Hadronic electromagnetic form factors and radiative decay properties offer a crucial window into the nonperturbative dynamics of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In this work, we employ the light-cone sum rules (LCSR) method to systematically investigate the M1 radiative decay of vector mesons. Our study covers processes including <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msup><mi>K</mi><mrow><mo>*</mo><mo>−</mo></mrow></msup><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><msup><mi>K</mi><mo>−</mo></msup><mi>γ</mi></math>, <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msup><mi>D</mi><mo>*</mo></msup><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>D</mi><mi>γ</mi></math>, <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msup><mi>B</mi><mo>*</mo></msup><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>B</mi><mi>γ</mi></math>, <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msubsup><mi>D</mi><mi>s</mi><mrow><mo>*</mo><mo>+</mo></mrow></msubsup><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><msubsup><mi>D</mi><mi>s</mi><mo>+</mo></msubsup><mi>γ</mi></math>, and <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msubsup><mi>B</mi><mi>s</mi><mo>*</mo></msubsup><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><msub><mi>B</mi><mi>s</mi></msub><mi>γ</mi></math>, and further extends to the excited charmonium state <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>ψ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>2</mn><mi>S</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math>. Our calculations yield decay widths for <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msup><mi>K</mi><mo>*</mo></msup></math> and <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>ψ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>2</mn><mi>S</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> that are in excellent agreement with experimental data. For the charm and bottom meson decays, where precise measurements are lacking, we provide theoretical predictions and compare them with other theoretical approaches. Most notably, our analysis reveals a universal linear dependence of the decay width on a function A(x) in the logarithmic coordinate system, which originates from the two-body decay dynamics and the ratio of the initial and final state decay constants. This relationship holds for the ground state <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>V</mi><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>P</mi><mi>γ</mi></math> processes here and suggests a broader applicability to radiative decays of ground-state vector mesons.

China

Zhi Jun Wang

Russia

Di Gao

Kai Kai Zhang

Yuan Yuan Ma

Yan Jun Sun

Radiative decays of vector mesons with light-cone sum rules

We present a detailed numerical investigation of semi-inclusive forward di-hadron production in proton–nucleus collisions employing the Color Glass Condensate effective theory. We focus on the regime where di-hadrons are produced nearly back-to-back in the transverse plane, thereby justifying a transverse-momentum-dependent factorization approach in terms of small- <italic>x</italic> gluon distributions. Our computation integrates several key elements: i) non-linear rapidity evolution via the Balitsky&#8211;Kovchegov equation with running coupling, ii) both perturbative and non-perturbative Sudakov resummation, and iii) a phenomenologically constrained model for the initial conditions for small- <italic>x</italic> gluon distributions. We compare this phenomenological framework to experimental data from the STAR Collaboration on azimuthal correlations in forward di-pion production in both proton&#8211;proton and proton&#8211;gold collisions. We analyze the systematic theoretical uncertainties associated with the saturation scales of nuclei at the initial scale for rapidity evolution and with those associated with the hadronization process. Finally, we make predictions for the kinematics anticipated to be covered by the ALICE Forward Calorimeter (FoCal) upgrade at the Large Hadron Collider.

France

Paul Caucal

United States

Zhong-Bo Kang

Poland

Piotr Korcyl

Farid Salazar

Björn Schenke

Tomasz Stebel

United Kingdom

Raju Venugopalan

Wenbin Zhao

Probing gluon saturation with forward di-hadron correlations in proton-nucleus collisions

Measuring di-Higgs production in the four-bottom channel is challenged by overwhelming QCD backgrounds and imperfect simulations. We develop a Bayesian mixture model that simultaneously infers signal and background fractions and their individual shapes directly in the signal region. The likelihood is a nuanced combination of a one-dimensional kinematic discriminator and per-jet flavour scores; with their correlations incorporated via kinematic bins. Monte Carlo informs weak Dirichlet priors, while the posterior adjusts to the interplay of the model, priors and observed data. Using pseudo-data simulated with standard tools and with controlled mismatches, we show that the method corrects biased priors, delivers 68–95% credible intervals for the signal count, and improves dataset-level ROC/AUC relative to simple cut-and-count baselines. This study highlights how Bayesian inference can harvest information present in the signal region and self-calibrate model parameters, providing a robust route to increased sensitivity in di-Higgs searches.

Argentina

Ezequiel Alvarez

Leandro Rold

Manuel Szewc

Alejandro Szynkman

Santiago Tanco

Tatiana Tarutina

Di-Higgs to 4$\textit{b}$ with Bayesian inference: improving simulation estimates

We propose a novel method for extracting non-singlet (NS) fragmentation functions (FFs) of light charged hadrons from charge asymmetries measured in hadron fragmentation using data from both single-inclusive electron-positron annihilation and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering processes. We determine the NS FFs for pions and kaons at next-to-next-to-leading order in Quantum Chromodynamics through a comprehensive uncertainty analysis. The extracted FFs reveal a scaling index of approximately 0.7 at large momentum fractions and low energy scales, a strangeness suppression factor of approximately 0.5, and universality in fragmentation of light mesons. Our findings establish a valuable benchmark for testing non-perturbative QCD models and Monte Carlo event generators, and serve as crucial inputs for future electron-ion colliders.

Jun Gao

Chong-Yang Liu

Bin Zhou

Determination of fragmentation functions from charge asymmetries in hadron production * The work of Jun Gao is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (12275173), the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (2024AIZD007) and open fund of Key Laboratory of Atomic and Subatomic Structure and Quantum Control (Ministry of Education)

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) started physics data taking on 26 August 2025. JUNO consists of a 20-kton liquid scintillator central detector, surrounded by a 35 kton water pool serving as a Cherenkov veto, and almost 1000 m$^{2}$ of plastic scintillator veto on top. The detector is located in a shallow underground laboratory with an overburden of 1800 m.w.e. This paper presents the performance results of the detector, extensively studied during the commissioning of the water phase, the subsequent liquid scintillator filling phase, and the first physics runs. The liquid scintillator achieved an attenuation length of 20.6 m at 430 nm, while the high coverage PMT system and scintillator together yielded about 1785 photoelectrons per MeV of energy deposit at the detector centre, measured using the 2.223 MeV $\textit{γ}$ from neutron captures on hydrogen with an Am-C calibration source. The reconstructed energy resolution is 3.4% for two 0.511 MeV $\textit{γ}$ at the detector centre and 2.9% for the 0.93 MeV quenched $^{214}$Po alpha decays from natural radioactive sources. The energy non-linearity is calibrated to better than 1%. Intrinsic contaminations of $^{238}$U and $^{232}$Th in the liquid scintillator are below 10$^{-16}$ g/g, assuming secular equilibrium. The water Cherenkov detector achieves a muon detection efficiency better than 99.9% for muons traversing the liquid scintillator volume. During the initial science runs, the data acquisition duty cycle exceeded 97.8%, demonstrating the excellent stability and readiness of JUNO for high-precision neutrino physics.

Chile

Angel Abusleme

Thomas Adam

Germany

Kai Adamowicz

David Adey

Pakistan

Shakeel Ahmad

Rizwan Ahmed

Finland

Timo Ahola

Italy

Sebastiano Aiello

Fengpeng An

Guangpeng An

Costas Andreopoulos

Giuseppe Andronico

João Pedro Athayde Marcondes de André

Nikolay Anfimov

Vito Antonelli

Tatiana Antoshkina

Thailand

Burin Asavapibhop

Didier Auguste

Margherita Buizza Avanzini

Slovakia

Andrej Babic

Jingzhi Bai

Weidong Bai

Nikita Balashov

Roberto Barbera

Andrea Barresi

Davide Basilico

Eric Baussan

Beatrice Bellantonio

Marco Bellato

JeanLuc Beney

Marco Beretta

Antonio Bergnoli

Enrico Bernieri

Nikita Bessonov

David Biaré

Daniel Bick

Lukas Bieger

Svetlana Biktemerova

Thilo Birkenfeld

David Blum

Simon Blyth

Sara Boarin

Manuel Boehles

Anastasia Bolshakova

Mathieu Bongrand

Aurélie Bonhomme

Clément Bordereau

Matteo Borghesi

Augusto Brigatti

Timothee Brugiere

Riccardo Brugnera

Riccardo Bruno

Jonas Buchholz

Antonio Budano

Max Buesken

Mario Buscemi

Severino Bussino

Jose Busto

Ilya Butorov

Marcel Büchner

Anatael Cabrera

Barbara Caccianiga

Boshuai Cai

Hao Cai

Xiao Cai

Yanke Cai

Yi-zhou Cai

Zhiyan Cai

Stéphane Callier

Steven Calvez

Antonio Cammi

Agustin Campeny

Dechang Cai

Chuanya Cao

Dewen Cao

Guofu Cao

Jun Cao

Yaoqi Cao

Rossella Caruso

Aurelio Caslini

Cédric Cerna

Vanessa Cerrone

Daniele Cesini

Chi Chan

Jinfan Chang

Yun Chang

Milo Charavet

Tim Charissé

Auttakit Chatrabhuti

Chao Chen

Guoming Chen

Haitao Chen

Haotian Chen

Jiahui Chen

Jian Chen

Jing Chen

Junyou Chen

Lihao Chen

Mali Chen

Mingming Chen

Initial performance results of the JUNO detector * We acknowledge financial and institutional supportfrom the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National KeyR&D Program of China, the People's Government of Guangdong Province, and the Tsung–Dao Lee Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.We appreciate the contributions from the Institut Na-tional de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Partic-ules (IN2P3) in France, the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Italy, the Fonds de la Recherche Sci-entifique (F.R.S.–FNRS) and the Institut Interuni-versitaire des Sciences Nucléaires (IISN) in Belgium, and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico eTecnológico (CNPq) in Brazil.We also acknowledge the support of the AgenciaNacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (ANID) and the ANID–Millennium Science Initiative Program (ICN2019044) in Chile; the European Structural and In-vestment Funds, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, and the Charles University Research Center inthe Czech Republic; the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinsch-aft (DFG), the Helmholtz Association, and the Cluster ofExcellence PRISMA+ in Germany; and the Joint Insti-tute for Nuclear Research (JINR) and Lomonosov Mo-scow State University in Russia.We further thank the Slovak Research and Develop-ment Agency in the Slovak Republic, the National Science and Technology Council (NSCT) and MOE, China, the Program Management Unit for Hu-man Resources & Institutional Development, Research and Innovation (PMU–B), Chulalongkorn University, and Suranaree University of Technology in Thailand, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the United Kingdom, and the University of California atIrvine and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the United States

In this study, we investigate the possibility of enhancing the di-jet resonance searches by tagging the final state radiation (FSR) jet using an event-level deep neural network. It is found that solely relying on the 4-momenta of the leading three jets allows the algorithm to achieve good discriminating power that can identify the hardest FSR jet in the signal while rejecting other soft jets. Once the invariant mass is corrected with the tagged FSR jet, the mass resolution of the signal is greatly enhanced, and the sensitivity of the search is also improved by more than 10%. By crafting the input variables carefully, the algorithm introduces minimal mass sculpting for the background, and its applicability extends to a broad mass range. This work proves that FSR jet tagging can potentially enhance di-jet resonance searches, suiting various stages of the physics programmes at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC).

Bingxuan Liu

Yuxuan Shen

Yuanshunzi Sui

Enhancing di-jet resonance searches via a final-state radiation jet tagging algorithm * Bingxuan Liu is supported by Shenzhen Campus of the Sun Yat-sen University under project 74140-12255011, and by the Young Scientists Fund (C Class) of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12405122). Both Yuxuan Shen and Yuanshunzi Sui are supported by College Students’ Innovative Entrepreneurial Training Plan Program

We apply the light-cone QCD sum rules with chiral currents to compute transition form factors of the semileptonic decay of the charmed and bottom scalar mesons <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>D</mi><mo>/</mo><mi>B</mi></math> to <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>a</mi><mn>0</mn></msub><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>980</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><msup><mi>l</mi><mo>+</mo></msup><msub><mi>ν</mi><mi>l</mi></msub></math> <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>l</mi><mo>=</mo><mi>e</mi><mo>,</mo><mi>μ</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></mrow></math>, where the scalar meson <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>a</mi><mn>0</mn></msub><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>980</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> are firstly regarded as two quark states, and contributions from the tetraquark component are then added via proper modulation of four distribution amplitudes considered. The obtained transition form factors and branching fraction are free of the contribution from the light-cone distribution amplitudes at the level of twist-three and two simple relations connecting their form factors are obtained. Our computations indicates that the decay branch fractions are on the margin of the measurements reported by the Beijing Spectrometer III in the pure two-quark scenario and are in good agreement with observations when tetraquark component is considered.

JiangShan Lan

Duojie Jia

Xingbo Zhao

Yanjun Sun

Transition form factors for <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>D</mi><mo>/</mo><mi>B</mi></math> to <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>a</mi><mn>0</mn></msub><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>980</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> from light-cone QCD sum rules

We perform a high-statistics lattice QCD calculation of the low-energy two-nucleon scattering amplitudes. To address discrepancies in the literature, the calculation is performed at a heavy pion mass in the limit that the light quark masses are equal to the physical strange quark mass, <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><msub><mi>m</mi><mi>π</mi></msub><mo>=</mo><msub><mi>m</mi><mi>K</mi></msub><mo>≃</mo><mn>714</mn><mspace width="0.28em"></mspace><mi>MeV</mi></mrow></math>. Using a state-of-the-art momentum space method, we rule out the presence of a bound di-nucleon in both the isospin 0 (deuteron) and 1 (di-neutron) channels, in contrast with many previous results that made use of compact hexaquark creation operators. To diagnose the discrepancy, we add such hexaquark interpolating operators to our basis and find that they do not affect the determination of the two-nucleon finite-volume spectrum, and thus they do not couple to deeply bound di-nucleons that are missed by the momentum-space operators. Furthermore, we perform a high-statistics calculation of the HAL QCD potential on the same gauge ensembles and find qualitative agreement with our main results. We conclude that di-nucleons do not form bound states at heavy pion masses and that previous identification of deeply bound di-nucleons must have arisen from a misidentification of the spectrum from off-diagonal elements of a correlation function.

John Bulava

M.A. Clark

Arjun S. Gambhir

Andrew D. Hanlon

Ben Hörz

Bálint Joó

Christopher Körber

Ken McElvain

Aaron S. Meyer

Henry Monge-Camacho

Colin Morningstar

Joseph Moscoso

Amy Nicholson

Switzerland

Fernando Romero-López

Ermal Rrapaj

Andrea Shindler

Sarah Skinner

Pavlos M. Vranas

André Walker-Loud

Di-nucleons do not form bound states at heavy pion mass

In this paper, we present analytical results for the two-loop QCD corrections to the production of two partons or a photon and a parton in hadronic collisions, mediated by loops of massive quarks. These amplitudes involve Feynman integrals defined on an elliptic curve. We compute them by generalizing our recent results for the production of two photons to include additional crossings of the corresponding master integrals, which we compute in terms of the same basis of independent iterated integrals. We discuss the analytical properties of the amplitudes, highlighting the cancellations of a large number of elliptic differential forms in their finite remainders. Finally, we elaborate on a strategy for their numerical evaluation based on generalized series expansions at singular points of the physical amplitude, through the introduction of suitable sets of variables that allow us to resolve all singularities.

Belgium

Federico Coro

Christoph Nega

Lorenzo Tancredi

Fabian Wagner

Analytic two-loop amplitudes for di-jet and $\textit{γ}$+jet production mediated by a heavy-quark loop

The excess in $$ t\to b\overline{b}c $$ observed by ATLAS points towards a charged Higgs boson with a mass around 130 GeV, consistent with the expectations from the $\textit{B}$ anomalies, i.e. $$ {R}_{D^{\left(\ast \right)}} $$ and $\textit{b}$ → $\textit{sℓ}$ $\textit{ℓ}$ data. As a non-minimal flavour structure is required for an explanation of these observables, this points towards a two-Higgs-doublet model with generic Yukawa couplings. Such a scenario predicts a sizable cross section for the pair production of the charged Higgs at the Large Hadron Collider, which can be tested by recasting SM di-Higgs searches. While the predicted event rate is even higher than the one of SM Higgs pair production, the smaller efficiency (w.r.t. SM Higgs pair production) reduces the signal yield. Nonetheless, dedicated searches can probe most of the interesting parameter space and lead to a discovery with Run-3 or High-Luminosity LHC data.