High Energy Physics (Theory)
Higher-Dimensional Integrable Scattering
Lewis T. Cole
This paper describes classical
soliton scattering in the 2+1d integrable
chiral model, related to the Bogomolny monopole equation and self-dual Yang-Mills, as a case study for higher-dimensional integrable scattering. Extended line
solitons exhibit nontrivial scattering with lump
solitons and with other line
solitons, and $N \to N$ interactions can be factorised into a series of $2 \to 2$ interactions. Scattering between parallel line
solitons in 3d is related to lump
soliton scattering in 2d, allowing for direct comparison with results in 1+1d integrable field theories.
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Mathematical Physics · Cross-listed from math.DS
Loss of memory in the periodic Ehrenfest model with small polyhedral scatterers
Christopher Lutsko and Jens Marklof
We determine the Boltzmann–Grad limit of the Ehrenfest “wind-tree” model with a periodic configuration of polyhedral scatterers. The central result is a loss-of-
memory effect in dimension $d\geq 3$ for a generic choice of polyhedron. This yields a Markovian limiting transport process on an extended state space and a generalised linear Boltzmann equation for the time
evolution of the particle density.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons
Dual Charge-Density-Waves in Two-dimensional DyTe3 and Their Distinct Impacts on Magneto-Transport Properties
Shuvankar Gupta, Yasemin Ozbek, Olajumoke Oluwatobiloba Emmanuel et al. (+4 more)
Charge-density-waves (CDWs) are macroscopic
quantum states defined by periodic modulations in electronic charge density coupled with
lattice distortions. Despite significant research efforts, the
evolution of electromagnetic transport properties in the presence of CDWs remains largely unexplored. Here, we report the effects of two orthogonal CDWs (CDW1 and CDW2) coexisting at low-temperature in DyTe3 on its electronic transport properties. Importantly, we find that while no clear magnetotransport anomaly is resolved across CDW1 transition under the present experimental conditions, the emergence of CDW2 drives a drastic enhancement in magnetoresistance and a multiband-governed nonlinear
Hall response. These results demonstrate that CDW1 and CDW2 in DyTe3 are fundamentally different and impact its electronic transport in qualitatively distinct ways, establishing DyTe3 as a model system for understanding the transport consequences of multiple CDWs in quasi-two-dimensional materials.
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All authors Shuvankar Gupta, Yasemin Ozbek, Olajumoke Oluwatobiloba Emmanuel, Maya Bostock, Johnathan Kowalski, Pengpeng Zhang, Xianglin Ke
Quantum Physics
Three-Photon and Hybrid Coherent-Fock Interference in a Two-Phase Six-Port Mach-Zehnder Interferometer
P. O. Amadi, P. Pewkhom, N. Sitpathom et al. (+5 more)
We present a unified theoretical analysis of three-
photon quantum interference in a Six-Port Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (6p-MZI) constructed from two cascaded tritters, with two independent phase modulators placed between the tritter arms. We analytically derive the transfer
matrix of the 6p-MZI and show how they organize into three
symmetry classes, governed by the discrete
Fourier transform (DFT) structure of the tritter and the conjugate relations. Furthermore, we analyze two input regimes: First, three indistinguishable single
photons are injected into the tritter, and the output probability distributions $P_{[111]}$, $P_{[\{300\}]}$, and $P_{[\{210\}]}$ are derived as functions of the two relative phases $(\phi_1, \phi_2)$. At $\phi_2 = 0$, the single-phase limit is recovered, which confirms 100% visibility of the even-distribution fringe. Second, a hybrid coherent-Fock input $|\alpha\rangle_1|\alpha\rangle_2|1\rangle_3$ is analyzed via the density
matrix formalism. The average
photon number at each output port exhibits amplitude-dependent phase shifts. Our results establish the 6p-MZI as a programmable platform for tripartite
quantum state manipulation and coherent amplitude sensing.
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All authors P. O. Amadi, P. Pewkhom, N. Sitpathom, R. Endut, N. Ali, S. A. Aljunid, S. Suryadi, P. Kalasuwan
High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)
Quantum Graph Neural Networks for Jet Tagging on Quantum Hardware
Benjamin Jobilal, Jinghong Yang, Trevor Smith et al. (+3 more)
Jets are central to the physics programs of both current and future
colliders, from precision Standard Model measurements and searches for new physics at the Large
Hadron Collider to studies of nucleon structure at the future Electron-Ion
Collider. Motivated by these applications, we explore
quantum machine learning for jet classification and present a permutation-invariant
Quantum Graph Neural Network (QGNN) applied to particle-cloud representations of jets. We apply the model to two such discrimination tasks:
quark vs.
gluon and up vs. down
quark flavor tagging, with the latter being, to our knowledge, the first application of a
quantum model to this problem. In the ideal simulation, the QGNN performs competitively against the Particle Flow Network and traditional QCD observables. We further deploy scaled-down models to IBM and IonQ
quantum processing units (QPUs), where we train and evaluate them, obtaining promising results. Finally, we perform an interpretability analysis to characterize the observables learned by the
quantum model, relating them to generalized angularities for the
quark-
gluon study and to jet charge for the
flavor study.
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All authors Benjamin Jobilal, Jinghong Yang, Trevor Smith, Vincent Calvo, Zhong-Bo Kang, Shabnam Jabeen
Quantum Physics
Phase Independent Measurement of Weak Coherent Optical Signals
Lani Chastain, Priya Drashni, Mahadeva Chanda Durjoy et al. (+3 more)
We develop a
quantum sensing framework for the phase independent detection of weak coherent optical displacements based on SU(1,1) interferometry. Unlike conventional
quantum measurement protocols that require prior knowledge of the signal phase and coherent homodyne detection, the proposed approach estimates the displacement magnitude independently of its phase. We show that, under ideal lossless conditions, a conventional SU(1,1) interferometer employing only total intensity detection saturates the
quantum Cramer Rao bound for displacement magnitude estimation. We further derive the analytical expression of the
quantum Cramer Rao bound and the sensitivity of the conventional SU(1,1) interferometer with total intensity detection and systematically investigate its performance in the presence of optical loss. The proposed phase-independent intensity detection scheme achieves comparable performance over experimentally relevant operating regimes while eliminating the need for local oscillators, phase locking, and quadrature tracking. These results establish SU(1,1) based intensity detection as a practical platform for phase independent
quantum sensing.
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All authors Lani Chastain, Priya Drashni, Mahadeva Chanda Durjoy, Hari P. Lamsal, Girish S. Agarwal, Tian Li
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Hint of bimodal Mg-Al anticorrelation in the metal-poor Globular Cluster NGC 4372
Camila Beltrand, Macarena Uribe, Sandro Villanova et al. (+1 more)
We present a detailed chemical abundance analysis of seven red
giant branch
stars in the very metal-poor globular cluster NGC~4372, based on high-resolution UVES spectra. Our study aims to characterize the chemical
evolution of NGC~4372 and investigate the presence of multiple populations. We derived abundances for 17 elements, including light, iron-peak, $\alpha$, and heavy elements, using both equivalent width and spectral synthesis methods. We find a mean cluster
metallicity of [Fe/H]=$-$2.36 $\pm$ 0.03 dex, with no evidence of an intrinsic iron spread. The cluster exhibits a typical $\alpha$-enhancement of [$\alpha$/Fe]= 0.33 $\pm$ 0.05 dex and a well defined Na-O anticorrelation, confirming that NGC 4372 hosts at least two distinct
stellar populations. Furthermore, the measured ratio of [Ba/Eu] =$-0.47 \pm 0.04$ indicates that the synthesis of heavy elements was dominated by $r$-process, consistent with other very metal-poor environments. We also identify a potential bimodal Mg-Al anticorrelation, which aligns with the patterns observed in GCs of similar mass and
metallicity. These results reinforce the status of NGC 4372 as a cornerstone for understanding the early chemical enrichment of the
Galactic Halo.
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All authors Camila Beltrand, Macarena Uribe, Sandro Villanova, César Muñoz
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Quantum oscillations of helical edge states of periodically deformed 2D topological insulator in magnetic field
A. V. Tsvetkova, P. D. Grigoriev and Ya. I. Rodionov
We study edge-state transport in a two-dimensional topological
insulator with a periodically deformed edge subjected to a uniform
magnetic field. Zeeman coupling breaks time-reversal
symmetry and enables elastic backscattering, producing oscillations of the forbidden-band widths. In the strong-field regime, the gaps can close completely at discrete field values. In the weak-field regime, we identify an important class of periodic deformations for which the dominant semiclassical scattering is controlled by complex infinity rather than by the nearest turning points. We develop a semiclassical treatment of this process and establish its agreement with perturbation theory and direct numerical calculations. The gap modulation should produce observable oscillations of the edge conductance. Unlike conventional
magnetic quantum oscillations, which are periodic in inverse field, the predicted oscillations are periodic in the
magnetic field itself, with a period determined by the
Fermi velocity and effective g-factor
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Quantum Physics
p-Adic Dirac Equations, Continuous-Time Quantum Walks, and Quantum Networks
W. A. Zúñiga-Galindo
We introduce a new class of p-adic Dirac equations, formulated in the standard axiomatic framework of
quantum mechanics, in which the ordinary momentum operators are replaced by bounded non-local operators built from arbitrary integrable radial kernels. We diagonalize the free Dirac
Hamiltonian in momentum space, construct its plane-wave solutions, and determine its spectrum, which is pure point, with
eigenvalues of infinite multiplicity; in the massless case we describe the zero-energy subspace explicitly. We identify the charge-conjugation
symmetry of the model: it is given by an antiunitary operator whose square is minus the identity, it exchanges the positive- and negative-energy subspaces, and in an external electromagnetic field it reverses the sign of both the charge and the vector potential. We then discretize the free equation in two ways, both giving genuine continuous-time
quantum walks rather than discrete-time, coined walks: one on a countable graph and one on a finite, tree-like graph. In both cases the discretization is exact: the walk is the restriction of the p-adic Dirac
evolution to an invariant subspace, and its
Hamiltonian is a Dirac-type combination of weighted graph
Laplacians with ultrametric weights. We prove that the Born-rule transition probabilities, summed over the internal degrees of freedom and averaged over the initial internal state, form a doubly
stochastic matrix at every instant, and that, as for any non-trivial continuous-time
quantum walk, this family of
matrices is not a Markov
semigroup. We discuss how the construction can serve as the foundation of a
quantum network with four-component spinor degrees of freedom, complementing earlier, non-relativistic p-adic
quantum neural networks, and prove global well-posedness of the associated nonlinear network equation. We close with a discussion of open problems.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies
Extending the Stellar-to-Halo Mass Relation to Dwarf Galaxies with DESI DR1
Z. Shao, Y. Zu, A. Salcedo et al. (+51 more)
Constraining the dark matter
halos of the smallest
galaxies offers fundamental insights into the nature of dark matter and
stellar feedback. Using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Data Release 1, we infer the
stellar-to-
halo mass relation (SHMR) down to the
dwarf scale ($M_\star < 10^9\,M_\odot$), without extrapolation from the higher mass range. Leveraging the unprecedented depth of the DESI Bright
Galaxy Survey at $0.01 < z < 0.2$, we construct 12 samples spanning nearly four orders of magnitude in
stellar mass, and measure their projected clustering $w_p$,
galaxy-
galaxy lensing $\Delta\Sigma$, as well as a novel observable: satellite occupation number $N_{\rm sat}$. The addition of $N_{\rm sat}$ enables robust subtraction of satellite contributions to both $w_p$ and $\Delta\Sigma$ across the 12 individual
halo occupation distribution analyses, yielding an average
halo-to-
stellar mass relation (HSMR) of $\log \langle M_h(M_\star) \rangle = 12.06 + 0.58\log(M_\star/10^{11}) + (M_\star/10^{11})^{0.73}$. Combining this HSMR with an observed
stellar mass function, we constrain the SHMR across five orders of magnitude in
halo mass, with the power-law slope steepening from $0.32 \pm 0.06$ above the Milky Way mass to $2.08 \pm 0.21$ in the
dwarf regime. Interestingly, the scatter about the SHMR grows from $0.17 \pm 0.02$ dex at Milky Way-like scales to $0.68_{-0.33}^{+0.21}$ dex for systems comparable to the Large Magellanic Cloud, suggesting that smaller
galaxies follow increasingly diverse evolutionary paths. Our work highlights the power of DESI in probing the
galaxy-
halo connection within the
dwarf regime, offering an exciting avenue to bridge the gap between large-scale and near-field cosmologies in the future.
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All authors Z. Shao, Y. Zu, A. Salcedo, Y. Lin, Z. Chen, X. Xu, J. Hua, Z. Zhai, J. Aguilar, S. Ahlen, F. Beutler, D. Bianchi, D. Brooks, A. Carnero Rosell, F. J. Castander, T. Claybaugh, A. de la Macorra, Biprateep Dey, Z. Ding, J. E. Forero-Romero, E. Gaztañaga, Satya Gontcho A Gontcho, G. Gutierrez, C. Hahn, S. Juneau, R. Kehoe, A. Kremin, O. Lahav, A. Lambert, M. Landriau, L. Le Guillou, M. Manera, P. Martini, A. Meisner, R. Miquel, J. Moustakas, S. Nadathur, E. Paillas, W. J. Percival, F. Prada, I. Pérez-Ràfols, C. Ravoux, G. Rossi, R. Ruggeri, M. Saraf, L. Samushia, E. Sanchez, C. Saulder, D. Schlegel, J. Silber, M. Siudek, G. Tarlé, B. A. Weaver, H. Zou
Astrophysics of Galaxies
H I Absorbers as Beacons of Hidden Structure at $z \sim 3$: Multi-Component, Metal-Rich Absorption System near a Protocluster
Kentaro Koretomo, Nobunari Kashikawa, Toru Misawa et al. (+12 more)
H I gas traces the large-scale structure and provides the primary fuel for
star formation. High-$z$ protoclusters are ideal laboratories to study how H I gas is accreted and consumed during the formation of the most massive structures in the Universe. However, much remains unknown about the distribution and physical state of their H I gas. We examine a rare configuration in which a protocluster candidate is located in front of a
quasar at $z=3.09$. Our spectroscopic campaign confirms a protocluster at $z=3.079$: however, no corresponding strong H I absorption is found in the background
quasar spectrum. Instead, we serendipitously discover a prominent H I absorption feature at $z\sim 3.01$, offset by $\sim 60$ cMpc from the centre of the protocluster. Spanning an exceptionally broad velocity range of $\sim 2000$ km s$^{-1}$ ($\sim 40$ cMpc), this absorption is decoupled from the confirmed member
galaxies. Detailed kinematic modelling reveals this absorption comprises five distinct components rather than a single cloud. Moreover, one of these components exhibits a super-
solar metallicity ($[\mathrm{O/H}] = +1.19^{+0.91}_{-0.78}$). We propose two physical scenarios for this unique system: (1) an additional, hidden massive protocluster along the line of sight, and/or (2) metal-rich
outflows and metal-poor inflows driven by a single massive
galaxy. The discovery highlights that while protoclusters are not universally associated with strong H I absorption, targeting the strong H I absorbers may serve as a beacon for uncovering massive, metal-rich protoclusters or complex gas kinematics in the early Universe.
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All authors Kentaro Koretomo, Nobunari Kashikawa, Toru Misawa, Jun Toshikawa, Yoshihiro Takeda, Hisakazu Uchiyama, Junya Arita, Shunta Shimizu, Ryo Emori, Kei Ito, Satoshi Kikuta, Mariko Kubo, Yoshiaki Ono, Marcin Sawicki, Rhythm Shimakawa
High Energy Physics (Theory)
UV/IR scale dependence in a four-derivative scalar field theory
Bob Holdom
An analog of the standard renormalization procedure may be useful for four-derivative theories, and we illustrate it with the four-derivative scalar field theory in the $m\to0$ limit. The renormalization scale $\mu$ appears in momentum-dependent logarithms associated with both UV and IR divergences. At one loop, the on-shell scattering amplitude satisfies an analog Callan–Symanzik equation involving the analog beta functions. These functions are determined from the combined UV and IR pole parts of the 1PI functions.
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High Energy Physics (Theory)
Superselected ghost theory: entangled pairs
Bob Holdom
The superselection-rule approach to ghost theories is extended to theories with a nonreal spectrum containing a complex-conjugate pair of poles on the physical sheet. The two excitations are labeled by their respective complex masses, $M$ and $M^*$, and the superselection sectors are labeled by $n$, the difference between the numbers of $M$ and $M^*$ excitations. The corresponding generalized ghost parity $Q$ assigns a phase $e^{in\alpha}$ to each sector. Under $Q$ superselection, nonvanishing norms occur only in the $n=0$ sector, and the physical state condition $Q^{2}|s\rangle=|s\rangle$ projects onto this sector. For a $MM^*$ pair carrying real total energy and momentum, we define a swap operation $R$. The $R$-eigenstates are entangled pairs, and an $R$ superselection rule ensures positive probabilities. We discuss how the optical
theorem describes physical cuts through these entangled pairs.
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Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from math.RT
Schatten norms and determinants of linear combinations of matrix tensor powers via virtual representations
Martin Áron Juhász and Mihály Weiner
Let $$X_n=\sum_{i=1}^s t_i A_i^{\otimes n},$$ where $A_1,\ldots,A_s\in M_d(\mathbb C)$ and $t_1,\ldots,t_s\in\mathbb C$ are fixed, while $n$ grows. Direct computation of determinants or Schatten norms of $X_n$ is exponential in $n$. For a single tensor power these quantities are elementary, and even the determinant of a generic two-term combination admits a reduction to polynomially many scalar factors; however, no analogous elementary reduction is available for three or more terms. We give an exact representation-theoretic method which, for fixed $d$ and $s$, computes $\|X_n\|_p$, $0<p<\infty$, and determinants in
polynomial time in $n$. Schur–Weyl duality yields a simultaneous block decomposition, while Jacobi–Trudi identities in the Grothendieck ring replace Schur modules by signed combinations of tensor products of symmetric powers. For $d=3$, each irreducible contribution reduces to the difference of two explicitly computable symmetric-power terms, leading to an open-source implementation. In a single-thread CPU
benchmark, a genuine three-term $3\times3$ trace-norm problem with $n=18$ is evaluated in about $47$ seconds, whereas just storing the unreduced
matrix would require approximately $2.4\times10^{18}$ bytes. Direct and reduced computations agree to relative error below $3.4\times10^{-15}$ throughout their common range $n\leq9$.
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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Waveform models for the gravitational-wave memory effect: III. Phenomenological frequency-domain model for nonspinning binaries
Arwa Elhashash and David A. Nichols
We present a phenomenological frequency-domain model for the gravitational-wave (GW)
memory signal from nonspinning binary-black-hole mergers on quasicircular orbits. We develop separate amplitude and phase models for the dominant $(l,m)=(2,0)$ spherical-harmonic mode of the GW
memory signal. The amplitude and phase models are built from superpositions of elementary and transcendental functions, which can be evaluated efficiently. Both portions of the model are calibrated against a numerical-relativity surrogate model over mass ratios from one to eight. Their accuracy is assessed by computing their mismatch with the numerical-relativity models using the Advanced LIGO sensitivity curve from the fourth observing run. The mismatches are of the order $10^{-4}\unicode{x2013}10^{-3}$ over the parameter space of total mass covered by LIGO. The resulting frequency-domain model is a more computationally efficient waveform model for the GW
memory signal than a related time-domain model earlier produced by the authors. An open-access implementation of both the time-domain and frequency-domain models is provided in the Python package GWMemoryModel, which can be used for relevant analyses of nonspinning binary black holes.
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Nuclear Experiment
Heavy Flavors and Quarkonia at RHIC
Cameron Dean, Xin Dong, Rongrong Ma et al. (+1 more)
After the discovery of the strongly coupled
quark-
gluon plasma (QGP), a nearly perfect fluid, in 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC, understanding its microscopic structure and transport properties has become a central goal of relativistic heavy-ion physics. Heavy-
flavor particles, containing charm or bottom
quarks, provide unique sensitivity to the QGP because they are produced predominantly in the initial hard scatterings and interact with the medium throughout its
evolution. This review summarizes measurements of open heavy
flavor and quarkonia by the PHENIX and
STAR experiments, focusing primarily on 200 GeV collisions recorded during the first two decades of RHIC operations. We discuss key results on charm, bottom, and quarkonium production cross sections; cold
nuclear matter effects in small collision systems;
nuclear modification factors and
elliptic flow of open heavy-
flavor hadrons; charm
baryon-to-
meson production ratios; and the suppression patterns of quarkonium states in Au+Au collisions. We further highlight the resulting insights into the properties of the QGP, including heavy-
quark transport, hadronization mechanisms, and quarkonium dissociation and regeneration in the medium. Finally, we discuss the future prospects of the RHIC heavy-
flavor program, enabled by the large data sets collected by the
STAR and sPHENIX experiments, and its strong synergy with the future Electron-Ion
Collider, where precision measurements of heavy-
flavor production in electron–
proton and electron–
nucleus collisions will provide complementary constraints on the structure of QCD matter.
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All authors Cameron Dean, Xin Dong, Rongrong Ma, Cesar Luiz da Silva
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Model Predictive Scoring Shows Specific BAO Observations (not SNIa) Drives $w_0w_a$ Tension
Tanveer Karim, Joshua S. Speagle and Renée Hložek
The recent analyses of DESI DR2 BAO, Planck CMB and various
Supernovae datasets have shown preferences for evolving dark energy at various levels of significance, under frequentist model comparison tests. However, the same analysis done with a pure
Bayesian model comparison test can lead to the opposite conclusion due to the impact of $w_0w_a$ priors. In contrast to these in-sample model comparison route, we approach the problem along a third axis – which model better predicts unseen data. We use the Expected Log Predictive Density (ELPD) metric to score the predictiveness of $\Lambda$CDM and $w_0w_a$CDM models, using the leave-one-
redshift-block-out cross-validation
estimator. The comparison metric $\Delta$ELPD is out-of-sample, unlike $\Delta \chi^2_{\rm MAP}$ and Bayes Factor, and insensitive to prior width, unlike the Bayes factor. Aggregated, we find modest preferences for $w_0 w_a$CDM, primarily driven by the BAO. Decomposing the $\Delta$ELPD score by
redshift we find that a single BAO block, LRG2 ($z = 0.706$), supplies the entire BAO preference. Interestingly, the biggest outlier point, LRG1, contributes little to the model predictive scoring because both $\Lambda$CDM and $w_0w_a$CDM fail to predict the observation by equal amount. On the other hand, all SNIa
datasets' $\Delta$ELPD scores are consistent with $0$, indicating that at an out-of-distribution predictive level, the $w_0w_a$CDM tension is entirely driven by one BAO point, not SNIa.
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High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)
Reinterpreting Supersymmetry
Igor Salom
The mathematically elegant and promising idea of supersymmetry faces severe challenges as its conventional weak-scale realizations are increasingly constrained by the lack of experimental evidence of superpartners. However, we point out that the prediction of new (seemingly non-existing) supersymmetric particles is not a necessity: if we slightly relax our expectations from the supersymmetric models, generators $Q^a_\alpha$ of $N$-extended supersymmetry can be readily interpreted as carrying a
quantum number of the internal gauge group, thus connecting particles with different gauge properties. In this view, operators $Q^a_\alpha$ remain “square roots” of translations, but do not by themselves generate
symmetries of the model. They merely represent transformations that mathematically relate bosonic and fermionic fields; it is only the gauge-invariant combinations of the form $\sum_a \{Q^a_\alpha, \bar Q_{a\beta}\}$ that correspond to spacetime momenta and thus represent
symmetries of the model. With this conceptual modification, the simplest Yang-Mills supersymmetric model no longer connects vector
bosons with hypothetical gauginos, but with far less exotic
chiral fermions, e.g.\ with left-handed
leptons. Further adding an $SU(2)$ doublet of
Higgs scalars no longer introduces Higgsinos, but a
fermion that naturally corresponds to the right-handed
lepton, with the familiar Yukawa term showing up as a mathematical necessity. Despite giving up the requirement that operators $Q^a_\alpha$ alone generate
symmetries of the action, this approach to supersymmetry is strikingly mathematically similar to standard SUSY, raising hopes that many of the favorable properties of standard supersymmetry can be retained, while potentially reconciling the idea of supersymmetry with experimental data. The approach is still quite restrictive: the relative coefficients of such models are strongly determined.
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High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)
Probing $\nu$SMEFT at Belle II with displaced dilepton vertices
Patrick D. Bolton, Fabian Esser, Lukáš Gráf et al. (+3 more)
The existence of right-handed (RH)
neutrinos is strongly motivated by the observation of small
neutrino masses and as a means to shed light on the origin of parity violation in the Standard Model (SM). Experimental searches for the corresponding mass eigenstates, referred to as heavy neutral
leptons (HNLs), have been carried out in a variety of experiments and within different HNL models. In the current work we use the SM effective field theory with added RH
neutrinos, known as $\nu$SMEFT, to study GeV-scale HNL production in $e^+e^-$ collisions at the Belle~II experiment. We focus on leptonic decays of long-lived HNLs that produce a displaced vertex in the Belle~II detector. Accounting for detection efficiency and backgrounds, we estimate the sensitivity of Belle~II to the new-physics scale of four-
fermion,
Higgs-current, and dipole operators in $\nu$SMEFT. We find that for most operators, the search we propose probes large regions of parameter space that are not excluded by other searches.
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All authors Patrick D. Bolton, Fabian Esser, Lukáš Gráf, Juraj Klarić, Suchita Kulkarni, Abner Soffer
High Energy Physics (Theory)
Boundary-Boundary Duality on Regular Black Holes, Supersymmetric Solitons and Holographic Spinning Plasma Disks
Andres Anabalon and Horatiu Nastase
We construct a new family of exact rotating solutions of four-dimensional Einstein–Maxwell theory with negative cosmological constant describing regular spinning AdS black holes and smooth
solitons. The geometries are free of
curvature singularities and admit open regions of parameter space without closed timelike curves, while supersymmetric limits correspond to causally regular horizonless configurations. A remarkable feature of these solutions is the existence of at least two codimension-one conformal boundaries. The first is Minkowski spacetime, where the expectation value of the energy–momentum tensor describes a finite spinning disk of strongly coupled conformal
plasma whose edge rotates at the speed of light. The second boundary is a rotating black-hole geometry with vanishing energy–momentum tensor but non-vanishing Cotton tensor, defining a
holographic theory in which the dual graviton is fixed at the boundary. We show that the energy density associated with the dual graviton exactly reproduces that of the
plasma after a suitable analytic continuation and the identification of the
holographic energy scale with the Lorentz factor of the rotating fluid, providing evidence for a boundary-boundary duality. Indeed, electromagnetic duality exchanges the electric and
magnetic currents between the boundary supporting the graviton and that supporting the dual graviton thus providing a generalized mirror
symmetry between these boundary theories. Hence, the Lorentz factor is identified with the electromagnetic dual of the renormalization scale. In an appropriate limit, the solutions reduce to the planar Reissner–Nordström–AdS black hole, whereas the supersymmetric
solitons have no regular static limit.
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Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
The influence of quantum geometry on the phase boundary and collective excitations of electron liquids and crystals
Paul Froese, Mark R. Hirsbrunner and Yong Baek Kim
Recent experiments on multilayer
graphene systems have reinvigorated the study of electron crystallization, now with the inclusion of
quantum geometry. In this work, we apply time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) to the $\lambda$-jellium model to analyze the impact that
quantum geometry has on the electronic
liquid–
crystal phase diagram and how it modifies the collective modes and responses of the
liquid and
crystal phases. In agreement with recent results utilizing neural
quantum states, we find that
quantum geometry favours electron crystallization, shifting the transition to higher densities. We also study the instabilities revealed by TDHF in the
Fermi liquid ground state at low densities, providing insight into the fluctuations driving the crystallization transition. We further find that
quantum geometry reduces the dispersion of the plasmon mode and suppresses Friedel oscillations deep in the
liquid phase. Resolving the density response in terms of individual orbitals, we find that this suppression is caused by spectral weight transfer to an out-of-phase inter-orbital mode. Finally, we show that an analogous mode that emerges in the
crystal phase corresponds to the breathing mode of an emergent real-space pseudospin skyrmion
lattice.
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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Emergent dark sector in group field theory cosmology
Andrea Calcinari, Federico Greco, Daniele Oriti et al. (+1 more)
We develop an analytical treatment of the emergent cosmological dynamics induced by local
polynomial interactions in a deparametrised group field theory model, moving beyond the usual non-interacting approximation. For a single field mode with quartic and sextic couplings we obtain a closed-form generalised Friedmann equation within a controlled Gaussian regime. The dynamics preserves the
quantum bounce while generating effective dark matter and dark energy contributions as collective
quantum-
geometric phenomena, providing the first derivation of both components from a single model. Matching the resulting dark-energy-to-dark-matter density ratio to observations places concrete phenomenological constraints on the fundamental theory, linking the
cosmic coincidence problem directly to the underlying
quantum gravity dynamics. Our results extend to arbitrary even
polynomial interactions, establishing a systematic dictionary between microscopic interaction orders and effective equations of state.
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All authors Andrea Calcinari, Federico Greco, Daniele Oriti, Pietro Pellecchia
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Widespread Inflows Reveal Baryonic Cycling in Star-forming and Quiescent Galaxies
Hassen M. Yesuf, Ravi Joshi, Yuxuan Zou et al. (+8 more)
Cool-gas inflows, required to sustain
star formation, have been fundamental in simulations yet remained observationally elusive. Using DESI spectroscopy of ~30,000
galaxies, we identify coherent inflowing gas (~100 km/s) in 20-50% of the sample, yielding a population-level census of gas flows. We uncover a striking inversion: inflows are detected in quiescent
galaxies, whereas
star-forming systems are dominated by gravitationally bound
outflows. At fixed age,
galaxies with inflows,
outflows, or no/weak flows share similar masses, environments, and structures, indicating that these properties do not differentiate flow states. Instead, gas-flow state is linked to
stellar population age and recent evolutionary history, consistent with age-dependent gas flows in two regimes. In some
star-forming
galaxies, elevated
star formation surface densities drive
outflows that recycle on ~0.5 Gyr timescales, consistent with a
galactic fountain. In quiescent systems, low-level “drizzling” inflows persist, consistent with slowly cooling enriched
halo gas and weak
radio-mode
nuclear activity. Broad gas-phase
metallicity distributions—and absence of a pristine dilution signature—indicate that detected inflows are predominantly recycled or enriched. Detectability is modulated by
dust, ionization, and geometry: in
star-forming disks, inflowing gas lies near the disk plane and is obscured or ionized, while
outflow hosts exhibit higher
dust and metal content. As
star formation declines, cold-
outflow signatures weaken, and recycled or slowly cooling gas is more readily detected as inflow. Post-starburst
galaxies provide snapshots of this transition. Our results resolve the scarcity of observed inflows, provide evidence for widespread gas
accretion and recycling in present day
galaxies, and establish an observational framework linking gas flows to
star formation, chemical
evolution, and
galaxy structure.
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All authors Hassen M. Yesuf, Ravi Joshi, Yuxuan Zou, Feng Yuan, Luis C. Ho, Lin Lin, Lei Hao, Shiyin Shen, Connor Bottrell, Fulai Guo, John D. Silverman
Physics Education
Why the better conductor surges in impedance: a low-cost demonstration of the skin effect at line frequency
Florian Platten and Helmut Wenz
When alternating current flows through a conductor, induced internal eddy currents suppress current flow in the core and restrict it to a thin surface layer. Although this effect, known as the skin effect, is covered in virtually every undergraduate electrodynamics course, it is rarely explored experimentally without specialized and expensive equipment, and is sometimes even considered a mere high-frequency phenomenon. Here, we present a readily accessible, quantitative demonstration of the skin effect at line frequency using only standard laboratory supplies: an AC/DC power supply, basic multimeters, and laboratory support rods as cylindrical conductors. Based on a precise four-point Kelvin sensing scheme capable of resolving milliohm-range resistances, we exploit relative
magnetic permeability rather than high frequency as the governing parameter to control skin depth. For non-
magnetic stainless steel, line frequency represents an electrodynamically low frequency, resulting in identical AC and DC behaviour; whereas for
ferromagnetic structural steel, high permeability compresses the skin depth to the millimeter scale, causing a sharp surge in AC impedance. This produces a counterintuitive outcome where the statically superior conductor suffers a marked relative impedance increase, whereas the poorer conductor remains unaffected, challenging common student expectations and catalyzing cognitive activation. Depending on the instructional setting, the approach can be implemented either as a quick lecture demonstration or as a quantitative experiment within an undergraduate laboratory course.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies
Recovering Ionizing Photon Escape and Galaxy Scaling Relations in the LzLCS via Si II and C II Absorption Lines and Mock Spectra from a Radiation-Hydrodynamic Simulation
John Trevino, Simon Gazagnes, Danielle A. Berg et al. (+7 more)
In this work, we use a radiation-hydrodynamic simulation of a single $\sim10^9M_{\odot}$ virtual
galaxy to study Si II and C II line profiles seen in stacked HST/COS spectra of 58
galaxies from the LzLCS+ sample. We compare stacks across three mass bins ($M_{\star} \leq 10^8M_{\odot}$, $10^8$-$10^9M_{\odot}$, and $M_{\star} \geq 10^9M_{\odot}$) and three stacking methods (mean, median, and weighted average) to a library of 22,500 mock spectra. We investigate whether the simulation can accurately mimic real gas features, reveal clear trends with
galaxy properties, and provide indirect estimates of the ionizing escape fraction ($f_{\rm esc}$). We find reasonable agreement between simulated and observed profiles ($\chi^2 < 1$) across all mass regimes. Notably, extracting line properties such as EW and $R_f$ from best-fit mock profiles provides a robust alternative to direct empirical trends, particularly in the low-S/N regime where noise frequently biases results. The simulation-based LIS features, although derived from a single virtual object, exhibit clear correlations with $M_{\star}$, SFR, and $f_{\rm esc}$, mirroring established empirical scaling relations. We find that the best-matching mock spectra predominantly originate from simulation time steps corresponding to peak UV luminosity and intense starburst phases, suggesting that these active periods generate the ISM diversity observed in
star-forming
galaxies. Finally, simulation-based estimates ($f_{\rm esc}^{\rm virtual}$) reproduce the observed mass-dependent trends in $f_{\rm esc}$ and are in close agreement with the average $f_{\rm esc}$ of the generated stacks. This simulation-based framework establishes a relevant methodology for interpreting spectroscopic observations, including inferring $f_{\rm esc}$ and characterizing physical scaling relations, in high-
redshift galaxies from the Epoch of Reionization.
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All authors John Trevino, Simon Gazagnes, Danielle A. Berg, Kaelee S. Parker, Valentin Mauerhofer, Jeremy Blaizot, Anne Verhamme, Sophia R. Flury, Anne E. Jaskot, Alberto Saldana-Lopez
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Improvements to Asteroseismic Fitting of White Dwarfs in the Gaia Era
Andrew H. Dublin, Keaton J. Bell and Agnès Bischoff-Kim
White
dwarf asteroseismology aims to constrain the interior structures of pulsating white
dwarf stars by fitting observed pulsation periods to those computed for
stellar models. However, there remain several obstacles for achieving reliable results with the model grid-fitting approach. We simulate data for a parameter recovery experiment in one and two dimensions (mass and effective temperature) to demonstrate improved methodologies that address challenges for characterizing degenerate asteroseismic solutions. We show that interpolating model periods onto a finer grid can adequately resolve asteroseismic solutions that would be missed with sparse model grids. Incorporating absolute magnitude from
Gaia astrometry into the statistical fitting is shown to reduce solution degeneracy. We define a seismic solution as a solution to the mode identification problem, and we show that fitting to consistent model pulsation modes can isolate each candidate solution in degenerate solution space. A criterion based on $\chi^2$ for what should be considered a reasonable fit is adopted, and we identify all combinations of model periods that meet this criterion, not only those nearest to the measured periods. Finally, we demonstrate how fitting Gaussians to probability distributions allows for the robust characterization of each candidate solution, including uncertainties. Our accurate characterization of the degenerate solution landscape is supported by the comparison of our solutions to a direct marginalization of the likelihood function. These fitting approaches can be generalized to higher dimensions, where there are more than two free parameters.
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Astrophysics of Galaxies
AGN-DB: A Unified Multi-Wavelength Database of Active Galactic Nuclei
Alessandro Peca, Nico Cappelluti, C. Megan Urry et al. (+29 more)
We present the Active
Galactic Nuclei Database (AGN-DB), a comprehensive, multi-wavelength catalog compiled from more than 100 publicly available AGN catalogs and samples released by the end of 2025, spanning
radio to $\gamma$-ray wavelengths. The database contains approximately 8.1 million unique sources, approximately 7.8 million of which remain after flagging
stellar contaminants, and approximately 6.8 million of these are classified as AGN. Source cross-matching across catalogs is performed using Lyra, a
Bayesian likelihood-ratio framework that jointly considers positional uncertainties, source densities, and photometric information to compute posterior match probabilities. The resulting catalog provides astrometric coordinates,
redshifts, photometry, and classifications for each unique source. All multi-catalog provenance is preserved. For every property, we store the full array of values and originating catalog identifiers, enabling multi-epoch and multi-survey analyses. In this paper, we describe the AGN-DB pipeline, including the cross-matching methodology, and present the statistical properties of the v1.0 catalog. AGN-DB is designed to enable population studies, spectral energy distribution modeling, AGN classification, and variability analyses at an unprecedented scale. Its pipeline is designed to facilitate the integration of new catalogs, allowing AGN-DB to be updated regularly, with releases planned at least annually.
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All authors Alessandro Peca, Nico Cappelluti, C. Megan Urry, Zhongtian Hu, Jerry R. Bonnell, Jack McKeown, Giulia Cerini, Xulei Sun, Fabio Pacucci, Tracey Jane Turner, Peter G. Boorman, Aritra Ghosh, Connor Auge, Rebeka L. Böttger, Adi Foord, Massimiliano Galeazzi, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Iver Warburton Kilmarrin, Allison Kirkpatrick, Michael J. Koss, Stephanie LaMassa, Md Mahmudunnobe, Stefano Marchesi, Lea Marcotulli, Isaac Moskowitz, Priyamvada Natarajan, Mitsunori Ogihara, Meredith Powell, David Sanders, Dominic Sicilian, Chuan Tian, Ezequiel Treister
Quantum Physics
Reply to the Comment on "The Axiom of Choice and the No-Signalling Principle"
Ämin Baumeler, Borivoje Dakić, Flavio Del Santo et al. (+1 more)
We clarify the meaning of a probabilistic no-signalling strategy in Ref [Proc. R. Soc. A 481, 20240601]. For every fixed input, the deterministic strategy constructed using the Axiom of Choice can indeed be represented by a Dirac probability distribution over the outputs. The relevant distinction arises when one considers the complete process from input to output, with the input itself sampled according to a probability distribution. In this case, the input and output spaces must be measurable and the dependence of the conditional output distribution on the input must also be measurable. Equivalently, the conditional distributions must form a Markov kernel. The Axiom-of-Choice strategy fails precisely this measurability requirement.
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All authors Ämin Baumeler, Borivoje Dakić, Flavio Del Santo, Miloš Milovanović
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Vidhi Tailor, Viviana Casasola, Francesco Calura et al. (+17 more)
Context: Understanding the interstellar medium (ISM) requires high-resolution, multi-component mapping to capture its complex physical structure. Nearby spiral
galaxies, with their abundant and diverse ISM, provide an ideal laboratory for such a comprehensive analysis at sub-
galactic scales. Aims: We investigate
dust-to-gas (DGR) and
dust-to-metal (DMR) ratios as a functions of gas-phase
metallicity (Z), on spatial scales ranging from 0.6 to 2.3 kpc, in a sample of 10 nearby spiral
galaxies, spanning more than an order of magnitude in
stellar mass (9.7 \le \log(M_*/M_\odot) \leq 11.0),
star formation rate (SFR, \sim 0.3–3 \, M_\odot \, \rm yr^{-1}) and
metallicity ranging from 8.3 \lesssim 12 + \log( O/H) \lesssim 8.8. We explore how the DGR-Z and DMR-Z relations are shaped by the assumptions behind the CO-to-H_2 conversion factor (\alpha_{CO}). Methods: We homogeneously combine maps of
dust, atomic gas, molecular gas, and
metallicity. Motivated by the diversity in L_{CO(1-0)}/SFR ratios and
metallicity across our sample, we introduce a hybrid \alpha_{CO} prescription to distinguish between CO-bright and CO-dark regimes. The derived DGR-Z and DMR-Z relations are compared with other global and resolved observational results, and with the predictions of
dust and chemical
evolution models. Results: Both DGR-Z and DMR-Z relations are dependent on the adopted \alpha_{CO} prescription, and no single \alpha_{CO} can reproduce the properties of the entire sample, motivating the use of a hybrid approach. The DGR increases with
metallicity, spanning \sim 1 dex across the sampled range; while the DMR remains approximately constant at \log(\mathrm{DMR}) = -0.53 \pm 0.13, implying that \sim 30 % of metals are locked into
dust grains. This flat behavior indicates an evolved
dust phase where efficient ISM grain growth drives a saturation regime balancing
dust formation and destruction.
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All authors Vidhi Tailor, Viviana Casasola, Francesco Calura, Francesca Pozzi, Jacopo Fritz, Maritza Lara-López, Marco Palla, Simone Bianchi, Santiago Álvarez-Córdoba, Matteo Bonato, María Emilia De Rossi, Sami Dib, Luis E. Garduño, Andrea Giannetti, Omar López Cruz, Marina M. Puebla, Evangelos D. Paspaliaris, Leonid S. Pilyugin, Guillermo Valé, Mabel Valerdi
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Exact quantum spin liquids with topological order on maple-leaf and trellis lattices
Li Ern Chern, Roderich Moessner and Claudio Castelnovo
We construct
spin models with bond-dependent anisotropic interactions on the penta-coordinated maple-leaf and trellis
lattices, which yield exact $\mathbb{Z}_2$
quantum spin liquids akin to the Kitaev honeycomb model. We characterize the resulting ground states by their flux sectors, Chern numbers, and topological excitations. Using replica exchange
quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we find that the gauge fluxes are ordered at sufficiently low temperatures such that every unit triangle has $\pm \pi/2$-flux, where the sign is uniform across the system, and every unit hexagon (square) has $0$-flux ($\pi$-flux) within the parameter space of interest. We map out the topological phase diagram for each model, which reveals parameter regimes hosting $\mathbb{Z}_2$ and Ising topological orders, and we derive an analytical expression for the mass term of the Majorana
fermions, the vanishing of which indicates a transition between these phases. We further establish the correspondence between individual
vortices (i.e., flux excitations) and two species of anyons in the dimer limit, overcoming the obstacle faced by degenerate perturbation theory in treating odd-length elementary plaquettes. Interestingly, we find that two dimer limits of the maple-leaf model with distinct assignments of anyon species can be smoothly connected to each other in the
vortex-free sector, but they are separated by
fermion-gap-closing transitions in certain two-
vortex sectors.
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