PaperPanorama

HEP Phenomenology·hep-ph

Thu·Sep 17, 2026

9 papers—7 primary·2 cross-listed

All9Primary7Cross-lists2
  1. 01

    Astrophysical Signatures of Fermionic Dark Matter

    Vinit D Tyagi · Suhas S S · Arun Kenath

    Fermionic dark matter particles remain one of the most compelling candidates for the dark matter content of the Universe, yet no positive results have been obtained from direct detection experiments. In this work, we investigate the possibility that such particles form compact gravitationally bound objects supported by degeneracy pressure. Through an extensive review of microlensing surveys, we derive constraints on the masses of these compact objects. We further analyze the accretion of baryonic matter onto these objects and evaluate their thermal and radiative properties. The estimated burst emission is found to be well below the energies associated with the Galactic Center GeV excess, suggesting that these compact objects are unlikely to be the source of the observed signal. Our analysis suggests that admixed dark matter and baryonic matter objects could potentially account for a fraction of the presently unobserved baryonic matter, thereby providing a possible explanation for a fraction of the missing baryons in the Universe.

    hep-phgr-qcIndian Journal of Physics, 2026
  2. 02

    Domain Adaptation against Background Sculpting in Anomaly Detection at the LHC

    Vincent Benne · Marie Hein · Michael Krämer · Humberto Reyes-Gonzalez · Philipp Soldin · Christopher Wiebusch

    Weakly supervised anomaly detection has been shown to be an effective tool for model-agnostic searches for new physics, especially in the context of resonance searches. However, correlations between the anomaly score and the resonant mass can distort the background distribution after selecting on the anomaly score, complicating background estimation from the sidebands. To mitigate this background sculpting, we propose a domain-adaptation-based decorrelation of the anomaly score from the resonant mass. We study this approach using the LHC Olympics R&D data set and several weakly supervised anomaly detection methods. We find that domain adaptation can substantially reduce background sculpting while largely preserving the anomaly detection performance. When correlations between the input features and the resonant mass degrade the original method's performance, domain adaptation can also recover sensitivity.

    hep-phhep-ex
  3. 03

    Collider Detector Observables from Lattice Spin Systems

    João Barata · Ying-Ying Li · Bo Wang · Hua Xing Zhu

    Detector observables pose a fundamental challenge for nonperturbative lattice methods due to their intrinsically real-time and asymptotic nature. We propose quantum simulation platforms as an ideal setting for studying these observables. Using quantum spin systems as a demonstration, we construct lattice detector operators and establish their connection to continuum energy-flow observables. We demonstrate this framework in the -dimensional quantum Ising model, where finite lattice calculations show quantitative agreement with conformal field theory expectations at criticality. These results support the interpretation of the lattice flow operators as regulated counterparts of continuum detectors in the scaling and asymptotic limits, providing a concrete route toward realizing high-energy collider physics on table-top quantum platforms.

    hep-phhep-lathep-thquant-ph
  4. 04

    Proper Time Shifts in Pulsar Timing Arrays

    Vincent S. H. Lee

    Pulsar timing arrays are a powerful tool for probing low-frequency gravitational phenomena and physics beyond the Standard Model. We establish a general, gauge-invariant framework for the timing residual by identifying the measurable quantity as the proper time interval between consecutive pulse arrivals at Earth. In linearized general relativity, we derive a general expression for this proper time shift and show that it decomposes into Doppler, Shapiro, and Einstein delay contributions whose sum is gauge invariant, similar to frameworks that have been developed for other gravitational-wave detectors such as laser and atom interferometers. We also provide a recipe for computing the resulting timing residual for any specified perturbation, and we illustrate the method with several physically well-motivated sources, recovering known results where they exist in the literature. This recipe can be directly applied to search for new physics from real pulsar timing data using existing numerical software.

    hep-phastro-ph.COastro-ph.HEgr-qc
  5. 05

    WIMPs with Enhanced Annihilation from a Feebly Interacting Unstable Partner

    Chance Hoskinson · Pearl Sandick · Barmak Shams Es Haghi

    Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) constitute one of the best-motivated dark matter (DM) candidates. In this study, we consider a simple extension of the WIMP paradigm in which WIMPs are coupled to a heavier particle that interacts only with them and can decay into WIMPs. In the early Universe, when WIMPs are in thermal equilibrium with the Standard Model (SM) bath, they serve as a portal to populate the heavy partner through inverse decays. Depending on the lifetime of the partner particle, its eventual decay into WIMPs can significantly alter the WIMP abundance. If the partner decays into WIMPs before their freeze-out from equilibrium, the standard thermal history remains unchanged. When the decay occurs after WIMP freeze-out, however, the injected non-thermal population of WIMPs can result in an overproduction of DM, therefore requiring a larger WIMP annihilation cross section relative to the standard scenario without the partner. For a given partner lifetime and WIMP annihilation cross section, freeze-out may be delayed due to re-annihilation or followed by a freeze-in phase. By solving the Boltzmann equations both semi-analytically and numerically, we explore these thermal histories and study the required enhancement in the WIMP annihilation cross section compared to the canonical value. This enhancement, which can reach up to three orders of magnitude, leads to stronger annihilation signals in the late Universe. As a result, current and upcoming indirect detection experiments are able to probe the lifetime of the partner particle. We briefly explore possible connections between our scenario and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. As an example, we show that the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) can provide a realization of our scenario, with the possibility of accommodating light higgsino DM with the correct relic abundance.

    hep-phastro-ph.COastro-ph.HEhep-ex
  6. 06

    Quantum Seesaw Cosmology: A Heating Phase from Pauli Blocking

    Nicolás Bernal · Chee Sheng Fong

    In Seesaw Cosmology, a scalar field reheats the Standard Model (SM) through right-handed neutrinos (RHNs), which generate tiny neutrino masses through the seesaw mechanism. When RHNs rapidly fill a restricted momentum-space region, expansion continually opens new fermionic states that are refilled by subsequent scalar decays, maintaining an approximately constant physical RHN density. This gives rise to a novel heating regime in which the SM temperature increases with the scale factor as , in sharp contrast to the conventional scaling during matter-dominated reheating.

    hep-ph
  7. 07

    Assessment of Super- and Hyper-Kamiokande Sensitivity to the DSNB

    Pablo Blanco-Mas · André de Gouvêa · Iván Martínez-Soler

    The detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (DSNB) is one of the main goals of the current and the next generation of neutrino experiments. Based on results published by the Super-Kamiokande (SK) collaboration, we study the sensitivity of current and future water Cherenkov detectors to the DSNB. We reproduce current constraints and estimate the sensitivity to the DSNB of ten years of SK data and of a next-generation water-Cherenkov detector like Hyper-Kamiokande (HK). We find that, even with increased exposure, SK's sensitivity is relatively modest, while HK has the potential to deliver a statistically significant discovery of the DSNB in ten years. Along the way, we perform a detailed study of the relevant atmospheric neutrino backgrounds and argue that an accurate treatment of neutrino oscillations and propagation is essential when it comes to properly inferring the sensitivity to the DSNB and measuring its flux.

    hep-ph
  8. 08

    Theoretical--operational modelling of complex experiments: parameter robustness and degeneracy in muon--electron conversion

    Vitaly Pronskikh

    Complex experiments infer theory parameters through a coupled chain of physical models and data reduction. We formulate the theoretical--operational model (TOM) as a typed factorization of this forward prediction and study how changes of preparation, phenomenon modelling, readout, backgrounds, and analysis project onto the local manifold generated by the physics parameters. For a smooth prediction and a locally identifiable weighted least-squares estimate, the resulting response map separates each model deformation into a parameter-equivalent component and a residual component that cannot be absorbed by a change of the fitted physics parameters. This gives local criteria for robustness, exact degeneracy, and partial degeneracy of parameter inference. The construction is applied to charged-lepton-flavour-violating muon--electron conversion in aluminium. A one-bin conversion-rate model exhibits an exact normalization degeneracy. In a two-template model of the elastic--inelastic spectrum, a common signal normalization is absorbed by the fitted conversion rate without changing an operator-sensitive nuclear-response ratio, whereas a relative elastic--inelastic efficiency change is exactly parameter-equivalent to a change of that ratio at first order. A numerical Run-I example based on published Mu2e spectra shows that a \(100\,\mathrm{keV}/c\) momentum-scale mismatch is only partially parameter-equivalent: its projection ratio onto the local tangent space generated by the elastic normalization \(R_0\) and the logarithmic inelastic-to-elastic response ratio \(\rho\) is \(\eta=0.331\), while most of the weighted spectral deformation remains as a residual shape. TOM thereby provides a local theoretical description of parameter robustness and degeneracy at the interface of particle/nuclear phenomenology and experimental realization.

    ↳ physics.data-anhep-exhep-ph
  9. 09

    FOSSIL: A future mission for CMB spectral distortion measurements

    N. Aghanim · B. Maffei · J. Aumont · A. Beelen · B. Borgo · E. Bozzo · J. Chluba · X. Coulon · S. Couturier · F. Cuttaia · B. Cyr · P. De Bernardis and 87 other authors

    We present FOSSIL, a proposed space mission which is designed to deliver unprecedented absolute spectroscopic measurements of the sky intensity over a broad frequency range (50GHz to 2THz) to accurately measure chemical-potential mu-type, Compton y-type, and Compton relativistic y-type CMB spectral distortions. FOSSIL will reach monopole sensitivities representing a gain of roughly three orders of magnitude over COBE/FIRAS. These capabilities will allow us to constrain primordial density fluctuations on scales k~(10 to 10^4)Mpc^-1, test inflationary models, probe dark matter annihilation/decay/interactions, constrain primordial black hole seed scenarios, and pin down feedback models in galaxy evolution and structure formation by measuring the cosmic thermal energy content. Furthermore, its 130 spectral channels will enable legacy astrophysics, including precise characterisation of the Cosmic Infrared Background, line intensity mapping during cosmic noon, and detailed Galactic dust mapping.

    ↳ astro-ph.COastro-ph.IMhep-ph