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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 415 records · Page 23

Forbidden scalar dark matter and dark Higgses

As experimental searches for WIMP dark matter continue to yield null results, models beyond the WIMP paradigm have proliferated in order to elude ever improving observational constraints, among them that of sub-GeV dark matter mediated by a massive vector portal (a dark photon) associated with a new dark U(1) gauge symmetry. It has been previously noted that for a significant range of the parameter space of this class of models, the annihilation of dark matter particles into a pair of dark photons can dominate the freeze-out process even when this process is kinematically forbidden for dark matter at rest — this is known as the “forbidden dark matter” (FDM) regime. Prior studies of this regime, however, assume that any “dark Higgs” associated with breaking the dark U(1) and imparting mass to the dark photon is decoupled from the dark matter and as such plays no role in the freeze-out process. In this paper, we explore the effects of a dark Higgs on sub-GeV dark matter phenomenology in this FDM regime by considering the simplest possible construction in which there exist non-trivial dark matter-dark Higgs couplings: a model with a single complex scalar DM candidate coupled directly to the dark Higgs field. We find that for a wide range of parameter space, the dark Higgs can alter the resulting relic abundance by many orders of magnitude, and that this effect can remain significant even for a small dark matter-dark Higgs coupling constant. Considering measurements from direct detection and measurements of the CMB, we further find that points in this model’s parameter space which recreate the appropriate dark matter relic abundance suffer only mild constraints from other sources at present, but may become accessible in near-future direct detection experiments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Supercurrents and (partial) supersymmetry in adjoint QCD 2 and its generalizations

1 + 1-dimensional SU(N) gauge theory coupled to an adjoint Majorana fermion, also known as adjoint QCD 2 , has the surprising feature that at fermion mass $\sqrt{\frac{g^2N}{2\pi }}$ it exhibits supersymmetry. In this paper, we obtain a deeper insight into how the supersymmetry works by constructing the gauge invariant, Lorentz covariant supercurrent j μA . Its conservation relies crucially on the presence of a quantum anomaly. We generalize this construction to a class of models where, in addition to an adjoint Majorana fermion of an appropriate mass, the gauge theory is coupled to some collection of massless fermions (SU(N) may be replaced by a more general gauge group). In general, these models have a supersymmetric massive sector and a non-supersymmetric CFT sector [1], but there are cases in which both sectors are supersymmetric. An example of such a gapless, fully supersymmetric model is SU(N) gauge theory coupled to three adjoint Majorana fermions, of which two are massless and the third has mass $\sqrt{\frac{3{g}^2N}{2\pi }}$.

anomalies in field and string theories↗

Distributions in CFT. Part I. Cross-ratio space

We show that the four-point functions in conformal field theory are defined as distributions on the boundary of the region of convergence of the conformal block expansion. The conformal block expansion converges in the sense of distributions on this boundary, i.e. it can be integrated term by term against appropriate test functions. This can be interpreted as a giving a new class of functionals that satisfy the swapping property when applied to the crossing equation, and we comment on the relation of our construction to other types of functionals. Our language is useful in all considerations involving the boundary of the region of convergence, e.g. for deriving the dispersion relations. We establish our results by elementary methods, relying only on crossing symmetry and the standard convergence properties of the conformal block expansion. This is the first in a series of papers on distributional properties of correlation functions in conformal field theory.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Nonperturbative dynamics of (2+1)d φ 4 -theory from Hamiltonian truncation

We use Lightcone Conformal Truncation (LCT) - a version of Hamiltonian truncation - to study the nonperturbative, real-time dynamics of φ 4 -theory in 2+1 dimensions. This theory has UV divergences that need to be regulated. We review how, in a Hamiltonian framework with a total energy cutoff, renormalization is necessarily state-dependent, and UV sensitivity cannot be canceled with standard local operator counter-terms. To overcome this problem, we present a prescription for constructing the appropriate state-dependent counterterms for (2+1)d φ 4 -theory in lightcone quantization. We then use LCT with this counterterm prescription to study φ 4 -theory, focusing on the $\mathbb{Z}$ 2 symmetry-preserving phase. Specifically, we compute the spectrum as a function of the coupling and demonstrate the closing of the mass gap at a (scheme-dependent) critical coupling. We also compute Lorentz-invariant two-point functions, both at generic strong coupling and near the critical point, where we demonstrate IR universality and the vanishing of the trace of the stress tensor.

field theories in lower dimensions↗

Determining the leading-order contact term in neutrinoless double β decay

We present a method to determine the leading-order (LO) contact term contributing to the nn → ppe - e - amplitude through the exchange of light Majorana neutrinos. Our approach is based on the representation of the amplitude as the momentum integral of a known kernel (proportional to the neutrino propagator) times the generalized forward Compton scattering amplitude n ( p 1 ) n ( p 2 ) W + ( k ) → \( p\left({p}_1^{\prime}\right)p\left({p}_2^{\prime}\right){W}^{-}(k) \) , in analogy to the Cottingham formula for the electromagnetic contribution to hadron masses. We construct model-independent representations of the integrand in the low- and high-momentum regions, through chiral EFT and the operator product expansion, respectively. We then construct a model for the full amplitude by interpolating between these two regions, using appropriate nucleon factors for the weak currents and information on nucleon-nucleon ( NN ) scattering in the 1 S 0 channel away from threshold. By matching the amplitude obtained in this way to the LO chiral EFT amplitude we obtain the relevant LO contact term and discuss various sources of uncertainty. We validate the approach by computing the analog I = 2 NN contact term and by reproducing, within uncertainties, the charge-independence-breaking contribution to the 1 S 0 NN scattering lengths. While our analysis is performed in the \( \overline{\mathrm{MS}} \) scheme, we express our final result in terms of the scheme-independent renormalized amplitude \( {\mathcal{A}}_{\nu}\left(\left|\mathbf{p}\right|,\left|\mathbf{p}^{\prime}\right|\right) \) at a set of kinematic points near threshold. We illustrate for two cutoff schemes how, using our synthetic data for \( {\mathcal{A}}_{\nu } \) , one can determine the contact-term contribution in any regularization scheme, in particular the ones employed in nuclear-structure calculations for isotopes of experimental interest.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Scaling and adiabaticity in a rapidly expanding gluon plasma

In this work we aim to gain qualitative insight on the far-from-equilibrium behavior of the gluon plasma produced in the early stages of a heavy-ion collision. It was recently discovered [1] that the distribution functions of quarks and gluons in QCD effective kinetic theory (EKT) exhibit self-similar “scaling” evolution with time-dependent scaling exponents long before those exponents reach their pre-hydrodynamic fixed-point values. In this work we shed light on the origin of this time-dependent scaling phenomenon in the small-angle approximation to the Boltzmann equation. We first solve the Boltzmann equation numerically and find that time-dependent scaling is a feature of this kinetic theory, and that it captures key qualitative features of the scaling of hard gluons in QCD EKT. We then proceed to study scaling analytically and semi-analytically in this equation. We find that an appropriate momentum rescaling allows the scaling distribution to be identified as the instantaneous ground state of the operator describing the evolution of the distribution function, and the approach to the scaling function is described by the decay of the excited states. That is to say, there is a frame in which the system evolves adiabatically. Furthermore, from the conditions for adiabaticity we can derive evolution equations for the time-dependent scaling exponents. In addition to the known free-streaming and BMSS fixed points, we identify a new “dilute” fixed point when the number density becomes small before hydrodynamization. Corrections to the fixed point exponents in the small-angle approximation agree quantitatively with those found previously in QCD EKT and arise from the evolution of the ratio between hard and soft scales.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Coherent γ *-nucleus scattering and coherent nuclear states

In the context of a McLerran-Venugopalan (MV) model for a large nucleus, coherent scattering of a virtual photon on that nucleus is evaluated in the A − = 0 gauge, the gauge appropriate for the target nucleus. The evaluation of the scattering in A − = 0 gauge is very intricate compared to the usual A + = 0 gauge evaluation natural for the scattering process, but has the advantage of directly giving the scattering in terms of a partonic description of the nucleus. In the limit where a tagged forward jet puts the dipole-nucleus scattering in the saturation regime the coherent reactions are equal to the inelastic reactions. In terms of the nuclear wave function the coherent reactions come from color singlet and zero total transverse momentum quark-antiquark pairs in the wave function and in the saturation regime the nuclear wave function is a coherent state for these pairs. In the saturation region half of all quarks (or antiquarks) come from zero momentum and color charge pairs.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Universal fine grained asymptotics of free and weakly coupled quantum field theory

We give a rigorous proof that in any free quantum field theory with a finite group global symmetry G, on a compact spatial manifold, at sufficiently high energy, the density of states ρ α (E) for each irreducible representation α of G obeys a universal formula as conjectured by Harlow and Ooguri. We further prove that this continues to hold in a weakly coupled quantum field theory, given an appropriate scaling of the coupling with temperature. This generalizes similar results that were previously obtained in (1 + 1)-D to higher spacetime dimension. We discuss the role of averaging in the density of states, and we compare and contrast with the case of continuous group G, where we prove a universal, albeit different, behavior.

Discrete Symmetries↗

Improving the five-point bootstrap

We present a new algorithm for the numerical evaluation of five-point conformal blocks in d-dimensions, greatly improving the efficiency of their computation. To do this we use an appropriate ansatz for the blocks as a series expansion in radial coordinates, derive a set of recursion relations for the unknown coefficients in the ansatz, and evaluate the series using a Padé approximant to accelerate its convergence. We then study the 〈σσϵσσ〉 correlator in the 3d critical Ising model by truncating the operator product expansion (OPE) and only including operators with conformal dimension below a cutoff ∆ ⩽ ∆cutoff. We approximate the contributions of the operators above the cutoff by the corresponding contributions in a suitable disconnected five-point correlator. Using this approach, we compute a number of OPE coefficients with greater accuracy than previous methods.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Axion domain walls, small instantons, and non-invertible symmetry breaking

Non-invertible global symmetry often predicts degeneracy in axion potentials and carries important information about the global form of the gauge group. When these symmetries are spontaneously broken they can lead to the formation of stable axion domain wall networks which support topological degrees of freedom on their worldvolume. Such non-invertible symmetries can be broken by embedding into appropriate larger UV gauge groups where small instanton contributions lift the vacuum degeneracy, and provide a possible solution to the domain wall problem. We explain these ideas in simple illustrative examples and then apply them to the Standard Model, whose gauge algebra and matter content are consistent with several possible global structures. Each possible global structure leads to different selection rules on the axion couplings, and various UV completions of the Standard Model lead to more specific relations. As a proof of principle, we also present an example of a UV embedding of the Standard Model which can solve the axion domain wall problem. The formation and annihilation of the long-lived axion domain walls can lead to observables, such as gravitational wave signals. Observing such signals, in combination with the axion coupling measurements, can provide valuable insight into the global structure of the Standard Model, as well as its UV completion.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Massive spinning bosons on the celestial sphere

A natural extension of the Pasterski-Shao-Strominger (PSS) prescription is described, enabling the map of Minkowski space amplitudes with massive spinning external legs to the celestial sphere to be performed. An integral representation for the conformal primary wave function (CPW) of massive spinning bosons on the celestial sphere is derived explicitly for spin-one and -two. By analogy with the spin-zero case, the spinning bulk-to-boundary propagator on Euclidean AdS is employed to extend the massive CPW integral representation to arbitrary integer spin, and to describe the appropriate inverse transform of massive spinning CPWs back to the plane wave basis in Minkowski space. Subsequently, a massive spin-s momentum operator representation on the celestial sphere is determined, and used in conjunction with known Lorentz generators to derive Poincaré symmetry constraints on generic massive spinning two-, three- and four-point celestial amplitude structures. Finally, as a consistency check, three-point Minkowski space amplitudes of two massless scalars and a spin-one or -two massive boson are explicitly mapped to the celestial sphere, and the resulting three-point function coefficients are confirmed to be in exact agreement with the results obtained from Poincaré symmetry constraints.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Seeing behind black hole horizons in SYK

We present an explicit reconstruction of the interior of an AdS2 black hole in Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity, that is entirely formulated in the dual SYK model and makes no direct reference to the gravitational bulk. We do this by introducing a probe “observer” in the right wormhole exterior and using the prescription of [arXiv:2009.04476] to transport SYK operators along the probe’s infalling worldline and into the black hole interior, using an appropriate SYK modular Hamiltonian. Our SYK computation recovers the precise proper time at which signals sent from the left boundary are registered by our observer’s apparatus inside the wormhole. The success of the computation relies on the universal properties of SYK and we outline a promising avenue for extending it to higher dimensions and applying it to the computation of scattering amplitudes behind the horizon.

2D Gravity↗

Opportunistic CP violation

In the electroweak sector of the Standard Model, CP violation arises through a very particular interplay between the three quark generations, as described by the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) mechanism and the single Jarlskog invariant J 4 . Once generalized to the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT), this peculiar pattern gets modified by higher-dimensional operators, whose associated Wilson coefficients are usually split into CP-even and odd parts. However, CP violation at dimension four, i.e., at the lowest order in the EFT expansion, blurs this distinction: any Wilson coefficient can interfere with J 4 and mediate CP violation. In this paper, we study such interferences at first order in the SMEFT expansion, $\mathcal{O}(1/Λ^2)$, and we capture their associated parameter space via a set of 1551 linear CP-odd flavor invariants. This construction describes both new, genuinely CP-violating quantities as well as the interference between J 4 and CP-conserving ones. We call this latter possibility opportunistic CP violation. Relying on an appropriate extension of the matrix rank to Taylor expansions, which we dub Taylor rank, we define a procedure to organize the invariants in terms of their magnitude, so as to retain only the relevant ones at a given precision. We explore how this characterization changes when different assumptions are made on the flavor structure of the SMEFT coefficients. Interestingly, some of the CP-odd invariants turn out to be less suppressed than J 4 , even when they capture opportunistic CPV, demonstrating that CP-violation in the SM, at dimension 4, is accidentally small.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Modular flow in JT gravity and entanglement wedge reconstruction

It has been shown in recent works that JT gravity with matter with two boundaries has a type II ∞ algebra on each side. As the bulk spacetime between the two boundaries fluctuates in quantum nature, we can only define the entanglement wedge for each side in a pure algebraic sense. As we take the semiclassical limit, we will have a fixed long wormhole spacetime for a generic partially entangled thermal state (PETS), which is prepared by inserting heavy operators on the Euclidean path integral. Under this limit, with appropriate assumptions of the matter theory, geometric notions of the causal wedge and entanglement wedge emerge in this background. In particular, the causal wedge is manifestly nested in the entanglement wedge. Different PETS are orthogonal to each other, and thus the Hilbert space has a direct sum structure over sub-Hilbert spaces labeled by different Euclidean geometries. The full algebra for both sides is decomposed accordingly. From the algebra viewpoint, the causal wedge is dual to an emergent type III 1 subalgebra, which is generated by boundary light operators. To reconstruct the entanglement wedge, we consider the modular flow in a generic PETS for each boundary. We show that the modular flow acts locally and is the boost transformation around the global RT surface in the semiclassical limit. It follows that we can extend the causal wedge algebra to a larger type III 1 algebra corresponding to the entanglement wedge. Within each sub-Hilbert space, the original type II ∞ reduces to type III 1 .

2D Gravity↗

Small instanton-induced flavor invariants and the axion potential

Small instantons which increase the axion mass due to an appropriate modification of QCD at a UV scale ΛSI, can also enhance the effect of CP-violating operators to shift the axion potential minimum by an amount, θ ind, proportional to the flavorful couplings in the SMEFT. Since physical observables must be flavor basis independent, we construct a basis of determinant-like flavor invariants that arise from instanton calculations containing the effects of dimension-six CP-odd operators at the scale Λ CP . This new basis provides a more reliable estimate of the shift θ ind, that is severely constrained by neutron electric dipole moment experiments. In particular, for the case of four-quark, semi-leptonic and gluon dipole operators, these invariants are then used to provide improved limits on the ratio of scales Λ SI /Λ CP for different flavor scenarios. The CP-odd flavor invariants also provide a classification of the leading effects from Wilson coefficients, and as an example, we show that a semi-leptonic four-fermion operator is subdominant compared to the four-quark operators. More generally, the flavor invariants, together with an instanton NDA, can be used to more accurately estimate small instanton effects in the axion potential that arise from any SMEFT operator.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Crossing symmetry, transcendentality and the Regge behaviour of 1d CFTs

We develop the technology for Polyakov-Mellin (PM) bootstrap in one- dimensional conformal field theories (CFT 1 ). By adding appropriate contact terms, we bootstrap various effective field theories in AdS 2 and analytically compute the CFT data to one loop. The computation can be extended to higher orders in perturbation theory, if we ignore mixing, for any external dimension. We develop PM bootstrap for O(N) theories and derive the necessary contact terms for such theories (which also involves a new higher gradient contact term absent for N = 1). We perform cross-checks which include considering the diagonal limit of the 2d Ising model in terms of the 1d PM blocks. As an independent check of the validity of the results obtained with PM bootstrap, we propose a suitable basis of transcendental functions, which allows to fix the four-point correlators of identical scalar primaries completely, up to a finite number of ambiguities related to the number of contact terms in the PM basis. We perform this analysis both at tree level (with and without exchanges) and at one loop. We also derive expressions for the corresponding CFT data in terms of harmonic sums. Finally, we consider the Regge limit of one-dimensional correlators and derive a precise connection between the latter and the large-twist limit of CFT data. Exploiting this result, we study the crossing equation in the three OPE limits and derive some universal constraints for the large-twist limit of CFT data in Regge-bounded theories with a finite number of exchanges.

1/N expansion↗

Quark and gluon helicity evolution at small x: revised and updated

We revisit the problem of small Bjorken-x evolution of the gluon and flavor-singlet quark helicity distributions in the shock wave (s-channel) formalism. Earlier works on the subject in the same framework resulted in an evolution equation for the gluon field-strength F 12 and quark “axial current” $\overline{\psi}\gamma$ + γ 5 ψ operators (sandwiched between the appropriate light-cone Wilson lines) in the double-logarithmic approximation (summing powers of α s ln 2 (1/x) with α s the strong coupling constant). In this work, we observe that an important mixing of the above operators with another gluon operator, ${}_D{}^{\leftarrow i} {}_D{}^{i}$, also sandwiched between the light-cone Wilson lines (with the repeated transverse index i = 1, 2 summed over), was missing in the previous works. This operator has the physical meaning of the sub-eikonal (covariant) phase: its contribution to helicity evolution is shown to be proportional to another sub-eikonal operator, ${}_D{}^{i} {}_D{}^{\leftarrow i}$, which is related to the Jaffe-Manohar polarized gluon distribution. In this work we include this new operator into small-x helicity evolution, and construct novel evolution equations mixing all three operators (${}_D{}^{i} {}_D{}^{\leftarrow i}$, F 12 , and $\overline{\psi}\gamma$ + γ 5 ψ), generalizing the results of . We also construct closed double-logarithmic evolution equations in the large-N c and large-N c &N f limits, with N c and N f the numbers of quark colors and flavors, respectively. Solving the large-N c equations numerically we obtain the following small-x asymptotics of the quark and gluon helicity distributions ΔΣ and ΔG, along with the g 1 structure function, $$ \Delta \Sigma \left(x,{Q}^2\right)\sim \Delta G\left(x,{Q}^2\right)\sim {g}_1\left(x,{Q}^2\right)\sim {\left(\frac{1}{x}\right)}^{3.66\sqrt{\frac{\alpha_s{N}_c}{2\pi }}} $$ in complete agreement with the earlier work by Bartels, Ermolaev and Ryskin.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Vector boson pair production at one loop: analytic results for the process $q\bar{q}$$ℓ\bar{ℓ}$$ℓ'\bar{ℓ}'g$

We present compact analytic results for the one-loop amplitude for the process 0 → $q\bar{q}$$ℓ\bar{ℓ}$$ℓ'\bar{ℓ}'g$, relevant for both the production of a pair of Z and W-bosons in association with a jet. We focus on the gauge-invariant contribution mediated by a loop of quarks. We explicitly include all effects of the loop-quark mass m, appropriate for the production of a pair of Z-bosons. In the limit m → 0, our results are also applicable to the production of W-boson pairs, mediated by a loop of massless quarks. Implemented in a numerical code, the results are fast. The calculation uses novel advancements in spinor-helicity simplification techniques, for the first time applied beyond five-point massless kinematics. We make use of primary decompositions from algebraic-geometry, which now involve non-radical ideals, and p-adic numbers from number theory. We show how to infer whether numerator polynomials belong to symbolic powers of non-radical ideals through numerical evaluations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗