Wed·Jun 3, 2026Wednesday·June 3, 2026

1. 01*

   IterInt: Evaluating iterated integrals via differential equations

   Gideon Baur🇩🇪 · Claude Duhr🇩🇪

   We introduce IterInt, a novel package implemented in both Mathematica and C++ for the numerical evaluation of iterated integrals involving arbitrary integration kernels. After the user has defined the integration kernels, IterInt transforms the iterated integrals into a system of first-order linear differential equations which can be solved efficiently and with high precision using well established libraries. IterInt is also able to automatically perform shuffle-regularisation. This makes it possible to evaluate also integrals where the integrand has a pole at the starting point of the integration path. As an illustration of our code, and also to validate it and gauge its performance, we compare the output of IterInt to the results obtained by GiNaC for ordinary and elliptic multiple polylogarithms, and also to existing results for the first few orders for banana integrals with up to four loops.

   hep-phhep-th5 citations
2. 02*

   A radiative neutrino mass model with semi-annihilating boosted dark matter

   Motoko Fujiwara🇯🇵 · Takashi Toma🇯🇵

   Boosted dark matter can provide a distinctive signature of a non-minimal dark sector. In this work, we construct a radiative neutrino mass model that allows for the production of boosted dark matter in the present universe through semi-annihilation. A Dirac fermion serves as the dark matter candidate, which semi-annihilates into an anti-dark matter particle and a neutrino. Taking into account the relevant experimental and theoretical constraints, we find that the boosted dark matter can be probed by DARWIN if its mass lies in the range of 20--50 MeV and the semi-annihilation proceeds through a resonance with a tuning of $\mathcal{O}(0.1)\%$. Furthermore, the monochromatic neutrino produced simultaneously with the boosted dark matter can also be detected at Hyper-Kamiokande and DUNE in part of the allowed parameter space.

   hep-phhep-exJHEP(2026)·0 citations
3. 03*

   The decay rate of metastable cosmic strings beyond the thin-string approximation

   Valerie Domcke🇨🇭 · Yu Hamada🇯🇵

   In the context of grand unified theories, any cosmic strings present in the post-inflationary universe are likely to be metastable, with a decay rate set by the spontaneous creation of monopole pairs on the string. Determining this decay rate is crucial in understanding the phenomenology of the cosmic string network, including a potentially observable gravitational wave background. The bounce action governing this rate has so far only been determined using the thin string approximation or specific ansätze for the field profiles in the monopole formation process. Here we solve this problem using classical lattice simulations, relying only on the inherent symmetries of the problem. Our results indicate a suppression of the bounce action and hence a faster string decay compared to previous estimates.

   hep-phastro-ph.COhep-th0 citations
4. 04*

   Chiral Quark Soliton Model And Nucleon Parton Distribution Functions

   Masashi Wakamatsu🇯🇵

   The chiral quark soliton model (CQSM) is an effective quark model of baryons maximally taking account of the most important feature of low-energy QCD, i.e., the spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking of the QCD vacuum and the associated appearance of Nambu--Goldstone pions. It shares many common features with the famous Skyrme model in that the baryons are viewed as rotating hedgehog objects in both models. Despite many similarities, it turned out that the CQSM can give more realistic predictions on most baryon observables. Above all, a decisive advantage of the CQSM over the Skyrme-like models is that it can handle non-local quark--quark correlations in baryons, which is absolutely impossible within the framework of effective meson theories. This feature is decisively important for making theoretical predictions on the quark distribution functions inside the nucleon, which are defined as nucleon matrix elements of bilinear quark operators with light-cone separation. In the present paper, we try to elucidate why and how the CQSM can give successful predictions for a variety of types of nucleon quark distribution functions, especially for the flavor asymmetry of the unpolarized and longitudinally polarized sea-quark (anti-quark) distribution functions in the nucleon.

   hep-phhep-exnucl-thSymmetry(2026)·0 citations
5. 05*

   The Pion Gravitational Form Factors and the Trace Anomaly in QCD Factorization

   Claudio Corianò🇮🇹 · Hsiang-nan Li🇹🇼 · Dario Melle🇮🇹

   We study the pion gravitational form factor in QCD factorization, focusing on the trace-anomaly component generated by the non-Abelian \(TJJ\) vertex. The calculation combines a Sudakov-resummation-improved pion hard kernel with the anomaly form factor suggested by momentum-space conformal field theory and by the perturbative dilaton sum rule. Comparison with lattice QCD data shows a refined projection hierarchy: the isolated anomaly cancels in the form factor \(A_\pi(Q^2)\), while the full \(TJJ\) insertion lowers the leading-order curve at small momentum transfer squared \(Q^2\); the anomaly is important in \(D_\pi(Q^2)\), and it gives the dominant \(TJJ\) contribution to the trace form factor.

   hep-phPLB(2026)·2 citations
6. 06*

   The ratio of reduced cross-sections in $eA$ processes at Electron-Ion Colliders at $x_{\min }=Q^2/s$

   G.R.Boroun🇮🇷 · B.Rezaei🇮🇷

   We study the predictions of saturation effects in electron-ion colliders at high inelasticity, using a generalization for nuclear targets of the ASW and GBW models where the saturation scale, $Q_{\mathrm{sat}}$, drives the energy dependence and the corresponding nuclear effects. We expect to observe an enhancement of the ratio of nuclear reduced cross sections in the saturation region in future electron-ion colliders. The ratio $R_{{\sigma }_r}^A$ is discussed in the kinematic range of the electron-Ion collider with center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=89\mathrm{GeV}$ at high inelasticity $y=1$. The importance of the nuclear longitudinal structure function $F_L^A$ in the ratio $R_{{\sigma }_r}^A$ for the heavy nucleus lead and light nucleus deuteron at $x_{\min }=Q^2/s$ is discussed. This enhancement in the range $Q^2\sim (1-4{\mathrm{GeV}}^2)$ in the ratio $R_{{\sigma }_r}^A$ is not observed in the ratio $R_{F_2}^A$ which is comparable with the nuclear ratio of the nuclear parton distribution functions. We demonstrate that the study of nuclear charm structure function allows us to estimate the magnitude of shadowing effects in high inelasticity in the nuclear gluon distribution.

   hep-ph0 citations
7. 07*

   The EIC reduced cross sections at high inelasticity

   G.R.Boroun🇮🇷

   The impact of higher-twist corrections to the ratio $\frac{{\sigma }_r}{F_2}(A,Q^2/s,Q^2)$ for light and heavy nuclei is considered at fixed a $\sqrt{s}$ and $Q^2$ to the minimum value of $x$ given by $Q^2/s$. The results are for the EIC center-of-mass energies. We apply the influence of higher-twist corrections to $\frac{{\sigma }_r}{F_2}(A,Q^2/s,Q^2)$ by the dimensionless variable ${\xi }_A^{\prime }=Q_{s,A}^2/Q^2$ in the color dipole model and obtain bounds for the ratio in the linear region. The importance of contributing to twist-4 at small-$x$ is visible in the linear region where ${\xi }_A^{\prime }\le 1$. We perform that twist-4 corrections of the saturation model are shown the successful behavior of $\frac{F_L}{F_2}(A=2,x,Q^2)$ in comparison with the JLab data at ${\xi }_A^{\prime }\le 1$. The higher-twist corrections due to twist-6 and twist-8 are resummed by the non-linear approaches in the region ${\xi }_A^{\prime }>1$. The ratio $\frac{F_L}{F_2}$ deuteron is considered in the low-$Q^2$ and small-$x$ region and compared with the JLab data which takes into account the non-linear corrections due to twist-6 and twist-8. A comparison with the JLab data shows that the impact of the distinct twists allows us to probe the presence of non-linear effects on the QCD dynamics as $F_L\to 0$ and the polarization of the virtual photon is transverse in this region.

   hep-ph0 citations
8. 08*

   Heavy quark distributions from the Color Dipole Picture

   G.R.Boroun🇮🇷

   To study charm -quark pair production processes, we utilized the color dipole picture gluon distribution function in a collinear generalized double asymptotic scaling approach at small Bjorken $x$ values ($x\le 10^{-2}$). Our results show good agreement with the latest HERA experimental data for reduced cross sections ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{red}}^{c\overline{c}}(W^2,Q^2)$ across a wide range of $x$ and $Q^2$ values, yielding an effective pomeron intercept. A Hard pomeron intercept with the coefficient $C_2=0.29$ in the color dipole model provides comparable results at very low $x$ values ($x<10^{-3}$). We demonstrate that the experimental data from HERA in the region $2.5\le Q^2\le 2000{\mathrm{GeV}}^2$ confirms the symmetry between the saturation and color transparency regions in the scaling variable $\eta$, shifting towards the color transparency region when we incorporate the threshold mass production of $J/\psi$ meson in the color dipole picture.

   hep-ph0 citations
9. 09*

   Exotic SU(3) Flavor Structures in Fully Light Tetraquark Systems

   Ankush Sharma🇮🇳 · Alka Upadhyay🇮🇳

   The study of fully light tetraquark states composed solely of the light quarks u, d, and s provides an essential framework to understand the underlying dynamics of low-energy Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Within the framework of SU(3)f flavor symmetry, these states are classified into different multiplets, giving rise to a rich spectrum of non-strange, singly strange, doubly strange, and hidden-strangeness configurations.

   hep-ph0 citations
10. 10*

    Shedding Stray Light on Decaying Light Dark Matter: Constraints from NuSTAR X-ray Observations

    Sk Jeesun🇨🇳 · Tanmoy Kumar🇮🇳

    Light dark matter (DM) (mass $\lesssim \mathcal{O}(100)$ keV) remains challenging to detect in several ongoing indirect detection experiments due to threshold limitations. Recent observations of diffuse X-ray photons from the NuSTAR stray-light (SL) data provide a powerful avenue to probe such light DM through its decay signatures in the galactic halo. This work explores the indirect detection prospects of decaying electrophilic scalar DM, electrophilic and photophilic ALP DM, and dark photon DM using the recent NuSTAR SL data. We find that for DM scenarios producing monochromatic two-photon signals, NuSTAR SL data can yield the strongest indirect detection bound in the $7-36$ keV mass range. In contrast, for dark photon (vector) DM featuring a continuous three-photon spectrum, the strongest indirect detection upper bound arises in the $22-65$ keV mass range. Additionally, we discuss the detection prospects of inelastic DM where the heavier DM decays to a two or three-photon final state along with a massive lighter dark sector particle. By comparing the resulting continuous photon spectra with the NuSTAR SL data, we obtain the most stringent lower bound on the lifetime of such DM for the mass splitting $\Delta m$ in the range $3\mathrm{keV}-100$ keV.

    hep-phPRD(2026)·1 citation
11. 11*

    Final-state rescattering mechanism of the $\Delta (1232{)}^{++}$ production in ${\Lambda }_c^{+}\to K^{-}{\pi }^{+}p$ decay

    Zu-Xin Cai🇨🇳 · Cheng Chen🇨🇳 · Si-Wei Liu🇨🇳 · Xiang Wei🇨🇳 · Gang Li🇨🇳 · Xiao-Hai Liu🇨🇳 · Ju-Jun Xie🇨🇳

    We investigate the production of the $\Delta (1232{)}^{++}$ resonance in the charmed baryon weak decay ${\Lambda }_c^{+}\to K^{-}{\pi }^{+}p$, focusing on the ${\pi }^{+}p$ final-state rescattering mechanism. The direct $W^{+}$ exchange diagram is expected to be suppressed, hence we adopt the $W^{+}$ internal emission process ${\Lambda }_c^{+}\to p{\bar{K}}^{\ast 0}(892)$ followed by the subsequent decay ${\bar{K}}^{\ast 0}\to K^{-}{\pi }^{+}$ as the dominant source of the final state particles. The $\Delta (1232{)}^{++}$ resonance is then generated via ${\pi }^{+}p$ rescattering within a triangle loop mechanism. Our calculations incorporate both the tree-level ${\bar{K}}^{\ast 0}(892)$ and the dynamically generated ${\bar{K}}_0^{\ast }(700)$ state arising from the $S$-wave $K\pi$ final state interaction. We find that our theoretical results can reproduce the bump and peak structures in the $K^{-}{\pi }^{+}$ invariant mass distributions for the ${\bar{K}}_0^{\ast }(700)$ and ${\bar{K}}^{\ast 0}(892)$, respectively. Meanwhile, the peak for the $\Delta (1232{)}^{++}$ in the ${\pi }^{+}p$ invariant mass distributions is also well described. The $\Delta (1232{)}^{++}$ signal naturally emerges from rescattering effects, and adopting the pole parameters of $\Delta (1232)$ resonance yields an improved description of the experimental data. In addition, we obtain a branching fraction ratio $\mathcal{B}[{\Lambda }_c^{+}\to \Delta (1232{)}^{++}{K}^{-}]/\mathcal{B}[{\Lambda }_c^{+}\to p{\bar{K}}^{\ast 0}(892)]\approx 0.5$, which is lower than the experimentally measured value. This discrepancy suggests that interference effects are likely significant in this decay process. Future high-precision measurements will further verify the proposed rescattering mechanism.

    hep-phPRD(2026)·0 citations
12. 12*

    Experimental test of symmetron-field based dark energy model using neutron interferometry

    Andreas Dvorak🇦🇹 · Kazuma Obigane🇦🇹 · Hartmut Lemmel🇦🇹 · Tobias Jenke🇫🇷 · Stephan Sponar🇦🇹

    We report phase shift measurements of neutron matter waves propagating in vacuum and low-pressure Argon gas, using a technique developed for neutron interferometric scattering length measurements. The experiment probes additional phase shifts induced by couplings to scalar fields. From the absence of such effects, we set stringent constraints on a scalar symmetron-field, a leading candidate for quintessence dark energy.

    hep-ph1 citation
13. 13*

    Constraints on long-range neutrino interactions from a variety of $U(1{)}^{\prime }$ symmetries using atmospheric neutrinos at IceCube DeepCore

    Gopal Garg🇮🇳 · J Krishnamoorthi🇮🇳 · Anil Kumar🇮🇳 · Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla🇮🇳

    Neutrino oscillation experiments provide a unique probe to search for the physics beyond the Standard Model. In this work, we search for a broad class of anomaly-free flavor-dependent $U(1{)}^{\prime }$ symmetries using atmospheric neutrino data for the first time. Gauging these $U(1{)}^{\prime }$ symmetries give rise to ultra-light vector gauge bosons mediating long-range interactions (LRI) of neutrinos. These new interactions are sourced by the matter present in local and distant Universe, which can affect oscillations of neutrinos passing through the Earth. We use 8 years of high-purity ${\nu }_{\mu }$ charged-current neutrino events from IceCube DeepCore to search for these new interactions. We find no evidence for such new interactions in the data sample and place stringent constraints on the corresponding LRI potentials. These results are also translated as the bounds on the coupling strength and mass of mediator over their wide ranges for a plethora of $U(1{)}^{\prime }$ symmetries.

    hep-phhep-exphysics.ins-det0 citations
14. 14*

    Gravitino Freeze-In Dark Matter with an Additional Scalar Field

    Georgios Georgilas · Vassilis C. Spanos🇺🇸

    The gravitino is a prominent example of a freeze-in dark matter candidate. Its relic abundance depends on the reheating temperature and on supersymmetry-breaking parameters, that is the universal gaugino mass, $M_{1/2}$, and the gravitino mass, $m_{3/2}$. As a consequence, the reheating temperature consistent with the observed dark matter abundance exhibits a maximum value, $T_{\mathrm{reh}}^{\mathrm{reak}}$, which decreases as $M_{1/2}$ increases. This behavior gives rise to a tension between prospective lower bounds on the gluino mass from future collider searches and the high reheating temperatures required for successful thermal leptogenesis. In this work, we investigate a nonstandard cosmological scenario in which the thermal bath is supplemented by an additional scalar field. We show that, for a matter-like equation of state, this component can induce a substantial dilution of the gravitino abundance, thereby allowing significantly larger values of the reheating temperature. In contrast, for a kination-like equation of state, the gravitino abundance is enhanced rather than diluted, leading to a reduction of the maximum allowed reheating temperature.

    hep-phastro-ph.COhep-th1 citation
15. 15*

    Signatures of Ultralight Dark Matter in Space-Based Laser Interferometers

    Tingyuan Jiang🇨🇳 · Yong Tang🇨🇳

    Ultralight dark matter (ULDM) coupled to the Standard Model may effectively induce coherent oscillations of fundamental constants and thereby generate narrow-band signals in precision interferometric experiments. Here we present a systematic study of how these oscillations leave distinctive imprints on space-based laser interferometers, including LISA and Taiji. Starting from the one-way inter-spacecraft link observables, we analyze several instrument-level effects induced by ULDM, including composition-dependent acceleration of test masses, laser-frequency variations associated with cavity-length modulation, refractive-index effects, and clock-related contributions. We then propagate these signals through the standard data processing chain, including time-delay interferometry and clock-noise elimination. We show that the observability of an ULDM-induced effect is determined by the structure of its single-link response. In particular, the ULDM-driven variation in laser frequency appears in the raw link observable with the same form as laser phase noise. As a consequence, it is strongly suppressed in the final interferometry channels. In contrast, signals that possess an explicit directional pattern are not eliminated by this procedure, such as the ULDM-induced oscillations of the test masses. We further construct a local observable that isolates the differential motion between the test mass and the optical bench, and derive its sensitivity to both the dilaton--gluon coupling $d_g$ and the dilaton--electron coupling $d_e$ for LISA, Taiji, and BBO. We find that the local observable yields sensitivities comparable to the standard Michelson interferometer for $d_g$, but better than Michelson channel by three orders of magnitude for $d_e$.

    hep-phastro-ph.COgr-qc2 citations
16. 16*

    Probing Inelastic Dark Matter via Cosmic-Ray Upscattering in NGC 1068

    Eung Jin Chun🇰🇷 · Sanjoy Mandal🇰🇷 · Abhishek Roy🇰🇷

    We study constraints on sub-GeV inelastic dark matter (iDM) from cosmic-ray (CR) cooling in the active galactic nucleus (AGN) NGC 1068. In dense dark matter (DM) spikes surrounding supermassive black holes, high-energy CR protons can efficiently lose energy through scatterings with dark matter particles. We consider a minimal vector-portal iDM framework and consistently include both elastic and deep inelastic scattering (DIS) contributions to the CR energy-loss rate. We find that DIS processes dominate at high momentum transfer and substantially enhance the DM-induced cooling effect. By requiring the resulting cooling timescale to remain compatible with the observed Standard Model cooling in NGC 1068, we derive constraints on the iDM parameter space. Our results demonstrate that AGN cosmic-ray cooling probes previously unexplored regions of sub-GeV iDM parameter space inaccessible to current direct-detection experiments.

    hep-phastro-ph.COastro-ph.HE1 citation
17. 17*

    $D^0$-$D_s^{+}$ Elliptic-Flow Splitting under Event-Shape Engineering: A Probe of Sequential Charm Hadronization

    Yu-Jie Huang🇨🇳 · Wei Dai🇨🇳 · Jiaxing Zhao🇩🇪 · Tan Luo🇨🇳 · Ben-Wei Zhang🇨🇳 · Enke Wang🇨🇳

    Recent work has proposed sequential hadronization of open-charm hadrons in the quark-gluon plasma, wherein more tightly bound species such as $D_s^{+}$ form earlier near $1.2T_c$ and $D^0$ forms later at $T_c$. That work showed that this mechanism naturally reverses the sign of the $D^0-D_s^{+}$ elliptic-flow splitting relative to the conventional simultaneous baseline. In this work, we demonstrate that event-shape engineering (ESE) provides a sharper discrimination between the two pictures than inclusive measurements alone. By selecting large-$q_2$ and small-$q_2$ events in 0--10\% and 30--50\% centrality classes in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV, we show that the geometry-driven enhancement of charm-meson $v_2$ can be separated from the hadronization-time response: the positive $\Delta v_2(D^0-D_s^{+})$ in the sequential scenario grows systematically with $q_2$, while the corresponding response slope $\chi$ reveals a species-dependent hierarchy $\chi (D^0)>\chi (D_s^{+})$ that is robust against the overall flow normalization and absent in the simultaneous baseline. In the simultaneous case, the splitting is near zero or negative and does not follow the same geometry scaling. Notably, the semi-central 30--50\% class emerges as the optimal window, because the non-monotonic interplay between QGP lifetime and initial eccentricity maximizes the late-stage flow conversion. The $q_2$ ratios of the $D_s^{+}/D^0$ yield ratio remain close to unity, confirming that the splitting is a dynamical flow effect rather than a chemical yield modification. These results establish $\Delta v_2(D^0-D_s^{+})$ and the response slope $\chi$ under ESE as complementary differential probes of the space-time structure of charm hadronization near the QCD transition temperature.

    hep-phnucl-th0 citations
18. 18*

    The Polymorphic Chiral Anomaly

    Christopher Smith🇫🇷

    The chiral anomaly famously manifests in a rich variety of forms, from abelian and singlet to consistent or covariant. In this paper, all these realizations are described in detail, along with their properties and phenomenological applications. Central to this presentation is a novel expression for the fully generic chiral anomaly, derived with either massive or massless fermions, that incorporates not only the standard triangle but also the box and pentagon diagrams. From this master expression, the various traditional forms of the anomaly are then transparently derived. This provides a powerful tool, technically and conceptually, driving two further objectives. First, the topological aspects of each form are dutifully described while bypassing the differential language entirely, save for Stokes' theorem. Second, to make sure anyone interested can truly reproduce all the results in a reasonable amount of time, a FeynCalc implementation of the relevant calculations is provided. Ultimately, this simplified and unified description of all the forms of the chiral anomaly highlights the underlying conceptual beauty, and offers a comprehensive grasp of the physics at play.

    hep-phhep-th0 citations
19. 19*

    Phase structure of strong interaction matter from Functional QCD

    Christian S. Fischer🇩🇪 · Jan M. Pawlowski🇩🇪

    In this contribution to the Encyclopedia of Nuclear Physics, we aim to provide a pedagogical introduction to the functional approach to QCD at finite temperature and chemical potential. We briefly outline the general framework and address its complementarity to other first-principle approaches to non-perturbative QCD. We discuss selected results obtained with Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSE) and the functional renormalisation group (fRG) in the context of a general physics perspective on the QCD phase diagram. This article is specifically aimed at students and non-practitioners of functional methods alike and may serve as a short guide to further literature.

    hep-phhep-exhep-latnucl-th5 citations
20. 20*

    Predicting the Neutrino Mass Ordering Using Neural Networks

    T.J.C. Bezerra🇬🇧 · L. Asquith🇬🇧 · E. Bannister🇬🇧 · W. Shorrock🇬🇧

    Determining the neutrino mass ordering remains a central open problem in particle physics. While next-generation long-baseline experiments are expected to resolve this question, current data provide limited sensitivity because the spectral differences between normal and inverted ordering are subtle and entangled with parameter degeneracies. We investigate a machine-learning strategy for mass-ordering determination using a feed-forward neural-network classifier trained on synthetic long-baseline datasets generated with three-flavour oscillation probabilities, matter effects, and statistical fluctuations. We evaluate the classifier against standard ${\chi }^2$ and $\log \mathcal{L}$ approaches using common discrimination metrics, including receiver-operating-characteristic curves, to quantify sensitivity and to illustrate how operating points can be selected to prioritise purity or efficiency. We find that the neural network achieves performance comparable to conventional fits for the scenarios studied, providing a flexible, independent cross-check of established analyses. The framework can be extended to incorporate systematic uncertainties and to explore joint inference of oscillation parameters, and it may also serve as a pedagogical tool for introducing machine-learning methods in neutrino physics.

    hep-phcs.LGhep-exphysics.data-an0 citations
21. 21*

    Probing lepton flavor mixing in $W_R$ searches with machine learning at the LHC

    Jin-Man Cai🇨🇳 · Gang Li🇨🇳

    Right-handed lepton flavor mixing in the left-right symmetric model directly affects the production and decay of heavy Majorana neutrinos $N_R$, yet its impact on collider searches remains less explored. Using a deep neural network (DNN), we analyze the Keung-Senjanović process $pp\to W_R\to {\ell }_{\alpha }{N}_R\to {\ell }_{\alpha }{\ell }_{\beta }jj$ with ${\ell }_{\alpha ,\beta }=e,\mu$ at LHC Run~2 and the HL-LHC, considering both same-sign and opposite-sign dilepton channels. We adopt three benchmark mixing scenarios: unmixed, maximal-mixing, and PMNS-like. In the unmixed scenario, the DNN improves the expected significance over the cut-based analyses performed by ATLAS, leading to stronger exclusion limits. For the combined $\ell \ell$ analysis, the HL-LHC can exclude $m_{W_R}$ and $m_{N_R}$ up to $6.7$ ($6.3$)~TeV and $4.4$ ($4.1$)~TeV, respectively, under maximal (PMNS-like) mixing. LHC Run~2 already excludes a significant portion of the $|V_{e1}|\text{–}|V_{\mu 1}|$ plane, and the HL-LHC will probe even smaller mixing values, possibly ruling out both the maximal and PMNS-like patterns. Finally, we investigate complementarities with low-energy charged lepton flavor violation processes, where future searches can overlap with or exceed the LHC reach.

    hep-phhep-ex0 citations
22. 22*

    Revealing the $D_0^{\ast }(2300)$ two-pole structure from lattice data and the SU(3) limit

    Zejian Zhuang🇪🇸 · Fernando Gil Domínguez🇨🇳 · Raquel Molina🇪🇸

    We perform an analysis of LQCD light - charmed (pseudoscalar) meson scattering data with UChPT for pion masses ranging from $m_{\pi }\simeq 230$~MeV till the SU(3) limit, $m_{\pi }\simeq 700$~MeV. We find two poles in the non-strange isospin $I=1/2$ sector that can be related to the experimental $D_0(2300)$ resonance. At the physical pion mass, the poles are located at $\sqrt{s_0}=2094(7)(1)-i111(7)(13)$ MeV, and $2463(60)(30)-i108(14)(12)$~MeV. While the first pole, named here $D_0^{\ast }(2100)$, is always a resonance in $D\pi$ within the $1\sigma$ region, the second pole can be a resonance or virtual state close to the $D\eta ,D_s\bar{K}$ thresholds. For the first time, the pion mass dependence on different chiral trajectories including SU(3) LQCD data are investigated for these poles. We find that in the $m_s=m_{s,\mathrm{phy}}$ trajectory, the $D_0^{\ast }(2100)$ resonance pole behaves similarly as the $\sigma$ resonance in $\pi \pi$ scattering, splitting into two poles, connected to the $\bar{3}$ representation. Moreover, we found that the higher pole related to the experimental $D_0^{\ast }(2300)$ can be related to the $6$ representation. We highlight that since this pole couples strongly to channels with hidden strangeness, its mass is fairly constant in the $\mathrm{Tr}[M]=C$ trajectory, what can be tested in future LQCD simulations. The compositeness of the $D_0^{\ast }(2100)$ state at the SU(3) limit is evaluated. Finally, other sectors are also discussed.

    hep-phhep-lat3 citations
23. 23*

    Space-like Sachs electric and magnetic form factors of the baryons in the asymmetric nuclear medium

    Ekta Rawat🇮🇳 · Navpreet Kaur🇮🇳 · Harleen Dahiya🇮🇳 · Arvind Kumar🇮🇳 · Suneel Dutt🇮🇳

    In the present work, we have studied the space-like baryon Sachs form factors in the isospin asymmetric nuclear medium using the vector meson dominance (VMD) model. The in-medium effects are incorporated through the medium-modified masses of vector mesons which are calculated using the QCD sum rule approach taking density dependent scalar quark and gluon condensates as inputs from chiral SU(3) quark mean field (CQMF) model. The effective magnetic moments of the baryons are also calculated in the CQMF model. In the framework of VMD model, the photon couples to the nucleons through intermediary vector mesons with the same quantum number as that of a photon. This coupling leads to the relation of isoscalar and isovector Dirac and Pauli form factors which are then used to calculate the Sachs electric and magnetic form factors, which provide physically measurable quantities that represent the electric and magnetic distributions of the baryons. The present work aims to study the effects of asymmetric nuclear matter at finite temperature on the Sachs form factors of baryons in the space-like region. The electric and magnetic charge radii have also been calculated for the baryons in free space and dense asymmetric nuclear matter. The results obtained have been compared with other available phenomenological models, lattice simulations, and experimental data.

    hep-phPRD(2026)·1 citation
24. 24*

    Probing Singlet Vector-Like Top Quarks in the Hadronic tZ Channel at the HL-LHC using Machine and Deep Learning Architectures

    Haroon Sagheer🇵🇰 · M. Tayyab Javaid🇵🇰 · Ijaz Ahmed🇵🇰 · Ali Hassan🇮🇹 · Farzana Ahmad🇰🇷

    In this work, we study the single production of a vector-like singlet top partner \( T \) at the 14 TeV HL-LHC in the channel \( pp \to T j \) with \( T \to t Z \), \( t \to b W \to b j j \), and \( Z \to \nu \bar{\nu} \). Signal and background samples are generated with MadGraph5\_aMC@NLO v3.5.11, showered with Pythia 8, and passed through Delphes. The dominant backgrounds are \( t \bar{t} \), \( t Z j \), \( ZZ j j \), and \( W Z j j \) (including charge conjugates). A hadronic pre-selection (\( N_j \geq 3 \), \( N_b \geq 1 \), \( N_\ell = 0 \)) is imposed as trigger, followed by optimized kinematic cuts. We perform multivariate classification with Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and a Graph Neural Network (GNN) based on jet-level features. Sensitivities at 3000 fb\(^{-1}\) are quoted using the Asimov significance, \( S / \sqrt{S + B} \), and an Asimov variant with a 20\% background systematic. The model parameters \( g^* \) and \( R_L \) are defined in Sec.~2, and a single global working point is used to avoid per-mass tuning bias. In the \( (g^*, m_T) \) scan, we present 2\(\sigma\) exclusion and 5\(\sigma\) discovery contours for \( R_L = 0 \) and \( R_L = 0.5 \). For \( R_L = 0 \), 2\(\sigma\) exclusion corresponds to \( g^* \in [0.17, 0.49] \) (\( 0.16, 0.43 \)) over \( m_T \in [1.8, 2.7] \) TeV, while 5\(\sigma\) discovery corresponds to \( g^* \in [0.27, 0.44] \) (\( 0.26, 0.40 \)) over \( m_T \in [1.8, 2.2] \) TeV for XGBoost and GNN respectively. For \( R_L = 0.5 \), the 2\(\sigma\) reach is \( g^* \in [0.21, 0.48] \) (\( 0.20, 0.43 \)) over \( m_T \in [1.8, 2.5] \) TeV, and the 5\(\sigma\) reach is \( g^* \in [0.33, 0.43] \) (\( 0.31, 0.49 \)) over \( m_T \in [1.8, 2.2] \) TeV, with the GNN yielding slightly stronger and smoother limits across the scan.

    hep-ph0 citations
25. 25*

    A Common Antimatter Response in AMS-02 Positrons and Antiprotons

    Yi Yang🇹🇼

    AMS-02 has reported a high-rigidity regularity that is difficult to interpret as a positron-only fact: above about $60\mathrm{GV}$, antiprotons, protons, and positrons have nearly identical rigidity dependence, whereas electrons do not. I argue that this pattern suggests a common antimatter response. The organizing principle is a no-extra-source one: antiparticles retain their production history, but their post-production retarded exposure can be reduced relative to an ordinary retarded response. For positrons this is reduced accumulated radiative exposure rather than an added positron-only source. For antiprotons, whose production is hadronic and secondary, the production kernel is kept fixed; the corresponding effect is a reduction of the second, post-production residence softening rather than a new antiproton source. In a power-law response language, the required hardening ${\Delta }_{\bar{p}}$ must compensate the ordinary secondary softening ${\delta }_{\mathrm{eff}}$, giving ${\Delta }_{\bar{p}}\simeq {\delta }_{\mathrm{eff}}$. The resulting test is direct: conventional explanations must reproduce the joint high-rigidity slope geometry of $p$, $\bar{p}$, $e^{+}$, and $e^{-}$, not only the one-dimensional $\bar{p}/p$ ratio.

    hep-phastro-ph.HE0 citations
26. 26*

    Astrophysical Uncertainties in Sub-GeV Dark Matter Detection via Single Phonon Excitations

    Xu-Xiang Li🇺🇸 · Navaneetha Valsan🇺🇸 · Zhengkang Zhang🇺🇸

    We present the first systematic study of how local dark matter velocity distribution uncertainties propagate into direct detection rates for dark matter--single phonon scattering. We consider three benchmark halo models -- Standard Halo Model, Tsallis and empirical -- and vary the astrophysical parameters within observationally motivated ranges. To compare halo models on equal footing, we introduce an rms-matching prescription that holds the mean dark matter kinetic energy fixed across models. With this prescription, differences between halo models prove subdominant to parameter variations within each model, so that astrophysical uncertainties can be effectively captured by varying parameters within the Standard Halo Model alone. We find $\mathcal{O}(1\%)$ to $\mathcal{O}(100\%)$ fractional deviations in the predicted rates across the dark matter mass range of interest. For the daily modulation signal, astrophysical parameter variations rescale the amplitude but leave the phase robust. These results provide timely input for reliably interpreting upcoming phonon-based direct detection experiments targeting sub-GeV dark matter.

    hep-ph2 citations
27. 27*

    Universal global analytic expansion for the 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole profiles

    Michal Malinský🇨🇿

    In this work we discuss in detail a global analytic expansion scheme for the solutions of the `t~Hooft-Polyakov monopole profile equations for arbitrary $\lambda /e^2>0$ based on the findings presented in a recent resurgence-oriented letter arXiv:2602.14620 [hep-th], which the present study significantly expands upon. A uniformly convergent functional perturbation series developed around universal, surprisingly simple, analytic non-perturbative background profiles corresponding to a partial resummation of the Borel-plane expansions suggested there, is constructed; a perfect match to what is known about the full solutions' local behaviour at zero and infinite radii is achieved, along with simple analytic prescriptions for the locally inaccessible numerical parameters therein.

    ↳ hep-thhep-ph1 citation
28. 28*

    Magnetic Symmetries and the Structure of Correlation Functions in Quantum Field Theory

    Masaru Hongo🇯🇵 · Kentaro Nishimura🇯🇵

    Quantum field theories in the presence of a static and uniform external magnetic field possess two characteristic spatial symmetries: magnetic translations and magnetic rotation. We investigate general consequences of these symmetries on correlation functions from a model-independent perspective, without relying on specific models or perturbative expansions. The projective structure of magnetic translation symmetry constrains correlation functions of charged operators to acquire the Schwinger phase and leads to a factorized form into a gauge-covariant phase factor and a reduced correlator depending only on relative coordinates. We further derive the spectral representation of two-point functions in terms of representations of the magnetic translation algebra, in which the Landau- and symmetric-gauge descriptions arise as different choices of basis. Our results provide a unified symmetry-based framework for quantum field theories in external magnetic fields.

    ↳ hep-thcond-mat.str-elhep-ph0 citations
29. 29*

    Non-monotonicity of $p_T$ correlations from meson-baryon mixing

    Tom Reichert🇨🇭 · Jan Steinheimer🇩🇪 · Marcus Bleicher🇩🇪

    The STAR experiment has recently reported data on the $\sqrt{⟨\Delta p_{T,i}\Delta p_{T,j}⟩}/⟨⟨p_T⟩⟩$ charged hadron correlation in Au+Au reactions from $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=3-200$ GeV. The beam energy dependence of this quantity is non-monotonic, showing a pronounced minimum at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}\approx 7.7$ GeV, while being essentially flat at lower and higher energies. It has been proposed that such a non-monotonicity would be consistent with increased momentum correlations due to a critical point of QCD. In the present work it is shown, using a simplified model, that the observed structure can be consistently explained by the transition from a baryon dominated system to a meson dominated system and is therefore not a good observable for the critical point of QCD.

    ↳ nucl-thhep-phnucl-ex1 citation
30. 30*

    Model-independent H0 from GWTC-4 standard sirens and TDCOSMO 2025 strong lensing time delays

    En-Yu Xiong · Ji-Yu Song🇺🇸 · Jing-Fei Zhang🇨🇳 · Xin Zhang🇺🇸

    The significant discrepancy between early- and late-Universe measurements of the Hubble constant, known as the Hubble tension, remains one of the most pressing open questions in cosmology. Since both sides of the tension rely on model-dependent assumptions or multi-rung calibration chains, a cosmological-model-independent measurement of $H_0$ is essential to arbitrate this discrepancy. In this work, we combine 142 gravitational-wave standard siren events from the Fourth Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog with the latest TDCOSMO2025 time-delay strong lensing data to constrain $H_0$ in a cosmological-model-independent framework based on the distance sum rule. Under the FullPop-4.0 population model with the TDCOSMO2025-only lensing configuration, we obtain $H_0=83.78_{-10.23}^{+12.53}\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}\mathrm{Mp}{\mathrm{c}}^{-1}$, with a relative precision of $13.58\%$. We find that the $H_0$ precision is governed primarily by the mass-sheet transformation treatment on the strong-lensing side: replacing the conservative TDCOSMO2025 hierarchical framework with the H0LiCOW method tightens the constraint to $H_0=75.42_{-4.66}^{+3.74}\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}\mathrm{Mp}{\mathrm{c}}^{-1}$, with a relative precision of $5.57\%$. At the current precision, all results are consistent with both the Planck and SH0ES values, and future improvements from more high-redshift dark siren events and more time-delay lens systems are expected to strengthen this model-independent approach.

    ↳ astro-ph.COgr-qchep-ph2 citations
31. 31*

    Neutron Star Observations Challenge a Large Colour-Superconducting Gap in Dense Quark Matter

    Shao-Peng Tang🇨🇳 · Yong-Jia Huang🇨🇳 · Yi-Zhong Fan🇨🇳

    At asymptotically high density, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) predicts that quark matter becomes a colour superconductor in the colour-flavour-locked (CFL) phase, yet, away from the asymptotic regime, the magnitude of the pairing gap is uncertain. Here we combine multi-messenger neutron star observations with perturbative QCD and chiral effective field theory inputs in a Bayesian inference built on a flexible Gaussian-process--neural-network representation of the equation of state (EOS). By matching the EOS at a baryon chemical potential of 2.6 GeV to the perturbative QCD prediction supplemented by the next-to-leading-order CFL contribution, we infer a gap of ${\Delta }_{\mathrm{CFL}}^{\ast }=34_{-28}^{+32}$ MeV and a 95% credible upper limit of about 66 MeV, which is a factor of two tighter than previous bounds and at the lower edge of most microscopic model predictions. We further place the first data-driven constraint on the unknown high-order constant of the perturbative QCD pressure, i.e., $c_0=-21_{-8}^{+9}$. Our results indicate that colour-superconducting pairing makes only a subdominant contribution to dense matter pressure, tightening the connection between neutron star data and the QCD phase diagram.

    ↳ astro-ph.HEhep-ph3 citations
32. 32*

    Yoctosecond imaging of the ground state of ${}^{129}$Xe at the Large Hadron Collider

    Giuliano Giacalone🇨🇭 · Govert Nijs🇨🇭 · Wilke van der Schee🇨🇭

    Imaging a quantum many-body system requires probes that resolve the coordinates of its constituents in sufficiently large event samples, allowing measurements of correlation functions [1-4]. High-energy nuclear collisions provide this opportunity on the nuclear scale [5], enabling features of colliding ions, such as their deformation, to be probed through particle correlation observables [6, 7]. However, a quantitative extraction of the correlation properties of nuclei from these measurements is still lacking. Here we show that this is possible for the nucleus ${}^{129}$Xe using Bayesian inference methods. We combine a deformed-rotor description of the colliding nuclei, which encodes the many-body dynamics of constituent neutrons and protons, with hydrodynamic simulations of the ensuing collision evolution. From a combined global analysis of Large Hadron Collider data on Xe-Xe and Pb-Pb collisions, we then infer that the shape of ${}^{129}$Xe is nearly maximally triaxial, which aligns with mean-field results for xenon isotopes away from shell closure [8, 9]. From this we evaluate two- and three-particle correlations in the nuclear ground state to provide new constraints for \textit{ab initio} methods in nuclear theory. We establish thus collider experiments as a means of quantifying correlations of protons and neutrons arising from residual forces of quantum chromodynamics.

    ↳ nucl-thhep-phnucl-ex3 citations
33. 33*

    Closed string trajectories from a new "tiling"

    Thomas Basile🇧🇪 · Chrysoula Markou🇮🇹

    Based on an efficient technology for the excavation of entire open string trajectories of physical states, we propose an algorithmic method of constructing the largely unknown closed string trajectories. Due to combinatorial complexity, the "double copy" of open strings is limited in efficiency as a means of building closed string trajectories. We bypass this technical difficulty by employing one open string as the fundamental seed and then dressing it by a suitable selection of generators of a symplectic algebra that acts on both the left and the right sector. By applying Howe duality, the dressed seeds amount to closed string trajectory candidates, finding the physical subset of which is possible by solving systems of equations involving Diophantine-like recursion relations, which we also illustrate with examples.

    ↳ hep-thhep-ph0 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.