounds on the individual exotic decay rates as a function of \(m_{\phi}\) as \(\Gamma_{h \rightarrow \phi \phi} < 0.06\) MeV and \(\Gamma_{h \rightarrow \phi \phi \phi} < 5 \times 10^{- 6}\) MeV, respectively.

We study extended anti-de Sitter black-hole thermodynamics under correlated contractions of the time generator and Newton coupling. We relate the contraction parameter to physical units and distinguish variations within an equilibrium black-hole family from changes along the contraction. Starting from the magnetic Carroll Hamiltonian action, we derive the boundary identity with a variable cosmological constant and evaluate its energy, horizon and pressure contributions for Schwarzschild–anti-de Sitter geometries. We verify the spatial and lapse equations, retaining the boost connection in the coframe formulation. A three-form potential supplies a canonical variable conjugate to the cosmological constant. We compare this static boundary mechanics with Lorentzian thermodynamic contractions, whose common scaling of the work terms selects a finite Carroll branch. On this branch, temperature vanishes and entropy diverges while their conjugate product remains finite. The pressure and volume scalings depend on the chosen physical normalization. Charged, rotating and higher-dimensional families provide further thermodynamic tests, including the asymptotic frame and full thermodynamic volume for rotation. We use symbolic identities and numerical differentiation to verify the thermodynamic variations, resolve the conjugate contributions and check their scaling behaviour. These constructions relate extended static Carroll boundary mechanics to Lorentzian thermodynamic contractions and identify the phase-space conditions under which they correspond.

Bilocal holography provides a constructive approach to the higher-spin gravity theories dual to vector-model conformal field theories. Its central advantage is that it is completely gauge fixed and formulated entirely in terms of physical degrees of freedom. We derive a remarkably local bulk reconstruction formula and demonstrate its agreement with standard bulk reconstruction, after the same boundary data and gauge-fixed variables have been identified. We further clarify how subregion duality is realized in this framework.