Wed·Sep 23, 2020Wednesday·September 23, 2020

1. 01*

   Electroweak symmetry breaking in the inverse seesaw mechanism

   Sanjoy Mandal🇪🇸 · Rahul Srivastava🇮🇳 · José W. F. Valle🇪🇸

   We investigate the stability of Higgs potential in inverse seesaw models. We derive the full two-loop RGEs of the relevant parameters, such as the quartic Higgs self-coupling, taking thresholds into account. We find that for relatively large Yukawa couplings the Higgs quartic self-coupling goes negative well below the Standard Model instability scale $\sim 10^{10}$ GeV. We show, however, that the ``dynamical'' inverse seesaw with spontaneous lepton number violation can lead to a completely consistent and stable Higgs vacuum up to the Planck scale.

   hep-phJHEP(2021)·8 citations
2. 02*

   Analysis of Light Neutrino Exchange and Short-Range Mechanisms in $0\nu \beta \beta$ Decay

   Frank F. Deppisch🇬🇧 · Lukas Graf🇩🇪 · Francesco Iachello🇺🇸 · Jenni Kotila🇫🇮

   Neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu \beta \beta$) is a crucial test for lepton number violation. Observation of this process would have fundamental implications for neutrino physics, theories beyond the Standard Model and cosmology. Focussing on so called short-range operators of $0\nu \beta \beta$ and their potential interplay with the standard light Majorana neutrino exchange, we present the first complete calculation of the relevant nuclear matrix elements, performed within the interacting boson model (IBM-2). Furthermore, we calculate the relevant phase space factors using exact Dirac electron wavefunctions, taking into account the finite nuclear size and screening by the electron cloud. The obtained numerical results are presented together with up-to-date limits on the standard mass mechanism and effective $0\nu \beta \beta$ short-range operators in the IBM-2 framework. Finally, we interpret the limits in the particle physics scenarios incorporating heavy sterile neutrinos, Left-Right symmetry and R-parity violating supersymmetry.

   hep-phnucl-exnucl-thPRD(2020)·132 citations
3. 03*

   Anomaly in the differential cross sections at 13 TeV

   O.V. Selyugin🇷🇺

   The analysis of the new TOTEM data at 13 TeV in a wide momentum transfer region reveals the unusual phenomenon - the presence in the elastic scattering amplitude of a term with a very large slope that is responsible for the behaviour of hadron scattering at a very small momentum transfer. This term can be connected with hadron interactions at large distances.

   hep-phhep-exMod.Phys.Lett.A(2021)·15 citations
4. 04*

   Model of Boson and Fermion Particle Masses

   J. W. Moffat🇨🇦

   The boson and fermion particle masses are calculated in a finite quantum field theory. The field theory satisfies Poincaré invariance, unitarity and microscopic causality, and all loop graphs are finite to all orders of perturbation theory. The infinite derivative nonlocal field interactions are regularized with a mass (length) scale parameter ${\Lambda }_i$. The $W$, $Z$ and Higgs boson masses are calculated from finite one-loop self-energy graphs. The $W^{\pm }$ mass is predicted to be $M_W=80.05$ GeV, and the higher order radiative corrections to the Higgs boson mass $m_H=125$ GeV are damped out above the regulating mass scale parameter ${\Lambda }_H=1.57$ TeV. The three generations of quark and lepton masses are calculated from finite one-loop self-interactions, and there is an exponential spacing in mass between the quarks and leptons.

   hep-phhep-thEur.Phys.J.Plus(2021)·10 citations
5. 05*

   Neutrino flavor oscillations without flavor states

   Bruno de S. L. Torres🇨🇦 · T. Rick Perche🇨🇦 · André G. S. Landulfo🇧🇷 · George E. A. Matsas🇧🇷

   We analyze the problem of neutrino oscillations via a fermionic particle detector model inspired by the physics of the Fermi theory of weak interactions. The model naturally leads to a description of emission and absorption of neutrinos in terms of localized two-level systems. By explicitly including source and detector as part of the dynamics, the formalism is shown to recover the standard results for neutrino oscillations without mention to "flavor states", which are ill defined in quantum field theory. This illustrates how particle detector models provide a powerful theoretical tool to approach the measurement issue in quantum field theory and emphasizes that the notion of flavor states, although sometimes useful, must not play any crucial role in neutrino phenomenology.

   hep-phhep-thPRD(2020)·47 citations
6. 06*

   Fully-heavy tetraquarks in strongly interacting medium

   Jiaxing Zhao🇨🇳 · Shuzhe Shi🇨🇦 · Pengfei Zhuang🇨🇳

   We study the properties of fully-heavy tetraquarks at finite temperature and their production in high-energy nuclear collisions. We obtain the masses and wave functions of the exotic hadron states $cc\bar{c}\bar{c}$ and $bb\bar{b}\bar{b}$ by solving the four-body Schrödinger equation in vacuum and strongly interacting matter. In vacuum, the tetraquarks are above the corresponding meson-meson mass threshold, and the newly observed exotic state $X(6900)$ might be a $cc\bar{c}\bar{c}$ state with quantum number $J^{PC}=0^{++}$ or $1^{+-}$. In hot medium, the temperature dependence of the tetraquark masses and the dissociation temperatures are calculated. Taking the wave function at finite temperature, we construct the Wigner function for the tetraquark states and calculate, with coalescence mechanism, the production yield and transverse momentum distribution of $cc\bar{c}\bar{c}$ in heavy-ion collisions at LHC energy. In comparison with nucleon-nucleon collisions, the yield per binary collision is significantly enhanced.

   hep-phnucl-thPRD(2020)·90 citations
7. 07*

   NANOGrav results and Dark First Order Phase Transitions

   Andrea Addazi🇨🇳 · Yi-Fu Cai🇨🇳 · Qingyu Gan🇨🇳 · Antonino Marciano🇨🇳 · Kaiqiang Zeng🇨🇳

   The recent NANOGrav evidence of a common-source stochastic background provides a hint to Gravitational Waves (GW) radiation from the Early Universe. We show that this result can be interpreted as a GW spectrum produced from First Order Phase Transitions (FOPTs) around a temperature in the KeV-MeV window. Such a class of FOPTs at temperatures much below the electroweak scale can be naturally envisaged in several Warm Dark Matter models such as Majoron Dark Matter.

   hep-phgr-qcSCPMA(2021)·98 citations
8. 08*

   Mixed QCD-electroweak corrections to W-boson production in hadron collisions

   Arnd Behring🇩🇪 · Federico Buccioni🇬🇧 · Fabrizio Caola🇬🇧 · Maximillian Delto🇩🇪 · Matthieu Jaquier🇩🇪 · Kirill Melnikov🇩🇪 · Raoul Röntsch🇨🇭

   We compute mixed QCD-electroweak corrections to the fully-differential production of an on-shell $W$ boson. Decays of $W$ bosons to lepton pairs are included in the leading order approximation. The required two-loop virtual corrections are computed analytically for arbitrary values of the electroweak gauge boson masses. Analytic results for integrated subtraction terms are obtained within a soft-collinear subtraction scheme optimized to accommodate the structural simplicity of infra-red singularities of mixed QCD-electroweak contributions. Numerical results for mixed corrections to the fiducial cross section of $pp\to W^{+}\to l^{+}\nu$ and selected kinematic distributions in this process are presented.

   hep-phhep-exPRD(2021)·59 citations
9. 09*

   Lepton-flavour violation in hadronic tau decays and $\mu -\tau$ conversion in nuclei

   Tomas Husek🇪🇸 · Kevin Monsalvez-Pozo🇪🇸 · Jorge Portoles (Instituto de Fisica Corpuscular, Valencia (Spain))🇪🇸

   Within the Standard Model Effective Field Theory framework, with operators up to dimension 6, we perform a model-independent analysis of the lepton-flavour-violating processes involving tau leptons. Namely, we study hadronic tau decays and $\ell$--$\tau$ conversion in nuclei, with $\ell =e,\mu$. Based on available experimental limits, we establish constraints on the Wilson coefficients of the operators contributing to these processes. Our work paves the way to extract the related information from Belle II and foreseen future experiments.

   hep-phhep-exJHEP(2021)·45 citations
10. 10*

    Neutrino Observables from a U(2) Flavor Symmetry

    Matthias Linster🇩🇪 · Jacobo Lopez-Pavon🇪🇸 · Robert Ziegler🇩🇪

    We study the predictions for CP phases and absolute neutrino mass scale for broad classes of models with a U(2) flavor symmetry. For this purpose we consider the same special textures in neutrino and charged lepton mass matrices that are succesful in the quark sector. While in the neutrino sector the U(2) structure enforces two texture zeros, the contribution of the charged lepton sector to the PMNS matrix can be parametrized by two rotation angles. Restricting to the cases where at least one of these angles is small, we obtain three representative scenarios. In all scenarios we obtain a narrow prediction for the sum of neutrino masses in the range of 60$-$75 meV, possibly in the reach of upcoming galaxy survey experiments. All scenarios can be excluded if near-future experimental date provide evidence for either neutrinoless double-beta decay or inverted neutrino mass ordering.

    hep-phPRD(2021)·9 citations
11. 11*

    Medium effects on the electrical and Hall conductivities of a hot and magnetized pion gas

    Pallavi Kalikotay🇮🇳 · Snigdha Ghosh🇮🇳 · Nilanjan Chaudhuri🇮🇳 · Pradip Roy🇮🇳 · Sourav Sarkar🇮🇳

    The electrical and Hall conductivities in a uniform magnetic field are evaluated for an interacting pion gas using the kinetic theory approach within the ambit of relaxation time approximation (RTA). The in-medium cross sections vis-a-vis the relaxation time for $\pi \pi$ scattering are obtained using a one-loop modified thermal propagator for the exchanged $\rho$ and $\sigma$ mesons using thermal field theoretic techniques. For higher values of the magnetic field, a monotonic increase of the electrical conductivity with the temperature is observed. However, for a given temperature the conductivity is found to decrease steadily with magnetic field. The Hall conductivity, at lower values of the magnetic field, is found to decrease with temperature more rapidly than the electrical conductivity, whereas at higher values of the magnetic field, a linear increase is seen. Use of the in-medium scattering cross-section is found to produce a significant effect on the temperature dependence of both electrical and Hall conductivities compared to the case where vacuum cross-section is used.

    hep-phnucl-thPRD(2020)·24 citations
12. 12*

    Exact quark-mass dependence of the Higgs-photon form factor at three loops in QCD

    Marco Niggetiedt🇩🇪

    We follow up on our discussion of the exact quark-mass dependence of the Higgs-gluon form factor at three loops in QCD (arXiv:2001.03008) and turn our attention to the closely related Higgs-photon form factor. Similarly to our previous work, we intend to examine the form factor for the decay of a Higgs-boson with variable mass into two photons at the three-loop level in QCD. The set of master integrals is known numerically due to prior work on the Higgs-gluon form factor and is exploited to obtain expansions around the threshold as well as in the high-energy limit. Our results may be utilised to derive the photonic decay rate of the Higgs-boson through next-to-next-to-leading order.

    hep-phJHEP(2021)·17 citations
13. 13*

    Kinetic mixing, custodial symmetry, $Z$, $Z^{\prime }$ interactions and $Z^{\prime }$ production in hadron colliders

    M. Napsuciale🇲🇽 · S. Rodriguez🇲🇽 · H. Hernandez-Arellano🇲🇽

    In this work we study the interactions of the $Z$ and $Z^{\prime }$ generated by kinetic mixing in a class of theories for physics beyond the standard model motivated by the dark matter problem, containing a spontaneously broken extra $U(1{)}_d$ gauge factor group in a hidden scenario and a Higgs sector respecting custodial symmetry. It is shown that custodial symmetry allows us to write the $Z$ and $Z^{\prime }$ couplings to standard model fermions in terms of the measured values of $\alpha$, $G_F$, $M_Z$ and $M_{Z^{\prime }}$. Working at the loop level, we calculate the ratio ${\rho }_0=M_W^2/{\hat{c}}_Z^2{M}_Z^2\hat{\rho }$ used in the fit to electroweak precision data (EWPD) and use its value to estimate possible effects of kinetic mixing at the electroweak scale. For the $Z$ sector, we calculate the oblique parameters $S$ and $T$, finding that for $M_{Z^{\prime }}\ge M_Z$ our results are in agreement with the values of the oblique parameters extracted from the global fit to EWPD at $1\sigma$ level. As to the $Z^{\prime }$ sector, we calculate the $Z^{\prime }$ contributions to charged lepton pair production at the Large Hadron Colliderin the well motivated case of dark matter entering particle physics as the matter fields of the $U(1{)}_d$ gauge symmetry with perturbative couplings at the electroweak scale, finding that data reported by the Compact Muon Selenoid Collaboration impose a lower limit $M_{Z^{\prime }}\gtrsim 5.0TeV$.

    hep-ph1 citation
14. 14*

    Global analysis of the Sivers functions at NLO+NNLL in QCD

    Miguel G. Echevarria🇪🇸 · Zhong-Bo Kang🇺🇸 · John Terry🇺🇸

    We perform global fit to the quark Sivers function within the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) factorization formalism in QCD. We simultaneously fit Sivers asymmetry data from Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering (SIDIS) at COMPASS, HERMES, and JLab, from Drell-Yan lepton pair production at COMPASS, and from $W/Z$ boson at RHIC. This extraction is performed at next-to-leading order (NLO) and next-to-next-to leading logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy. We find excellent agreement between our extracted asymmetry and the experimental data for SIDIS and Drell-Yan lepton pair production, while tension arises when trying to describe the spin asymmetries of $W/Z$ bosons at RHIC. We carefully assess the situation, and we study in details the impact of the RHIC data and their implications through different ways of performing the fit. In addition, we find that the quality of the description of $W/Z$ vector boson asymmetry data could be strongly sensitive to the DGLAP evolution of Qiu-Sterman function, besides the usual TMD evolution. We present discussion on this and the implications for measurements of the transverse-spin asymmetries at the future Electron Ion Collider.

    hep-phhep-exnucl-exnucl-thJHEP(2021)·95 citations
15. 15*

    Custodial Symmetry (Violation) in SMEFT

    Graham D. Kribs🇺🇸 · Xiaochuan Lu🇺🇸 · Adam Martin🇺🇸 · Tom Tong🇺🇸

    We investigate precision observables sensitive to custodial symmetric/violating UV physics beyond the Standard Model. We use the SMEFT framework which in general includes non-oblique corrections that requires a generalization of the Peskin-Takeuchi $T$ parameter to unambiguously detect custodial symmetry/violation. We take a first step towards constructing a SMEFT reparameterization-invariant replacement, that we call $\mathcal{T}$, valid at least for tree-level custodial violating contributions. We utilize a new custodial basis of $\nu$SMEFT (SMEFT augmented by right-handed neutrinos) which explicitly identifies the global $SU(2{)}_R$ symmetries of the Higgs and fermion sectors, that in turn permits easy identification of higher-dimensional operators that are custodial preserving or violating. We carefully consider equation-of-motion redundancies that cause custodial symmetric operators in one basis to be equivalent to a set of custodial symmetric and/or violating operators in another basis. Utilizing known results about tree/loop operator generation, we demonstrate that the basis-dependent appearance of custodial-violating operators does not invalidate our $\mathcal{T}$ parameter at tree-level. We illustrate our results with several UV theory examples, demonstrating that $\mathcal{T}$ faithfully identifies custodial symmetry violation, while $T$ can fail.

    hep-phPRD(2021)·10 citations
16. 16*

    Observing the thermalization of dark matter in neutron stars

    Raghuveer Garani🇧🇪 · Aritra Gupta🇧🇪 · Nirmal Raj🇨🇦

    A promising probe to unmask particle dark matter is to observe its effect on neutron stars, the prospects of which depend critically on whether captured dark matter thermalizes in a timely manner with the stellar core via repeated scattering with the Fermi-degenerate medium. In this work we estimate the timescales for thermalization for multiple scenarios. These include: (a) spin-0 and spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ dark matter, (b) scattering on non-relativistic neutron and relativistic electron targets accounting for the respective kinematics, (c) interactions via a range of Lorentz-invariant structures, (d) mediators both heavy and light in comparison to the typical transfer momenta in the problem. We discuss the analytic behavior of the thermalization time as a function of the dark matter and mediator masses, and the stellar temperature. Finally, we identify parametric ranges where both stellar capture is efficient and thermalization occurs within the age of the universe. For dark matter that can annihilate in the core, these regions indicate parametric ranges that can be probed by upcoming infrared telescopes observing cold neutron stars.

    hep-phastro-ph.HEastro-ph.SRhep-exPRD(2021)·99 citations
17. 17*

    Gauge/gravity dynamics for composite Higgs models and the top mass

    Johanna Erdmenger🇩🇪 · Nick Evans🇬🇧 · Werner Porod🇩🇪 · Konstantinos S. Rigatos🇬🇧

    We provide gauge/gravity dual descriptions of the strong coupling sector of composite Higgs models using insights from non-conformal examples of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We calculate particle masses and decay constants for proposed Sp(4) and SU(4) gauge theories, where there is the best lattice data for comparison. Our results compare favorably to lattice studies and go beyond those due to a greater flexibility in choosing the fermion content. That content changes the running dynamics and its choice can lead to sizable changes in the bound state masses. We describe top partners by a dual fermionic field in the bulk. Including suitable higher dimension operators can ensure a top mass consistent with the standard model.

    hep-phhep-thPRL(2021)·74 citations
18. 18*

    The physics potential of a reactor neutrino experiment with Skipper CCDs: Measuring the weak mixing angle

    Guillermo Fernandez-Moroni🇺🇸 · Pedro A.N. Machado🇺🇸 · Ivan Martinez-Soler🇺🇸 · Yuber F. Perez-Gonzalez🇺🇸 · Dario Rodrigues🇺🇸 · Salvador Rosauro-Alcaraz🇪🇸

    We analyze in detail the physics potential of an experiment like the one recently proposed by the vIOLETA collaboration: a kilogram-scale Skipper CCD detector deployed 12 meters away from a commercial nuclear reactor core. This experiment would be able to detect coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering from reactor neutrinos, capitalizing on the exceptionally low ionization energy threshold of Skipper CCDs. To estimate the physics reach, we elect the measurement of the weak mixing angle as a case study. We choose a realistic benchmark experimental setup and perform variations on this benchmark to understand the role of quenching factor and its systematic uncertainties,background rate and spectral shape, total exposure, and reactor antineutrino flux uncertainty. We take full advantage of the reactor flux measurement of the Daya Bay collaboration to perform a data driven analysis which is, up to a certain extent, independent of the theoretical uncertainties on the reactor antineutrino flux. We show that, under reasonable assumptions, this experimental setup may provide a competitive measurement of the weak mixing angle at few MeV scale with neutrino-nucleus scattering.

    hep-phhep-exJHEP(2021)·55 citations
19. 19*

    Nucleation is More than Critical -- A Case Study of the Electroweak Phase Transition in the NMSSM

    Sebastian Baum🇺🇸 · Marcela Carena🇺🇸 · Nausheen R. Shah🇺🇸 · Carlos E. M. Wagner🇺🇸 · Yikun Wang🇺🇸

    Electroweak baryogenesis is an attractive mechanism to generate the baryon asymmetry of the Universe via a strong first order electroweak phase transition. We compare the phase transition patterns suggested by the vacuum structure at the critical temperatures, at which local minima are degenerate, with those obtained from computing the probability for nucleation via tunneling through the barrier separating local minima. Heuristically, nucleation becomes difficult if the barrier between the local minima is too high, or if the distance (in field space) between the minima is too large. As an example of a model exhibiting such behavior, we study the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, whose scalar sector contains two SU(2) doublets and one gauge singlet. We find that the calculation of the nucleation probabilities prefers different regions of parameter space for a strong first order electroweak phase transition than the calculation based solely on the critical temperatures. Our results demonstrate that analyzing only the vacuum structure via the critical temperatures can provide a misleading picture of the phase transition patterns, and, in turn, of the parameter space suitable for electroweak baryogenesis.

    hep-phJHEP(2021)·62 citations
20. 20*

    Constraints on the curvature of the Universe and dynamical dark energy from the Full-shape and BAO data

    Anton Chudaykin🇷🇺 · Konstantin Dolgikh🇷🇺 · Mikhail M. Ivanov🇺🇸

    We present limits on the parameters of the o$\Lambda$CDM, $w_0$CDM, and $w_0{w}_a$CDM models obtained from the joint analysis of the full-shape, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and supernovae data. Our limits are fully independent of the data on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies, but rival the CMB constraints in terms of parameter error bars. We find the spatial curvature consistent with a flat universe ${\Omega }_k=-0.043_{-0.036}^{+0.036}$ ($68\%$ C.L.); the dark-energy equation of state parameter $w_0$ is measured to be $w_0=-1.031_{-0.048}^{+0.052}$ ($68\%$ C.L.), consistent with a cosmological constant. This conclusion also holds for the time-varying dark energy equation of state, for which we find $w_0=-0.98_{-0.11}^{+0.099}$ and $w_a=-0.33_{-0.48}^{+0.63}$ (both at $68\%$ C.L.). The exclusion of the supernovae data from the analysis does not significantly weaken our bounds. This shows that using a single external BBN prior, the full-shape and BAO data can provide strong CMB-independent constraints on the non-minimal cosmological models.

    ↳ astro-ph.COhep-phPRD(2021)·119 citations
21. 21*

    On Polytopes and Generalizations of the KLT Relations

    Nikhil Kalyanapuram🇺🇸

    We combine the technology of the theory of polytopes and twisted intersection theory to derive a large class of double copy relations that generalize the classical relations due to Kawai, Lewellen and Tye (KLT) . To do this, we first study a generalization of the scattering equations of Cachazo, He and Yuan. While the scattering equations were defined on ${\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$ - the moduli space of marked Riemann spheres - the new scattering equations are defined on polytopes known as accordiohedra, realized as hyperplane arrangements. These polytopes encode as patterns of intersection the scattering amplitudes of generic scalar theories. The twisted period relations of such intersection numbers provide a vast generalization of the KLT relations. Differential forms dual to the bounded chambers of the hyperplane arrangements furnish a natural generalization of the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson (BCJ) basis, the number of which can be determined by counting the number of solutions of the generalized scattering equations. In this work the focus is on a generalization of the BCJ expansion to generic scalar theories, although we use the labels KLT and BCJ interchangeably.

    ↳ hep-thhep-phJHEP(2020)·10 citations
22. 22*

    Emergent Universe and Genesis from the DHOST Cosmology

    Amara Ilyas🇨🇳 · Mian Zhu🇨🇳 · Yunlong Zheng🇨🇳 · Yi-Fu Cai🇨🇳

    In this article, we present an emergent universe scenario that can be derived from DHOST cosmology. The universe starts asymptotically Minkowski in the far past just like the regular Galileon Genesis, but evolves to a radiation dominated period at the late stage, and therefore, the universe has a graceful exit which is absent in the regular Galileon Genesis. We analyze the behavior of cosmological perturbations and show that both the scalar and tensor modes are free from the gradient instability problem. We further analyze the primordial scalar spectrum generated in various situations and discuss whether a scale invariance can be achieved.

    ↳ gr-qcastro-ph.COhep-phhep-thJHEP(2021)·47 citations
23. 23*

    Quarkonium in Quark-Gluon Plasma: Open Quantum System Approaches Re-examined

    Yukinao Akamatsu🇯🇵

    Dissociation of quarkonium in quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is a long standing topic in relativistic heavy-ion collisions because it has been believed to signal one of the fundamental natures of the QGP -- Debye screening due to the liberation of color degrees of freedom. Among recent new theoretical developments is the application of open quantum system framework to quarkonium in the QGP. Open system approach enables us to describe how dynamical as well as static properties of QGP influences the time evolution of quarkonium in a coherent way. Currently, there are several master equations for quarkonium corresponding to various scale assumptions, each derived in different theoretical frameworks. In this review, all of the existing master equations are systematically rederived as Lindblad equations in a unified framework. Also, as one of the most relevant descriptions in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, quantum Brownian motion of heavy quark pair in the QGP is studied in detail. The quantum Brownian motion is parametrized by a few fundamental quantities of QGP such as real and imaginary parts of heavy quark potential (complex potential), heavy quark momentum diffusion constant, and thermal dipole self-energy constant, which constitute in-medium self-energy of a static quarkonium. This indicates that the yields of quarkonia such as $J/\psi$ and ${\rm Y}$ in the relativistic heavy-ion collisions have the potential to determine these fundamental quantities.

    ↳ nucl-thcond-mat.stat-mechhep-phPPNP(2022)·123 citations
24. 24*

    From NANOGrav to LIGO with metastable cosmic strings

    Wilfried Buchmuller🇩🇪 · Valerie Domcke🇨🇭 · Kai Schmitz🇨🇭

    We interpret the recent NANOGrav results in terms of a stochastic gravitational wave background from metastable cosmic strings. The observed amplitude of a stochastic signal can be translated into a range for the cosmic string tension and the mass of magnetic monopoles arising in theories of grand unification. In a sizable part of the parameter space, this interpretation predicts a large stochastic gravitational wave signal in the frequency band of ground-based interferometers, which can be probed in the very near future. We confront these results with predictions from successful inflation, leptogenesis and dark matter from the spontaneous breaking of a gauged B-L symmetry.

    ↳ astro-ph.COhep-phPLB(2020)·179 citations
25. 25*

    Testing Late Time Cosmic Acceleration with uncorrelated Baryon Acoustic Oscillations dataset

    David Benisty🇬🇧 · Denitsa Staicova🇧🇬

    Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) involve measuring the spatial distribution of galaxies to determine the growth rate of cosmic structure. We derive constraints on cosmological parameters from $17$ uncorrelated BAO measurements that were collected from $333$ published data points in the effective redshift range $0.106\le z\le 2.36$. We test the correlation of the subset using random covariance matrix. The $\Lambda$CDM model fit yields the cosmological parameters: ${\Omega }_m=0.261\pm 0.028$ and ${\Omega }_{\Lambda }=0.733\pm 0.021$. Combining the BAO data with the Cosmic Chronometers data, the Pantheon Type Ia supernova and the Hubble Diagram of Gamma Ray Bursts and Quasars, the Hubble constant yields $69.85\pm 1.27km/sec/Mpc$ and the sound horizon distance gives: $146.1\pm 2.15Mpc$. Beyond the $\Lambda$CDM model we test ${\Omega }_K$CDM and wCDM. The spatial curvature is ${\Omega }_k=-0.076\pm 0.012$ and the dark energy equation of states: $w=-0.989\pm 0.049$. {We perform AIC test to compare the 3 models and see that $\Lambda$CDM scores best.

    ↳ astro-ph.COastro-ph.GAgr-qchep-phAstron.Astrophys.(2021)·97 citations
26. 26*

    Modified Gravity and the Black Hole Mass Gap

    Maria C. Straight🇺🇸 · Jeremy Sakstein🇺🇸 · Eric J. Baxter🇺🇸

    We pioneer the black hole mass gap as a powerful new tool for constraining modified gravity theories. These theories predict fifth forces that alter the structure and evolution of population-III stars, exacerbating the pair-instability. This results in the formation of lighter astrophysical black holes and lowers both the upper and lower edges of the mass gap. These effects are explored using detailed numerical simulations to derive quantitative predictions that can be used as theoretical inputs for Bayesian data analysis. We discuss detection strategies in light of current and upcoming data as well as complications that may arise due to environmental screening. To demonstrate the constraining power of the mass gap, we present a novel test of the strong equivalence principle where we apply our results to an analysis of the first ten LIGO/Virgo binary black hole merger events to obtain a $7\%$ bound on the relative difference between the gravitational constant experienced by baryonic matter, and that experienced by black holes, $\Delta G/G$. The recent GW190521 event resulting from two black holes with masses in the canonical mass gap can be explained by modified gravity if the event originated from an unscreened galaxy where the strength of gravity is enhanced by $\sim 30\%$ or reduced by $\sim 50\%$ relative to its strength in the solar system.

    ↳ gr-qcastro-ph.COastro-ph.HEhep-ph+1PRD(2020)·27 citations
27. 27*

    Optimizing large-scale structure data analysis with the theoretical error likelihood

    Anton Chudaykin🇷🇺 · Mikhail M. Ivanov🇺🇸 · Marko Simonović🇨🇭

    An important aspect of large-scale structure data analysis is the presence of non-negligible theoretical uncertainties, which become increasingly important on small scales. We show how to incorporate these uncertainties in realistic power spectrum likelihoods by an appropriate change of the fitting model and the covariance matrix. The inclusion of the theoretical error has several advantages over the standard practice of using the sharp momentum cut $k_{\max }$. First, the theoretical error covariance gradually suppresses the information from the short scales as the employed theoretical model becomes less reliable. This allows one to avoid laborious measurements of $k_{\max }$, which is an essential part of the standard methods. Second, the theoretical error likelihood gives unbiased constrains with reliable error bars that are not artificially shrunk due to over-fitting. In realistic settings, the theoretical error likelihood yields essentially the same parameter constraints as the standard analysis with an appropriately selected $k_{\max }$, thereby effectively optimizing the choice of $k_{\max }$. We demonstrate these points using the large-volume N-body data for the clustering of matter and galaxies in real and redshift space. In passing, we validate the effective field theory description of the redshift space distortions and show that the use of the one-parameter phenomenological Gaussian damping model for fingers-of-God causes significant biases in parameter recovery.

    ↳ astro-ph.COhep-phPRD(2021)·68 citations
28. 28*

    Early dark energy resolution to the Hubble tension in light of weak lensing surveys and lensing anomalies

    Riccardo Murgia🇫🇷 · Guillermo F. Abellán🇫🇷 · Vivian Poulin🇫🇷

    Early Dark Energy (EDE) contributing a fraction $f_{\mathrm{EDE}}(z_c)\sim 10\%$ of the energy density of the universe around $z_c\simeq 3500$ and diluting as or faster than radiation afterwards, can provide a resolution to the Hubble tension, the $\sim 5\sigma$ discrepancy between the $H_0$ value derived from early- and late-universe observations within $\Lambda$CDM. However, it has been pointed out that Large-Scale Structure (LSS) data, which are in $\sim 3\sigma$ tension with $\Lambda$CDM and EDE cosmologies, might alter these conclusions. We reassess the viability of the EDE against a host of high- and low-redshift measurements, by combining LSS observations from recent weak lensing (WL) surveys with CMB, Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO), growth function (FS) and Supernova Ia (SNIa) data. Introducing a model whose only parameter is $f_{\mathrm{EDE}}(z_c)$, we report a $\sim 2\sigma$ preference for non-zero $f_{\mathrm{EDE}}(z_c)$ from Planck data alone and the tension with SH0ES is reduced below $2\sigma$. Adding BAO, FS and SNIa does not affect this result, while the inclusion of a prior on $H_0$ from SH0ES increase the preference for non-zero EDE to $\sim 3.6\sigma$. After checking the EDE non-linear matter power spectrum predicted by standard semi-analytical algorithms via a set of $N$-body simulations, we show that current WL data do not rule out EDE. We also caution against the interpretation of constraints obtained from combining statistically inconsistent data sets within the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. In light of the CMB lensing anomalies, we show that the lensing-marginalized CMB data also favor non-zero $f_{\mathrm{EDE}}(z_c)$ at $\sim 2\sigma$, predicts $H_0$ in $1.4\sigma$ agreement with SH0ES and $S_8$ in $1.5\sigma$ ($0.8\sigma$) agreement with KV (DES) data. Alternatively, we discuss promising extensions of the EDE cosmology that could allow to fully restore cosmological concordance.

    ↳ astro-ph.COhep-phPRD(2021)·160 citations
29. 29*

    Early dark energy is not excluded by current large-scale structure data

    Tristan L. Smith🇺🇸 · Vivian Poulin🇫🇷 · José Luis Bernal🇺🇸 · Kimberly K. Boddy🇺🇸 · Marc Kamionkowski🇺🇸 · Riccardo Murgia🇫🇷

    We revisit the impact of early dark energy (EDE) on galaxy clustering using BOSS galaxy power spectra, analyzed using the effective field theory (EFT) of large-scale structure (LSS), and anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from Planck. Recent studies found that these data place stringent constraints on the maximum abundance of EDE allowed in the Universe. We argue here that their conclusions are a consequence of their choice of priors on the EDE parameter space, rather than any disagreement between the data and the model. For example, when considering EFT-LSS, CMB, and high-redshift supernovae data we find the EDE and $\Lambda$CDM models can provide statistically indistinguishable fits ($\Delta {\chi }^2=0.12$) with a relatively large value for the maximum fraction of energy density in the EDE ($f_{\mathrm{ede}}=0.09$) and Hubble constant ($H_0=71$ km/s/Mpc) in the EDE model. Moreover, we demonstrate that the constraining power added from the inclusion of EFT-LSS traces to the potential tension between the power-spectrum amplitudes $A_s$ derived from BOSS and from Planck that arises even within the context of $\Lambda$CDM. Until this is better understood, caution should be used when interpreting EFT-BOSS+Planck constraints to models beyond $\Lambda$CDM. These findings suggest that EDE still provides a potential resolution to the Hubble tension and that it is worthwhile to test the predictions of EDE with future data-sets and further study its theoretical possibilities.

    ↳ astro-ph.COhep-phPRD(2021)·224 citations
30. 30*

    Evolution of Non-Gaussian Hydrodynamic Fluctuations

    Xin An🇺🇸 · Gokce Basar🇺🇸 · Mikhail Stephanov🇺🇸 · Ho-Ung Yee🇺🇸

    In the context of the search for the QCD critical point using non-Gaussian fluctuations, we obtain the evolution equations for non-Gaussian cumulants to the leading order of the systematic expansion in the magnitude of thermal fluctuations. We develop a diagrammatic technique in which the leading order contributions are given by tree diagrams. We introduce a Wigner transform for multipoint correlators and derive the evolution equations for three- and four-point Wigner functions for the problem of nonlinear stochastic diffusion with multiplicative noise.

    ↳ hep-thcond-mat.stat-mechhep-phnucl-thPRL(2021)·60 citations

* Reconstructed cohort: no mailing for this day survives in the archive. Papers are grouped by their submission times and arXiv's announcement cut-off, assuming announcement without delay; positions follow identifier order. Validated at ~91% exact-day agreement against the archived era.