This study investigates the ultraviolet realization of semileptonic four-fermion operator $ O_{ledq}^{\alpha \beta 11} $ that incorporates Majorana dark matter (DM) in both lepton-flavor-conserving (LFC) and lepton-flavor-violating (LFV) scenarios at the one-loop level via box diagram, thereby effectively alleviating the lower bounds on the new physics scale. In addition, we investigate the interplay between model-independent constraints on the Wilson coefficients and DM direct detection, relic density, and collider searches in the context of fermion portal DM model with two mediators. We found that both the projected future constraint on the LFC Wilson coefficient $ C_{ledq}^{2211}/\Lambda^2 \lt $ $ (12.3\; \text{TeV})^{-2} $ from the measurements of neutrino non-standard interaction in the next-generation neutrino oscillation experiments, and the LFV constraint $ C_{ledq}^{1211}/\Lambda^2 \lt \left(2.2\times 10^3\; \text{TeV} \right)^{-2} $ from ongoing charged-lepton-flavor-violation searches, provide a complementary exploration of the parameter space encompassing the DM and scalar masses. With a colored mediator mass of approximately $ 2\; \text{TeV} $ , the sensitivity of the indirect constraints on the four-fermion operator can surpass those of collider searches and DM direct detection, in scenarios where the masses of the DM and scalar are close. By ensuring the correct DM relic density, however, we find that the collider searches and DM direct detection are more sensitive to the electroweak-scale DM and scalar than indirect constraints.

China

Yuxuan He

Gang Li

Jia Liu

Xiao-Ping Wang

Xiang Zhao

Lepton flavor of four-fermion operator and fermion portal dark matter * Gang Li and Xiang Zhao are supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12347105, 12505127), the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2024A1515012668). The work of Jia Liu is supported by the National Science Foundation of China (12235001, 12475103) and State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology (NPT2025ZX11). The work of Xiao-Ping Wang is supported by National Science Foundation of China (12375095) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

Several possible excesses around $ 95 $ GeV hint at an additional light scalar beyond the Standard Model. We examine the capability of the Circular Electron-Positron Collider (CEPC) to test this hypothesis in the Higgs-strahlung channel $ e^{+}e^{-} \to ZS $ with $ Z \to\mu^{+}\mu^{-} $ and $ S \to\tau^{+}\tau^{-} $ . A full detector simulation shows that the optimal center-of-mass energy for studying the 95 GeV light scalar is 210 GeV. A deep neural network classifier reduces the luminosity required for discovery by half. At $ L = 20\; \mathrm{ab}^{-1} $ , the $ 5\sigma $ sensitivity of the CEPC to the signal strength $ \mu_{\tau\tau}^{ZS} $ reaches 0.016 and 0.020 for $ \sqrt{s} = 210 $ GeV and 240 GeV, respectively. The corresponding thresholds for a 5% precision measurement are $ \mu_{\tau\tau}^{ZS} \gt 0.10 $ and $ \gt 0.12 $ . At $ \sqrt{s}=210 $ GeV (240 GeV), the $ 5\sigma $ coverage of all N2HDM-Flipped samples with $ \chi^2_{h_{95}} \lt 7.82 $ requires $ L=800\ \mathrm{fb}^{-1} $ (1.22 $ \mathrm{ab}^{-1} $ ). These results establish a 210 GeV run, augmented by machine-learning selection, as the most efficient strategy to confirm or refute the 95 GeV excess at future lepton colliders.

Yabo Dong

Manqi Ruan

Kun Wang

Haijun Yang

Jingya Zhu

Testing a 95 GeV Scalar at the CEPC with Machine Learning * This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 12275066 and by the startup research funds of Henan University. The work of K. Wang was also supported by the Open Project of the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Cosmology under Grant No. 22DZ2229013-3. The work of M. Ruan was also supported by the National Key Program for S&T Research and Development under Contract No. 2024YFA1610603. The work of H. Yang was also supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. W2441004.

Electroweak (EW) amplitudes in the gauge-Goldstone five-component formalism have a distinctive property: gauge symmetry is imprinted in the amplitudes, manifested as the massive Ward identity (MWI) $ k^M{\cal{M}}_M=0 $ . In this study, we used the HELAS package to numerically study gauge symmetry in EW amplitudes. First, we directly tested gauge symmetry by examining the MWI of amplitudes. Second, we modified the couplings within a vertex and among vertices to check if and how the MWI changes. Third, we tested gauge symmetry by considering the couplings modified by operators from the standard model effective field theory (SMEFT). Similar to the standard model, there are relations between different couplings that are protected by gauge symmetry. We observed that, if we modify the couplings to deviate from the relations, the MWI is violated. In contrast, the MWI is restored when the relations between couplings reduce to those in the SMEFT.

Wang-Fa Li

Junmou Chen

Qian-Jiu Wang

Zhao-Huan Yu

Numerical study on the gauge symmetry of electroweak amplitudes * Junmou Chen is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (12205118), Wang-Fa Li, Qian-Jiu Wang, and Zhao-Huan Yu are supported by the Guangzhou Science and Technology Planning Project (2024A04J4026)

We study $ \cos2\phi $ azimuthal asymmetry in doubly longitudinally polarized proton-proton Drell-Yan collisions within the transverse momentum dependent factorization framework. The asymmetry arises from the convolution of the longitudinal transversity distribution $ h_{1L}^{\perp} $ for both protons. Using the Bacchetta-Delcarro-Pisano-Radici-Signori parameterization for the nonperturbative Sudakov form factor and the Wandzura-Wilczek approximation for collinear $ h_{1L}^{\perp} $ , we predict the double spin asymmetry $ A_{LL}^{\cos2\phi} $ at RHIC and NICA kinematics. Our results demonstrate sensitivity to sea quark distributions, with the asymmetry reaching up to 25% for maximal sea quark contributions. These predictions highlight the potential of polarized Drell-Yan measurements to probe sea quark dynamics and advance our understanding of nucleon structures.

Hui Li

Ting Hu

Liang-Liang Liu

Xiao-Yu Wang

Zhun Lu

Asymmetry ${{\boldsymbol A}_{\boldsymbol{LL}}^{\bf\cos2\boldsymbol\phi}} $ in the polarized proton-proton Drell-Yan process within TMD factorization * Hui Li is supported by Fundamental Research Program of Shanxi Province (202203021222224) and Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Normal University (JCYJ2023021). Xiao-Yu Wang is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (242300421377, 232300421140)

We propose a search strategy at the HL-LHC for a new neutral particle $\textit{X}$ that couples to $\textit{W}$-bosons, using the process $ p p \to W^{\pm} X (\to W^{+} W^{-}) $ with a tri-$\textit{W}$-boson final state. Focusing on events with two same-sign leptonic $\textit{W}$-boson decays into muons and a hadronically decaying $\textit{W}$-boson, our method leverages the enhanced signal-to-background discrimination achieved through a machine-learning-based multivariate analysis. Using the heavy photophobic axion-like particle (ALP) as a benchmark, we evaluate the discovery sensitivities on both production cross section times branching ratio $ \sigma(p p \to W^{\pm} X) \times \text{Br}(X \to W^{+} W^{-}) $ and the coupling $ g_{aWW} $ for particle mass over a wide range of 170–3000 GeV at the HL-LHC with center-of-mass energy $ \sqrt{s} = 14 \, \text{ TeV} $ and integrated luminosity $ {\cal{L}} = 3 \, \text{ab}^{-1} $ . Our results show significant improvements in discovery sensitivity, particularly for masses above 300 GeV, compared to existing limits derived from CMS analyses of Standard Model (SM) tri-$\textit{W}$-boson production at $ \sqrt{s} = 13 \, \text{ TeV} $ . This study demonstrates the potential of advanced selection techniques in probing the coupling of new particles to $\textit{W}$-bosons and highlights the HL-LHC's capability to explore physics beyond the SM.

Ying-nan Mao

Kechen Wang

Yiheng Xiong

Sensitivities of new resonance couplings to $\textit{W}$-bosons at the LHC * Ying-nan Mao and Yihen Xiong are supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12205227). Kechen Wang is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11905162), the Excellent Young Talents Program of the Wuhan University of Technology (40122102), and the research program of the Wuhan University of Technology (2020IB024). The simulation and analysis work of this article was completed with the computational cluster provided by the Theoretical Physics Group at the Department of Physics, School of Physics and Mechanics, Wuhan University of Technology

The production of heavy-quark (HQ) jets is a new area that addresses the mass effect of jet quenching in heavy-ion physics. This paper presents a theoretical study of HQ jet yield suppression in Pb+Pb collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and focuses on the energy loss of HQ jets produced by different mechanisms. The $\textit{p+p}$ baseline is provided by the generator simulation of high-energy reactions of particles (SHERPA), and the jet-medium interactions are described by the SHELL transport model, which considers the elastic and inelastic partonic energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). In $\textit{p+p}$ collisions, our numerical results indicate that the HQ jets from gluon splitting ( $ g \rightarrow Q $ -jet) are the dominant contribution at high $ p_T $ , displaying more dispersive structures than the HQ-initiated ( $ Q \rightarrow Q $ -jet). In nucleus-nucleus collisions, our calculations were consistent with the inclusive and b-jet $ R_{AA} $ recently measured by the ATLAS collaboration, revealing a remarkable manifestation of the mass effect of jet energy loss. As a result of the dispersive substructure, the $ g \rightarrow Q $ -jet loses more energy than the $ Q \rightarrow Q $ -jet in the QGP. Due to the significant contribution of $ g \rightarrow c $ -jet, the $ R_{AA} $ of $\textit{c}$-jet is comparable or even smaller than that of inclusive jet. To experimentally distinguish the $ g \rightarrow Q $ -jet and $ Q \rightarrow Q $ -jet, we propose event selection strategies based on their topological features and test their performances. By isolating the $ c \rightarrow c $ -jet, $ b \rightarrow b $ -jet, and the jets initiated by heavy quarks, we predicted that the order of their $ R_{AA} $ are in line with the mass hierarchy of energy loss. Future measurements on the $ R_{AA} $ of $ Q \rightarrow Q $ -jet and $ g \rightarrow Q $ -jet will provide a unique opportunity for testing the flavor/mass dependence of energy loss at the jet level.

Sa Wang

Shuang Li

Yao Li

Ben-Wei Zhang

Enke Wang

Probing the mass effect of heavy quark jets in high-energy nuclear collisions * Supported by the MajorProject of Basic and Applied Basic Research of Guangdong Province, China (2020B0301030008, 2023A1515011460), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11935007, 12035007, 12247127, 12375137). Sa Wang is supported by the Open Foundation of Key Laboratory of Quark and Lepton Physics (MOE) (QLPL2023P01) and the Talent Scientific Star-up Foundation of the China Three Gorges University, China (CTGU) (2024RCKJ013)

When an energetic parton traverses the hot QCD medium, it may suffer from multiple scattering and lose its energy. The medium-induced gluon radiation for a massive quark will be suppressed relative to that of a light quark due to the dead-cone effect. The development of new declustering techniques of jet evolution makes a direct study of the dead-cone effect in the QCD medium possible for the first time. In this work, we compute the emission angle distribution of the charm-quark-initiated splittings in $\textit{D}$ $^{0}$ meson tagged jet and that of the light parton-initiated splittings in an inclusive jet in $\textit{p}$+$\textit{p}$ and Pb+Pb at 5.02 TeV by utilizing the declustering techniques of jet evolution. The heavy quark propagation and induced energy loss in the QCD medium are simulated with the SHELL model based on the Langevin equation. By directly comparing the emission angle distributions of charm-quark-initiated splittings with those of light parton-initiated splittings at the same energy intervals of the initial parton, we provide insights into the fundamental splitting structure in $\textit{A}$+$\textit{A}$ collisions, thereby exploring the possible observation of the dead-cone effect in medium-induced radiation. We further investigate the case of the emission angle distributions normalized to the number of splittings and find the dead-cone effect will broaden the emission angle of the splitting and reduce the possibility for such splitting to occur, leading the massive parton to lose less energy. We also find that the collisional energy loss mechanism has a negligible impact on the medium modification to the emission angle distribution of the charm-quark-initiated splittings for $\textit{D}$ $^{0 }$meson-tagged jets.

Yun-Fan Liu

Wei Dai

Exposing the dead-cone effect of jet quenching in QCD medium * Supported by the Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research of Guangdong Province, China (2020B0301030008), and the Natural Science Foundation of China (1935007, 11805167)

<p>We implement a variational quantum algorithm to investigate the chiral condensate in a <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mn>1</mn><mo>+</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></math> dimensional SU(2) non-Abelian gauge theory. The algorithm is evaluated using a proposed Monte Carlo sampling method, which allows the extension to large qubit systems. The obtained results through quantum simulations on classical and actual quantum hardware are in good agreement with exact diagonalization of the lattice Hamiltonian, revealing the phenomena of chiral symmetry breaking and restoration as functions of both temperature and chemical potential. Our findings underscore the potential of near-term quantum computing for exploring QCD systems at finite temperature and density in non-Abelian gauge theories.</p>

Guofeng Zhang

Xingyu Guo

Hongxi Xing

Quantum computing of chirality imbalance in SU(2) gauge theory

<p>This paper presents a theoretical study on the production of leptons from decay of heavy-flavor hadrons (denoted as HFLs) in high-energy nuclear collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi mathvariant="italic">pp</mi></math> baseline is calculated by the fonll program, which matches the next-to-leading order perturbative QCD (pQCD) calculation with the next-to-leading-logarithm large-<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msub><mi>p</mi><mi>T</mi></msub></math> resummation. The in-medium propagation of heavy quarks is driven by the modified Langevin equations, which consider both the elastic and inelastic partonic interactions. We propose a method to separate the respective influence of the six factors, i.e., <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi mathvariant="italic">pp</mi></math> spectra, cold nuclear matter (CNM) effects, in-medium energy loss (E-loss), fragmentation functions (FFs), coalescence (Coal), and decay channels, which may contribute to the larger <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msub><mi>R</mi><mrow><mi>A</mi><mi>A</mi></mrow></msub></math> of HFL <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mo>←</mo><mi>b</mi></mrow></math> compared to that of HFL <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mo>←</mo><mi>c</mi></mrow></math> in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Based on quantitative analysis, we demonstrate that both coalescence hadronization decay channels and the mass-dependent E-loss play an essential role at <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><msub><mi>p</mi><mi>T</mi></msub><mo>&lt;</mo><mn>5</mn><mspace width="0.16em"></mspace><mi>GeV</mi></mrow></math>, while the latter dominates the higher <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msub><mi>p</mi><mi>T</mi></msub></math> region. It is also found that the influences of the CNM effects and FFs are insignificant. At the same time, different initial <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi mathvariant="italic">pp</mi></math> spectra of charm and bottom quarks have a considerable impact at <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><msub><mi>p</mi><mi>T</mi></msub><mo>&gt;</mo><mn>5</mn><mspace width="0.16em"></mspace><mi>GeV</mi></mrow></math>. Furthermore, we explore the path-length dependence of jet quenching by comparing the HFL <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msub><mi>R</mi><mrow><mi>A</mi><mi>A</mi></mrow></msub></math> in two different collision systems. Our investigations show smaller HFL <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msub><mi>R</mi><mrow><mi>A</mi><mi>A</mi></mrow></msub></math> in <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mi>Pb</mi><mo>+</mo><mi>Pb</mi></mrow></math> than in <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mi>Xe</mi><mo>+</mo><mi>Xe</mi></mrow></math> within the same centrality bin, consistent with the ALICE data. The longer propagation time and more effective energy loss of heavy quarks in <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mi>Pb</mi><mo>+</mo><mi>Pb</mi></mrow></math> collisions play critical roles in the stronger yield suppression of the HFLs compared to that in <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mi>Xe</mi><mo>+</mo><mi>Xe</mi></mrow></math>. In addition, we observe a scaling behavior of the HFL <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msub><mi>R</mi><mrow><mi>A</mi><mi>A</mi></mrow></msub></math> in <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mi>Xe</mi><mo>+</mo><mi>Xe</mi></mrow></math> and <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mi>Pb</mi><mo>+</mo><mi>Pb</mi></mrow></math> collisions.</p>

Shuwan Shen

Production of leptons from decay of heavy-flavor hadrons in high-energy nuclear collisions

Studies of exotic hadrons such as the <math><mrow><msub><mi>χ</mi><mrow><mi>c</mi><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub><mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>3872</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow></mrow></math> state provide crucial insights into the fundamental force governing the strong interaction dynamics, with an emerging frontier to investigate their production in high energy collisions where a partonic medium is present. The latest experimental measurements from the Large Hadron Collider show an intriguing evolution pattern of the <math><mrow><msub><mi>χ</mi><mrow><mi>c</mi><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub><mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>3872</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow></mrow></math>-to-<math><mrow><mi>ψ</mi><mo>(</mo><mn>2</mn><mi>S</mi><mo>)</mo></mrow></math> yield ratio from proton-proton collisions with increasing multiplicities toward proton-lead and lead-lead collisions. Here we propose a mechanism of medium-assisted enhancement for the <math><mrow><msub><mi>χ</mi><mrow><mi>c</mi><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub><mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>3872</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow></mrow></math> production, which competes with the more conventional absorption-induced suppression and results in a nonmonotonic trend from small to large colliding systems. Realistic simulations from this model offer a quantitative description of all available data. Predictions are made for the centrality dependence of this observable in PbPb collisions as well as for its system-size dependence from OO and ArAr to XeXe and PbPb collisions. In both cases, a nonmonotonic behavior emerges as the imprint of the competition between enhancement and suppression and can be readily tested by future data.

Yu Guo

United States

Jinfeng Liao

Medium-assisted enhancement of <math><mrow><msub><mi>χ</mi><mrow><mi>c</mi><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub><mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>3872</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow></mrow></math> production from small to large colliding systems