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del Rio, A., Durrer, R., & Patil, S. P. (2018). Tensor bounds on the hidden universe. J. High Energy Phys., 12(12), 094–34pp.
Abstract: During single clock inflation, hidden fields (i.e. fields coupled to the inflaton only gravitationally) in their adiabatic vacua can ordinarily only affect observables through virtual effects. After renormalizing background quantities (fixed by observations at some pivot scale), all that remains are logarithmic runnings in correlation functions that are both Planck and slow roll suppressed. In this paper we show how a large number of hidden fields can partially compensate this suppression and generate a potentially observable running in the tensor two point function, consistently inferable courtesy of a large N resummation. We detour to address certain subtleties regarding loop corrections during inflation, extending the analysis of [1]. Our main result is that one can extract bounds on the hidden field content of the universe from bounds on violations of the consistency relation between the tensor spectral index and the tensor to scalar ratio, were primordial tensors ever detected. Such bounds are more competitive than the naive bound inferred from requiring inflation to occur below the strong coupling scale of gravity if deviations from the consistency relation can be bounded to within the sub-percent level. We discuss how one can meaningfully constrain the parameter space of various phenomenological scenarios and constructions that address naturalness with a large number of species (such as N-naturalness') with CMB observations up to cosmic variance limits, and possibly future 21cm and gravitational wave observations.
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Ferrando Solera, S., Jäger, S., & Vale Silva, L. (2026). Symmetry-restoring finite counterterms of SMEFT four-fermion operator insertions at one loop. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 143–58pp.
Abstract: Some effects induced by SMEFT operators at one loop have attracted a lot of attention in recent years, in particular, the renormalization of divergences by physical operators in single insertions of dimension-6 operators. Important non-logarithmically enhanced contributions must also be calculated. We discuss dimensional regularization in the Breitenlohner-Maison-'t Hooft-Veltman scheme. The goal here is to calculate in this scheme quantum effects in chiral theories at one loop. We determine the finite counterterms at one loop that reestablish the Slavnov-Taylor identities, which follow from gauge symmetries. These counterterms are necessary due to the presence of evanescent symmetry-breaking terms in the classical Lagrangian needed to regularize fermion propagators. We consider a technique that allows an easier calculation of such finite effects, relying on the identification of (D – 4)/(D – 4) terms of one-loop amplitudes with an external ghost leg. We focus on dimension-6 four-fermion operators, identifying all finite counterterms in the Breitenlohner-Maison-'t Hooft-Veltman scheme at one loop, and as expected find no obstructions to the Slavnov-Taylor identities that cannot be cured by finite counterterms. This represents one step towards moving to higher order calculations.
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Kasprzak, J., Roser, J., Werner, J., Kohlhase, N., Bolke, A., Kaufmann, L. M., et al. (2025). Regularized origin ensemble with a beam prior for range verification in particle therapy with Compton-camera data. Phys. Med. Biol., 70(7), 075009–24pp.
Abstract: Objective. In particle therapy (PT), several methods are being investigated to help reduce range margins and identify deviations from the original treatment plan, such as prompt-gamma imaging with Compton cameras (CC). To reconstruct the images, the Origin Ensemble (OE) algorithm is commonly used. In the context of PT, artifacts and strong noise often affect CC images. To improve the ability of OE to identify range shifts, and also to enhance image quality, we propose to regularize OE using beam a-priori knowledge (beam prior). Approach. We implemented the beam prior to OE using the class of Gibbs' distribution functions. For evaluation, Monte-Carlo simulations of centered and off-center beams with therapeutic energies impinging on a PMMA target were conducted in GATE. To introduce range shifts, air layers were introduced into the target. In addition, the effect of a bone layer, closer to a realistic scenario, was investigated. OE with the beam prior (BP-OE) and conventional OE (reference) were compared using the spill-over-ratio (SOR) as well as shifts in the distal falloff in projections using cubic splines with Chebyshev nodes. Main results. BP-OE improved the shift estimates by up to 11% compared to conventional OE for centered and up to 250% with off-centered beams. BP-OE decreased the image noise level, improving the SOR significantly by up to 96%. Significance. BP-OE applied to CC data can improve shift estimations compared to conventional OE. The developed Gibbs-based regularization framework also allows further prior functions to be included into OE, for instance, smoothing or edge-preserving priors. BP-OE could be extended to PET-based range verification or multiple-beam scenarios.
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