We study classical background electric fields and the Schwinger effect in de Sitter space. We show that a constant electric field in de Sitter requires the photon to have a tachyonic mass proportional to the Hubble scale. This has physical implications for the induced Schwinger current that affect its IR behaviour. To study this, we recompute the Schwinger current in de Sitter space for charged fermions and minimally coupled scalars, imposing a physically consistent renormalization condition. We find a $\textit{finite and positive}$ Schwinger current even in the massless limit. This is in contrast to previous calculations in the literature, which found a negative IR divergence. We also obtain the first result for the Schwinger current of a non-minimally coupled scalar, including the conformally coupled case, which we find exhibits behaviour very similar to that of the fermion current. Our results may have physical implications for both magnetogenesis and inflationary dark matter production.

Spain

Mar Bastero-Gil

Portugal

Paulo B. Ferraz

António Torres Manso

Slovenia

Italy

Lorenzo Ubaldi

Roberto Vega-Morales

Schwinger current in de Sitter space * This work has been partially supported by Junta de Andalucía Projects P21-00199 and A-FQM-472-UGR20 (FEDER funds); SRA (10.13039/501100011033) and ERDF (PID2022-139466NB-C21) (R.V.M.); PID2022-140831NB-I00, funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FEDER, UE (M.B.G., A.T.M.); by FCT CERN (10.54499/2024.00252.CERN) (M.B.G., A.T.M., P.F.); FCT Grant No. SFRH/BD/151475/2021 and 10.54499/SFRH/BD/151475/2021 (P.F.). LU is supported by the Slovenian Research Agency under research core funding No. P1-0035 and by research grants J1-60026 and J1-4389. This article is based upon work from COST Action COSMIC WISPers CA21106, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). R.V.M. thanks the Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics (MITP) of the Cluster of Excellence PRISMA$^{+}$ (Project ID 390831469) for its hospitality and partial support during the completion of this work

The weak decays of charmonium states such as $ J/\psi $ and $ \psi(2S) $ are instrumental in probing both nonperturbative QCD dynamics and the flavor structure of the Standard Model (SM). The extreme rarity of charmonium weak decays renders them highly sensitive to physics beyond the SM, particularly in channels that are heavily suppressed in the SM, such as flavor-changing neutral-current (FCNC) decays. This review highlights the critical role of the BESIII experiment, which leverages an unprecedented data sample of over $ 10^{10} $ $ J/\psi $ and $ 2.7\times10^{9} $ $ \psi(2S) $ events to achieve leading sensitivity in searches for charmonium weak decays. We present the latest and most stringent upper limits established by BESIII on various semileptonic, nonleptonic, and FCNC charmonium weak decay channels.

China

Xu-Ze Li

Kai-Xin Fan

Zheng-Yun You

Yu Zhang

Minggang Zhao

Mini-review of charmonium weak decays at BESIII * Supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFA1606000); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (12035009, 12175321, U1932101), and the National College Students' Science and Technology Innovation Project of Sun Yat-sen University

We investigate the direct $\rm CP $ violation in the decay $ D^\pm \to \pi^\pm \pi^+ \pi^- $ incorporating the $ a_0^0(980) $ - $ f_0(980) $ mixing mechanism. The integrated mixing intensities $ \overline \xi_{fa} $ and $ \overline \xi_{af} $ are calculated using meson masses and coupling constants extracted from various theoretical models and experimental data, yielding values of appreciable magnitude. We find that when the invariant mass of the $ \pi^+\pi^- $ pair lies near the $ f_0(980) $ resonance, this isospin-breaking mechanism can enhance the $\rm CP $ asymmetry. The enhancement is particularly pronounced when the $ f_0(980) $ carries a significant $ n\bar{n} $ quark component and the $ f_0(980) $ and $ \sigma(600) $ mixing angle is approximately $ 26^\circ $ . After accounting for non-factorizable effects, we find these corrections tend to partially cancel the leading-order contributions, resulting in a suppression of the $\rm CP $ violations relative to the naive factorization predictions. It is emphasized that the $ a_0^0(980) $ - $ f_0(980) $ mixing mechanism should be taken into account in both theoretical and experimental studies of $\rm CP $ violation in $\textit{B}$ or $\textit{D}$ meson decays.

Shi-Ji Cao

Jing-Juan Qi

Yi-Fan Zhao

Chao Wang

Zhen-Yang Wang

Xin-Heng Guo

Direct CP violation in ${ {\boldsymbol D}^{\bf\pm }\to {\boldsymbol\pi}^{\bf\pm} {\boldsymbol\pi}^{\bf +} {\boldsymbol\pi}^{\bf -}} $ with ${{\boldsymbol a}_{\bf 0}^{\bf 0}{\bf (980)-}{\boldsymbol f}_{\bf 0}{\bf (980)}} $ mixing * Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12405115, 12105149, 11805153, 12275024), and the High-Level Scientific Research Fund of Ningbo University (GJPY2026032)

We constructed a four-Higgs-doublet model (4HDM) invariant under $\textit{D}$ $_{5}$ symmetry and investigated its complete neutral vacuum structure in detail. Assuming explicit CP conservation in the scalar potential, we examined whether CP symmetry can be spontaneously broken. We provided a complete list of all possible real and complex vacua, along with the constraints on the potential parameters required for each vacuum solution to exist. We also discussed the positive-definiteness conditions that the Hessian must satisfy for each vacuum to be a local minimum of the potential. The results show that, after spontaneous symmetry breaking, some complex vacua lead to spontaneous CP violation in the potential, whereas the remaining complex vacua still preserve CP conservation. Among these CP-violating complex vacua, one can be regarded as the most general form. Furthermore, we discussed the relationship between real and complex vacua.

Dong-Ping Fu

Michihisa Takeuchi

Spontaneous CP violation in the $\textit{D}$ $_{5}$-symmetric four-Higgs-doublet models * Supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the One Hundred Talent Program of Sun Yat-sen University, China, and the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (2026A1515012641)

Hadron-hadron interactions, being nonperturbative in nature, play a significant role in addressing phenomenological questions in particle physics. Femtoscopy is a powerful tool in heavy-ion collision experiments, enabling the extraction of hadron-hadron interactions via momentum-correlation functions (CFs). These CFs are typically expressed as a convolution of source functions and hadron-hadron wave functions, with the latter encoding information about the interactions. However, source functions remain poorly constrained and are commonly approximated by a Gaussian form. Reconstructing source functions from experimental correlation data constitutes an 'inverse problem.' To address this, we propose a toy model based on Tikhonov regularization. Using a square-well potential with four distinct strengths, we calculate the CFs for inputs of single Gaussian source functions and mixed Gaussian source functions. The resulting CFs are then used to reconstruct the source functions via Tikhonov regularization. Our results show that the Gaussian source function can be successfully reconstructed, highlighting the potential of this approach for extracting realistic source functions from hadron pairs of interest.

Ao-Sheng Xiong

Qi-Wei Yuan

Ming-Zhu Liu

Fu-Sheng Yu

Zhi-Wei Liu

Li-Sheng Geng

Solving the inverse source problem in femtoscopy with a toy model * Supported in part by the Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Disciplines Breakthrough Plan of the Ministry of Education of China (JYB2025XDXM204) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (W2543006, 12435007). Ming-Zhu Liu acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12575086). Zhi-Wei Liu acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12405133) and from the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (ZDSYS20230626091501002). Fu-Sheng Yu and Ao-Sheng Xiong acknowledge support from the Scientific Research Innovation Capability Support Project for Young Faculty (ZYGXQNJSKYCXNLZCXM-P2) and from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2023-stlt01, lzujbky-2024-oy02, lzujbky-2025-eyt01)

We investigate quantum field theory in Rindler space with a UV cutoff by considering a free scalar field on a lattice in Rindler coordinates. We find that the Minkowski vacuum is not exactly thermal with respect to the local lattice Rindler Hamiltonian. Nevertheless, for observables sufficiently far from the horizon, the Wightman function and the Unruh–DeWitt detector response reproduce the expected thermal behavior in the continuum limit. Thus, the Unruh effect survives operationally, even though exact thermality is lost at the state level. We also show that the Rindler vacuum energy density reproduces the standard continuum behavior away from the horizon, while the UV singularity at the horizon is replaced by a stretched-horizon contribution. Furthermore, the retarded Green function exhibits a component reflected at the stretched horizon, implying that an ingoing wave packet is reflected at a proper distance of order the cutoff. This provides an effective brick-wall picture in the UV-regulated theory. Our analysis suggests that, once a cutoff is introduced, the global Minkowski description and the wedge description based on a local Rindler Hamiltonian are no longer equivalent at the operator level.

Japan

Seiken Chikazawa

Seiji Terashima

Rindler physics with a UV cutoff on the lattice

We investigate the decays of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>B</mi></math> mesons, i.e., <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>B</mi><mi>d</mi></msub></math>, <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>B</mi><mi>s</mi></msub></math>, <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msup><mi>B</mi><mo>+</mo></msup></math>, and their antiparticles, to two light vector mesons (<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>B</mi><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><msub><mi>V</mi><mn>1</mn></msub><msub><mi>V</mi><mn>2</mn></msub></math>). We use the SU(2) <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>U</mi></math>-spin symmetry, which relates <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi mathvariant="normal">Δ</mi><mi>S</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>0</mn></math> and <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi mathvariant="normal">Δ</mi><mi>S</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>1</mn></math> decay amplitudes through the interchange <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>d</mi><mo stretchy="false">↔</mo><mi>s</mi></math> and is an approximate symmetry of the Standard Model (SM), to relate the helicity amplitudes of these decays. Treating all the helicity amplitudes for these decays, and, hence, the reduced matrix elements, as free parameters, we find an acceptable solution within the SM, although this is driven by the fact that the number of observables is smaller than what is needed for a meaningful fit. To reduce the number of free parameters, we then use some apparently reasonable and theoretically motivated approximations, like the dominance of factorizable contributions over the nonfactorizable ones and, hence, a distinct hierarchy between the helicity amplitudes. We find that once the assumption of hierarchy is imposed, there is no solution, both in the exact <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>U</mi></math>-spin limit as well as when substantial <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>U</mi></math>-spin breaking is allowed for. The tension is primarily driven by the longitudinal polarization fractions in almost all <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi mathvariant="normal">Δ</mi><mi>S</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>1</mn></math> decays, which are significantly smaller than the corresponding theoretical predictions based on the SM and <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>U</mi></math>-spin symmetry. This is particularly true for <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>B</mi><mi>s</mi></msub><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><msup><mi>K</mi><mrow><mo>*</mo><mn>0</mn></mrow></msup><mover accent="true"><msup><mi>K</mi><mrow><mo>*</mo><mn>0</mn></mrow></msup><mo stretchy="true">¯</mo></mover></math>, for which the individual disagreement with <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>U</mi></math>-spin-based expectation is more than <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mn>7</mn><mi>σ</mi></math>. Within the SM framework, the only effective resolution would be to entirely disregard the hierarchy between the longitudinal and transverse helicity amplitudes in the heavy-quark limit, as dictated by naive factorization, implying that there must be large nonfactorizable contributions to all these decay amplitudes. We also explore whether some new physics in the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>b</mi><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>s</mi></math> sector that does not respect the hierarchy among the helicity amplitudes can reduce the tension for all the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi mathvariant="normal">Δ</mi><mi>S</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>1</mn></math> modes. While the answer is partially in the affirmative, we find that, for simplistic new physics scenarios, the tension still exists and the fit remains poor enough, if the hierarchy exists among the SM amplitudes. Some possible scenarios for a complete solution of the puzzle are also suggested.

India

Debajyoti Choudhury

Suman Kumbhakar

Anirban Kundu

Soumitra Nandi

Polarization fractions in <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>B</mi><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><msub><mi>V</mi><mn>1</mn></msub><msub><mi>V</mi><mn>2</mn></msub></math>: <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>U</mi></math>-spin constraints and new physics signatures

The <italic>&#947;d</italic>&#8239;&#8594;&#8239; <italic>K</italic> 0&#923; <italic>p</italic> reaction has been studied to search for a <math altimg='si30.svg'><mrow><mover accent='true'><mi>K</mi><mo>&#175;</mo></mover><mi>N</mi><mi>N</mi></mrow></math> quasi-bound state using the LEPS2 solenoid spectrometer at SPring-8. A localized enhancement concentrated at low <italic>q</italic> is observed in the ( <italic>M</italic> <inf>&#923;<italic>p</italic></inf>, <italic>q</italic>) distribution below the <math altimg='si8.svg'><mrow><msup><mi>K</mi><mo>&#8722;</mo></msup><mi>p</mi><mi>p</mi></mrow></math> mass threshold, where <italic>M</italic> <inf>&#923;<italic>p</italic></inf> is the &#923; <italic>p</italic> invariant mass and <math altimg='si31.svg'><mrow><mrow><mi>q</mi><mo>&#8801;</mo><mo>|</mo></mrow><msub><mover accent='true'><mi>p</mi><mo>&#8594;</mo></mover><mi>&#947;</mi></msub><mo linebreak='goodbreak'>&#8722;</mo><msub><mover accent='true'><mi>p</mi><mo>&#8594;</mo></mover><msup><mi>K</mi><mn>0</mn></msup></msub><mrow><mo>|</mo><mo>=</mo><mo>|</mo></mrow><msub><mover accent='true'><mi>p</mi><mo>&#8594;</mo></mover><mrow><mstyle mathvariant='normal'><mi>&#923;</mi></mstyle><mi>p</mi></mrow></msub><mrow><mo>|</mo></mrow></mrow></math> is the momentum transfer. A two-dimensional ( <italic>M</italic> <inf>&#923;<italic>p</italic></inf>, <italic>q</italic>) fit demonstrates that the enhancement near the threshold is statistically significant, yielding a local significance of 7.3&#8201; <italic>&#963;</italic>. The enhancement is characterized by effective shape parameters including the Breit&#8211;Wigner mass <italic>M</italic> and width &#915;, and a Gaussian form-factor momentum scale <italic>Q</italic>: <math altimg='si32.svg'><mrow><mi>M</mi><mo linebreak='goodbreak'>=</mo><mn>2.354</mn><mo>&#177;</mo><mn>0.011</mn><msubsup><mrow><mo>(</mo><mrow><mtext>stat</mtext><mo>.</mo></mrow><mo>)</mo></mrow><mrow><mo>&#8722;</mo><mn>0.005</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>+</mo><mn>0.009</mn></mrow></msubsup><mrow><mo>(</mo><mrow><mtext>syst</mtext><mo>.</mo></mrow><mo>)</mo></mrow><mspace width='0.33em' /><mtext>GeV</mtext><mo linebreak='goodbreak'>/</mo><msup><mi>c</mi><mn>2</mn></msup></mrow></math>, <math altimg='si33.svg'><mrow><mstyle mathvariant='normal'><mi>&#915;</mi></mstyle><mo linebreak='goodbreak'>=</mo><mn>0.055</mn><mo>&#177;</mo><mn>0.023</mn><msubsup><mrow><mo>(</mo><mrow><mtext>stat</mtext><mo>.</mo></mrow><mo>)</mo></mrow><mrow><mo>&#8722;</mo><mn>0.009</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>+</mo><mn>0.031</mn></mrow></msubsup><mrow><mo>(</mo><mrow><mtext>syst</mtext><mo>.</mo></mrow><mo>)</mo></mrow><mspace width='0.33em' /><mtext>GeV</mtext><mo linebreak='goodbreak'>/</mo><msup><mi>c</mi><mn>2</mn></msup></mrow></math>, and <math altimg='si34.svg'><mrow><mi>Q</mi><mo linebreak='goodbreak'>=</mo><mn>0.350</mn><mo>&#177;</mo><mn>0.041</mn><msubsup><mrow><mo>(</mo><mrow><mtext>stat</mtext><mo>.</mo></mrow><mo>)</mo></mrow><mrow><mo>&#8722;</mo><mn>0.010</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>+</mo><mn>0.035</mn></mrow></msubsup><mrow><mo>(</mo><mrow><mtext>syst</mtext><mo>.</mo></mrow><mo>)</mo></mrow><mspace width='0.33em' /><mtext>GeV</mtext><mo linebreak='goodbreak'>/</mo><mi>c</mi></mrow></math>. The obtained results support the existence of a <math altimg='si30.svg'><mrow><mover accent='true'><mi>K</mi><mo>&#175;</mo></mover><mi>N</mi><mi>N</mi></mrow></math> quasi-bound state in photoproduction.

R. Kobayakawa

South Korea

J.K. Ahn

S. Ajimura

Taiwan

W.C. Chang

M.L. Chu

S. Daté

T. Gogami

T.A. Hashimoto

T. Hotta

T. Ishikawa

H. Katsuragawa

H. Kohri

Y. Ma

M. Miyabe

K. Mizutani

N. Muramatsu

T. Nakano

Vietnam

T.H. Nam

M. Niiyama

Y. Nozawa

Y. Ohashi

H. Ohkuma

H. Ohnishi

T. Ohta

Canada

C. Rangacharyulu

S.Y. Ryu

Y. Sada

H. Shimizu

M. Sumihama

S. Suzuki

S. Tanaka

A.O. Tokiyasu

N. Tomida

K. Watanabe

T. Yorita

C. Yoshida

M. Yosoi

Evidence for a <math altimg='si30.svg'><mrow><mover accent='true'><mi>K</mi><mo>&#175;</mo></mover><mi>N</mi><mi>N</mi></mrow></math> quasi-bound state in the <italic>&#947;d</italic>&#8239;&#8594;&#8239; <italic>K</italic> 0&#923; <italic>p</italic> reaction

We explore a standard model extension based on a local <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>U</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>1</mn><msub><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mi>B</mi></msub></math> symmetry, where a baryon-charged scalar mediates interactions between a fermionic dark matter candidate and standard model quarks. In this setup, the dark matter relic abundance is shaped not only by standard annihilation channels but also by additional coannihilation processes induced by a new scalar. The presence of this mediator provides a unified link between dark sector and flavor physics, yielding distinctive phenomenological consequences. We conduct a detailed study of dark matter phenomenology, emphasizing the role of the mass splitting between the dark matter particles and the scalar mediator in determining the efficiency of coannihilation. The parameter space is examined in light of existing constraints from cosmological observations, direct and indirect detection experiments, as well as the collider searches at the LHC. Our analysis shows that the extended scalar sector opens up viable regions of parameter space beyond those accessible in minimal <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>U</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>1</mn><msub><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mi>B</mi></msub></math> realizations, many of which are expected to be tested by forthcoming searches at XENONnT and the Cherenkov Telescope Array. Moreover, the model induces correlated signatures from flavor observables associated with the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mi>b</mi><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>s</mi></mrow></math> transitions as well, serving as complementary tests of the underlying framework.

 Taramati

Manas Kumar Mohapatra

Utkarsh Patel

Rukmani Mohanta

Sudhanwa Patra

Probing mixed-state dark matter and flavor observables in a scalar-assisted baryonic gauge theory

Particle physics experiments rely on the (generalised) likelihood ratio test (LRT) for searches and measurements, which consist of composite hypothesis tests. However, this test is not guaranteed to be optimal, as the Neyman–Pearson lemma pertains only to simple hypothesis tests. Any choice of test statistic thus implicitly determines how statistical power varies across the parameter space. An improvement in the core statistical testing methodology for general settings with composite tests would have widespread ramifications across experiments. We discuss an alternate test statistic that provides the data analyzer an ability to focus the power of the test on physics-motivated regions of the parameter space. We demonstrate the improvement from this technique compared to the LRT on a Higgs $$\rightarrow \tau \tau $$ dataset simulated by the ATLAS experiment and a dark matter dataset inspired by the LZ experiment. We also employ machine learning to efficiently calibrate critical values for a family of tests, which are then inverted to obtain statistically valid confidence intervals.