Combined measurements of Higgs boson production and decay rates are reported, representing the most comprehensive study performed by the CMS Collaboration to date. The included analyses use proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV from 2016 to 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The statistical combination is based on analyses that measure the following decay channels: H $\to$ $\gamma\gamma$, H $\to$ ZZ, H $\to$ WW, H $\to$ $\tau\tau$, H $\to$ bb, H $\to$ $\mu\mu$, and H $\to$ Z$\gamma$ $\to$ $\ell\ell\gamma$ ($\ell$ = e,$\mu$). Information in the events from each decay channel is used to target multiple Higgs boson production processes. Searches for invisible Higgs boson decays are also considered, as well as an analysis that measures off-shell Higgs boson production in the H $\to$ ZZ $\to$ 4$\ell$ decay channel. The best fit inclusive signal yield is measured to be 1.014$^{+0.055}_{-0.053}$ times the standard model expectation, for a Higgs boson mass of 125.38 GeV. Measurements in kinematic regions defined by the simplified template cross section framework are also provided, as well as interpretations in the coupling modifier and standard model effective field theory frameworks. The coupling modifier interpretation is further used to place constraints on various two-Higgs-doublet models. The results show good compatibility with the standard model predictions for the majority of the measured parameters.

The bottomonium spectrum, consisting of bound states of a $b$ quark and an anti-$b$ quark, provides an excellent laboratory for probing quantum chromodynamics in the non-perturbative regime. While $S$ and $P$-wave bottomonium states are well studied experimentally, information on $D$-wave states remains scarce. We search for $D$-wave bottomonium state via the decay of a vector bottomonium-like state $\Upsilon(10753)$ in the reaction $e^+e^- \to \pi^+\pi^- \Upsilon(1D)$, using $19.6~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of data collected with the Belle II detector at center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s} = 10.653, 10.701, 10.745$, and $10.805$~GeV, in the vicinity of the $\Upsilon(10753)$ resonance. No significant signals are observed. Upper limits at the 90% credibility level are set on the products of the cross sections and branching fractions, $\sigma[e^+e^- \to \pi^+\pi^- \Upsilon_2(1D)] \times \mathcal{B}[\Upsilon_2(1D) \to \gamma \chi_{b1}]$ and $\sigma[e^+e^- \to \pi^+\pi^- \Upsilon_3(1D)] \times \mathcal{B}[\Upsilon_3(1D) \to \gamma \chi_{b2}]$, at each center-of-mass energy.

LHCb's Run 3 upgrade introduced a fully software-based trigger system operating at 30~MHz, processing an average of 5.6 proton-proton collision vertices per bunch crossing (event). This work presents the development of an inference engine for PVFinder, a hybrid deep neural network for finding primary vertices, the proton-proton collision points from which all subsequent particle decays originate into Allen, LHCb's High Level Trigger (HLT1) framework. The integration addresses critical real-time constraints including fixed memory pools, single-stream execution, and sub-400~$\mu$s per-event processing budgets on NVIDIA GPUs. We introduce a translation layer that bridges Allen's Structure-of-Arrays (SoA) data layout with cuDNN's tensor format while maintaining zero-copy semantics and deterministic behavior. Current performance shows the CNN stage contributes significant throughput overhead. We present a roadmap targeting order-of-magnitude improvements through mixed-precision computing, model compression and other techniques.

For the spectroscopy of nucleon resonances at the total energies from the $\eta^\prime$-meson production threshold to $2.32$ $\mathrm{GeV}$, photon beam asymmetries of the reaction $\gamma p \to \eta^\prime p$ were measured together with total and differential cross sections by analyzing the two decay modes $\eta^\prime \to \gamma \gamma$ and $\pi^0 \pi^0 \eta$. New constraints for amplitude decomposition were given by the first-time result of photon beam asymmetries at $E_\gamma > 1.84$ $\mathrm{GeV}$ and the most precise data of differential cross sections to date at extremely backward $\eta^\prime$ angles. The possibility of a larger coupling constant of the $\eta^\prime$-nucleon system to the $N(2250)$ resonance was implied in the partial wave analyses using the present data.

The Forbush decrease (FD) of cosmic rays is an important probe of the interplanetary environment disturbed by solar activities. In this work, we study the properties of 8 FDs electrons (including positrons) between 2 GeV and 20 GeV from January, 2016 to March, 2024, with the Dark Matter Particle Explorer. The maximum decrease amplitudes of these events are about 30% - 15%, and the amplitudes reduce with energy. The recovery time of these events shows diverse behaviors of their energy-dependence. Some of them show strong energy-dependence, while some have a nearly constant recovery time. It has been shown that such diverse behaviors could be related with the geometry of the disturbed regions of the interplanetary space by coronal mass ejections (CME), represented by the combined effect of the CME velocity, angular spread, and ejection direction.

Recently, LHCb reported the radiative-decay ratio ${\cal R}^{\psi\gamma}\equiv {\cal B}[X(3872)\to \psi'\gamma]/{\cal B}[X(3872)\to J/\psi\gamma]=1.67\pm 0.25$ extracted from $B^+\to K^+(J/\psi\gamma, \psi'\gamma)$. This result differs markedly ($\sim4.6\sigma$) from the BESIII value obtained from $e^+e^-\to \gamma(J/\psi\gamma, \psi'\gamma)$, ${\cal R}^{\psi\gamma}=-0.04\pm 0.28$. Such a significant tension suggests that more than one state in the $X(3872)$ region contributes to the processes. We therefore propose a two-state scenario: a shallow $D^{*0}\bar{D}^0$ bound state with $J^{PC}=1^{++}$ and a $2^{-+}$ charmonium candidate, $\eta_{c2}$, slightly above the $D^{*0}\bar{D}^0$ threshold. We show that this hypothesis consistently describes these ratios along with other branching fractions and lineshapes across multiple processes. By contrast, fits without the $\eta_{c2}$ component fail to reproduce the radiative-ratio data. We also predict helicity-angle distributions that motivates the future experiments to test the two-state hypothesis and search for the so-far missing $\eta_{c2}$.

Variational quantum circuits (VQCs) constitute a central building block of near-term quantum machine learning (QML), yet the principled design of expressive and trainable architectures remains a major open challenge. The VQC design space grows combinatorially with the number of qubits, layers, entanglement structures, and gate parameterizations, rendering manual circuit construction inefficient and often suboptimal. We introduce an autonomous agent-based framework for VQC architecture search that integrates high-level reasoning with a quantum simulation environment. The agent proposes candidate circuit architectures, evaluates them through fully automated training and validation pipelines, and iteratively improves its design strategy via performance-driven feedback. Empirically, we show that the agent autonomously evolves circuit architectures from simple initial ansätze toward increasingly expressive designs, progressively trying to improve task performance. This demonstrates that agentic AI can effectively navigate and refine the VQC design landscape with minimal human intervention, providing a scalable methodology for automated quantum model development in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) regime.

Energetic quarks and gluons traversing a hot and dense quark-gluon plasma deposit energy and momentum into the medium before hadronizing to collimated sprays of particles, known as jets. This energy-momentum deposition is expected to produce medium responses, collectively known as jet wakes, with ``diffusion wake'' denoting a depletion of particles in the direction opposite to the propagating jet. These phenomena are studied by comparing dijet-hadron correlations measured in lead-lead (PbPb) and proton-proton (pp) collisions to assess jet-induced modifications of bulk particle production. The analysis uses PbPb and pp data recorded at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. By exploring how the dijet-hadron correlation distributions differ for various pseudorapidity separations of the two jets in the dijet, the presence of a jet diffusion wake is firmly established. The wake has a significance greater than 5 standard deviations for charged particles in the transverse momentum range 1 $\lt$ $p_\mathrm{T}$ $\lt$ 2 GeV. The measurements are compared with various model predictions with and without jet wake effects, providing new insights into quark-gluon plasma properties and the formation of jet-induced wakes.

We study rare three- and four-body kaon decays as a probe of light vector and axial-vector bosons coupled to non-conserved currents. We find that searches for $K_L \to \pi^0 \pi^0 (X\to e^+e^-)$ decays constrain the couplings of light $X$ bosons to light quarks to be as small as $\mathcal{O}(10^{-5})$. The charged-pion modes $K^+ \to \pi^+ \pi^0 (X \to e^+e^-)$ and $K_L \to \pi^+ \pi^- (X \to e^+e^-)$ provide weaker limits, but constrain complementary combinations of couplings to the $u$, $d$, and $s$ quarks at the level of $\mathcal{O}(10^{-4})$. Finally, we also find that double emission of $X$ in $K \to \pi XX$ decays can provide yet additional constraints on the parameter space of light $X$ bosons due to a double $(m_K/m_X)^2$ enhancement to the rate. For a 17 MeV boson, these limits add to the known tension between spin-1 bosons coupled to vector and axial-vector currents interpretations of the results of the ATOMKI experiment with meson decay data. Finally, we also comment on negative pion capture on hydrogen and deuterium as a source of light particles and discuss the prospects for testing the 17 MeV boson hypothesis.

We study the three-body systems $DNN$ and $D^{*}NN$ within a hadronic molecular framework by combining a realistic nucleon-nucleon interaction with a $D^{(*)}N$ potential constrained by heavy-quark symmetry. The three-body Schrödinger equation is solved with the Gaussian Expansion Method, and the analytic structure of the spectrum is investigated using the Complex Scaling Method. We find that the $DNN$ system supports a robust and compact bound state in the $I(J^{P})=\tfrac{1}{2}(1^-)$ channel over a broad range of cutoff values, even when the corresponding $DN$ subsystem is weakly bound or unbound. For $D^{*}NN$, the spin-$1$ nature of the heavy meson and the associated spin-dependent forces generate a clear spin hierarchy: deeply bound states appear in both $0^-$ and $2^-$ channels, while the $1^-$ channel exhibits a characteristic two-branch pattern with a strongly bound compact branch and a more weakly bound, spatially extended branch. The root-mean-square radii indicate pronounced spatial compression compared with the deuteron scale, highlighting the cooperative roles of realistic $NN$ correlations, the $D^{(*)}N$ interactions, and heavy-quark symmetry in forming compact heavy-flavor few-body bound states. No three-body resonances under complex scaling are found in the explored parameter space. Our results provide quantitative benchmarks for future experimental searches for such charmed-meson-nuclear bound states.

The coherent elastic scattering of neutrinos on nuclei, also known as CEvNS, has been studied for several years by the COHERENT program of experiments using neutrinos from stopped-pion decays produced at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). We propose a new approach for CEvNS measurements at the SNS that aims to complement the COHERENT experiments in two main ways: by reconstructing the angular distribution of CEvNS-induced recoils, and by measuring CEvNS on much lighter target nuclei such as helium, carbon, and fluorine. The proposed detector would employ a gaseous time-projection chamber with a highly segmented charge readout to enable the spatial reconstruction of $\sim$10-500 keV ionisation tracks created by CEvNS-induced recoils. This would enable the simultaneous measurement of the CEvNS recoil energy and scattering angle, thereby allowing event-by-event reconstruction of the neutrino energy. We estimate that a 60:40 He:CF$_4$ gas mixture at atmospheric pressure offers a good trade-off between total target mass and good directionality and could deliver a detection of the angular distribution of CEvNS, even under pessimistic background conditions. We project the sensitivity of 1 and 10 m$^3$-scale detectors in the context of several physics cases, including: the measurement of the Standard Model CEvNS cross section, reconstruction of the flavour-dependent neutrino fluxes, observing the neutrino-induced Migdal effect, constraints on beyond-Standard Model neutrino interactions, and probing 10-eV-scale sterile neutrinos.

This document presents a synthesis of the theory contributions and discussions from the 2nd EIC-France Workshop, held at IJCLab (Orsay) on 1-3 December 2025. The workshop brought together members of the French hadron-physics community to review recent theoretical developments relevant to the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) and to coordinate national efforts in preparation for its early physics program. The report first summarizes the collider's initial running conditions and luminosity performance, as outlined in the EIC Early Science Matrix. It then provides concise overviews of the theoretical presentations on inclusive, semi-inclusive, exclusive, heavy-flavor, and small-x physics. Based on these discussions, two measurements emerged as especially well suited for early EIC operation and strongly aligned with areas of established French expertise: inclusive diffraction and inclusive quarkonium production. These channels offer clean signatures, robust theoretical interpretability, and direct sensitivity to fundamental QCD phenomena such as gluon saturation, heavy-quark dynamics, and the small-x structure of hadrons and nuclei. In addition, the workshop identified longer-term physics opportunities that will benefit from the full capabilities of the EIC after its ramp-up phase. These include accessing the three-dimensional structure of the pion through the Sullivan process and a broader program of exclusive three-body final states, both of which represent high-impact avenues for exploring hadronic structure and non-perturbative QCD. Together, the elements summarized in this report provide a coherent overview of the strategic priorities and scientific ambitions shaping the French community's contribution to the EIC physics program.

We present the Monte Carlo integration code MoCaNLO, which computes cross sections and distributions for processes at high-energy colliders like the LHC at leading and next-to-leading order (NLO) in the strong and electroweak couplings. It relies on the Recola package for the calculation of matrix elements and uses Catani-Seymour dipole subtraction for the treatment of infrared singularities. It has been used for several cutting-edge calculations of NLO QCD and electroweak corrections over the last years, such as NLO QCD corrections to off-shell top-antitop-quark production in association with a pair of bottom quarks and NLO electroweak corrections to vector-boson scattering processes.

The year 2024 marked the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the $J/\psi$ particle, which unveiled the charm quark and the charmonium spectrum, instigating the "November Revolution" in particle physics. This discovery catalyzed the development of quenched potential models, most notably the Cornell model, which provided a foundational quantitative description of the hadronic spectrum. However, the landscape of hadron spectroscopy has been profoundly transformed since the turn of the 21st century with the observation of numerous charmonium-like states, such as $X(3872)$, which exhibit properties starkly at odds with quenched model predictions. These discrepancies, exemplified by the "$X(3872)$ low-mass puzzle" and the "$Y$ problem" associated with vector states like $Y(4260)$, underscore the critical limitations of the quenched approximation and signal the necessity for a new theoretical paradigm. This review synthesizes recent advances in hadronic spectroscopy, arguing that the unquenched picture, which incorporates coupled-channel effects such as hadronic loops, is essential for a unified description of these new states and associated anomalies. We demonstrate how unquenched effects provide compelling solutions to long-standing puzzles in charmonium decays (e.g., the "$\rho\pi$ puzzle" and anomalous dipion transitions), predict and explain the existence of exotic charged states like $Z_c(3900)$ and $Z_b(10610)$ via mechanisms such as Initial Single Pion Emission, and offer a framework for understanding interactions between charmonia and with nucleons. Furthermore, we emphasize the universality of unquenched effects, extending their application to bottomonium and light-flavor sectors. With improving precision, we advocate systematic development of unquenched hadronic spectroscopy.

MiniCACTUS-v2 is a monolithic sensor prototype designed in LF 150 nm CMOS process for time tagging of individual Minimum Ionizing Particles with an accuracy better than 100 ps. The sensing element is a deep n-well/p-substrate diode without internal amplification. To minimize detector capacitances, the analog front-ends and the discriminators for each pixel have been implemented outside the pixel, at the column level. After fabrication, the sensors have been thinned to 150 microns, 175 microns and 200 microns and then post-processed for backside biasing. The breakdown voltages measured on these sensors are higher than 500 V, ensuring the complete depletion of the charge collection volume. In this paper, we will focus on the time resolution measurements from a test-beam campaign conducted in July 2025 at SPS-CERN. During this period, several pixels from the 3 different sensor thicknesses have been tested at different bias voltages. The best time resolution measured is 48.88 ps on a 0.5 mm x 0.5 mm pixel from a 175 microns-thick sensor at 500 V, with nominal settings for the on-chip analog front-end and discriminator.

The aim of this work is to develop high precision Time-of-Flight (TOF) devices based on high refractive index solid Cherenkov radiators read out by silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). Cherenkov light is prompt and therefore ideal for reaching the intrinsic timing limits of TOF systems. By utilizing a thin, high-refractive-index radiator a nearly instantaneous signal is generated by particles exceeding the Cherenkov threshold. In order to achieve the ultimate time resolution, we carried out a rigorous optimization of the radiator material and geometry, alongside the efficiency of the optical coupling to the SiPM sensors. The key factors limiting the time resolution were characterized by comprehensive Monte Carlo simulations, subsequently validated against experimental beam test data. We assembled small-scale prototypes instrumented with various Hamamatsu SiPM arrays sensors with pitches ranging from 1.3 to 3 mm coupled with various window materials, such as fused silica and MgF2, featuring various thickness values. The prototypes were successfully tested in beam test campaigns at the CERN-PS T10 beam line. The data were collected with a complete chain of front-end and readout electronics based on either the Petiroc 2A or the Radioroc 2 interfaced to a picoTDC to measure charges and times. By comparing the time measurements with two SiPM arrays we were able to measure a time resolution better than 33.2 ps at the full system level with a charged particle detection efficiency of 100%. Our results demonstrate the expected performance benchmarks for the charged particle detection efficiency and time resolution and highlight the potential of the developed Cherenkov-based TOF detectors for next-generation particle identification systems.

Splitting by atomic bombs an asteroid in flight is the best way to deflect its trajectory. How and when it should be done is described.

Searches for charged lepton flavor violation in the muon sector stand out among the most sensitive and clean probes for physics beyond the Standard Model. Currently, $\mu^+ \to \mathrm{e}^+ \gamma$ experiments provide the best constraints in this field and, in the coming years, new experiments investigating the processes of $\mu^+ \to \mathrm{e^+e^+e^-}$ and $\mu \to \mathrm{e}$ conversion in the nuclear field are anticipated to surpass them. However, it is essential to maintain comparable sensitivities across all these processes to fully leverage their potential and differentiate between various new physics models if a discovery occurs. In this document, we present ongoing efforts to develop a future experimental program aimed at improving the sensitivity of \megp\ searches by one order of magnitude within the next decade.

We detail experimental results inferring ionization and temperature for warm dense copper plasmas at several times solid density (15 to 25 g/cm$^3$) and temperatures of 10 to 21 eV. Experiments performed at the OMEGA Laser Facility generate uniform warm dense matter conditions via symmetric shock compression of a buried copper layer. The plasma is probed with a laser-generated x-ray source to collect the K-shell x-ray absorption spectrum. Fitting bound-bound absorption contributions from constituent charge states of copper provides an estimated $\overline{Z}$ of approximately 4 to 7 for these warm dense copper plasmas. We find that these partially ionized plasmas have K-edge shifts of 12 to 30 eV and bound-bound resonance 1s$\rightarrow$3p absorption shifts of 4 to 26 eV with respect to the cold K-edge. This study provides necessary experimental data to improve ionization and opacity models in the warm dense matter regime.

A surprisingly large transverse polarization of $\Lambda$ hyperons in unpolarized hadron-nucleon/nucleus collisions has been observed for 50 years, and the origin of this polarization remains an important open question. Recently, theoretical frameworks have been advanced in understanding this puzzle with the polarizing fragmentation function (PFF). We report the first measurement of $\Lambda$ and $\overline{\Lambda}$ transverse polarization inside jets in unpolarized proton-proton collisions, which is directly attributed to the PFF. The polarization is measured as a function of the jet transverse momentum ($p_{\text{T}}$), the fraction of the jet momentum carried by $\Lambda$($\overline{\Lambda}$) hyperons, and the transverse momentum of $\Lambda(\overline{\Lambda})$ hyperons relative to the jet axis. $\Lambda$ polarization shows a clear dependence on the jet $p_{\text{T}}$, while $\overline{\Lambda}$ polarization mostly remains negative. Covering a wide jet-energy range, these data provide the first constraints on the gluon PFF and allow tests of TMD evolution and its universality.

This White Paper outlines a coordinated, decade-spanning programme of hadron and QCD studies anchored at the GSI/FAIR accelerator complex. Profiting from intense deuteron, proton and pion beams coupled with high-rate capable detectors and an international theory effort, the initiative addresses fundamental questions related to the strong interaction featuring confinement and dynamical mass generation. This includes our understanding of hadron-hadron interactions and the composition of hadrons through mapping the baryon and meson spectra, including exotic states, and quantifying hadron structure. This interdisciplinary research connects topics in the fields of nuclear, heavy-ion, and (nuclear) astro (particle) physics, linking, for example, terrestrial data to constraints on neutron star structure. A phased roadmap with SIS100 accelerator start-up and envisaged detector upgrades will yield precision cross sections, transition form factors, in-medium spectral functions, and validated theory inputs. Synergies with external programmes at international accelerator facilities worldwide are anticipated. The programme is expected to deliver decisive advances in our understanding of non-perturbative (strong) QCD and astrophysics, and high-rate detector and data-science technology.

Nine statistically significant decay channels are observed in LHC data around a mass of 650 GeV. We interpret three of them as coming from a narrow resonance observed in $e^+e^-$ , 2 photons and ZZ which could be interpreted as a J=2 Kaluza Klein graviton candidate called T690 (T for tensor with J=2). This hypothesis is reinforced by noting that this signal disappears in ZZ when treated as a scalar. Given that the six other excesses have poor mass resolution, one cannot exclude the presence of an additional wide scalar resonance called H650. Assuming a Randall Sundrum model, we conclude that LHC observes the predicted sequence T376, T690 and T1000, as indicated by the data. At variance with the RS model, T690 weakly couples to gluon pairs, suggesting a composite model interpretation. Perturbative unitarity requirements predict $T^{++} \to W^+W^+$ and $T^+\to ZW$ resonances, again indicated by LHC data. This scenario offers excellent prospects for abundantly (109 events) producing a sequence of narrow resonances at future $e^+e^-$ colliders. For heavy scalars, the situation is less clear. Following ATLAS and CMS, we expect that the top loop contribution to the gluon-gluon fusion mechanism ggF could produce a deficit rather than an excess in the mass distribution of top pairs, which prevents a standard estimate of the statistical significance for heavy resonances. It seems that the pseudo-scalar and scalar resonances A490 and H650, indicated by other channels, create observable deviations in the t t analyses presented by ATLAS and CMS. The present note summarises these arguments and collects available indications in view of electing a future collider.

The first measurement of pseudorapidity and azimuthal angle distributions relative to the momentum vector of a Z boson for low transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) charged hadrons in lead-lead (PbPb) collisions is presented. By studying the hadrons produced in an event with a high-$p_\mathrm{T}$ Z boson (40 $\lt$ $p_\mathrm{T}$ $\lt$ 350 GeV), the analysis probes how the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) medium created in these collisions affects the parton recoiling opposite to the Z boson. Utilizing PbPb data at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s_{_\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV from 2018 with an integrated luminosity of 1.67 nb$^{-1}$ and proton-proton (pp) data at the same energy from 2017 with 301 pb$^{-1}$, the distributions are examined in bins of charged-hadron $p_\mathrm{T}$. A significant modification of the distributions for charged hadrons in the range 1 $\lt$ $p_\mathrm{T}$ $\lt$ 2 GeV in PbPb collisions is observed when compared to reference measurements from pp collisions. The data provide new information about the correlation between hard and soft particles in heavy ion collisions, which can be used to test predictions of various jet quenching models. When compared to theoretical predictions, the results are consistent with expectations of a hydrodynamic wake created when the QGP is depleted of energy by the parton propagating through it. Therefore, this Letter presents the first evidence of probe-induced energy depletion and the resulting response by the QGP medium.

Jet interactions with the color-deconfined QCD medium in relativistic heavy-ion collisions are conventionally assessed by measuring the modification of the distributions of jet observables with respect to their baselines in proton-proton collisions. Deep learning methods enable per-jet evaluation of these modifications, enhancing the use of jets as precision probes of the nuclear medium. In this work, we predict the jet-by-jet fractional energy loss $\chi$ for jets evolving through a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) medium using a Linear Boltzmann Transport (LBT) model. To approximate realistic experimental conditions, we embed medium-modified jets in a thermal background and apply Constituent Subtraction for background removal. Two network architectures are studied: convolutional neural networks (CNNs) using jet images, and dynamic graph convolutional neural networks (DGCNNs) using particle clouds. We find that CNNs achieve accurate predictions for background-free jets but degrade in the presence of the QGP background and remain below the background-free baseline even after background subtraction. In contrast, DGCNNs applied to background-subtracted particle clouds maintain high accuracy across the entire $\chi$ range, demonstrating the advantage of point-cloud-based graph neural networks that exploit full jet structure under realistic conditions.

We study the prospects of the proposed $\mu$TRISTAN experiment, running in the energy asymmetric $\mu^+ e^-$ mode, in probing long lived particles (LLPs) arising from the decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson. We focus on the proposed runs with $\{E_{\mu^+}, E_{e^-}\} = \{1\,{\rm TeV},\,30\,{\rm GeV}\}$ and $\{E_{\mu^+}, E_{e^-}\} = \{3\,{\rm TeV},\,50\,{\rm GeV}\}$ and we show that, owing to the boosted nature of the produced events, a far detector placed along the beam line can collect a large fraction of the LLP flux. This allows one to set bounds on the exotic Higgs branching ratio which, for specific $\phi$ decay modes, can surpass those expected at the end of the High Luminosity LHC in the regime of large LLPs proper decay lengths. On the other hand, we find that the proposed strategy will not be able to further extend the limits that might be set by proposed LHC far detectors such as CODEX-b, ANUBIS and MATHUSLA.

The tensor form factors of the $\Delta^+$ baryon are defined through the matrix element of the tensor current and describe its internal structure and spin distribution. We present the full Lorentz decomposition for the $\Delta^+ \rightarrow \Delta^+$ tensor current matrix element, including all independent structures consistent with Lorentz covariance, the Rarita-Schwinger constraints, and the discrete symmetries of Hermiticity, time-reversal, and parity invariance. By investigating the tensor form factors corresponding to both the isovector and isoscalar tensor currents, we observe differences that reflect the distinct contributions of up and down quark components in the $\Delta^+$ baryon.

Poincaré-covariant Bethe-Salpeter wave functions are used to calculate light-front wave functions (LFWFs) of the pion, $\pi$, and an analogue state, $\pi_{s\bar s}$. The current masses of the degenerate valence constituents in the $\pi_{s\bar s}$ are around $25$-times larger than those of the pion's valence constituents. Both valence spin-antialigned ($\mathcal L=0$) and valence spin-aligned ($\mathcal L=1$) components are obtained and combined to produce the complete LFWF for each system. Comparing predictions delivered by two distinct Bethe-Salpeter kernels, the impact of nonperturbative dynamical effects contained in the more sophisticated (bRL) kernel are seen to be significant; and contrasts between $\pi$, $\pi_{s \bar s}$ results reveal the interplay between emergent hadron mass and mass effects owing to Higgs-boson couplings. Amongst the results, one finds that for $\pi$, $\pi_{s\bar s}$, the LFWFs can be approximated by a separable form, with that representation being pointwise reliable in the bRL cases. Moreover, the $\mathcal L=1$ component is important; so a LFWF obtained after omission of this piece is typically a poor representation of the system. These features are naturally expressed in $\pi$, $\pi_{s\bar s}$ transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs). In this connection, it is found that a Gaussian \textit{Ansatz} can only provide a rough guide to TMD pointwise behaviour: magnitude deviations between \textit{Ansatz} and prediction exceed a factor of two on $k_\perp^2 \gtrsim 0.55\,$GeV$^2$. One should therefore be cautious in interpreting conclusions drawn from phenomenological analyses based upon Gaussian \textit{Ansätze}.

To face the higher levels of radiation due to the 10-fold increase in integrated luminosity during the High-Luminosity LHC, the CMS detector will replace the current Calorimeter Endcap (CE) using the High-Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) concept. The high-radiation regions of the the CE, where fluences between $1\cdot10^{14}~n_{eq}/cm^{2}$ and $1\cdot10^{16}~n_{eq}/cm^{2}$ and doses of up to 2\,MGy are expected considering an integrated luminosity of $3\,ab^{-1}$, will be equipped with silicon pad sensors. This includes the entire electromagnetic as well as parts of the hadronic section of the CE. The silicon sensors are processed on 8-inch p-type wafers with an active thickness of 300\,\textmu m, 200\,\textmu m and 120\,\textmu m and cut into hexagonal shapes for optimal use of the full wafer area and tiling. With each main sensor, several small test structures (e.g. pad diodes) are hosted on the wafers, used for quality assurance and radiation hardness tests. In order to investigate the radiation-induced bulk damage, these diodes have been irradiated with reactor neutrons at JSI (Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia) to fluences between $5\cdot10^{14}~n_{eq}/cm^{2}$ and $1.5\cdot10^{16}~n_{eq}/cm^{2}$. This study focuses on the isothermal annealing behavior of the bulk material at different temperatures between 5.5°C and 60°C using electrical characterization and charge collection measurements. The results are used to extract the annealing time constants for this material and fluence range based on the Hamburg model approach to allow an estimation of the expected annealing effects in silicon sensors during the year-end technical stops and the long HL-LHC shutdowns. The annealing parameters found will make it possible to model the annealing behavior of p-type silicon detector projects at HL-LHC fluence ranges better than the existing Hamburg model.

Tensor form factors encode essential information about the internal spin structure and tensor dynamics of baryons. In this work, we investigate the tensor form factors of the baryon hyperons $\Omega^-$, $\Sigma^{*+}$, and $\Xi^{*-}$ within the framework of QCD sum rules. The complete set of tensor form factors is numerically evaluated in the momentum transfer region $0<Q^2<10~\text{GeV}^2$. In addition, the quark tensor charges of the considered hyperons are extracted in the forward limit. The results provide new non-perturbative insight into the tensor structure and spin content of spin-$3/2$ baryons and offer valuable theoretical input for future phenomenological analyses and experimental studies.

Femtoscopy with photon pairs is a particularly attractive tool for studying high-energy nuclear collisions. Proposed and extensively discussed in several influential theory articles, it has seen only few applications in experiment because of statistics limitations. With the progress of detectors and electronics, only now it is coming within reach. In this paper we discuss the choice of kinematic variables for two-photon correlation functions. In particular, we argue against $C(Q_{\rm inv})$ and in favor of $C(\Delta E,Q_{\rm inv})$.

Modern scientific instruments operate under increasingly extreme constraints on bandwidth, latency, and power. Inference at the sensor edge determines experimental data collection efficiency by deciding which information to save for further analysis. Particle tracking detectors at the Large Hadron Collider exemplify this challenge: pixelated silicon sensors generate rich spatiotemporal ionization patterns, yet most of this information is discarded due to data-rate limitations. Concurrently, advancements in co-design tools provide rapid turn-around for incorporating machine learning into application-specific integrated circuits, motivating designs for particle detectors with new integrated technologies. We demonstrate that neural networks embedded in the front-end electronics can infer charged-particle kinematic parameters from a single silicon layer. We regress hit positions and incident angles with calibrated uncertainties, while satisfying stringent constraints on numerical precision, latency, and silicon area. Our results establish a path toward probabilistic inference directly at the edge, opening new opportunities for intelligent sensing in high-rate scientific instruments.