Mon·Apr 14, 2025Monday·April 14, 2025

1. 01*

   Photon Excess from Dark Matter and Neutrino Scattering at MiniBooNE and MicroBooNE

   Bhaskar Dutta🇺🇸 · Aparajitha Karthikeyan🇺🇸 · Doojin Kim🇺🇸 · Adrian Thompson🇺🇸 · Richard G. Van de Water🇺🇸

   We propose new solutions to accommodate both the MiniBooNE electron-like and MicroBooNE photon low-energy excesses, based on interactions involving light dark matter and/or neutrinos. The novelty of our proposal lies in the utilization of a photon arising from 2-to-3 scattering processes between a nucleus/nucleon and a neutrino and/or dark matter via exchanges of light mediators. We find that viable regions exist in the coupling and mass parameter space of the mediators and light dark matter that can simultaneously explain the observed excesses and remain consistent with current experimental constraints. We further highlight that these scenarios can be tested with upcoming data from various ongoing experiments.

   hep-phPRD(2026)·11 citations
2. 02*

   Kaon and Pion Fragmentation Functions

   Hui-Yu Xing🇨🇳 · Wen-Hao Bian🇨🇳 · Zhu-Fang Cui🇨🇳 · Craig D. Roberts🇨🇳

   The Drell-Levy-Yan relation is employed to obtain pion and kaon elementary fragmentation functions (EFFs) from the hadron-scale parton distribution functions (DFs) of these mesons. Two different DF sets are used: that calculated using a symmetry-preserving treatment of a vector $\times$ vector contact interaction (SCI) and the other expressing results obtained using continuum Schwinger function methods (CSMs). Thus determined, the EFFs serve as driving terms in a coupled set of hadron cascade equations, whose solution yields the complete array of hadron-scale fragmentation functions (FFs) for pion and kaon production in high energy reactions. After evolution to scales typical of experiments, the SCI and CSM FF predictions are seen to be in semiquantitative agreement. Importantly, they conform with a range of physical expectations for FF behaviour on the endpoint domains $z\simeq 0,1$, e.g., nonsinglet FFs vanish at $z=0$ and singlet FFs diverge faster than $1/z$. Predictions for hadron multiplicities in jets are also delivered. They reveal SU$(3)$ symmetry breaking in the charged-kaon/neutral-kaon multiplicity ratio, whose size diminishes with increasing reaction energy, and show that, with increasing energy, the pion/kaon ratio in $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to hX$ diminishes to a value that is independent of hadron masses.

   hep-phhep-exhep-latnucl-ex+1EPJC(2025)·18 citations
3. 03*

   Left-Right Symmetric Neutrino Mass Model without Scalar Bi-doublet

   Zafri A. Borboruah🇮🇳 · Lekhika Malhotra🇮🇳 · Utkarsh Patel🇮🇳 · Sudhanwa Patra🇮🇳 · S. Uma Sankar🇮🇳

   We consider a left-right symmetric model with an $SU(2{)}_L$ and an $SU(2{)}_R$ scalar doublet but without the scalar bidoublet. The charged fermion masses in this model are generated via a universal seesaw mechanism. We add a set of three gauge singlet neutral fermions with Majorana masses of the order of a TeV. The masses for the left-handed neutrinos are naturally small in this model because they occur only at one-loop and are generated through a see-saw mechanism. By an appropriate choice of the Yukawa couplings of the $SU(2{)}_L$ doublet and the masses of the gauge singlet fermions, it is possible to implement resonant leptogenesis at TeV scale. The right-handed sector of the model, through appropriate values of the Yukawa couplings of the $SU(2{)}_R$ doublet, leads to a warm dark matter candidate in the lightest right-handed neutrino with a mass of a few keV and an observable effective electron mass for neutrinoless double beta decay $m_{\beta \beta }$.

   hep-ph3 citations
4. 04*

   Asteroid-mass soliton as the dark matter-baryon coincidence solution

   Shinya Kanemura🇯🇵 · Shao-Ping Li🇯🇵 · Ke-Pan Xie🇨🇳

   Nontopological solitons formed during first-order phase transitions can serve as macroscopic dark matter candidates, with their stability ensured by a charge asymmetry traditionally assumed to originate from baryogenesis. Following this generic pattern, we demonstrate that solitogenesis after baryogenesis makes the solitons a coincident dark matter candidate, providing new explanations for the coincidence problem between baryon and dark matter energy densities. We derive a novel and robust conclusion: asteroid-mass coincident soliton dark matter is always accompanied by detectable gravitational waves observable by LISA, $\mu$Ares, and Theia, providing a new candidate beyond primordial black holes in this mass window. Additionally, we propose a simple neutrino-ball scenario that addresses baryon asymmetry, dark matter, and neutrino masses, featuring new particles below the electroweak scale and correlated observable signals, including lensing, gravitational waves, and soliton evaporation or collisions.

   hep-phastro-ph.COPRD(2025)·6 citations
5. 05*

   Phase Boundary of Nuclear Matter in Magnetic Field

   Yuki Amari🇯🇵 · Muneto Nitta🇯🇵 · Zebin Qiu🇯🇵

   Nuclear matter with a strong magnetic field is prevalent inside neutron stars and heavy-ion collisions. In a sufficiently large magnetic field the ground state is either a chiral soliton lattice (CSL), an array of solitons of the neutral pion field, or a domain-wall Skyrmion phase in which Skyrmions emerge inside the chiral solitons. In the region of large chemical potential and a magnetic field lower than its critical value for CSL, a Skyrmion crystal is expected to take up the ground state based on the chiral perturbation theory at the next leading order. We determine the phase boundary between such a Skyrmion crystal and the QCD vacuum. There was a conjecture that a magnetic field deforms the Skyrmion into a pancake shape whose boundary is a superconducting ring of charged pions. In contrast, through the exact Skyrmion solution, we find that the pancake conjecture holds approximately in a strong magnetic field, but fails for a weak one. We also validate that a Skyrmion would shrink to null without the Skyrme term, although Derrick's scaling law is modified by a background magnetic field, and the stability at the leading order is not ruled out in theory.

   hep-phnucl-thJHEP(2025)·12 citations
6. 06*

   Tachyonic and parametric resonances for massive particle production in an intense plane wave background

   Ekaterina Dmitrieva🇷🇺 · Petr Satunin🇷🇺

   We investigate the stability of an intensive plane wave of a massless or light field $\varphi$ in a trilinear scalar model $g\varphi {\chi }^2$ due to the resonant production of massive $\chi$ particles in a perturbatively forbidden regime. We apply two methods: first, we solve the Heisenberg equation for the quantum amplitudes of the field $\chi$ in an external plane wave background, generalizing the solution of A.Arza. Second, for the light but massive $\varphi$ we perform the relativistic boost to the rest frame of $\varphi$, reducing the problem to the stability of the thoroughly investigated massive condensate. It turns out that the stability properties are significantly different for the cases of massless and light fields. In the first case, one should adopt the Heisenberg equation approach, since the alternative method cannot provide a comprehensive outcome. In the second case, the use of the Mathieu equation provides a more accurate solution, while for the massless case, this approach is not applicable.

   hep-phPRD(2025)·1 citation
7. 07*

   Possible bound states in the triple-${\eta }_c$ and triple-$J/\psi$ systems

   Guo-Feng Xu🇨🇳 · Xu-Liang Chen🇨🇳 · Jin-Peng Zhang🇨🇳 · Ning Li🇨🇳 · Wei Chen🇨🇳

   The observations of fully-charm tetraquark states in the LHCb, CMS and ATLAS experiments suggested the existence of the hadronic molecules of two-charmonium states, which may also imply bound states in the three-charmonium systems. In this work, we study the possible bound states in the triple-${\eta }_c$ and triple-$J/\psi$ systems with $J^{PC}=0^{-+}$ and $1^{--}$, respectively. In QCD sum rules, we calculate the two-point correlation functions and spectral functions up to the dimension-four gluon condensate. We use the iterative dispersion relation approach to deal with the five-loop banana integrals, which significantly improves the computational efficiency. Our results show that the masses of triple-${\eta }_c$ and triple-$J/\psi$ states lie below the corresponding mass thresholds, supporting the existence of such three-body bound states.

   hep-phhep-exChin.Phys.Lett.(2025)·4 citations
8. 08*

   Spontaneous baryogenesis with large misalignment

   Maxim Krasnov🇷🇺 · Ufuk Aydemir🇹🇷 · Maxim Khlopov🇫🇷

   We investigate particle production by a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNGB) in the spontaneous baryogenesis scenario for large misalignment angles. Since the fermionic backreaction is intrinsically nonlocal, the large-angle problem is in general difficult to treat directly. We argue that the adiabaticity conditions are parametrically satisfied in the model, allowing the backreaction to be described by a local Markovian approximation while retaining the nonlinear dependence of the pNGB potential on the angular field. Through a numerical study of arbitrary initial phases, we reproduce the cubic dependence of the baryon asymmetry for small oscillations and demonstrate that this behavior breaks down for large oscillations, especially for initial phases close to $\pi$. Our calculations indicate that particle production saturates as the initial phase approaches $\pi$ in Minkowski spacetime. Furthermore, numerical solutions are presented in conformal Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) spacetime. These solutions show a strong dependence of baryon excess generation on the damping rate of the pNGB field oscillations. We also discuss the probability distribution of the baryon asymmetry.

   hep-phhep-th0 citations
9. 09*

   Refining the sensitivity of new physics searches with ancient minerals

   Audrey Fung🇨🇦 · Thalles Lucas🇨🇦 · Levente Balogh🇨🇦 · Matthew Leybourne🇨🇦 · Aaron C. Vincent🇨🇦

   Paleodetection has been proposed as a competitive method for detecting dark matter and other new physics interactions, complementing conventional direct detection experiments. In this work, we utilise TRIM simulations to improve the modelling of track length distributions. Our findings suggest that previous studies have overestimated the number of tracks caused by weakly interacting particles, and that the lowest observable dark matter mass should be higher than previously predicted. These differences are mainly attributed to the fact that (a) the recoil energy-track length relation is not one-to-one, (b) at low recoil energies, a substantial fraction of recoils do not yield any tracks, and (c) at high energies, electronic stopping becomes dominant, resulting in a track length barrier at $\sim 200$ nm. In addition to WIMPs, we also modelled tracks from generalised coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS) via new light mediators and estimated the projected sensitivity for these interactions.

   hep-phastro-ph.COphysics.ins-detPRD(2025)·14 citations
10. 10*

    Can the strong interactions between hadrons be determined using femtoscopy?

    Evgeny Epelbaum🇩🇪 · Sven Heihoff🇩🇪 · Ulf-G. Meißner🇩🇪 · Alexander Tscherwon🇩🇪

    In the last decades, femtoscopic measurements from heavy-ion collisions have become a popular tool to investigate the strong interactions between hadrons. The key observables measured in such experiments are the two-hadron momentum correlations, which depend on the production mechanism of hadron pairs and the final-state interactions. Given the complexity of ultra-relativistic collision experiments, the source term describing the production mechanism can only be modeled phenomenologically based on numerous assumptions. The commonly employed approach for analyzing femtoscopic data relies on the Koonin-Pratt formula, which relates the measured correlation functions with the relative wave function of an outgoing hadron pair and a source term that is assumed to be universal. Here, we critically examine this universality assumption and show that for strongly interacting particles such as nucleons, the interpretation of femtoscopic measurements suffers from a potentially large intrinsic uncertainty. We also comment on the ongoing efforts to explore three-body interactions using this experimental technique.

    ↳ nucl-thhep-exhep-lathep-ph+1PRL(2026)·27 citations
11. 11*

    Scale separation, rolling solutions and entropy bounds

    David Andriot🇫🇷 · Niccolò Cribiori🇧🇪 · Thomas Van Riet🇧🇪

    We revisit scale separation for compactifications of ten- and eleven-dimensional supergravity. For cosmological solutions rolling down flux-generated potentials, we observe that scale separation is achieved as time flows, and is fairly generic. This is realized without the need of orientifolds nor corrections to the classical supergravity approximation. We then confront scale separation with the Covariant Entropy Bound (CEB) and the CKN bound. We show that a naive application of these bounds to vacua hints at the existence of at least two extra dimensions. For rolling solutions, we observe that the CEB is not always respected, but since these examples lack a cosmic horizon, the application of entropy bounds remains delicate.

    ↳ hep-thastro-ph.COgr-qchep-phPRD(2025)·23 citations
12. 12*

    Kaon radiative leptonic decay rates from lattice QCD simulations at the physical point

    R. Di Palma🇮🇹 · R. Frezzotti🇮🇹 · G. Gagliardi🇮🇹 · V. Lubicz🇮🇹 · G. Martinelli🇮🇹 · C.T. Sachrajda🇬🇧 · F. Sanfilippo🇮🇹 · S. Simula🇮🇹 · N. Tantalo🇮🇹

    We present a lattice QCD calculation of the radiative leptonic decay rates of the kaon, improving upon our previous work, arXiv:2006.05358. Our analysis uses gauge ensembles generated by the Extended Twisted Mass Collaboration (ETMC) with $N_f=2+1+1$ flavors of Wilson-clover twisted mass fermions. For the first time, we go beyond the electroquenched approximation by including quark-disconnected contributions. Several key improvements have been implemented: (i) the simulations are now performed directly at physical light- and strange-quark masses, (ii) finite-size effects are carefully investigated using lattices with spatial extents ranging from $L\simeq 3.8\mathrm{fm}$ to $L\simeq 7.7\mathrm{fm}$, and (iii) the continuum extrapolation is based on three lattice spacings in the range $a\in [0.08,0.058]\mathrm{fm}$. As a result of the high-precision determination of the relevant correlation functions, we reduce the uncertainties on both the axial and vector form factors by nearly a factor of two compared to our previous analysis. When compared to experimental measurements in the electron channel ($K^{-}\to e^{-}{\bar{\nu }}_e\gamma$), our results show a tension -- at the level of $2.6$ standard deviations -- with respect to KLOE data. On the other hand, they are compatible with measurements from the E36 Collaboration at J-PARC. In the muonic decay channel ($K^{-}\to {\mu }^{-}{\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }\gamma$), we confirm the tensions, already observed in our previous study, between lattice QCD predictions and ISTRA+ and OKA data, which are both primarily sensitive to the value of the negative-helicity form factor $F^{-}$.

    ↳ hep-lathep-phPRD(2025)·12 citations
13. 13*

    The Early History of the Quark-Gluon Plasma

    W. Busza · W.A. Zajc🇺🇸

    We present the historical antecedents to the field of relativistic heavy ion physics, beginning with early attempts to model the strong interaction and ending with the endorsement of a relativistic heavy ion collider in the 1983 U.S. Long-Range Plan for Nuclear Science. Particular attention is paid to two major themes: 1) A program to study high density states of nuclear matter emerging from the 1974 Bear Mountain conference and 2) Efforts to understand the predictions of QCD for matter at high densities and/or temperatures.

    ↳ nucl-thhep-phnucl-ex3 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.