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Figueroa, D. G., Pieroni, M., Ricciardone, A., & Simakachorn, P. (2024). Cosmological Background Interpretation of Pulsar Timing Array Data. Phys. Rev. Lett., 132(17), 171002–9pp.
Abstract: We discuss the interpretation of the detected signal by pulsar timing array (PTA) observations as a gravitational wave background of cosmological origin. We combine NANOGrav 15-years and EPTADR2new datasets and confront them against backgrounds from supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs), and cosmological signals from inflation, cosmic (super)strings, first-order phase transitions, Gaussian and non-Gaussian large scalar fluctuations, and audible axions. We find that scalar-induced, and to a lesser extent audible axion and cosmic superstring signals, provide a better fit than SMBHBs. These results depend, however, on modeling assumptions, so further data and analysis are needed to reach robust conclusions. Independently of the signal origin, the data strongly constrain the parameter space of cosmological signals, for example, setting an upper bound on primordial non-Gaussianity at PTA scales as jfraj less than or similar to 2.34 at 95% C.L.
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Bas i Beneito, A., Gargalionis, J., Herrero-Garcia, J., Santamaria, A., & Schmidt, M. A. (2024). An EFT approach to baryon number violation: lower limits on the new physics scale and correlations between nucleon decay modes. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 004–37pp.
Abstract: Baryon number is an accidental symmetry of the Standard Model at the Lagrangian level. Its violation is arguably one of the most compelling phenomena predicted by physics beyond the Standard Model. Furthermore, there is a large experimental effort to search for it including the Hyper-K, DUNE, JUNO, and THEIA experiments. Therefore, an agnostic, model-independent, analysis of baryon number violation using the power of Effective Field Theory is very timely. In particular, in this work we study the contribution of dimension six and seven effective operators to |triangle(B – L)| = 0, 2 nucleon decays taking into account the effects of Renormalisation Group Evolution. We obtain lower limits on the energy scale of each operator and study the correlations between different decay modes. We find that for some operators the effect of running is very significant.
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Agius, D., Essig, R., Gaggero, D., Scarcella, F., Suczewski, G., & Valli, M. (2024). Feedback in the dark: a critical examination of CMB bounds on primordial black holes. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 07(7), 003–36pp.
Abstract: If present in the early universe, primordial black holes (PBHs) would have accreted matter and emitted high-energy photons, altering the statistical properties of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This mechanism has been used to constrain the fraction of dark matter that is in the form of PBHs to be much smaller than unity for PBH masses well above one solar mass. Moreover, the presence of dense dark matter mini -halos around the PBHs has been used to set even more stringent constraints, as these would boost the accretion rates. In this work, we critically revisit CMB constraints on PBHs taking into account the role of the local ionization of the gas around them. We discuss how the local increase in temperature around PBHs can prevent the dark matter mini -halos from strongly enhancing the accretion process, in some cases significantly weakening previously derived CMB constraints. We explore in detail the key ingredients of the CMB bound and derive a conservative limit on the cosmological abundance of massive PBHs.
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Ardu, M., Davidson, S., & Lavignac, S. (2024). Constraining new physics models from μ → e observables in bottom-up EFT. Eur. Phys. J. C, 84(5), 458–36pp.
Abstract: Upcoming experiments will improve the sensitivity to μ-> e processes by several orders of magnitude, and could observe lepton flavour-changing contact interactions for the first time. In this paper, we investigate what could be learned about New Physics from the measurements of these μ-> e observables, using a bottom-up effective field theory (EFT) approach and focusing on three popular models with new particles around the TeV scale (the type II seesaw, the inverse seesaw and a scalar leptoquark). We showed in a previous publication that μ-> e observables have the ability to rule out these models because none can fill the whole experimentally accessible parameter space. In this work we give more details on our EFT formalism and present more complete results. We discuss the impact of some observables complementary to μ-> e transitions (such as the neutrino mass scale and ordering, and LFV tau decays) and draw attention to the interesting appearance of Jarlskog-like invariants in our expressions for the low-energy Wilson coefficients.
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Li, H. P., Song, J., Liang, W. H., Molina, R., & Oset, E. (2024). Contrasting observables related to the N*(1535) from the molecular or a genuine structure. Eur. Phys. J. C, 84(7), 656–8pp.
Abstract: In this work we compare the predictions for the scattering length and effective range of the channels K-0 Sigma(+), K+Sigma(0), K+ Lambda and eta p, assuming the N*(1535) state as a molecular state of these channels, or an original genuine state, made for instance from three quarks. Looking at very different scenarios, what we conclude is that the predictions of these two pictures are drastically different, to the point that we advise the measurement of these magnitudes, accessible for instance by measuring correlation functions, in order to gain much valuable information concerning the nature of this state.
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Richard, J. M., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2024). Resonances in the Quark Model. Few-Body Syst., 65(3), 71–11pp.
Abstract: A discussion is presented of the estimates of the energy and width of resonances in constituent models, with focus on the tetraquark states containing heavy quarks.
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Forconi, M., Giare, W., Mena, O., Ruchika, Di Valentino, E., Melchiorri, A., et al. (2024). A double take on early and interacting dark energy from JWST. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 05(5), 097–37pp.
Abstract: The very first light captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) revealed a population of galaxies at very high redshifts more massive than expected in the canonical Lambda CDM model of structure formation. Barring, among others, a systematic origin of the issue, in this paper, we test alternative cosmological perturbation histories. We argue that models with a larger matter component ohm m and/or a larger scalar spectral index n s can substantially improve the fit to JWST measurements. In this regard, phenomenological extensions related to the dark energy sector of the theory are appealing alternatives, with Early Dark Energy emerging as an excellent candidate to explain (at least in part) the unexpected JWST preference for larger stellar mass densities. Conversely, Interacting Dark Energy models, despite producing higher values of matter clustering parameters such as sigma 8 , are generally disfavored by JWST measurements. This is due to the energy -momentum flow from the dark matter to the dark energy sector, implying a smaller matter energy density. Upcoming observations may either strengthen the evidence or falsify some of these appealing phenomenological alternatives to the simplest Lambda CDM picture.
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Belchior, F. M., & Maluf, R. (2024). Duality between the Maxwell-Chern-Simons and self-dual models in very special relativity. Phys. Lett. B, 855, 138794–7pp.
Abstract: This work investigates the classical and quantum duality between the SIM (1)-Maxwell-Chern-Simons (MCS) model and its self -dual counterpart. Initially, we focus on free -field cases to establish equivalence through two distinct approaches: comparing the equations of motion and utilizing the master Lagrangian method. In both instances, the classical correspondence between the self -dual and MCS dual fields undergoes modifications due to very special relativity (VSR). Specifically, the duality is established when the associated VSR-mass parameters are identical, and the dual field is introduced through a non -local VSR correction. Furthermore, we analyze the duality when the self -dual model is minimally coupled to fermions. As a result, we demonstrate that Thirring-like interactions, corrected for non -local VSR contributions, are included in the MCS model. Additionally, we establish the quantum equivalence of the models by performing a functional integration of the fields and comparing the resulting effective Lagrangians.
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Babak, S., Caprini, C., Figueroa, D. G., Karnesis, N., Marcoccia, P., Nardini, G., et al. (2023). Stochastic gravitational wave background from stellar origin binary black holes in LISA. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 08(8), 034–40pp.
Abstract: We use the latest constraints on the population of stellar origin binary black holes (SOBBH) from LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA (LVK) observations, to estimate the stochastic gravi-tational wave background (SGWB) they generate in the frequency band of LISA. In order to account for the faint and distant binaries, which contribute the most to the SGWB, we extend the merger rate at high redshift assuming that it tracks the star formation rate. We adopt different methods to compute the SGWB signal: we perform an analytical evaluation, we use Monte Carlo sums over the SOBBH population realisations, and we account for the role of the detector by simulating LISA data and iteratively removing the resolvable signals until only the confusion noise is left. The last method allows the extraction of both the expected SGWB and the number of resolvable SOBBHs. Since the latter are few for signal-to-noise ratio thresholds larger than five, we confirm that the spectral shape of the SGWB in the LISA band agrees with the analytical prediction of a single power law. We infer the probability dis-tribution of the SGWB amplitude from the LVK GWTC-3 posterior of the binary population model: at the reference frequency of 0.003 Hz it has an interquartile range of h(2 Omega)GW(f = 3 x 10(-3) Hz) is an element of [5.65, 11.5] x 10(-13), in agreement with most previous estimates. We then perform a MC analysis to assess LISA's capability to detect and characterise this signal. Ac-counting for both the instrumental noise and the galactic binaries foreground, with four years of data, LISA will be able to detect the SOBBH SGWB with percent accuracy, narrowing down the uncertainty on the amplitude by one order of magnitude with respect to the range of possible amplitudes inferred from the population model. A measurement of this signal by LISA will help to break the degeneracy among some of the population parameters, and pro-vide interesting constraints, in particular on the redshift evolution of the SOBBH merger rate.
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Amarilo, K. M., Ferreira Filho, M. B., Araujo Filho, A. A., & Reis, J. A. A. S. (2024). Gravitational waves effects in a Lorentz-violating scenario. Phys. Lett. B, 855, 138785–7pp.
Abstract: This paper focuses on how the production and polarization of gravitational waves are affected by spontaneous Lorentz symmetry breaking, which is driven by a self-interacting vector field. Specifically, we examine the impact of a smooth quadratic potential and a non-minimal coupling, discussing the constraints and causality features of the linearized Einstein equation. To analyze the polarization states of a plane wave, we consider a fixed vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the vector field. Remarkably, we verify that a space-like background vector field modifies the polarization plane and introduces a longitudinal degree of freedom. In order to investigate the Lorentz violation effect on the quadrupole formula, we use the modified Green function. Finally, we show that the space-like component of the background field leads to a third-order time derivative of the quadrupole moment, and the bounds for the Lorentz-breaking coefficients are estimated as well.
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