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1. Quench-induced spontaneous currents in rings of ultracold fermionic atoms

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.109.053320  

   Allman, Daniel G; Sabharwal, Parth; Wright, Kevin C (May 2024, Physical Review A)

   We have observed the spontaneous appearance of currents in a ring of ultracold fermionic atoms (6Li) with attractive interactions, following a quench to a BCS-like pair superfluid. We have measured the winding number probability distribution for a range of quench rates, with a quench protocol using simultaneous forced evaporation and interaction ramps to achieve faster effective quench rates with less atom loss than a purely evaporative quench. We find that for the fastest quenches the mean-square winding number of the current follows a scaling law in the quench rate with exponent 𝜎=0.24⁢(2), which is somewhat lower than that predicted by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism for the three-dimensional 𝑋⁢𝑌 model (1/3) and unexpectedly closer to the value obtained from mean-field theory (1/4). For slower quenches nonuniversal effects become significant and we observe a lower rate of spontaneous current formation that does not follow a simple scaling law. 

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2. Test of light-lepton universality in τ decays with the Belle II experiment

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2024)205  

   Adachi, I; Adamczyk, K; Aggarwal, L; Aihara, H; Akopov, N; Aloisio, A; Anh_Ky, N; Asner, D M; Atmacan, H; Aushev, V; et al (August 2024, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> We present a measurement of the ratio$$ {R}_{\mu }=\mathcal{B}\left({\tau}^{-}\to {\mu}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_{\mu }{\nu}_{\tau}\right)/\mathcal{B}\left({\tau}^{-}\to {e}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_e{\nu}_{\tau}\right) $$ $R_{\mu }=B\left({\tau }^{-}\to {\mu }^{-}{\overline{\nu }}_{\mu }{\nu }_{\tau }\right)/B\left({\tau }^{-}\to e^{-}{\overline{\nu }}_e{\nu }_{\tau }\right)$of branching fractions$$ \mathcal{B} $$ $B$of theτlepton decaying to muons or electrons using data collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKBe⁺e⁻collider. The sample has an integrated luminosity of 362 ± 2 fb⁻¹at a centre-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV. Using an optimised event selection, a binned maximum likelihood fit is performed using the momentum spectra of the electron and muon candidates. The result,R_μ= 0.9675 ± 0.0007 ± 0.0036, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic, is the most precise to date. It provides a stringent test of the light-lepton universality, translating to a ratio of the couplings of the muon and electron to theWboson inτdecays of 0.9974 ± 0.0019, in agreement with the standard model expectation of unity. 

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3. Measurement induced criticality in quasiperiodic modulated random hybrid circuits

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.184204  

   Shkolnik, Gal; Zabalo, Aidan; Vasseur, Romain; Huse, David A.; Pixley, J. H.; Gazit, Snir (November 2023, Physical Review B)

   We study one-dimensional hybrid quantum circuits perturbed by quenched quasiperiodic (QP) modulations across the measurement-induced phase transition (MIPT). Considering non-Pisot QP structures, characterized by unbounded fluctuations, allows us to tune the wandering exponent β to exceed the Luck bound ν ≥ 1/(1−β) for the stability of the MIPT, where ν = 1.28(2). Via robust numerical simulations of random Clifford circuits interleaved with local projective measurements, we find that sufficiently large QP structural fluctuations destabilize the MIPT and induce a flow to a broad family of critical dynamical phase transitions of the infinite QP type that is governed by the wandering exponent β. We numerically determine the associated critical properties, including the correlation length exponent consistent with saturating the Luck bound, and a universal activated dynamical scaling with activation exponent ψ ≅ β, finding excellent agreement with the conclusions of real-space renormalization group calculations. 

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4. New physics searches via angular distributions of $$ \overline{B}\to {D}^{\ast}\left(\to D\pi \right)\tau \left(\to \ell {\nu}_{\tau }{\overline{\nu}}_{\ell}\right){\overline{\nu}}_{\tau } $$ decays

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2025)135  

   Bhattacharya, Bhubanjyoti; Browder, Thomas E; Datta, Alakabha; Kapoor, Tejhas; Kou, Emi; Mukherjee, Lopamudra (April 2025, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   The study of $$ \overline{B}\to {D}^{\ast}\tau {\overline{\nu}}_{\tau } $$angular distribution can be used to obtain information about new physics (or beyond the Standard Model) couplings, which are motivated by various B anomalies. However, the inability to measure precisely the three-momentum of the lepton hinders such measurements, as the tau decay contains one or more undetected neutrinos. Here, we present a measurable angular distribution of $$ \overline{B}\to {D}^{\ast}\tau {\overline{\nu}}_{\tau } $$ by considering the additional decay $$ \tau \to \ell {\nu}_{\tau }{\overline{\nu}}_{\ell } $$, wℓ. The full process used is$$ \overline{B}\to {D}^{\ast}\left(\to D\pi \right)\tau \left(\to \ell {\nu}_{\tau }{\overline{\nu}}_{\ell}\right){\overline{\nu}}_{\tau } $$ $\overline{B}\to D^{\ast }\left(\to \mathrm{D\pi }\right)\tau \left(\to \ell {\nu }_{\tau }{\overline{\nu }}_{\ell }\right){\overline{\nu }}_{\tau }$, in which only theℓandD^*are reconstructed. A fit to the experimental angular distribution of this process can be used to extract information on new physics parameters. To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, we generate simulated data for this process and perform a sensitivity study to obtain the expected statistical errors on new physics parameters from experiments in the near future. We obtain a sensitivity of the order of 5% for the right-handed current and around 6% for the tensor current. In addition, we use the recent lattice QCD data onB→D^*form factors and obtain correlations between form factors and new physics parameters. 

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5. Filamentation of fast radio bursts in magnetar winds

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac251  

   Sobacchi, Emanuele; Lyubarsky, Yuri; Beloborodov, Andrei M; Sironi, Lorenzo (March 2022, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   ABSTRACT Magnetars are the most promising progenitors of fast radio bursts (FRBs). Strong radio waves propagating through the magnetar wind are subject to non-linear effects, including modulation/filamentation instabilities. We derive the dispersion relation for modulations of strong waves propagating in magnetically dominated pair plasmas focusing on dimensionless strength parameters a0 ≲ 1, and discuss implications for FRBs. As an effect of the instability, the FRB-radiation intensity develops sheets perpendicular to the direction of the wind magnetic field. When the FRB front expands outside the radius where the instability ends, the radiation sheets are scattered due to diffraction. The FRB-scattering time-scale depends on the properties of the magnetar wind. In a cold wind, the typical scattering time-scale is τsc ∼  $$\mu$$s–ms at the frequency $$\nu \sim 1\, {\rm GHz}$$. The scattering time-scale increases at low frequencies, with the scaling τsc ∝ ν−2. The frequency-dependent broadening of the brightest pulse of FRB 181112 is consistent with this scaling. From the scattering time-scale of the pulse, one can estimate that the wind Lorentz factor is larger than a few tens. In a warm wind, the scattering time-scale can approach $$\tau _{\rm sc}\sim \, {\rm ns}$$. Then scattering produces a frequency modulation of the observed intensity with a large bandwidth, $$\Delta \nu \sim 1/\tau _{\rm sc}\gtrsim 100\, {\rm MHz}$$. Broad-band frequency modulations observed in FRBs could be due to scattering in a warm magnetar wind. 

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