We discuss various details of our derivation of the exact expression for the Adler $D$ function in $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric QCD. This exact formula relates the $D$ function to anomalous dimensions of the matter superfields. Our perturbative derivation refers to the $D$ function defined in terms of the bare coupling constant in the case of using the higher covariant derivative regularization. The exact expression for this function is obtained by direct summation of supergraphs to all orders in the non-Abelian coupling constant. As we argued previously, our formula should be valid beyond perturbation theory too. The perturbative result we present here coincides with the general formula order by order. We discuss consequences for $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric QCD in the conformal window. It is noted that our exact relation can allow one to determine the (infrared) critical anomalous dimension of the Seiberg $M$ field present in the dual theory.

An excess in $\gamma$ rays emanating from the Galactic Center has recently been observed in the Fermi-LAT data. This signal can be interpreted as resulting from weakly interacting massive particle annihilation, with the spectrum well fit by dark matter annihilating dominantly into either bottom-quark or Higgs pairs. Supersymmetric models provide a well-motivated framework to study the implications of this signal in these channels. With a neutralino dark matter candidate, the $\gamma$-ray excess cannot be easily accommodated in the minimal supersymmetric model, which in any case requires tuning below the percent level to explain the observed Higgs mass. Instead we are naturally led to consider the next-to-minimal model with a singlet superfield. This not only allows for the annihilation channel into bottom-quark pairs to be implemented but also provides new possibilities for annihilation into Higgs-pseudoscalar pairs. We show that the fit to the $\gamma$-ray excess for the Higgs-pseudoscalar channel can be just as good as for annihilation into bottom-quark pairs. Moreover, in the parameter range of interest, the next-to-minimal supersymmetric model solves the $\mu$ problem and can explain the 125 GeV Higgs mass with improved naturalness. We also consider an extension by adding a right-handed neutrino superfield with the right-handed sneutrino acting as a dark matter candidate. Interestingly, this allows for the annihilation into pseudoscalar pairs which also provide a good fit to the $\gamma$-ray excess. Furthermore, in the case of a neutralino lightest supersymmetric particle, the late decay of a sneutrino next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle can nonthermally produce the observed relic abundance. Finally, the weakly interacting massive particle annihilation into scalar pairs allows for the possibility of detecting the Higgs or pseudoscalar decay into two photons, providing a smoking-gun signal of the model.

At a distance of 50 kpc and with a dark matter mass of $\sim 10^{10}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$, the large magellanic cloud (LMC) is a natural target for indirect dark matter searches. We use five years of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) and updated models of the gamma-ray emission from standard astrophysical components to search for a dark matter annihilation signal from the LMC. We perform a rotation curve analysis to determine the dark matter distribution, setting a robust minimum on the amount of dark matter in the LMC, which we use to set conservative bounds on the annihilation cross section. The LMC emission is generally very well described by the standard astrophysical sources, with at most a $1–2\sigma$ excess identified near the kinematic center of the LMC once systematic uncertainties are taken into account. We place competitive bounds on the dark matter annihilation cross section as a function of dark matter particle mass and annihilation channel.

Top quark loops in Higgs production via gluon fusion at large invariant final state masses can induce important interference effects in searches for additional Higgs bosons as predicted in, e.g., Higgs portal scenarios and the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model when the heavy scalar is broad or the final state resolution is poor. Currently, the limit setting as performed by both ATLAS and CMS is based on injecting a heavy Higgs-like signal neglecting interference effects. In this paper, we perform a study of such “on-shell” interference effects in $pp\to ZZ$ and find that they lead to a $\lesssim \mathcal{O}(30\%)$ width scheme-dependent modification of the signal strength. Including the continuum contributions to obtain, e.g., the full $pp\to ZZ\to 4\ell$ final state, this modification is reduced to the 10% level in the considered intermediate mass range.

A search for dinucleon decay into pions with the Super-Kamiokande detector has been performed with an exposure of 282.1 kiloton-years. Dinucleon decay is a process that violates baryon number by two units. We present the first search for dinucleon decay to pions in a large water-Cherenkov detector. The modes ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}(pp)\to {}^{14}\mathrm{C}{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{+}$, ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}(pn)\to {}^{14}\mathrm{N}{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^0$, and ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}(nn)\to {}^{14}\mathrm{O}{\pi }^0{\pi }^0$ are investigated. No significant excess in the Super-Kamiokande data has been found, so a lower limit on the lifetime of the process per oxygen nucleus is determined. These limits are ${\tau }_{pp\to {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{+}}>7.22\times 10^{31}\mathrm{years}$, ${\tau }_{pn\to {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^0}>1.70\times 10^{32}\mathrm{years}$, and ${\tau }_{nn\to {\pi }^0{\pi }^0}>4.04\times 10^{32}\mathrm{years}$. The lower limits on each mode are about 2 orders of magnitude better than previous limits from searches for dinucleon decay in iron.

During and after recombination, in addition to Thomson scattering with free electrons, photons also couple to neutral hydrogen and helium atoms through Rayleigh scattering. This coupling influences both cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies and the distribution of matter in the Universe. The frequency dependence of the Rayleigh cross section breaks the thermal nature of CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies and effectively doubles the number of variables needed to describe CMB intensity and polarization statistics, while the additional atomic coupling changes the matter distribution and the lensing of the CMB. We introduce a new method to capture the effects of Rayleigh scattering on cosmological power spectra. Rayleigh scattering modifies CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies at the $\sim 1\%$ level at 35 GHz (scaling $\propto {\nu }^4$), and modifies matter correlations by as much as $\sim 0.3\%$. We show the Rayleigh signal, especially the cross-spectra between the thermal (Rayleigh) $E$-polarization and Rayleigh (thermal) intensity signal, may be detectable with future CMB missions even in the presence of foregrounds, and how this new information might help to better constrain the cosmological parameters.

We provide an invariant characterization of the physical properties of the Kerr spacetime. We introduce two dimensionless invariants, constructed out of some known curvature invariants, that act as detectors for the event horizon and ergosurface of the Kerr black hole. We also show that the mass and angular momentum can be extracted from local measurements of the curvature invariants, which in the weak field limit could be used to approximate the total angular momentum and mass of a system of merging black holes. Finally, we introduce a dimensionless invariant that gives a local measure of the “Kerrness” of the spacetime.

We present limits on sterile neutrino mixing using 4,438 live-days of atmospheric neutrino data from the Super-Kamiokande experiment. We search for fast oscillations driven by an ${\mathrm{eV}}^2$-scale mass splitting and for oscillations into sterile neutrinos instead of tau neutrinos at the atmospheric mass splitting. When performing both of these searches we assume that the sterile mass splitting is large, allowing ${\sin }^2(\mathrm{\Delta }{m}^{2}L/4E)$ to be approximated as 0.5, and we assume that there is no mixing between electron neutrinos and sterile neutrinos ($|U_{e4}{|}^2=0$). No evidence of sterile oscillations is seen and we limit $|U_{\mu 4}{|}^2$ to less than 0.041 and $|U_{\tau 4}{|}^2$ to less than 0.18 for $\mathrm{\Delta }{m}^2>0.1{\mathrm{eV}}^2$ at the 90% C.L. in a $3+1$ framework. The approximations that can be made with atmospheric neutrinos allow these limits to be easily applied to $3+\mathrm{N}$ models, and we provide our results in a generic format to allow comparisons with other sterile neutrino models.

We present a new lattice QCD analysis of heavy-quark pseudoscalar-pseudoscalar correlators, using gluon configurations from the MILC Collaboration that include vacuum polarization from $u$, $d$, $s$, and $c$ quarks ($n_f=4$). We extract new values for the QCD coupling and for the $c$ quark’s $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ mass: ${\alpha }_{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}(M_Z,n_f=5)=0.11822(74)$ and $m_c(3\mathrm{GeV},n_f=4)=0.9851(63)\mathrm{GeV}$. These agree well with our earlier simulations using $n_f=3$ sea quarks, vindicating the perturbative treatment of $c$ quarks in that analysis. We also obtain a new nonperturbative result for the ratio of $c$ and $s$ quark masses: $m_c/m_s=11.652(65)$. This ratio implies $m_s(2\mathrm{GeV},n_f=3)=93.6(8)\mathrm{MeV}$ when it is combined with our new $c$ mass. Combining $m_c/m_s$ with our earlier $m_b/m_c$ gives $m_b/m_s=52.55(55)$, which is several standard deviations (but only 4%) away from the Georgi-Jarlskop prediction from certain grand unified theories. Finally we obtain an $n_f=4$ estimate for $m_b/m_c=4.528(54)$ which agrees well with our earlier $n_f=3$ result. The new ratio implies $m_b(m_b,n_f=5)=4.162(48)\mathrm{GeV}$.

We compute the spectral density of the (Hermitian) Dirac operator in quantum chromodynamics with two light degenerate quarks near the origin. We use CLS/ALPHA lattices generated with two flavors of $\mathrm{O}(a)$-improved Wilson fermions corresponding to pseudoscalar meson masses down to 190 MeV and with spacings in the range 0.05–0.08 fm. Thanks to the coverage of parameter space, we can extrapolate our data to the chiral and continuum limits with confidence. The results show that the spectral density at the origin is nonzero because the low modes of the Dirac operator do condense as expected in the Banks-Casher mechanism. Within errors, the spectral density turns out to be a constant function up to eigenvalues of $\approx 80\mathrm{MeV}$. Its value agrees with the one extracted from the Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner relation.

The cosmological scenario where the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is broken after inflation is investigated. In this scenario, topological defects such as strings and domain walls produce a large number of axions, which contribute to the cold dark matter of the Universe. The previous estimations of the cold dark matter abundance are updated and refined based on the field-theoretic simulations with improved grid sizes. The possible uncertainties originated in the numerical calculations are also discussed. It is found that axions can be responsible for the cold dark matter in the mass range $m_a=(0.9–1.4)\times 10^{-4}\mathrm{eV}$ for the models with the domain wall number $N_{\mathrm{DW}}=1$, and $m_a\approx \mathcal{O}(10^{-4}–10^{-2})\mathrm{eV}$ with a mild tuning of parameters for the models with $N_{\mathrm{DW}}>1$. Such higher mass ranges can be probed in future experimental studies.

Coupled-channel $\pi K$ and $\eta K$ scattering amplitudes are determined by studying the finite-volume energy spectra obtained from dynamical lattice QCD calculations. Using a large basis of interpolating operators, including both those resembling a $q\overline{q}$ construction and those resembling a pair of mesons with relative momentum, a reliable excited-state spectrum can be obtained. Working at $m_{\pi }=391\mathrm{MeV}$, we find a gradual increase in the $J^P=0^{+}$ $\pi K$ phase shift which may be identified with a broad scalar resonance that couples strongly to $\pi K$ and weakly to $\eta K$. The low-energy behavior of this amplitude suggests a virtual bound state that may be related to the $\kappa$ resonance. A bound state with $J^P=1^{-}$ is found very close to the $\pi K$ threshold energy, whose coupling to the $\pi K$ channel is compatible with that of the experimental $K^{\star }(892)$. Evidence is found for a narrow resonance in $J^P=2^{+}$. Isospin-$3/2$ $\pi K$ scattering is also studied, and nonresonant phase shifts spanning the whole elastic scattering region are obtained.

A search for neutrino oscillations induced by Lorentz violation has been performed using 4,438 live-days of Super-Kamiokande atmospheric neutrino data. The Lorentz violation is included in addition to standard three-flavor oscillations using the nonperturbative standard model extension (SME), allowing the use of the full range of neutrino path lengths, ranging from 15 to 12,800 km, and energies ranging from 100 MeV to more than 100 TeV in the search. No evidence of Lorentz violation was observed, so limits are set on the renormalizable isotropic SME coefficients in the $e\mu$, $\mu \tau$, and $e\tau$ sectors, improving the existing limits by up to 7 orders of magnitude and setting limits for the first time in the neutrino $\mu \tau$ sector of the SME.

Extending previous work by a number of authors, we have recently presented a new approach in which the detection of gravitational waves from merging neutron star binaries can be used to determine the equation of state of matter at nuclear density and hence the structure of neutron stars. In particular, after performing a large number of numerical-relativity simulations of binaries with nuclear equations of state, we have found that the post-merger emission is characterized by two distinct and robust spectral features. While the high-frequency peak was already shown to be associated with the oscillations of the hypermassive neutron star produced by the merger and to depend on the equation of state, we have highlighted that the low-frequency peak is related to the merger process and to the total compactness of the stars in the binary. This relation is essentially universal and provides a powerful tool to set tight constraints on the equation of state. We here provide additional information on the extensive analysis performed, illustrating the methods used, the tests considered, as well as the robustness of the results. We also discuss additional relations that can be deduced when exploring the data and how these correlate with various properties of the binary. Finally, we present a simple mechanical toy model that explains the main spectral features of the post-merger signal and can even reproduce analytically the complex waveforms emitted right after the merger.

We measure the cross-correlation of cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing convergence maps derived from Atacama Cosmology Telescope data with galaxy lensing convergence maps as measured by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Stripe 82 Survey. The CMB-galaxy lensing cross power spectrum is measured for the first time with a significance of $4.2\sigma$, which corresponds to a 12% constraint on the amplitude of density fluctuations at redshifts $\sim 0.9$. With upcoming improved lensing data, this novel type of measurement will become a powerful cosmological probe, providing a precise measurement of the mass distribution at intermediate redshifts and serving as a calibrator for systematic biases in weak lensing measurements.

In this paper, we compute the soft-virtual corrections to Higgs boson production in gluon fusion for infinite top-quark mass at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD. In addition, we present analogous soft-virtual terms for both Drell-Yan lepton production in QCD and scalar pair production in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory. The result for Drell-Yan lepton production is derived from the result for Higgs boson production using Casimir scaling arguments together with well-known results available in the literature. For scalar pair production in the $\mathcal{N}=4$ model, we show by explicit calculation that the result is equal to the part of the Higgs boson soft-virtual term which is of maximal transcendentality weight.

We present the first hybrid measurement of the average muon number in air showers at ultrahigh energies, initiated by cosmic rays with zenith angles between 62° and 80°. The measurement is based on 174 hybrid events recorded simultaneously with the surface detector array and the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The muon number for each shower is derived by scaling a simulated reference profile of the lateral muon density distribution at the ground until it fits the data. A ${10}^{19}\mathrm{eV}$ shower with a zenith angle of 67°, which arrives at the surface detector array at an altitude of 1450 m above sea level, contains on average $(2.68\pm 0.04\pm 0.48(\text{sys}))\times {10}^7$ muons with energies larger than 0.3 GeV. The logarithmic gain $\mathrm{d}\ln N_{\mu }/\mathrm{d}\ln E$ of muons with increasing energy between $4\times {10}^{18}\mathrm{eV}$ and $5\times {10}^{19}\mathrm{eV}$ is measured to be $(1.029\pm 0.024\pm 0.030(\text{sys}))$.

In the first part of this article I determine the geometry of a slowly rotating black hole deformed by generic tidal forces created by a remote distribution of matter. The metric of the deformed black hole is obtained by integrating the Einstein field equations in a vacuum region of spacetime bounded by $r<r_{\max }$, with $r_{\max }$ a maximum radius taken to be much smaller than the distance to the remote matter. The tidal forces are assumed to be weak and to vary slowly in time, and the metric is expressed in terms of generic tidal quadrupole moments ${\mathcal{E}}_{ab}$ and ${\mathcal{B}}_{ab}$ that characterize the tidal environment. The metric incorporates couplings between the black hole’s spin vector and the tidal moments, and captures all effects associated with the dragging of inertial frames. In the second part of the article I determine the tidal moments by immersing the black hole in a larger post-Newtonian system that includes an external distribution of matter; while the black hole’s internal gravity is allowed to be strong, the mutual gravity between the black hole and the external matter is assumed to be weak. The post-Newtonian metric that describes the entire system is valid when $r>r_{\min }$, where $r_{\min }$ is a minimum distance that must be much larger than the black hole’s radius. The black-hole and post-Newtonian metrics provide alternative descriptions of the same gravitational field in an overlap $r_{\min }<r<r_{\max }$, and matching the metrics determine the tidal moments, which are expressed as post-Newtonian expansions carried out through one-and-a-half post-Newtonian order. Explicit expressions are obtained in the specific case in which the black hole is a member of a post-Newtonian two-body system.

The tension between the best fit parameters derived by the Planck team and a number of other astronomical measurements suggests either systematics in the astronomical measurements, systematics in the Planck data, the need for new physics, or a combination thereof. We reanalyze the Planck data and find that the $217\mathrm{GHz}\times 217\mathrm{GHz}$ detector set spectrum used in the Planck analysis is responsible for some of this tension. We use a map-based foreground cleaning procedure, relying on a combination of 353 GHz and 545 GHz maps to reduce residual foregrounds in the intermediate frequency maps used for cosmological inference. For our baseline data analysis, which uses 47% of the sky and makes use of both 353 and 545 GHz data for foreground cleaning, we find the $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ cosmological parameters ${\mathrm{\Omega }}_c{h}^2=0.1170\pm 0.0025$, $n_s=0.9686\pm 0.0069$, $H_0=68.0\pm 1.1\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$, ${\mathrm{\Omega }}_b{h}^2=0.02197\pm 0.00026$, $\ln {10}^{10}{A}_s=3.082\pm 0.025$, and $\tau =0.090\pm 0.013$. While in broad agreement with the results reported by the Planck team, these revised parameters imply a universe with a lower matter density of ${\mathrm{\Omega }}_m=0.302\pm 0.015$, and parameter values generally more consistent with pre-Planck CMB analyses and astronomical observations. We compare our cleaning procedure with the foreground modeling used by the Planck team and find good agreement. The difference in parameters between our analysis and that of the Planck team is mostly due to our use of cross-spectra from the publicly available survey maps instead of their use of the detector set cross-spectra which include pixels only observed in one of the surveys. We show evidence suggesting residual systematics in the detector set spectra used in the Planck likelihood code, which is substantially reduced for our spectra. Using our cleaned survey cross-spectra, we recompute the limit on neutrino species and find $N_{\mathrm{eff}}=3.34\pm 0.35$. We also recompute limits on the $n_s-r$ plane, and neutrino mass constraints.

Over the past decades, several ideas and technologies have been developed to directly detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP) from the galactic halo. All these detection strategies share the common goal of discriminating a WIMP signal from the residual backgrounds. By directly detecting WIMPs, one can measure some or all of the observables associated to each nuclear recoil candidates, such as their energy and direction. In this study, we compare and examine the discovery potentials of each readout strategies from counting only (bubble chambers) to directional detectors (Time Projection Chambers) with 1d-, 2d-, and 3d-sensitivity. Using a profile likelihood analysis, we show that, in the case of a large and irreducible background contamination characterized by an energy distribution similar to the expected WIMP signal, directional information can improve the sensitivity of the experiment by several orders of magnitude. We also found that 1d directional detection is only less effective than a full 3d directional sensitivity by about a factor of 3, or 10 if we assume no sense recognition, still improving by a factor of 2 or more if only the energy of the events is being measured.