### The Harder They Fall, the Bigger They Become: Tidal Trapping of Strings by Microstate Geometries

We consider the fate of a massless (or ultra-relativistic massive) string probe propagating down the BTZ-like throat of a microstate geometry in the D1-D5 system. Far down the throat, the probe encounters large tidal forces that stretch and excite the string. The excitations are limited by the very short transit time through the region of large tidal force, leading to a controlled approximation to tidal stretching. We show that the amount of stretching is proportional to the incident energy, and that it robs the probe of the kinetic energy it would need to travel back up the throat. As a consequence, the probe is effectively trapped far down the throat and, through repeated return passes, scrambles into the ensemble of nearby microstates. We propose that this tidal trapping may lead to weak gravitational echoes.

### More of the Bulk from Extremal Area Variations

It was shown recently, building on work of Alexakis, Balehowksy, and Nachman that the geometry of (some portion of) a manifold with boundary is uniquely fixed by the areas of a foliation of two-dimensional disk-shaped surfaces anchored to the boundary. In the context of AdS/CFT, this implies that (a portion of) a four-dimensional bulk geometry can be fixed uniquely from the entanglement entropies of disk-shaped boundary regions, subject to several constraints. In this Note, we loosen some of these constraints, in particular allowing for the bulk foliation of extremal surfaces to be local and removing the constraint of disk topology; these generalizations ensure uniqueness of more of the deep bulk geometry by allowing for e.g. surfaces anchored on disconnected asymptotic boundaries, or HRT surfaces past a phase transition. We also explore in more depth the generality of the local foliation requirement, showing that even in a highly dynamical geometry like AdS-Vaidya it is satisfied.

### Asymptotic dynamics on the worldline for spinning particles

There has been a renewed interest in the description of dressed asymptotic states a la Faddeev-Kulish. In this regard, a worldline representation for asymptotic states dressed by radiation at subleading power in the soft expansion, known as the Generalized Wilson Line (GWL) in the literature, has been available for some time, and it recently found applications in the derivation of factorization theorems for scattering processes of phenomenological relevance. In this paper we revisit the derivation of the GWL in the light of the well-known supersymmetric wordline formalism for the relativistic spinning particle. In particular, we discuss the importance of wordline supersymmetry to understand the contribution of the soft background field to the asymptotic dynamics. We also provide a derivation of the GWL for the gluon case, which was not previously available in the literature, thus extending the exponentiation of next-to-soft gauge boson corrections to Yang-Mills theory. Finally, we comment about possible applications in the current research about asymptotic states in scattering amplitudes for gauge and gravity theories and their classical limit.

### Instantons, Symmetries and Anomalies in Five Dimensions

All five-dimensional non-abelian gauge theories have a $U(1)_I$ global symmetry associated with instantonic particles. We describe an obstruction to coupling $U(1)_I$ to a classical background gauge field that occurs whenever the theory has a one-form center symmetry. This is a finite-order mixed 't Hooft anomaly between the two symmetries. We also show that a similar obstruction takes place in gauge theories with fundamental matter by studying twisted bundles for the ordinary flavor symmetry. We explore some general dynamical properties of the candidate phases implied by the anomaly. Finally, we apply our results to supersymmetric gauge theories in five dimensions and analyze the symmetry enhancement patterns occurring at their conjectured RG fixed points.

### On the time evolution of cosmological correlators

Developing our understanding of how correlations evolve during inflation is crucial if we are to extract information about the early Universe from our late-time observables. To that end, we revisit the time evolution of scalar field correlators on de Sitter spacetime in the Schrodinger picture. By direct manipulation of the Schrodinger equation, we write down simple "equations of motion" for the coefficients which determine the wavefunction. Rather than specify a particular interaction Hamiltonian, we assume only very basic properties (unitarity, de Sitter invariance and locality) to derive general consequences for the wavefunction's evolution. In particular, we identify a number of "constants of motion": properties of the initial state which are conserved by any unitary dynamics. We further constrain the time evolution by deriving constraints from the de Sitter isometries and show that these reduce to the familiar conformal Ward identities at late times. Finally, we show how the evolution of a state from the conformal boundary into the bulk can be described via a number of "transfer functions" which are analytic outside the horizon for any local interaction. These objects exhibit divergences for particular values of the scalar mass, and we show how such divergences can be removed by a renormalisation of the boundary wavefunction - this is equivalent to performing a "Boundary Operator Expansion" which expresses the bulk operators in terms of regulated boundary operators. Altogether, this improved understanding of the wavefunction in the bulk of de Sitter complements recent advances from a purely boundary perspective, and reveals new structure in cosmological correlators.

### Descendants in celestial CFT and emergent multi-collinear factorization

Multi-collinear factorization limits provide a window to study how locality and unitarity of scattering amplitudes can emerge dynamically from celestial CFT, the conjectured holographic dual to gauge and gravitational theories in flat space. To this end, we first use asymptotic symmetries to commence a systematic study of conformal and Kac-Moody descendants in the OPE of celestial gluons. Recursive application of these OPEs then equips us with a novel holographic method of computing the multi-collinear limits of gluon amplitudes. We perform this computation for some of the simplest helicity assignments of the collinear particles. The prediction from the OPE matches with Mellin transforms of the expressions in the literature to all orders in conformal descendants. In a similar vein, we conclude by studying multi-collinear limits of graviton amplitudes in the leading approximation of sequential double-collinear limits, again finding a consistency check against the leading order OPE of celestial gravitons.

### Scattering Amplitudes and Soft Theorems in Multi-Flavor Galileon Theories

In this paper, we initiate the study of multi-flavor Galileon theories using the methods of scattering amplitudes. We explore this topic from different perspectives and extend the techniques employed so far mainly in the single-flavor case. This includes soft theorems, generalized soft theorems with non-trivial right-hand side, Galileon dualities, soft bootstrap and bonus relations. We demonstrate new properties on two examples, the multi-flavor U(N) Galileon and the three-flavor U(2)/U(1) Galileon.

### Range of novel black hole phase transitions via massive gravity: Triple points and N-fold reentrant phase transitions

Massive gravities in anti-de Sitter spacetime can be viewed as effective dual field theories of different phases of condensed matter systems with broken translational symmetry such as solids, (perfect) fluids, and liquid crystals. Motivated by this fact, we explore the black hole chemistry (BHC) of these theories and find a new range of novel phase transitions close to realistic ones in ordinary physical systems. We find that the equation of state of topological black holes (TBHs) at their inflection point(s) in $d$-dimensional spacetime reduces to a polynomial equation of degree $(d-4)$, which yields up to $n=(d-4)$ critical points. As a result, for (neutral) TBHs, we observe triple-point phenomena with the associated first-order phase transitions (in $d \ge 7$), and a new phenomenon we call an $N$-fold reentrant phase transition, in which several ($N$) regions of thermodynamic phase space exhibit distinct reentrant phase transitions, with associated virtual triple points and zeroth-order phase transitions (in $d \ge 8$), as well as Van der Waals transitions (in $d \ge 5$) and reentrant (in $d \ge 6$) behavior. We conclude that BHC in higher-dimensional massive gravity is very likely to offer further new surprises.

### Aspects of Holography of Taub-NUT-AdS4

In this paper we consider aspects of the holographic interpretation of Taub-NUT-AdS$_4$. We review our earlier results which show that TNAdS$_4$ gives rise to a holographic three-dimensional conformal fluid having constant vorticity. We then study the holographic relevance of the Misner string by considering bulk scalar fluctuations. The scalar fluctuations organize naturally into representations of the $SU(2)\times \mathbb{R}$ isometry algebra. If we require the string's invisibility we obtain a Dirac-like quantization relating the frequency of the scalar field modes to the NUT charge. As the latter quantity determines the total vorticity flux of the boundary fluid, we argue that such an assumption allows for a holographic interpretation of TNAdS$_4$ as a {\it non-dissipative} superfluid whose excitations are quantized vortices. Alternatively, if we regard the Misner string as a physical object, as has recently been advocated for thermodynamically, the aforementioned quantization conditions are removed, and we find that TNAdS$_4$ corresponds to a holographic fluid whose dissipative properties are probed as usual by the complex quasinormal modes of the bulk fluctuations. We show that such quasinormal modes are, perhaps surprisingly, organized into infinite-dimensional non-unitary representations of the isometry algebra.

### Effective actions for dual massive (super) p-forms

In $d$ dimensions, the model for a massless $p$-form in curved space is known to be a reducible gauge theory for $p>1$, and therefore its covariant quantisation cannot be carried out using the standard Faddeev-Popov scheme. However, adding a mass term and also introducing a Stueckelberg reformulation of the resulting $p$-form model, one ends up with an irreducible gauge theory which can be quantised \`a la Faddeev and Popov. We derive a compact expression for the massive $p$-form effective action, $\Gamma^{(m)}_p$, in terms of the functional determinants of Hodge-de Rham operators. We then show that the effective actions $\Gamma^{(m)}_p$ and $\Gamma^{(m)}_{d-p-1}$ differ by a topological invariant. This is a generalisation of the known result in the massless case that the effective actions $\Gamma_p$ and $\Gamma_{d-p-2}$ coincide modulo a topological term. Finally, our analysis is extended to the case of massive super $p$-forms coupled to background ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity in four dimensions. Specifically, we study the quantum dynamics of the following massive super $p$-forms: (i) vector multiplet; (ii) tensor multiplet; and (iii) three-form multiplet. It is demonstrated that the effective actions of the massive vector and tensor multiplets coincide. The effective action of the massive three-form is shown to be a sum of those corresponding to two massive scalar multiplets, modulo a topological term.

### (Mis-)Matching Type-B Anomalies on the Higgs Branch

Building on "Type-B Anomaly Matching and the 6D (2,0) Theory", we uncover new properties of type-B conformal anomalies for Coulomb-branch operators in continuous families of 4D $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs. We study a large class of such anomalies on the Higgs branch, where conformal symmetry is spontaneously broken, and compare them with their counterpart in the CFT phase. In Lagrangian theories, the non-perturbative matching of the anomalies can be determined with a weak coupling Feynman diagram computation involving massive multi-loop banana integrals. We extract the part corresponding to the anomalies of interest. Our calculations support the general conjecture that the Coulomb-branch type-B conformal anomalies always match on the Higgs branch when the IR Coulomb-branch chiral ring is empty. In the opposite case, there are anomalies that do not match. An intriguing implication of the mismatch is the existence of a second covariantly constant metric on the conformal manifold (other than the Zamolodchikov metric), which imposes previously unknown restrictions on its holonomy group.

### Cosmic String Interpretation of NANOGrav Pulsar Timing Data

Pulsar timing data used to provide upper limits on a possible stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB). However, the NANOGrav Collaboration has recently reported strong evidence for a stochastic common-spectrum process, which we interpret as a SGWB in the framework of cosmic strings. The possible NANOGrav signal would correspond to a string tension $G\mu \in (4 \times 10^{-11}, 10^{-10})$ at the 68% confidence level, with a different frequency dependence from supermassive black hole mergers. The SGWB produced by cosmic strings with such values of $G\mu$ would be beyond the reach of LIGO, but could be measured by other planned and proposed detectors such as SKA, LISA, TianQin, AION-1km, AEDGE, Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer.

### Baryogenesis from the weak scale to the GUT scale

We review the current status of baryogenesis with emphasis on electroweak baryogenesis and leptogenesis. The first detailed studies were carried out for SU(5) GUT models where CP-violating decays of leptoquarks generate a baryon asymmetry. These GUT models were excluded by the discovery of B+L violating sphaleron processes at high temperatures. Yet a new possibility emerged, electroweak baryogenesis. Here sphaleron processes generate a baryon asymmetry during a strongly first-order phase transition. This mechanism has been studied in many extensions of the Standard Model. However, constraints from the LHC and from low-energy precision experiments exclude most of the known models, leaving composite Higgs models of electroweak symmetry breaking as an interesting possibility. Sphaleron processes are also the basis of leptogenesis, where CP-violating decays of heavy right-handed neutrinos generate a lepton asymmetry which is partially converted to a baryon asymmetry. This mechanism is closely related to the one of GUT baryogenesis, and simple estimates based on GUT models can explain the order of magnitude of the observed baryon-to-photon ratio. In the one-flavour approximation an upper bound on the light neutrino masses has been derived which is consistent with the cosmological upper bound on the sum of neutrino masses. For quasi-degenerate right-handed neutrinos the leptogenesis temperature can be lowered from the GUT scale down to the weak scale, and CP-violating oscillations of GeV sterile neutinos can also lead to successfull leptogenesis. Significant progress has been made in developing a full field theoretical description of thermal leptogenesis, which demonstrated that interactions with gauge bosons of the thermal plasma play a crucial role. Finally, we discuss recent ideas how the seesaw mechanism and B-L breaking at the GUT scale can be probed by gravitational waves.

### Spin networks and the cosmological constant in the AdS/CFT correspondence

We propose a generalization of the recently proposed holographic duality between spin networks and superstrings, and show that it can provide a possible solution to the cosmological constant problem.

### Light-Front Field Theory on Current Quantum Computers

We present a quantum algorithm for simulation of quantum field theory in the light-front formulation and demonstrate how existing quantum devices can be used to study the structure of bound states in relativistic nuclear physics. Specifically, we apply the Variational Quantum Eigensolver algorithm to find the ground state of the light-front Hamiltonian obtained within the Basis Light-Front Quantization framework. As a demonstration, we calculate the mass, mass radius, decay constant, electromagnetic form factor, and charge radius of the pion on the IBMQ Vigo chip. We consider two implementations based on different encodings of physical states, and propose a development that may lead to quantum advantage. This is the first time that the light-front approach to quantum field theory has been used to enable simulation of a real physical system on a quantum computer.

### Nutty Kaluza-Klein dyons revisited

We extend the previous analysis of (locally) asymptotically flat solutions of Kaluza-Klein (KK) theory by assuming that the dilaton charge is an independent parameter. This corresponds to a general nondegenerate matrix of charges within the geodesic sigma model approach and comes into contact with singular solutions of the four-dimensional Einstein-scalar theory. New features of the degenerate class of solutions, which includes regular KK black holes, are also revealed. Solving the constraint equation, we find three distinct branches of the dilaton charge as a function of the other asymptotic charges, one of which contains the previously known solutions, and the other two, related by electric/magnetic duality, are new and singular. We also investigate whether a super-extreme non-rotating solution in the presence of a Newman-Unti-Tamburino (NUT) charge can become a wormhole, as is the case in Einstein-Maxwell theory. It is shown that the dilaton prevents this possibility, while non-traversable five-dimensional vacuum gravitational wormholes can exist. Finally, we analyze the geodesic structure within the chronosphere around the Misner string of Nutty KK dyons, showing that there are no closed timelike geodesics.

### Scattering of axial gravitational wave pulses by monopole black holes and QNMs

We study scattering of short Gaussian pulses of axial gravitational waves by a black hole that has swallowed one or more global monopoles. We show how the response of the black hole to the impinging pulses depends both on the number of monopoles the black hole has swallowed and on the symmetry breaking scale of the model which gave rise to the monopoles. We determine the corresponding quasinormal modes that get excited by the impinging pulses and that get imprinted in the black hole's response to the pulses. These modes are also expected to show up in various other dynamical processes such as the ringdown phase of a binary black hole merger in case at least one of the companion black holes of the binary has swallowed one or more global monopoles.

### Fluid pulsation modes from strange stars in a higher-dimensional space-time

In this work, we make the first step to derive non-radial pulsation equations in extra dimensions and investigate how the $f$- and $p_1$-mode frequencies of strange quark stars, within the Cowling approximation, change with the number of dimensions. In this regard, the study is performed by solving numerically the non-radial pulsation equations, adjusted for a $d$-dimensional space-time $(d\geq4)$. We connect the interior to a Schwarzschild-Tangherlini exterior metric and analyze the $f$- and $p_1$- mode frequencies. We found that the frequencies could become higher than those found in four-dimensional space-time. The $f$-mode frequency is essentially constant and only for large gravitational radius values grows monotonically and fast with the gravitational radius. In a gravitational radius range, where $f$-mode frequencies are constant, they increase for space-time dimensions $4\leq d\leq6$ and decrease for $d\geq7$. Regarding $p_1$-mode frequencies they are always larger for higher dimensions and decay monotonically with the increase of the gravitational radius. In extra dimensions, as it happens for four-dimensional space-time, we found $p_1$-mode frequencies are always larger than the $f$-modes ones. In the Newtonian gravity, for a homogeneous star in $d$ dimensions, we observe that the $f$-mode eigenfrequencies are constant and given by the relation $\omega^2=l\, M\, G_d/R^{d-1}$; where $l$ represents the spherical harmonic index, $M\,G_d$ being the total star mass and $R$ the stellar radius.

### Path integral of neutrino oscillations

We propose an idea of the constrained Feynman amplitude for the scattering of the charged lepton and the virtual W-boson, $l_{\beta} + W_{\rho} \rightarrow l_{\alpha} + W_{\lambda}$, from which the conventional Pontecorvo oscillation formula of relativistic neutrinos is readily obtained using plane waves for all the particles involved. In a path integral picture, the neutrino propagates forward in time between the production and detection vertices, which are constrained respectively on the 3-dimensional spacelike hypersurfaces separated by a macroscopic positive time $\tau$. The covariant Feynman amplitude is formally recovered if one sums over all possible values of $\tau$ (including negative $\tau$).

### On the Sign of Fermion-Mediated Interactions

We develop a unified framework for understanding the sign of fermion-mediated interactions by exploiting the symmetry classification of Green's functions. In particular, we establish a theorem regarding the sign of fermion-mediated interactions in systems with chiral symmetry. The strength of the theorem is demonstrated within multiple examples with an emphasis on electron-mediated interactions in materials.

### Yang-Baxter R-operators for osp superalgebras

We study Yang-Baxter equations with orthosymplectic supersymmetry. We extend a new approach of the construction of the spinor and metaplectic $\hat{\cal R}$-operators with orthogonal and symplectic symmetries to the supersymmetric case of orthosymplectic symmetry. In this approach the orthosymplectic $\hat{\cal R}$-operator is given by the ratio of two operator valued Euler Gamma-functions. We illustrate this approach by calculating such $\hat{\cal R}$ operators in explicit form for special cases of the $osp(n|2m)$ algebra, in particular for a few low-rank cases. We also propose a novel, simpler and more elegant, derivation of the Shankar-Witten type formula for the $osp$ invariant $\hat{\cal R}$-operator and demonstrate the equivalence of the previous approach to the new one in the general case of the $\hat{\cal R}$-operator invariant under the action of the $osp(n|2m)$ algebra.

### A covariant approach to thermodynamic structure of a generic null surface: old wine in a new bottle

We readdress the thermodynamic structure of geometrical relations on a generic null surface. Among three potential candidates, originated from different components of $R_{ab}$ along the null vectors for the surface (i.e. $R_{ab}q^a_cl^b$, $R_{ab}l^al^b$ and $R_{ab}l^ak^b$ where $q_{ab}$ is the projector on the null surface and $l^a$, $k^a$ are null normal and corresponding auxiliary vector of it, respectively), the first one leads to Navier-Stokes like equation. Here we devote our investigation on the other two members. We find that $R_{ab}l^al^b$, which yields the evolution equation for expansion parameter corresponding to $l^a$ along itself, can be interpreted as a thermodynamic relation when integrated on the two dimensional transverse subspace of the null hypersurface along with a virtual displacement in the direction of $l^a$. Moreover for a stationary background the integrated version of it yields the general form of Smarr formula. Although this is more or less known in literature, but a similar argument for the evolution equation of the expansion parameter corresponding to $k^a$ along $l^a$, provided by $R_{ab}l^ak^b$, leads to a more convenient form of thermodynamic relation. In this analysis, contrary to earlier approaches, the identified thermodynamic entities come out to be in covariant forms and also are foliation independent. Hence these can be applied to any coordinate system adapted to the null hypersurface. Moreover, these results are not restricted to any specific parametrisation of $k^a$ and also $k^a$ need not be hypersurface orthogonal. In addition, here any particular dynamical equation for metric is not being explicitly used and therefore we feel that our results are solely based on the properties of the null surface.

### Strong gravity effects of charged Q-clouds and inflating black holes

In this paper, we re-examine charged Q-clouds around spherically symmetric, static black holes. In particular, we demonstrate that for fixed coupling constants two different branches of charged scalar clouds exist around Schwarzschild black holes. This had not been noticed previously. We find that the new solutions possess a "hard wall" at maximal possible gauge coupling. This wall separates the interior (containing the black hole horizon), in which the scalar field is trapped in the "false vacuum", from the "true vacuum" exterior. When taking back-reaction onto the space-time into account, we find that at maximal possible back reaction, the black hole solutions corresponding to these two branches either become extremal black holes with diverging scalar field derivative on the horizon or inflating black holes with a second, "cosmological" horizon which - outside this second horizon - correspond to extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes.

### Geometrical observational bounds on a fractal horizon holographic dark energy

A novel fractal structure for the cosmological horizon, inspired by COVID-19 geometry, which results in a modified area entropy, is applied to cosmology in order to serve dark energy. The constraints based on a complete set of observational data are derived. There is a strong Bayesian evidence in favor of such a dark energy in comparison to a standard $\Lambda$CDM model and that this energy cannot be reduced to a cosmological constant. Besides, there is a shift towards smaller values of baryon density parameter and towards larger values of the Hubble parameter, which reduces the Hubble tension.