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Showing votes from 2024-01-02 11:30 to 2024-01-05 12:30 | Next meeting is Tuesday Oct 29th, 10:30 am.
The European Space Agency's Euclid mission is one of the upcoming generation of large-scale cosmology surveys, which will map the large-scale structure in the Universe with unprecedented precision. The development and validation of the SGS pipeline requires state-of-the-art simulations with a high level of complexity and accuracy that include subtle instrumental features not accounted for previously as well as faster algorithms for the large-scale production of the expected Euclid data products. In this paper, we present the Euclid SGS simulation framework as applied in a large-scale end-to-end simulation exercise named Science Challenge 8. Our simulation pipeline enables the swift production of detailed image simulations for the construction and validation of the Euclid mission during its qualification phase and will serve as a reference throughout operations. Our end-to-end simulation framework starts with the production of a large cosmological N-body & mock galaxy catalogue simulation. We perform a selection of galaxies down to I_E=26 and 28 mag, respectively, for a Euclid Wide Survey spanning 165 deg^2 and a 1 deg^2 Euclid Deep Survey. We build realistic stellar density catalogues containing Milky Way-like stars down to H<26. Using the latest instrumental models for both the Euclid instruments and spacecraft as well as Euclid-like observing sequences, we emulate with high fidelity Euclid satellite imaging throughout the mission's lifetime. We present the SC8 data set consisting of overlapping visible and near-infrared Euclid Wide Survey and Euclid Deep Survey imaging and low-resolution spectroscopy along with ground-based. This extensive data set enables end-to-end testing of the entire ground segment data reduction and science analysis pipeline as well as the Euclid mission infrastructure, paving the way to future scientific and technical developments and enhancements.
We compare, with data from the quasars, the Hubble parameter measurements, and the Pantheon+ type Ia supernova, three different relations between X-ray luminosity ($L_X$) and ultraviolet luminosity ($L_{UV}$) of quasars. These three relations consist of the standard and two redshift-evolutionary $L_X$-$L_{UV}$ relations which are constructed respectively by considering a redshift dependent correction to the luminosities of quasars and using the statistical tool called copula. By employing the PAge approximation for a cosmological-model-independent description of the cosmic background evolution and dividing the quasar data into the low-redshift and high-redshift parts, we find that the constraints on the PAge parameters from the low-redshift and high-redshift data, which are obtained with the redshift-evolutionary relations, are consistent with each other, while they are not when the standard relation is considered. If the data are used to constrain the coefficients of the relations and the PAge parameters simultaneously, then the observations support the redshift-evolutionary relations at more than $3\sigma$. The Akaike and Bayes information criteria indicate that there is strong evidence against the standard relation and mild evidence against the redshift-evolutionary relation constructed by considering a redshift dependent correction to the luminosities of quasars. This suggests that the redshift-evolutionary $L_X$-$L_{UV}$ relation of quasars constructed from copula is favored by the observations.
Mergers of binary compact objects, accompanied with electromagnetic (EM) counterparts, offer excellent opportunities to explore varied cosmological models, since gravitational waves (GW) and EM counterparts always carry the information of luminosity distance and redshift, respectively. $f(T)$ gravity, which alters the background evolution and provides a friction term in the propagation of GW, can be tested by comparing the modified GW luminosity distance with the EM luminosity distance. Considering the third-generation gravitational-wave detectors, Einstein Telescope and two Cosmic Explorers, we simulate a series of GW events of binary neutron stars (BNS) and neutron-star-black-hole (NSBH) binary with EM counterparts. These simulations can be used to constrain $f(T)$ gravity (specially the Power-law model $f(T)=T+\alpha(-T)^\beta$ in this work) and other cosmological parameters, such as $\beta$ and Hubble constant. In addition, combining simulations with current observations of type Ia supernovae and baryon acoustic oscillations, we obtain tighter limitations for $f(T)$ gravity. We find that the estimated precision significantly improved when all three data sets are combined ($\Delta \beta \sim 0.03$), compared to analyzing the current observations alone ($\Delta \beta \sim 0.3$). Simultaneously, the uncertainty of the Hubble constant can be reduced to approximately $1\%$.
We study the imprints of high scale non-thermal leptogenesis on cosmic microwave background (CMB) from the measurements of inflationary spectral index ($n_s$) and tensor-to-scalar ratio ($r$), which otherwise is inaccessible to the conventional laboratory experiments. We argue that non-thermal production of baryon (lepton) asymmetry from subsequent decays of inflaton to heavy right-handed neutrinos (RHN) and RHN to SM leptons is sensitive to the reheating dynamics in the early Universe after the end of inflation. Such dependence provides detectable imprints on the $n_s-r$ plane which is well constrained by the Planck experiment. We investigate two separate cases, (I) inflaton decays to radiation dominantly and (II) inflaton decays to RHN dominantly which further decays to the SM particles to reheat the Universe adequately. Considering a class of $\alpha-$ attractor inflation models, we obtain the allowed mass ranges for RHN for both cases and thereafter furnish the estimates for $n_s$ and $r$. The prescription proposed here is general and can be implemented in various kinds of single-field inflationary models given the conditions for non-thermal leptogenesis are satisfied.
We introduce an analytic surface density profile for dark matter halos that accurately reproduces the structure of simulated halos of mass $M_{\rm vir} = 10^{7-11}\ M_\odot$, making it useful for modeling line-of-sight perturbers in strong gravitational lensing models. The two-parameter function has an analytic deflection potential and is more accurate than the projected Navarro, Frenk & White (NFW) profile commonly adopted at this mass scale for perturbers, especially at the small radii of most relevant for lensing perturbations. Using a characteristic radius, $R_{-1}$, where the log slope of surface density is equal to $-1$, and an associated surface density, $\Sigma_{-1}$, we can represent the expected lensing signal from line-of-sight halos statistically, for an ensemble of halo orientations, using a distribution of {\em projected concentration} parameters, $\mathcal{C}_{\rm vir} := r_{\rm vir}/ R_{-1}$. Though an individual halo can have a projected concentration that varies with orientation with respect to the observer, the range of projected concentrations correlates with the usual three-dimensional halo concentration in a way that enables ease of use.
We present the PRIYA suite of cosmological simulations, based on the code and hydrodynamic model of the ASTRID simulation, and designed for cosmological analyses of the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest. Our simulation suite spans a $9$-dimensional parameter space, including $4$ cosmological parameters and $5$ astrophysical/thermal parameters. We have run $48$ low fidelity simulations with $1536^3$ particles in a $120$ Mpc/h box and $3$ high fidelity simulations with $3072^3$ particles in a $120$ Mpc/h box. All our simulations include a full physics model for galaxy formation, including supernova and AGN feedback, and thus also contain a realistic population of DLAs. We advance on earlier simulations suites by larger particle loads, by incorporating new physical models for patchy hydrogen and helium reionization, and by self-consistently incorporating a model for AGN feedback. We show that patchy helium reionization imprints an excess in the 1D flux power spectrum on large scales, which may allow future measurements of helium reionization bubble sizes. Simulation parameters are chosen based on a Latin hypercube design and a Gaussian process is used to interpolate to arbitrary parameter combinations. We build a multi-fidelity emulator for the 1D flux power spectrum and the mean IGM temperature. We show that our final interpolation error is $< 1\%$ and that our simulations produce a flux power spectrum converged at the percent level for $z=5.4$ - $2.2$. Our simulation suite will be used to interpret Lyman-$\alpha$ forest 1D flux power spectra from SDSS and future DESI data releases.
Ultralight bosons are well-motivated particles from various physical and cosmological theories, and can be spontaneously produced during the superradiant process, forming a dense hydrogen-like cloud around the spinning black hole. After the growth saturates, the cloud slowly depletes its mass through gravitational-wave emission. In this work we study the orbit dynamics of a binary system containing such a gravitational atom saturated in various spin-0,1,2 superradiant states, taking into account both the effects of dynamical friction and the cloud mass depletion. We estimate the significance of mass depletion, finding that although dynamical friction could dominate the inspiral phase, it typically does not affect the outspiral phase driven by the mass depletion. Focusing on the large orbit radius, we investigate the condition to observe the outspiral, and the detectability of the cloud via pulsar-timing signal in the case of black hole-pulsar binary.
The cold dark matter (CDM) paradigm provides a remarkably good description of the Universe's large-scale structure. However, some discrepancies exist between its predictions and observations at very small sub-galactic scales. To address these issues, the consideration of a strong interaction between dark matter particles and dark radiation emerges as an intriguing alternative. In this study, we explore the constraints on those models using joint observations of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Quasars absorption spectra with our previously built parameter estimation package CosmoReionMC. At 2-$\sigma$ confidence limits, this analysis rules out the strongly interacting Dark Matter - Dark Radiation models within the recently proposed ETHOS framework, representing the most stringent constraint on those models to the best of our knowledge. Future research using a 21-cm experiment holds the potential to reveal stronger constraints or uncover hidden interactions within the dark sector.
In spite or the large astronomical evidence for its existence, the nature of dark matter remains enigmatic. Particles that interact only, or almost only, gravitationally, in particular with masses around the Planck mass -- the fundamental scale in quantum gravity, are intriguing candidates. Here we show that there is a theoretical possibility to directly detect such particles using highly sensitive gravity-mediated quantum phase shifts. In particular, we consider a protocol utilizing Josephson junctions.
We derive an effective field theory (EFT) for cosmological Lyman alpha forest fluctuations valid for the power spectrum at the one-loop order. The ``bottom-up'' EFT expansion at the level of the transmitted flux is identical to the line-of-sight dependent bias model first derived by Desjacques et al. We confirm this result by a ``top-down'' derivation based on the exponential map of the optical depth field. Specifically, we show that the combination of the exponential map and conditions of renormalizability generates the same EFT expansion as the ``bottom-up'' approach. In passing, we point out inconsistencies of the tree-level perturbative expansion of the exponential map without counterterms. To facilitate practical applications, we generalize the FFTLog method for efficient calculations of one-loop integrals from new line-of-sight dependent operators. Finally, we compare the one-loop EFT model against data from the Sherwood hydrodynamic simulation. The theory fits the data with sub percent accuracy up to $k= $ 3 $h$Mpc$^{-1}$ at $z= 2.8$ for both 3D and 1D correlations. Our model can be readily used for cosmological full-shape analyses of Lyman alpha forest data.
We present 3D fully kinetic shearing-box (SB) simulations of pair-plasma magnetorotational turbulence with unprecedented macro-to-microscopic scale separation. We retrieve the expected fluid-model behavior of turbulent magnetic fields and angular-momentum transport, and observe fundamental differences in turbulent fluctuation spectra linked with plasma heating. For the first time, we provide a definitive demonstration of nonthermal particle acceleration in kinetic magnetorotational turbulence agnostically of SB initial conditions, by means of a novel strategy exploiting synchrotron cooling.
Most tidal disruption events (TDEs) are currently found in time-domain optical and soft X-ray surveys, both of which are prone to significant obscuration. The infrared (IR), however, is a powerful probe of dust-enshrouded environments, and hence, we recently performed a systematic search of NEOWISE mid-IR data for nearby, obscured TDEs within roughly 200 Mpc. We identified 18 TDE candidates in galactic nuclei, using difference imaging to uncover nuclear variability amongst significant host galaxy emission. These candidates were selected based on the following IR light curve properties: (1) $L_\mathrm{W2}\gtrsim10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$ at peak, (2) fast rise, followed by a slow, monotonic decline, (3) no significant prior variability, and (4) no evidence for AGN activity in WISE colors. The majority of these sources showed no variable optical counterpart, suggesting that optical surveys indeed miss numerous obscured TDEs. Using narrow line ionization levels and variability arguments, we identified 6 sources as possible underlying AGN, yielding a total of 12 TDEs in our gold sample. This gold sample yields a lower limit on the IR-selected TDE rate of $2.0\pm0.3\times10^{-5}$ galaxy$^{-1}$ year$^{-1}$ ($1.3\pm0.2\times10^{-7}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ year$^{-1}$), which is comparable to optical and X-ray TDE rates. The IR-selected TDE host galaxies do not show a green valley overdensity nor a preference for quiescent, Balmer strong galaxies, which are both overrepresented in optical and X-ray TDE samples. This IR-selected sample represents a new population of dusty TDEs that have historically been missed by optical and X-ray surveys and helps alleviate tensions between observed and theoretical TDE rates and the so-called missing energy problem.
Twenty-two extragalactic fast X-ray transients (FXTs) have now been discovered from two decades of Chandra data (analyzing ~259 Ms of data), with 17 associated with distant galaxies (>100 Mpc). Different mechanisms and progenitors have been proposed to explain their properties; nevertheless, after analyzing their timing, spectral parameters, host-galaxy properties, luminosity function, and volumetric rates, their nature remains uncertain. We interpret a sub-sample of nine FXTs that show a plateau or a fast-rise light curve within the framework of a binary neutron star (BNS) merger magnetar model. We fit their light curves and derive magnetar (magnetic field and initial rotational period) and ejecta (ejecta mass and opacity) parameters. This model predicts two zones: an orientation-dependent free zone (where the magnetar spin-down X-ray photons escape freely to the observer) and a trapped zone (where the X-ray photons are initially obscured and only escape freely once the ejecta material becomes optically thin). We argue that six FXTs show properties consistent with the free zone and three FXTs with the trapped zone. This sub-sample of FXTs has a similar distribution of magnetic fields and initial rotation periods to those inferred for short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs), suggesting a possible association. We compare the predicted ejecta emission fed by the magnetar emission (called merger-nova) to the optical and near-infrared upper limits of two FXTs, XRT 141001 and XRT 210423 where contemporaneous optical observations are available. The non-detections place lower limits on the redshifts of XRT 141001 and XRT 210423 of z>1.5 and >0.1, respectively. If the magnetar remnants lose energy via gravitational waves, it should be possible to detect similar objects with the current advanced LIGO detectors out to a redshift z<0.03, while future GW detectors will be able to detect them out to z=0.5.
PSR J1012+5307 is a millisecond pulsar with an extremely low-mass (ELM) white dwarf (WD) companion in an orbit of 14.5 hours. Magnetic braking (MB) plays an important role in influencing the orbital evolution of binary systems with a low-mass ($\lt 1-2~M_{\odot}$) donor star. At present, there exist several different MB descriptions. In this paper, we investigate the formation of PSR J1012+5307 as a probe to test the plausible MB model. Employing a detailed stellar evolution model by the MESA code, we find that the Convection And Rotation Boosted MB and the 'Intermediate' MB models can reproduce the WD mass, WD radius, WD surface gravity, neutron-star mass, and orbital period observed in PSR J1012+5307. However, our simulated WD has higher effective temperature than the observation. Other three MB mechanisms including the standard MB model are too weak to account for the observed orbital period in a Hubble time. A long cooling timescale caused by H-shell flashes of the WD may alleviate the discrepancy between the simulated effective temperature and the observed value.
Linear RMS-flux relation has been well established in different spectral states of all accreting systems. In this work, we study the evolution of the frequency-dependent RMS-flux relation of MAXI J1820+070 during the initial decaying phase of the 2018 outburst with Insight-HXMT over a broad energy range 1-150 keV. As the flux decreases, we first observe a linear RMS-flux relation at frequencies from 2 mHz to 10 Hz, while such a relation breaks at varying times for different energies, leading to a substantial reduction in the slope. Moreover, we find that the low-frequency variability exhibits the highest sensitivity to the break, which occurs prior to the hard-to-hard state transition time determined through time-averaged spectroscopy, and the time deviation increases with energy. The overall evolution of the RMS-flux slope and intercept suggests the presence of a two-component Comptonization system. One component is radially extended, explaining the strong disk-corona coupling before the break, while the other component extends vertically, contributing to the reduction of the disk-corona coupling after the break. A further vertical expansion of the latter component is required to accommodate the dynamic evolution observed in the RMS-flux slope. In conclusion, we suggest that the RMS-flux slope in 1-150 keV band can be employed as an indicator of the disk-corona coupling and the hard-to-hard state transition in MAXI J1820+070 could be partially driven by the changes in the corona geometry.
For long wavelength gravitational wave (GW), it is easy to diffract when it is lensed by celestial objects. Traditional diffractive integral formula has ignored large angle diffraction, which is adopted in most of cases. However, in some special cases (e. g. a GW source lensed by its companion in a binary system, where the lens is very close to the source), large angle diffraction could be important. Our previous works have proposed a new general diffractive integral formula which has including large angle diffraction case. In this paper, we have investigated how much difference between this general diffractive formula and traditional diffractive integral formula could be under these special cases with different parameters. We find that the module of amplification factor for general diffractive formula could become smaller than that of traditional diffractive integral basically with a factor $r_F\simeq0.674$ when the distance between lens and sources is $D_{\rm LS}=1$ AU and lens mass $M_{\rm L}=1M_\odot$. Their difference is so significant that it is detectable. Furthermore, we find that the proportionality factor $r_F$ is gradually increasing from 0.5 to 1 with increasing $D_{\rm LS}$ and it is decreasing with increasing $M_{\rm L}$. As long as $D_{\rm LS}\lesssim3$ AU (with $M_{\rm L}=1M_\odot$) or $M_{\rm L}\gtrsim0.1M_\odot$ (with $D_{\rm LS}=1$ AU ), the difference between new and traditional formulas is enough significant to be detectable. It is promising to test this new general diffractive formula by next-generation GW detectors in the future GW detection.
An important aspect of solar energetic particle (SEP) events is their source populations. Elemental abundance enhancements of impulsive SEP events, originating in presumed coronal reconnection episodes, can be fitted to steep power laws of A/Q, where A and Q are the atomic mass and ionic charge. Since thermal electron energies are enhanced and nonthermal electron distributions arise in the reconnection process, we might expect that ionic charge states Q would be increased through ionization interactions with those electron populations during the acceleration process. The temperature estimated from the SEPs corresponds to the charge state during the acceleration process, while the actual charge state measured in situ may be modified as the SEPs pass through the corona. We examine whether the temperature estimation from the A/Q would differ with various kappa values in a kappa function representing high-energy tail deviating from a Maxwellian velocity distribution. We find that the differences in the A/Q between a Maxwellian and an extreme kappa distribution are about 10-30. We fit power-law enhancement of element abundances as a function of their A/Q with various kappa values. Then, we find that the derived source region temperature is not significantly affected by whether or not the electron velocity distribution deviates from a Maxwellian, i.e., thermal, distribution. Assuming that electrons are heated in the acceleration region, the agreement of the SEP charge state during acceleration with typical active region temperatures suggests that SEPs are accelerated and leave the acceleration region in a shorter time than the ionization time scale.
In this article we explore the holographic approach to neutron stars in the realm of Quantum Field Theory (QFT). We delve into the structures of neutron stars, emphasizing the application of the AdS/CFT duality in modeling them. We discuss both "bottom-up" and "top-down" holographic models, comparing their predictions with astrophysical observations. Finally, we demonstrate the potential broader applications of the holography method in areas like superconductivity, highlighting the methodological significance of string theory and QFT in astrophysics.
Rotating neutron stars that support long-lived, non-axisymmetric deformations known as mountains have long been considered potential sources of gravitational radiation. However, the amplitude from such a source is very weak and current gravitational-wave interferometers have yet to witness such a signal. The lack of detections has provided upper limits on the size of the involved deformations, which are continually being constrained. With expected improvements in detector sensitivities and analysis techniques, there is good reason to anticipate an observation in the future. This review concerns the current state of the theory of neutron-star mountains. These exotic objects host the extreme regimes of modern physics, which are related to how they sustain mountains. We summarise various mechanisms that may give rise to asymmetries, including crustal strains built up during the evolutionary history of the neutron star, the magnetic field distorting the star's shape and accretion episodes gradually constructing a mountain. Moving beyond the simple rotating model, we also discuss how precession affects the dynamics and modifies the gravitational-wave signal. We describe the prospects for detection and the challenges moving forward.
Possible forms of black hole images, viewed by a distant observer, are calculated basing on general relativity and equations of motion in the Kerr-Newman metric. Black hole image is a gravitationally lensed image of the black hole event horizon. It may be viewed as a black spot on the celestial sphere, projected inside the position of classical black hole shadow. In the nearest future it would be possible to verify modified gravity theories by observations of astrophysical black hole with Space Observatory Millimetron.
I identify a point-symmetric morphology of the supernova remnant (SNR) G352.7-0.1 and propose that the outer axially-symmetric structure is the remnant of a common envelope evolution (CEE) of the progenitor system, while the inner structure is the ejecta of a thermonuclear explosion triggered by the merger of a white dwarf (WD) and the core of an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star. The main radio structure of SNR G352.7-0.1 forms an outer (large) ellipse. The bright X-ray emitting gas forms a smaller ellipse with a symmetry axis inclined to the symmetry axis of the large radio ellipse. The high abundance of iron and the energy of its X-ray lines suggest a type Ia supernova (SN Ia). The massive swept-up gas suggests a relatively massive progenitor system. I propose a scenario with progenitors of initial masses of M1=5-7Mo and M2=4-5 Mo. At a later phase, the WD remnant of the primary star and the AGB secondary star experience a CEE that ejects the circumstellar material that swept up more ISM to form the large elliptical radio structure. An explosion during the merger of the WD with the core of the AGB star triggered a super-Chandrasekhar thermonuclear explosion that formed the inner structure that is bright in X-ray. A tertiary star in the system caused the misalignment of the two symmetry axes. This study adds to the rich variety of evolutionary routes within the different scenarios of normal and peculiar SNe Ia.
The astrophysical origin of binary black hole (BBH) mergers remains uncertain though many events have been observed by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network. Such mergers are predicted to originate in the vicinity of massive black holes (MBHs). Especially, GW190814, due to its secondary mass and mass ratio being beyond the expectations of isolated stellar evolution theories, is a promising event that has happened in an active galactic nucleus(AGN) disk. In this model, a compact object resides in the vicinity of a merging BBH. Here we report multiple pieces of evidence pointing to the fact that GW190814 is a BBH merging near a compact object. The orbital motion of BBHs around the third body produces a line-of-sight acceleration (LSA) and induces a varying Doppler shift. Using a waveform template that considers LSA, we perform Bayesian inference on a few BBH events with a high signal-to-noise ratio in the gravitational-wave transient catalog (GWTC). Compared to the model for isolated BBH mergers, we obtain significantly higher network signal-to-noise ratios for GW190814 by that with the LSA and constrain the LSA to $a = 0.0014^{+0.0014}_{-0.0022} ~c~\mathrm{s}^{-1}$. In addition, the logarithmic Bayes factor for the LSA case over the isolated case is $16.6$, which means the LSA model is significantly preferred by the GW data. We conclude that this is the first indication showing merging BBHs are located near a compact object.
The geodesic method has played a crucial role in understanding the circular orbits generated by compact objects, culminating in the definition of the photon sphere, which was later generalized to a photon surface in arbitrary spacetimes. This new formulation extends the concept of the photon sphere in a broader sense, including dynamical spacetimes, as shown by the Vaidya solution. The photon surface essentially defines the null geodesics, which are originally tangent to the temporal surface, and keeps them confined to this surface. However, this formalism does not cover all classes of particles, and to overcome this limitation, a more comprehensive approach, denoted as the "massive particle surface", has been proposed that also accounts for charged massive particles. Indeed, the photon surface concept is recovered when the charge and mass of the particles are zero. In this work, we use these three formalisms to check the consistency of the results for the values of the radius of the photon sphere ($r_{ps}$) and the radius of the "innermost stable circular orbit" (ISCO) ($r_{\rm ISCO}$) for some gravitational models. In our results, the first model is described by conformal gravity, with the peculiarity that $g_{00}\neq-g_{11}^{-1}$. The second model, i.e. the Culetu solution, is developed by coupling General Relativity with nonlinear electrodynamics, which requires the consideration of the effective metric ($g_{\rm eff}^{\mu\nu}$) for geodesic approaches. Furthermore, we have also analysed the expressions for $r_{ps}$ and $r_{\rm ISCO}$ in a general static and spherically symmetric metric. Under these circumstances, we have found a discrepancy of $r_{ps}$ and $r_{\rm ISCO}$ obtained by the massive particle surface formalism as compared to the geodesic and photon surface formalisms.
High-energy photons may oscillate with axion-like particles (ALPs) when they propagate through the Milky Way's magnetic field, resulting in an alteration in the observed photon energy spectrum. The ultra-high energy gamma-ray spectra, measured by the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) up to $\mathcal{O}(1)~\mathrm{PeV}$, provide a promising opportunity to investigate the ALP-photon oscillation effect. In this study, we utilize the gamma-ray spectra of four Galactic sources measured by LHAASO, including the Crab Nebula, LHAASO J2226+6057, LHAASO J1908+0621, and LHAASO J1825-1326, to explore this effect. We employ the $\rm CL_s$ method to set constraints on the ALP parameters. Combing the observations of the four sources, our analysis reveals that the ALP-photon coupling $g_{a\gamma}$ is constrained to be smaller than $1.4\times10^{-10}$ ${\rm GeV}^{-1}$ for the ALP mass of $\sim 4\times10^{-7} ~\mathrm{eV}$ at the 95\% C.L. By combing the observations of the Crab Nebula from LHAASO and other experiments, we find that the ALP-photon coupling could be set to be about $7.2\times10^{-11}$ ${\rm GeV}^{-1}$ for the ALP mass $\sim 4 \times10^{-7}~\mathrm{eV}$ , which is in close proximity to the CAST constraint.
Relativistic jets accompany the collapse of massive stars, the merger of compact objects, or the accretion of gas in active galactic nuclei. They carry information about the central engine and generate electromagnetic radiation. No self-consistent simulations have been able to follow these jets from their birth at the black hole scale to the Newtonian dissipation phase, making the inference of central engine property through astronomical observations undetermined. We present the general relativistic moving-mesh framework to achieve the continuity of jet simulations throughout space-time. We implement the general relativistic extension for the moving-mesh relativistic hydrodynamic code-JET, and develop a tetrad formulation to utilize the HLLC Riemann solver in the general relativistic moving mesh code. The new framework is able to trace the radial movement of the relativistic jets from the central region where strong gravity holds all the way to distances of jet dissipation.
Axion-like particles (ALPs) coupled to nucleons might be copiously emitted from a supernova (SN) core. We extend existing bounds on free-streaming ALPs to the case in which these are so strongly-interacting with the nuclear matter to be trapped in the SN core. For strongly-interacting ALPs, we also extend the bound from the absence of an ALP-induced signal in Kamiokande-II neutrino detector at the time of SN 1987A. We find that combining the different arguments, SNe exclude values of ALP-nucleon coupling $g_{aN}\gtrsim10^{-9}$ for ALP masses $m_a\lesssim 1\,\mathrm{MeV}$. Remarkably, in the case of canonical QCD axion models, the SN bounds exclude all values of $m_a \gtrsim 10^{-2}\,\mathrm{eV}$. This result prevents the possibility for current and future cosmological surveys to detect any signatures due to hot dark matter QCD axion mass.
Axions coupled to nucleons might be copiously emitted from core-collapse supernovae (SNe). If the axion-nucleon coupling is strong enough, axions would be emitted from the SN as a burst and, reaching Earth, may excite the oxygen nuclei in water Cherenkov detectors (${}^{16}{\rm O} + a \to {}^{16}{\rm O}^{*}$). This process will be followed by decay(s) of the excited state resulting in an emission of photons and thus providing a possibility for a direct detection of axions from a Galactic SN in large underground neutrino Cherenkov detectors. Motivated by this possibility, we present an updated calculation of axion-oxygen cross section obtained by using self-consistent continuum Random Phase Approximation. We calculate the branching ratio of the oxygen nucleus de-excitation into gamma-rays, neutrons, protons and $\alpha$-particles and also consider photon emission from secondary nuclei to compute a total $\gamma$ spectrum created when axions excite ${}^{16}{\rm O}$. These results are used to revisit the detectability of axions from SN 1987A in Kamiokande-II.
Probabilistic classification of unassociated Fermi-LAT sources using machine learning methods has an implicit assumption that the distributions of associated and unassociated sources are the same as a function of source parameters, which is not the case for the Fermi-LAT catalogs. The problem of different distributions of training and testing (or target) datasets as a function of input features (covariates) is known as the covariate shift. In this paper, we, for the first time, quantitatively estimate the effect of the covariate shift on the multi-class classification of Fermi-LAT sources. We introduce sample weights proportional to the ratio of unassociated to associated source probability density functions so that associated sources in areas, which are densely populated with unassociated sources, have more weight than the sources in areas with few unassociated sources. We find that the covariate shift has relatively little effect on the predicted probabilities, i.e., the training can be performed either with weighted or with unweighted samples, which is generally expected for the covariate shift problems. The main effect of the covariate shift is on the estimated performance of the classification. Depending on the class, the covariate shift can lead up to 10 - 20% reduction in precision and recall compared to the estimates, where the covariate shift is not taken into account.
In this paper, we study the properties of accretion flow including its spectral features in Johannsen and Psaltis (JP) non-Kerr spacetime. In doing so, we numerically solve the governing equations that describe the flow motion around the compact objects in a general relativistic framework, where spin ($a_{k}$) and deformation parameters ($\varepsilon$) demonstrate the nature of the central source, namely black hole (BH) or naked singularity (NS). With this, we obtain all possible classes of global accretion solutions ($i. e.$, O, A, W and I-type) by varying the energy ($E$) and angular momentum ($\lambda$) of the relativistic accretion flow, and examine the role of thermal bremsstrahlung emission in studying the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the accretion disc. We divide the parameter space in $\lambda-E$ plane in terms of the different classes of accretion solutions for BH and NS models. We further calculate the disc luminosity ($L$) corresponding to these accretion solutions, and observe that I-type solutions yield higher $L$ and SEDs than the remaining types of solutions for both BH and NS models. For BH model, SEDs for W and I-type solutions differ significantly from the results for O and A-type solutions for low $E$ values. On the contrary, for NS model, SEDs for different accretion solutions are identical in the whole parameter space of $\lambda$ and $E$. We also examine the effect of $\varepsilon$ on the SEDs and observe that a non-Kerr BH yields higher SEDs than the usual Kerr BH. Finally, for accretion solutions of identical $E$ and $\lambda$, we compare the SEDs obtained from BH and NS models, and find that naked singularity objects produce more luminous power spectra than the black holes.
A long-lived magnetar, potentially originating from a binary neutron star system, has been proposed to explain the extended emission observed in certain short-duration gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs), and is posited as a potential central engine to power the engine-fed kilonovae. Previously, the process by which energy is injected into the surrounding ejecta/jet was widely believed to be nearly isotropic. In this study, we employ special relativity magnetohydrodynamic (SRMHD) simulations to investigate the wind injection process from a magnetar central engine. We explore the dynamics and energy distribution within the system and found that the parameter $\alpha=u_{\rm A}/u_{\rm MWN}$ can be used to indicate the collimation of the magnetar wind energy injection, where $u_{\rm A}$ is the local Alfven four-speed and $u_{\rm MWN}$ is the four-speed of the magnetar wind nebular (MWN) formed from wind-ejecta collision. A significant portion of the injected energy from the magnetar spin-down wind will be channeled to the jet axis due to collimation within the MWN. Achieving isotropic energy injection requires a significantly small $\alpha$ that necessitates either an ultra-relativistic expanding MWN or an extremely low magnetization MWN, both of which are challenging to attain in sGRBs. Consequently, a considerably reduced energy budget (i.e. energy per solid angle reduced by a factor of up to 10 with respect to the value under isotropic assumption) is anticipated to be injected into the ejecta for engine-fed kilonovae. Engine-fed kilonovae would appear fainter than originally anticipated.
I present a review of how late observations of supernovae, of the nebular phase, and much later of supernova remnants (SNRs), and their analysis in 2023 made progress towards breakthroughs in supporting the jittering jets explosion mechanism (JJEM) for core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) and in introducing the group of lonely white dwarf (WD) scenarios for type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). The new analyses of CCSN remnants (CCSNRs) reveal point-symmetric morphologies in a way unnoticed before in three CCSNRs. Comparison to multipolar planetary nebulae that are shaped by jets suggests that jets exploded these CCSNe, as predicted by the JJEM, but incompatible with the prediction of the delayed neutrino explosion mechanism. The spherical morphology of the ejecta Pa 30 of the historical type Iax supernova (SN Iax) of 1181 AD, which studies in 2023 revealed, is mostly compatible with the explosion of a lonely WD. Namely, at the explosion time, there is only a WD, without any close companion, although the WD was formed via a close binary interaction, i.e., binary merger. An identification of point-symmetry in SNR G1.9+0.3, a normal SN Ia and the youngest SN in the Galaxy, suggests an SN explosion of a lonely WD inside a planetary nebula (an SNIP). The group of lonely WD scenarios includes the core degenerate scenario and the double degenerate scenario with a merger to explosion delay (MED) time. SN Ia explosions of lonely WDs are common, and might actually account for most (or even all) normal SNe Ia.
$\it{Context.}$ Various high-energy phenomena in the Universe are associated with blazars, powerful active galaxies with jets pointing to the observer. Novel results relating blazars to high-energy neutrinos, cosmic rays, and even possible manifestations of new particle physics, are often based on statistical analyses of blazar samples, and uniform sky coverage is important for many of these studies. $\it{Aims.}$ Here, we construct a uniform full-sky catalog of blazars selected by their optical emission. $\it{Methods.}$ We define criteria of isotropy, making a special effort to cover the Galactic plane region, and compile an isotropic sample of blazars with GAIA optical magnitudes $G<18^{\rm m}$, corrected for the Galactic absorption. The sources are taken from full-sky samples selected by parsec-scale radio emission or by high-energy gamma-ray flux, both being known to efficiently select blazar-like objects. $\it{Results.}$ We present a catalog of 651 optically bright blazars, uniformly distributed in the sky, together with their radio, optical, X-ray and gamma-ray fluxes, and an isotropic sample of 336 confirmed BL Lac type objects. $\it{Conclusions.}$ This catalog may be used in future statistical studies of energetic neutrinos, cosmic rays and gamma rays.
Cosmic rays with energies above $10^{19}$ eV, observed in 1999-2004 by the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) experiment in the stereoscopic mode, were found to correlate with directions to distant BL Lac type objects (BL Lacs), suggesting non-standard neutral particles travelling for cosmological distances without attenuation. This effect could not be tested by newer experiments because of their inferior angular resolution. The distribution in the sky of BL Lacs associated with cosmic rays was found to deviate from isotropy, which might give a clue to the interpretation of the observed anomaly. However, previous studies made use of a sample of BL Lacs which was anisotropic by itself, thus complicating these interpretations. Here, we use a recently compiled isotropic sample of BL Lacs and the same HiRes data to confirm the presence of correlations and to strengthen the case for the local large-scale structure pattern in the distribution of the correlated events in the sky. Further tests of the anomaly await new precise cosmic-ray data.
We present a comparative study of the molecular gas in two galaxies from the LEGUS sample: barred spiral NGC 1313 and flocculent spiral NGC 7793. These two galaxies have similar masses, metallicities, and star formation rates, but NGC 1313 is forming significantly more massive star clusters than NGC 7793, especially young massive clusters (<10 Myr, >10^4 Msol). Using ALMA CO(2-1) observations of the two galaxies with the same sensitivities and resolutions of 13 pc, we directly compare the molecular gas in these two similar galaxies to determine the physical conditions responsible for their large disparity in cluster formation. By fitting size-linewidth relations for the clouds in each galaxy, we find that NGC 1313 has a higher intercept than NGC 7793, implying that its clouds have higher kinetic energies at a given size scale. NGC 1313 also has more clouds near virial equilibrium than NGC 7793, which may be connected to its higher rate of massive cluster formation. However, these virially bound clouds do not show a stronger correlation with young clusters than that of the general cloud population. We find surprisingly small differences between the distributions of molecular cloud populations in the two galaxies, though the largest of those differences are that NGC 1313 has higher surface densities and lower free-fall times.
We compare the molecular cloud properties in sub-galactic regions of two galaxies, barred spiral NGC 1313, which is forming many massive clusters, and flocculent spiral NGC 7793, which is forming significantly fewer massive clusters despite having a similar star formation rate to NGC 1313. We find that there are larger variations in cloud properties between different regions within each galaxy than there are between the galaxies on a global scale, especially for NGC 1313. There are higher masses, linewidths, pressures, and virial parameters in the arms of NGC 1313 and center of NGC 7793 than in the interarm and outer regions of the galaxies. The massive cluster formation of NGC 1313 may be driven by its greater variation in environments, allowing more clouds with the necessary conditions to arise, although no one parameter seems primarily responsible for the difference in star formation. Meanwhile NGC 7793 has clouds that are as massive and have as much kinetic energy as clouds in the arms of NGC 1313, but have densities and pressures more similar to the interarm regions and so are less inclined to collapse and form stars. The cloud properties in NGC 1313 and NGC 7793 suggest that spiral arms, bars, interarm regions, and flocculent spirals each represent distinct environments with regard to molecular cloud populations. We see surprisingly little difference in surface densities between the regions, suggesting that the differences in surface densities frequently seen between arm and interarm regions of lower-resolution studies are indicative of the sparsity of molecular clouds, rather than differences in their true surface density.
To gain a better understanding of the Andromeda galaxy M31 and its role in the Local Group, measuring its mass precisely is essential. In this work, we have constructed the rotation curve of M31 out to $\sim$125 kpc using 13,679 M31 objects obtained from various sources, including the LAMOST data release 9 (LAMOST DR9), the DESI survey, and relevant literature. We divide all objects in our sample into bulge, disk and halo components. For the sources in the M31 disk, we have measured their circular velocities by a kinematic model with asymmetric drift corrections. For the bulge and halo objects, we calculate their velocity dispersions and use the spherical and projected Jeans equation to obtain the circular velocities. Our findings indicate a nearly isotropic nature for the M31 bulge, while the halo exhibits tangential anisotropy. The results show that the rotation curve remains constant at $\sim$220 km s$^{-1}$ up to radius $\sim$25 kpc and gradually decreases to $\sim$170 km s$^{-1}$ further out. Based on the newly determined rotation curve, we have constructed a mass distribution model for M31. Our measurement of the M31 virial mass is $M_{\rm vir} = 1.14^{+0.51}_{-0.35} \times 10^{12} M_\odot$ within $r_{\rm vir} = 220 \pm 25$ kpc.
There is growing evidence that high-mass star formation (HMSF) is a multiscale, dynamical process in molecular clouds, where filaments transport gas material between larger and smaller scales. We analyze here multiscale gas dynamics in an HMSF filamentary cloud, G034.43+00.24 (G34), using APEX observations of the C18O (2-1), HCO+/H13CO+ (3-2), and HCN/H13CN (3-2) lines. We find large-scale, filament-aligned velocity gradients from C18O emission, which drive filamentary gas inflows onto dense clumps in the middle ridge of G34. The nature of these inflows is gravity driven. We also find clump-scale gas infall in the middle ridge of the MM2, MM4, and MM5 clumps from other lines. Their gas infall rates could depend on large-scale filamentary gas inflows since the infall/inflow rates on these two scales are comparable. We confirm that the multiscale, dynamical HMSF scenario is at work in G34. It could be driven by gravity up to the filament scale, beyond which turbulence originating from several sources, including gravity, could be in effect in G34.
Star formation takes place in filamentary molecular clouds which arise by physical processes that take place in the cold, neutral medium (CNM). We address the necessary conditions for this diffuse ($n \approx 30$ cm$^{-3}$), cold (T $\approx$ 60 K), magnetized gas undergoing shock waves and supersonic turbulence, to produce filamentary structures capable of fragmenting into cluster forming regions. Using RAMSES and a magnetized CNM environment as our initial conditions, we simulate a 0.5 kpc turbulent box to model a uniform gas with magnetic field strength of 7 $\mu G$, varying the 3D velocity dispersion via decaying turbulence. We use a surface density of $320 M_{\odot} pc^{-2}$, representative of the inner 4.0 kpc CMZ of the Milky Way and typical luminous galaxies. Filamentary molecular clouds are formed dynamically via shocks within a narrow range of velocity dispersions in the CNM of 5 - 10 km/s with a preferred value at 8 km/s. Cluster sink particles appear in filaments which exceed their critical line mass, occurring optimally for velocity dispersions of 8 km/s. Tracking the evolution of magnetic fields, we find that they lead to double the dense star forming gas than in purely hydro runs. Perpendicular orientations between magnetic field and filaments can increase the accretion rates onto filaments and hence their line masses. Because magnetic fields help support gas, MHD runs result in average temperatures an order of magnitude higher than unmagnetized counterparts. Finally, we find magnetic fields delay the onset of cluster formation by $\propto 0.4$ Myr.
Photodissociated gas bears the signature of the dynamical evolution of the ambient interstellar medium impacted by the mechanical and radiative feedback from an expanding HII region. Here we present an analysis of the kinematics of the young Trifid nebula, based on velocity-resolved observations of the far-infrared fine-structure lines of [C II] at 158 micron and [O I] at 63 micron. The distribution of the photodissociated regions (PDRs) surrounding the nebula is consistent with a shell-like structure created by the HII region expanding with a velocity of 5 km/s. Comparison of ratios of [C II] and [O I] 63 micron intensities for identical velocity components with PDR models indicate a density of 1e4 /cm^3. The red- and blue-shifted PDR shells with a combined mass of 516 Msun have a kinetic energy of ~1e47 erg. This is consistent with the thermal energy of the HII region as well as with the energy deposited by the stellar wind luminosity from HD 169442A, an O7 V star, over the 0.5 Myr lifetime of the star. The observed momentum of the PDR shell is lower than what theoretical calculations predict for the radial momentum due to the shell being swept up by an expanding HII region, which suggests that significant mass loss has occurred in M20 due to the dispersal of the surrounding gas by the advancing ionization front.
WISE J224607.6-052634.9 (W2246-0526) is a hot dust-obscured galaxy at $z$ = 4.601, and the most luminous obscured quasar known to date. W2246-0526 harbors a heavily obscured supermassive black hole that is most likely accreting above the Eddington limit. We present observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in seven bands, including band 10, of the brightest far-infrared (FIR) fine-structure emission lines of this galaxy: [OI]$_{63\mu m}$, [OIII]$_{88\mu m}$, [NII]$_{122\mu m}$, [OI]$_{145\mu m}$, [CII]$_{158\mu m}$, [NII]$_{205\mu m}$, [CI]$_{370\mu m}$, and [CI]$_{609\mu m}$. A comparison of the data to a large grid of Cloudy radiative transfer models reveals that a high hydrogen density ($n_{H}\sim3\times10^3$ cm$^{-3}$) and extinction ($A_{V}\sim300$ mag), together with extreme ionization ($log(U)=-0.5$) and a high X-ray to UV ratio ($\alpha_{ox}\geq-0.8$) are required to reproduce the observed nuclear line ratios. The values of $\alpha_{ox}$ and $U$ are among the largest found in the literature and imply the existence of an X-ray-dominated region (XDR). In fact, this component explains the a priori very surprising non-detection of the [OIII]$_{88\mu m}$ emission line, which is actually suppressed, instead of boosted, in XDR environments. Interestingly, the best-fitted model implies higher X-ray emission and lower CO content than what is detected observationally, suggesting the presence of a molecular gas component that should be further obscuring the X-ray emission over larger spatial scales than the central region that is being modeled. These results highlight the need for multiline infrared observations to characterize the multiphase gas in high redshift quasars and, in particular, W2246-0526 serves as an extreme benchmark for comparisons of interstellar medium conditions with other quasar populations at cosmic noon and beyond.
Hot dust in the proximity of AGNs strongly emits in the Near Infrared producing a red excess that, in type 2 sources, can be modeled to measure its temperature. In the era of high spatial-resolution multi-wavelength data, mapping the hot dust around Supermassive Black Holes is important for the efforts to achieve a complete picture of the dust role and distribution around these compact objects. In this work we propose a methodology to detect the hot dust emission in the proximity of Type 2 AGNs and measure its temperature using K-band spectra ($\lambda_c$ = 2.2\,$\mu$m). To achieve this, we have developed NIRDust, a Python package for modeling K-band spectra, estimate the dust temperature and characterize the involved uncertainties. We tested synthetic and real spectra in order to check the performance and suitability of the physical model over different types of data. Our tests on synthetic spectra demonstrated that the obtained results are influenced by the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of the input spectra. However, we accurately characterized the uncertainties, which remained below $\sim$150 K for an average S/N per pixel exceeding 20. Applying NIRDust to NGC 5128 (Centaurus A), observed with the Gemini South Telescope, we estimated a dust temperature of 662 and 667 K from Flamingos-2 spectra and 697 and 607 K from GNIRS spectra using two different approaches.
We present a study of the environments of 17 Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) emitting galaxies (LAEs) in the reionisation era ($5.8 < z < 8$) identified by JWST/NIRSpec as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). Unless situated in sufficiently (re)ionised regions, Ly$\alpha$ emission from these galaxies would be strongly absorbed by neutral gas in the intergalactic medium (IGM). We conservatively estimate sizes of the ionised regions required to reconcile the relatively low Ly$\alpha$ velocity offsets ($\Delta v_\text{Ly$\alpha$}<300\,\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}}$) with moderately high Ly$\alpha$ escape fractions ($f_\mathrm{esc,\,Ly\alpha}>5\%$) observed in our sample of LAEs, suggesting the presence of ionised hydrogen along the line of sight towards at least eight out of 17 LAEs. We find minimum physical `bubble' sizes of the order of $R_\text{ion}\sim0.1$-$1\,\mathrm{pMpc}$ are required in a patchy reionisation scenario where ionised bubbles containing the LAEs are embedded in a fully neutral IGM. Around half of the LAEs in our sample are found to coincide with large-scale galaxy overdensities seen in FRESCO at $z \sim 5.8$-$5.9$ and $z\sim7.3$, suggesting Ly$\alpha$ transmission is strongly enhanced in such overdense regions, and underlining the importance of LAEs as tracers of the first large-scale ionised bubbles. Considering only spectroscopically confirmed galaxies, we find our sample of UV-faint LAEs ($M_\text{UV}\gtrsim-20\,\mathrm{mag}$) and their direct neighbours are generally not able to produce the required ionised regions based on the Ly$\alpha$ transmission properties, suggesting lower-luminosity sources likely play an important role in carving out these bubbles. These observations demonstrate the combined power of JWST multi-object and slitless spectroscopy in acquiring a unique view of the early Universe during cosmic reionisation via the most distant LAEs.
We study the properties of galaxies hosting mid-infrared outbursts in the context of a catalog of five hundred thousand galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find that nuclear obscuration, as inferred by the surrounding dust mass, does not correlate with host galaxy type, stellar properties (e.g. total mass and mean age), or with the extinction of the host galaxy as estimated by the Balmer decrement. This implies that nuclear obscuration may not be able to explain any over-representation of tidal disruption events in particular host galaxies. We identify a region in the galaxy catalog parameter space that contains all unobscured tidal disruption events but only harbors $\lesssim $ 11\% of the mid-infrared outburst hosts. We find that mid-infrared outburst hosts appear more centrally concentrated and have higher galaxy S\'ersic indices than galaxies hosting active galactic nuclei (AGN) selected using the BPT classification. We thus conclude that the majority of mid-infrared outbursts are not hidden tidal disruption events but are instead consistent with being obscured AGN that are highly variable, such as changing-look AGN.
The Active Galatic Nuclei(AGN) disk has been proposed as a potential channel for the merger of binary black holes. The population of massive stars and black holes in AGN disks captured from the nuclei cluster plays a crucial role in determining the efficiency of binary formation and final merger rate within the AGN disks. In this paper, we investigate the capture process using analytical and numerical approaches. We discover a new constant integral of motion for one object's capture process. Applying this result to the whole population of the nuclei cluster captured by the AGN disk, we find that the population of captured objects depends on the angular density and eccentricity distribution of the nuclei clusters and is effectively independent of the radial density profile of the nuclei cluster and disk models. An isotropic nuclei cluster with thermal eccentricity distribution predicts a captured profile $d N/d r \propto r^{-1/4}$. The captured objects are found to be dynamically crowded within the disk. Direct binary formation right after the capture would be promising, especially for stars. The conventional migration traps that help pile up single objects in AGN disks for black hole mergers might not be required.
Polar-ring galaxies are photometrically and kinematically decoupled systems which are highly inclined to the major axis of the host galaxy. These objects have been explored since the 1970s, but the rarity of these systems has made such study difficult. We examine a sample of over 18,362 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 for the presence of galaxies with polar structures. Using deep SDSS Stripe 82, DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, and Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program, we select 53 good candidate galaxies with photometrically decoupled polar rings, 9 galaxies with polar halos, and 34 possibly forming polar-ring galaxies, versus 13 polar-ring candidates previously mentioned in the literature for the Stripe 82. Our results suggest that the occurrence rate of galaxies with polar structures may be significantly underestimated, as revealed by the deep observations, and may amount to 1-3% of non-dwarf galaxies.
The Milky Way's last significant merger, the Gaia Enceladus/Sausage (GES), is thought to have taken place between 8-11 Gyr ago. Recent studies in the literature suggest that the bar of the Milky Way is rather old, indicating that it formed at a similar epoch to the GES merger. We investigate the possible link between these events using one of the Auriga cosmological simulations which has salient features in common with the Milky Way, including a last significant merger with kinematic signatures resembling that of the GES. In this simulation, the GES-like merger event triggers tidal forces on the disc, gas inflows and a burst of star formation, with the formation of a bar occuring within 1 Gyr of the first pericentre. To highlight the effects of the merger, we rerun the simulation from z=4 with the progenitors of the GES-like galaxy removed well before the merger time. The consequence is a delay in bar formation by around 2 Gyr, and this new bar forms without any significant external perturbers. We conclude that this Milky Way-like simulation shows a route to the real Milky Way's bar formation being triggered primarily via tidal forces from the GES. We also note some later morphological differences between the disc of the original simulation and our rerun, in particular that the latter does not grow radially for the final 7 Gyr. Our study suggests that the GES may therefore be responsible for the formation of the Milky Way's bar, as well as for the build-up of its extended disc.
Based on the astrometry and photometry in Gaia DR3, we identified new nearby white dwarfs and validated those that had been missed from recent white dwarf catalogues despite being previously documented. To ensure the reliability of their astrometric solutions, we used a cut on just two parameters from Gaia DR3: the amplitude of the image parameter determination goodness-of-fit and the parallax-over-error ratio. In addition, we imposed photometric signal-to-noise requirements to ensure the reliable identification of white dwarfs when using the colour-magnitude diagram. We have identified nine previously unreported white dwarfs within the local population of 50 pc, and validated 21 previously reported white dwarfs missing from the GCWD21 (Gentile Fusillo et al. 2021) and other recent volume-limited white dwarf samples. A few of these objects belong to the rare class of ultra-cool white dwarfs. Four white dwarfs in our sample have an effective temperature of $T_{eff}\leq4000$ K within the $1\sigma$ interval, and two of them have an absolute magnitude of $M_G > 16.0$ mag. The identified white dwarfs are predominantly located in crowded fields, such as near the Galactic plane or in the foreground of the Large Magellanic Cloud. We also find that 19 of these white dwarfs have common proper motion companions with angular separations ranging from $1.1''$ to $7.1''$ and brightness differences between the components of up to 9.8 magnitudes. One of these systems is a triple system consisting of a white dwarf and two K dwarfs, while another is a double white dwarf system. We have identified 103 contaminants among the 2338 high-confidence white dwarfs in the 50 pc subsample of the GCWD21 and have found that their astrometric solutions in Gaia DR3 are spurious, improving the purity by 4.4%.
We select a sample of 1,437 active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the catalog of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxy properties from the Portsmouth group by detection of the high-ionization [Ne V] 3426 \r{A} emission line. We compare the fluxes of [Ne III] 3869 \r{A}, [O III] 5007 \r{A}, [O II] 3726, 3728 \r{A}, and [O I] 6300 \r{A} to that of [Ne V]. All four lines show a strong linear correlation with [Ne V], although lines from ions with lower ionization potentials have a lower correlation coefficient. We investigate the use of two forbidden-line ratio (FLR) diagnostic diagrams that do not rely on H$\alpha$ in order to classify high redshift galaxies. These use the [Ne III]/[O II] line ratio plotted against [O III]/[O I] and [O III]/[O II] respectively. We use photo-ionization modeling to characterize the behavior of the narrow-line region in AGN and star-forming regions and test the validity of our diagnostic diagrams. We also use a luminosity cutoff of log L[OIII] [erg/s] = 42, which lowers the contamination of the AGN region by star-forming galaxies down to 10% but does not remove Green Pea and Purple Grape galaxies from the AGN region. We also investigate the OHNO diagram which uses [Ne III]/[O II] plotted against [O III]/H$\beta$. Using our new diagnostic diagrams, we are able to reliably classify AGN up to a redshift of z $\leq$ 1.06, and add more than 822 new AGN to the [Ne V]-selected AGN sample.
In ultraviolet (UV) astronomical observations, photons from the sources are very few compared to the visible or infrared (IR) wavelength ranges. Detectors operating in the UV usually employ a photon-counting mode of operation. These detectors usually have an image intensifier sensitive to UV photons and a readout mechanism that employs photon counting. The development of readouts for these detectors is resource-intensive and expensive. In this paper, we describe the development of a low-cost UV photon-counting detector processing unit that employs a Raspberry Pi with its in built readout to perform the photon-counting operation. Our system can operate in both 3x3 and 5x5 window modes at 30 frames per sec (fps), where 5x5 window mode also enables the provision of detection of double events. The system can be built quickly from readily available custom-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and is thus used in inexpensive CubeSats or small satellite missions. This low-cost solution promises to broaden access to UV observations, advancing research possibilities in space-based astronomy.
We report the observations of two self-lensing pulses from KIC 12254688 in Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) light curves. This system, containing a F2V star and white-dwarf companion, was amongst the first self-lensing binary systems discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope over the past decade. Each observed pulse occurs when the white dwarf transits in front of its companion star, gravitationally lensing the star's surface, thus making it appear brighter to a distant observer. These two pulses are the very first self-lensing events discovered in TESS observations. We describe the methods by which the data were acquired and detrended, as well as the best-fit binary parameters deduced from our self-lensing+radial velocity model. We highlight the difficulties of finding new self-lensing systems with TESS, and we discuss the types of self-lensing systems that TESS may be more likely to discover in the future.
The illumination phase functions for Starlink Mini satellites are determined for times of twilight and darkness. Those functions are then evaluated to give apparent magnitudes over a grid of points across the sky and over a range of solar angles below the horizon. Sky maps and a table of satellite magnitude distributions are presented. The largest areas of sky with satellites brighter than magnitudes 6 and 7 both occur during twilight. Brightness surges, known as flares, are also characterized.
We resolve a long standing question regarding the suitable effective diffusion coefficient of the spherically-symmetric transport equation, which is valid at long times. To that end, we generalize a transport solution in three dimensions for homogeneous media, to include general collisional properties, including birth-death events and linearly anisotropic scattering. This is done by introducing an exact scaling law relating the Green function of the pure-scattering case with the general collision case, which is verified using deterministic and Monte-Carlo simulations. Importantly, the effective diffusion coefficient is identified by inspecting the transport solution at long times.
We use the VERITAS imaging air Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) array to obtain the first measured angular diameter of $\beta$ UMa at visual wavelengths using stellar intensity interferometry (SII) and independently constrain the limb-darkened angular diameter. The age of the Ursa Major moving group has been assessed from the ages of its members, including nuclear member Merak ($\beta$ UMa), an A1-type subgiant, by comparing effective temperature and luminosity constraints to model stellar evolution tracks. Previous interferometric limb-darkened angular-diameter measurements of $\beta$ UMa in the near-infrared (CHARA Array, $1.149 \pm 0.014$ mas) and mid-infrared (Keck Nuller, $1.08 \pm 0.07$ mas), together with the measured parallax and bolometric flux, have constrained the effective temperature. This paper presents current VERITAS-SII observation and analysis procedures to derive squared visibilities from correlation functions. We fit the resulting squared visibilities to find a limb-darkened angular diameter of $1.07 \pm 0.04 {\rm (stat)} \pm 0.05$ (sys) mas, using synthetic visibilities from a stellar atmosphere model that provides a good match to the spectrum of $\beta$ UMa in the optical wave band. The VERITAS-SII limb-darkened angular diameter yields an effective temperature of $9700\pm200\pm 200$ K, consistent with ultraviolet spectrophotometry, and an age of $390\pm 29 \pm 32 $ Myr, using MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks (MIST). This age is consistent with $408 \pm 6$ Myr from the CHARA Array angular diameter.
The full array of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) has been in operation since July 2021. For its kilometer-square array (KM2A), we have optimized the selection criteria for very high and ultra-high energy $\gamma$-rays, using the data collected from August 2021 to August 2022, resulting in an improvement on significance of about 15$\%$ compared with previous cuts. With the implementation of these new selection criteria, the angular resolution is also significantly improved by approximately 10$\%$ at tens of TeV. Other aspects of the full KM2A array performance, such as the pointing error are also calibrated using the Crab Nebula. The resulting energy spectrum of the Crab Nebula in the energy range of 10-1000 TeV can be well fitted by a log-parabola model, which is consistent with the previous results from LHAASO and other experiments.
In this paper, our focus is on investigating the impact of cosmological constants on relativistic quantum systems comprising spin-0 scalar particles. Our analysis centers around the Klein Gordon equation, and we obtain both approximate and exact analytical solutions for spin-0 particles of the quantum system. Afterwards, we explore quantum oscillator fields by considering the Klein-Gordon oscillator within the same space time characterized by a cosmological constant. We obtain an approximate expression for the energy eigenvalue of the oscillator fields. In fact, the energy spectrum in both scenarios are examined and show the influences of the cosmological constant and geometry s topology. Our investigation is situated within the context of a magnetic universe a four dimensional cosmological space-time recognized as the Bonnor-Melvin universe.
In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive exploration of the relativistic quantum dynamics of spin 0 scalar particles, as described by the Duffin Kemmer Petiau (DKP) equation, within the framework of a magnetic space time. Our focus is on the Bonnor Melvin Lambda (BML) solution, a four dimensional magnetic universe characterized by a magnetic field that varies with axial distance. To initiate this investigation, we derive the radial equation using a suitable wave function ansatz and subsequently employ special functions to solve it. Furthermore, we extend our analysis to include Duffin Kemmer Petiau oscillator fields within the same BML space time background. We derive the corresponding radial equation and solve it using special functions. Significantly, our results show that the geometry s topology and the cosmological constant (both are related with the magnetic field strength) influences the eigenvalue solution of spin 0 DKP fields and DKP oscillator fields, leading to substantial modifications in the overall outcomes.
In this article, we demonstrate how black hole quasi-normal modes can emerge from a Dirichlet brickwall model normal modes. We consider a probe scalar field in a BTZ-geometry with a Dirichlet brickwall and demonstrate that as the wall approaches the event horizon, the corresponding poles in the retarded correlator become dense and yield an effective branch-cut. The associated discontinuity of the correlator carries the information of the black hole quasi-normal modes. We further demonstrate that a non-vanishing angular momentum non-perturbatively enhances the pole-condensing. We hypothesize that it is also related to quantum chaotic features of the corresponding spectral form factor, which has been observed earlier. Finally we discuss the underlying algebraic justification of this approximate thermalization in terms of the trace of the algebra.
Machine learning, particularly neural networks, has rapidly permeated most activities and work where data has a story to tell. Recently, deep learning has started to be used for solving differential equations with input from physics, also known as Physics Informed Neural Networks (PINNs). We present a study showing the efficacy of PINNs for solving the Zerilli and the Regge-Wheeler equations in the time domain to calculate the quasi-normal oscillation modes of a Schwarzschild black hole. We compare the extracted modes with those obtained with finite difference methods. Although the PINN results are competitive, with a few percent differences in the quasi-normal modes estimates relative to those computed with finite difference methods, the real power of PINNs will emerge when applied to large dimensionality problems.
Zermelo navigation is not only a fundamental tool in Finsler geometry but also a fundamental approach to the geometrization of dynamics in physics. In this paper, we consider the Zermelo navigation problem on optical Riemannian space and, via Zermelo/Randers/spacetime triangle, explore the generation of new spacetimes from pre-existing ones. Whether the Randers metric has reversible geodesics corresponds to the presence of time-reversal symmetry in the generated spacetime. In cases where the Randers metric has reversible geodesics, we utilize a radial vector field to generate new static spacetimes from existing ones. For example, we can generate Schwarzschild, Rindler, de Sitter, and Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetimes from flat spacetime. In fact, the Zermelo navigation method allows for the derivation of a variety of static spacetimes from flat spacetime. For multi-parameter spacetimes, they can be generated through various navigation paths. However, for some spacetimes, not all navigation paths may exist. In the second scenario, when the Randers metric does not have reversible geodesics, we employ a rotational vector field to transform non-flat static metrics into slowly rotating spacetimes. Alternatively, using a mixed vector field, we generate slowly rotating spacetimes starting from flat spacetime. We provide examples of generating Kerr spacetimes and Kerr-de Sitter spacetimes.
We study the issue of temperature in a steady system around a black hole event horizon, contrasting it with the appearance of divergence in a thermal equilibrium system. We focus on a spherically symmetric system governed by general relativity, particularly examining the steady state with radial heat conduction. Employing an appropriate approximation, we derive exact solutions that illuminate the behaviors of number density, local temperature, and heat in the proximity of a black hole. We demonstrate that a carefully regulated heat inflow can maintain finite local temperatures at the black hole event horizon, even without considering the back-reaction of matter. This discovery challenges conventional expectations that the local temperature near the event horizon diverges in scenarios of thermal equilibrium. This implications shows that there's an intricate connection between heat and gravity in the realm of black hole thermodynamics.
The present work shows the correspondence between $f(R)$ gravity and a dual scalar-tensor theory (with an antisymmetric tensor field) when the affine connection is considered to have an antisymmetric part. It turns out that the $f(R)$ action in presence of spacetime torsion can be recast to a $non-minimally$ coupled scalar-tensor theory with a 2-rank massless antisymmetric tensor field in the Einstein frame, where the scalar field gets coupled with the antisymmetric field through derivative coupling(s).
Regular black holes (RBHs) -- geometries free from curvature singularities -- arise naturally in theories of non linear electrodynamics. Here we study the absorption, and superradiant amplification, of a monochromatic planar wave in a charged, massive scalar field impinging on the electrically-charged Ay\'on-Beato-Garc\'ia (ABG) RBH. Comparisons are drawn with absorption and superradiance for the Reissner-Nordstr\"om (RN) black hole in linear electrodynamics. We find that, in a certain parameter regime, the ABG absorption cross section is negative, due to superradiance, and moreover it is unbounded from below as the momentum of the wave approaches zero; this phenomenon of ``unbounded superradiance'' is absent in the RN case. We show how the parameter space can be divided into regions, using the bounded/unbounded and absorption/amplification boundaries. After introducing a high-frequency approximation based on particle trajectories, we calculate the absorption cross section numerically, via the partial-wave expansion, as function of wave frequency, and we present a gallery of results. The cross section of the ABG RBH is found to be larger (smaller) than in the RN case when the field charge has the same (opposite) sign as the black hole charge. We show that it is possible to find ``mimics'': situations in which the cross sections of both black holes are very similar. We conclude with a discussion of unbounded superradiance, and superradiant instabilities.
A model of space-time foam in the form of an arbitrary distribution of spherical Euclidean wormholes is considered. A method for constructing the exact solution of Einstein's Euclidean equations for the metric corresponding to this model is proposed. In the framework of our model we obtain the expression for the Euclidean action and its dependence on the parameters of wormholes in the explicit form. It is shown how the solutions obtained make it possible to determine all possible correlation functions associated with the parameters of virtual wormholes in the vacuum state.
Utilizing the bounds on primordial magnetic fields (PMFs), their contributions to secondary gravitational waves (GWs) and the results from the pulsar timing arrays (PTAs), we arrive at constraints on the epoch of reheating. We find that the combined spectral density of primary and secondary GWs (generated by the PMFs) can, in general, be described as a broken power law with five different indices. We show that the PMFs that have a blue tilt and satisfy the other observational constraints can generate secondary GWs of strengths suggested by the PTA data.
Discovery that gravitational field equations may coerce the spacetime metric with isometries to attain a block-diagonal form compatible with these isometries, was one of the gems built into the corpus of black hole uniqueness theorems. We revisit the geometric background of a block-diagonal metric with isometries, foliation defined by Killing vector fields and the corresponding Godbillon-Vey characteristic class. Furthermore, we analyse sufficient conditions for various matter sources, including scalar, nonlinear electromagnetic and Proca fields, that imply the isometry-compatible block-diagonal form of the metric. Finally, we generalize the theorem on the absence of null electromagnetic fields in static spacetimes to an arbitrary number of spacetime dimensions, wide class of gravitational field equations and nonlinear electromagnetic fields.
Quantum de Sitter geometry is discussed using elementary field operator algebras in Krein space quantization from an observer-independent point of view, {\it i.e.} ambient space formalism. In quantum geometry, the conformal sector of the metric becomes a dynamical degree of freedom, which can be written in terms of a massless minimally coupled scalar field. The elementary fields necessary for the construction of quantum geometry are introduced and classified. A complete Krein-Fock space structure for elementary fields is presented using field operator algebras. We conclude that since quantum de Sitter geometry can be constructed by elementary field operators, the geometry quantum state is immersed in the Krein-Fock space and evolves in it. The total number of accessible quantum states in the universe is chosen as a parameter of quantum state evolution, which has a relationship with the universe's entropy. Inspired by the Wheeler-DeWitt constraint equation in cosmology, the evolution equation of the geometry quantum state is formulated in terms of the Lagrangian density of interaction fields in ambient space formalism.
General Relativity (GR) exists in different formulations, which are equivalent in pure gravity. Once matter is included, however, observable predictions generically depend on the version of GR. In order to quantify the resulting ambiguity, we employ metric-affine gravity, which encompasses as special cases the metric, Palatini, Einstein-Cartan and Weyl formulations. We first discuss the interaction of fermions with torsion and non-metricity, also commenting on projective symmetry. With a view towards the Standard Model, we then construct a generic model of (complex) scalar, fermionic and gauge fields coupled to GR and derive an equivalent metric theory, which features numerous new interaction terms. As a first observable consequence, we point out that a gravitational mechanism for producing dark matter in the form of singlet fermions can be used to distinguish between metric gravity and other formulations of GR.
Using covariant expansions, recent work showed that pole skipping happens in general holographic theories with bosonic fields at frequencies $\mathrm{i}(l_b-s) 2\pi T$, where $l_b$ is the highest integer spin in the theory and $s$ takes all positive integer values. We revisit this formalism in theories with gauge symmetry and upgrade the pole-skipping condition so that it works without having to remove the gauge redundancy. We also extend the formalism by incorporating fermions with general spins and interactions and show that their presence generally leads to a separate tower of pole-skipping points at frequencies $\mathrm{i}(l_f-s)2\pi T$, $l_f$ being the highest half-integer spin in the theory and $s$ again taking all positive integer values. We also demonstrate the practical value of this formalism using a selection of examples with spins $0,\frac{1}{2},1,\frac{3}{2},2$.
Inspired by real-time computations in AdS black holes, we propose a method to obtain the influence phase of a cosmological observer by calculating the on-shell action on a doubled spacetime geometry. The influence phase is the effective action for an open system: for a dS static patch observer coupled to a scalar field it incorporates the radiation reaction due to the bulk fields and their dS Hawking radiation. For a general extended source in dS, we describe how to account for finite size effects. In the long-time limit, we get a Markovian open quantum system susceptible to cosmological fluctuations, whereas the short-time limit reproduces the worldline theory of flat-space radiation reaction. We also present a fully covariantised form for the cubic corrections to the radiation reaction in even spacetime dimensions, including Hubble contributions, and find an intriguing recursive structure across dimensions.
We develop a relativistic perturbation theory for scalar clouds around rotating black holes. We first introduce a relativistic product and corresponding orthogonality relation between modes, extending a recent result for gravitational perturbations. We then derive the analog of time-dependent perturbation theory in quantum mechanics, and apply it to calculate self-gravitational frequency shifts. This approach supersedes the non-relativistic "gravitational atom" approximation, brings close agreement with numerical relativity, and has practical applications for gravitational-wave astronomy.
Let $M$ be a locally rotationally symmetric spacetime, and $\xi^a$ a conformal Killing vector for the metric on $M$, lying in the subspace spanned by the unit timelike direction and the preferred spatial direction, and with non-constant components. Under the assumption that the divergence of $\xi^a$ has no critical point in $M$, we obtain the necessary and sufficient condition for $\xi^a$ to generate a conformal Killing horizon. It is shown that $\xi^a$ generates a conformal Killing horizon if and only if either of the components (which coincide on the horizon) is constant along its orbits. That is, a conformal Killing horizon can be realized as the set of critical points of the variation of the component(s) of the conformal Killing vector along its orbits. Using this result, a simple mechanism is provided by which to determine if an arbitrary vector in an expanding LRS spacetime is a conformal Killing vector that generates a conformal Killing horizon. In specializing the case for which $\xi^a$ is a special conformal Killing vector, provided that the gradient of the divergence of $\xi^a$ is non-null, it is shown that LRS spacetimes cannot admit a special conformal Killing vector field, thereby ruling out conformal Killing horizons generated by such vector fields.
This paper presents the CMB angular power spectrum obtained using the CAMB code for three different models of inflation: the Starobinsky inflationary model, the generalized Starobinsky inflationary model, and the chaotic inflationary model with a step. The results are compared with the most recent data reported for the Planck mission. An analysis of the large ($l \lesssim 90$), intermediate ($90 \lesssim l \lesssim 900$), and small ($l \gtrsim 900 $) angular scales is performed. We report the position of the peaks in the intermediate region so as the cosmological parameters obtained in each of the models: age of the universe, $\Omega_m$, $\Omega_b$, $\Omega_{\Lambda}$, $\Omega_K$ and $n_S$.
We investigate physical consequences of non-linear electrodynamic coupled to parameters that signal violation Lorentz-symmetry breaking (LSV). Our undertaking is done by considering a general non-linear photonic Lagrangian which coupled to the Carroll-Field-Jackiw's model (CFJ). Our endeavor reveals how the (meta) material constitutive properties of the vacuum and wave propagation are affected by the interference of the LSV parameters LSV with the specific non-linear electrodynamic model under consideration. We also discuss the refractive indices for this new medium characterized by the coupling between non-linearities and the operators that carry the LSV message. Our results show that the QED-vacuum responds with birefringence and a dispersive propagation of waves. Subsequently, we consider the electromagnetic radiation produced by a moving charged particle interacting with this new medium. Our inspection illustrates that the emitted radiation reproduces the features of the Cherenkov effect for certain intensities of background magnetic fields . Finally, we compute the static potential profile within the framework of the gauge-invariant, but path-dependent, variables formalism. A logarithmic correction to the usual static Coulomb potential emerges driven by the LSV parameter and there also appear corrections due to the non-linearity; nevertheless, the logarithm behavior drops out whenever the LSV parameter is switched off.
We study heavy-flavor hadron production in high-energy pp collisions, assuming the formation of a small, deconfined and expanding fireball where charm quarks can undergo rescattering and hadronization. We adopt the same in-medium hadronization mechanism developed for heavy-ion collisions, which involves Local Color-Neutralization (LCN) through recombination of charm quarks with nearby opposite color charges from the background fireball. Diquark excitations in the hot medium favor the formation of charmed baryons. The recombination process, involving closely aligned partons from the same fluid cell, effectively transfers the collective flow of the system to the final charmed hadrons. This framework can qualitatively reproduce the observed experimental findings in heavy-flavor particle-yield ratios, $p_T$-spectra and elliptic-flow coefficients. Our results provide new, complementary support to the idea that the collective phenomena observed in small systems have the same origin as those observed in heavy-ion collisions.
In addition to the Standard Model, the introduction of a singlet complex scalar field that acquires vacuum expectation value may give rise to a cosmologically stable pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNGB), a suitable dark matter (DM) candidate. This work extends this scenario by including a second cosmologically stable particle: a fermion singlet. The pNGB and the new fermion can be regarded as DM candidates simultaneously, both interacting with the Standard Model through Higgs portals via two non-degenerate Higgs bosons. We explore the thermal freeze-out of this scenario, with particular emphasis on the increasing yield of the pNGB before it completely decouples (recently called \textit{Bouncing DM}). We test the model under collider bounds, relic abundance, direct detection, and we study prospects for indirect detection observables.
In the light of SU(3) flavor symmetry, the effective interaction Hamiltonian in tensor form is obtained by virtue of group representation theory. The strong and electromagnetic breaking effects are treated as a spurion octet so that the flavor singlet principle can be utilized as the criterion to determine the form of effective Hamiltonian for all charmonium two body decays. Moreover, a synthetical nonet is introduced to include both octet and singlet representations for meson description, and resorting to the mixing angle the pure octet and singlet states are combined into the observable pseudoscalar and vector particles, so that the empirically effective Hamiltonian can be obtained in a concise way. As an application, by virtue of this scenario the relative phase between the strong and electromagnetic amplitudes is studied for vector-pseudoscalar meson final state. In data analysis of samples taken in $e^+e^-$ collider, the details of experimental effects, such as energy spread and initial state radiative correction are taken into consideration in order to make full use of experimental information and acquire the accurate and delicate results.
We study the inclusive production of hadrons with bottom flavor at the LHC and its luminosity upgrade. We describe the collinear fragmentation of singly $b$-flavored hadrons, $B$ mesons and $\Lambda_b$ baryons, via the KKSS07 determination of fragmentation functions, while for charmed $B$ mesons, $B_c(^1S_0)$ and $B_c(^3S_1)$ particles, we employ the novel ZCFW22 set, built on the basis of state-of-the-art nonrelativistic QCD inputs. We use the JETHAD multimodular working environment to analyze rapidity and transverse-momentum distributions for observables sensitive to the associated emission of two hadrons or a hadron-plus-jet system. Our reference formalism is the NLL/NLO$^+$ hybrid collinear and high-energy factorization, where the standard collinear description is improved by the inclusions of energy logarithms resummed up to the next-to-leading approximation and beyond. We provide a corroborating evidence that $b$-flavor emissions act as fair stabilizers of the high-energy resummation, thus serving as valuable tools for precision studies of high-energy QCD. As a bonus, we highlight that the predicted production-rate hierarchy between noncharmed $b$-hadrons and charmed $B_c(^1S_0)$ mesons is in line with recent LHCb estimates. This serves as simultaneous benchmark both for the hybrid factorization and the single-parton fragmentation mechanism from the nonrelativistic QCD effective theory.
We present recent progress in calculating the semileptonic form factors $h_{A_1}(w)$ for the $\bar{B} \to D^{\ast} \ell \bar{\nu}$ decays. We use the Oktay-Kronfeld (OK) action for the charm and bottom valence quarks and the HISQ action for light quarks. We adopt the Newton method combined with the scanning method to find a good initial guess for the $\chi^2$ minimizer in the fitting of the 2pt correlation functions. The main advantage is that the Newton method lets us to consume all the time slices allowed by the physical positivity. We report the first, reliable, but preliminary results for $h_{A_1}(w)/\rho_{A_1}$ at zero recoil ($w=1$). Here we use a MILC HISQ ensemble ($a = 0.12$ fm, $M_{\pi}$ = 220 MeV, and $N_f = 2 + 1 + 1$ flavors).
We report recent progress in data analysis on the two point correlation functions which will be prerequisite to obtain semileptonic form factors for the $B_{(s)} \to D_{(s)}\ell\nu$ decays. We use a MILC HISQ ensemble for the measurement. We use the HISQ action for light quarks, and the Oktay-Kronfeld (OK) action for the heavy quarks ($b$ and $c$). We used a sequential Bayesian method for the data analysis. Here we test the new fitting methodology of Benjamin J.~Choi in a completely independent manner.
We investigate self-gravitating solutions of the Einstein-Skyrme theory coupled to spin-isospin Dirac fermions and consider the dependence of the spectral flow on the effective gravitational coupling constant and on the Yukawa coupling. It is shown that the effects of the backreaction of the fermionic mode may strongly deform the configuration. In particular, the energy conditions may be violated, and regular anti-gravitating asymptotically flat solutions with negative ADM mass may emerge.
In this paper we scan over all possible charmed tetraquarks and pentaquarks. Using the holography inspired stringy hadron (HISH) model we determine the trajectories associated with each of the exotic hadron candidates. The trajectories include further exotic states with higher angular momentum or higher stringy excited states. A trajectory is a property of a genuine exotic hadron and can be used to distinguish between the latter and a molecule. We examine 71 tetraquarks and 210 pentaquarks. Few of these states have already been found but most of the predicted zoo have yet not been discovered. We analyze the strong decay processes of these exotic hadrons and compute the corresponding decay widths of part of them.
We propose a minimal scenario for light thermal dark matter (DM) in sub-GeV to GeV ballpark by incorporating a scalar singlet DM in a type-I seesaw scenario extended by an additional Higgs doublet $\phi_2$. The latter permits efficient annihilation of light scalar DM into leptonic final states including right-handed neutrinos (RHN). While DM annihilation into charged lepton final states is kept either suppressed or in a kinematically forbidden ballpark to avoid cosmic microwave background (CMB) bounds, the RHN, active neutrino final states remain safe from such bounds even if they are allowed kinematically. We discuss the interplay of forbidden and non-forbidden channels in generating light thermal DM relic while incorporating constraints from cosmology as well as laboratory experiments. The model can also explain the anomalous magnetic moment of muon, W-mass anomaly and saturate experimental bounds on charged lepton flavour violation and DM direct detection while offering tantalising detection prospects of the lightest RHN, the mass of which is kept in the same ballpark as DM.
We present a theoretical study of the medium modifications on the $p_{\rm T}$ balance ($x_{\rm J}$) of dijets in Xe+Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.44$ TeV. The initial production of dijets is carried out by the POWHEG+PYTHIA8 prescription, which matches the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD matrix elements with the parton shower (PS) effect. The in-medium evolution in nucleus-nucleus collisions is described by the SHELL model with a transport approach. The theoretical results of the dijet $x_{\rm J}$ in Xe+Xe collisions exhibit more imbalanced distributions than that in p+p, consistent with the recently reported ATLAS data. By utilizing the Interleaved Flavor Neutralisation, an infrared-and-collinear-safe jet flavor algorithm, to identify the flavor of the reconstructed jets, we classify dijets processes into three categories: gluon-gluon ($gg$), quark-gluon ($qg$) and quark-quark ($qq$), and investigate the respective medium modification patterns and fraction changes of the $gg$, $qg$, and $qq$ components of the dijet sample in Xe+Xe collisions. It is shown that the $qg$ component plays a key role in the increased imbalance of the dijet $x_{\rm J}$, and especially the $q_1g_2$ (quark-jet-leading) dijets experience more significant asymmetric energy loss than the $g_1q_2$ (gluon-jet-leading) dijets as traversing the QGP. By comparing the $\Delta \langle x_{\rm J}\rangle$ of inclusive, $c\bar{c}$ and $b\bar{b}$ dijets in Xe+Xe collisions, we observe $\Delta \langle x_{\rm J} \rangle_{\rm incl.}>\Delta \langle x_{\rm J} \rangle_{\rm c\bar{c}}>\Delta \langle x_{\rm J} \rangle_{\rm b\bar{b}}$. Moreover, $\rho_{\rm Xe, Pb}$, the ratios of nuclear modification factors of dijets in Xe+Xe to that in Pb+Pb, are calcualted, which indicates that the yield suppression of dijets in Pb+Pb is more pronounced than that in Xe+Xe due to the larger radius of the lead nucleus.
We report on a search for a new $Z'$ ($L_\mu-L_\tau$) vector boson performed at the NA64 experiment employing a high energy muon beam and a missing energy-momentum technique. Muons from the M2 beamline at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron with a momentum of 160 GeV/c are directed to an active target. A signal event is a single scattered muon with momentum $<$ 80 GeV/c in the final state, accompanied by missing energy, i.e. no detectable activity in the downstream calorimeters. For a total statistic of $(1.98\pm0.02)\times10^{10}$ muons on target, no event is observed in the expected signal region. This allows us to set new limits on part of the remaining $(m_{Z'},\ g_{Z'})$ parameter space which could provide an explanation for the muon $(g-2)_\mu$ anomaly. Additionally, our study excludes part of the parameter space suggested by the thermal Dark Matter relic abundance. Our results pave the way to explore Dark Sectors and light Dark Matter with muon beams in a unique and complementary way to other experiments.
Predictions for processes involving soft photons, up to next-to-leading power (NLP) in the photon energy, can be obtained using the Low-Burnett-Kroll (LBK) theorem. The consistency of the theorem has been a recent topic of investigation since it is traditionally formulated in terms of a non-radiative amplitude, which is evaluated with unphysical momenta. We address such questions and propose a formulation of the LBK theorem which relies on the evaluation of the non-radiative amplitude with on-shell, physical momenta. We use this form to numerically study the impact of NLP contributions to cross-sections for $pp$ and $e^-e^+$ processes involving soft-photon emission.
A remarkable exact mapping, valid for low-enough energy scales and close to a sharp boundary distribution of hadronic matter, from the $(3+1)$-dimensional Skyrme model to the sine-Gordon theory in $(1+1)$ dimensions in the attractive regime is explicitly constructed. Besides the intrinsic theoretical interest to be able to describe the prototype of nonintegrable theories (namely, quantum chromodynamics in the infrared regime) in terms of the prototype of integrable relativistic field theories (namely, sine-Gordon theory in $(1+1)$ dimensions), we will show that this mapping can be extremely useful to analyze both equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium features of baryonic distributions in a cavity.
We revisit the formalism for tunneling in quantum field theory developed by Coleman and collaborators. In particular using the generalization of WKB methods for tunneling in quantum mechanics we avoid the problems with negative eigenvalues and convexity issues associated with Coleman's approach. While the exponential factor is the same, we find differences in the pre-factor. Then we point out that to actually discuss the time evolution of the state, we need a wave packet formulation which we proceed to discuss. Next we address the problem of justifying the application of semi-classical tunneling calculations to the decay of the standard model vacuum, where the classical potential signifies absolute stability, though the effective potential appears to imply the possibility of meta-stability (with more than one local minimum). This is in contrast to the usual situation in applications of the formalism for tunneling, where the \textit{classical} potential has more than one local minimum.
The neutral pion generates the leading pole contribution to the hadronic light-by-light tensor, which is given in terms of the nonperturbative transition form factor $\mathcal{F}_{\pi^0\gamma\gamma}(q_1^2,q_2^2)$. Here we present an ab-initio lattice calculation of this quantity in the continuum and at the physical point using twisted-mass lattice QCD. We report our results for the transition form factor parameterized using a model-independent conformal expansion valid for arbitrary space-like kinematics and compare it with experimental measurements of the single-virtual form factor, the two-photon decay width, and the slope parameter. We then use the transition form factors to compute the pion-pole contribution to the hadronic light-by-light scattering in the muon $g-2$, finding $a_\mu^{\pi^0\text{-pole}} = 56.7(3.2) \times 10^{-11}$.
Heavy ion collisions provide a unique opportunity for studying the properties of exotic hadrons with two charm quarks. The production of $T_{cc}^+$ is significantly enhanced in nuclear collisions compared to proton-proton collisions due to the creation of multiple charm pairs. In this study, we employ the Langevin equation in combination with the Instantaneous Coalescence Model (LICM) to investigate the production of $T_{cc}^+$ and $\Xi_{cc}^{++}$ which consists of two charm quarks. We consider $T_{cc}^+$ as molecular states composed of $D$ and $D^*$ mesons. The Langevin equation is used to calculate the energy loss of charm quarks and $D$ mesons in the hot medium. The hadronization process, where charm quarks transform into each $D$ state as constituents of $T_{cc}^+$ production, is described using the coalescence model. The coalescence probability between $D$ and $D^*$ is determined by the Wigner function, which encodes the information of the $T_{cc}^+$ wave function. Our results show that the $T_{cc}^+$ production varies by approximately one order of magnitude when different widths in the Wigner function, representing distinct binding energies of $T_{cc}^+$, are considered. This variation offers valuable insights into the nature of $T_{cc}^+$ through the analysis of its wave function. The $\Xi_{cc}^{++}$ is treated as a hadronic state produced at the hadronization of the deconfined matter. Its production is also calculated as a comparison with the molecular state $T_{cc}^+$.
We have presented the leading twist quark transverse momentum-dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs) for the spin-1 heavy vector mesons $J/\psi$-meson and $\Upsilon$-meson using the overlap of the light-front wave functions. We have computed their TMDs in the light-front holographic model (LFHM) as well as the light-front quark model (LFQM) and further compared the results with the Bethe-Salpeter (BSE) model. We have discussed the behavior of the TMDs with respect to momentum fraction carried by active quark ($x$) and the transverse quark momenta ($k_\perp$) in both the models. We have also calculated the $k_\perp$ moments of the quark in both the models and have compared the results with the BSE model. The predictions of LFQM are found to be in accord with the BSE model. Further, we have analyzed the leading twist parton distribution functions (PDFs) for both the heavy mesons in both the models and the results are found to be in accord with the basic light-front quantization (BLFQ) and BSE model.
We explore the phase structure of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) with two dynamical quark flavors at finite temperature and baryon chemical potential, employing the non-perturbative gauge/gravity duality approach. Our gravitational model is tailored to align with state-of-the-art lattice data regarding the thermal properties of multi-flavor QCD. Following a rigorous parameter calibration to match equations of state and the QCD trace anomaly at zero chemical potential derived from cutting-edge lattice QCD simulations, we investigate thermodynamic quantities and order parameters. We predict the location of the critical endpoint (CEP) at $(\mu_{\text{CEP}}, T_{\text{CEP}})=(219,182)$ MeV at which a line of first-order phase transitions terminate. We compute critical exponents associated with the CEP and find that they almost coincide with the critical exponents of the quantum 3D Ising model.
We compute the two-loop helicity amplitudes for the scattering of five gluons, including all contributions beyond the leading-color approximation. The analytic expressions are represented as linear combinations of transcendental functions with rational coefficients, which we reconstruct from finite-field samples obtained with the numerical unitarity method. Guided by the requirement of removing unphysical singularities, we find a remarkably compact generating set of rational coefficients, which we are able to display entirely in the manuscript. We implement our results in a public code, which provides efficient and reliable numerical evaluations for phenomenological applications.
The Higgs boson, which was discovered at CERN in 2012, stands out as a remarkable elementary particle with distinct characteristics. Unlike any other observed particle, it possesses zero spin within the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. Theoretical predictions had anticipated the existence of this scalar boson, postulating its interaction with the $W$ and $Z$ bosons as well as through Yukawa interactions with fermions. Furthermore the Higgs boson can interact with itself, commonly referred to as the Higgs self-interaction. In this review, the current state of experimental and theoretical investigations of Higgs boson production at the LHC and the ongoing efforts to unravel its properties are described, and an up-to-date assessment of our understanding of the Higgs sector of the SM is provided. In addition, potential links between the Higgs boson and significant unresolved questions within the realm of particle physics are presented.
We show that as a result of causality-constrained coordinate space analyticity, the Drell-Yan-shape transverse-momentum dependent soft factor in the exponential regulator allows below-threshold (Euclidean) parametric representations without cuts, to all orders in perturbation theory. Moreover, it is identical to another soft factor with natural interpretation as a space-like form factor and this relation continues to hold for a larger class of TMD soft factors that interpolate between three different rapidity regulators: the off-light-cone regulator, the finite light-front length regulator and the exponential regulator.
We propose the ultra high energy cosmic ray recently detected by Telescope Array to be the electroweak monopole, and present theoretical arguments which support this. This strongly motivates the necessity for the ``cosmic" MoEDAL experiment which could back up our proposal. To confirm this we propose Telescope Array to measure the magnetic charge of the ultra high energy cosmic ray particles with SQUID.
For the first time, we estimate the in-medium mass shift of the two-flavored heavy mesons $B_c, B_c^*, B_s, B_s^*, D_s$ and $D_s^*$ in symmetric nuclear matter. The estimates are made by evaluating the lowest order one-loop self-energies. The enhanced excitations of intermediate state heavy-light mesons in symmetric nuclear matter are the origin of their negative mass shift. Our results show that the magnitude of the mass shift for the $B_c$ meson ($\bar{b} c$ or $b \bar{c}$) is larger than those of the $\eta_c (\bar{c} c)$ and $\eta_b (\bar{b} b)$, different from a naive expectation that it would be in-between of them. While, that of the $B_c^*$ shows the in-between of the $J/\psi$ and $\Upsilon$. We observe that the lighter vector meson excitation in each meson self-energy gives a dominant contribution for the corresponding meson mass shift, $B_c, B_s,$ and $D_s$.
In this article, we firstly analyze the electromagnetic form factors of the vector heavy-light mesons to the pseudoscalar heavy-light mesons in the framework of three-point QCD sum rules, where the contributions of vacuum condensate terms $\langle\overline{q}q\rangle$, $\langle\overline{q}g_{s}\sigma Gq\rangle$, $\langle g_{s}^{2}G^{2}\rangle$, $\langle f^{3}G^{3}\rangle$ and $\langle\overline{q}q\rangle\langle g_{s}^{2}G^{2}\rangle$ are considered. With these results, we also obtain the radiative decay widths of the vector heavy-light mesons and then compare our results with those of other collaboration's. The final results about the radiative decay widths are $\Gamma(D^{*0}\to D^{0}\gamma)=1.74^{+0.40}_{-0.37}$ keV, $\Gamma(D^{*+}\to D^{+}\gamma)=0.17^{+0.08}_{-0.07}$ keV, $\Gamma(D_{s}^{*}\to D_{s}\gamma)=0.029^{+0.009}_{-0.008}$ keV, $\Gamma(B^{*0}\to B^{0}\gamma)=0.018^{+0.006}_{-0.005}$ keV, $\Gamma(B^{*+}\to B^{+}\gamma)=0.015^{+0.007}_{-0.007}$ keV and $\Gamma(B^{*}_{s}\to B_{s}\gamma)=0.016^{+0.003}_{-0.005}$ keV.
We establish a connection between the Alexander polynomial of a knot and its twisted and $L^2$-versions with the triangulations that appear in 3-dimensional hyperbolic geometry. Specifically, we introduce twisted Neumann--Zagier matrices of ordered ideal triangulations and use them to provide formulas for the Alexander polynomial and its variants, the twisted Alexander polynomial and the $L^2$-Alexander torsion.
A large part of the discussion on entanglement islands has explored the specific setup of $2d$ JT gravity with a flat heatbath coupled to a $2d$ CFT. In this paper, we consider a more general setup and treatment of islands in a $d-$dimensional AdS black hole background. The quantum fields modeling the Hawking radiation have a scale and are consistently inherited from a conformal parent theory; their symmetries are thus compatible with those of curved backgrounds. We demonstrate explicitly that the existence of islands is sensitive to the choice of CFT used to model the Hawking radiation. We compute the renormalised entanglement entropy of conformal fields on a negatively curved background in $d$ dimensions at zero temperature as well as the thermal regulated entropy of an entangling region near the UV boundary. Using the latter quantity as the entropy of the Hawking radiation, we find that islands never emerge for $d>2$.
This paper presents the effects of non-minimal Lorentz-violation operators in superconductivity. By constructing a Lorentz-Violating Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity with a five-dimensional operator, we discuss the influence of higher dimensional Lorentz-Violating operators in the London's depth penetration, in the coherence length and critical magnetic field.
We numerically address the issue of which monopole operators are relevant under renormalization group flow in three-dimensional parity-invariant noncompact QED with $4$ flavors of massless two-component Dirac fermion. Using lattice simulation and finite-size scaling analysis of the free energy to introduce monopole-antimonopole pairs in $N=4$ and $N=12$ flavor noncompact QED$_3$, we estimate the infrared scaling dimensions of monopole operators that introduce $2\pi$ and $4\pi$ fluxes around them. We first show that the estimates for the monopole scaling dimensions are consistent with the large-$N$ expectations for $N=12$ QED$_3$. Applying the same procedure in $N=4$ QED$_3$, we estimate the scaling dimension of $4\pi$ flux monopole operator to be $3.7(3)$, which allows the possibility of the operator being irrelevant. This finding offers support to the scenario in which higher-flux monopoles are irrelevant deformations to the Dirac spin liquid phase that could be realized on certain non-bipartite lattices by forbidding $2\pi$-flux monopoles.
We present a comprehensive study of hydrodynamic theories for superfluids with dipole symmetry. Taking diffusion as an example, we systematically construct a hydrodynamic framework that incorporates an intrinsic dipole degree of freedom in analogy to spin density in micropolar (spinful) fluids. Subsequently, we study a dipole condensed phase and propose a model that captures the spontaneous breaking of the $U(1)$ charge. The theory explains the role of the inverse Higgs constraint for this class of theories, and naturally generates the gapless field. Next, we introduce finite temperature theory using the Hamiltonian formalism and study the hydrodynamics of ideal fracton superfluids. Finally, we postulate a derivative counting scheme and incorporate dissipative effects using the method of irreversible thermodynamics. We verify the consistency of the dispersion relations and argue that our counting is systematic.
We construct and study numerical solutions corresponding to generalized electrically charged half-monopole in Weinberg-Salam theory, denoted as Type I and Type II solutions. These solutions possess magnetic charge $q_m = +2 n \pi/e$ ($-2 n \pi/e$) and electric charge $q_{e}$ that depends on the electric charge parameter $\eta$, as well as net zero neutral charge. Other properties of this half-dyon configurations such as magnetic dipole moment and angular moment are studied. The energy of this half-dyon configuration is infinite due to singularity at the location of the half-dyon.
This letter explores a transition in the type of von Neumann algebra for asymptotically AdS spacetimes from the implementations of the different gravitational constraints. We denote it as the \emph{centaur-algebra} of observables. In the first part of the letter, we employ a class of flow geometries interpolating between AdS$_2$ and dS$_2$ spaces, the centaur geometries. We study the type II$_\infty$ crossed product algebra describing the semiclassical gravitational theory, and we explore the algebra of bounded sub-regions in the bulk theory following $T\overline{T}$ deformations of the geometry and study the gravitational constraints with respect to the quasi-local Brown-York energy of the system at a finite cutoff. In the second part, we study arbitrary asymptotically AdS spacetimes, where we implement the boundary protocol of an infalling observer modeled as a probe black hole proposed by arXiv:2211.16512 to study modifications in the algebra. In both situations, we show how incorporating the constraints requires a type II$_1$ description.
In this paper we show how the Functional Separation of Variables (FSoV) method can be applied to the problem of computing overlaps with integrable boundary states in integrable systems. We demonstrate our general method on the example of a particular boundary state, a singlet of the symmetry group, in an su(3) rational spin chain in an alternating fundamental--anti-fundamental representation. The FSoV formalism allows us to compute in determinant form not only the overlaps of the boundary state with the eigenstates of the transfer matrix, but in fact with any factorisable state. This includes off-shell Bethe states, whose overlaps with the boundary state have been out of reach with other methods. Furthermore, we also found determinant representations for insertions of so-called Principal Operators (forming a complete algebra of all observables) between the boundary and the factorisable state as well as certain types of multiple insertions of Principal Operators. Concise formulas for the matrix elements of the boundary state in the SoV basis and su(N) generalisations are presented. Finally, we managed to construct a complete basis of integrable boundary states by repeated action of conserved charges on the singlet state. As a result, we are also able to compute the overlaps of all of these states with integral of motion eigenstates.
In recent years, interesting curved-space extensions of nonrelativistic (NR) string theory have been very actively pursued, where the background has a structure that is a stringy generalization of Newton-Cartan geometry. Here we show that the natural black branes of the NR theory, sourced by the familiar repertoire of stringy objects, generally have a different structure. The black string is our main example. We find that the source distorts the background significantly, generating a large throat within which physics is in fact relativistic. It is only far away from the throat that the background approaches the string Newton-Cartan form. We show that exactly the same is true for the longitudinal RR-charged black brane. On the other hand, the transverse RR-charged black brane turns out to have a proper string Newton-Cartan structure everywhere, not just asymptotically.
We continue our study of gaugings the maximal $N=(2,2)$ supergravity in six dimensions with gauge groups obtained from decomposing the embedding tensor under $\mathbb{R}^+\times SO(4,4)$ subgroup of the global symmetry $SO(5,5)$. Supersymmetry requires the embedding tensor to transform in $\mathbf{144}_c$ representation of $SO(5,5)$. Under $\mathbb{R}^+\times SO(4,4)$ subgroup, this leads to the embedding tensor in $(\mathbf{8}^{\pm 3}$, $\mathbf{8}^{\pm 1},\mathbf{56}^{\pm 1})$ representations. Gaugings in $\mathbf{8}^{\pm 3}$ representations lead to a translational gauge group $\mathbb{R}^8$ while gaugings in $\mathbf{8}^{\pm 1}$ representations give rise to gauge groups related to the scaling symmetry $\mathbb{R}^+$. On the other hand, the embedding tensor in $\mathbf{56}^{\pm 1}$ representations gives $CSO(4-p,p,1)\sim SO(4-p,p)\ltimes \mathbb{R}^4\subset SO(4,4)$ gauge groups with $p=0,1,2$. More interesting gauge groups can be obtained by turning on more than one representation of the embedding tensor subject to the quadratic constraints. In particular, we consider gaugings in both $\mathbf{56}^{-1}$ and $\mathbf{8}^{+3}$ representations giving rise to larger $SO(5-p,p)$ and $SO(4-p,p+1)$ gauge groups for $p=0,1,2$. In this case, we also give a number of half-supersymmetric domain wall solutions preserving different residual symmetries. The solutions for gaugings obtained only from $\mathbf{56}^{-1}$ representation are also included in these results when the $\mathbf{8}^{+3}$ part is accordingly turned off.
We study the two-particle form-factors for the relativistic limit of the integrable S-matrix of the mixed-flux AdS_3 X S^3 X T^4 string theory. The S-matrix theory was formally constructed in two distinct ways by two different teams. We focus on the massive theory built up by Frolov, Polvara and Sfondrini, and derive expressions for the minimal solutions to the axioms, in both integral and manifestly meromorphic form, and then proceed to apply the off-shell Bethe ansatz method of Babujian et al. We obtain the integral formulas for the two-particle complete form-factors and check the axioms at this particle number.
Machine learning (ML) has become an integral component of high energy physics data analyses and is likely to continue to grow in prevalence. Physicists are incorporating ML into many aspects of analysis, from using boosted decision trees to classify particle jets to using unsupervised learning to search for physics beyond the Standard Model. Since ML methods have become so widespread in analysis and these analyses need to be scaled up for HL-LHC data, neatly integrating ML training and inference into scalable analysis workflows will improve the user experience of analysis in the HL-LHC era. We present the integration of ML training and inference into the IRIS-HEP Analysis Grand Challenge (AGC) pipeline to provide an example of how this integration can look like in a realistic analysis environment. We also utilize Open Data to ensure the project's reach to the broader community. Different approaches for performing ML inference at analysis facilities are investigated and compared, including performing inference through external servers. Since ML techniques are applied for many different types of tasks in physics analyses, we showcase options for ML integration that can be applied to various inference needs.
Two major challenges in time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) are low spatial resolution and high radioactive dose to the patient, both of which result from limitations in detection technology rather than fundamental physics. A new type of TOF-PET detector employing low-atomic number (low-Z) scintillation media and large-area, high-resolution photodetectors to record Compton scattering locations in the detector has been proposed as a promising alternative, but the minimum technical requirements for such a system have not yet been established. Here we present a simulation study evaluating the potential of a proposed low-Z detection medium, linear alkylbenzene (LAB) doped with a switchable molecular recorder, for next-generation TOF-PET detection. We developed a custom Monte Carlo simulation of full-body TOF-PET using the TOPAS Geant4 software package. By quantifying contributions and tradeoffs for energy, spatial, and timing resolution of the detector, we show that at reasonable combination of specifications, our likelihood-based identification of pairs of first interaction locations in the simulated detector identifies 87.1% of pairs with zero or negligible error, and correctly rejects 90% of all in-patient scatters. The same specifications give TOF-PET sensitivity of ~66.7% and PSF width 4.6 mm with clear contrast. A detector with these specifications provides a clear image of a brain phantom simulated at less than 1% of a standard radiotracer dose.
A search for new physics in top quark production with additional final-state leptons is performed using data collected by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV at the LHC during 2016-2018. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Using the framework of effective field theory (EFT), potential new physics effects are parametrized in terms of 26 dimension-six EFT operators. The impacts of EFT operators are incorporated through the event-level reweighting of Monte Carlo simulations, which allows for detector-level predictions. The events are divided into several categories based on lepton multiplicity, total lepton charge, jet multiplicity, and b-tagged jet multiplicity. Kinematic variables corresponding to the transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) of the leading pair of leptons and/or jets as well as the $p_\mathrm{T}$ of on-shell Z bosons are used to extract the 95% confidence intervals of the 26 Wilson coefficients corresponding to these EFT operators. No significant deviation with respect to the standard model prediction is found.
A search for direct production of low-mass dimuon resonances is performed using $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment during the 2017-2018 operation of the CERN LHC with an integrated luminosity of 96.6 fb$^{-1}$. The search exploits a dedicated high-rate trigger stream that records events with two muons with transverse momenta as low as 3 GeV but does not include the full event information. The search is performed by looking for narrow peaks in the dimuon mass spectrum in the ranges of 1.1-2.6 GeV and 4.2-7.9 GeV. No significant excess of events above the expectation from the standard model background is observed. Model-independent limits on production rates of dimuon resonances within the experimental fiducial acceptance are set. Competitive or world's best limits are set at 90% confidence level for a minimal dark photon model and for a scenario with two Higgs doublets and an extra complex scalar singlet (2HDM+S). Values of the squared kinetic mixing coefficient $\varepsilon^2$ in the dark photon model above 10$^{-6}$ are excluded over most of the mass range of the search. In the 2HDM+S, values of the mixing angle $\sin(\theta_\text{H})$ above 0.08 are excluded over most of the mass range of the search with a fixed ratio of the Higgs doublets vacuum expectation $\tan\beta$ = 0.5.
As liquid argon (LAr) detectors are made at progressively larger sizes, accurate models of LAr optical properties become increasingly important for simulating light transport, understanding signals, and developing analyses. The refractive index, group velocity, and Rayleigh scattering length are particularly important for vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and visible photons in detectors with diameters much greater than one meter. While optical measurements in the VUV are sparse, recent measurements of the group velocity of 128 nm photons in LAr provide valuable constraints on these parameters. These calculations are further complicated by the dependence of optical parameters on thermodynamic properties that might fluctuate or vary throughout the argon volume. This manuscript presents the model used by DEAP-3600, a dark matter direct detection experiment at SNOLAB using a 3.3 tonne LAr scintillation counter. Existing data and thermodynamic models are synthesized to estimate the wavelength-dependent refractive index, group velocity, and Rayleigh scattering length within the detector, and parameters' uncertainties are estimated. This model, along with in situ measurements of LAr scintillation properties, is benchmarked against data collected in DEAP-3600, providing a method for modeling optical properties in large LAr detectors and for propagating their uncertainties through downstream simulations. Updates are also presented of the Noble Element Simulation Technique (NEST) software, widely used to model scintillation and ionization signals in argon- and xenon-based detectors.
Diversity of interpretations of quantum mechanics is often considered as a sign of foundational crisis. In this note we proceed towards unification the relational quantum mechanics of Rovelli, Bohmian mechanics, and many worlds interpretation on the basis so called Dendrogramic Holographic Theory (DHT). DHT is based on the representation of observed events by dendrograms (finite trees) presenting observers subjective image of universe. Dendrograms encode the relational hierarchy between events, in applications they are generated by clustering algorithms; an algorithm with the branching index p >1 generate p-adic trees. The infinite p-adic tree represents the ontic event universe. We consider an ensemble of observers performing observations on each other and representing them by p-adic trees. In such observers universe we introduce a kind of Minkowski space structure, which is statistical by its nature. This model unites the observer/system discrepancy. Measurements are performed by observers on observers. Such observers universe is dynamically changing and is background independent since the space itself is emergent. And within this model, we unify the aforementioned interpretations.
We apply the concepts of classical and quantum channels to the modeling of opinion dynamics and propose a stochastic method for representing the temporal variation of individual and group opinions. In particular, we use quantum Galois noise channels to couple quantum information theory with social interaction to construct a new model of opinion dynamics that accounts for error rates and noise effects. This model captures more complex opinion propagation and interaction by incorporating the concepts of partial traces and entanglement. We also consider the role of superspreaders in the propagation of noisy information and their suppression mechanisms, and represent these dynamics in a mathematical model. We model the influence of superspreaders on interactions between individuals using unitary transformations and propose a new approach to measure social trustworthiness. In addition, we elaborate on the modeling of opinion propagation and suppression using Holevo channels. These models provide a new framework for a better understanding of social interactions and expand the potential applications of quantum information theory.
Defect detection is one of the most important yet challenging tasks in the quality control stage in the manufacturing sector. In this work, we introduce a Tensor Convolutional Neural Network (T-CNN) and examine its performance on a real defect detection application in one of the components of the ultrasonic sensors produced at Robert Bosch's manufacturing plants. Our quantum-inspired T-CNN operates on a reduced model parameter space to substantially improve the training speed and performance of an equivalent CNN model without sacrificing accuracy. More specifically, we demonstrate how T-CNNs are able to reach the same performance as classical CNNs as measured by quality metrics, with up to fifteen times fewer parameters and 4% to 19% faster training times. Our results demonstrate that the T-CNN greatly outperforms the results of traditional human visual inspection, providing value in a current real application in manufacturing.
Dempster-Shafer Theory (DST) as an effective and robust framework for handling uncertain information is applied in decision-making and pattern classification. Unfortunately, its real-time application is limited by the exponential computational complexity. People attempt to address the issue by taking advantage of its mathematical consistency with quantum computing to implement DST operations on quantum circuits and realize speedup. However, the progress so far is still impractical for supporting large-scale DST applications. In this paper, we find that Boolean algebra as an essential mathematical tool bridges the definition of DST and quantum computing. Based on the discovery, we establish a flexible framework mapping any set-theoretically defined DST operations to corresponding quantum circuits for implementation. More critically, this new framework is not only uniform but also enables exponential acceleration for computation and is capable of handling complex applications. Focusing on tasks of classification, we based on a classical attribute fusion algorithm putting forward a quantum evidential classifier, where quantum mass functions for attributes are generated with a simple method and the proposed framework is applied for fusing the attribute evidence. Compared to previous methods, the proposed quantum classifier exponentially reduces the computational complexity to linear. Tests on real datasets validate the feasibility.
In this work, we use the term ``quantum chaos'' to refer to spectral correlations similar to those found in random matrix theory. Quantum chaos can be diagnosed through the analysis of level statistics using the spectral form factor, which detects both short- and long-range level correlations. The spectral form factor corresponds to the Fourier transform of the two-point spectral correlation function and exhibits a typical slope-dip-ramp-plateau structure (aka correlation hole) when the system is chaotic. We discuss how this structure could be detected through the dynamics of two physical quantities accessible to experimental many-body quantum systems: the survival probability and the spin autocorrelation function. When the system is small, the dip reaches values that are large enough at times which are short enough to be detected with current experimental platforms and commercially available quantum computers.
Efficient generation of entangled photon pairs at telecom wavelengths is a key ingredient for long-range quantum networks. While embedding semiconductor quantum dots into hybrid circular Bragg gratings has proven effective, it conflicts with $p$-$i$-$n$ diode heterostructures which offer superior coherence. We propose and analyze hybrid circular photonic crystal gratings, incorporating air holes to facilitate charge carrier transport without compromising optical properties. Through numerical simulations, a broad cavity mode with a Purcell factor of 23 enhancing both exciton and biexciton transitions, and exceptional collection efficiency of 92.4% into an objective with numerical aperture of 0.7 are achieved. Furthermore, our design demonstrates direct coupling efficiency over 90% into a single-mode fiber over the entire telecom C-band. The hybrid circular photonic crystal grating thereby emerges as a promising solution for the efficient generation of highly coherent, polarization-entangled photon pairs.
We introduce the entangled quantum polynomial hierarchy $\mathsf{QEPH}$ as the class of problems that are efficiently verifiable given alternating quantum proofs that may be entangled with each other. We prove $\mathsf{QEPH}$ collapses to its second level. In fact, we show that a polynomial number of alternations collapses to just two. As a consequence, $\mathsf{QEPH} = \mathsf{QRG(1)}$, the class of problems having one-turn quantum refereed games, which is known to be contained in $\mathsf{PSPACE}$. This is in contrast to the unentangled quantum polynomial hierarchy $\mathsf{QPH}$, which contains $\mathsf{QMA(2)}$. We also introduce a generalization of the quantum-classical polynomial hierarchy $\mathsf{QCPH}$ where the provers send probability distributions over strings (instead of strings) and denote it by $\mathsf{DistributionQCPH}$. Conceptually, this class is intermediate between $\mathsf{QCPH}$ and $\mathsf{QPH}$. We prove $\mathsf{DistributionQCPH} = \mathsf{QCPH}$, suggesting that only quantum superposition (not classical probability) increases the computational power of these hierarchies. To prove this equality, we generalize a game-theoretic result of Lipton and Young (1994) which says that the provers can send distributions that are uniform over a polynomial-size support. We also prove the analogous result for the polynomial hierarchy, i.e., $\mathsf{DistributionPH} = \mathsf{PH}$. These results also rule out certain approaches for showing $\mathsf{QPH}$ collapses. Finally, we show that $\mathsf{PH}$ and $\mathsf{QCPH}$ are contained in $\mathsf{QPH}$, resolving an open question of Gharibian et al. (2022).
Characterizing the indistinguishability of photons is a key task in quantum photonics, underpinning the tuning and stabilization of the photon sources and thereby increasing the accuracy of quantum operations. The protocols for measuring the degree of indistinguishability conventionally require photon-coincidence measurements at several different time or phase delays, which is a fundamental bottleneck towards the fast measurements and real-time monitoring of indistinguishability. Here, we develop a static dielectric metasurface grating without any reconfigurable elements that enables single-shot characterization of the indistinguishability between two photons in multiple degrees of freedom including time, spectrum, spatial modes, and polarization. Topology optimization is employed to design a silicon metasurface with polarization independence, high transmission, and high tolerance to measurement noise. We fabricate the metasurface and experimentally quantify the indistinguishability of photons in the time domain with fidelity over 98.4%. We anticipate that the developed framework based on ultrathin metasurfaces can be further extended for multi-photon states and additional degrees of freedom associated with spatial modalities.
Optical quantum routers which play a crucial role in quantum networks, have been extensively studied in both theory and experiment, resulting in significant advancements in their performance. However, these routers impose stringent requirements for achieving optimal routing performance, where the incident photon frequency must be in strict resonance with one or several specific frequencies. To address this challenge, we have designed an efficient quantum router capable of stable output with 100\% transfer rate over the entire energy band of coupled-resonator waveguide (CRW) by coupling a giant atom to two or more semi-infinite CRWs. We also explain and prove the fundamental physical mechanism behind this distinctive phenomenon as the result of destructive interference between two waves composing the final reflected wave. We hope that quantum router with output results unaffected by the energy of the incoming information carriers present a more reliable solution for the implementation of quantum networks.
Thouless pumping, a dynamical version of the integer quantum Hall effect, represents the quantized charge pumped during an adiabatic cyclic evolution. Here we report experimental observations of nontrivial topological pumping that is induced by disorder even during a topologically trivial pumping trajectory. With a 41-qubit superconducting quantum processor, we develop a Floquet engineering technique to realize cycles of adiabatic pumping by simultaneously varying the on-site potentials and the hopping couplings. We demonstrate Thouless pumping in the presence of disorder and show its breakdown as the strength of disorder increases. Moreover, we observe two types of topological pumping that are induced by on-site potential disorder and hopping disorder, respectively. Especially, an intrinsic topological pump that is induced by quasi-periodic hopping disorder has never been experimentally realized before. Our highly controllable system provides a valuable quantum simulating platform for studying various aspects of topological physics in the presence of disorder.
The goal of this Article is to perform a systematic study the global entanglement and coherence length dynamics in a natural light-harvesting system Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex across various parameters of a dissipative environment from low to high temperatures, weak to strong system-environment coupling, and non-Markovian environments. The non-perturbative numerically exact hierarchical equations of motions method is employed to generate the dynamics of the system. We found that entanglement is driven primarily by the strength of interaction between the system and environment, and it is modulated by the interplay between temperature and non-Markovianity. In contrast, coherence length is found not to be sensitive to non-Markovianity. Our results do not show the direct correlation between global entanglement and the efficiency of the excitation energy transfer.
The quantum SearchRank algorithm is a promising tool for a future quantum search engine based on PageRank quantization. However, this algorithm loses its functionality when the $N/M$ ratio between the network size $N$ and the number of marked nodes $M$ is sufficiently large. We propose a modification of the algorithm, replacing the underlying Szegedy quantum walk with a semiclassical walk. To maintain the same time complexity as the quantum SearchRank algorithm we propose a simplification of the algorithm. This new algorithm is called Randomized SearchRank, since it corresponds to a quantum walk over a randomized mixed state. The performance of the SearchRank algorithms is first analyzed on an example network, and then statistically on a set of different networks of increasing size and different number of marked nodes. On the one hand, to test the search ability of the algorithms, it is computed how the probability of measuring the marked nodes decreases with $N/M$ for the quantum SearchRank, but remarkably it remains at a high value around $0.9$ for our semiclassical algorithms, solving the quantum SearchRank problem. The time complexity of the algorithms is also analyzed, obtaining a quadratic speedup with respect to the classical ones. On the other hand, the ranking functionality of the algorithms has been investigated, obtaining a good agreement with the classical PageRank distribution. Finally, the dependence of these algorithms on the intrinsic PageRank damping parameter has been clarified. Our results suggest that this parameter should be below a threshold so that the execution time does not increase drastically.
Identifying a reasonably small Hilbert space that completely describes an unknown quantum state is crucial for efficient quantum information processing. We introduce a general dimension-certification protocol for both discrete and continuous variables that is fully evidence-based, relying solely on the experimental data collected and no other assumptions whatsoever. Using the Bayesian concept of relative belief, we take the effective dimension of the state as the smallest one such that the posterior probability is larger than the prior, as dictated by the data. The posterior probabilities associated with the relative-belief ratios measure the strength of the evidence provide by these ratios so that we can assess whether there is weak or strong evidence in favor or against a particular dimension. Using experimental data from spectral-temporal and polarimetry measurements, we demonstrate how to correctly assign Bayesian plausible error bars for the obtained effective dimensions. This makes relative belief a conservative and easy-to-use model-selection method for any experiment.
Bayesian networks are powerful tools for probabilistic analysis and have been widely used in machine learning and data science. Unlike the parameters learning mode of neural networks, Bayes classifiers only use sample features to determine the classification results without a time-consuming training process. We study the construction of quantum Bayes classifiers (QBCs) and design a naive QBC and three semi-naive QBCs (SN-QBCs). These QBCs are applied to image classification. A local features sampling method is employed to extract a limited number of features from images to reduce the computational complexity. These features are then used to construct Bayesian networks and generate QBCs. We simulate these QBCs on the MindQuantum quantum platform and test them on the MNIST and Fashion-MNIST datasets. Results show that these QBCs based on a limited number of features exhibit good classification accuracies. The classification accuracies of QBCs on the MNIST dataset surpass that of the classical Bayesian network and quantum neural networks that utilize all feature points.
Optimized blockade is an efficient tool in generating a single-magnon state, that is fundamental to manipulate the magnonic systems at the quantum level. In this study, we consider a hybrid system in which a qubit is strongly coupled to $N$ magnons via the exchange interaction. The qubit and the magnon modes are subject to the probing field and driving fields, respectively. It is interesting to find the scalable conditions in minimizing the equal-time second-order correlation function $g^{(2)}(0)$ for each magnon with respect to $N$. In particular, the simultaneous blockade is optimized when (i) the detuning between the qubit (magnon) and the probing (driving field) field is $\sqrt{N}$ times the magnon-qubit coupling strength, (ii) the probing intensity is $3\sqrt{N}$ times the driving intensity, and (iii) the relative phase between probing and driving fields is $2/(3\sqrt{N}$) times the ratio of the system decay rate to the magnon-qubit coupling strength. More than a high-degree blockade, we can generate a significant population on the single-magnon state. With experimental-relevant driving intensity and decay rate, the correlation function can achieve about $g^{(2)}(0)\sim10^{-7}$ in company with a large single-magnon population $P_1\sim0.24$ when $N=1$ and $g^{(2)}(0)\sim10^{-7}$ with $P_1\sim0.12$ when $N=2$.
We study single-photon scattering spectra of a giant atom chirally coupled to a one-dimensional waveguide at multiple connection points, and examine chirality induced effects in the scattering spectra by engineering the chirality of the coupling strengths. We show that the transmission spectra typically possess an anti-Lorentzian lineshape with a nonzero minimum, but when the chirality satisfies some specific conditions independent of the number of coupling points, the transmission spectrum of an incident photon can undergo a transition from complete transmission to total reflection at multiple frequency ``windows'', the width of which can be flexibly tuned in situ by engineering the coupling strengths of a certain disordered coupling point. Moreover, we show that a perfect nonreciprocal photon scattering can be achieved due to the interplay between internal atomic spontaneous emission and the chirally external decay to the waveguide, in contrast to that induced by the non-Markovian retardation effect. We also consider the non-Markovian retardation effect on the scattering spectra, which allows for a photonic band gap even with only two chiral coupling points. The giant-atom-waveguide system with chiral coupling is a promising candidate for realizing single-photon routers with multiple channels.
In the context of measurement-induced entanglement phase transitions, the influence of quantum noises, which are inherent in real physical systems, is of great importance and experimental relevance. In this Letter, we present a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the effects of both temporally uncorrelated and correlated quantum noises on entanglement generation and information protection. This investigation reveals that entanglement within the system follows $q^{-1/3}$ scaling for both types of quantum noises, where $q$ represents the noise probability. The scaling arises from the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang fluctuation with effective length scale $L_{\text{eff}} \sim q^{-1}$. Moreover, the timescales of information protection are explored and shown to follow $q^{-1/2}$ and $q^{-2/3}$ scaling for temporally uncorrelated and correlated noises, respectively. The former scaling can be interpreted as a Hayden-Preskill protocol, while the latter is a direct consequence of Kardar-Parisi-Zhang fluctuations. We conduct extensive numerical simulations using stabilizer formalism to support the theoretical understanding. This Letter not only contributes to a deeper understanding of the interplay between quantum noises and measurement-induced phase transition but also provides a new perspective to understand the effects of Markovian and non-Markovian noises on quantum computation.
Sensors play a crucial role in advanced apparatuses and it is persistently pursued to improve their sensitivities. Recently, the singularity of a non-Hermitian system, known as the exceptional point (EP), has drawn much attention for this goal. Response of the eigenfrequency shift to a perturbation $\epsilon$ follows the $\epsilon^{1/n}$-dependence at an $n$th-order EP, leading to significantly enhanced sensitivity via a high-order EP. However, due to the requirement of increasingly complicated systems, great difficulties will occur along the path of increasing the EP order to enhance the sensitivity. Here we report that by utilizing the spectral anomaly of the coherent perfect absorption (CPA), the sensitivity at a third-order EP can be further enhanced owing to the cooperative effects of both CPA and EP. We realize this synthetically enhanced sensor using a pseudo-Hermitian cavity magnonic system composed of two yttrium iron garnet spheres and a microwave cavity. The detectable minimum change of the magnetic field reaches $4.2\times10^{-21}$T. It opens a new avenue to design novel sensors using hybrid non-Hermitian quantum systems.
A method is proposed to produce a classical optical state that is `intersystem nonseparable' and a close analog of the $\phi^+$ Bell state. A derivation of the CHSH-Bell inequality is sketched within the framework of classical polarization optics using {\em noncontextuality} for factorizable states as an axiom rather than any hidden variable theory, and it is shown that the classical state violates this inequality.
We consider how the theory of optimal quantum measurements determines the maximum information available to the receiving party of a quantum key distribution (QKD) system employing linearly independent but non-orthogonal quantum states. Such a setting is characteristic of several practical QKD protocols. Due to non-orthogonality, the receiver is not able to discriminate unambiguously between the signals. To understand the fundamental limits that this imposes, the quantity of interest is the maximum mutual information between the transmitter (Alice) and the receiver, whether legitimate (Bob) or an eavesdropper (Eve). To find the optimal measurement we use a framework based on operator algebra and general results derived from singular value decomposition, achieving optimal solutions for von Neumann measurements and positive operator-valued measures (POVMs). The formal proof and quantitative analysis elaborated for two signals allow one to conclude that optimal von Neumann measurements are uniquely defined and provide a higher information gain compared to POVMs. Interestingly, collective measurements not only do not provide additional information gain with respect to individual ones, but also suffer from a gain reduction in the case of POVMs.
A family of two-unitary complex Hadamard matrices (CHM) stemming from a particular matrix, of size $36$ is constructed. Every matrix in this orbit remains unitary after operations of partial transpose and reshuffling which makes it a distinguished subset of CHM. It provides a novel solution to the quantum version of the Euler problem, in which each field of the Graeco-Latin square of size six contains a symmetric superposition of all $36$ officers with phases being multiples of sixth root of unity. This simplifies previously known solutions as all amplitudes of the superposition are equal and the set of phases consists of $6$ elements only. Multidimensional parameterization allows for more flexibility in a potential experimental treatment.
The braiding operations of quantum states have attracted substantial attention due to their great potential for realizing topological quantum computations. In this paper, we show that a three-fold degenerate eigen subspace can be obtained in a four-level Hamiltonian which is the minimal physical system. Braiding operations are proposed to apply to dressed states in the subspace. The topology of the braiding diagram can be characterized through physical methods once that the sequential braiding pulses are adopted. We establish an equivalent relationship function between the permutation group and the output states where different output states correspond to different values of the function. The topological transition of the braiding happens when two operations overlap, which is detectable through the measurement of the function. Combined with the phase variation method, we can analyze the wringing pattern of the braiding. Therefore, the experimentally-feasible system provides a platform to investigate braiding dynamics, the SU(3) physics and the qutrit gates.
In this work, we provide a detailed analysis of the issue of encoding of quantum information which is invariant with respect to arbitrary Lorentz transformations. We significantly extend already known results and provide compliments where necessary. In particular, we introduce novel schemes for invariant encoding which utilize so-called pair-wise helicity -- a physical parameter characterizing pairs of electric-magnetic charges. We also introduce new schemes for ordinary massive and massless particles based on states with fixed total momentum, in contrast to all protocols already proposed, which assumed equal momenta of all the particles involved in the encoding scheme. Moreover, we provide a systematic discussion of already existing protocols and show directly that they are invariant with respect to Lorentz transformations drawn according to any distribution, a fact which was not manifestly shown in previous works.
Many-body open quantum systems (OQS) have a profound impact on various subdisciplines of physics, chemistry, and biology. Thus, the development of a computer program capable of accurately, efficiently, and versatilely simulating many-body OQS is highly desirable. In recent years, we have focused on the advancement of numerical algorithms based on the fermionic hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) theory. Being in-principle exact, this approach allows for the precise characterization of many-body correlations, non-Markovian memory, and non-equilibrium thermodynamic conditions. These efforts now lead to the establishment of a new computer program, HEOM for QUantum Impurity with a Correlated Kernel, version 2 (HEOM-QUICK2), which, to the best of our knowledge, is currently the only general-purpose simulator for fermionic many-body OQS. Compared with version 1, the HEOM-QUICK2 program features more efficient solvers for stationary states, more accurate treatment of non-Markovian memory, and improved numerical stability for long-time dissipative dynamics. Integrated with quantum chemistry software, HEOM-QUICK2 has become a valuable theoretical tool for the precise simulation of realistic many-body OQS, particularly the single atomic or molecular junctions. Furthermore, the unprecedented precision achieved by HEOM-QUICK2 enables accurate simulation of low-energy spin excitations and coherent spin relaxation. The unique usefulness of HEOM-QUICK2 is demonstrated through several examples of strongly correlated quantum impurity systems under non-equilibrium conditions. Thus, the new HEOM-QUICK2 program offers a powerful and comprehensive tool for studying many-body OQS with exotic quantum phenomena and exploring applications in various disciplines.
Mode-pairing quantum key distribution (MP-QKD) can surpass the repeaterless rate-transmittance bound (Pirandola-Laurenza-Ottaviani-Banchi bound) without requiring global phase locking, exhibiting remarkable flexibility. However, MP-QKD necessitates equal communication distances in two channels, which is a challenging requirement in practical applications. To address this limitation, we extend the original MP-QKD to asymmetric cases. Our decoy-state estimation confirms that asymmetric channel transmittances and asymmetric intensities do not compromise the security of the protocol. We focus on the pulse-intensity relationship, a key factor for optimizing the performance of asymmetric MP-QKD. Unlike previous asymmetric protocols, the intensities of different bases in asymmetric MP-QKD cannot be decoupled. We introduce an optimal-pulse-intensity method, adaptable to various scenarios, to enhance key rates by calculating ideal pulse intensities. Simulation results in various representative scenarios indicate that our method effectively reduces the impact of asymmetric channel distances on MP-QKD performance, enhancing its practical applicability.
Optical two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopy under pump-probe geometry has achieved significant successes in one-quantum research. However, due to the typical phase matching condition, its implementation on the measurement of double-quantum (2Q) coherence have been limited for long, until recently Farrell and Zanni realized detecting 2Q signal with a permuted--pump--probe pulse sequence in 2D infrared spectroscopy. Here, we promote this technique to 2D electronic spectroscopy. Using this pulse sequence, both the 2Q and zero-quantum (0Q) signal will be detected. We present that with the propagation phase of the probe pulse and by applying a rotating frame, the 2Q and 0Q coherence exhibit distinct effective oscillation frequencies during the scanned interval. These frequencies may share the same sign. We propose that 2Q and 0Q coherence could be separated onto different spectra using phase cycling techniques and causality enforcement. Our experimental demonstration on measuring the electronic 2Q coherence of rubidium atoms yields broadband spectra. Notably, we simultaneously observe not only the doubly excited state of an individual rubidium atom but also the collective resonances of dipole-dipole interactions of both $D_{1}$ and $D_{2}$ lines.
We present two infinite families of coherent quantum speed limits (QSLs) for general unitary dynamics by employing the H\"older's inequality for matrix norms. Our approach clearly highlights the contribution of the coherence of the evolved states, and provides novel QSL bounds characterized by coherence measures based on Schatten $p$-norm or Hellinger distance. We illustrate our findings with relevant models, demonstrating our bounds are much tighter than the established ones and asymptotically saturable in the adiabatic limit. Our results show that rapid quantum dynamics requires coherent superpositions of energy eigenstates, singling out coherence as a key resource for the evolution of quantum systems.
We devise an autonomous quantum thermal machine consisting of three pairwise-interacting qubits, two of which are locally coupled to separate classical reservoirs. The machine operates autonomously, as it requires no time-coherent control, external driving or quantum bath engineering, and is instead propelled by a chemical potential bias between the reservoirs. Under ideal conditions, we show that this out-of-equilibrium system can deterministically generate a maximally entangled steady-state between two of the qubits, or in fact, any desired pure two-qubit entangled state, emerging as a dark state of the system. The entanglement production is also robust, such that nearly-maximally-entangled states can be generated well-away from the ideal regime of operation. Furthermore, we show that our machine architecture can be generalised to a configuration with $2n-1$ qubits, in which only a potential bias and two-body interactions are sufficient to generate genuine multipartite maximally entangled steady states in the form of a W state of $n$ qubits.
It was proposed that the tensor product structure of the Hilbert space is uniquely determined by the Hamiltonian's spectrum, for most finite-dimensional cases satisfying certain conditions. I show that, for more than three qudits, any such method can only lead to infinitely many tensor product structures. The number of additional continuous parameters needed to find a unique solution is exponential in the number of qudits. In addition, even if the result were unique, such a Hamiltonian would not entangle subsystems. These results affect some proposals to recover the 3d space from the Hamiltonian.
As quantum circuits become more integrated and complex, additional error sources that were previously insignificant start to emerge. Consequently, the fidelity of quantum gates benchmarked under pristine conditions falls short of predicting their performance in realistic circuits. To overcome this problem, we must improve their robustness against pertinent error models besides isolated fidelity. Here we report the experimental realization of robust quantum gates in superconducting quantum circuits based on a geometric framework for diagnosing and correcting various gate errors. Using quantum process tomography and randomized benchmarking, we demonstrate robust single-qubit gates against quasi-static noise and spatially-correlated noise in a broad range of strengths, which are common sources of coherent errors in large-scale quantum circuit. We also apply our method to non-static noises and to realize robust two-qubit gates. Our work provides a versatile toolbox for achieving noise-resilient complex quantum circuits.
The investigation of many-body interactions holds significant importance in both quantum foundations and information. Hamiltonians coupling multiple particles at once, beyond others, can lead to a faster entanglement generation, multiqubit gate implementation and improved error correction. As an increasing number of quantum platforms enable the realization of such physical settings, it becomes interesting to study the verification of many-body interaction resources. In this work, we explore the possibility of higher-order couplings detection through the quantum Fisher information. For a family of symmetric and translationally invariant $k$-body Ising-like Hamiltonians, we derive the bounds on the quantum Fisher information in product states. Due to its ordering with respect to the order of interaction, we demonstrate the possibility of detecting many-body couplings for a given Hamiltonian from the discussed family by observing violations of an appropriate bound.
Two-level atoms coupled with single-mode cavity photons are predicted to exhibit a quantum phase transition when the coupling strength exceeds a critical value, entering a phase in which atomic polarization and photonic field are finite even at zero temperature and without external driving. However, this phenomenon, the superradiant phase transition (SRPT), is forbidden by a no-go theorem due to the existence of the diamagnetic term in the Hamiltonian. Here, we present spectroscopic evidence for a magnonic SRPT in ErFeO$_3$, where the role of the photonic mode (two-level atoms) in the photonic SRPT is played by an Fe$^{3+}$ magnon mode (Er$^{3+}$ spins). The absence of the diamagnetic term in the Fe$^{3+}$-Er$^{3+}$ exchange coupling ensures that the no-go theorem does not apply. Terahertz and gigahertz magnetospectroscopy experiments revealed the signatures of the SRPT -- a kink and a softening, respectively, of two spin-magnon hybridized modes at the critical point.
Building a Quantum Internet requires the development of new networking concepts at the intersection of frontier communication systems and long-distance quantum communication. Here, we present the implementation of a quantum-enabled internet prototype, where we have combined Software-Defined and Time-Sensitive Networking principles with Quantum Communication between quantum memories. Using a deployed quantum network connecting Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory, we demonstrate a fundamental long-distance quantum network service, that of high-visibility Hong-Ou-Mandel Interference of telecom photons produced in two independent quantum memories separated by a distance of 158 km.
Utilizing quantum computer to investigate quantum chemistry is an important research field nowadays. In addition to the ground-state problems that have been widely studied, the determination of excited-states plays a crucial role in the prediction and modeling of chemical reactions and other physical processes. Here, we propose a non-variational full circuit-based quantum algorithm for obtaining the excited-state spectrum of a quantum chemistry Hamiltonian. Compared with previous classical-quantum hybrid variational algorithms, our method eliminates the classical optimization process, reduces the resource cost caused by the interaction between different systems, and achieves faster convergence rate and stronger robustness against noise without barren plateau. The parameter updating for determining the next energy-level is naturally dependent on the energy measurement outputs of the previous energy-level and can be realized by only modifying the state preparation process of ancillary system, introducing little additional resource overhead. Numerical simulations of the algorithm with hydrogen, LiH, H2O and NH3 molecules are presented. Furthermore, we offer an experimental demonstration of the algorithm on a superconducting quantum computing platform, and the results show a good agreement with theoretical expectations. The algorithm can be widely applied to various Hamiltonian spectrum determination problems on the fault-tolerant quantum computers.
The various generalized spectral determinants (G-functions) of the two-photon quantum Rabi model are analyzed with emphasis on the qualitative aspects of the regular spectrum. Whereas all of them yield at least a subset of the exact regular eigenvalues, only the G-function proposed by Chen et al. in 2012 exhibits an explicitly known pole structure which dictates the approach to the collapse point. We derive this function rigorously employing the $\mathbb{Z}_4$-symmetry of the model and show that its zeros correspond to the complete regular spectrum.
Although local Hamiltonians exhibit local time dynamics, this locality is not explicit in the Schr\"{o}dinger picture in the sense that the wavefunction amplitudes do not obey a local equation of motion. We show that geometric locality can be achieved explicitly in the equations of motion by "gauging" the global unitary invariance of quantum mechanics into a local gauge invariance. That is, expectation values $\langle \psi|A|\psi \rangle$ are invariant under a global unitary transformation acting on the wavefunction $|\psi\rangle \to U |\psi\rangle$ and operators $A \to U A U^\dagger$, and we show that it is possible to gauge this global invariance into a local gauge invariance. To do this, we replace the wavefunction with a collection of local wavefunctions $|\psi_J\rangle$, one for each patch of space $J$. The collection of spatial patches is chosen to cover the space; e.g. we could choose the patches to be single qubits or nearest-neighbor sites on a lattice. Local wavefunctions associated with neighboring pairs of spatial patches $I$ and $J$ are related to each other by dynamical unitary transformations $U_{IJ}$. The local wavefunctions are local in the sense that their dynamics are local. That is, the equations of motion for the local wavefunctions $|\psi_J\rangle$ and connections $U_{IJ}$ are explicitly local in space and only depend on nearby Hamiltonian terms. (The local wavefunctions are many-body wavefunctions and have the same Hilbert space dimension as the usual wavefunction.) We call this picture of quantum dynamics the gauge picture since it exhibits a local gauge invariance. The local dynamics of a single spatial patch is related to the interaction picture, where the interaction Hamiltonian consists of only nearby Hamiltonian terms. We can also generalize the explicit locality to include locality in local charge and energy densities.
Quantum state engineering plays a vital role in various applications in the field of quantum information. Different strategies, including drive-and-dissipation, adiabatic cooling, and measurement-based steering, have been proposed in the past for state generation and manipulation, each with its upsides and downsides. Here, we address a class of measurement-based state engineering protocols where a sequence of generalized measurements is employed to steer a quantum system toward a desired target state. Previously studied measurement-based protocols relied on idealized procedures and avoided exploration of the effects of various errors stemming from imperfections of experimental realizations and external noise. We employ the quantum trajectory formalism to provide a detailed analysis of the robustness of these steering protocols against various errors. We study a set of errors that can be classified as dynamic or static, depending on whether they remain unchanged while running the protocol. More specifically, we investigate the impact of erroneous choice of system-detector coupling, re-initialization of the detector state following a measurement step, fluctuating steering directions, and environmentally induced errors in the system-detector interaction. We show that the protocol remains fully robust against the erroneous choice of system-detector coupling parameters and presents reasonable robustness against other errors. We employ various quantifiers such as fidelity, trace distance, and linear entropy to characterize the protocol's robustness and provide analytical results. Subsequently, we demonstrate the commutation between the classical expectation value and the time-ordering operator of the exponential of a Hamiltonian with multiplicative white noise, as well as the commutation of the expectation value and the partial trace with respect to detector outcomes.
We study diffusion in systems of classical particles whose dynamics conserves the total center of mass. This conservation law leads to several interesting consequences. In finite systems, it allows for equilibrium distributions that are exponentially localized near system boundaries. It also yields an unusual approach to equilibrium, which in $d$ dimensions exhibits scaling with dynamical exponent $z = 4+d$. Similar phenomena occur for dynamics that conserves higher moments of the density, which we systematically classify using a family of nonlinear diffusion equations. In the quantum setting, analogous fermionic systems are shown to form real-space Fermi surfaces, while bosonic versions display a real-space analog of Bose-Einstein condensation.
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering, a fundamental concept of quantum nonlocality, describes one observer's capability to remotely affect another distant observer's state by local measurements. Unlike quantum entanglement and Bell nonlocality, both associated with the symmetric quantum correlation, EPR steering depicts the unique asymmetric property of quantum nonlocality. With the local filter operation in which some system components are discarded, quantum nonlocality can be distilled to enhance the nonlocal correlation, and even the hidden nonlocality can be activated. However, asymmetric quantum nonlocality in the filter operation still lacks a well-rounded investigation, especially considering the discarded parts where quantum nonlocal correlations may still exist with probabilities. Here, in both theory and experiment, we investigate the effect of reusing the discarded particles from local filter. We observe all configurations of EPR steering simultaneously and other intriguing evolution of asymmetric quantum nonlocality, such as reversing the direction of one-way EPR steering. This work provides a perspective to answer "What is the essential role of utilizing quantum steering as a resource?", and demonstrates a practical toolbox for manipulating asymmetric quantum systems with significant potential applications in quantum information tasks.
As one of the most elegant theories in physics, Yang-Mills (YM) theory not only incorporates Maxwell's equations unifying electromagnetism, but also underpins the standard model explaining the electroweak and strong interactions in a succinct way. Whereas the highly nonlinear terms in YM equations involving the interactions between potentials and fields retard the resolution for them. In the $U(1)$ case, the solutions of Maxwell's equations are the electromagnetic waves, which have been applied extensively in the modern communication networks all over the world. Likewise the operator solutions of the YM equations under the assumptions of weak-coupling and zero-coupling predict the $SU(2)$ angular-momentum waves, which is the staple of this work. Such angular-momentum waves are hopefully realized in the experiments through the oscillations of spin angular momentum, such as the ``spin Zitterbewegung'' of Dirac's electron.
Restrictions imposed by existing infrastructure can make it hard to ensure an even spacing between the nodes of future fiber-based quantum networks. We here investigate the negative effects of asymmetric node placement by considering separately the placement of midpoint stations required for heralded entanglement generation, as well as of processing-node quantum repeaters in a chain. For midpoint stations, we describe the effect asymmetry has on the time required to perform one entangling attempt, the success probability of such attempts, and the fidelity of the entangled states created. This includes accounting for the effects of chromatic dispersion on photon indistinguishability. For quantum-repeater chains we numerically investigate how uneven spacing between repeater nodes leads to bottlenecks, thereby increasing both the waiting time and the time states are stored in noisy quantum memory. We find that while the time required to perform one entangling attempt may increase linearly with the midpoint's asymmetry, the success probability and fidelity of heralded entanglement generation and the distribution time and error rate for repeater chains all have vanishing first derivatives with respect to the amount of asymmetry. This suggests resilience of quantum-network performance against small amounts of asymmetry.
Quantum simulation provides a computationally-feasible approach to model and study many problems in chemistry, condensed-matter physics, or high-energy physics where quantum phenomenon define the systems behaviour. In high-energy physics, quite a few possible applications are investigated in the context of gauge theories and their application to dynamic problems, topological problems, high-baryon density configurations, or collective neutrino oscillations. In particular, schemes for simulating neutrino oscillations are proposed using a quantum walk framework. In this study, we approach the problem of simulating neutrino oscillation from the perspective of open quantum systems by treating the position space of quantum walk as environment. We have obtained the recurrence relation for Kraus operator which is used to represent the dynamics of the neutrino flavor change in the form of reduced coin states. We establish a connection between the dynamics of reduced coin state and neutrino phenomenology, enabling one to fix the simulation parameters for a given neutrino experiment and reduces the need for extended position space to simulate neutrino oscillations. We have also studied the behavior of linear entropy as a measure of entanglement between different flavors in the same framework.
The detailed fluctuation theorem implies the symmetry on the generating function of the entropy production probability. The integral fluctuation theorem follows directly from this symmetry and the normalization of the probability. In this paper, we rewrite the generating function with complete positive maps and show that the integral FT is determined by the trace-preserving property of these constructed maps. We demonstrate the convenience of this framework by discussing the eigenstate fluctuation theorem and heat exchange between two systems. This set of methods is also applicable to generating function of quasi-probability, where we find the Petz recovery map arises naturally from this framework. In addition, we briefly discuss generating functions for multitime processes, which may be helpful in studying generalization of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem.
Anomaly detection (AD) involves identifying observations or events that deviate in some way from the rest of the data. Machine learning techniques have shown success in automating this process by detecting hidden patterns and deviations in large-scale data. The potential of quantum computing for machine learning has been widely recognized, leading to extensive research efforts to develop suitable quantum machine learning (QML) algorithms. In particular, the search for QML algorithms for near-term NISQ devices is in full swing. However, NISQ devices pose additional challenges due to their limited qubit coherence times, low number of qubits, and high error rates. Kernel methods based on quantum kernel estimation have emerged as a promising approach to QML on NISQ devices, offering theoretical guarantees, versatility, and compatibility with NISQ constraints. Especially support vector machines (SVM) utilizing quantum kernel estimation have shown success in various supervised learning tasks. However, in the context of AD, semisupervised learning is of great relevance, and yet there is limited research published in this area. This paper introduces an approach to semisupervised AD based on the reconstruction loss of a support vector regression (SVR) with quantum kernel. This novel model is an alternative to the variational quantum and quantum kernel one-class classifiers, and is compared to a quantum autoencoder as quantum baseline and a SVR with radial-basis-function (RBF) kernel as well as a classical autoencoder as classical baselines. The models are benchmarked extensively on 10 real-world AD data sets and one toy data set, and it is shown that our SVR model with quantum kernel performs better than the SVR with RBF kernel as well as all other models, achieving highest mean AUC over all data sets. In addition, our QSVR outperforms the quantum autoencoder on 9 out of 11 data sets.
Obtaining information from a quantum system through a measurement typically disturbs its state. The postmeasurement states for a given measurement, however, are not unique and highly rely on the chosen measurement model, complicating the puzzle of information-disturbance. Two distinct questions are then in order. Firstly, what is the minimum disturbance a measurement may induce? Secondly, when a fixed disturbance occurs, how informative is the possible measurement in the best-case scenario? Here, we propose various approaches to tackle these questions and provide explicit solutions for the set of unbiased binary qubit measurements and postmeasurement state spaces that are equivalent to the image of a unital qubit channel. In particular, we show there are different tradeoff relations between the sharpness of this measurement and the average fidelity of the premeasurement and postmeasurement state spaces as well as the sharpness and quantum resources preserved in the postmeasurement states in terms of coherence and discord-like correlation once the measurement is applied locally.
We present a mapping between a Schr\"odinger equation with a shifted non-linear potential and the Navier-Stokes equation. Following a generalization of the Madelung transformations, we show that the inclusion of the Bohm quantum potential plus the laplacian of the phase field in the non-linear term leads to continuity and momentum equations for a dissipative incompressible Navier-Stokes fluid. An alternative solution, built using a complex quantum diffusion, is also discussed. The present models may capture dissipative effects in quantum fluids, such as Bose-Einstein condensates, as well as facilitate the formulation of quantum algorithms for classical dissipative fluids.
We propose a simple procedure to produce energy eigenstates of a Hamiltonian with discrete eigenvalues. We use ancilla qubits and quantum entanglement to separate an energy eigenstate from the other energy eigenstates. We exhibit a few examples derived from the (1+1)-dimensional massless Schwinger model. Our procedure in principle will be applicable for a Hamiltonian with a finite dimensional Hilbert space. Choosing an initial state properly, we can in principle produce any energy eigenstate of the Hamiltonian.
We explore a supervised machine learning approach to estimate the entanglement entropy of multi-qubit systems from few experimental samples. We put a particular focus on estimating both aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty of the network's estimate and benchmark against the best known conventional estimation algorithms. For states that are contained in the training distribution, we observe convergence in a regime of sample sizes in which the baseline method fails to give correct estimates, while extrapolation only seems possible for regions close to the training regime. As a further application of our method, highly relevant for quantum simulation experiments, we estimate the quantum mutual information for non-unitary evolution by training our model on different noise strengths.
In this work, we consider the problem of secure key leasing, also known as revocable cryptography (Agarwal et. al. Eurocrypt' 23, Ananth et. al. TCC' 23), as a strengthened security notion of its predecessor put forward in Ananth et. al. Eurocrypt' 21. This problem aims to leverage unclonable nature of quantum information to allow a lessor to lease a quantum key with reusability for evaluating a classical functionality. Later, the lessor can request the lessee to provably delete the key and then the lessee will be completely deprived of the capability to evaluate. In this work, we construct a secure key leasing scheme to lease a decryption key of a (classical) public-key, homomorphic encryption scheme from standard lattice assumptions. We achieve strong form of security where: * The entire protocol uses only classical communication between a classical lessor (client) and a quantum lessee (server). * Assuming standard assumptions, our security definition ensures that every computationally bounded quantum adversary could not simultaneously provide a valid classical deletion certificate and yet distinguish ciphertexts. Our security relies on the hardness of learning with errors assumption. Our scheme is the first scheme to be based on a standard assumption and satisfying the two properties above.
We present a quantum computing algorithm for fluid flows based on the Carleman-linearization of the Lattice Boltzmann (LB) method. First, we demonstrate the convergence of the classical Carleman procedure at moderate Reynolds numbers, namely for Kolmogorov-like flows. Then we proceed to formulate the corresponding quantum algorithm, including the quantum circuit layout and analyze its computational viability. We show that, at least for moderate Reynolds numbers between 10 and 100, the Carleman-LB procedure can be successfully truncated at second order, which is a very encouraging result. We also show that the quantum circuit implementing the single time-step collision operator has a fixed depth, regardless of the number of lattice sites. However, such depth is of the order of ten thousands quantum gates, meaning that quantum advantage over classical computing is not attainable today, but could be achieved in the near-mid term future. The same goal for the multi-step version remains however an open topic for future research.
Quantum Computing allows, in principle, the encoding of the exponentially scaling many-electron wave function onto a linearly scaling qubit register, offering a promising solution to overcome the limitations of traditional quantum chemistry methods. An essential requirement for ground state quantum algorithms to be practical is the initialisation of the qubits to a high-quality approximation of the sought-after ground state. Quantum State Preparation (QSP) allows the preparation of approximate eigenstates obtained from classical calculations, but it is frequently treated as an oracle in quantum information. In this study, we conduct QSP on the ground state of prototypical strongly correlated systems, up to 28 qubits, using the Hyperion GPU-accelerated state-vector emulator. Various variational and non-variational methods are compared in terms of their circuit depth and classical complexity. Our results indicate that the recently developed Overlap-ADAPT-VQE algorithm offers the most advantageous performance for near-term applications.
Dicke superradiance is essentially a case of correlated dissipation leading to the macroscopic quantum coherence. Superradiance for arrays of inverted emitters in free space requires interactions far beyond the nearest-neighbor, limiting its occurrence to small emitter-emitter distances. Epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials, which exhibit infinite effective wavelengths, can mediate long-range interactions between emitters. We investigate the superradiance properties of two ENZ structures, namely plasmonic waveguides and dielectric photonic crystals, and demonstrate their potential to support near-ideal Dicke superradiance across expanded spatial domains. We employ a general method that we have developed to assess the occurrence of superradiance, which is applicable to various coupling scenarios and only relies on the decoherence matrix. Furthermore, by numerically examining the emission dynamics of the few-emitter systems, we distinct the roles of quantum coherence at different stages of emission for the case of all-to-all interaction, and demonstrate that the maximum quantum coherence in the system can be determined using the maximum photon burst rate. The findings of this work have prospective applications in quantum information processing and light-matter interaction.
The Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) is widely recognized as an efficient algorithm for simulating fluid flows in both single-phase and multi-phase scenarios. In this research, a quantum Carleman Linearization formulation of the Lattice Boltzmann equation is described, employing the Bhatnagar Gross and Krook equilibrium function. Our approach addresses the treatment of boundary conditions with the commonly used bounce back scheme. The accuracy of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by simulating flow past a rectangular prism, achieving agreement with respect to fluid velocity In comparison to classical LBM simulations. This improved formulation showcases the potential to provide computational speed-ups in a wide range of fluid flow applications. Additionally, we provide details on read in and read out techniques.
We discuss the status of relative facts - the central concept of Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM) - in the context of the new amendment to RQM called cross-perspective links postulate. The new axiom states that by a proper measurement one learns the value of the relative outcome/fact earlier obtained by another observer-system. We discuss a Wigner-Friend-type scenario in which, without cross-perspective links postulate, relative facts have no predictive or causal power, whereas including cross-perspective links makes them effectively hidden variables, which causally determine outcomes of specific measurements. However, cross-perspective links axiom invalidates the other axiom of RQM, the one which states that in a Wigner-Friend scenario, RQM assigns an entangled state to the Friend and System after the unitary transformation of their interaction, despite the appearance of the relative fact for the Friend. This quantum mechanical state according to RQM properly describes the situation for Wigner. From this we show that RQM with cross-perspective links axiom is an internally inconsistent hidden variable theory and therefore cannot be treated as an interpretation of quantum mechanics in any sense.
By quantifying the difference between quantum mutual information through weak measurement performed on a subsystem one is led to the notion of super quantum discord. The super version is also known to be difficult to compute as the quantum discord which was captured by the projective (strong) measurements. In this paper, we give effective bounds of the super quantum discord with or without phase damping channels for higher-dimensional bipartite quantum states, and found that the super version is always larger than the usual quantum discord as in the 2-dimensional case.
In this article, we investigate periodically driven open quantum systems within the framework of Floquet-Lindblad master equations. Specifically, we discuss Lindblad master equations in the presence of a coherent, time-periodic driving and establish their general spectral features. We also clarify the notions of transient and non-decaying solutions from this spectral perspective, and then prove that any physical system described by a Floquet-Lindblad equation must have at least one \textit{physical} non-equilibrium steady state (NESS), corresponding to an eigenoperator of the Floquet-Lindblad evolution superoperator $\mathcal{U}_F$ with unit eigenvalue. Since the Floquet-Lindblad formalism encapsulates the entire information regarding the NESS, it in principle enables us to obtain non-linear effects to all orders at once. The Floquet-Lindblad formalism thus provides a powerful tool for studying driven-dissipative solid-state systems, which we illustrate by deriving the nonlinear optical response of a simple two-band model of an insulating solid and comparing it with prior results established through Keldysh techniques.
The Job shop scheduling problem (JSSP) plays a pivotal role in industrial applications, such as signal processing (SP) and steel manufacturing, involving sequencing machines and jobs to maximize scheduling efficiency. Before, JSSP was solved using manually defined circuits by variational quantum algorithm (VQA). Finding a good circuit architecture is task-specific and time-consuming. Differentiable quantum architecture search (DQAS) is a gradient-based framework that can automatically design circuits. However, DQAS is only tested on quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) and error mitigation tasks. Whether DQAS applies to JSSP based on a more flexible algorithm, such as variational quantum eigensolver (VQE), is still open for optimization problems. In this work, we redefine the operation pool and extend DQAS to a framework JSSP-DQAS by evaluating circuits to generate circuits for JSSP automatically. The experiments conclude that JSSP-DQAS can automatically find noise-resilient circuit architectures that perform much better than manually designed circuits. It helps to improve the efficiency of solving JSSP.
Nuclear spins in solid-state platforms are promising for building rotation sensors due to their long coherence times. Among these platforms, nitrogen-vacancy centers have attracted considerable attention with ambient operating conditions. However, the current performance of NV gyroscopes remains limited by the degraded coherence when operating with large spin ensembles. Protecting the coherence of these systems requires a systematic study of the coherence decay mechanism. Here we present the use of nitrogen-15 nuclear spins of NV centers in building gyroscopes, benefiting from its simpler energy structure and vanishing nuclear quadrupole term compared with nitrogen-14 nuclear spins, though suffering from different challenges in coherence protection. We systematically reveal the coherence decay mechanism of the nuclear spin in different NV electronic spin manifolds and further develop a robust coherence protection protocol based on controlling the NV electronic spin only, achieving a 15-fold dephasing time improvement. With the developed coherence protection, we demonstrate an emulated gyroscope by measuring a designed rotation rate pattern, showing an order-of-magnitude sensitivity improvement.
Solid-state platforms based on electro-nuclear spin systems are attractive candidates for rotation sensing due to their excellent sensitivity, stability, and compact size, compatible with industrial applications. Conventional spin-based gyroscopes measure the accumulated phase of a nuclear spin superposition state to extract the rotation rate and thus suffer from spin dephasing. Here, we propose a gyroscope protocol based on a two-spin system that includes a spin intrinsically tied to the host material, while the other spin is isolated. The rotation rate is then extracted by measuring the relative rotation angle between the two spins starting from their population states, robust against spin dephasing. In particular, the relative rotation rate between the two spins can be enhanced by their hyperfine coupling by more than an order of magnitude, further boosting the achievable sensitivity. The ultimate sensitivity of the gyroscope is limited by the lifetime of the spin system and compatible with a broad dynamic range, even in the presence of magnetic noises or control errors due to initialization and qubit manipulations. Our result enables precise measurement of slow rotations and exploration of fundamental physics.
We present a detailed study of mechanically compliant, photonic-crystal-based microcavities featuring a quasi-bound state in the continuum. Such systems have recently been predicted to reduce the optical loss in Fabry-Perot-type optomechanical cavities. However, they require two identical photonic-crystal slabs facing each other, which poses a considerable challenge for experimental implementation. We investigate how such an ideal system can be simplified and still exhibit a quasi-bound state in the continuum. We find that a suspended photonic-crystal slab facing a distributed Bragg reflector realizes an optomechanical system with a quasi-bound state in the continuum. In this system, the radiative cavity loss can be eliminated to the extent that the cavity loss is dominated by dissipative loss originating from material absorption only. These proposed optomechanical cavity designs are predicted to feature optical quality factors in excess of 10^5.