Papers

We study warped compactifications of eleven-dimensional supergravity on eight-manifolds to Minkowski or AdS vacua preserving $N=1$ supersymmetry in three dimensions. For backgrounds characterised by a local G$_2$ structure, we derive an off-shell real superpotential functional in terms of the internal geometry and fluxes without performing a finite Kaluza-Klein truncation. We obtain this expression in two independent ways: from the dimensional reduction of the gravitino variation and from the reduction of the eleven-dimensional gravitino action. We show that the critical-point equations, together with the vacuum value of the superpotential, are equivalent to the full set of supersymmetry conditions implied by the eleven-dimensional Killing spinor equations. When the local G$_2$ structure enhances to a global Spin(7) structure, our result reduces to the known superpotential for M-theory on Spin(7) manifolds.

We study the energy-energy correlator (EEC) in heavy states of four-dimensional $\mathcal N=4$ super Yang–Mills theory in the large-charge 't Hooft limit, in which the dimension $\Delta$ of the heavy operator (or, equivalently, its $R$-charge) is taken to infinity with the effective coupling $\lambda_Q \propto g_{\mathrm{YM}}^2\Delta$ held fixed. The relevant heavy-heavy-light-light four-point correlators are known to all orders in $\lambda_Q$ in this limit. For certain classes of operators, the perturbative series can be resummed to obtain exact finite-coupling expressions. We use these results to determine the corresponding EEC, whose dynamical part can be extracted from a double discontinuity of the four-point correlator. We determine the EEC at finite effective coupling and study its physical behavior as a function of $\lambda_Q$ and the angular separation between the detectors, both at generic angles and in the collinear and back-to-back limits.

We construct a family of self-dual $(1+1)$-dimensional $\mathbb{CP}^1$ sigma models whose potentials $V$ are determined from pre-potentials $U$ by Platonic geometry. Using the round metric on $\mathbb{S}^2\simeq\mathbb{CP}^1$ and the generalized self-duality formalism, we build symmetry-invariant pre-potentials $U$ from the unit vertices of each Platonic solid intersecting the unit circumsphere. The regular-lattice sites associated with vertex, face-center, and edge-midpoint directions are critical points of $U$ and degenerate vacua of the scalar potential $V$. Dual solids share the same regular lattice but generate different pre-potentials, charges, potentials, and metric-gradient flows. Numerical integration reveals distinct self-dual trajectories and energy-density profiles, including multi-peak structures for paths passing near saddle points, while solutions with the same endpoint difference $\Delta U$ have the same total energy. The positive maxima of $V$ are also organized into symmetry orbits. This construction provides a geometric prescription for controlling the vacuum structure and self-dual sectors of $\mathbb{CP}^1$ models with a potential.

We present a generalization of T-duality, called $T_2$-duality, that captures certain aspects of U-duality in M-theory. In particular, it features backgrounds that contain a 2-gerbe over a principal torus bundle, structures familiar from eleven-dimensional supergravity backgrounds. In special cases, it also incorporates S-duality in a precise sense. Our main result is a theorem characterizing $T_2$-dual pairs through spans of categorified principal bundles with connections, giving explicit rules for constructing a $T_2$-dual for a given background. A number of explicit examples illustrate how the various characteristic classes are mapped between the left and right backgrounds. For two-dimensional torus fibers, we also relate our construction to the combination of dimensional reduction and T-duality that links eleven-dimensional supergravity to type IIB supergravity. Finally, we discuss how $T_2$-duality arises from a Buscher-like span of 3d sigma models.

We study how charged-lepton flavour violation (CLFV) generated in the $\tau$ sector propagates into the $\mu\to e$ sector within the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). Assuming that new physics at a scale $\Lambda\gg v$ produces only dimension-6 operators that mediate $\tau\to e$ and $\tau\to\mu$ transitions, we identify and compare the three mechanisms that induce $\mu\to e$ observables. All three originate from double insertions of the two $\tau\to\ell$ operators and scale as $C_6^{\tau e}C_6^{\tau\mu}/\Lambda^4$. (T1) Renormalization-group mixing misaligns the charged-lepton mass matrix, and the rotation to the mass basis generates dimension-6 $\mu\to e$ operators. (T2) A finite, non-logarithmic remainder, which we find to be negligible. (T3) The overall divergence renormalizes dimension-8 operators, contributing after electroweak symmetry breaking. Since T1 and T3 carry no relative power of $\Lambda$, neither can be neglected at any scale, and only their comparison reveals which mechanism, and hence which $\mu\to e$ observable, most strongly probes a given operator pair. Surveying the Warsaw-basis operators, we classify representative $(\tau\to e,\tau\to\mu)$ pairs into T1-dominated, T3-dominated, and T1–T3-comparable regimes, and explain the hierarchy through the underlying mixing chains. Translating current $\mu\to e\gamma$, $\mu\to eee$ and $\mu\to e$ conversion limits into bounds on products of $\tau\to\ell$ Wilson coefficients, we find that they exceed the direct $\tau$-decay constraints by factors of ten to several hundred. Excluding either T1 or T3 would miss these limits by orders of magnitude for some pairs, and shift them by factors of two to three in others. Interpreting $\mu\to e$ data as a probe of $\tau$ flavour violation therefore requires both the dimension-6 RG running and the dimension-8 mixing contributions.

We construct higher-dimensional swirling spacetimes in vacuum General Relativity using the hidden symmetries of the dimensionally reduced theory. Working directly with the coset-space formulation, we perform in five dimensions a reduction along the two independent axial Killing vectors, obtaining an $SL(3,\mathbb{R})/SO(3)$ sigma model and a genuinely five-dimensional background with two independent swirling parameters. The same transformation yields doubly swirling Schwarzschild–Tangherlini and Myers–Perry geometries. A distinctive feature of the new background is its multidirectional asymptotic structure. Correlated radial-angular limits reveal directional curvature singularities that are invisible in the usual large-radius limit at fixed angle. We further exhibit causal geodesics that reach such singular asymptotic ends in finite affine parameter. Finally, we describe the maximally axial extension of this construction to higher dimensions: five dimensions are maximal for an entirely axial reduction to three dimensions, while six dimensions admit an additional nontrivial translational deformation, with further dimensions contributing only flat spectator directions.

In this paper, we study the nature of wave packets and their decay behavior in the $\kappa$-Minkowski space. We employ techniques from singularity theory throughout our analysis. Specifically, we use methods from the theory of Lagrangian singularities and caustics to study the topology of the energy-level manifold. The Newton polyhedron method from the theory of oscillatory integrals is applied to analyze the decay behavior of wave packets. We find that for a generic Hamiltonian in the $\kappa$-Minkowski space, the associated wave packets exhibit different decay rates depending on the control parameter of the system. When the control parameter takes values on the cusp, the system exhibits decay of order $t^{-1/4}$; otherwise, it exhibits decay of order $t^{-1/2}$. This distinctive behavior of wave packets in the $\kappa$-Minkowski makes it fundamentally different from commutative spacetime.

We study tree-level completions of four-dimensional $\mathcal N=4$ Yang–Mills theory coupled to $\mathcal N=4$ supergravity. Six-point factorization and supersymmetry Ward identities, supplemented by a peculiar-parity restriction on scalar contact terms, impose nonlinear relations between the single- and double-trace Wilson coefficients, $a_{k,q}$ and $b_{k,q}$, of the four-gluon amplitude. The simplest relation, $\kappa^2a_{0,0}=0$, excludes the single-trace $F^4$ interaction at nonzero gravitational coupling, despite its compatibility with four-point supersymmetry. On this gravitational branch, five double-trace parameters determine all coefficients through $a_{7,q}$ and $b_{8,q}$, which are reproduced by a common exponential generating form. Both the heterotic string and a family of infinite-spin-tower (IST) amplitudes realize this structure. Combining these relations with dispersion relations and partial-wave positivity in $SO(N)$ color channels yields a narrow numerical band closely bounded by the heterotic and simplest IST amplitudes. A spin-dependent mass gap excludes the IST spectrum and further localizes the region near the heterotic trajectory. An analytic unitarity analysis of the simplest IST gives $N\leq48$ and $g^2/(\kappa^2 m^2)\leq4$, matching the upper limits of the heterotic amplitude, where $m$ is the mass of the first massive level. Along the heterotic trajectory, the numerical bounds also sharply constrain the gauge-to-gravity coupling ratio at $N=48$.

We study the near-horizon geometry of near-extremal NS5 branes, which admits an exact worldsheet description in terms of the $SL(2,\mathbb{R})_k/U(1)$ coset. In the supergravity limit, the analytically continued time-domain reflection amplitude exhibits a singularity associated with a null geodesic bouncing off the black-hole singularity, analogous to the bouncing singularities of boundary correlators in asymptotically AdS spacetimes. We show that finite-string-length effects render this amplitude an entire function of complex time, completely resolving the bouncing singularity. This resolution is nonperturbative in the inverse coset level: the singularity persists at every finite order in the expansion.

Machine learning (ML) in high-energy nuclear physics (HENP) is entering a new stage in which physical knowledge is incorporated more directly into data analysis, simulation, and physics inference. This mini-review focuses on developments that have matured in the past several years. Whereas earlier applications emphasized event classification, pattern recognition, and surrogate models for selected observables, recent work has moved toward physics-integrated workflows: calibrated Bayesian extraction of QCD matter properties, dense-matter equation-of-state inference from heavy-ion and neutron-star data, generative event modeling, neural unfolding of weak physical signals, differentiable inverse solvers, gauge-equivariant and diffusion-based lattice-field samplers, and neural reconstruction of model functions in holographic QCD. We survey recent applications of ML in heavy-ion collisions, neutron-star physics, lattice QFT, and holographic or continuum QCD. The emphasis is not on ML architectures alone, but on how they enter concrete physics workflows, how physical constraints such as symmetries, conservation laws, causality, thermodynamic stability, and topology are imposed, and how uncertainty quantification and validation determine whether an AI-assisted result can support a reliable physics conclusion.

We quantify the impact of higher-dimensional operators in the effective theory for bubble nucleation, focusing on supercooled phase transitions in the classically conformal Abelian-Higgs model. While high-temperature dimensional reduction organizes hard thermal corrections into a tower of operators in a three-dimensional effective field theory, recent results show that dimension-six terms can dominate over higher-loop corrections to the equilibrium thermodynamics of the strongest transitions. To assess their effect on the nucleation rate and the derived near-equilibrium phase-transition observables, we develop a perturbative framework that includes them in the full one-loop nucleation rate. Including higher-dimensional operators both in the bounce action and in the fluctuation determinants, we solve the resulting Sturm-Liouville problem without a derivative expansion, using a modified Gel'fand-Yaglom method. For strongly supercooled transitions, we find that higher-dimensional operators only marginally affect the nucleation rate and the resulting observables. As a byproduct, we delineate the regime of validity of the high-temperature nucleation effective theory in supercooled phase transitions.

The entanglement structure of a bipartite pure state is characterized by its entanglement spectrum, or equivalently, by the family of Rényi-$k$ entanglement entropies with integer $k$. Taking the difference of two such entropies defines a quantity known as an entanglement spread, that is monotonous under local operations, and that vanishes if and only if the entanglement spectrum of the state is flat. We introduce a multipartite generalization of this notion which, for a fixed number $D\geq 3$ of parties, results in a collection of maps indexed by pairs of $D$-edge-colored graphs (obeying some condition). Each member of this collection takes the form of a difference of two multipartite Rényi entanglement entropies, each associated to a local unitary polynomial invariant (known in this context as a trace-invariant), and is shown to be monotonous under local operations. We then argue that a previously introduced family of so-called hypergraph-tensor (HT) states can be understood as a multipartite counterpart to the family of flat bipartite states. Indeed, we first prove that, when $D=3$, a tripartite pure state is HT if and only if it minimizes a particular (infinite) family of entanglement spreads. Second, we embed the set of HT states into the much larger family of spectral hypergraph-tensor (SHT) states, defined by a new Ansatz we introduce. We then prove that HT states can be uniquely characterized as the minimizers of some fixed entanglement spread among SHT states, for arbitrary $D\geq 3$. We also investigate SHT states in their own right: in particular, we characterize their orbits under local unitary transformations. Finally, along the way, the asymptotic large-$N$ expectation values of a number of entanglement spreads are computed in the Haar-random state of local dimension $N$.

We demonstrate how horizon symmetries of AdS black holes are realised in the hydrodynamic actions for the dynamics of the dual stress tensor. A recent approach for obtaining such actions involves a choice of horizon boundary conditions, and we show that diffeomorphisms that preserve these give rise to symmetries of the corresponding hydrodynamic action. We obtain explicit hydrodynamic actions for small amplitude perturbations of black holes in JT and AdS$_3$ gravity using this approach and demonstrate explicitly the existence of these symmetries. For a natural choice of boundary conditions, the resulting actions manifestly realise gauge symmetries previously proposed for effective theories of maximal chaos.

Non-Abelian gauge theories above four dimensions may admit an interacting ultraviolet fixed point through the competition between canonical scaling and gauge-field antiscreening. Using the four-loop $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ beta function continued to $D=4+2\epsilon$, we determine the largest dimension $D_{\mathrm{pt}}=4+2\epsilon_{\mathrm{pt}}$ below which successive loop corrections to the fixed point remain hierarchically ordered under a specified ratio criterion, and map $D_{\mathrm{pt}}$ over color and flavor numbers for fermions in the fundamental representation of $SU(N)$. At $D=5$, we construct rational anomalous dimensions with a fixed, pole-regularized denominator inspired by the functional renormalization group (fRG). Matching to the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ series through one, two, and three loops produces progressively smaller shifts in the critical flavor number and coupling at the ultraviolet–infrared merger (the point where the infrared and ultraviolet fixed points coincide), yielding $N_f^{\mathrm{cr}}\simeq 2.09 \, N$ at large $N$ in the three-loop construction. This low-order stabilization, together with qualitative evidence from fRG flows including higher gauge operators, suggests a potential merger scenario that bounds the candidate asymptotically safe region in flavor number. The resulting color–flavor map provides guidance for five-dimensional model building by displaying both the baseline perturbative-control boundary and the candidate three-loop merger boundary. Four-loop matching, however, retains an interacting ultraviolet fixed point beyond the three-loop merger boundary, with no merger found for integer $2\le N\le15$ and $0\le N_f/N\le11/2$. The sensitivity of the fixed-point structure to higher-order terms leaves both scenarios open, highlighting fixed-point annihilation as a potential constraint on five-dimensional asymptotic safety.

A band that is exactly flat at zero magnetic field has zero velocity, a divergent effective mass, and no Fermi surface, so the standard theory of orbital magnetism does not apply. We show that the magnetic field generates an effective dispersion. In the expansion organized by the Moyal algebra of the noncommutative kinetic momenta, the band energy acquires a first-order shift $B\,\mathcal{M}(\mathbf k)$, set by the orbital moment of the Bloch state, and a second-order shift $\tfrac12\mathcal{X}(\mathbf k)B^{2}$, whose gauge-invariant coefficient we obtain in closed form. These two functions, together with the Berry curvature $\Omega$, fix the entire orbital response. The susceptibility is purely geometric, and for a generic isolated flat band it reproduces the established gauge-invariant response formula. With the chemical potential pinned to the flat band, the $\mathcal{M}=0$ contour becomes an emergent Fermi surface, and bosonizing excitations in its vicinity yields a modified Lifshitz–Kosevich formula with level spacing quadratic in $B$. The phase shift of the oscillations is given jointly by the Berry phase around the emergent Fermi surface and $\mathcal{X}$. When the band is narrow rather than exactly flat, the oscillation frequency crosses over, with a parameter-free profile, from the zero-field Fermi-surface area to the area of the $\mathcal{M}=0$ contour. We verify our analytical findings numerically by exactly diagonalizing a flattened Chern lattice model.

Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity with positive cosmological constant is a toy model to study the emergence of expanding de Sitter universes from a quantum state. Its density matrix is a superposition of double-trumpet amplitudes which are solutions of a Wheeler-DeWitt equation. We compare predictions of such mixed states for classical expanding universes with the corresponding predictions of no-boundary wavefunctions. Double-trumpet amplitudes consistent with holography, whose semiclassical limit matches the result from Schwarzian boundary fluctuations, lead to a flat probability distribution for the size of the universe, consistent with models of inflation. This is in contrast to the suppression of large universes predicted by no-boundary wave functions.

We classify all diffeomorphism-invariant theories of gravity which possess traced field equations of motion of second order in derivatives. We also prove in the affirmative a conjecture regarding the form of theories constructed algebraically from the Riemann tensor with second-order traced field equations and classify all polynomial quasi-topological gravities with second-order traced field equations.

In this work, we theoretically investigate the non-equilibrium evolution of the correlation functions of a quantum scalar field following a mass quantum quench in a finite-size system. The self-consistent equation for the Keldysh (statistical) correlation function is solved numerically in the one-loop approximation. A specific spatio-temporal effect is observed: at a point in time approximately equal to half the system size, the effective mass experiences a strong disturbance. It is shown that this effect is driven by the interference of counter-propagating wave fronts of fluctuations that propagate within the light cone and is induced by periodic boundary conditions.

Multipartite entanglement measures probe how quantum correlations are organized beyond what can be inferred from pairwise entropies. We study how this structure is reshaped by a physical boundary in a holographic BCFT. The end-of-the-world brane opens new relative-homology channels for multipartite entanglement, allowing connected bulk webs to reorganize and factorize at scales that need not coincide with any ordinary Ryu–Takayanagi transition. In static AdS$_3$/BCFT$_2$, this produces a characteristic hierarchy of multipartite phases and a nontrivial dependence of genuine multi-entropy on the boundary. In the thermofield-double state, genuinely connected webs can instead be supported through the Einstein–Rosen bridge, leading to growth, reconnection and saturation scales distinct from the usual Hartman–Maldacena transitions. These results show that multipartite entanglement is sensitive not only to extremal-surface areas but also to how bulk entanglement structures are allowed to join, split and terminate in the presence of a boundary.

Using notions from graded Poisson geometry, we develop a framework that allows for concise formulations of field theories such as Einstein-Cartan and Palatini-Cartan gravity. We show that Einstein-Cartan gravity is equivalent to a variant of Palatini-Cartan gravity in which the vielbein fields are constrained to satisfy appropriate symmetry relations, which we refer to as constrained vielbein gravity. To that end, we relate these theories via a diffeomorphism of graded manifolds. We then show how to obtain the full Palatini-Cartan theory by removing the symmetry constraint. Finally, we show how our graded geometric framework allows for a direct incorporation of the minimal BV extension of the graded constrained vielbein and Palatini-Cartan theories.

We compute the entanglement entropy of quantum matter in spacetimes with a Killing horizon entirely on-shell, by integrating the first law of thermodynamics along a one-parameter family of equilibrium backgrounds labelled by the Hawking temperature. This yields a closed expression in terms of the renormalized stress-energy tensor and the Killing vector, finite by construction, with no replicas and no conical singularities. Its covariant form agrees with the matter terms of the Bardeen–Carter–Hawking mass variation formula. We show in details that for static patch of de Sitter space and for the non-rotating BTZ black hole it reproduces the conical entropy exactly, contact term $Q$ included.

We develop a novel systematic method for constructing exact, static, and asymptotically flat black-hole solutions in shift-symmetric and $Z_2$-symmetric beyond Horndeski theories. In contrast to previous studies, our approach does not rely on the restrictive reciprocal condition $g_{tt}g_{rr}=-1$, allowing for more general geometries characterized by two independent metric functions. The resulting solution space contains two qualitatively distinct types of hair originating from different branches of the theory. One branch is characterized by khronometric hair, while the other by genuine scalar hair. In both, the scalar profile defines a nontrivial preferred foliation, but the shift-symmetry Noether current and the associated propagating degree of freedom are trivial for the former and nonvanishing for the latter. Focusing mainly on the second branch, we derive several distinct families of exact black-hole solutions. In general, these solutions are singular and exhibit primary scalar hair associated with an independent scalar charge. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that they can be regularized to yield regular black-hole or solitonic configurations, for which the scalar hair becomes secondary. We further investigate the stability properties of these solutions under linear perturbations by analyzing the axial sector and the monopole $(\ell=0)$ mode of the even-parity sector. For representative solutions with scalar hair, the perturbative analysis provides evidence for linear stability under the modes considered.

We present a spacetime that serves as a horizonless mimicker of extremal black holes. Unlike previously studied mimickers of black holes with non-degenerate horizons, whose geometries are of the wormhole type and consist of two asymptotically flat regions connected by a very long throat, the mimicker of an extremal black hole possesses a single asymptotically flat region at one end and an infinitely long throat at the other. In the throat region, the spacetime approaches the direct-product geometry $M_{1,1} \times S^2$, where $M_{1,1}$ is two-dimensional Minkowski spacetime and $S^2$ is the two-sphere. We investigate scalar-field dynamics and the fate of the Aretakis instability. Although Aretakis-like modes arise in a local analysis of the throat, they do not lead to a physical instability of the mimicker. A scalar perturbation initially localized in the throat gives rise, at late times, to a sequence of signals with a characteristic separation $t_{\rm delay}\sim 1/\lambda$, where $\lambda\ll 1$ is a deformation parameter. This timescale is parametrically larger than the echo time $t_{\rm echo}\sim \ln(1/\lambda)$ characteristic of non-extremal black-hole mimickers. We refer to this sequence as a long-delay signal train. Geometrically, the periodicity of the long-delay signals is associated with periodic geodesics on $S^2$. We then extend the construction to extremal Kerr. In this case, the throat region approaches a generalized product geometry involving $M_{1,1}$ and a two-dimensional surface $\Sigma_2$. The corresponding signals are expected to form a quasi-periodic signal train, reflecting the quasi-periodic geodesic motion on $\Sigma_2$. We also comment on the generalization to wormhole mimickers of non-extremal black holes and on the implications of these results for unitarity in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence.

We study dielectric properties of holographic insulators from the quantum geometry of the ground state. We realize the insulating state by the pseudoscalar interaction of holographic fermions and calculate the fermionic Green function to extract the effective hamiltonian. We then derive the quantum metric and Berry curvature to compute the transports and finally get the dielectric constant from the imaginary part of conductivity.

We investigate spin-outcome correlations and memory-assisted entropic uncertainty in tree-level Bhabha scattering, where an incident electron $A$ scatters with a positron $B$ initially entangled with a spectator electron $C$. For the fixed-angle post-selected final state, we compare the total memory-assisted uncertainty $U_A$ for three alternative Pauli measurements on $A$ with the entanglement entropy $S(\rho_A)$ across the $A|BC$ partition. We resolve $U_A$ into the separate uncertainties $U_B$ and $U_C$ and evaluate the corresponding outcome-memory mutual-information sums $G_B$ and $G_C$. This separates changes in the randomness of the outcomes on $A$ from changes in their correlations with each memory. In the parameter regions studied, enhanced $A|BC$ entanglement is accompanied by lower $U_A$, most prominently near high-energy backscattering. An analytic treatment of this limit shows that $B$ factorizes from $AC$: $G_B$ vanishes, whereas $G_C$ increases with the initial $B$-$C$ entanglement. An entropic complete complementarity analysis characterizes the accompanying loss of local helicity predictability in $\rho_A$ and changes in the coherence, predictability, and mixedness of the interacting pair $\rho_{AB}$. These results show that initial $B$-$C$ entanglement can lower the total memory-assisted uncertainty in high-energy backscattering by strengthening spin-outcome correlations with the spectator $C$, thereby identifying the distinct roles of the interacting particle and the spectator as quantum memories.

We propose an analogue of the no particle production condition in two-dimensional anti-de Sitter space, and demonstrate how this criterion uniquely reconstructs the curved-space Liouville and Toda theories via general-multiplicity holographic correlators.

We study holographic dark energy models constructed from generalized entropy functionals and local infrared cut-offs. Three entropies (Barrow and the three and five-parameter generalized entropies) are each combined with the Granda-Oliveros (GO) cut-off and two extensions, one adding a $\gamma H^{-2}$ term and one a $\gamma \ddot{H}/H$ term, the latter raising the dark-energy evolution equation to second order. The nine resulting models are constrained against DESI DR2 BAO, Pantheon+ and a Planck compressed CMB likelihood through an MCMC analysis, and compared using the Akaike and Bayesian information criteria. The Hubble constant is stable across all models. The $H^{-2}$ term is unconstrained in every case, as it becomes relevant only in the far future, and never improves on the GO cut-off. The $\ddot{H}/H$ term, instead, is tightly constrained for Barrow and $S_5$, where it improves the fit substantially, but not for $S_3$. The best fit is obtained for Barrow entropy with the $\ddot{H}/H$ cut-off, yet the Barrow exponent remains compatible with zero in all cases. The data thus favour a higher-order infrared cut-off, while showing no significant evidence for a departure from the Bekenstein-Hawking area law. We also investigate the dark energy equation of state (EoS) of $S_3$ and $S_5$, discovering quintessence-like behavior and phantom crossing.

Specialization maps are natural maps from equivariant vanishing cycle cohomology to the equivariant cohomology of the ambient space. We study their injectivity problem for moduli stacks of representations of quivers with potentials, including those associated with generalized conifolds and finite subgroups of $SO(3,\mathbb{C})$. Applications to the irreducibility of modules of Reshetikhin type shifted Yangians are also given.

We present a non-perturbative formulation of quantum gravity in asymptotically flat spacetimes using Witten's cubic open string field theory (OSFT) on unstable D-branes. Given that the massless spin-2 sector of the closed string spectrum inherently encodes the degrees of freedom of quantum gravity, we establish this connection by mapping on-shell closed string excitations directly to gauge-invariant operators in OSFT, realizing a concrete flat-space analogue of the AdS/CFT correspondence. By evaluating the OSFT correlation functions of these operators perturbatively around the tachyon vacuum, we systematically reproduce the all-orders genus expansion of the closed string S-matrix for the associated states. This demonstrates that closed string theory-and thus quantum gravity-emerges dynamically from the open string tachyon vacuum, establishing Witten's OSFT as a fully calculable, non-perturbative framework for flat-space quantum gravity.

We study, within a toy model, how a thermal bath of cosmological perturbations can decohere the minisuperspace degrees of freedom of the universe, treating the perturbations as an environment in the framework of open quantum systems. Instead of tracing out the perturbations from a semiclassical ansatz for the total wave function, as in earlier approaches, we incorporate their backreaction on the background through an effective second-order coupling and derive a master equation. The model describes a spatially flat semiclassical universe during slow-roll inflation with a dust clock field, while scalar cosmological perturbations in a phenomenologically assumed thermal state constitute the environment. The master equation is non-Markovian, since the bath correlation functions do not decay in time. Within this framework, we find that, for a representative set of parameter estimates, the characteristic decoherence timescale corresponding to the thermal contribution can be shorter than the Hubble timescale. In addition, we address the question of whether the pointer-state structure induced by the decoherence in such a framework could provide a criterion for the choice of semiclassical states in quantum cosmology.