We present the first calculation of the next-to-leading-order electroweak corrections to vector-boson scattering into doubly polarised Z bosons at the LHC in the fully leptonic decay channel. The production and decay of the two polarised Z bosons are consistently modelled in the double-pole approximation, separating polarisation states at the amplitude level and including factorisable real and virtual electroweak corrections. Doubly polarised and unpolarised signals are investigated and confronted with off-shell results. A broad analysis, including results at integrated and differential level, is carried out in a realistic, CMS-inspired fiducial setup. Our study paves the way to upcoming analyses with LHC Run-3 and High-Luminosity data as well as to further phenomenological investigations.

Germany

Ansgar Denner

Robert Franken

Santiago Chavez

Italy

Daniele Lombardi

Giovanni Pelliccioli

The cleanest of them all: NLO electroweak corrections to vector-boson scattering into doubly polarised ZZ pairs at the LHC

This paper is an extension of the results presented in [1]. We study $\textit{G}$ -invariant subsectors of maximal gauged supergravities and show that such models can provide consistent truncations even when $\textit{G}$ is not a symmetry of the original supergravity. We show that this construction is key to building pure supergravities around a supersymmetric AdS solution. We illustrate this construction by building a consistent 𝒩 = 4 subsector of the $\textit{D}$ = 4 𝒩 = 8 [SO(6) × SO(1, 1)] ⋉ ℝ gauged supergravity. We use this result to build the uplift of the multicharge spindle solutions in type IIB and we define a simple criterion for assessing the regularity of the uplift. We show that the type IIB uplift of the spindle is always non-regular, admitting eight codimension-six orbifold singularities. We apply the same criterion to other spindle uplifts, recovering known results and making predictions on the regularity of spindles on (quasi-)regular SE manifolds.

South Africa

Anik Rudra

Belgium

Colin Sterckx

Mario Trigiante

Consistent truncations from duality symmetries and desingularization of orbifold uplifts

We use holography to study dS-invariant states of non-conformal, strongly coupled quantum field theories in four-dimensional de Sitter space. We show that out-of-equilibrium effects can sustain the exponential inflation within the regime of validity of semiclassical gravity, $\textit{H}$ ≪$\textit{ M}$ ≪ $\textit{M}$ , with $\textit{H}$ the Hubble parameter, $\textit{M}$ the characteristic scale of the quantum field theory, $\textit{M}$ = $\textit{M}$ $\textit{/N}$ the species scale, $\textit{M}$ the Planck scale, and $\textit{N}$ the number of matter fields. In the holographic description, the required fine-tuning scales only logarithmically with the ratio $\textit{M}$ $\textit{/H}$. The resulting solutions exhibit apparent horizons whose increasing area indicates a continuous growth of the comoving entropy density. We suggest that this inflationary regime can arise as the late-time limit of a dynamical evolution starting from an initial Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker universe.

Spain

Jorge Casalderrey-Solana

Lucía Castells-Tiestos

Jéssica Gonçalves

David Mateos

Self-sustained, out-of-equilibrium inflation

We study the impact of multiple vector-like fermions in SU(5) grand unified theory (GUT). Threshold effects from extra fermions allow the observed gauge couplings to be consistently matched to a single unified gauge coupling, and typically raise the unification scale to $\textit{M}$ ≃ 10 GeV. Because the Standard Model fermions arise as admixtures of several GUT multiplets, the nucleon decay operator coefficients are further suppressed, leading to longer proton lifetimes than in conventional GUTs. We also find that the admixture of multiple GUT multiplets relaxes the rigid Yukawa relations of conventional GUTs and alleviates the bottom-tau unification problem. Overall, our analysis demonstrates that multi-fermion SU(5) GUTs provide a testable framework that simultaneously reconciles gauge coupling unification, realistic flavor structures, and proton stability. Our results highlight the importance of probing multiple proton-decay channels in next-generation experiments such as Hyper-Kamiokande to critically test this scenario.

Japan

Akifumi Chitose

Ko Hirooka

Masahiro Ibe

Satoshi Shirai

Fermion multiplicities at the GUT scale: a statistical study of unification and proton decay

We apply the localization method to the BFSS matrix model with a particular class of boundary conditions, that is related to a scattering problem of 11-dimensional M-theory. For the boundary condition that corresponds to the three-point amplitude of gravitons, we exactly compute the partition function of the model based on the localization method. We find that the result correctly reproduces the expected momentum dependence of the three point amplitude.

Yuhma Asano

Goro Ishiki

Yoshua Murayama

Localization of the BFSS matrix model and three-point amplitude in M-theory

We apply artificial neural networks to the holographic inverse problem, reconstructing bulk geometry from boundary entanglement entropy by using the Ryu–Takayanagi area functional as a differentiable loss. Validated on the AdS-Schwarzschild background, this approach recovers the blackening factor with maximum absolute error below 3 × 10 across the entire bulk, reproducibly over independent training runs. For finite-density backgrounds like the Gubser–Rocha model, we demonstrate that equal-time strip entanglement entropy determines only the spatial metric. We resolve this exact one-function degeneracy by incorporating holographic Wilson loop data, which couples to the timelike metric. We present a semi-analytical inversion combining Bilson’s and Hashimoto’s formulas, alongside a general three-network variational method minimizing the combined area and Nambu–Goto actions. The neural network achieves maximum relative errors below 0$\textit{.}$2% for both metric functions without closed-form derivative relations, and accommodates additional holographic observables at the cost of one extra network and loss term.

Bulgaria

Veselin Filev

Holographic entanglement entropy, Wilson loops, and neural networks

We use vNRQCD to study power corrections in the v expansion due to soft gluon radiation during $\textit{J/ψ}$ production at small transverse momentum. We categorize four new $\textit{J/ψ}$ production operators that mediate the transition of perturbatively produced color-octet charm quark/anti-quark pairs to charm quarks in a $${}^{3}{S}_{1}^{\left[1\right]}$$ state via soft gluon emission. We then use Soft Collinear Effective Theory and vNRQCD to derive a factorization theorem for $\textit{J/ψ}$ production in SIDIS in terms of the gluon transverse momentum dependent (TMD) PDFs in the proton and new objects which we call TMD soft transition functions. We show that the TMD soft transition function leads in the v power-counting with respect to the color-octet TMD shape functions that have been used in previous studies of $\textit{J/ψ}$ production at small transverse momentum.

United States

Marston Copeland

Sean Fleming

Reed Hodges

The role of the soft scale for $\textit{J/ψ}$ production in the transverse momentum dependent framework

We constrain three holographic-inspired dark energy models, namely holographic dark energy (HDE), agegraphic dark energy (ADE), and Ricci dark energy (RDE), using late-time observations from cosmic chronometers, Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), DESI DR2 baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), and redshift-space distortion (RSD) growth measurements. Five data combinations are considered: $$H(z)+$$ Pantheon+, $$H(z)+$$ DESI DR2+Pantheon+, $$H(z)+$$ DESI DR2+DES-Dovekie, $$H(z)+$$ DESI DR2+DESY5, and $$H(z)+$$ DESI DR2+DES-Dovekie+RSD. We perform Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo parameter estimation and compare the models with AIC and BIC. In the BAO-included combinations, HDE gives $$H_0\simeq 67.3$$ – $$68.0~\mathrm {~km~s^{-1}~Mpc^{-1}}$$ , $$\Omega _{m0}\simeq 0.270$$ –0.272, and $$c\simeq 1$$ , indicating an expansion history close to the de Sitter boundary rather than a robust phantom regime. ADE yields a stable agegraphic parameter $$n\simeq 2.78$$ –2.81, while RDE gives $$\gamma \simeq 0.53$$ –0.55 and persistently favors a low matter density, $$\Omega _{m0}\simeq 0.215$$ –0.219. Treating $$r_d$$ as a free parameter reveals a strong negative correlation between $$H_0$$ and $$r_d$$ , and the RSD-included combination provides a growth-level consistency check through $$f\sigma _8(z)$$ without constituting a full perturbative stability analysis. None of the three models significantly alleviates the Hubble tension. Overall, HDE shows the most balanced phenomenological behavior among the three models, although current late-time data do not decisively prefer it over $$\Lambda \text {CDM}$$ .

China

Jiayuan Huang

Tonghua Liu

Chenggang Shao

Late-time cosmological constraints on three holographic dark energy models with DESI DR2 BAO and Type Ia supernovae

We investigate the radial motion and tidal forces experienced by neutral test particles in multi-horizon black hole solutions arising from Einstein gravity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics (NED). Focusing on the three- and four-horizon configurations, we examine how nonlinear electromagnetic corrections modify the causal structure, radial geodesic motion, and tidal-force profiles in comparison with the Schwarzschild and Reissner–Nordström (R–N) spacetimes. Our analysis shows that the NED field gives rise to multiple zero crossings in both the radial and angular tidal-force components, leading to successive transitions between stretching and compressive tidal regimes. More importantly, the radial equation of motion contains classically forbidden regions bounded by bounce-back points. For the class of trajectories considered in this work, these forbidden regions prevent particles from entering the spacetime domain where the tidal forces become divergent. In the super-extremal regime admitted by these solutions, the forbidden region may extend beyond the event horizon, preventing particles released from rest at sufficiently large distances from crossing the horizon. We further identify a systematic ordering of the critical charge values associated with the appearance of tidal-force zero crossings, additional horizons, and bounce-back points. For both the three- and four-horizon configurations, these critical values satisfy a hierarchical ordering, indicating that changes in the tidal-force structure precede the corresponding modifications of the horizon configuration. These results demonstrate that nonlinear electrodynamics can substantially modify the classical dynamics of neutral particles in multi-horizon black hole spacetimes through the combined effects of forbidden regions, multiple tidal transitions, and changes in the horizon structure.

Iran

Mohammad Afshar

J. Sadeghi

Beyond the bounce: multiple tidal sign reversals and turning-point bifurcations in multi-horizon black holes

<p>The decay <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><msub><mrow><mi>η</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>c</mi></mrow></msub><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>p</mi><mover accent="true"><mrow><mi>p</mi></mrow><mrow><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mrow></mover><mi>η</mi></mrow></math> is observed for the first time with a significance of exceeding <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mn>10</mn><mi>σ</mi></math>. It is found by analyzing <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>2712.4</mn><mo>±</mo><mn>14.3</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>×</mo><msup><mn>10</mn><mn>6</mn></msup><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><mi>ψ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>3686</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> events accumulated at the BESIII detector. The measured branching fraction of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>η</mi><mi>c</mi></msub><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>p</mi><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover><mi>η</mi></math> via <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>ψ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>3686</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>γ</mi><mi>p</mi><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover><mi>η</mi></math> is significantly influenced by the interference between the resonant <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>η</mi><mi>c</mi></msub></math> decay and the nonresonant process <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>ψ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>3686</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>γ</mi><mi>p</mi><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover><mi>η</mi></math> and is measured in both constructive- and destructive-interference scenarios. The joint branching fraction of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>ψ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>3686</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>γ</mi><msub><mi>η</mi><mi>c</mi></msub></math>, <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>η</mi><mi>c</mi></msub><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>p</mi><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover><mi>η</mi></math> is measured to be <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>3.2</mn><mo>±</mo><mn>0.1</mn><mo>±</mo><mn>0.8</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>×</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>6</mn></mrow></msup></mrow></math> or <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>8.7</mn><mo>±</mo><mn>0.3</mn><mo>±</mo><mn>1.7</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>×</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>6</mn></mrow></msup></mrow></math> for constructive- or destructive-interference solutions, respectively, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The branching fraction of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>η</mi><mi>c</mi></msub><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>p</mi><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover><mi>η</mi></math> is determined to be <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi mathvariant="script">B</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><msub><mi>η</mi><mi>c</mi></msub><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>p</mi><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover><mi>η</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>=</mo><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>0.90</mn><mo>±</mo><mn>0.04</mn><mo>±</mo><mn>0.21</mn><mo>±</mo><mn>0.13</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>×</mo><msup><mn>10</mn><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>3</mn></mrow></msup></math> or <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>2.42</mn><mo>±</mo><mn>0.07</mn><mo>±</mo><mn>0.48</mn><mo>±</mo><mn>0.34</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo>×</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>3</mn></mrow></msup></mrow></math> for the two solutions, respectively, where the third uncertainties are due to the uncertainty in the branching fraction of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>ψ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>3686</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>γ</mi><msub><mi>η</mi><mi>c</mi></msub></math>.</p>

M. Ablikim

Russia

M.N. Achasov

Sweden

P. Adlarson

X.C. Ai

C.S. Akondi

R. Aliberti

A. Amoroso

Q. An

Y.H. An

M.S. Anderson

Y. Bai

JINR

O. Bakina

H.R. Bao

X.L. Bao

M. Barbagiovanni

Poland

V. Batozskaya

Mongolia

K. Begzsuren

N. Berger

M. Berlowski

M.B. Bertani

D. Bettoni

F. Bianchi

E. Bianco

A. Bortone

I. Boyko

R.A. Briere

A. Brueggemann

D. Cabiati

H. Cai

M.H. Cai

X. Cai

A. Calcaterra

G.F. Cao

N. Cao

Türkiye

S.A. Cetin

X.Y. Chai

J.F. Chang

T.T. Chang

G.R. Che

Y.Z. Che

C.H. Chen

Chao Chen

G. Chen

H.S. Chen

H.Y. Chen

M.L. Chen

S.J. Chen

S.M. Chen

T. Chen

W. Chen

X.R. Chen

X.T. Chen

X.Y. Chen

Y.B. Chen

Y.Q. Chen

Z.K. Chen

J. Cheng

L.N. Cheng

South Korea

S.K. Choi

X. Chu

G. Cibinetto

F. Cossio

United Kingdom

J. Cottee-Meldrum

H.L. Dai

J.P. Dai

X.C. Dai

A. Dbeyssi

R.E. de Boer

D. Dedovich

C.Q. Deng

Z.Y. Deng

A. Denig

I. Denisenko

M. Destefanis

F. De Mori

E. Di Fiore

X.X. Ding

Y. Ding

Y.X. Ding

J. Dong

L.Y. Dong

M.Y. Dong

X. Dong

Z.J. Dong

M.C. Du

S.X. Du

Shaoxu Du

X.L. Du

Y.Q. Du

Y.Y. Duan

Z.H. Duan

P. Egorov

G.F. Fan

J.J. Fan

Y.H. Fan

J. Fang

Jin Fang

S.S. Fang

W.X. Fang

Y.Q. Fang

Observation of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>η</mi><mi>c</mi></msub><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>p</mi><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover><mi>η</mi></math> via <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>ψ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>3686</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>γ</mi><mi>p</mi><mover accent="true"><mi>p</mi><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover><mi>η</mi></math>