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

France

Thomas Adam

Germany

Kai Adamowicz

China

David Adey

Pakistan

Shakeel Ahmad

Rizwan Ahmed

Finland

Timo Ahola

Italy

Sebastiano Aiello

Fengpeng An

Guangpeng An

United Kingdom

Costas Andreopoulos

Giuseppe Andronico

João Pedro Athayde Marcondes de André

Russia

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 work, gravitational lensing in the weak and strong field limits is investigated for black hole spacetime within the framework of Hu–Sawicki ( ) gravity. We employ the Ishihara et al. approach for weak lensing and adopt Bozza’s method for strong lensing to explore the impact of Hu–Sawicki model parameters on lensing phenomenon. The deflection angles are computed and analyzed in both the field limits. Our investigation in the weak as well as the strong lensing reveals that in the case of Hu–Sawicki black holes, photons exhibit divergence at smaller impact parameters for different values of the model parameters compared to the Schwarzschild scenario and the photon experiences negative deflection angle when impact parameter moves towards the larger impact parameter values. Additionally, by calculating strong lensing coefficients we study their behavior with model parameters. The strong lensing key observables associated with the lensing effect viz. the angular position $$\vartheta _{\infty }$$ , angular separation and relative magnification $$r_\text {mag}$$ are estimated numerically by extending the analysis to supermassive black holes $$\text {SgrA}^*$$ and $$\text {M87}^*$$ and analyzed their behavior concerning the parameters for each black hole. The analysis shows that $$\text {SgrA}^*$$ demonstrates larger values of $$\vartheta _{\infty }$$ and relative to $$\text {M87}^*$$ .

India

Gayatri Mohan

Nashiba Parbin

Umananda Goswami

Investigating the effects of gravitational lensing by Hu-Sawicki $$\varvec{f(R)}$$ gravity black holes

We study the propagation of massless fermionic fields, implementing a family of special functions: Heun functions, in solving the wave equation in three three-dimensional backgrounds, including the BTZ black hole in string theory and Lifshitz black hole solutions in conformal gravity and Hu–Sawicki ( ) theory. The main properties of the selected black hole solutions is that their line elements are Weyl related to that of a homogeneous spacetime, whose spatial part possesses Lie symmetry, described by Lobachevsky-type geometry with arbitrary negative Gaussian curvature. Using the Weyl symmetry of massless Dirac action, we consider the perturbation equations of fermionic fields in relation to those of the homogeneous background, which having definite singularities, are transformed into Heun’s equation. We point out the existence of quasinormal modes labeled by the accessory parameter of the Heun function. The distribution of the quasinormal modes has been clarified to satisfy the boundary conditions that require ingoing and decaying waves at the event horizon and conformal infinity, respectively. It turned out that the procedure based on the Heun function, beside reproducing the previously known results obtained via hypergeometric function for the BTZ and Lifshitz black hole solution in conformal gravity, brings up new families of quasinormal frequencies, which can also contain purely imaginary modes. Also, the analysis of the quasinormal modes shows that with the negative imaginary part of complex frequencies $$\omega =\omega _{Re}+i\omega _{Im}$$ , the fermionic perturbations are stable in this background.

Iran

F. Naderi

A. Rezaei-Aghdam

Quasinormal modes of three $$(2+1)$$ -dimensional black holes in string theory, conformal gravity, and Hu–Sawicki

We derive novel black hole solutions in a modified gravity theory, namely the Hu–Sawicki model of f(R) gravity. After obtaining the black hole solution, we study the horizon radius of the black hole from the metric and then analyse the dependence of the model parameters on the horizon. We then use the 6th order WKB method to study the quasinormal modes of oscillations (QNMs) of the black hole perturbed by a scalar field. The dependence of the amplitude and damping part of the QNMs are analysed with respect to variations in model parameters and the error associated with the QNMs are also computed. After that we study some thermodynamic properties associated with the black hole such as its thermodynamic temperature as well as greybody factors. It is found that the black hole has the possibility of showcasing negative temperatures and is thermodynamically unstable for feasible values of model parameters. Then we analyse the geodesics and derive the photon sphere radius as well as the shadow radius of the black hole. The photon radius is independent of the model parameters while shadow radius showed fair amount of dependence on the model parameters. We tried to constrain the parameters with the help of Keck and VLTI observational data and obtained some bounds on m and  $$c_{2}$$  <math> <msub> <mi>c</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </math>   parameters.

Ronit Karmakar

Quasinormal modes, thermodynamics and shadow of black holes in Hu–Sawicki  $$\varvec{f(R)}$$  <math> <mrow> <mi>f</mi> <mo>(</mo> <mi>R</mi> <mo>)</mo> </mrow> </math>   gravity theory

The entanglement generated for a uniformly accelerated two-atom system in vacuum during its evolution may increase with acceleration, while that for a static one in a thermal bath always decreases monotonically with temperature. This phenomenon is named as the anti-Unruh effect in terms of the entanglement generated. In this paper, we study the effects of the interatomic interaction induced by the electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations on the entanglement dynamics of two uniformly accelerated atoms. We show that the anti-Unruh phenomenon may exist or disappear depending critically on the configuration of the orientation of the atomic polarization and the directions of the uniform acceleration and the interatomic separation. This is in sharp contrast to the scalar-field case, in which the anti-Unruh phenomenon is always lost when the environment-induced interatomic interaction is considered.

Ying Chen

Hongwei Yu

Jiawei Hu

Can anti-Unruh effect survive the environment-induced interatomic interaction?

We study, in the framework of open quantum systems, the entanglement dynamics for a quantum system composed of two uniformly accelerated Unruh-Dewitt detectors interacting with a bath of massive scalar fields in the Minkowski vacuum. We find that the entanglement evolution for the quantum system coupled with massive fields is always slower compared with that of the one coupled with massless fields, and this time-delay effect brought about by the field being massive can however be counteracted by a large enough acceleration, in contrast to the case of a static quantum system in a thermal bath, where this time delay is not affected by the temperature. Remarkably, the maximal concurrence of the quantum system generated during evolution may increase with acceleration for any inter-detector separation while that for static ones in a thermal bath decreases monotonically with temperature, and this can be considered as an anti-Unruh effect in terms of the entanglement generated.

Yuebing Zhou

Entanglement dynamics for Unruh-DeWitt detectors interacting with massive scalar fields: the Unruh and anti-Unruh effects

A direct consequence of quantization of gravity would be the existence of gravitons. Therefore, spontaneous transition of an atom from an excited state to a lower-lying energy state accompanied with the emission of a graviton is expected. In this paper, we take the gravitons emitted by hydrogen and helium in the Universe after recombination as a possible source of high frequency background gravitational waves, and calculate the energy density spectrum. Explicit calculations show that the most prominent contribution comes from the  $$3d-1s$$  <math> <mrow> <mn>3</mn> <mi>d</mi> <mo>-</mo> <mn>1</mn> <mi>s</mi> </mrow> </math>   transition of singly ionized helium  $$\mathrm {He}^{+}$$  <math> <msup> <mrow> <mi>He</mi> </mrow> <mo>+</mo> </msup> </math>  , which gives a peak in frequency at  $$\sim 10^{13}$$  <math> <mrow> <mo>∼</mo> <msup> <mn>10</mn> <mn>13</mn> </msup> </mrow> </math>   Hz. Although the corresponding energy density is too small to be detected even with state-of-the-art technology today, we believe that the spontaneous emission of  $$\mathrm {He}^{+}$$  <math> <msup> <mrow> <mi>He</mi> </mrow> <mo>+</mo> </msup> </math>   is a natural source of high frequency gravitational waves, since it is a direct consequence if we accept that the basic quantum principles we are already familiar with apply as well to a quantum theory of gravity.

High frequency background gravitational waves from spontaneous emission of gravitons by hydrogen and helium

We investigate the resonance quadrupole-quadrupole interaction between two entangled gravitationally polarizable objects induced by a bath of fluctuating quantum gravitational fields in vacuum in the framework of linearized quantum gravity. Our result shows that, the interaction energy behaves as $$r^{-5}$$ <math><msup><mi>r</mi><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn>5</mn></mrow></msup></math>  in the near regime, and oscillates with a decreasing amplitude proportional to $$r^{-1}$$ <math><msup><mi>r</mi><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msup></math>  in the far regime, where r is the distance between the two objects. Compared to the case when the two objects are in their ground states, the quantum gravitational interaction is significantly enhanced when the objects are in an entangled state. Remarkably, in the far regime, the resonance quantum gravitational interaction can give the dominating quantum correction to the Newtonian potential, since the extremum is much greater than the monopole-monopole quantum gravitational interaction.

Yongshun Hu

Puxun Wu

Resonance interaction between two entangled gravitational polarizable objects

We study the entanglement dynamics of two static atoms coupled with a bath of fluctuating scalar fields in vacuum in the cosmic string spacetime. Three different alignments of atoms, i.e. parallel, vertical, and symmetric alignments with respect to the cosmic string are considered. We focus on how entanglement degradation and generation are influenced by the cosmic string, and find that they are crucially dependent on the atom-string distance r, the interatomic separation L, and the parameter $$\nu $$ <math><mi>ν</mi></math>  that characterizes the nontrivial topology of the cosmic string. For two atoms initially in a maximally entangled state, the destroyed entanglement can be revived when the atoms are aligned vertically to the string, which cannot happen in the Minkowski spacetime. When the symmetrically aligned two-atom system is initially in the antisymmetric state, the lifetime of entanglement can be significantly enhanced as $$\nu $$ <math><mi>ν</mi></math>  increases. For two atoms which are initially in the excited state, when the interatomic separation is large compared to the transition wavelength, entanglement generation cannot happen in the Minkowski spacetime, while it can be achieved in the cosmic string spacetime when the position of the two atoms is appropriate with respect to the cosmic string and $$\nu $$ <math><mi>ν</mi></math>  is large enough.

Pingyang He

Entanglement dynamics for static two-level atoms in cosmic string spacetime

There should be quantum vacuum fluctuations of spacetime itself, if we accept that the basic quantum principles we are already familiar with apply as well to a quantum theory of gravity. In this paper, we study, in linearized quantum gravity, the quantum entanglement generation at the neighborhood of the initial time between two independent gravitationally polarizable two-level subsystems caused by fluctuating quantum vacuum gravitational fields in the framework of open quantum systems. A bath of fluctuating quantum vacuum gravitational fields serves as an environment that provides indirect interactions between the two gravitationally polarizable subsystems, which may lead to entanglement generation. We find that the entanglement generation is crucially dependent on the polarizations, i.e, they cannot get entangled in certain circumstances when the polarizations of the subsystems are different while they always can when the polarizations are the same. We also show that the presence of a boundary may render parallel aligned subsystems entangled which are otherwise unentangled in a free space. However, the presence of the boundary does not help in terms of entanglement generation if the two subsystems are vertically aligned.

Shijing Cheng

Quantum fluctuations of spacetime generate quantum entanglement between gravitationally polarizable subsystems