HEP Phenomenology·hep-ph

Wed·Oct 14, 2026Wednesday·October 14, 2026

20 papers—14 primary·6 cross-listed

01
The Future of AI-assisted Physics: Discovering, Verifying and Organizing Results via Formalization
Sven Krippendorf · Leopoldo Sarra · Joseph Tooby-Smith
Rapid advances in AI have opened a new era for physics, enabling unprecedented capabilities in research and discovery. However, these advances also bring challenges in verifying, trusting, and reusing the results they so rapidly produce. Formalization is a necessary part of the solution to these challenges. In this paper, as well as giving an overview of the role of AI and formalization in physics, we make the case that: (1) formalization is an essential layer for AI-driven discoveries in both computational and theoretical physics; (2) AI is lowering the barrier to, and increasing the efficiency of, formalization in physics, though it remains weaker at choosing definitions and designing libraries than at writing proofs; (3) the speed AI brings to formalization in physics currently comes at the cost of trust, credit, and community; (4) shared, community-reviewed formal libraries such as Physlib should be central in making progress in this field, both as a trusted, reusable foundation for physics results and as the environment in which AI systems can reason about physics; (5) formalizing physics raises challenges beyond those in mathematics, most importantly that a checked proof does not establish that its definitions faithfully capture the intended physics. We also give our perspectives on near-term and long-term directions in these areas.
hep-phcs.AIcs.LOhep-th
02
A Witten effect for global monopoles
Pablo Quílez Lasanta
Global monopoles can carry electric charge even when the scalar field that forms them is neutral. We show that a CP-odd operator in the Goldstone effective theory, typically discarded as a total derivative, gives them an electric charge $Q = - C n$ , with $C$ its Wilson coefficient and $n$ the winding number. This is a Witten effect on a global defect, generated by a mixed $θ$ -term between electromagnetism and a composite connection built from the Goldstone fields. The same group theory condition that allows the operator also guarantees the existence of monopoles. We also give a fermionic UV completion and determine the coefficient by matching the Goldstone-Wilczek current.
hep-phhep-th
03
Solutions of Roy equations for variable pion mass
Gilberto Colangelo
The Roy equations for the $S$ and $P$ waves are solved for pion masses below the physical value in the region between threshold and $s_{A} = 0.84 \GeV^{2}$ . The analysis is based on the assumption that the phenomenological input above $s_{A}$ can be used essentially unchanged. Moreover, for $M_{π} \leq M_{π, phys}$ , the chiral perturbation theory predictions for the two $S$ -wave scattering lengths provide a very reliable additional input to the Roy equations. The outcome is an accurate description of the $S$ and $P$ partial waves as the light-quark masses decrease towards the chiral limit. As a test of the approach, we evaluate the first few threshold parameters of the $S$ , $P$ , and $D$ waves via Wanders' sum rules and find excellent agreement with chiral perturbation theory across the entire range $0 \leq M_{π} \leq M_{π, phys}$ . We further solve the Roy equations for pion masses above the physical value (up to $240 \MeV$ ) and show that the resulting solutions agree well with existing lattice data at $M_{π} = 239 \MeV$ . The present work paves the way for analyses of lattice data that fully incorporate the constraints of analyticity, unitarity, and crossing symmetry, and provides the basis for an accurate study of the dependence of the $σ$ and $ρ$ resonances on the light-quark masses, both of which will be addressed in future work.
hep-phhep-lat
04
Collider and direct detection as key probes of asymmetric dark matter: Signals from a compressed Inert Higgs doublet
David Cerdeño · Miguel Escudero · Pietro Ghedini · Guilherme Guedes · Thomas Hambye · Abel Muñoz-Navarro · Elena Pressendo
The cosmic imbalance of particles over antiparticles may be inherited by the dark matter in a certain class of asymmetric dark matter models. In this article, we thoroughly investigate the signatures of the minimal realization of this idea. In this model a new (stable) inert Higgs, $H^{'}$ , plays the role of the mediator that facilitates the asymmetry transfer from the visible to the dark sector. It also constitutes a small dark matter sub-component, while the dominant component stems from a singlet scalar asymmetry. A combination of phenomenological and cosmological constraints requires this new inert Higgs doublet to be quite light $46 GeV < m_{H^{'}} < 580 GeV$ and its spectrum rather compressed, $Δ M = m_{H^{\pm}} - m_{H_{0}} ≲ 1 GeV$ and $δ m = m_{A_{0}} - m_{H_{0}} ≲ 5 MeV$ . Therefore its charged component can be relatively long-lived on collider length-scales. By recasting searches for compressed Higgsinos at the LHC, we derive new limits on this particle and show that, while at present most of the parameter space for this state is still unconstrained, large and key regions of parameter space will be tested at the HL-LHC by a combination of searches for disappearing charged tracks and displaced soft tracks. Quite remarkably, the lifetime of the charged component of the doublet can be correlated with the dark matter interaction rate at direct detection experiments and we show that the next generation of direct detection experiments has a unique sensitivity to the parameter space in the model. The fact that a small neutral mass splitting is a prediction of the asymmetric setup makes it an interesting candidate to account for the high energy nuclear recoil event recently reported by the LZ experiment. More generally, our detailed phenomenological study holds for any dark matter model involving an inert Higgs doublet with mass below 580 GeV.
hep-phastro-ph.COhep-ex
05
Disappearing Tracks from Electroweak Vector Dark Matter at the LHC
Fabián Hernández-Pinto · Patricio Escalona · Alfonso Zerwekh
We study the disappearing-track signature of a spin-1 minimal dark matter candidate transforming in the real five-dimensional representation of $S U (2)_{L}$ with vanishing hypercharge. Radiative electroweak corrections induce a compressed mass spectrum among the multiplet components, allowing the singly charged state $V^{\pm}$ to attain a macroscopic lifetime and decay via $V^{\pm} \to V^{0} π^{\pm}$ inside tracking detectors. We recast the ATLAS search for disappearing tracks with the full Run-2 dataset of $137 fb^{- 1}$ , originally targeted at long-lived charginos, computing the tracklet reconstruction probability analytically from the published efficiency so that the full lifetime range is covered. The procedure reproduces the ATLAS limits for pure winos within $6%$ in mass. The Run-2 data exclude quintuplet masses up to $1080 GeV$ for proper decay lengths $c τ ≃ 250 mm$ , and $M_{V} < 630 GeV$ for a mass splitting of $166 MeV$ . For the radiative mass splitting predicted by the model with a small Higgs-portal coupling, masses between $120 GeV$ and $240 - 300 GeV$ are excluded. With $3 ab^{- 1}$ and a Run-2-like analysis, the sensitivity would extend to $1750 GeV$ for vanishing background and to $1530 GeV$ for a linear extrapolation of the instrumental background.
hep-phhep-ex
06
A Comprehensive Interpretation of the LZ High-Energy Recoil Event: A Minimal $U (1)_{B}$ Dark Sector and Its Experimental Tests
Mattia Di Mauro
The $248$ keV nuclear-recoil candidate reported by LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) motivates an inelastic dark matter (DM) interpretation, in which scattering converts the DM particle into a slightly heavier state. We provide a comprehensive study of this interpretation in an anomaly-free model of gauged baryon number, where a new vector boson, $Z_{B}$ , mediates interactions between DM and quarks. Breaking the baryonic gauge symmetry generates the new particle masses and a small splitting between two DM states, while a residual symmetry keeps the lighter state stable. We identify regions compatible with the LZ candidate, the observed DM abundance, and current ATLAS and CMS dijet constraints. Within the scanned domain, these regions span DM masses $m_{χ} ≃ 0.19$ - $4.5$ TeV, mediator masses $M_{Z_{B}} ≃ 0.05$ - $5.0$ TeV, and gauge couplings $g_{B} ≃ 0.004$ - $0.74$ , with correlated values of these parameters. A representative thermal solution has $m_{χ} = 1$ TeV, $M_{Z_{B}} = 1.44$ TeV, $g_{B} ≃ 0.228$ , and a mass splitting of $300$ keV. A small electroweak mixing allows the heavier DM state to decay rapidly, suppressing unwanted signals from its surviving population. This interpretation can be tested through complementary measurements: additional LZ and XENONnT data can establish whether the high-energy recoil signal persists, ATLAS and CMS Run-3 dijet searches can probe the mediator mass and coupling, and a dedicated IceCube analysis of four-quark final states can test DM capture and annihilation in the Sun. Together, these measurements can test complementary parts of the surviving region and assess whether the LZ candidate is consistent with this interpretation.
hep-phastro-ph.HEhep-th
07
Factorisation theorem and pole cancellation in the resolved $Q_{1}^{q}$ - $Q_{7 γ}$ contribution to $B ˉ \to X_{s} γ$ at NLO
Riccardo Bartocci · Tobias Hurth
We study the subleading resolved $Q_{1}^{q}$ - $Q_{7 γ}$ contribution to the inclusive decay $B ˉ \to X_{s} γ$ at next-to-leading order (NLO) in $α_{s}$ . We present a formulation of the factorisation theorem which is valid beyond the leading order (LO). On this basis, we explicitly demonstrate the cancellation of all $1/ ε$ singularities between the hard, hard-collinear, anti-hard-collinear and soft contributions. For this purpose, a central result of this work is the computation of the $u$ -integrated massless two-loop anti-hard-collinear jet function, which determines the structure of the $1/ ε$ singularities. In addition, we compute the hard function at the required order, combine our results with the hard-collinear jet function known from the literature, and employ the shape function whose renormalisation was determined in our previous work. There, we showed, for inclusive as well as for exclusive modes, that certain contributions to these multi-light-cone soft functions are physically irrelevant and can be consistently omitted; the explicit cancellation of the corresponding divergences provides a non-trivial confirmation of this statement. Overall, our findings constitute a non-trivial consistency check of the factorisation framework for this subleading resolved contribution at NLO and provide the basis for a full phenomenological analysis.
hep-ph
08
Seeking a possible approach to understanding the origin of the proton mass using twist-4 contributions in inclusive reactions
Xiaohui Wen · Shinsuke Yoshida
Most of the mass of the visible universe originates from the strong interaction. Quantitatively reproducing the origin of the nucleon mass is one of the important challenges in fundamental science. Since the next-generation Electron-Ion Collider has identified resolving this problem as one of its major goals, further theoretical studies are needed to develop approaches to investigating the origin experimentally. In this paper, we explore the possibility of evaluating the ``gluon condensate term'' which is particularly difficult to determine among the contributions to the nucleon mass, using high-energy scattering experiments. We first express the gluon condensate term in terms of experimentally accessible twist-4 lightcone matrix elements. We then derive, for the first time, analytic formulas for the cross section including all twist-4 contributions from pure quark, quark-gluon, and pure gluon matrix elements in $e p$ collisions, and show how these contributions can be related to the gluon condensate term.
hep-ph
09
Mixed leptogenesis sources and low-energy neutrino portals
Yingnan Xu
A mixed leptogenesis source and its low-energy neutrino portal depend on the same heavy-particle amplitudes. We determine how this common origin restricts matching cancellations and the scalar population produced during reheating. For two Majorana mass levels, each containing a degenerate pair, the inclusive lepton-number-violating invariant fixes an allowed norm domain for the mixed dimension-five coefficient at specified threshold strengths. An aligned flavour texture makes the conventional source vanish as a matrix and gives equal coupling norms for the two massive neutrinos. A continuous family preserves the neutrino-mass fit while relating the source to unequal light coupling strengths. The matched couplings give benchmark vacuum lifetimes of $1.62 \times 1 0^{12} s$ and $2.80 \times 1 0^{11} s$ , while reheating normalized to the baryon abundance determines the primary spectrum. In the massless Born approximation with dilute outgoing states, bath-produced scalars carry $4.81 \times 1 0^{- 5}$ of the primary scalar energy but contribute $11.1$ times its variance. The positive production functional converts the matching constraint into a conditional variance bound. We derive the scalar-mass dependence of stimulated emission and the Hartree moment equation, keeping the scalar mass and quartic as renormalized matching inputs. These results link the leptogenesis source to light-neutrino decay and the finite-density quantities entering subsequent coupled transport.
hep-ph
10
$χ_{c 0}$ production in $Λ ˉ n$ scattering process
Quan-Yun Guo · Zhuo Yu · Dian-Yong Chen
In the present work, we investigate the production of $χ_{c 0}$ in the $Λ ˉ n \to χ_{c 0} K_{S}^{0}$ process by utilizing an effective Lagrangian approach. Based on the $χ_{c 0} \to n K_{S}^{0} Λ ˉ$ decay observed by the BESIII Collaboration, the coupling constants are determined by fitting the $M_{K_{S}^{0} Λ ˉ}$ and $M_{n K_{S}^{0}}$ invariant mass spectra, where eight $N$ and $Λ$ state are considered. Moreover, the parameters $β$ is taken to be 1, 2, 3 as special cases to check the parameter dependence. Our results show that two clear structures can be observed in both $M_{K_{S}^{0} Λ ˉ}$ and $M_{n K_{S}^{0}}$ invariant mass spectra, which should correspond to $N (1720) / N (1895)$ and $Λ (1600) /Λ (1890)$ , respectively. In addition, the contributions from $N (938)$ and $Λ (1116)$ intermediate states are much smaller than those of the above-threshold resonances. With the fitted parameters for $β = 1$ , 2, 3, the cross sections for $Λ ˉ n \to χ_{c 0} K_{S}^{0}$ are estimated to be 1.9 nb, 4.2 nb, and 8.0 nb at $s = 6$ GeV, respectively. Furthermore, our estimations indicate that the differential cross sections for $Λ ˉ n \to χ_{c 0} K_{S}^{0}$ reach a maximum in the forward angle region.
hep-ph
11
Probing eV-scale sterile neutrinos with neutrinoless double-beta decay and beta decay
Ruisha Yang · Jiajun Liao
An eV-scale sterile Majorana neutrino can suppress neutrinoless double-beta decay through destructive interference with the active-neutrino contribution, weakening the resulting constraints on sterile-neutrino parameters. We investigate how complementary beta-decay information restricts this cancellation in the 3+1 framework. Using updated oscillation parameters that include the first JUNO results, we determine the allowed sterile-neutrino mass and mixing regions for both normal and inverted ordering. We show that an upper limit on the effective beta-decay mass $m_{β}$ of the three light neutrinos strengthens the constraints from neutrinoless double-beta decay alone. The beta-decay bound restricts the light-neutrino masses and hence the cancellation between the active and sterile contributions to $m_{β β}$ . We derive analytic expressions for the resulting boundaries and use complex-plane geometry to explain the allowed values of the sterile Majorana phase $α_{4}$ for a finite $∣ m_{β β} ∣$ limit. For the mixing considered, normal ordering allows a broad range of $α_{4}$ at small sterile masses, whereas inverted ordering favors values near $π$ . The allowed phase range narrows as the sterile mass approaches its upper bound or the limit on $∣ m_{β β} ∣$ becomes more stringent.
hep-ph
12
Chiral mass corrections to decuplet hidden-charm pentaquark states
Yu-Quan Guo · Hao-Song Li
We calculate the masses of the $J^{P} = \frac{1}{2}^{-}$ hidden-charm pentaquark states in the $S U (3)$ decuplet within the heavy pentaquark chiral perturbation theory (HPChPT) up to the next-to-leading order (NLO). The one-loop self-energy corrections from the $π$ , $K$ , and $η$ mesons are evaluated. Taking $P_{ψ}^{N} (4312)$ and $P_{ψ s}^{Λ} (4459)$ as inputs, we predict the masses of the doubly-strange and triply-strange decuplet members $P_{ψ ss}^{N}$ and $P_{ψ sss}^{Λ}$ to be 4.607 GeV and 4.755 GeV, respectively. The mass splittings between adjacent strangeness layers are nearly constant at approximately 0.148 GeV. This equal-spacing pattern follows directly from the analytical structure of the NLO chiral corrections, while its actual magnitude is set by the low-energy constants (LECs). It indicates that the Gell--Mann--Okubo (GMO) relation, expected at the leading order of SU(3) flavor symmetry breaking, persists to good accuracy at the NLO.
hep-ph
13
BSMScanner: a lightweight framework for beyond-the-Standard-Model global fits
Mohamed Belfkir
We present BSMScanner, a framework in which a beyond-the-Standard-Model (BSM) parameter scan is specified as a set of declarative YAML documents rather than written as a program. The user declares the free parameters and their priors, the mass matrices and the diagonalisations that act on them, the observables, the theory-validity conditions and the likelihood terms. The framework validates this specification, resolves it into a dependency graph and compiles it once into a typed C++ evaluation kernel, which is then driven by an independently chosen scanning engine: uniform sampling, two differential-evolution engines, or a staged basin-discovery orchestrator, optionally followed by Markov-chain posterior refinement. Flavour physics matrix diagonalisation, PMNS and CKM construction in fixed conventions, tabulated oscillation likelihoods and a library of common flavour observables are provided by the framework and imported by name, so that a model file contains only model-specific definitions; quantities without a closed form, such as a relic density, enter through a C++ or Python plugin interface. We describe the specification schema, the observable and likelihood library, the scanning engines and their configuration, and demonstrate the framework on six benchmark models with $4$ to $26$ free parameters, giving for each the specification, the scan configuration, the resulting best fit and analytic cross-checks of the result.
hep-phphysics.comp-ph
14
Theoretical calculations for $t t ˉ H$ production
Nikolaos Kidonakis · Nodoka Yamanaka
We calculate higher-order perturbative corrections for $t t ˉ H$ production. By adding second-order and third-order soft-gluon corrections to NLO QCD and NLO electroweak (EW) results, we present total and differential cross sections at LHC energies through approximate N $^{3}$ LO (aN $^{3}$ LO) in QCD and NLO in EW. Our aN $^{3}$ LO QCD + NLO EW results provide significant enhancements and a reduced scale dependence for the cross section and the top-quark transverse-momentum and rapidity distributions.
hep-ph
15
Comment on arXiv:2510.21705 "Fundamental Impossibility of a Superradiant Neutrino Laser" and comment on arXiv:2510.21692 "Can Bose-Einstein Condensates Enhance Radioactive Decay?"
Ralph G. DeVoe
We show that the small value of the neutrino cross-section rules out superradiance in the laboratory.
↳ quant-phhep-exhep-ph
16
An All-Sky Search for Moving Gamma-Ray Sources with Fermi-LAT
Dou Lai · James Unwin
Nearby compact gamma-ray sources can move appreciably during the Fermi-LAT mission and thus evade searches that assume a stationary sky. Compact dark matter halos, dark matter spikes around primordial black holes (PBH), and evaporating PBH provide potential examples. We perform a novel all-sky search for steady point sources moving at 0.25 deg/yr-0.8deg/yr in ten years of 1-100 GeV Fermi-LAT data. For a transverse speed of 200 km/s, this angular range probes distances of roughly $3.0 \times 1 0^{3}$ AU to $9.7 \times 1 0^{3}$ AU. We find 577 candidate tracks, consistent with $533 \pm 27.0$ tracks in time-scrambled skies. We place a model-independent 90% upper limit of 80.8 recovered signal tracks. At peak calibrated sensitivity, this corresponds to fewer than 123 steady, full-sky sources with an incident $E^{- 2}$ photon spectrum. We give the calibrated detection efficiency of the search to steady point sources and use it to derive illustrative constraints on both evaporating PBHs and PBHs surrounded by annihilating dark matter halos.
↳ astro-ph.HEastro-ph.COastro-ph.IMhep-ph
17
Ultralight scalars and invisible gravitons
Massimo Giovannini
Unless the tensor to scalar ratio is small enough, the non-adiabatic mode associated with the ultralight bosons may be dangerously comparable with the adiabatic spectrum of curvature inhomogeneities. We point out here that this statement depends on the timeline of the post-inflationary expansion rate. Provided the decelerated evolution is slower than radiation for a sufficiently long period, the relative weight of the non-adiabatic and adiabatic components does not conflict with the direct constraints coming from the large-scale observations. Conversely the presence of ultralight bosons excludes the presence of long stages expanding faster than radiation. The synthesis of the light nuclei and the spectrum of the relic gravitons at high frequencies set the relevant constraints on the duration of the decelerated stages, on the delayed dominance of radiation and on the mass range of the ultralight scalars.
↳ astro-ph.COgr-qchep-phhep-th
18
IceCube data for astrophysical neutrinos exhibit q-statistical behavior
Constantino Tsallis · Ugur Tirnakli
Relevant IceCube recent data for astrophysical neutrinos are analyzed. Similarly to cosmic rays and proton-proton LHC collisions, the corresponding spectra are satisfactorily described, for the entire interval of measured energies, through q-Gaussians. This fact reinforces the already available evidence that nonadditive entropies (either of the $S_{q}$ class or of the $S_{d e l t a}$ one, or even alternative ones) appear to play a crucial role in systems such as black holes and related cosmological phenomena (e.g., dark energy). The IceCube data yield sensibly high values for the momenta-distribution nonadditive index (q \simeq 1.6), in contrast with the cosmic rays values (q \simeq 1.2) and the LHC values (q \simeq 1.1). This fact neatly indicates very-long-ranged space-time correlations. The detailed associated physical mechanisms remain, at the present stage, as an instigating open issue.
↳ cond-mat.stat-mechastro-ph.HEhep-ph
19
Gravitational waves from strong first-order phase transitions in an expanding Universe
Jintao Zou · Zizhuo Zhao · Yongtao Jia · Ligong Bian
We investigate the gravitational waves generated by first-order phase transitions (PTs) in an expanding Universe. Using a scalar field-fluid coupled model, we perform three-dimensional lattice numerical simulations of slow first-order PTs with strong strength. We observe that the contribution from sound waves to the gravitational wave (GW) signal significantly dominates over that from bubble collisions. The sound wave spectra exhibit two peaks located at the mean bubble separation and the sound-shell width. Rotational modes are generated in the fluid during the bubble collisions, and their magnitude grows with the PT strength. The lifetime of the sound wave source increases with decreasing $α$ : for weaker transitions the source can persist for longer than a Hubble time, while for stronger transitions it decays within a Hubble time. When the walls propagate as deflagrations, the GW spectral shape changes drastically, with steeper ultraviolet tails and a shorter-lived sound wave source. We also observe that the magnitude of the normalized GWs is roughly an order of magnitude smaller than obtained in the Minkowski spacetime simulations.
↳ astro-ph.COgr-qchep-ph
20
On some nonlinear extensions to Maxwell's electrodynamics
Bertrand Berche · Ernesto Medina
Soon after Maxwell's celebrated synthesis of electrodynamics, the discovery of the electron raised fundamental questions about the nature and structure of elementary particles. The picture of a small, rigid, charged body of finite radius faced the difficulty of introducing non-electromagnetic forces or stresses to prevent the charge from dispersing, an assumption that was increasingly regarded as unsatisfactory. The alternative description in terms of a point charge was no more satisfactory, because its electromagnetic self-energy diverges. From the early twentieth century onward, several authors therefore explored modifications of Maxwell's theory, with nonlinear electrodynamics emerging as a particularly natural and radical possibility. In this paper, we revisit at the undergraduate level some of the nonlinear theories proposed in this context and explore their ability to address the classical self-energy problem of charged particles.
↳ physics.class-phhep-ph