Inspired by the observation of the ${\eta}_{t}$ meson at the LHC and the promising prospect of the ${\eta}_{t}$ meson available at the approaching HL-LHC, branching ratios for the ${\eta}_{t}$ ${\to}$ $f\bar{f}$ , $gg$ , ${\gamma}{\gamma}$ , $W^{+}W^{-}$ , $Z^{0}Z^{0}$ , $Z^{0}{\gamma}$ , and $Z^{0}H$ decays are roughly estimated. It is found that tens of opposite-charge dilepton events from the ${\eta}_{t}$ ${\to}$ $W^{+}W^{-}$ decay and hundreds of events from the ${\eta}_{t}$ ${\to}$ $Z^{0}H$ ${\to}$ ${\ell}^{+}{\ell}^{-}H$ decay using the single $Z^{0}$ boson tagging method are expected to be accessible. This estimation provides a reference for future experimental study on the ${\eta}_{t}$ meson.

China

Yueling Yang

Bingbing Yang

Jiazhi Li

Zhaojie Lü

Junfeng Sun

Searching for the toponium ${{\boldsymbol\eta}_{\boldsymbol t}}$ with the ${{\boldsymbol\eta}_{\boldsymbol t}}$ ${\boldsymbol\to}$ ${{\boldsymbol W}^{\bf +}{\boldsymbol W}^{\bf -}}$ decay * Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12275068, 12275067), the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFA1606000), the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (252300421491, 242300420250), and the Science and Technology R&D Program Joint Fund Project of Henan Province (225200810030), as well as the Science and Technology Innovation Leading Talent Support Program of Henan Province (254200510039)

We investigate the discovery prospects of a leptophilic gauge boson $ Z_\ell $ at future $ e^+e^- $ colliders, focusing on a comparative study of the Circular Electron–Positron Collider (CEPC) and the International Linear Collider (ILC). Such a state naturally arises from an additional $ U(1)'_\ell $ gauge symmetry, under which quarks remain neutral while all leptons carry a universal charge, motivated by neutrino oscillations and scenarios of physics beyond the Standard Model. As a clean benchmark, we study the process $ e^+e^- \to \mu^+\mu^- $ , including realistic effects of initial-state radiation and beamstrahlung. Our results indicate that the CEPC, with its very high luminosity at $ \sqrt{s}=240 $ GeV, can probe couplings down to $ g_\ell \approx 10^{-3} $ for $ Z_\ell $ masses up to about 220 GeV. The ILC extends the sensitivity to heavier states in the multi-hundred GeV range through its higher $ \sqrt{s} $ stages. These findings demonstrate the strong complementarity of circular and linear colliders in exploring purely leptophilic interactions.

S.O. Kara

Discovery prospects for a leptophilic gauge boson Z$_{ℓ}$ at CEPC and ILC

The Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) is designed to operate at key center-of-mass energies: 91.2 GeV as a $\textit{Z}$ factory for precision $\textit{Z}$ boson studies, ≈ 160 GeV at the threshold for $\textit{W}$ boson pair production, and 240 GeV as a Higgs factory for copious Higgs boson production. It can be upgraded to 360 GeV (CEPC-360 GeV) for enabling top quark-antiquark ( $ t\bar{t}$ ) pair production. Beyond enabling high-precision measurements of the Standard Model (SM), CEPC-360 GeV is uniquely positioned to perform searches for new physics beyond the SM (BSM), serving as a valuable complement to hadron colliders. This paper presents a sensitivity study on the direct pair production of staus and smuons at the CEPC with $ \sqrt{s}$ = 360 GeV, conducted via full Monte Carlo simulation. Under the assumptions of 1.0 ab$^{−1}$ integrated luminosity and a flat 5% systematic uncertainty, CEPC-360 GeV could potentially discover the combined production of left-handed and right-handed staus up to a mass of 170 GeV (if they exist) or up to 169 for pure left-handed staus and 162 GeV for pure right-handed staus. For direct smuon production, the discovery potential reaches up to 178 GeV under the same conditions.

Feng Lyu

Jiarong Yuan

Huajie Cheng

Jianxiong Wang

Rabia Hameed

Da Xu

Xuai Zhuang

Search potential for direct slepton pair production at the CEPC with ${ \sqrt{\boldsymbol s}}$ = 360 GeV * Supported by the State Key Program of National Natural Science of China (2018YFA0404000, 12135013)

Heavy Majorana neutrinos ($\textit{N}$) are predicted in many models of physics beyond the Standard Model. In this work, we explore the production and detection prospects of TeV-scale heavy neutrinos ( $ m_N \gtrsim 1 $ TeV) at a future 3 TeV Compact Linear Collider (CLIC). We focus on two distinct decay topologies: (i) $ N \to \ell^\pm W^\mp $ with hadronic $\textit{W}$ boson decay, leading to a final state with one charged lepton and a hadronic fat jet $ J_W $ ; and (ii) $ N \to \nu h $ with subsequent Higgs decay $ h \to b\bar{b} $ , yielding a Higgs-tagged fat jet $ J_h $ and $\not {E}_T$ . Based on comprehensive detector-level simulations and background analysis, we present both $ 2\sigma $ exclusion limits and $ 5\sigma $ discovery reaches in the $ m_N $ – $ |V_{\ell N}|^2 $ plane. We further extract 95% confidence level upper limits on the mixing parameter $ |V_{\ell N}|^2 $ and perform a detailed comparison with existing constraints from direct searches at future colliders and indirect global fits. Our findings demonstrate that a 3 TeV CLIC can improve the sensitivity to $ |V_{\ell N}|^2 $ by about two orders of magnitude compared with the projected reaches of future hadron colliders while remaining competitive with other CLIC search channels.

Yao-Bei Liu

Jing-Wei Lian

Searches for heavy neutrinos at a 3 TeV CLIC in fat jet final states * Yao-Bei Liu is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province, China (252300421988), Jing-Wei Lian is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12447140) and the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province, China (252300421771)

One-loop contributions for the decay process $ H^{\pm} \rightarrow W^{\pm}Z $ within the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model (THDM) are computed in the general $ {\cal{R}}_{\xi} $ gauge, and its phenomenological applications at future muon–TeV colliders are investigated. Analytic results are confirmed by several consistency tests, including those of $\textit{ξ}$-independence, renormalization-scale stability, and the ultraviolet finiteness of the one-loop amplitude. We first perform an updated parameter scan of the Type-X THDM in phenomenological studies. The production of charged Higgs boson pairs at future muon–TeV colliders is then investigated through two processes: $ \mu^+\mu^- \rightarrow H^+H^- \rightarrow W^{\pm}W^{\mp}Zh $ and $ \mu^+\mu^- \rightarrow \gamma\gamma \rightarrow H^+H^- \rightarrow W^{\pm}W^{\mp}Zh $ . Both signal events and their significance are evaluated considering the corresponding Standard Model backgrounds. We find that the signal significances can exceed $ 5\sigma $ at several benchmark points in the viable parameter space of the Type-X THDM.

Vietnam

Dzung Tri Tran

Quang Hoang-Minh Pham

Khoa Ngo-Thanh Ho

Khiem Hong Phan

One-loop expressions for ${H^\pm \rightarrow W^\pm Z} $ and their implications at muon-TeV colliders * This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) (103.01-2023.16)

Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is a fundamental theory describing quark interactions. Thus far, various quark models based on QCD have been widely used to study the properties of hadrons, including their structures and mass spectra. However, unlike quantum electrodynamics and Bohr's model of the hydrogen atom, a direct classical analogy is lacking for hadronic structures. This paper presents a classical interpretation of the nonrelativistic quark potential model, providing a more intuitive and visualizable description of strong interactions through the quantitative formulation of color charge and color flux. In addition, we establish the relationship between meson mass and its structural radius in the nonrelativistic framework and estimate key parameters of our model using available data from $ \eta_b(1S) $ and $ \Upsilon(1S) $ . Subsequently, we extend this relationship to a broader range of excited meson states and obtain their structural radii, which show good agreement with the root mean square radius or charge radius predicted by QCD calculations.

Zhiguang Tan

Youneng Guo

Shengjie Wang

Hua Zheng

Classical interpretation of nonrelativistic quark potential model: Color charge definition and meson mass-radius relationship * Supported in part by the Department of Education (21A0541) and Natural Science Foundation (2025JJ50382) of Hunan province, China

Higgs self-coupling is crucial to understand the structure of the scalar potential and the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking. In this study, we utilize a deep neural network based on a particle Transformer model that relies on an attention mechanism to comprehensively analyze the measured trilinear Higgs self-coupling through Higgs pair production with subsequent decay into four $\textit{b}$-quarks ( $ HH\to b\bar{b}b\bar{b} $ ) at the LHC. The model processes the full event-level information as input and bypasses explicit jet pairing. It also serves as an event classifier. At HL-LHC, our approach constrains $ \kappa_\lambda $ to $ (-0.25,\,5.41) $ at 68% CL, and thus achieved an improvement of ~44% in precision over conventional cut-based analyses. The results of a comparison against alternative machine learning architectures demonstrate the outstanding performance of the Transformer-based model owing to its ability to capture correlations in high-dimensional collision data with the help of the attention mechanism. These findings highlight the potential of attention-based networks and end-to-end event classifiers in collider phenomenology.

Yongcheng Wu

Liang Xiao

Yan Zhang

Deep learning to improve the sensitivity of Higgs pair searches in the 4$\textit{b}$ channel at the LHC * Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC) (12305112)

Neutrino oscillation experiments have confirmed that neutrinos are massive particles and that lepton flavors are mixed. To explain the observed lepton mass spectra and flavor mixing patterns, flavor symmetry plays a crucial and unique role. In this paper, we propose a useful symmetry-breaking scheme by applying $S_{3L} \times S_{3R} \rightarrow $ $ S_{2L} \times S_{2R} \rightarrow \emptyset$ within both charged-lepton and neutrino sectors at the mass-matrix level. For the three distinct residual subgroups $S_{2L}^{(23)} \times S_{2R}^{(23)}$ , $S_{2L}^{(13)} \times S_{2R}^{(13)}$ , and $S_{2L}^{(12)} \times S_{2R}^{(12)}$ that are under consideration, we systematically analyze the various parameterizations of the lepton mass matrices. It is shown that all three scenarios are in good agreement with current neutrino oscillation data. Notably, within the latest best-fit values of neutrino oscillation parameters, the predicted values of the Dirac CP-violating phase $\textit{δ}$ are $294.6^\circ$ , $302.3^\circ$ , and $287.0^\circ$ , respectively. To further assess the viability of the model, a comprehensive numerical analysis is performed by utilizing neutrino oscillation parameters at the $3\sigma$ level. It is found that the allowed ranges of $\textit{δ}$ are $281.2^\circ \rightarrow 338.7^\circ$ , $287.0^\circ \rightarrow 342.2^\circ$ , and $282.7^\circ \rightarrow 297.0^\circ$ , which all fall within its $3\sigma$ range. These results indicate that the proposed symmetry-breaking scheme $S_{3L} \times S_{3R} \rightarrow S_{2L} \times S_{2R} \rightarrow \emptyset$ can naturally explain the realistic lepton mass hierarchy and mixing pattern, thereby providing valuable theoretical perspectives for future research.

Chang-Qi Hu

Chun-Yuan Li

Xiao Liang

Xing-Hua Yang

Dai-Xing Zhang

Further study on lepton mass spectra and flavor mixing with $\textit{S}$ 3$\textit{L}$ × $\textit{S}$ 3$\textit{R}$ flavor symmetry * Supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12105162, 12305106), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2021QA058, ZR2021QA040) and the Youth Innovation Technology Project of Higher School in Shandong Province (2023KJ146)

Symmetry studies represent one of the most promising frontiers in particle physics research. This investigation focuses on exploring P and $\rm CP $ symmetries in the charm system through the measurement of asymmetry decay parameters in the three-body decay of $ \Xi_c^{+} $ . By incorporating electron and positron beam polarization effects and utilizing the helicity formalism, we characterize the decay of $ \Xi_c^{+} $ and its secondary hyperons through asymmetry decay parameters. The complete angular distribution formula for these decays is systematically derived. Our study evaluates the sensitivity of the asymmetry parameters for the $ \Xi_c^{+} \to \Xi^{-}\pi^{+}\pi^{+} $ decay channel under various data sample sizes and beam polarization scenarios. The findings establish a robust theoretical framework for future experimental studies at the Super Tau-Charm Facility, providing valuable insights for symmetry investigations in the charm sector.

Yunlu Wang

Yunlong Xiao

Pengcheng Hong

Ronggang Ping

Study of P and CP symmetries in ${ \boldsymbol\Xi^{\bf +}_{\boldsymbol c}\rightarrow \boldsymbol\Xi^-\boldsymbol\pi^+\boldsymbol\pi^+ }$ at electron-positron collider

In this work, we investigate possible bound states in the $ D_s\bar{D}_s $ system using the Bethe-Salpeter (BS) formalism within both the ladder and instantaneous approximations. By numerically solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation with a kernel that incorporates contributions from $\textit{ϕ}$ and $ J/\psi $ meson exchanges, we confirm the existence of a loosely bound state. Furthermore, we explore the partial decay widths of the $ D_s\bar{D}_s $ bound state into the $ D\bar{D} $ , $ \eta_c\eta $ , and $ J/\psi\omega $ channels, and observe that these widths are sensitive to the model parameter $\textit{α}$. Notably, we find the dominant decay channel for the $ D_s\bar{D}_s $ bound state to be $ D\bar{D} $ .

Jing-Juan Qi

Zhen-Yang Wang

Zhu-Feng Zhang

Xin-Heng Guo

The properties of the $\textit{S}$-wave D$_{s}$ D $_{s}$ bound state * Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12405115, 12275024, 12105149)