The origin of the baryon asymmetry of the universe remains one of the most pressing open questions in particle physics and cosmology. Electroweak baryogenesis offers an experimentally testable explanation, requiring new sources of CP violation and a strong first-order electroweak phase transition.The Two Higgs doublet model (2HDM) is the simplest scalar extension of the Standard Model that can accommodate both ingredients. We critically assess the viability of the complex 2HDM (C2HDM) (a 2HDM with a softly broken $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry and a single source of explicit CP violation in the Higgs sector) as a framework for electroweak baryogenesis, incorporating for the first time a comprehensive set of LHC Run 2 results at 13 TeV. By defining CP-violating benchmark planes tailored for a strong first-order electroweak phase transition, we identify regions of parameter space motivated by electroweak baryogenesis that will be testable at the LHC, and at future space-based gravitational wave experiments. The benchmark planes are intended to guide ongoing efforts in defining representative scenarios for the exploration of CP-violation in extended scalar sectors at the LHC Run 3 and beyond, while also assessing the emerging synergy between the LHC and future gravitational wave observatories such as LISA. We also quantify the current tension between the realisation of electroweak baryogenesis and the non-observation of the electron electric dipole moment (EDM), finding that the predicted electron EDMs typically exceed the experimental limits by at least an order of magnitude.

Dark matter accumulates in the center of the Earth as the planet plows through the dark matter halo in the Milky Way. Possible annihilation of dark matter to Standard Model particles can be probed in indirect dark matter searches. Among possible messengers, neutrinos are uniquely ideal as they can escape dense regions. Therefore, neutrino telescopes, with their large volume and broad energy exposures, offer new opportunities to search for dark matter signals from the center of the Earth. However, such studies have been restricted to dark matter masses below $\sim$ PeV as the Earth becomes opaque to very-high-energy neutrinos. In this study, we demonstrate that neutrino telescopes operating at TeV-PeV energies can probe very heavy dark matter particles if they annihilate to tau neutrinos or tau leptons. Here, we report upper limits on the spin-independent dark matter-nucleon cross section for masses between $10^5$ GeV and $10^{10}$ GeV by using 7.5 years of IceCube high-energy starting event observations. Our results motivate detailed analyses in IceCube and other upcoming neutrino telescopes in the Northern Hemisphere.

The arguably most promising avenue towards testing physics beyond the Standard Model in the anomalous magnetic moment of the $\tau$ proceeds via suitably constructed asymmetries in $e^+e^-\to\tau^+\tau^-$ in the presence of a polarized electron beam. Such a program, as could be realized at Belle II assuming a polarization upgrade of the SuperKEKB $e^+e^-$ collider, crucially relies on a careful consideration of radiative corrections. In this work, we present the complete one-loop result for the fully polarized $e^+e^-\to\tau^+\tau^-$ process and its implementation in the Monte-Carlo integrator McMule. As an application, we discuss projections relevant for measurements at Belle II, both with and without electron polarization, and outline the necessary steps for a generalization to next-to-next-to-leading order.

We perform a comprehensive study of the $3+3$ Type-I seesaw model for a broad range of right-handed mass scales (from keV to 10 TeV). We take into account and, in some cases, update the constraints from a large number of high- and low-energy experiments and study the implications on neutrino-less double beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay experiments. We illustrate our findings through profile likelihood plots for the half-life $T_{1/2}^{0\nu}$ and two-dimensional plots correlating $T_{1/2}^{0\nu}$ to neutrino masses. We find that in this simple class of models for Majorana neutrino masses, current and next-generation $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay experiments have a broad discovery potential in both the normal and inverted orderings of the spectrum of light active neutrinos.

Providing accurate theoretical predictions in the Standard Model for processes with polarised electroweak bosons is crucial to understand more in-depth the electroweak-symmetry breaking mechanism and to enhance the sensitivity to potential new-physics effects. Motivated by the rapidly increasing number of polarisation analyses of di-boson processes with LHC data, we carry out a comprehensive study of the inclusive production of two polarised Z bosons in the decay channel with four charged leptons. We perform a detailed comparison of fixed-order predictions obtained with various Monte Carlo programs which rely on different signal-definition strategies, assessing non-resonant and interference effects by contrasting polarised results with unpolarised and full off-shell ones. For the first time, we accomplish the combination of NNLO QCD and NLO EW corrections, setting the new state-of-the-art perturbative accuracy for polarised Z-boson pairs at the LHC. The impact of parton-shower matching and multi-jet merging is investigated by scrutinising calculations obtained with event generators that are typically used in experimental analyses. Integrated and differential results are discussed in a realistic fiducial setup and compared to publicly available ATLAS results.

Ultralight bosons (ULBs) can form macroscopic superradiant clouds around spinning black holes. We show that for scalar ULB masses $\mu \sim 10^{-22}-10^{-21}$ eV boson cloud dynamical friction drives supermassive black hole (SMBH) final-parsec evolution in $\lesssim 1$ Gyr and suppresses the nanohertz gravitational wave background with turnover. Considering century-monitored OJ287 system, we place novel bounds restricting ULB mass range $\mu \simeq (8.5-22) \times 10^{-22}$ eV independent of any dark matter assumptions and show ULB drag can also efficiently reconcile any future confirmations of the debated orbital decay excess. Forthcoming pulsar timing array data and precise SMBH orbital timings will decisively test this scenario.

Using recent lattice QCD results for gravitational form factors, we show that the Wigner-Weyl transform of the QCD energy-momentum tensor is of exotic type IV (in the Hawking-Ellis classification) in the interior of the proton, implying that in this region: (i) it has no causal eigenvectors, (ii) it violates all (linear, point-wise) energy conditions, (iii) there are local Lorentz frames in which its energy density is zero. This occurs because of the nonzero $T^{0i}$ flux associated with the angular momentum form factor $J(t)$. The energy-momentum tensor turns into a type I tensor, characteristic of ``ordinary matter", at radial distances of $1-2$ proton Compton wavelengths. This transition point defines a ``gravitational radius" for the proton, whose precise determination requires accurate knowledge about QCD form factors for momentum transfer beyond $\sqrt{-t}=2$~GeV.

In supersymmetric models where the mu problem is solved via discrete R-symmetries, then both the global U(1)_{PQ} (Peccei-Quinn, needed to solve the strong CP problem) and R-parity conservation (RPC, needed for proton stability) are expected to arise as accidental, approximate symmetries. Then in some cases, SUSY dark matter is expected to be all axions since the relic lightest SUSY particles (LSPs) can decay away via small R-parity violating (RPV) couplings. We examine several aspects of this {\it all axion} SUSY dark matter scenario. 1. We catalogue the operator suppression which is gained from discrete R-symmetry breaking via four two-extra-field base models. 2. We present exact tree-level LSP decay rates including mixing and phase space effects and compare to results from simple, approximate formulae. 3. Natural SUSY models are characterized by light higgsinos with mass ~100-350 GeV so that the dominant sparticle production cross sections at LHC14 are expected to be higgsino pair production which occurs at the 10^2-10^4 fb level. Assuming nature is natural, the lack of an RPV signal from higgsino pair production in LHC data translates into rather strong upper bounds on nearly all trilinear RPV couplings in order to render the SUSY signal (nearly) invisible. Thus, in natural SUSY models with light higgsinos, the RPV-couplings must be small enough that the LSP has a rather high quality of RPC.

In this paper, we investigate quasinormal modes in holographic QCD models from the perspective of the WKB approximation. We derive the generalized Bohr Sommerfeld quantization rules for quasi-stationary states in holographic QCD models. As a simple application of these formulas, we compute the quasinormal modes of scalar and vector fields in the soft wall model, where an analytic expression for the real part of the frequency can be found in the low temperature regime. Additionally, this study provides useful insights into the dissociation process in holographic QCD models.

We report the observation of quantum entanglement in $\Lambda\bar{\Lambda}$ pairs produced via electron-positron annihilation, specifically through the decay $J/\psi \to \Lambda\bar{\Lambda}$. By analyzing the angular correlations of the subsequent weak decays $\Lambda \to p\pi^-$ and $\bar{\Lambda} \to \bar{p}\pi^+$, we derive normalized observables $\mathcal{O}_i~(i=0,1,\ldots,4)$ that distinguish entangled states from separable ones. Theoretical predictions for these observables are established, with violations of separable-state bounds serving as unambiguous signatures of entanglement. Experimental measurements at $\cos\theta_\Lambda = 0$ yield $\mathcal{O}_{1\text{min}}^{\text{Observed}} = -0.7374\pm 0.0011\pm 0.0016$, significantly exceeding the classical limit of $-0.5$ with a statistical significance of 124.9$\sigma$. For $\left|\cos\theta_\Lambda\right|<0.4883$, the observed $\mathcal{O}_{1}^{\text{Observed}}$ consistently exhibits $\mathcal{O}_{1}^{\text{Observed}} < -\frac{1}{2}$ with a statistical significance of at least 5$\sigma$. Since $69.3\%$ of the decay events involving $\Lambda\to p+\pi^-$ and $\bar{\Lambda}\to \bar{p}+\pi^+$ are spacelike-separated, our results confirming the persistence of quantum entanglement in the $\Lambda\bar{\Lambda}$ system provide strong support for the non-locality of quantum mechanics. The findings are consistent with theoretical expectations under decoherence-free conditions, highlighting the potential of hyperon pairs as probes for fundamental quantum phenomena.

We introduce Scale Factorized-Quantum Field Theory (SF-QFT), a framework that performs path-integral factorization of ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) momentum modes at a physical scale $Q^*$ before perturbative expansion. This approach yields a UV-finite effective action whose Wilson coefficients $C_i(Q)$ and coupling $a_{\mathrm{eff}}(Q)$ are fixed by matching to experiment. Because the two-loop $\beta$-function is universal in massless QCD, $a_{\mathrm{eff}}(Q)$ evolves with a scheme-independent equation, with higher-order $\beta$-coefficients absorbed into the $C_i$. Applying SF-QFT to the inclusive ratio $R_{e^{+}e^{-}}$ gives $R^{\mathrm{SF-QFT}}(31.6\,\mathrm{GeV}) = 1.04911 \pm 0.00084$, in excellent agreement with experiment ($R^{\mathrm{exp}}(31.6\,\mathrm{GeV})= 1.0527 \pm 0.005$) while requiring orders of magnitude fewer calculations than a conventional four-loop $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ approach. We find universal algebraic recursion relations that generate all higher-order contributions without additional Feynman diagrams, yielding scheme-invariant predictions with remarkable convergence. SF-QFT provides a rigorous proof for the existence of a positive mass gap in Yang-Mills theory, resolving one of the Millennium Prize Problems by demonstrating how non-perturbative effects emerge naturally from the path-integral factorization. For QED, the same formalism integrates out high-energy modes above $Q^*$, producing scheme-independent predictions for the electron anomalous magnetic moment with unprecedented precision ($a_e^{\text{theory}} = 0.001~159~652~183~56(76)$). SF-QFT heralds a paradigm shift in quantum field theory, replacing the pursuit of ever-higher loop orders with a unified framework that handles both perturbative and non-perturbative physics while maintaining manifest gauge invariance and eliminating renormalization ambiguities.

We propose a mechanism called sphalerogenesis to explain the baryon asymmetry of the universe (BAU). The BAU is explained by a CP-violating decay of the electroweak sphaleron. We introduce a dimension-six operator constructed from weak gauge fields: $Q_{\widetilde{W}} \sim \Lambda^{-2} \epsilon_{ijk} \widetilde{W}_{\mu \nu}^{i} W^{j \nu \rho} W_{\rho}^{k\mu}$. We find that the BAU can be explained if the cutoff scale satisfies $37.8 \,{\rm TeV} < \Lambda < 38.6\,{\rm TeV}$. This scenario can be tested by electron electric dipole moment measurements in the near future.

Axion-like particles (ALPs) are well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model (SM) that appear in many new physics scenarios, with masses spanning a broad range. In this work, we systematically study the production and detection prospects of light ALPs at future lepton colliders, including electron-positron and multi-TeV muon colliders. At lepton colliders, light ALPs can be produced in association with a photon or a $Z$ boson. For very light ALPs ($m_a < 1$ MeV), the ALPs are typically long-lived and escape detection, leading to a mono-$V$ ($V = \gamma, Z$) signature. In the long-lived limit, we find that the mono-photon channel at the Tera-$Z$ stage of future electron-positron colliders provides the strongest constraints on ALP couplings to SM gauge bosons, $g_{aVV}$, thanks to the high luminosity, low background, and resonant enhancement from on-shell $Z$ bosons. At higher energies, the mono-photon cross section becomes nearly energy-independent, and the sensitivity is governed by luminosity and background. At multi-TeV muon colliders, the mono-$Z$ channel can yield complementary constraints. For heavier ALPs ($m_a > 100$ MeV) that decay promptly, mono-$V$ signatures are no longer valid. In this case, ALPs can be probed via non-resonant vector boson scattering (VBS) processes, where the ALP is exchanged off-shell, leading to kinematic deviations from SM expectations. We analyze constraints from both light-by-light scattering and electroweak VBS, the latter only accessible at TeV-scale colliders. While generally weaker, these constraints are robust and model-independent. Our combined analysis shows that mono-$V$ and non-resonant VBS channels provide powerful and complementary probes of ALP-gauge boson interactions.

A multi-component weakly-interacting dark matter scenario is analyzed, where the candidate dark matter states arise from the $SU(2)_{D}\to Z_{3}^{D}\times Z_{2}^{\text{acc}}$ symmetry breaking triggered by a VEV-developing scalar in the $J=3/2$ representation. While the discrete symmetries guarantee at least two stable states, a closer look at the mass orderings of the contrived dark sector reveals the existence of a third dark matter candidate, whose stability effectively results from the tight phase space in the dark boson sector. Regions of masses and couplings where the three dark states furnish a comparable contribution to the observed relic abundance are determined numerically.

The heavy-to-heavy exclusive semileptonic transitions of singly heavy baryons (SHBs) are investigated within the framework of the Hypercentral Constituent Quark Model (hCQM). The six-dimensional hyperradial Schr\"{o}dinger equation is solved in the variational approach to calculate the ground state masses of bottom and charmed baryons. The transition magnetic moments and radiative $M1$ decay widths are calculated using the spin-flavour wave function and the effective quark masses of constituent baryon. The Isgur-Wise function (IWF) is determined at zero recoil to compute the $b \rightarrow c$ semileptonic decay. Additionally, the branching ratios, as well as the slope and convexity parameters of IWF are evaluated and compared with results from other studies.

The Randall-Sundrum model with the Higgs localized on the IR brane solves the gauge hierarchy problem. However, the associated low cutoff ($\Lambda \sim 10$ TeV) generically leads to unacceptably rapid nucleon decay and excessively large Majorana neutrino masses. Achieving consistency while simultaneously explaining the Yukawa hierarchy requires either a horizontal symmetry or a discrete gauged symmetry. We demonstrate that eliminating all dangerous operators within a horizontal symmetry framework must come with large and unattractive charge assignments, if possible at all. Hence, we consider an exact discrete gauged $\mathbf{Z}_N$ symmetry, with fermion mass hierarchies generated via wavefunction overlap. We employ this to reproduce the current CKM and PMNS structures. Under minimal assumptions, it predicts Dirac neutrinos with a total mass $\sim 66$ meV. Since the $\mathbf{Z}_N$ charges must be generation-blind, flavor observables serve as key probes.

In this work, we investigate the $t$-channel ($e^+ e^- \to \gamma A'$) contribution to the invisible dark photon ($A'$) searches at the electron fixed-target configurations. For illustration, we consider both the disappearing positron track signature at Belle II and the large missing energy search at NA64$e$. When the dark photon has a narrow decay width, the $t$-channel process can dominate over its $s$-channel and bremsstrahlung counterparts around $m_{A'} \simeq 60\,\rm{MeV}$ ($m_{A'} \simeq 200\,\rm{MeV}$) for Belle II (NA64$e$), to enhance the corresponding sensitivity on the kinetic mixing parameter $\epsilon$ by a factor of up to approximately 3 (1.3). For Belle II, we further perform a multi-bin analysis with the spectrum information to better separate the background and signal channels for significant improvement of the sensitivity.

In this study, we investigate the radiative transitions of predicted triple-charm molecular hexaquarks, which play a significant role in understanding their overall spectroscopic properties. As experimentally measurable quantities, the radiative decay widths provide insights into the internal structures of these triple-charm molecular hexaquarks. Additionally, we calculate their corresponding magnetic moments, which, together with the radiative decay widths, offer a comprehensive picture of the electromagnetic properties of these exotic states. This information is valuable for guiding future experimental searches and advancing our understanding of these unique hadronic systems.

The relations between the window quantities for the hadronic vacuum polarization contributions to the muon anomalous magnetic moment $a^{\text{HVP}}_{\mu}$ in spacelike and timelike domains are studied. Two types of window functions (abrupt and smooth) as well as two kinds of kinematic intervals (symmetric and asymmetric with respect to the spacelike/timelike flip) are addressed. It is shown that the evaluations of the window quantities for $a^{\text{HVP}}_{\mu}$ represented in terms of the hadronic vacuum polarization function, the Adler function, and the $R$-ratio of electron-positron annihilation into hadrons are mutually equivalent only if the additional contributions due to the window edge effects are properly taken into account and the explicit expressions for such contributions are derived. The obtained results enable one to accurately compare the window quantities for $a^{\text{HVP}}_{\mu}$ based, e.g., on MUonE or lattice data with the ones based on $R$-ratio data, even if the window function covers different kinematic ranges in spacelike and timelike domains.

We review the recently published PDF sets MSHT20xNNPDF40_an3lo and MSHT20xNNPDF40_an3lo_qed, which have been obtained by combining the approximate N$^3$LO (aN$^3$LO) sets of parton distributions (PDFs) from the MSHT20 and NNPDF4.0 series. We investigate the impact of the most recent results on N$^3$LO splitting functions onto the two PDF sets. Finally, we demonstrate the impact of N$^3$LO PDFs on the computation of Higgs production cross-sections at the LHC.

Using invariant-mass threshold resummation, we compute the invariant-mass distribution and the total cross section for $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ production at the LHC with centre-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV at NLL' accuracy. This accuracy includes next-to-leading logarithmic contributions together with relative $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s)$ non-logarithmic terms present in the threshold limit. We match the NLL' results to NLO in QCD and to complete NLO with electroweak corrections. We find that the inclusion of NLL' soft-gluon corrections significantly reduces the size of the theoretical uncertainties and greatly improves the convergence of the predictions when considering various choices of renormalisation and factorisation scales.

We present analytic expressions for the one-loop QCD helicity amplitudes contributing to top-quark pair production in association with a photon or a jet at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), evaluated through $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^2)$ in the dimensional regularisation parameter, $\epsilon$. These amplitudes are required to construct the two-loop hard functions that enter the NNLO QCD computation. The helicity amplitudes are expressed as linear combinations of algebraically independent components of the $\epsilon$-expanded master integrals, with the corresponding rational coefficients written in terms of momentum-twistor variables. We derive differential equations for the pentagon functions, which enable efficient numerical evaluation via generalised power series expansion method.

We present a systematic decomposition of QCD splitting functions into scalar dipole radiators and pure splitting remainders up to second order in the strong coupling. The individual components contain terms that are formally sub-leading in soft or collinear scaling parameters, but well understood and universal due to their origin in scalar QCD. The multipole radiator functions which we derive share essential features of the known double-soft and one-loop soft gluon currents, and are not based on kinematical approximations.

We investigate double $\phi$ production in $\bar{p}p$ reactions near threshold using an effective Lagrangian approach, highlighting a significant OZI rule violation through hadronic processes. Our model includes $t$- and $u$-channel contributions from the nucleon and $s$-wave $N^*$ resonances ($N^*(1535,1650,1895)$), as well as the pentaquark-like state $P_s(2071)$. In the $s$-channel, scalar ($f_0$), tensor ($f_2$), and pseudoscalar ($\eta(2225)$) mesons are incorporated. The $N$, $N^*$, $f_0$, and $f_2$ contributions enhance the cross-section and generate peak structures near $W=2.2$ GeV, consistent with JETSET data, while cusp structures arise from $\bar{\Lambda}\Lambda$ and $\bar{\Sigma}\Sigma$ threshold openings. Polarization observables, such as the spin density matrix element (SDME), further elucidate the underlying hadronic mechanisms.

Self-interactions facilitate inter-particle redistribution of energy within the dense regions of galactic halos, implying modifications in the density and velocity distribution of dark matter. Simulating dark-matter only isolated halos for a wide range of mass and specific self-scattering cross-sections, we make a systematic study of the impact of self-scattering on the velocity distribution profiles. We report a conservative bound on $\sigma/m$ $\leq 2.7 \rm cm^2/gm$ at $95\%$ C.L. from observations of rotation curves in Milky-Way size galaxies. Sub-leading bounds from LSB galaxy and clusters are also presented.

In this work, we compute the branching fraction of $B \to D^{(*)} \,\tau \, \nu_{\tau}$ and $B_s \to D_s^{(*)}\, \tau\, \nu_{\tau}$ within the Relativistic Independent Quark Model, emphasizing the harmonic potential model-dependent analysis of these decay channels in the precision flavor physics era. Considering the experimental observation of longitudinal $\tau$-polarization and fraction of longitudinal polarization ($F_L$) at LHCb and Belle, we have also investigated these observables within our model framework which are aligning well with the standard model expectations. We perform a comprehensive analysis of the form factors across the whole accessible kinematic range of $q^2$. Our results are consistent and agree well with other theoretical approaches as well as with the experimental measurements. Furthermore, we evaluated the clean ratios of $B_s$ to $B_0$ in the semimuonic mode that are in accordance with the LHCb measurements, and support the validity of the SU(3) flavor symmetry. Although the concept of new physics is facing a significant challenge at the current TeV scale, semileptonic $B$ decays, nevertheless, always serve as a valuable probe to study the decay dynamics.

Future mHz gravitational wave (GW) interferometers will precisely probe massive black hole environments, such as accretion discs, cold dark matter overdensities, and clouds of ultralight bosons, as long as we can accurately model the dephasing they induce on the waveform of extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs). Most existing models rely on extrapolations from Newtonian results to model the interaction of the small black hole in an EMRI system with the environment surrounding the massive black hole. Here, we present a fully relativistic formalism to model such interaction with collisionless environments, focusing on the case of cold dark matter overdensities, like 'spikes' and 'mounds'. We implement our new formalism in the FastEMRIWaveforms framework and show that the resulting waveforms are significantly different from those based on a Newtonian treatment of environmental effects. Our results indicate that a fully relativistic treatment is essential to capture the environmental dephasing of GW signals from EMRIs accurately.

This chapter provides a pedagogical introduction to theoretical studies of hadrons based on the fundamental theory of strong interactions - Quantum ChromoDynamics. A perturbative expansion in the strong coupling is not applicable at hadronic energy scales. Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics is the formulation of the fundamental theory on a discrete space-time grid, which enables first-principles, systematically improvable, numerical simulations of strong interaction physics. This chapter explains how the masses of strongly stable and strongly decaying hadrons are determined. The strongly decaying hadrons have to be inferred from the corresponding scattering processes. Therefore, one of the main aims is to describe how the scattering amplitudes are extracted from a lattice simulation. The examples of spectra, widths, and scattering amplitudes are shown for conventional as well as exotic hadrons.

We investigate the production of the as-yet-undetected true muonium within the quark-gluon plasma formed in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, employing a relativistic Boltzmann transport framework coupled to viscous hydrodynamic simulations. The obtained effective cross sections for central collisions are 1.23~$\mu b$ in AuAu collisions with $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=200$~GeV and 14.2~$\mu b$ in PbPb collisions with $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$~TeV, resulting in a yield of $\mathcal{O}(10^4)$ and $\mathcal{O}(10^5)$ true muonium per billion $AA$ collisions at RHIC and the LHC, respectively. This establishes heavy-ion collisions as a promising process for detecting true muonium.