Thu·May 14, 2026Thursday·May 14, 2026

1. 01*

   Jet Momentum Broadening in Viscous QCD Matter: A Moment Expansion Approach

   Isabella Danhoni🇺🇸 · Nicki Mullins🇺🇸 · Jorge Noronha🇺🇸

   We formulate out-of-equilibrium jet momentum broadening in QCD effective kinetic theory through a moment expansion of the medium distribution function, a method traditionally used to derive relativistic viscous hydrodynamics from kinetic theory. We explicitly compute the leading near-equilibrium contribution to the spatial jet broadening tensor ${\hat{q}}^{ij}$ within the 14-moment approximation, and show that it is controlled by the medium shear-stress tensor. This provides a direct map from QCD effective kinetic theory to event-by-event viscous hydrodynamic simulations, converting local shear-stress fields into anisotropic corrections to jet broadening in heavy-ion collisions.

   hep-phhep-thnucl-th0 citations
2. 02*

   Minimal Majoron Dark Matter

   Kensuke Akita🇯🇵 · Koichi Hamaguchi🇯🇵 · Haruto Kitagawa🇯🇵 · Tatsuya Yokoyama🇯🇵

   We study Majoron dark matter (DM) in its minimal realization, based on the Type-I seesaw framework extended by a SM-singlet complex scalar. Remaining agnostic about the origin and value of the Majoron mass, we evaluate the DM abundance from both the freeze-in and misalignment mechanisms, and identify the viable parameter space consistent with observational constraints. Without fine-tuning of the initial misalignment angle, we find that the Majoron mass is bounded by $m_J\lesssim \mathcal{O}(10)\mathrm{MeV}$. We also discuss compatibility with thermal leptogenesis. Successful leptogenesis with two right-handed neutrinos favors misalignment-dominated production with the Majoron mass $m_J\lesssim \mathcal{O}(100)\mathrm{eV}$, while freeze-in dominated production is compatible with leptogenesis only with a mild fine-tuning of the initial misalignment angle, ${\theta }_i\lesssim \mathcal{O}(0.01)$.

   hep-phastro-ph.CO5 citations
3. 03*

   Secondary Gravitational Wave Signatures from 5D Rotating Primordial Black Holes in the Dark Dimension

   Waqas Ahmed🇨🇳 · George K. Leontaris🇬🇷

   We investigate five-dimensional rotating primordial black holes (PBHs) as dark matter candidates within the Dark Dimension (DD) scenario motivated by the Swampland Program. In this framework, a micron-scale extra dimension suppresses Hawking evaporation, allowing PBHs with initial masses \(M \gtrsim 10^{10}\,\mathrm{g}\) to survive to the present epoch. Moreover, the memory burden effect, a quantum-gravitational suppression of the evaporation rate by \(S^{-p}\), significantly prolongs PBH lifetimes and enlarges the allowed parameter space. We compute the evaporation dynamics for rotating 5D PBHs, derive the enhanced lifetime for \(p=2\), and establish the dark matter window \(10^{10}\,\mathrm{g} \lesssim M \lesssim 10^{21}\,\mathrm{g}\). The curvature perturbations responsible for PBH formation also generate a stochastic gravitational wave background through second-order scalar-induced effects. Assuming a log-normal primordial power spectrum with \(\sigma=1\) and \(f_{\mathrm{PBH}}=1\), we calculate the present-day energy density \(\Omega_{\mathrm{GW}}h^2\) across the Dark Dimension window. The predicted signals peak at frequencies from nHz to Hz, within the sensitivity ranges of LISA and DECIGO/BBO, while remaining consistent with current CMB spectral distortion bounds. Fisher forecasts show that future observatories can constrain the PBH mass, dark matter fraction, spectral width, and memory burden exponent with percent-level precision. A detection of the predicted gravitational wave background would provide simultaneous evidence for a micron-sized extra dimension, PBH dark matter, and the memory burden effect, offering a decisive test of quantum gravity and extra-dimensional physics.

   hep-phastro-ph.COgr-qchep-thPRD(2026)·4 citations
4. 04*

   Neural Network Generalized Parton Distributions (NNGPD)

   Zaki Panjsheeri🇺🇸 · Simonetta Liuti🇺🇸

   Generalized parton distributions (GPDs) serve as indispensable tools for the exploration of proton structure. In this study, we offer a deep learning-assisted framework for the extraction of GPDs from experimental data and the results of ab-initio lattice quantum chromodynamics (LQCD).

   hep-phJINST(2026)·1 citation
5. 05*

   Possibility of Probing an Extra Higgs Boson at the Compact Linear Collider

   Mohamed Krab🇹🇼

   We study the sensitivity of the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) to an additional neutral Higgs boson $H$ through the vector boson fusion process $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to H\nu \bar{\nu }$, followed by the decay $H\to W^{+}{W}^{-}$, with both $W$ bosons decaying leptonically, resulting in a dilepton plus missing transverse energy final state. Within the framework of the Two Higgs Doublet Model, where both production and decay are governed by the Higgs mixing angle $\cos (\beta -\alpha )$, we perform a detector-level analysis and show that a high-energy CLIC can probe $H$ via this channel, allowing a direct measurement of the $HWW$ coupling.

   hep-phEur.Phys.J.Plus(2026)·0 citations
6. 06*

   Prospects for Measuring $H\to \mathrm{invisble}$ at the FCCee

   Aman Desai🇦🇺 · Paul Jackson🇦🇺

   We present the prospects for measuring $H\to \mathrm{invisble}$ decays at the Future Circular Collider electron-positron at $\sqrt{s}=240\text{ GeV}$ with an integrated luminosity of 10.8 ab${}^{-1}$. In this study, we consider the $ZH$ production mode with three decay modes of the $Z$ boson: $Z\to e^{+}{e}^{-}$, $Z\to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$ and $Z\to jj$ ($b\bar{b},c\bar{c},s\bar{s},q\bar{q}$). We find that at 95\% confidence limit, the combined upper limit on the $\mathcal{B}(H\to invisible)$ could reach 0.15\%.

   hep-ph0 citations
7. 07*

   Precision Cell Resampling with a Relative and Resonant Aware Metric

   Jeppe R. Andersen🇬🇧 · Ella Cole🇬🇧 · Andreas Maier🇪🇸

   We present a metric on the space of scattering events based on relative transverse momenta and with explicit sensitivity to intermediate resonances. With this new metric, negative weights in an event sample can be reduced substantially through cell resampling, while preserving the predicted properties of the resonance with high accuracy. We demonstrate the efficiency on a NLO event sample for the production of a leptonically decaying W boson together with two jets.

   hep-ph1 citation
8. 08*

   Determining the Spin-Analyzing Powers via Invariants of the Spin Correlation Matrices and Probing the Bell Non-Locality at the Lepton Colliders

   Dianwei Wang🇨🇳 · Xiqing Hao🇨🇳 · Liwei Liu🇨🇳 · Lina Wu🇨🇳 · Tianjun Li🇨🇳

   We consider the two-fermion $F_a{F}_b$ productions and decays via one mediator exchange at the $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collider. With the assumption that the spin is defined via the Lorentz symmetry, or considering the implicit symmetry in the spin density matrix, we prove that the trace $\mathrm{Tr}[C]$ of the spin correlation matrix $C$ is an invariant quantity, and is invariant under basis rotations. Thus, for the exchanges of one mediator such as scalar and gauge boson, we can determine the product of the spin-analyzing powers for $F_a{F}_b$ via $\mathrm{Tr}[C]$, and reconstruct the spin correlation matrix. With the CHSH-Horodecki criterion, we can probe the Bell non-locality, and evade the no-go theorem. To be concrete, we study the Bell non-locality for the $\Lambda \bar{\Lambda }$ productions and decays at the BESIII experiment. In addition, the invariant $\mathrm{Tr}[C]$ is a new physics observable to probe the new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) and study the SM precision measurements. Moreover, for the scalar exchanges, we discuss the general invariants of the spin correlation matrices and the related phenomenological consequences.

   hep-phhep-exhep-th5 citations
9. 09*

   Factorization of denominators as a `fuel' for Feynman integral reduction

   Alexander V. Smirnov🇷🇺 · Vladislav. A. Fokin🇷🇺 · Egor Yu. Chuvashov🇷🇺

   Rational-function simplification is key bottlenecks in integration-by-parts (IBP) reduction of Feynman integrals. We study denominator factorization patterns appearing in IBP coefficients and develop practical algorithms for extracting and exploiting factorized denominator structure within the FUEL interface. The resulting workflow reduces reconstruction cost and improves robustness of large-scale reductions.

   hep-ph1 citation
10. 10*

    NLO QCD and parton-shower effects for Higgs-boson production in association with a hard photon via vector-boson fusion

    Barbara Jäger🇩🇪 · Simon Reinhardt🇩🇪

    We present an implementation of Higgs-boson production in association with a hard, isolated photon via vector-boson fusion in the framework of the POWHEG BOX for the consistent matching of next-to-leading order QCD corrections with parton showers. The impact of parton-shower settings and non-perturbative effects on Higgs observables is studied and found to be small, while larger corrections are found for distributions of the sub-leading jets. Various approaches for the isolation of the photon are explored. For typical setups, the isolation strategy is found to have little impact on even the most sensitive observables.

    hep-phEPJC(2026)·0 citations
11. 11*

    Probing Boosted Light Scalars in the Type-I 2HDM

    Partha Konar🇮🇳 · Tanmoy Mondal🇮🇳 · Chandrima Sen🇮🇳

    In the Type-I two-Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM), the additional scalars may be light ($\lesssim 100$ GeV) without conflicting with experimental constraints from LHC searches or from flavour observables. So far, the studies of light scalars at the LHC have been limited to exploring non-standard decays of the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson or via $b\bar{b}$ associated production followed by leptonic decays of the light scalar. A light scalar in Type-I 2HDM can evade these search strategies due to its potentially tiny coupling to the SM Higgs boson and its suppressed coupling to quarks. In this work, we have studied electroweak production of a light scalar ($h$) in association with heavy pseudoscalar $A$ or charged Higgs $H^{\pm }$, which further decays into $h$, resulting in a multi-$h$ final state, where $h$ is boosted due to its lightness. The decay of the boosted $h$ into $b\bar{b}$ can be reconstructed within a fat-jet containing a pair of $b$-subjets. We find that tagging such a `boosted double-$b$ fat-jet ($J_{bb}$)' signature in association with a SM gauge boson provides an excellent probe of the Type-I 2HDM for hierarchical scalar spectra. Using multiple light mass $M_h$ benchmarks, we demonstrate that such analysis can explore a large region of the parameter space, with the $2\sigma$ exclusion reach for the heavy scalars extending up to $\sim 540$ GeV ($\sim$ 365 GeV) at the HL-LHC with 3000 fb${}^{-1}$ (LHC with 300 fb${}^{-1}$) luminosity for light scalar masses in the range $30$--$70$ GeV. Furthermore, we show that significant sensitivity and even resonance reconstruction can be achieved within a model-independent framework, highlighting the robustness of this search strategy.

    hep-ph0 citations
12. 12*

    Evaluating alternative spin scenarios of $P_{c\bar{c}}(4440)$ and $P_{c\bar{c}}(4457)$ using heavy quark symmetries

    Duygu Yıldırım🇹🇷

    Heavy quark symmetries are useful for predicting the existence of heavy states, their masses, and spin states. Despite numerous studies on the $P_{c\bar{c}}(4440)$ and $P_{c\bar{c}}(4457)$ heavy states, their spin states have not been previously determined. In this study, heavy symmetries are applied to predict the spin states. If the $P_{c\bar{c}}(4440)$ and $P_{c\bar{c}}(4457)$ states are considered ${\bar{D}}^{\ast }{\Sigma }_c$ molecules, they can be classified as heavy partners. This classification may help clarify their potential connections with heavy antiquark-diquark symmetry partners. By utilizing these alternative spin assignments and the concept of heavy antiquark-diquark symmetry, it may be possible to estimate ${\Xi }_{cc}^{(\ast )}{\Sigma }_c^{(\ast )}$ states, and ultimately, their spin states, which have not been elucidated in experiments. In addition to these symmetries, the relationship between $P_{c\bar{c}}$ and $P_{c\bar{c}s}$ pentaquarks can be constructed which supports the prediction of possible $P_{c\bar{c}s}$ states. The predicted masses of the $P_{c\bar{c}s}(4338)$ and $P_{c\bar{c}s}(4459)$ states align with several studies, allowing us to eliminate a specific spin state. One spin state appears to be favored, suggesting that $P_{c\bar{c}}(4440)$ has $J^P=\frac{1}{2}$ and $P_{c\bar{c}}(4457)$ has $J^P=\frac{3}{2}$.

    hep-phFew Body Syst.(2026)·0 citations
13. 13*

    Pion parton distribution functions and pion-nucleus induced $J/\psi$ production in extended light-front holographic QCD

    Jiangshan Lan🇨🇳 · Satvir Kaur🇨🇳 · Chandan Mondal🇨🇳

    We determine the pion parton distribution functions (PDFs) from its light-front wave functions, obtained using the holographic Schrödinger equation of light-front chiral QCD combined with the 't Hooft equation in (1+1)-dimensional QCD at large $N_c$. We analyze the large-$x$ behavior of the valence PDF, $\sim (1-x{)}^{{\beta }_v^{\mathrm{eff}}}$, finding overall consistency with global analyses. These pion PDFs, together with nuclear PDFs, are then used to compute the differential cross sections up to next-to-leading order for inclusive $J/\psi$ production in pion--nucleus collisions, which show good agreement with experimental data across different energies and nuclear targets.

    hep-ph1 citation
14. 14*

    Calorimetric approach to paleo-detection of dark matter

    Samuel Hedges🇺🇸 · Patrick Huber🇺🇸

    We present the first paleo-detector dark matter sensitivity analysis based on a calorimetric readout, in which the number of stable lattice vacancies produced by each nuclear recoil is used as a per-event observable complementary to the track length. Using full-cascade SRIM simulations in olivine, we compute the expected sensitivity for a 100 gGyr exposure. We find that a vacancy-only readout reaches a sensitivity envelope very similar to that of state-of-the-art track-only analyses. The combination of the two observables provides an event-by-event proxy for |dE/dx| and hence for the recoiling nuclear species. Since the neutron-nucleus cross section is approximately flat in nuclear mass while the dark-matter--nucleus cross section scales as $A^2$, this discrimination suppresses the dominant neutron background by more than an order of magnitude at moderate dark matter masses. The combined-analysis sensitivity reaches spin-independent dark-matter--nucleon cross sections of order $10^{-48}{\mathrm{cm}}^2$ at WIMP masses of a few tens of GeV, comparable to future direct detection experiments. A two-stage readout combining selective-plane illumination microscopy with scanning electron microscopy is identified as a path to making a 100 g-scale analysis plausible.

    hep-phastro-ph.COhep-ex3 citations
15. 15*

    Dark photon searches in the photon channel

    D. Aristizabal Sierra🇨🇱 · A. Betancur🇨🇴 · K. Pohl🇨🇱 · J. Velez🇨🇴

    Spectral shape differences between photons produced in ${\pi }^0\to \gamma +\gamma$ and ${\pi }^0\to \gamma +A_D$ may provide a new avenue for dark photon searches. Assuming 70 $\mu$m thick tungsten foils separated by 200 $\mu$m and a 1 GeV proton beam, we developed a GEANT4 model to estimate photon production and detection including background. Our results demonstrate that multiple campaign runs with a 10-50 $\mu$A beam could probe previously unexplored regions of parameter space in models where the dark photon has predominantly invisible decays. The results are highly model independent.

    hep-phhep-exnucl-ex0 citations
16. 16*

    Constraints on the mass of the dark antibaryon using $B_d\to \Lambda {\psi }_{DS}$ channel in light cone QCD

    M. A. Abri🇮🇷 · N. Hajirasouliha🇮🇷 · K. Azizi🇮🇷

    According to the $B$-mesogenesis framework, the baryon asymmetry of the Universe and dark matter can be simultaneously generated through CP-violating $B$-meson oscillations. In this mechanism, $B$-mesons decay into a Standard Model baryon and a dark-sector antibaryon, denoted by ${\psi }_{DS}$. Within this scenario, we investigate the allowed mass window for ${\psi }_{DS}$ using Light Cone Sum Rules (LCSR) for $B_d\to \Lambda {\psi }_{DS}$ decay. To include nonperturbative effects, we employ contributions up to twist-6 of the $\Lambda$ distribution amplitudes in the operator product expansion (OPE). We derive the branching fraction as a function of dark antibaryon mass and, by comparing with the experimental limits by the BaBar and Belle collaborations, determine the mass ranges of ${\psi }_{DS}$ consistent with the $B$-mesogenesis mechanism.

    hep-phhep-exhep-lat1 citation
17. 17*

    Radiative decays of the 1$P$, 1$D$, 2$S$, and 2$P$ ${\Lambda }_c$ and 1$D$, 2$S$, and 2$P$ ${\Xi }_c$ charmed baryons

    R. Gamboa-Goni🇲🇽 · Ailier Rivero-Acosta🇲🇽 · H. García-Tecocoatzi🇲🇽 · A. Gutierrez-Rodriguez🇲🇽 · A. Ramirez-Morales🇲🇽 · E. Santopinto🇮🇹 · Carlos Alberto Vaquera-Araujo🇲🇽

    We analyze the radiative decays of the the 1$P$, 1$D$, 2$S$, and 2$P$ ${\Lambda }_c$ and 1$D$, 2$S$, and 2$P$ ${\Xi }_c$ charmed baryons, which belong to the flavor anti-triplet (${\bar{3}}_{\mathrm{F}}$), using the constituent quark model. We compute electromagnetic transitions from ground and $P$-wave states to ground states, as well as from second-shell states to both ground and $P$-wave final states. Electromagnetic decay widths are especially valuable for identifying resonances when multiple states share the same mass and total decay width. We give branching ratios which can confirm the assignment of the ${\Xi }_c(3055)$ reported by LHCb. We also give branching ratios that can support the assignment of the ${\Xi }_c(3080)$, and discuss the possibilities for the ${\Xi }_c(3080)$ to be the 1$D$ state with $J^P=5/2^{+}$ or the 2$S$ with $J^P=1/2^{+}$. For the first time, this work provides calculations of electromagnetic decays for $D_{\rho }$-wave states, $\rho -\lambda$ mixed configurations, and $\rho$-mode radially excited states in singly charmed baryons of the flavor anti-triplet. Both experimental and model-dependent uncertainties are taken into account throughout our analysis.

    hep-phnucl-thPRD(2026)·0 citations
18. 18*

    Diquark Correlators and Phase Structure in the Quark-Meson-Diquark Model beyond Mean Field

    Ugo Mire🇩🇪 · Bernd-Jochen Schaefer🇩🇪

    A comprehensive study of the phase structure of the two-flavor quark-meson-diquark model is presented within the nonperturbative functional renormalization group framework. The influence of mesonic fluctuations beyond the mean-field approximation is investigated, and two-point functions of the diquark fields are computed at finite real-time frequencies. Renormalization group consistency of the effective potential is ensured in order to avoid cutoff artifacts. Substantial modifications of the phase structure are found once mesonic fluctuations are included, and for sufficiently strong diquark couplings the dynamics become dominated by diquark condensation. These effects are elucidated through an analysis of the diquark pole mass and the Silver-Blaze property.

    hep-phhep-thnucl-th2 citations
19. 19*

    Probing the Electroweak Phase Transition in the Flipped Two-Higgs-Doublet Model at the LHC

    Jidong Du · Yun Jiang🇨🇳 · Wei Su🇨🇳

    We study the CP-conserving flipped (Type-Y) Two-Higgs-Doublet Model (2HDM) in the large-$\tan \beta$ regime ($\tan \beta >30$), focusing on its implications for electroweak phase transitions (EWPTs) and LHC phenomenology. Viable parameter regions supporting a strong first-order EWPT fall into two heavy-Higgs hierarchies: (A) $m_{H^{\pm }}\simeq m_H<m_A$ and (B) $m_H<m_{H^{\pm }}\simeq m_A$, both featuring a heaviest CP-odd Higgs $A$. Scenario~A typically proceeds via one-step transitions with lower nucleation temperatures, while Scenario~B allows one-step or two-step transitions, opening the decay $A\to H^{\pm }{W}^{\mp }$ and yielding richer collider signatures. In all cases, nucleation conditions are satisfied, avoiding false-vacuum trapping. We assess LHC prospects through bottom-associated production with multi-$b$ final states: $pp\to bbH\to 4b$ and $pp\to bbA\to bb{W}^{\pm }{H}^{\mp }\to 4b\ell \ell \nu \nu$. The $4b$ channel offers high-statistics discovery potential, reaching signal significances $z\gtrsim 25$ at the 13 TeV LHC with 300 fb${}^{-1}$ and up to $z\gtrsim 100$ at the 14 TeV HL-LHC with 3 ab${}^{-1}$. The cascade channel, while experimentally more challenging, directly probes the heavy Higgs spectrum and can discriminate between EWPT scenarios. Using optimized selections with a BDT-based multivariate analysis, significances of $z\simeq 6.8$ can be achieved in favorable regions of Scenario~B at the HL-LHC. These results indicate that the HL-LHC can realistically probe the BSM Higgs sector responsible for a strong first-order EWPT and provide insight into the underlying phase transition dynamics in the flipped 2HDM.

    hep-ph2 citations
20. 20*

    Logarithmically-accurate showers with massive quarks

    Melissa van Beekveld🇳🇱 · Silvia Ferrario Ravasio🇮🇹 · Alba Soto-Ontoso🇪🇸 · Gregory Soyez🇫🇷 · Rob Verheyen🇬🇧

    We formulate PanScales final-state showers that account for quark masses and achieve next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, while preserving the original accuracy of the showers for observables where the mass of the quarks is irrelevant. We validate the accuracy of the shower algorithms by performing fixed-order tests up to second order in the strong coupling constant, and all-order comparisons to (semi-)analytic resummed calculations for a series of observables, including Lund-tree shapes, non-global energy flows and Lund sub-jet multiplicities. We also include some phenomenological studies using LEP data.

    hep-ph0 citations
21. 21*

    Exploring neutrino loss with diffuse astrophysical neutrino fluxes

    Ivan Esteban🇪🇸 · Alberto M. Gago🇵🇪 · M. C. Gonzalez-Garcia🇪🇸 · Gabriel D. Zapata🇵🇪

    We study the sensitivity of the diffuse high-energy neutrino flux observed in IceCube to new-physics effects resulting in an exponential flux attenuation along the trajectory, such as invisible neutrino decay or new interactions with the background encountered during propagation. We argue that, even though the sources and production redshifts of these astrophysical neutrinos are unknown, conservative energy-conservation arguments allow to severely constrain neutrino loss in most scenarios beyond the strongest existing bounds. By performing a fit to the High-Energy Starting Events from IceCube, we quantify the bounds and study their variation with the energy dependence of the attenuation, the assumed redshift distribution of the neutrino sources, and whether the attenuation affects neutrinos exclusively or no. We also show that including an energy-dependent attenuation at the level allowed in the fit may impact the determination of the spectral index of the diffuse flux.

    hep-phastro-ph.COastro-ph.HE1 citation
22. 22*

    Heavy Vector Triplets at a Muon Collider

    Francesca Acanfora🇺🇸 · Michael J. Baker🇺🇸 · Timothy Martonhelyi🇺🇸 · Andrea Thamm🇺🇸

    Heavy spin-one particles are well-motivated new physics candidates that can have their origin in weakly coupled extensions of the Standard Model gauge group or in strongly coupled Composite Higgs models. Due to the variety of production and decay modes, heavy vector triplets are a useful benchmark for the study and comparison of future colliders. Here we perform a detailed collider analysis of a variety of $2\to 2$ and $2\to 3$ processes at a proposed future muon collider. We focus on decays into leptons and Standard Model gauge bosons, and find that heavy vector triplets could be probed up to masses of around $12$TeV for almost any (perturbative) value of the coupling. We compare the direct reach of a muon collider to the LHC and to updated projections for the HL-LHC, HE-LHC and FCC-hh, and include indirect limits from future measurements of electroweak precision observables. We find that a muon collider offers projected sensitivities that are competitive with future hadron colliders, exceeding those of the HE-LHC in the scenarios considered though not reaching the projected sensitivity of the FCC-hh.

    hep-ph1 citation
23. 23*

    Baryoid Dark Matter from ${\mathbb{Z}}_N$ Domain Walls: The $(N-1):1$ origin of the dark matter-baryon coincidence

    Yang Bai🇺🇸 · Ting-Kuo Chen🇺🇸

    We propose an explanation for the dark matter-baryon coincidence based on collapsing ${\mathbb{Z}}_N$ domain walls, which form a novel compact baryonic state: the baryoid. A baryoid has an asteroid-scale mass and up-to-nuclear-scale energy density, and can serve as a dark matter candidate. Starting from equal baryon numbers in the domains formed in the early universe, the collapse of the domain walls after the QCD phase transition leads to a baryon-number ratio of $(N-1):1$ between the false- and true-vacuum domains. Since baryons are slightly lighter in the false-vacuum domains than in the true-vacuum domain, the resulting dark matter-to-baryon energy-density ratio is naturally close to, but slightly smaller than, $(N-1):1$, or $6:1$ for $N=7$. We calculate the domain-wall dynamics and the efficiency of baryon-number trapping, derive the resulting baryoid properties, and discuss a broad set of phenomenological probes.

    hep-phastro-ph.CO2 citations
24. 24*

    A New Source of Millicharged Particles: Secondary Showers in the LHC Forward Absorber

    Jyotismita Adhikary🇵🇱 · Peiran Li🇺🇸 · Zhen Liu🇺🇸 · Sebastian Trojanowski🇵🇱 · Azam Zabihi🇵🇱

    Millicharged particles (mCPs) are a well-motivated target for far-forward searches at the Large Hadron Collider. We identify and quantify a significant new source of these particles: secondary production in hadronic and electromagnetic showers initiated by energetic neutral particles striking the TAXN absorber. By combining Monte Carlo simulations with \texttt{Geant4}-based modeling, we show that these secondary cascades yield a substantial mCP flux that complements the primary production from the interaction point. For the proposed FORMOSA detector, this contribution can enhance the expected signal yield by approximately $50\%$ for $m_{\chi }\lesssim 0.1\text{GeV}$. Our results demonstrate that secondary production in downstream infrastructure is an essential ingredient for realistic sensitivity projections and new-physics searches at the High-Luminosity LHC. The simulated secondary spectra are made publicly available to facilitate future forward physics studies.

    hep-phhep-exPRD(2026)·0 citations
25. 25*

    A Phenomenological Model of Mesons for Charged Current Weak Decays

    Sabyasachi Chakraborty🇮🇳 · Namit Mahajan🇮🇳 · Tuhin S. Roy🇮🇳

    We propose a phenomenological model of pseudo scalar mesons to describe charged-current weak decays of heavy-light mesons. The approach combines chiral symmetry in the light sector with heavy-quark flavor symmetry, while Cabibbo--Kobayashi--Maskawa (CKM) matrix elements are incorporated as spurions that encode explicit symmetry breaking. Restricting to charged-current interactions, we systematically organize the leading-order current-current operators at dimension six and identify the relevant operator structures governing fully-leptonic, semi-leptonic, and hadronic decays. This framework reproduces known heavy-quark scaling relations for decay constants and form factors in agreement with expectations from heavy quark effective theory, providing nontrivial consistency checks. Operators responsible for hadronic transitions are further classified into double-trace operators and single-trace operators. These single traces, interestingly, often capture several higher order corrections, non-factorizable effects etc. We check for consistencies for both single-trace and double-trace operators demanding that the resulting amplitudes should satisfy established isospin sum rules. As an application, we analyze the decay modes $B\to K+{\eta }_c/{\eta }^{\prime }/\eta$. We find that these processes receive contributions from a host of non-trivial processes such as mixing between various states, non-perturbative QCD parameters such as the heavy quark condensates, non-factorizable effects, etc, apart from the straightforward perturbative $W$ exchange diagrams in the quark picture. Our set-up neatly captures all of these effects. The phenomenological model we provide here is a symmetry-guided, hadron-level description of charged-current processes and offers a complementary perspective to conventional quark-level approaches, with a natural avenue for incorporating non-factorizable effects.

    hep-ph2 citations
26. 26*

    Inspiral gravitational waveforms from charged compact binaries with scalar hair

    Antonio De Felice🇯🇵 · Shinji Tsujikawa🇯🇵

    We investigate gravitational waveforms from compact binary systems in Einstein-scalar-Maxwell (ESM) theories, where a scalar field $\varphi$ couples to a $U(1)$ gauge field $A_{\mu }$ through a field-dependent function $\mu (\varphi )$. In this framework, compact objects -- black holes (BHs), neutron stars (NSs), and exotic compact objects (ECOs) -- can carry both vector and scalar charges, with the latter arising as secondary hair induced by the former. Modeling the binary as electrically charged point particles with scalar-field-dependent masses, we derive the conservative dynamics in the near zone and compute the radiative fields in the far zone. The tensor waveform is modified through the effective dynamics and radiation-reaction-driven phase evolution, while scalar and vector modes introduce additional energy-loss channels. From the energy fluxes of tensor, scalar, and vector radiation, we construct the frequency-domain waveform using the stationary phase approximation. Dipole radiation sourced by differences in scalar and vector charge-to-mass ratios yields a leading $-1$ post-Newtonian correction. The deviation from general relativity is characterized by a single parameter $b$, which controls both amplitude and phase modifications. We further examine constraints from the orbital-period decay of binary pulsars, showing that current observations already place stringent bounds on $b$ for neutron star binaries. In addition, we evaluate $b$ for representative BH-BH, NS-NS, ECO-ECO binaries realized in ESM theories. Our results provide a unified framework for gravitational-wave signatures of charged compact binaries and offer a means of testing dark-sectorscalar and vector charges with current and future observations.

    ↳ gr-qcastro-ph.COhep-phhep-th0 citations
27. 27*

    When Weak Fields Arent Weak: Post-Newtonian effective theory and the Dark Matter Puzzle

    Marco Galoppo🇳🇿 · Giorgio Torrieri🇧🇷

    Post-Newtonian theory is considered a reliable effective expansion of General Relativity in the weak-field and slow-motion limit. We argue that such a belief is misplaced. In generic many-body relativistic dynamics, the absence of globally conserved charges in the region of interest and non-integrability can drive strong sensitivity to angular-momentum exchange across inhomogeneous curvature, invalidating naive power counting in an effective theory expansion. Building on general lessons from effective field theory, we derive an explicit breakdown criterion that delineates when post-Newtonian truncations become unreliable despite small local potentials and velocities. This supplies a controlled systematic for weak-field mass inference, relevant to the dark matter puzzle in astrophysics and cosmology.

    ↳ gr-qchep-ph0 citations
28. 28*

    Universal Confining Strings: From Compact QED to the Hadron Spectrum

    M.C. Diamantini🇮🇹 · F. Quevedo🇬🇧 · C.A. Trugenberger🇦🇪 · L. Zapata🇦🇪

    We investigate the description of quark confinement in terms of confining strings or flux tubes. We show that compact QED with a topological $\theta$-term, in the dyon condensation phase, is described by a massive two-form field $B_{\mu \nu }$ that gives rise to a string theory with an IR Brazovskii-Lifshitz fixed point at strong coupling. This corresponds to a quantum consistent "free string" in (3+1) dimensions, representing the dual of asymptotic freedom in the UV. Contrary to critical strings, which correspond to trivial Gaussian fixed points, this string is stabilized by a finite thickness, determined by the mass of the $B_{\mu \nu }$ field, instead of living in a higher-dimensional space. It correspondingly contains a massive world-sheet resonance, in addition to the Nambu-Goto phonons, that improves fitting with data. We compute the confining potential and show that it reproduces a generalized Arvis potential $V(L)=aL\sqrt{1-c/L^2}$ with running parameters $a(L),c(L)$. We compute the mass difference ratios for the heaviest quarkonium and find 2.5 percent agreement with experiment already at the infrared fixed point. We also compute the intercept of Regge trajectories and find that the thickness of Brazovskii-Lifshitz strings tends to increase it from the Nambu-Goto value ${\alpha }_0=1/12$. Overall, our findings strongly support Polyakov's longstanding conjecture on universality of confining gauge theories in the IR.

    ↳ hep-thhep-lathep-ph0 citations
29. 29*

    Thin Accretion Disks around Rotating Charged Black Holes in an Effective Higher-Curvature Spacetime

    Mohammad Hassani🇮🇷 · Kourosh Nozari🇮🇷 · Sara Saghafi🇮🇷

    We investigate the structure and emission properties of a thin accretion disk around a rotating charged black hole described by an effective higher-curvature-inspired spacetime, constructed as a phenomenological deformation of the Kerr Newman geometry. In this framework, the deformation is introduced through a modification of the metric function $\Delta$ by an effective Gauss-Bonnet-like parameter $\alpha$, such that the spacetime reduces to the standard Kerr Newman solution in the limit $\alpha \to 0$. Adopting a kinematical approach, we use test-particle motion to derive the specific energy, specific angular momentum, and angular velocity of circular orbits, and analyze the effects of the parameters $\alpha$ and charge $Q$ on the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO), radiative efficiency, radiation flux, temperature, and differential luminosity of the disk. We find that increasing $\alpha$ shifts the ISCO inward and enhances the disk's radiation flux and temperature, while the presence of charge suppresses these quantities due to electrostatic effects. Our results demonstrate that effective higher curvature deformations of rotating black hole spacetimes can lead to observable deviations from the Kerr case, highlighting accretion disks as sensitive probes of strong-gravity effects without relying on a specific underlying gravitational theory.

    ↳ gr-qcastro-ph.COhep-phhep-thJHEAp(2026)·0 citations
30. 30*

    Analytical Fluxes from Generic Schwarzschild Geodesics

    Majed Khalaf🇮🇱 · Chris Kavanagh🇮🇪 · Ofri Telem🇮🇱

    We present an analytic method for computing gravitational-wave fluxes from bound Schwarzschild geodesics with arbitrary eccentricity. Our approach systematically expands the Fourier coefficients of the emitted radiation in a Chebyshev basis, allowing them to be reduced to sums of Keplerian-like Fourier coefficients previously derived in the Quantum Spectral Method. Because the construction does not rely on a small-eccentricity expansion, it applies to a broad range of bound eccentric orbits. As an illustration, we implement the method using a $15$PN-expanded input and find that it reproduces the total flux for the case $(p,e)=(12.5,0.5)$ to relative accuracy $10^{-5}$, while for the stronger-field case $(p,e)=(10,0.8)$ it yields weighted mode-by-mode errors below $10^{-6}$ for the selected dominant modes analyzed. These results provide an analytic route to frequency-domain flux calculations relevant to extreme-mass-ratio inspirals.

    ↳ gr-qcastro-ph.HEhep-phhep-th0 citations
31. 31*

    The Amplitude-Growth Degeneracy and Implied $A_s$ Diagnostic for Background-Inert Modified Gravity

    Ameya Kolhatkar · P. K. Sahoo

    We prove that any background-inert perturbative coupling $\lambda$ in coincident $f(Q)$ gravity exhibits a degeneracy with the clustering amplitude ${\sigma }_{80}$, when using compressed CMB distance priors. This degeneracy is, in fact, a direct materialization of a deeper $A_s-D_0(\lambda )$ degeneracy between the primordial amplitude $A_s$ and the present day growth factor $D_0(\lambda )$. We outline a consistency check scheme, whose logic extends to any model in which the coupling is background inert, by computing $A_s$ per posterior sample, needed to reproduce the ${\sigma }_{80}$ preferred by the sampler. We perform our analysis with two dataset pipelines, based on the coupled/decoupled $f{\sigma }_8(z)$ data. To ensure theoretical diversity, we include $\Lambda$CDM and the Hybrid model in the $f(Q)$ framework. Our results illustrate that adding the ${\lambda }_0\sqrt{Q{Q}_0}$ correction to the models inflates ${\sigma }_{80}$ by $5\%-8\%$ as compared to its vanilla variant, while the Bayesian evidence disfavors every alternative considered - $\Delta \log \mathcal{Z}=-0.5$ to $-2.6$ against $\Lambda$CDM on the same pipeline. Propagating this inflated ${\sigma }_{80}$ through a per-sample computation of the implied primordial amplitude accounting for both the transfer function and the modified growth factor yields $\ln (10^{10}{A}_s)$ in $1.5\sigma -2.6\sigma$ tension with Planck 2018. Imposing the $\ln (10^{10}{A}_s)$ constraint from Planck 2018 as an additional prior removes this inflation, pulling ${\sigma }_{80}$ to the Planck value and ${\lambda }_0$ to values consistent with $0$, with the implied amplitude recovering to within $0.2\sigma$ of Planck in every case. We find no model-dataset combination preferred over $\Lambda$CDM.

    ↳ astro-ph.COgr-qchep-phhep-th0 citations
32. 32*

    Collider-Bench: Benchmarking AI Agents with Particle Physics Analysis Reproduction

    Darius A. Faroughy🇺🇸 · Sofia Palacios Schweitzer🇩🇪 · Ian Pang🇺🇸 · Siddharth Mishra-Sharma🇨🇭 · David Shih🇺🇸

    Autonomous language-model agents are increasingly evaluated on long-horizon tool-use tasks, but existing benchmarks rarely capture the complexity and nuance of real scientific work. To address this gap, we introduce Collider-Bench, a benchmark for evaluating whether LLM agents can reproduce experimental analyses from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) using only public papers and open scientific software. Such analyses are often difficult to reproduce because the public toolchain only approximates the software used internally by the experimental collaborations, while the published papers inevitably omit implementation details needed for a faithful reconstruction. Agents must therefore rely on physical reasoning, domain knowledge, and trial-and-error to fill these gaps. Each task requires the agent to turn a published analysis into an executable simulation-and-selection pipeline and submit predicted collision event yields in specified signal regions. These predictions are evaluated with standard histogram metrics that provide continuous fidelity scores without a hand-written rubric. We also report the computational cost incurred by each agent per task. Finally, we evaluate the codebase and full session trace using an LLM judge to catch qualitative failure modes such as fabrications, hallucinations and duplications. We release an initial set of tasks drawn from LHC searches, together with a containerized sandbox and event simulation tools. We evaluate across a capability ladder of general purpose coding agents. Our results show that on average no agent reliably beats the physicist-in-the-loop solution.

    ↳ cs.LGcs.AIhep-exhep-ph11 citations
33. 33*

    A Twist on Scattering from Defect Anomalies

    Andrea Antinucci🇬🇧 · Christian Copetti🇬🇧 · Giovanni Galati🇧🇪 · Giovanni Rizi🇫🇷

    In the presence of extended defects, familiar incoming particles can scatter into exotic outgoing states created by twist operators. We show that one possible mechanism driving these "categorical scattering" processes is the presence of localized 't Hooft anomalies on the defect's worldvolume. Defect anomalies trap non-trivial charges at junctions between the symmetry lines and the interface, opening new transmission channels that would naively appear to violate selection rules. After outlining the general mechanism, we investigate several concrete examples with defects, interfaces, and boundaries. For models of massless chiral fermions already studied in the literature, we show that the emergence of twist operators can be understood as a consequence of defect anomalies. We then introduce new massive integrable theories in which a similar phenomenon occurs, and we explicitly solve the associated scattering problem, obtaining new integrable solutions. Finally, we construct lattice spin chains with defects where similar physics is expected to arise.

    ↳ hep-thcond-mat.str-elhep-ph5 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.