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).

China

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>

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

We present the first lattice result of the near threshold $ \Lambda_c\Lambda_c $ scattering with $ I(J^P) = 0(0^+) $ . The calculation is performed on two $ N_f = 2+1 $ Wilson-Clover ensembles with pion mass $ m_\pi \sim 303 $ MeV and lattice spacing $ a = 0.07746 $ fm. Lüscher's finite volume method is utilized to extract the scattering parameters from the finite-volume spectrum. The coupled channel $ \Xi_{cc}N $ is ignored in the scattering analysis based on the observation that the energy levels computed from the $ \Lambda_c\Lambda_c $ and $ \Xi_{cc}N $ operators do not mix. The $ \Sigma_c\Sigma_c $ channel is not included either since the energy range explored in this study is well below its threshold. Our results indicate that the interaction in the $ \Lambda_c\Lambda_c $ single channel is repulsive, and the scattering length is determined to be $ a_0 = -0.21(4)(8) $ fm, where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic.

Hanyang Xing

Yiqi Geng

Chuan Liu

Liuming Liu

Peng Sun

Jiajun Wu

Zhicheng Yan

Ruilin Zhu

Lattice QCD study of Λ $\textit{c}$ Λ $\textit{c}$ scattering * Supported by NSFC (12293060, 12293061, 12293063, 12175279, 12435002, 12322503, 12175239). L. Liu also acknowledges the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences with (XDB34030301) and Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (2020B0301030008). We also acknowledge the Science and Education Integration Young Faculty Project of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (YSBR-101)

<p>We explore the possibility that quadratic gravity, as a renormalizable theory, describes the interior of quantum black holes. We find new exact power-law solutions to pure quadratic gravity under spherical symmetry, which are complex valued. The resulting solutions, dubbed powerballs, are horizonless compact objects that become Schwarzschild-like a small distance (of the order of the Planck length) outside the would-be Schwarzschild horizon. We present a description of the global eternal geometry, whose right and left exteriors are Lorentzian and Euclidean Schwarzschild-like regions, respectively, while the complex interior is a form of spiraling spacetime. We compute the total on-shell action integral as a saddle point to a gravitational path integral and discuss the Lorentzian and Euclidean interpretations thereof.</p>

Canada

Conformal cores of quantum black holes in quadratic gravity

This exploratory study computes two-photon decay widths of pseudo-scalar (
					) and scalar (
					) charmonium using two ensembles of 
					 twisted mass lattice QCD gauge configurations. The simulation is performed using two lattice ensembles with lattice spacings 
					 fm with size 
					 and 
					 fm with size 
					. The decay widths for the two charmonia are obtained within the expected ballpark, but are however smaller than the experimental ones. Possible reasons for these discrepancies are discussed.
				

Ying Chen

Ming Gong

Ning Li

Yu-Bin Liu

Zhaofeng Liu

Jian-Ping Ma

Yu Meng

Chao Xiong

Ke-Long Zhang

Lattice study of two-photon decay widths for scalar and pseudo-scalar charmonium This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (11335001, 11275169, 11405178, 11935017, 11575196, 11875169, 11775229). It is also supported in part by the DFG and the NSFC (11261130311) through funds provided to the Sino-Germen CRC 110 symmetries and the Emergence of Structure in QCD. This work is also funded in part by National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2015CB856700). M. Gong and Z. Liu are partially supported by the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS (2013013). This work is also supported by the Scientific Research Program Funded by Shaanxi Provincial Education Department (19JK0391) andNatural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (2019JM-001)

Using the one-boson-exchange model, we investigate the , , , , , and interactions by considering the one-eta-exchange and/or one-pion-exchange contributions. We further predict the existence of hidden-charm molecular pentaquarks. Promising candidates for hidden-charm molecular pentaquarks include a state with and the states with and . Experimental searches for these predicted hidden-charm molecular pentaquarks are an interesting future research topic for experiments like LHCb.

Rui Chen

Jun He

Xiang Liu

Possible strange hidden-charm pentaquarks from and interactionsSupported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11222547, 11175073, 11675228), Major State Basic Research Development Program in China (2014CB845405) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. Xiang Liu is also supported by the National Program for Support of Top-notch Young Professionals