We evaluate discovery prospects for photophobic axion-like particles (ALPs) in the $\textit{WWjj}$ final state at the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC; $\sqrt{s}=14\ {\rm{TeV}}$ , ${\cal{L}}=3\ {\rm{ab}}^{-1}$ ). In the photophobic limit ( $g_{a\gamma\gamma}=0$ ), ALPs couple to electroweak gauge bosons and are produced in association with two jets ( $ pp\to jj\ a $ ) via both $\textit{s}$-channel electroweak exchange and vector boson fusion (VBF)–like topologies, followed by $a\to W^+W^-$ decay. We target the different-flavour dilepton mode $W^+W^- \to e^\pm\mu^\mp\nu \bar{\nu}$ with two jets and moderate missing transverse momentum. The analysis employs a two-step strategy: initial preselection that defines the signal-like final state, followed by a multivariate analysis (MVA) trained on dijet and dileptonic-$\textit{WW}$ kinematics from both the $\textit{s}$-channel and VBF-like production mechanisms to separate signal from background; the MVA threshold is optimized independently at each $m_a$ . We present 2$\textit{σ}$ and 5$\textit{σ}$ discovery sensitivities for the ALP–$\textit{W}$ coupling $g_{aWW}$ across the 170–4000 GeV mass range. For $260\ {\rm{GeV}}\le m_a\le1500\ {\rm{GeV}}$ , the 2$\textit{σ}$ (5$\textit{σ}$) sensitivity is approximately flat around $ 0.61(0.76)\ {\rm{TeV}}^{-1}$ . At large masses/couplings, the mapping between an experimental rate and a single EFT parameter $g_{aWW}$ can become UV sensitive, and we treat the extreme high-mass/high-coupling corner as an extrapolation; therefore, we also report model-independent discovery thresholds for the fiducial quantity $ \sigma(pp\to jj\ a)\times\rm{Br}(a\to W^+W^-) $ over the same mass range to enable reinterpretation for other models. These results indicate that the $WWjj$ topology offers competitive and complementary sensitivity to heavy photophobic ALPs at the HL-LHC.

China

Jiaojiao Feng

Ying-nan Mao

Kechen Wang

Discovery prospects for photophobic axion-like particles in the $\textit{WWjj}$ final state at the High-Luminosity LHC * Jiaojiao Feng and Kechen Wang are supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11905162), the Excellent Young Talents Program of the Wuhan University of Technology (40122102, 40122103) and the research program of the Wuhan University of Technology (2020IB024, 104972025KFYjc0101). Ying-nan Mao is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12205227). The simulation and analysis work of this article was completed with the computational cluster provided by the Theoretical Physics Group at the Department of Physics, School of Physics and Mechanics, Wuhan University of Technology

Using the pinch technique, we determine the one-loop vertices of weak interactions in the B-LSSM and incorporate their pinch contributions into the gauge boson self-energies. Compared to the definitions of the $\textit{S}$, $\textit{T}$, and $\textit{U}$ parameters in the Standard Model based on the $S U(2)_L \otimes U(1)_Y$ group, the corresponding parameters in the local B-L gauge symmetry (B-LSSM) are modified. We present these redefined $\textit{S}$, $\textit{T}$, and $\textit{U}$ parameters and demonstrate the convergence of the results. In the framework of the low-energy effective Lagrangian for weak interactions, the $\textit{S}$, $\textit{T}$, and $\textit{U}$ parameters can be expressed as functions of specific parameters in the B-LSSM. The updated experimental and fitting results strongly constrain the parameter space of the B-LSSM.

Sheng-Kai Cui

Ke-Sheng Sun

Yu-Li Yan

Jin-Lei Yang

Tai-Fu Feng

$\textit{S}$, $\textit{T}$, $\textit{U}$ parameters in the B-LSSM * Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Autonomous Region (2022GXNSFDA035068), the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (A2022104001), and the Foundation of Baoding University (2023Z01)

The processes of $ K^-p \to \pi^0 \pi^0 \Sigma^0 $ and $ K^- p \to \pi^0 \Lambda(1405) $ are studied within the effective Lagrangian approach. In addition to the “background” contribution from the $\textit{u}$-channel nucleon pole term, the contribution from the $ \Sigma(1660) $ resonance with spin-parity $ J^P=1/2^+ $ is also considered. For the $ K^-p \to \pi^0 \pi^0 \Sigma^0 $ reaction, we perform a calculation for the total and differential cross sections by considering the contribution from the $ \Sigma(1660) $ intermediate resonance decaying into $ \pi^0 \Lambda(1405) $ with $ \Lambda(1405) $ decaying into $ \pi^0 \Sigma^0 $ . With our model parameters, the available experimental data on both the $ K^-p \to \pi^0 \pi^0 \Sigma^0 $ and $ K^- p \to \pi^0 \Lambda(1405) $ reactions can be fairly well reproduced. It is shown that the contribution from the $ \Sigma(1660) $ resonance is necessary, and that these experimental measurements could be used to determine some properties of the $ \Sigma(1660) $ resonance.

Xing-Yi Ji

Si-Wei Liu

Wen-Tao Lyu

De-Min Li

En Wang

Ju-Jun Xie

Role of Σ(1660) in the $\textit{K}$ $^{−}$ $\textit{p}$ → $\textit{π}$ $^{0}$ $\textit{π}$ $^{0}$Σ$^{0}$ reaction * Supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFA1606703, 2024YFE0105200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12435007, 12475086, 12192263, 12361141819, 1252200936), the Natural Science Foundation of Henan (232300421140, 252300423951) and the Zhengzhou University Young Student Basic Research Projects (PhD students) (ZDBJ202522)

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

Recent experimental data from <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mi>MINER</mi><mi>ν</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">A</mi></mrow></math> on transverse kinematics observables across four different nuclear targets—carbon, oxygen, iron, and lead—have been utilized to refine the modeling of final state interaction effects in the nuwro Monte Carlo neutrino event generator. For this purpose, we have developed an event reweighting tool for future applications to adjust the strength of final-state interactions. This study highlights the requirement for stronger nucleon reinteractions than previously assumed, but it still falls within the uncertainty range observed in a study comparing proton transparency measurements. This conclusion has significant implications for both experimental and theoretical work involving nuwro.

Poland

Hemant Prasad

Jan T. Sobczyk

Rwik Dharmapal Banerjee

J. Luis Bonilla

Krzysztof M. Graczyk

Beata E. Kowal

Artur M. Ankowski

Fine-tuning final state interactions model in the nuwro Monte Carlo event generator

Gluon and graviton radiation in strong field shockwave scattering are described by effective Lipatov vertices, with the graviton Lipatov vertex proportional to the bilinear of its QCD counterpart. We show here that the $n$-particle gluon radiation spectrum can be described as a generalized Susskind–Glogower (gSG) squeezed coherent state and discuss the properties of such squeezed states. The double-copy structure of the radiative frameworks suggests that multi-graviton radiation can be similarly described as a gSG state. We examine the physical parameter space and show that very large squeezing parameters $\sim \ln ({\bar n})$ (where ${\bar n}$ is the mean graviton occupancy) are feasible for nearly minimal uncertainty configurations of the gSG state. Quantum noise in the corresponding gravitational wave spectrum is enhanced above the sensitivity of current and future gravitational wave detectors. Our results point to the importance of a comprehensive study of the strong field Lipatov regime of gravitational radiation. Abstract Published by the Jagiellonian University 2026 authors

United States

A.M. Staśto

H. Raj

R. Venugopalan

Squeezed State Radiation in Shockwave Scattering: QCD–Gravity Double Copy

We study methods for efficient preparation of approximate ground states of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>S</mi><mi>U</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>3</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> lattice gauge theory on quantum hardware. Working in a variant of the electric basis, we introduce a refinement of the irrep truncation based on the energy density of site singlets, which provides a finer gradation of simulation complexity. Using strong-coupling perturbation theory as a guide, we develop simple ansatz circuits for ground state preparation and test them via classical simulation on small lattices, including the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mn>2</mn><mo>×</mo><mn>2</mn></math> plaquette lattice in <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>d</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>2</mn></math> and the cube in <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>d</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>3</mn></math>. We contrast state fidelities and resource requirements of variational methods against adiabatic state preparation and introduce a method that hybridizes the two approaches. Finally, we report on the public release of ymcirc—a package of tools for building <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>S</mi><mi>U</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>3</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> circuits and processing measurements—and pyclebsch, a package for efficiently computing <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>S</mi><mi>U</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mi>N</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> Clebsch–Gordan coefficients.

Praveen Balaji

Cianán Conefrey-Shinozaki

Patrick Draper

Jason K. Elhaderi

Drishti Gupta

Luis Hidalgo

Andrew Lytle

Perturbation theory, irrep truncations, and state preparation methods for quantum simulations of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>U</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>3</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></mrow></math> lattice gauge theory

We investigate the radiative decay <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi mathvariant="normal">ϒ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>10753</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>γ</mi><msub><mi>X</mi><mrow><mi>b</mi><mn>0</mn></mrow></msub></math> within the framework of nonrelativistic effective field theory (NREFT). The <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi mathvariant="normal">ϒ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>10753</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> is treated as an <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mi>S</mi><mtext>−</mtext><mi>D</mi></mrow></math> mixed state of the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi mathvariant="normal">ϒ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>4</mn><mi>S</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> and <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi mathvariant="normal">ϒ</mi><mn>1</mn></msub><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>3</mn><mrow><msub><mrow><mmultiscripts><mrow><mi>D</mi></mrow><mprescripts></mprescripts><none></none><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow></mmultiscripts></mrow><mrow><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub></mrow><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math>, while the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>X</mi><mrow><mi>b</mi><mn>0</mn></mrow></msub></math> is interpreted as a weakly bound <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>B</mi><mover accent="true"><mi>B</mi><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover></math> molecule with <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msup><mi>J</mi><mrow><mi>P</mi><mi>C</mi></mrow></msup><mo>=</mo><msup><mn>0</mn><mrow><mo>+</mo><mo>+</mo></mrow></msup></math>. The decay process was assumed to occur via the intermediate meson loops involving the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>S</mi></math>-wave <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msup><mi>B</mi><mrow><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mo>*</mo><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></mrow></msup></math> and <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>P</mi></math>-wave <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msubsup><mi>B</mi><mn>1</mn><mrow><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mo>′</mo><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></mrow></msubsup></math> mesons. Our calculated results indicate that the decay <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi mathvariant="normal">ϒ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>10753</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo stretchy="false">→</mo><mi>γ</mi><msub><mi>X</mi><mrow><mi>b</mi><mn>0</mn></mrow></msub></math> is dominated by the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msubsup><mi>B</mi><mn>1</mn><mrow><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mo>′</mo><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></mrow></msubsup></math> meson loops. The partial decay width is predicted to be 0.2–1.5 keV for a binding energy range of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>ε</mi><mi>X</mi></msub><mo>=</mo><mn>0</mn><mi>–</mi><mn>10</mn><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><mi>MeV</mi></math>, corresponding to a branching fraction of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msup><mn>10</mn><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>6</mn></mrow></msup><mo>−</mo><msup><mn>10</mn><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>5</mn></mrow></msup></math>. The decay width is found to be insensitive to the full width of the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msubsup><mi>B</mi><mn>1</mn><mo>′</mo></msubsup></math> meson. Our study suggests that the radiative decay of the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi mathvariant="normal">ϒ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>10753</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math> is a promising channel to search for the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>X</mi><mrow><mi>b</mi><mn>0</mn></mrow></msub></math> state, which is crucial for testing heavy quark symmetries and understanding the exotic hadron spectrum in the bottom sector.

Yuan-Jun Gao

Shi-Dong Liu

Qi Wu

Hunting for <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>B</mi><mover accent="true"><mi>B</mi><mo stretchy="false">¯</mo></mover></math> molecular state <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>X</mi><mrow><mi>b</mi><mn>0</mn></mrow></msub></math> via radiative transition of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi mathvariant="normal">ϒ</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mn>10753</mn><mo stretchy="false">)</mo></math>

Particle correlations and femtoscopy are a rich subfield of high-energy physics. As the experimental data become more precise, there is an increasing need for the theoretical calculations to provide better and more general descriptions of the measurements. One of the important new directions is the investigation of the precise shape of the Bose–Einstein correlation functions utilizing Lévy-stable distributions. This work is a direct follow-up to our previous study, in which we developed a novel method for calculating Bose–Einstein correlation functions including the Coulomb final-state interaction. In this paper, we present a self-consistent generalization of the previous approach to non-spherical source functions and investigate the validity of the previously applied approximations assuming spherical symmetry. We present a software package that includes the calculation of a fully three-dimensional correlation function including the Coulomb interaction.

Hungary

Márton Nagy

Máté Csanád

Dániel Kincses

A self-consistent calculation of non-spherical Bose–Einstein correlation functions with Coulomb final-state interaction

We present a quantitative demonstration that, without additional theoretical and experimental efforts, realistic variations in final-state interaction (FSI) modeling may alter reconstructed neutrino-energy spectra at next-generation long-baseline experiments by amounts comparable to, or larger than, variations induced by oscillation-parameter shifts at their projected precision. Using the DUNE flux and baseline as a case study, we show that these FSI-driven distortions can mimic the effects of changes in the oscillation parameters <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi mathvariant="normal">Δ</mi><msubsup><mi>m</mi><mn>32</mn><mn>2</mn></msubsup></math> or <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msub><mi>δ</mi><mrow><mi>C</mi><mi>P</mi></mrow></msub></math>, producing a potential degeneracy. Our analysis thereby underscores the urgent need for an improved characterization of FSI to enable robust constraints from near detectors through the development of theory-driven uncertainty parameterizations benchmarked with dedicated new measurements.

Y. Liu

CERN

L. Munteanu

S. Dolan

Role of Final-State Interaction Modeling in Neutrino-Energy Reconstruction and Oscillation Measurements