In two-dimensional models of critical non-intersecting loops, there are \ell ℓ -leg fields that insert \ell∈\mathbb{N}^* ℓ ∈ ℕ * open loop segments, and diagonal fields that change the weights of closed loops. We conjecture an exact formula for 3-point functions of such fields on the sphere. In the cases of diagonal or spinless 2-leg fields, the conjecture agrees with known results from Conformal Loop Ensembles. We numerically compute 3-point functions in loop models on cylindrical lattices, using transfer matrix techniques. The results agree with the conjecture in almost all cases. We attribute the few discrepancies to difficulties that can arise in our lattice computation when the relevant modules of the unoriented Jones-Temperley–Lieb algebra have degenerate ground states.

Dispersion relations let us leverage the analytic structure of scattering amplitudes to derive constraints such as bounds on EFT coefficients. An important input is the large-energy behavior of the amplitude. In this paper, we systematically study how different large-energy behavior affects EFT bounds for the 2 \to 2 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mo>→</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> amplitude of complex scalars coupled to photons, gravity, both, or neither. In many cases we find that singly-subtracted dispersion relations yield exactly the same bounds as doubly subtracted relations. However, we identify another assumption, which we call “ t <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>t</mml:mi> </mml:math> -channel dominance,” that significantly strengthens the EFT bounds. This assumption, which amounts to the requirement that the ++ \to ++ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mo>→</mml:mo> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> amplitude has no s <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>s</mml:mi> </mml:math> -channel exchange, is justified in certain cases and is analogous to the condition that the isospin-2 channel does not contribute to the pion amplitude. Using this assumption in the absence of massless exchanges, we find that the allowed region for the complex scalar EFT is identical to one recently discussed for pion scattering at large- N <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:math> . We also study gravity, where we consider smeared dispersion relations to handle the t <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>t</mml:mi> </mml:math> -channel pole. In the case of a gauge field, we are able to derive a number of interesting bounds. These include an upper bound for G <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>G</mml:mi> </mml:math> in terms of the gauge coupling e^2 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>e</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:math> and the leading dispersive EFT coefficient, which is reminiscent of the weak gravity conjecture. In the e \to 0 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>e</mml:mi> <mml:mo>→</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> limit, we find that assuming smeared 1SDRs plus t <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>t</mml:mi> </mml:math> -channel dominance restores positivity on the leading EFT coefficient whose positivity was spoiled by the inclusion of gravity. We interpret this to mean that the negativity of that coefficient in the presence of gravity would imply that the global U(1) <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>U</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="prefix">(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="postfix">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> symmetry must be gauged.

We study properties of a hypothetical scalar particle, \Theta <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>Θ</mml:mi> </mml:math> , which is a color octet and an electroweak singlet. At hadron colliders, \Theta <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>Θ</mml:mi> </mml:math> is pair produced through its QCD coupling to gluons, so that its mass determines the cross section. It decays at tree level into q\bar q <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>q</mml:mi> <mml:mover> <mml:mi>q</mml:mi> <mml:mo accent="true">‾</mml:mo> </mml:mover> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> through dimension-5 operators, and at one loop into gluons. Thus, the main LHC signature of \Theta <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>Θ</mml:mi> </mml:math> is a pair of dijets of equal invariant mass. The CMS search in this channel shows a 3.6\sigma <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>3.6</mml:mn> <mml:mi>σ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> excess over the QCD background for a dijet mass M_{jj} ≈ 0.95 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>j</mml:mi> <mml:mi>j</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>≈</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.95</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> TeV, which can be due to \Theta <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>Θ</mml:mi> </mml:math> : its production cross section (65 fb for a real scalar) and the acceptance of the CMS event selection applied to p p \to \Theta \Theta \to \! (q \bar q)(q \bar q) <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>p</mml:mi> <mml:mi>p</mml:mi> <mml:mo>→</mml:mo> <mml:mi>Θ</mml:mi> <mml:mi>Θ</mml:mi> <mml:mo>→</mml:mo> <mml:mspace width="-0.167em"/> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="prefix">(</mml:mo> <mml:mi>q</mml:mi> <mml:mover> <mml:mi>q</mml:mi> <mml:mo accent="true">‾</mml:mo> </mml:mover> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="postfix">)</mml:mo> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="prefix">(</mml:mo> <mml:mi>q</mml:mi> <mml:mover> <mml:mi>q</mml:mi> <mml:mo accent="true">‾</mml:mo> </mml:mover> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="postfix">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> yield a rate consistent with the excess. Furthermore, the shape of the d\sigma/d M_{jj} <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>d</mml:mi> <mml:mi>σ</mml:mi> <mml:mi>/</mml:mi> <mml:mi>d</mml:mi> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>j</mml:mi> <mml:mi>j</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> signal is in agreement with the CMS result. Given the data-driven background fit performed by CMS, we find that a complex scalar (whose production rate is twice as large) fits better the data than a real scalar. Besides the pair of dijets, testable LHC signals include a trijet-dijet topology, a t\bar t <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>t</mml:mi> <mml:mover> <mml:mi>t</mml:mi> <mml:mo accent="true">‾</mml:mo> </mml:mover> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> pair plus a dijet resonance, as well as final states involving a Higgs, W <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>W</mml:mi> </mml:math> or Z <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>Z</mml:mi> </mml:math> boson plus jets.

Algebraic/Dirac spin liquids (DSLs) are a class of critical quantum ground states that do not have a quasi-particle description. DSLs and related spin liquid phases often arise in strongly frustrated quantum spin systems, in which strong correlations and quantum fluctuations among constituent spins persist down to zero temperature. In this work, we analyze Mott insulating phases of SU(3) S U ( 3 ) fermions on a kagome lattice which may realize a DSL phase, described at low energies by (2 + 1)d ( 2 + 1 ) d quantum electrodynamics (QED _3 3 ) with N_f=6 N f = 6 Dirac fermions. By analyzing the action of physical symmetries on the operators of the QED _3 3 theory, we conclude that the low energy DSL is a quantum critical point that can be accessed by tuning a single microscopic parameter. Aided by the emergent symmetry and anomalies of the low energy effective theory, we conjecture and present supporting arguments that the SU(3) S U ( 3 ) Kagome magnet DSL is an unnecessary quantum critical point, lying completely within a single phase.

We propose a causality-based divide-and-conquer algorithm for nonequilibrium Green’s function calculations with quantics tensor trains. This algorithm enables stable and efficient extensions of the simulated time domain by exploiting the causality of Green’s functions. We apply this approach within the framework of nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory to the simulation of quench dynamics in symmetry-broken phases, where long-time simulations are often required to capture slow relaxation dynamics. We demonstrate that our algorithm allows to extend the simulated time domain without a significant increase in the cost of storing the Green’s function.

The efficient simulation of multijet final states presents a serious computational task for analyses of LHC data and will be even more so at the HL-LHC. We here discuss means to accelerate the generation of unweighted events based on a two-stage rejection-sampling algorithm that employs neural-network surrogates for unweighting the hard-process matrix elements. To this end, we generalise the previously proposed algorithm based on factorisation-aware neural networks to the case of multijet merging at tree-level accuracy. We thereby account for several non-trivial aspects of realistic event-simulation setups, including biased phase-space sampling, partial unweighting, and the mapping of partonic subprocesses. We apply our methods to the production of Z+jets final states at the HL-LHC using the Sherpa event generator, including matrix elements with up to six final-state partons. When using neural-network surrogates for the dominant Z+5 jets and Z+6 jets partonic processes, we find a reduction in the total event-generation time by more than a factor of 10 compared to baseline Sherpa.

We construct orthogonality relations in the Separation of Variables framework for the \mathfrak{sl}(2) 𝔰 𝔩 ( 2 ) sector of planar \mathcal{N}=4 𝒩 = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. Specifically, we find simple universal measures that make Q-functions of operators with different spins vanish at all orders in perturbation theory, prior to wrapping corrections. To analyze this rank-one sector, we relax some of the assumptions thus far considered in the Separation of Variables framework. Our findings may serve as guidelines for extending this formalism to other sectors of the theory as well as other integrable models.

There has been considerable effort to mimic analogue black holes and wormholes in solid state systems. Lattice realisations in particular present specific challenges. One of those is that event horizons in general have both white and black hole (grey hole) character, a feature guaranteed by the Nielsen-Ninomiya theorem. We here explore and extend the capability of superconducting circuit hardware to implement on-demand spacetime geometries on lattices, combining the nonreciprocity of gyrators with the non-linearity of Josephson junctions. We demonstrate the possibility of the metric sharply changing within a single lattice point, thus entering a regime where the modulation of system parameters is “trans-Planckian”, and the Hawking temperature ill-defined. Instead of regular Hawking radiation, we find an instability in the form of an exponential burst of charge and phase quantum fluctuations over short time scales – a robust signature even in the presence of an environment. Moreover, we present a loop-hole for the typical black/white hole ambiguity in lattice simulations: exceptional points in the dispersion relation allow for the creation of pure black (or white) hole horizons, at the expense of a radical change in the dynamics of the wormhole interior.

Primordial magnetic fields (PMFs) can seed additional small-scale matter fluctuations, leading to the formation of dense, early-collapsing dark matter structures known as minihalos. These minihalos may dramatically amplify the dark matter annihilation signal if dark matter is composed of self-annihilating thermal relic particles such as WIMPs. In this work, we analyse the annihilation signal from minihalos with prompt central cusps, \rho \propto r^{-3/2} ρ ∝ r − 3 / 2 , formed due to the enhanced power spectrum induced by PMFs, using gamma-ray observations of the Virgo cluster. We consider benchmarks motivated by cosmological phase transitions, focusing in particular on the electroweak and QCD transitions, where we assume maximal magnetic energy density and horizon-sized coherence length at generation (upper-limit scenarios). In addition, we include a data-driven case corresponding to the best-fit present-day PMF amplitude inferred from DESI BAO and Planck CMB measurements. Under these assumptions, we find that PMFs can place stringent bounds on WIMP annihilation. Magnetic fields with amplitudes matching the DESI–Planck best-fit values are in strong tension with self-annihilating WIMPs across a wide mass range extending beyond the () scale, while the electroweak- and QCD-phase-transition toy-model benchmarks would exclude thermal relics with masses below 300\,\mathrm{GeV} 300 G e V and 3\,\mathrm{TeV} 3 T e V , respectively. Although weaker PMFs would yield weaker annihilation signals, our results demonstrate that whenever PMFs enhance small-scale structure, indirect-detection limits on dark matter must be revisited.

This paper investigates the dynamical phases of Floquet Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) in space-time dimensions greater than two. Building upon our previous work which introduced quaternionic representations for studying Floquet dynamics in higher-dimensional CFTs, we now explore more general square pulse drive protocols that go beyond a single SU(1,1) <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mi>U</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="prefix">(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="postfix">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> subgroup. We demonstrate that, for multi-step drive protocols, the system exhibits distinct dynamical phases characterized by the nature of the eigenvalues of the quaternionic matrix representing time evolution in a single cycle, leading to different stroboscopic responses. Our analysis establishes a fundamental geometric interpretation where these dynamical phases directly correspond to the presence or absence of Killing horizons in the base space of the CFT and in a higher dimensional AdS space on which a putative dual lives. The heating phase is associated with a non-extremal horizon, the critical phase with an extremal horizon which disappears in the non-heating phase. We develop perturbative approaches to compute the Floquet Hamiltonians in different regimes and show, how tuning drive parameters can lead to horizons, providing a geometric framework for understanding heating phenomena in driven conformal systems.