Papers

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

Open boundaries host symmetry-protected Majorana modes, yet their imprint on the stabilizer Rényi entropy is obscured by a nonuniversal volume law. At Rényi index $\alpha=1/2$, we isolate a bulk-subtracted boundary response in free-fermion BDI chains using exact finite-open-chain relations, large-$L$ Pfaffian evaluations, and direct positive-weight checks. Across a mass inversion, this response approaches $|\Delta\omega|\ln 2$, where $\Delta\omega$ is the change in winding number. The response survives primitive bulk deformations, the tested local boundary perturbations, and broken bulk duality. Thus, for the families studied here, the boundary response counts the Majorana channels that change the fermionic SPT index.

In the recently proposed scenario, the cosmological bounce occurs because the initially contracting Universe is not empty. In the region close to singularity, matter contents of the Universe heat up and effectively become radiation. Then, the trace anomaly automatically provides bounce if the overall beta function in the matter sector is positive. Independent of the remaining open questions on the quantum field theory side, it is interesting to consider this model from the cosmological perspective. In the present work, we develop the general formalism which is a necessary step for exploring the primordial cosmological perturbations. The main technical development is the formulation of the low-energy version for the nonlocal part of the effective action. The complete form of this action can be done local using two auxiliary scalars. In our new version, there are more scalars, but this enables one to avoid higher derivatives.

We investigate the dynamics of entanglement in a generalized version of the kicked Ising chain, extending the model from the standard qubit case (local dimension $q=2$) to higher local dimensions ($q > 2$). We identify the existence of ”dual-unitary” points where the model's space-time duality allows for exact analytical solutions. Our analysis reveals that while a few unique dual-unitary points exist analytically for systems with local dimensions $q=3$ and $q=4$, such points do not exist for $q \ge 5$ due to the lack of a unique kicking strength that satisfies the required matrix element conditions. Utilizing the transfer matrix method and a replica trick specifically adapted for higher dimensions, we derive exact expressions for the growth of entanglement entropy in the $q=3$ (kicked Potts-type) model starting from a class of solvable initial states. Our results demonstrate that at the dual-unitary point, both Rényi and von Neumann entanglement entropies grow linearly with time until reaching a maximum value determined by the subsystem size.

We assess the prospects for inclusive heavy-quark-pair electroproduction in electron-proton ($ep$) and electron-nucleus ($e$A) collisions, alongside double-charm-pair ($D^0 \bar{D}^0$ and $D^0D^0$) electroproduction in $ep$ collisions, during the early operational phase of the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). Based on the anticipated beam energies and luminosities of the EIC, we estimate the total cross sections and differential distributions for photon virtuality $Q^2$, heavy-quark transverse momentum, and rapidity. This analysis evaluates different Bjorken-$x$ ($x_{\rm Bj}$) intervals across a range of $Q^2$ values. Expected event yields are estimated from the projected integrated luminosities of the early science programme, demonstrating the substantial improvement in statistical precision over previous HERA measurements at moderate and large $x_{{\rm Bj}}$. For electron–nucleus collisions, we compute the nuclear modification ratio $R^{e\text{A}}$ within collinear factorisation using nuclear parton distribution functions, and identify the kinematic regimes in which shadowing, anti-shadowing, and EMC-like suppression are accessible with early EIC data. These results are intended to serve as a parton-level baseline to support feasibility studies and to provide a reference for future higher-order theoretical and experimental investigations at the EIC.

We study the bosonic type IIB (IKKT) matrix model and the fate of the D-instanton positions $p^{(i)}_\mu$, the diagonal components of the $d$ Hermitian matrices, whose one-loop effective potential infamously drives them to a single point. We show that this collapse is an artifact of the leading (one-loop) truncation, while the actual non-collapse of the $p^{(i)}_\mu$ is a nonperturbative effect: it is invisible at one loop but already present in the exact (all-loop) two-body interaction. Since the two-body sector of the $N\times N$ model factorizes into copies of $N=2$, this interaction is captured exactly by the $\mathrm{U}(2)$ model, and we find that the two D-instantons do not collapse onto each other. To set up the computation, we gauge-fix the $\text{U}(N)$ symmetry in a way that keeps the diagonal and off-diagonal sectors distinct, and we handle the residual $\mathrm{U}(1)^N$ symmetry with an auxiliary-ghost BRST construction. This construction generates a new ghost four-leg vertex; the resulting Faddeev-Popov determinant admits a systematic large-separation expansion that organizes the effective potential into a many-body decomposition, separating the interaction into two-body, three-body, and higher-body contributions. The exact $N=2$ partition function is finite at finite separation; its naive Lorenz-gauge form develops a negative region at separations of order one, which we trace to a Gribov ambiguity of the Lorenz gauge and resolve with the maximal diagonal gauge–the classical frame containing the perturbative vacuum–where the short-distance force is finite and repulsive, so that the two-body potential develops a stable minimum at finite separation. These results are consistent with a stable, non-collapsed distribution of the $p^{(i)}_\mu$; establishing the detailed distribution and full $N$-body non-collapse requires the higher-body potentials and is left to future work.

We started the Living Review of Machine Learning for Particle Physics (HEP-ML Living Review) in 2020 as a community-maintained, near-comprehensive bibliography of machine learning in particle physics. The field was then growing faster than any single researcher could follow, finding the relevant papers was hard, and a structured, continuously updated reference paid off immediately. Since then the literature has grown by more than an order of magnitude, the methods reach far beyond the classification and generation tasks of the early years, and the community has built its own ecosystem of topic-specific reviews, benchmark papers, and software frameworks. The original model no longer serves this field well, and we can no longer sustain it. We therefore change direction. We freeze the Living Review as an archival reference covering the literature up to 1 June 2026, where it remains a stable record of the first phase of HEP-ML. A new resource, the HEP-ML Living Guide, replaces it. It does not list everything. It curates, it annotates, and it points readers to foundational and representative work, so that researchers can find their way into a mature and rapidly diversifying field. In this article we explain why we make this change and how the new resource works.

Within a holographic QCD framework, we numerically investigate chiral symmetry breaking and the associated phase transition at finite temperature and chemical potential. The model is constructed on a nonlinear charged Born-Infeld black hole background. The chiral condensate, extracted from the asymptotic behavior of the bulk scalar field, serves as the primary order parameter. At zero chemical potential, we find a chiral crossover transition for physical quark masses with a pseudocritical temperature of $T_{pc}=0.1477$ GeV. In the chiral limit, the transition becomes first-order with a critical temperature of $T_{c}=0.1337$ GeV. A critical strange quark mass of $m_s=37$ MeV, at zero light quark mass, separates first- and second-order transition regions. For finite chemical potential ($\mu$) and a physical strange mass ($m_s=95$ MeV) with massless light quarks, the transition remains second-order, with $T_c$ decreasing as $\mu$ increases. These results are further supported by the behavior of meson susceptibilities $(\chi_{\pi}-\chi_{\sigma})$, which exhibit a rapid thermal decay and convergence across the phase boundary. Introducing the Born-Infeld parameter $\beta$ shifts the second-order phase boundary to higher temperatures for smaller $\beta$ (stabilizing the chirally broken phase) but does not alter the transition order or introduce a critical endpoint within the studied range. Our findings are consistent with previous soft-wall model studies and highlight the significant role of nonlinear bulk electrodynamics in modifying the chiral phase diagram.

We study how multipartite entanglement is dynamically reorganized during holographic thermalization following a global quench in AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$. We first use the $n$-partite information $(-1)^n I_n$ to probe collective multipartite entanglement in holographic configurations where the full $n$-region entanglement wedge is connected while all fewer-party ones are disconnected, thereby excluding fewer-party contributions. The spatial range of multipartite entanglement first expands and then contracts as the system approaches its late-time locally thermal state. Entanglement involving different numbers of parties develops on comparable early-time scales, while the entanglement that involves more parties relaxes more slowly, revealing a transient propagation from shorter to longer spatial distances. We further compute the Markov gap and the genuine tripartite multi-entropy as complementary probes of tripartite entanglement. The Markov gap can remain enhanced after local thermalization, whereas the genuine tripartite multi-entropy undergoes a nonmonotonic evolution and returns to its vacuum value for the adjacent tripartition considered in this work. These results show that a global quench redistributes the entanglement across spatial scales and reorganizes its multipartite structure.

Parity violation in the gravitational and electromagnetic sectors has been extensively investigated, yet the two are conventionally treated as independent phenomena. This separation, however, may be a four-dimensional prejudice. In higher-dimensional spacetime, gravity and electromagnetism may share a common geometric origin—and so, perhaps, does their parity violation. In this paper, we pursue this idea by constructing parity-violating Kaluza-Klein models in both Riemannian and teleparallel geometries. In Riemannian geometry, the simplest five-dimensional parity-violating term reduces to several complicated four-dimensional terms, including the familiar gravitational Chern-Simons term, which suffers from a ghost instability. In teleparallel geometry, however, the result is strikingly simple. The simplest five-dimensional parity-violating term reduces to only two ghost-free terms—the familiar Nieh-Yan term and the standard electromagnetic Chern-Simons term. Remarkably, the model predicts that the helicity-dependent dispersion shift for electromagnetic waves is exactly six times that for gravitational waves, $\Delta\omega^{2}_{ EM}=6\,\Delta\omega^{2}_{GW}$, a background-independent relation. This relation offers a falsifiable test of unification through joint cosmic microwave background and gravitational wave birefringence observations.

We study a nearest-neighbor non-Hermitian spin chain obtained from one member of an exact non-braided scalene Yang–Baxter triple. Its local Hamiltonian density violates both the difference-form Reshetikhin condition and its general non-difference counterpart, obstructing its realization by a differentiable homogeneous regular solution of the ordinary Yang–Baxter equation. The transfer matrices constructed from the regular member do not commute among themselves at distinct spectral parameters. Nevertheless, the scalene Yang–Baxter relation implies cross-commutativity with another transfer matrix constructed from the third member of the scalene triple. We evaluate the latter for arbitrary chain length and show that, on even periodic chains, it is a finite generating function of a non-obvious staggered nilpotent symmetry. The resulting conserved hierarchy belongs entirely to the algebra generated by this single symmetry and hence does not constitute an extensive family of algebraically independent charges. Nevertheless, this example demonstrates that scalene Yang–Baxter triples can act as an algebraic symmetry-discovery mechanism beyond the ordinary self-commuting transfer-matrix framework.

Gapless quantum systems support correlations over arbitrarily long distances, giving rise to power-law long-range entanglement. We investigate long-range entanglement at strong coupling for three-dimensional gapless systems using holography, asking whether multipartite entanglement can exhibit scale-growing behavior and become enhanced at large distances. We show that a broad class of multipartite entanglement quantities share the same leading large-distance scaling exponent determined by the IR geometry. To realize different scaling regimes, we consider hyperscaling-violating IR geometries. Depending on the parameters, long-distance multipartite entanglement can decay, become logarithmic, grow subextensively, or reach a volume law. We also analyze an anisotropic IR geometry \(\mathrm{AdS}_{3}\times\mathbb{R}^{2}\), where long-range multipartite entanglement survives along one direction but becomes short-ranged in the transverse gapped directions. These results show that holographic gapless phases can support rich and enhanced long-range multipartite entanglement, providing a nonlocal characterization of the underlying IR physics.

A superselection rule based on an exact ghost parity can endow a ghost QFT with a probability interpretation. However, this ghost parity is not respected at finite order in the standard perturbative expansion. A ghost-parity-preserving perturbation theory (Z$_2$PT) is obtained through a similarity transformation of the Hamiltonian, $h=g H g^{-1}=h_0+h_1+h_2+...$. The resulting expansion is reminiscent of old-fashioned perturbation theory (OFPT) with some significant differences. The superselection rule selects the principal-value prescription for cross-sector energy denominators, with the prescription determined by the type of transition rather than the particle species. At third order, products of $h_1$ and $h_2$ combine with $h_3$ to reproduce OFPT away from vanishing denominators. At fourth order, when $h_1=0$, we show that $h_2^2$ and $h_4$ satisfy the analogous relation. Contact terms from vanishing denominators distinguish Z$_2$PT from OFPT but do not alter the local primitive UV divergences through these orders.

We extend the modified double-copy construction to quasitopological gravity (QTG) coupled to matter. Spherically symmetric QTG solutions in $D$ dimensions are generated from an auxiliary gauge field in a flat $(D+1)$-dimensional spacetime. The gravitational field equations reduce to two relations determined by the QTG generating function and the matter stress–energy tensor. For a broad class of spherically symmetric matter sources, solutions of the auxiliary gauge-field equations can be used to construct exact solutions of the QTG field equations. The framework applies to Maxwell theory, nonlinear electrodynamics, and Yang–Mills theory, encompasses both static and Vaidya-type solutions, and reproduces the Einstein-gravity limit.

We present a model in which asymptotically de Sitter universes of various types, and de Sitter (dS) radii $R_n$, live in the interiors of black holes in a maximally entropic flat $p = \rho$ Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. These dS universes clearly have many quantum states. We argue that they decay and equilibrate with the maximal entropy universe on time scales of order $\alpha_n R_n {\rm ln} (R_n /\delta_n)$, where $\alpha_n$ are model-dependent dimensionless constants and $\delta_n$ are the initial distances between the shell, satisfying the Israel junction conditions, and the dS horizon. These are time-scales as viewed by a detector following a trajectory far from the would-be cosmological horizon. These times are all exponentially shorter than dS recurrence times, which have no meaning in this model. It is impossible for a detector inside one of the dS universes to determine whether it is actually part of such a structure. This model could be used as the basis for claiming that certain constants of nature or cosmological initial conditions were chosen to have mathematically unnatural values because other values could not lead to any form of intelligent life.

Building on prior results [1], we introduce vector-valued modular resurgent series, whose components exhibit a single infinite tower of singularities in the Borel plane, trivial secondary resurgent series, and Stokes constants given by linear combinations of the coefficients of a vector of $L$-functions. We extend the paradigm of modular resurgence to this setting, emphasizing the role of the Stokes constants and the interplay between the associated vectors of $q$-series and Dirichlet series, and describing the resulting symmetry relating canonical pairs of vector-valued modular resurgent series. Moreover, we conjecture that certain vectors of $q$-series with modular resurgent asymptotics are vector-valued quantum modular forms and can be reconstructed via median resummation. Finally, we show that vectors of $q$-Pochhammer symbols, previously considered in [2], and Eichler integrals of vector-valued modular forms of weight $1/2$ and $3/2$ can be studied within the framework of vector-valued modular resurgence. While the first case amounts to a convenient repackaging of scalar modular resurgence, the second involves a non-trivial representation of the modular group and therefore illustrates the necessity of the vector-valued framework; we establish its modular resurgent structure in general, and work it out in full detail for the unary theta series, whose Eichler integrals are the false theta functions of quantum topology.

A natural extension of the successful $D3$-${\bar D}3$-brane inflation model in string theory is one with two $D3$-${\bar D}3$-brane pairs, giving rise to a novel feature in string-theory. When the first pair annihilates, $D1$-strings and $F1$-strings are produced. Following the non-commutative geometric properties in string theory, it is shown by Myers that the presence of the $D3$-charge field strength of the remaining $D3$-${\bar D}3$-brane pair leads to the formation of dielectric $3$-branes – neutral, finite-size bound states of $3$-branes with $D1$-strings. They behave as matter with little or no pressure. Spanning a wide range of masses, they seed primordial black holes in the early universe.

We study the behaviour of the scalar field theory on the fuzzy onion model – a three-dimensional matrix model consisting of concentric fuzzy spheres of gradually increasing radii. We use a numerical method of Hamiltonian Monte Carlo simulations to study the phase structure of this theory. We identify the field phases, investigate and describe a phenomenon of dynamical phase transitions and attempt to reconstruct phase transition lines. We compare the results with the well-studied phase structure of the fuzzy sphere. Finally, we identify two boundaries on the phase transitions of the theory, a uniform phase boundary and a critical boundary between the disordered and non-uniform phase.

Motivated by the subtleties in the conventional dS/CFT correspondence, we explore analytic continuation as a constructive route to de Sitter holography. We show that quantum field theories in de Sitter space and in a spacetime that we call flipped $\mathrm{AdS}/\mathbb{Z}$ (fAdS) are related by analytic continuation. We then develop a holographic description of fAdS in terms of a boundary theory referred to as flipped CFT (fCFT). In particular, we construct the extrapolate dictionary for general asymptotically fAdS spacetimes and compute the holographic two-point functions, finding agreement with an independent derivation based on the conformal symmetry of fCFT. The analytic continuation relation between fAdS and dS further suggests that fCFT may provide a starting point for an alternative holographic description of de Sitter physics. As a nontrivial check of this picture, we show that the Cardy formula of fCFT$_2$ reproduces the Bekenstein–Hawking entropies of the cosmological horizons in both pure dS$_3$ and Kerr-dS$_3$.

We study soft theorems for photons and pions with local effective field theory (EFT) corrections up to one loop order. In massive QED with a dimension-five Pauli operator, the local analytic part of the subleading soft photon theorem is renormalized by the hard integration region. On the other hand, as was previously known, the logarithmic soft terms do not receive corrections from higher-dimensional operators. We find that analogous structure appears in the double-soft pion theorem: the coefficients of logarithmic contributions are controlled entirely by the Nonlinear Sigma Model (NLSM) Lagrangian, while the Wilson coefficients of four-derivative operators in Chiral EFT appear in local subleading terms, in a form that is dictated by their RG equations.

Starting from the $(E_8,T_1)$ Nahm sum for the vacuum character of $T_{10}M_{\rm eff}(11,2)$, we construct a three-dimensional (3d) $\mathcal N=2$ $U(1)^8$ Chern–Simons matter theory $\mathcal T$ with level matrix $C_{E_8}$. Its $A$-twisted vacuum half-index reproduces the character exactly, while four distinguished Wilson loop half-indices agree with the remaining characters to the orders checked. Applying particle–vortex duality and gauging yields a second 3d $\mathcal N=2$ Chern–Simons matter theory $\mathcal T^\vee$ with level matrix $C_{E_8}^{-1}$. Exact superconformal-index matching supports the claim that the two theories flow to 3d $\mathcal N=4$ rank-zero mirror SCFTs. For the $(\mathcal D,D_c)$ boundary condition, the mirror map between the $A$-twisted Wilson loop half-indices of $\mathcal T$ and the $B$-twisted Wilson loop half-indices of $\mathcal T^\vee$ coincides componentwise with the Zagier transformation, realizing a Zagier duality between the complete $(E_8,T_1)$ and $(T_1,E_8)$ Nahm systems. Using the Bethe-equation formalism, we show that the corresponding $A/B$-twisted TQFT data agree up to orientation reversal and the $E_8$ framing phase $e^{-2\pi \mathrm{i}/3}$. The duality interface gives the torus bilinear $Z_{\mathcal I}(\tau)=\sum_i\chi_i(\tau)\chi_i^\vee(\tau)=\chi_{(E_8)_1}(\tau)$, where $\{\chi_i\}$ and $\{\chi_i^\vee\}$ are the corresponding five-component character bases. Thus Zagier duality is realized as part of a concrete 3d mirror and interface structure.

We present a systematic study of finite, non-split 2-group symmetries with a non-trivial Postnikov class, focusing on the simplest example with a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ 0-form symmetry and a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ 1-form symmetry, intertwined together by the non-trivial Postnikov class in $H^3(B\mathbb{Z}_2;\mathbb{Z}_2)\cong\mathbb{Z}_2$, denoted by $\mathcal{G}$. We classify the anomalies of this 2-group symmetry for physical theories in $d$-dimensional spacetime, by computing the oriented bordism groups $\Omega_{d+1}^{\rm SO}(B\mathcal{G})$ and the spin bordism groups $\Omega_{d+1}^{\rm Spin}(B\mathcal{G})$ for $d\leq 5$. For the case of $d=3$, we investigate the Symmetry TFT/TO of the 2-group symmetry $\mathcal{G}$ using the language of fusion 2-categories, as well as (3+1)D TQFT actions, for the cases without or with the 2-group anomaly classified by $\operatorname{Hom}\left(\widetilde{\Omega}_4^{\rm SO}(B\mathcal{G}),U(1)\right) \cong H^4(B\mathcal{G};U(1))\cong\mathbb{Z}_2$. We classify the minimal topological and physical boundary conditions of the Symmetry TFTs, and carry out the categorical Landau paradigm for such a non-split finite 2-group.

We present a new avenue to the usual Schwinger effect via the open string pair production for a system of two Dp branes with $1 \le p \le 6$ in Type II superstrings. The two Dp are placed parallel at a separation with one of them carrying the most general constant electromagnetic background allowed for the pair production. By taking the so-called field theory limit, we obtain systematically, from the open string pair production rate, the respective explicit Lorentz invariant QED pair production rate in diverse dimensions for a pair of charged/anti-charged massive particles, which can be scalars, spinors or vectors.

(2,p) minimal Liouville gravity admits four algebraic descriptions interrelated by dualities. On the Frobenius manifold (FM) side the theory is built either on the $A_{1}$ manifold of $Q(y)=y^{2}+u_{1}$ ($y$-side) or on the $A_{p-1}$ manifold in the variable $x$ ($x$-side). On the spectral curve / topological recursion (SC) side the analogous choice is the Chebyshev curve and its $x\leftrightarrow y$ swap. FM-$y$, SC-$y$ require a resonance transformation between the KdV times and the Liouville couplings, while the other two do not. We work out the explicit correspondence between the four approaches at the level of the dispersionless tau-function. The normalisation-independent three-point ratios agree with conformal field theory in all four formulations, and matching the full amplitudes fixes a single per-insertion factor reproducing the signed Verlinde matrices. We use the Kharchev–Marshakov integral transform of the basis functions, whose determinant gives an explicit relation between the corresponding tau-functions and realises the $x\!\leftrightarrow\! y$ swap at genus zero. Once the independently fixed linear SC-$x$ normalisation is imposed, the Laurent deformation in the second coordinate gives an alternative genus-zero derivation of the known compact resonance transformation for the whole (2,p) series, including all mixed coefficients.

In the present paper, we derive a new charged black hole solution embedded in a quintessence field within a framework combining the Rastall and massive gravity in an asymptotically flat spacetime. We interpret the integration constant associated with the structural properties of the quintessence field as a thermodynamical variable. In this context, several limiting cases have been explored with the aim to shed light on the role of the model parameters. Then, we analyse the thermodynamic properties and stability of the charged black holes in flat spacetime, where the quintessence field is characterized by the state parameter \( \omega_q = -2/3 \). Detailed studies are perfomed to see how the various parameters affect phase transitions between small and large black holes. In particular, we establish a connection between the impact parameter and unstable circular photon orbits with the thermodynamic phase transitions. Our analysis suggest that the photon sphere observables could remarkably provide an indirect observational signature of black hole thermodynamic critical transitions. Generally, thanks to the effective contribution of the quintessence parameter, we found that the overall thermodynamic behavior basically resembles that of the charged RN–AdS black hole with thermal features analogous to of a Van der Waals fluid ones. Finally, we have checked these findings using thermodynamic geometry with the Quevedo metric. Our results showed that the critical behaviour derived from the standard thermodynamics is fully consistent with geothermodynamics description, where the phase structure and divergence points exactly coincide with those identified from heat capacity and Gibbs free energy analyses.

We investigate small-instanton contributions to the axion potential across a range of KSVZ models containing vector-like quarks~(VQs), using naive dimensional analysis. We consider scenarios containing a single VQ, multiple identical copies, and sets of distinct VQs, requiring in each case that the gauge couplings remain perturbative up to the Planck scale under the two-loop gauge running. The associated fermion zero-mode content varies between these cases, requiring different combinations of mass insertions and scalar–Yukawa contractions for its saturation. Increasing the copies of VQs can render the instanton-size integral dominated by instantons of the smallest size, corresponding to the scale near the ultraviolet~(UV) cut-off. The resulting contribution then becomes sensitive to the UV completion and the induced potential can compete with, or dominate over, the ordinary QCD contribution. Assuming that the QCD and small-instanton potentials are aligned, we determine the resulting axion-mass shift and its consequences for the axion–photon coupling. When the small-instanton induced susceptibility becomes comparable to or larger than the QCD susceptibility, the physical axion mass of $m_a$ is enhanced at fixed decay constant~$f_a$, while the axion-photon of $g_{a\gamma\gamma}$ coupling remains controlled by $f_a$ and the anomaly ratio of $E/N$. The standard QCD relation among $m_a$, $f_a$ and $g_{a\gamma\gamma}$ is consequently modified, opening new regions of the $(m_a,g_{a\gamma\gamma})$ plane for axion searches.

We study two conformal images of the HKLL reconstruction problem for a conformally coupled scalar on AdS$_3$. The first mapping is to a Dirichlet problem on one half of the Einstein static universe. A further conformal transformation maps this half-ESU problem to a massless scalar in a region of $(2+1)$-dimensional Minkowski space bounded by an uniformly accelerated circular Dirichlet mirror. However, the global HKLL problem, the resulting flat-space problem is not a generic local mirror problem with arbitrary boundary data. Rather, the mirror response data must belong to a restricted spectral class inherited from normalizable global AdS modes. We formulate and solve this restricted mirror problem intrinsically in flat space. In the process, we find an example of a valid smearing function which itself does not satisfy the equations of motion. We further consider AdS-Rindler wedge reconstruction. By conformal mapping to an appropriate coordinate system in flat space, we find a simple way to see the blow-up of the smearing function.

A breakthrough in fundamental physics experiments measuring particle spin precession may happen if spin-transparent storage rings become adopted tools for such experiments. We present a new design of highly specialized table-sized storage rings, which use low-energy polarized electron beams and Mott polarimetry. Based on the spin transparency ansatz, the spin precession stemming from the magnetic dipole moment is canceled at any beam energy after an electron's turn along the periodic orbit in the ring. Meanwhile, a spin precession induced by the fundamental physics of interest, e.g., the electron's permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) and/or ultralight-dark-matter-mediated forces such as axions, will accumulate. However, capitalizing on such types of rings is not only desirable for measurements of EDMs and axion searches relevant to $CP$ violation and matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe, but may also find very promising applications in quantum computing.

We investigate strong gravitational lensing by an Ellis-Bronnikov (EB) wormhole in the presence of effective field theory (EFT) corrections to photon propagation. We derive the modified photon propagation law induced by non-minimal couplings between the electromagnetic field and spacetime curvature, which leads to polarization-dependent photon trajectories in the EB wormhole spacetime. Using the strong deflection limit, we derive the corrections to the photon sphere and the logarithmically divergent part of the deflection angle. Although the EFT corrections are parametrically small, their contributions can become appreciable near the photon sphere. In particular, the $R_{\mu\nu}F^{\mu\rho}F^{\nu}{}_{\rho}$ interaction, which is nonvanishing for the EB wormhole but absent in the Schwarzschild spacetime, contributes to the strong-deflection coefficients. This may provide a distinctive lensing signature for observationally distinguishing wormholes from black holes.

We study the role of generalized symmetry in massless renormalization group flows or Higgs transitions. In particular, we revisit the massless renormalization group flows in unitary minimal models, $\mathbf{M}(p,p+1) \rightarrow \overline{\mathbf{M}(p-1,p)}$ preserving the fusion ring symmetry $\text{FR} (SU(2)_{p-2})\subset \mathbf{M}(p,p+1)$ where $p$ is an integer satisfying $p>3$. In this series of flows, we demonstrate that the unbroken fusion ring symmetry $\text{FR} (SU(2)_{p-2})$ eliminates all relevant perturbations in the $\overline{\mathbf{M}(p-1,p)}$ model. Hence, the infrared theory $\overline{\mathbf{M}(p-1,p)}$ is stable at the level of the scaling analysis and can be interpreted as a (weak-)symmetry-enforced gapless phase in contemporary theoretical physics. Phenomenologically, by the folding trick, the unbroken fusion ring symmetry corresponds to a (half-)integer spin nonsimple current, a variant of the Cooper pair involving nonabelian anyons generated from the coset or level-rank duality structures. Moreover, we demonstrate that the structure of (half-)integer spin nonsimple current plays a fundamental role in causing the resonance effect of relevant and dangerously irrelevant perturbations. This resonance effect may result in the cascade of phase transitions (or the system flows to unexplored fixed points), and the symmetry can be a stopper of such unconventional flows.