We show that hadron colliders have an excellent reach for positivity tests on a class of diphoton operators. Due to the helicity selection rules, the relevant dimension-6 operators either do not contribute or are highly constrained by other experimental observables. We demonstrate, for the first time, that the LHC can probe the positivity of the dimension-8 operators involving colored particles. The kinematic differential distributions of the diphoton final states are utilized to perform the $ \chi^2$ analysis. Through a global fit, the effective scale for these operators can be inclusively probed up to around 2 TeV at HL-LHC and over 5 TeV at future 100 TeV FCC-hh at 95% C.L., providing a powerful test of the positivity bounds up to the multi-TeV scale.

United States

Zhen Liu

Kun-Feng Lyu

Tong Arthur Wu

LHC shines on positivity * Zhen Liu and Kun-Feng Lyu are supported in part by U.S. Department of Energy (DESC0011842); Zhen Liu is also supported in part by a Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at the University of Minnesota

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.

China

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)

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.

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

Positive and negative flows of the Chen-Lee-Liu model and its various reductions, including Burgers hierarchy, are formulated within the framework of Riemann-Hilbert-Birkhoff decomposition with the constant grade two generator. Two classes of vacua, namely zero vacuum and constant non-zero vacuum can be realized within a centerless Heisenberg algebra. The tau functions for soliton solutions are obtained by a dressing method and vertex operators are constructed for both types of vacua. We are able to select and classify the soliton solutions in terms of the type of vertices involved. A judicious choice of vertices yields in a closed form a particular set of multi soliton solutions for the Burgers hierarchy. We develop and analyze a class of gauge-Bäcklund transformations that generate further multi soliton solutions from those obtained by dressing method by letting them interact with various integrable defects.

Brazil

Ireland

Y.F. Adans

H. Aratyn

C.P. Constantinidis

J.F. Gomes

G.V. Lobo

T.C. Santiago

New soliton solutions for Chen-Lee-Liu and Burgers hierarchies and its Bäcklund transformations

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

<p>We present a quantum quadratic gravity inflationary scenario that can accommodate the new cosmological constraints, which have disfavored Starobinsky inflation. The theory is asymptotically free in the ultraviolet, but 1-loop running is found to dynamically lead to slow-roll inflation toward the infrared. When a large number of matter fields contribute to the beta functions, the spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio can be phenomenologically viable. We find that as inflation ends, the theory approaches its strong coupling regime and general relativity must emerge, as an effective field theory, as the universe must reheat and enter its standard radiation era. In order to avoid strong coupling, a minimum tensor-to-scalar ratio of 0.01 is predicted for this theory. Our framework offers a laboratory for connecting a concrete ultraviolet completion (quantum quadratic gravity) with inflationary dynamics, reheating, and precise cosmological observations.</p>

Canada

Ruolin Liu

Jerome Quintin

Niayesh Afshordi

Ultraviolet Completion of the Big Bang in Quadratic Gravity

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)

We study the inelastic charmonium ( $ J/\psi $ , $ \psi(2S) $ ) and bottomonium ( $ \Upsilon(nS) $ ) photoproduction and fragmentation processes in $\textit{p}$-$\textit{p}$ and $ \rm Pb$ - $\rm Pb$ collisions at LHC energies, where the ultra-incoherent photon emission is included. Using the NRQCD factorization approach, an exact treatment is developed. This approach recovers the Weizsäcker-Williams approximation (WWA) near the $ Q^{2}\sim0 $ region, where the Martin-Ryskin and BCCKL methods are used to avoid double counting. We calculated the $ Q^{2} $ , $\textit{y}$, $\textit{z}$, $ \sqrt{s} $ , and $ p_{T} $ dependent and total cross sections. Inelastic photoproduction and fragmentation were observed to contribute to heavy quarkonium production, particularly at large $ p_{T} $ . In addition, the contribution of the ultra-incoherent photon channel, which increases rapidly with quarkonium mass, is significant and begins to dominate the photoproduction processes for large $ p_{T} $ . We also obtained the complete WWA validity scopes of inelastic heavy quarkonium photoproduction in heavy-ion collisions. The WWA had high accuracy at high energies and for $\rm Pb $ - $\rm Pb $ collisions. However, current photon spectra are derived beyond the WWA scope, and double counting can occur when considering different channels simultaneously.

Zhi-Lei Ma

Zhun Lu

Hao Liu

Li Zhang

Inelastic heavy quarkonium photoproduction in $\textit{p}$-$\textit{p}$ and Pb-Pb collisions at LHC energies * Supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12305092, 12233006, 12150013), the Xingdian Talent Support Program for Youth Project, and by the Yunnan Fundamental Research Projects (202401AU070206). Hao Liu is supported by the Scientific Research and Innovation Project of Postgraduate Students in the Academic Degree of YunNan University (KC-242410212)

The neutrino floor, a theoretical sensitivity limit for dark matter (DM) direct detection, is being redefined as the boundary of a dynamic ''neutrino fog,'' where neutrino signals become inevitable, obscuring DM detection due to statistical and systematic uncertainties. This study provides the first site-specific analysis of the neutrino floor at China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL), leveraging its unique geographic and environmental characteristics. We quantify how CJPL’s suppressed atmospheric neutrino flux (approximately 30% lower than that of Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS)) reshapes the neutrino floor, thereby enabling improved sensitivity to high-mass WIMPs (mass > 10 GeV). Using a gradient-based framework, we derive the CJPL’s neutrino floor and estimate the detection prospects for the PandaX-xT experiment. Our results demonstrate that a 500 tonne-year exposure with PandaX-xT could reach the floor, probing spin independent cross-sections down to $ \sigma_{n}\sim 3\times 10^{-49}\; {\rm{cm}}^2$ at a DM mass of 70 GeV/$\textit{c}$ $^{2}$.

Yingjie Fan

Xuewen Liu

Ning Zhou

Characterizing the CJPL’s site-specific neutrino floor as the neutrino fog boundary * Xuewen Liu is supported by the Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program (2022KJ271). Ning Zhou is supported by National Science Foundation of China (12325505)

We analyzed two-loop planar contributions to a three-body form factor at next-to-leading power in the high-energy limit, where the masses of the external particles are much smaller than their energies. Calculations were performed by exploiting differential equations for the expansion coefficients, both to facilitate linear relations among them and to derive their analytic expressions. The results are expressed in terms of generalized polylogarithms involving a few simple symbol letters. Our method can readily be applied to calculations of non-planar contributions as well. Our results provide crucial information for establishing sub-leading factorization theorems for massive scattering amplitudes in the high-energy limit.

Yishuai Guo

Zhi-Feng Liu

Mingming Lu

Tianya Xia

Li-Lin Yang

A three-body form factor at sub-leading power in the high-energy limit: planar contributions * Supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Sunder (12375097, 12347103) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. Zhi-Feng Liu was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2023M733123, 2023TQ0282) and the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation