Axion-like particles (ALPs) are predicted in many extensions of the Standard Model and provide a well-motivated portal between visible and hidden sectors through their coupling to photons. We search for ALPs produced in the process $e^{+}e^{-}\to\gamma a$, $a\to\gamma\gamma$, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $408~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ recorded by the Belle~II detector at the SuperKEKB $e^{+}e^{-}$ collider. Events containing three photons are used to reconstruct the ALP as a narrow peak in the di-photon invariant mass spectrum over the range $0.17 < m_{a} < 9.80~\mathrm{GeV}/c^{2}$. No significant excess above background is observed. We set 95\% confidence level upper limits on the production cross section and on the ALP-photon coupling $g_{a\gamma\gamma}$, reaching sensitivities at the level of $10^{-4}~\mathrm{GeV}^{-1}$. The limits are the most restrictive to date over nearly the entire mass range $0.17 < m_{a} < 5.00~\mathrm{GeV}/c^{2}$, and improve upon previous results by up to a factor 9.

Particle physics stands at a crossroads. The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 completed the Standard Model, but it also opened a new set of fundamental questions about the nature of our universe. Answering these questions, from the hierarchy problem and the nature of dark matter to the origin of neutrino masses, will require a new generation of powerful and sophisticated experiments. The global community is currently engaged in a comprehensive, long-term planning process to determine the next big machine. These discussions are not merely technical. The decisions made in the coming years will shape the field until 2060 and beyond. This extended timeline has a direct and immediate impact on the lives and careers of the field's youngest members: the graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and other early-career researchers (ECRs) who will be tasked with designing, building, and ultimately analyzing the data from these future facilities. This proceeding provides an overview of the key issues facing ECRs in particle physics today, based on a talk delivered on the subject. It begins by surveying the future collider landscape from an ECR perspective. It then delves into the critical feedback gathered directly from ECRs through large-scale surveys, focusing on their primary concerns and actionable recommendations. Following this, it presents an analysis of the academic job market, the important but often unrewarded role of science outreach, and the emerging dual-edged challenge and opportunity of artificial intelligence. The paper concludes by highlighting the indispensable support networks available to ECRs, which are vital for navigating this complex and uncertain career path.

The last several years have seen tremendous progress in the ability to both compute and measure multi-point correlations in energy flux. The highly differential nature of energy correlators makes them ideal probes of multi-collinear factorization and azimuthal structure within jets. In this paper, we explore the phenomenology of four-point correlators in jet substructure. We identify experimentally realizable projections that probe different factorization channels onto splitting tensors and splitting functions. We perform a detailed phenomenological study using both Herwig and Pythia. By comparing parton shower results with analytic calculations in kinematic limits, we are able to disentangle intrinsic spin correlations from kinematic azimuthal correlations. In experimentally accessible kinematic regions, we find the spin correlations are subdominant, strongly motivating a complete calculation of the four-point correlator in QCD to provide a test of the parton shower results. We also present parameterizations and analysis algorithms that can be used experimentally. Our work sets the stage for the experimental measurement of these observables at the LHC, and their use as probes of the next generation of parton showers.

Azimuthal anisotropies coming from the initial state of a heavy-ion collision have been historically disregarded in the study of thermalization because they are expected to be rapidly washed out due to final-state interactions. However, they may be important when one attempts to describe azimuthal correlations observed in the collisions of small systems. In this work, we study how these initial anisotropies relax in the context of the Boltzmann Equation in Diffusion Approximation (BEDA). We find a clear hierarchy in the relaxation time of the anisotropies in terms of each harmonic coefficient. We also explore the evolution of the $p_T$-dependent harmonic coefficients in time, finding a shift in the initial peak towards higher momenta that mimics the experimental data when we perform a phenomenologically motivated simulation.

Deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) provides a powerful probe of physics beyond the Standard Model through precision measurements interpreted within the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). We study the impact of collision-induced QED radiation on SMEFT constraints using the joint QCD+QED factorization framework based on lepton distribution and fragmentation functions. QED radiation can substantially modify DIS cross sections and, in some kinematic regions, significantly alter the effective momentum transfer relevant for factorization. We find that while cross sections receive order-one corrections, longitudinal electron spin asymmetries are affected only at the few-percent level, making them significantly more robust observables for SMEFT studies. Benchmark projections for SoLID and the Electron-Ion Collider are provided to demonstrate the impact of QED radiation for future precision DIS analyses and the extraction of SMEFT constraints.

The search for neutrinoless double electron capture ($0\nu\mathrm{2EC}$) provides a sensitive probe of lepton-number violation and the Majorana nature of neutrinos. We investigate the $0\nu\mathrm{2EC}$ decay of $^{40}$Ca using cryogenic detectors equipped with metallic magnetic calorimeters in the AMoRE-I experiment. The analysis is based on a physics dataset corresponding to a total exposure of 7.32 kg$\cdot$yr from thirteen $^{40}$Ca$^{100}$MoO$_4$ crystals. No significant excess is observed, and a lower limit on the half-life is obtained as $T^{0\nu}_{1/2} > 1.7 \times 10^{22}$ yr at 90$\%$ confidence level. An improved sensitivity is expected for the upcoming AMoRE-II experiment. These results demonstrate the potential of CaMoO$_4$ detectors to explore rare decay processes beyond the primary $^{100}$Mo $0\nu\beta\beta$ search program.

Quantum computing has emerged as a promising framework for addressing computationally demanding problems in collider physics. In recent years, a growing number of quantum algorithms have been proposed for applications ranging from event generation and parton shower simulation to the evaluation of scattering amplitudes, loop and phase-space integration, and optimization problems relevant to experimental analysis. We provide a concise overview of the main ideas behind these developments, with emphasis on the potential advantages of quantum approaches in comparison with classical methods, as well as on the current limitations imposed by noisy intermediate-scale quantum hardware.

Electromagnetic calorimeters provide essential information for reconstructing and selecting both Standard Model (SM) and potential beyond the SM physics events at high-energy particle colliders. The fine-grained segmentation of modern calorimeters captures rich information about the internal structure of particle showers, much of which is discarded by conventional high-level reconstruction methods. In this work, we leverage calorimeter cell-level information to classify highly collimated diphoton signatures, arising from the decay of light axion-like particles, from isolated single-photon showers. We systematically compare a range of machine learning architectures, spanning high-level, shower shape variable-based approaches and direct cell-level methods. Cell-level machine learning shows significantly superior classification ability, with a Transformer in particular representing the best performance among six different architectures studied, and an MLP Mixer representing a resource-constrained alternative for potential real-time, trigger-level applications. Beyond classification, the Transformer model developed enables direct invariant mass regression from calorimeter cells, improving the characterization of light resonances and providing an additional handle in reducing the $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ fake photon backgrounds. These results demonstrate that cell-level machine learning methods can extend calorimeter-based particle identification and performance well beyond the capabilities of current conventional techniques.

We present a comprehensive three-dimensional atmospheric neutrino flux calculation based on the well-recognized simulation framework develeped by Honda and his collaborators, incorporating for the first time the muon propagation inside the Earth and its subsequent decay or nuclear capture. Other updates of essential input models include: the AMS02-based primary cosmic ray model, IGRF2020 geomagnetic field, and muon-recalibrated hadronic interaction model. The calculation covers seven detector sites across diverse geomagnetic environments, spanning 10~MeV to $10^4$~GeV. Significant site-dependent differences appear at $E_\nu < 10$~GeV, with $\nu_\mu$ flux at IceCube approximately twice that at JUNO below 1~GeV. Compared to HKKMS15, deviations of 2\%--10\% are attributed to the updated input models. Below 100~MeV, we present precise flux results, revealing that muon propagation contributes a globally significant component to the low-energy neutrino flux at all sites, with an approximately site-independent absolute increment. The hadronic uncertainty is re-estimated across the energy range using the updated hadronic interaction model, with significant reduction of the systematic error compared to previous calculations. These results provide essential inputs for neutrino oscillation and rare-event search experiments including JUNO, Super-Kamiokande/Hyper-Kamiokande, DUNE, KM3NeT/ORCA, and IceCube, as well as direct dark matter detection experiments facing the neutrino fog.

A recent analysis of 15 years of Fermi-LAT data reported a spherically symmetric, halo-like component of the Galactic diffuse emission that peaks near 20GeV. We independently reproduce this cell-aggregated analysis, then extend it to a pixel-level likelihood on the native $0.125^\circ$ maps, adding energy-dependent point-spread-function forward folding and masking bright sources. Both methods replicate the 20GeV halo spectrum, with the pixel-level normalisation ${\sim}20\%$ above the cellwise fit across NFW emissivity scalings $\rho^p$, $p \in 1,2,2.5$. This 20GeV halo is a high-latitude feature, distinct from the inner-Galaxy excess, and consistent with sub-TeV dark matter (WIMP) annihilation. It is centrally concentrated, strongly disfavouring extragalactic emission. Fitting prompt $s$-wave annihilation spectra, best-fit masses are $m_\chi \simeq 0.55$TeV ($W^+W^-$) and $0.72$TeV ($b\bar{b}$) with $\langle\sigma v\rangle \simeq 1\times10^{-24}~\mathrm{cm^3\,s^{-1}}$, in $\sim\!4$-$5\times$ tension with dwarf spheroidal galaxy limits. However, accounting for foreground modelling and $J$-factor systematic uncertainties widens the tension window to $R\simeq1.6$-$9.3$, leaving the $s$-wave interpretation viable. To close the tension, we consider alternative particle dark matter models. $p$-wave annihilation misses relic abundance constraints by $\sim\!7$ orders of magnitude. A decay interpretation evades dwarf limits but is disfavoured by the isotropic gamma-ray background. The only viable velocity structure consistent with dwarf limits, present-day halo rates, and relic density is low-velocity-enhanced annihilation (resonant Sommerfeld or Breit-Wigner). This supplies the required $\approx\!45\times$ boost from a thermal relic. Fully resolving the dwarf tension requires a fine-tuned resonance peaking at the halo velocity and falling for colder systems.

A neutron-sensitive sampling calorimeter based on alternating lead absorber and gadolinium-loaded liquid scintillator layers is investigated using detailed Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations. In addition to the conventional prompt calorimetric signal, the proposed detector records delayed energy from neutron moderation and capture, providing direct information on the neutron component of hadronic showers. A six-layer Pb/LAB-Gd calorimeter exposed to 10~GeV protons is studied to characterize its neutron response and evaluate its impact on calorimetric performance. The delayed deposited energy is found to be almost perfectly proportional to the neutron-capture multiplicity, providing a direct calibration of the neutron-sensitive signal. Event-by-event analyses further reveal a clear relationship between the prompt calorimetric response and the delayed neutron observable, demonstrating that the latter contains substantial information on the invisible hadronic energy. Exploiting this correlation through a simple nonlinear event-by-event correction improves the prompt-energy resolution from 21.8% to 13.3% without rejecting events. Furthermore, the analysis of events with similar neutron multiplicities indicates that neutron-production fluctuations constitute a major contribution to the overall hadronic energy resolution. These results demonstrate the potential of gadolinium-loaded sampling calorimeters to recover part of the invisible hadronic energy and significantly improve hadronic energy reconstruction and energy resolution.

In these notes, basic concepts and necessary formulas for the modeling of elastic lepton-nucleon and quasielastic lepton-nucleus scattering using relativistic models are discussed. Certain theoretical developments are presented in meticulous detail, particularly those rarely found in papers or standard textbooks. In order to highlight the discrepancies between models and evaluate the impact of various nuclear effects, theoretical predictions are compared with inclusive electron scattering data. These notes are designed for Master's or PhD students embarking on their research in the field of neutrino-nucleus interactions at intermediate energies (ranging from several hundred MeV to a few GeV). They are intended to serve as a supplemental guide, never as a substitute for traditional textbooks on Scattering Theory and Quantum Field Theory. Currently, these notes are included in the course `Relativistic Quantum Theory: Nuclear Processes', which is integrated into both the Interuniversity Master in Nuclear Physics (this https URL) and the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Nuclear Physics (this https URL), with the University of Seville as one of the partner institutions. Previously, this material was part of the course `Weak Interactions', within the same Master's programs.

Charm and beauty are heavy quarks with observed masses of 1.28 GeV/$\textit{c}^2$ and 4.18 GeV/$\textit{c}^2$ respectively. They are produced in initial hard scattering processes. Due to their small formation time ($\Delta t \sim0.1 fm/\textit{c}$) as compared to the formation time of QGP ($\Delta t \sim0.3 fm/\textit{c}$) at the LHC, they experience all the stages occuring during the time evolution of the hot and dense medium produced in heavy-ion collisions. Therefore, the measurement of open charm and beauty production allows probing QGP properties and investigating the color charge and mass dependence of the parton in-medium energy loss. Moreover, due to their large masses ($m_c , m_b \gg \Lambda_{QCD}$ ) their pp production cross-sections are calculable within the domain of perturbative QCD constituting an excellent test of pQCD calculations. The aim of this study is to understand the processes involved in the production of charm quarks through the productions of D$^+$, D$^0$, D$^+_s$ and $\Lambda_c^+$ hadrons. Further to investigate the possibility of hadronization of the charm quarks, ratios like $\Lambda_c^+$/$D^+$, $D_s^+$/$D^+$, $\Lambda_c^+$/$D^0$ and $D_s^+$/$D^0$ are also measured. For the current analysis, the events are generated by using PYTHIA 8 for pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. PYTHIA 8 has proved to be quite successful in explaining the heavy-flavor particle production at the LHC energies.

A search for the Higgs boson decay to a $Z$ boson and a photon in the $\ell\ell\gamma$ ($\ell = e, \mu$) final state is performed using $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13.6$ TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during 2022-2024, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 165 fb$^{-1}$. The signal yield, normalised to the Standard Model prediction, is measured to be $\mu=0.9^{+0.7}_{-0.6}$, compared to an expected value of $\mu=1.0\pm0.7$. This corresponds to an observed (expected) signal significance of 1.4 (1.5) standard deviations for the background-only hypothesis. This result is combined with that of a similar search performed with 140 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV $pp$ collisions to provide the most stringent expected sensitivity to date to this rare decay, namely an observed (expected) signal strength of $\mu = 1.3^{+0.6}_{-0.5}$ ($\mu = 1.0^{+0.6}_{-0.5}$), corresponding to an observed (expected) significance of 2.5 (1.9) standard deviations. The measurement is consistent with the Standard Model expectation.

A combined statistical analysis of searches for heavy vector boson resonances decaying into pairs of W, Z, or Higgs bosons, as well as into quark pairs ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}}$, $\mathrm{b\bar{b}}$, $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$, $\mathrm{t\bar{b}}$) or lepton pairs ($\ell^+\ell^-$, $\ell\bar{\nu}$), with $\ell =$ e, $\mu$, $\tau$, is presented. The results are based on proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$, collected by the CMS experiment from 2016 to 2018. No significant deviation from the expectations of the standard model is observed. The results are interpreted in the simplified heavy vector triplet (HVT) framework, setting 95% confidence level upper limits on the production cross sections and coupling strengths of the HVT bosons to standard model particles. The results exclude HVT resonances with masses below 5.5 TeV in a weakly coupled scenario, below 4.8 TeV in a strongly coupled scenario, and up to 2.0 TeV in the case of production via vector boson fusion. The combination provides the most stringent constraints to date on new phenomena predicted by the HVT model.

The FASER experiment is located in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) complex at CERN, 480 m downstream of the ATLAS collision point and aligned with the beam-collision-axis. The experiment was designed to search for light, weakly-interacting new-particles which could be produced in the LHC collisions, and, for the first-time, to study high-energy neutrinos of all flavours originating at a particle collider. This review article presents the status of FASER up to early-2026. This includes details of the FASER detector design, operation, performance and physics results, as well as briefly mentioning upgrades that have been installed since the start of FASER. In addition, future plans for the experiment are detailed.

We present a systematic study of the effects of ultralight dark matter (ULDM) on neutrino oscillations using the latest long-baseline data from the T2K and NO$\nu$A experiments. Our analysis covers both flavor-universal and flavor-general scalar interactions, as well as vector interactions associated with the $L_e - L_\mu$ and $L_\mu - L_\tau$ gauge symmetries. Importantly, we explicitly consider the coherence properties of the ULDM by incorporating the resulting stochastic fluctuations into our statistical analysis. We find that in the low-mass regime, $m_\phi \lesssim 10^{-17}$ eV, where the stochastic effects are maximal, the constraints on the ULDM couplings are relaxed by roughly an order of magnitude compared to those in the high-mass regime,$m_\phi \gtrsim 10^{-15}$ eV, where such fluctuations are effectively averaged out. While the combined T2K and NO$\nu$A datasets impose nontrivial exclusion limits on the ULDM interactions, we do not find statistically significant evidence that these effects can alleviate the current tension in determining the charge-parity (CP) violating phase $\delta_{CP}$ between the two experiments. Therefore, it will be essential for future high-precision facilities to further probe the ULDM scenarios and achieve a definitive measurement of $\delta_{CP}$.

We present the calculation of the complete NLO corrections to the off-shell top-quark pair production in the $\ell+j$ decay channel, denoted as $pp \to \ell^- \bar{\nu}_l\, j_b j_b \,jj + X$, where $\ell^- = e^-,\, \mu^-$. The calculation consistently preserves the finite-width effects of the top quarks and massive gauge bosons, as well as takes into account all doubly-, singly-, and non-resonant contributions along with their interference effects. All Born-level contributions, at the perturbative orders from ${\cal O}(\alpha_s^4\alpha^2)$ to ${\cal O}(\alpha_s^0\alpha^6)$, are included and corrected by both NLO QCD and NLO EW effects. Furthermore, all possible partonic initial states are taken into account. Particular attention is paid to the infrared safety in the presence of photons and jets. This requires the use of the so-called parton-to-photon fragmentation function and the photon-to-jet conversion function, which makes the democratic photon-parton clustering and the $\gamma \to q\bar{q}$ splittings finite. We present our findings at the integrated and differential fiducial cross-section levels for the LHC Run III centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}= 13.6$ TeV. In addition, we quantify the impact of subleading NLO effects, in particular, electroweak Sudakov logarithms and non-resonant QCD backgrounds. Two analysis strategies are employed and compared, namely with and without the resonance-enhancing requirement on the invariant mass of the two light jets, $|M_{jj}-m_W|<{\cal Q}_{\text{cut}} = 20$ GeV, illustrating the relationship between QCD background suppression, off-shell effects, interferences, and complete NLO corrections.

The findings on the spin polarization of $\Lambda$, $\Xi$, and $\Omega$ hyperons and spin alignment of $K^{*0}$, $\phi$, and $D^{*+}$ mesons in relativistic heavy-ion collision experiments at the RHIC and LHC facilities propose the emergence of a strong vorticity field produced in these collisions. Contemplating the potential impact of vorticity on the space-time evolution of deconfined QCD matter and its freeze-out properties, we aim to investigate its characteristics within the medium. We introduce a complementary and data-driven approach to quantify the global vorticity field by extracting it directly from the transverse momentum spectra of produced hadrons. Employing the experimental data for $\Lambda$, $\Xi$, $\Omega$, $K^{*0}$, $K^{*\pm}$, $\phi$, $\rho$, and $D^{*+}$ at mid-rapidity in Au+Au and Pb+Pb collisions over a wide range of beam energies, $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=7.7$ GeV-5.02 TeV, and centrality classes, we systematically examine spin-vorticity coupling in the medium. Our finding on the magnitude of the extracted vorticity is consistent with values deduced from $\Lambda$ and $\bar{\Lambda}$ polarization measurements using statistical thermal models under the non-relativistic limit. Notably, we observe a prominent particle-species dependence of the vorticity, as well as a non-trivial variation with collision centrality and beam energy. These results indicate that vorticity-driven spin phenomena are sensitive to hadron structure and freeze-out dynamics, providing new constraints on the rotational properties of the QCD matter.

As the lightest isovector vector meson, the $\rho$ meson is an important object for investigating the structure of resonant states in strong interactions. Owing to its strong coupling to the $\pi\pi$ channel and its large decay width, the conventional constituent quark model treatment, in which it is simply regarded as a pure $q\bar q$ bound state while the hadronic-channel coupling effects are neglected, is insufficient to fully characterize its physical properties. To this end, in the present work we establish a unified framework for studying the structure and resonant properties of the $\rho$ meson by combining the quark-gluon and hadronic degrees of freedom. At the quark-gluon level, we first determine the parameters of the chiral quark model by refitting a set of narrow mesons for which open Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka-allowed strong-decay channels are absent or strongly suppressed. With these parameters fixed, the bare mass of the $\rho$ meson is obtained and used as the input for the subsequent hadronic-level analysis. At the hadronic level, based on inverse-scattering theory, we construct a model including the coupling between the bare state and the $\pi\pi$ continuum, extract the $\rho_0-\pi\pi$ interaction using the $P$-wave $\pi\pi$ scattering phase-shift data, and further calculate the width of the $\rho$ meson as well as the bare-state component in the physical state. The present work also provides a generalizable analytical framework for further studies of other hadronic resonances with significant coupled-channel effects.

Merging galaxy clusters are a promising laboratory for measuring the self-interaction cross-section (SICS) of dark matter. However, previous studies have focused on galaxy-mass offsets, which numerical simulations have shown to be intrinsically small because galaxies remain tightly coupled to the dominant dark matter potential even with significant self-interaction. Their interpretation is further complicated by unknowns of the merger phase, geometry, and initial conditions. In this paper, we overcome these obstacles by introducing the shock-to-shock distance, traced by double radio relics, as a merger chronometer that time-stamps the post-pericenter dynamical phase. Because the propagation speed of merger shocks is nearly independent of the SICS, while the halo-to-halo distance is depressed by SIDM-induced drag, the ratio of the two distances translates directly into a constraint on sigma/m. Applying this method to a gold sample of eleven cluster mergers hosting symmetric double radio relics, we determine an upper limit on the SICS of sigma/m < 0.22 (0.63) cm^2/g at the 68% (95%) confidence level. This is the first constraint from cluster collisions that fully marginalizes over mass uncertainty, viewing angle, collision speed, merger phase, impact parameter, and gas profile slope.

We study how the renormalization group running beta functions of mixing angles and leptonic CP phases affect the slow and fast oscillation modes at JUNO. While the slow mode is modulated by the solar parameters, its amplitude can also be affected by the solar angle beta function $\beta_s$ and its phase by the Majorana CP phase counterpart $\beta_{\rm M1}$. On the other hand, the fast mode also receives corrections from the beta functions of the Dirac CP phase $\delta_D$ and the Majorana CP phase $\delta_{\rm M3}$. Since the fast mode is essentially the one measuring the neutrino mass ordering, the RG running effect can then interfere to deteriorate the sensitivity. Fortunately, the JUNO-TAO near detector can provide supplementary measurements of the RG running parameters to restore the mass ordering sensitivity. Since the rephasing phases $\delta_{\rm M1}$ and $\delta_{\rm M3}$ can be shifted by a vector-like rephasing for Dirac neutrinos, their running is physical only in the Majorana case. In consolidated, the mild preference for a nonzero $\beta_{\rm M1}$ by the current JUNO data thus hints the Majorana nature of neutrinos.

Characterising fully hadronic events is a difficult task at hadron colliders. Signal jets from the hard process are mingled with an arbitrary number of ISR and FSR jets, leading to a large combinatorial background. This also poses a challenge for machine-learning analyses, where the number of input features is fixed while the jet multiplicity fluctuates from event to event due to QCD radiation. In this work, we explore the use of the two-point correlation spectral function as an input feature for machine-learning analyses of such events. The spectral function maps the transverse-momentum data of an event into a one-dimensional function of the angular distance, encoding the event information modulo collider isometries and jet permutations, and is defined independently of the jet multiplicity. As a concrete benchmark we apply the method to discriminate gluino-pair production followed by $\tilde{g} \to t \bar{t} \tilde{\chi}_1^0$ against the fully hadronic $t \bar{t}$ background. With $139~{\rm fb}^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV $pp$ collision data, a dense neural network supplied with spectral-function features improves the expected reach in gluino-mass by roughly 150 GeV relative to a recent ATLAS analysis, and by roughly 250 GeV relative to the same network trained on jet kinematics alone.

The physical origin of dark energy remains one of the most profound open questions in modern physics. Although cosmological observations tightly constrain the equation of state parameter $w$, this information alone does not reveal the underlying microphysics, as many distinct theoretical models can reproduce the same expansion history. A key discriminator among these models is the sound speed of dark energy perturbations, yet this quantity remains largely unconstrained by current astrophysical observations. In this work, we propose a fundamentally new approach: using collider measurements of beyond-the-Standard-Model (BSM) mediator resonances as a probe of dark energy microphysics. We construct a unified effective-field-theory framework in which a dynamical dark energy scalar is coupled, through symmetry-motivated derivative interactions, to a pseudoscalar mediator in the 2HDM+$a$ model. These interactions naturally induce invisible decays and modify the propagation of the BSM mediator in a dark energy background, leading to measurable distortions of resonance properties at colliders such as the LHC. We show that the decay widths, branching ratios, and kinematic structure of the mediator resonance become sensitive to the propagation properties of dark energy fluctuations, in particular the sound speed. As a result, collider observables provide a direct and complementary handle on dark energy microphysics, with the potential to distinguish between models that are otherwise indistinguishable through cosmology alone. Our results establish a new paradigm in which high-energy collider experiments can probe the physics of cosmic acceleration, revealing a connection between the smallest and largest scales in nature and opening a novel experimental pathway to uncover the fundamental origin of dark energy.

Experimental measurements of $J/\psi$ and $\psi(2S)$ decays to octet baryon pairs reveal a negative-$\Sigma\bar{\Sigma}$ puzzle in the angular distributions: $\alpha_\Sigma^{J/\psi}<0$, whereas the other measured $J/\psi$ octet channels and the corresponding $\psi(2S)$ channels have positive angular parameters. We show that an $\mathrm{SU}(3)_F$-exact singlet description is strongly disfavored in a $\chi^2$ fit, giving $\chi^2\simeq 10^5$. By contrast, a reduced scenario in which a common final-state interaction mixes the $\mathrm{S}$- and $\mathrm{D}$-wave amplitudes, with an antisymmetric direct octet and a full diagonal $\mathrm{S}$-$\mathrm{D}$ rescattering block, gives $\chi^2=4.21$ for two nominal degrees of freedom. The negative $\Sigma\bar{\Sigma}$ angular parameter is traced to the pattern of the rescattered $\mathrm{S}$- and $\mathrm{D}$-wave amplitudes. The apparent large $\mathrm{SU}(3)_F$-breaking effect is decomposed into three ingredients: the fitted $\mathrm{D}$-wave source is much larger than the $\mathrm{S}$-wave source, the breaking remains modest when normalized to the $\mathrm{D}$ wave, and $\mathrm{D}\to\mathrm{S}$ rescattering transfers the $\mathrm{SU}(3)_F$-breaking effect from the $\mathrm{D}$ wave into the small $\mathrm{S}$-wave baseline, where it appears large. The largest remaining pull comes from the $\psi(2S)\to N\bar{N}$ angular input, motivating a renewed experimental check of $\psi(2S)\to n\bar{n}$.