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1. Measurement of off-shell Higgs boson production in the $H^{\ast }\to ZZ\to 4\ell$ decay channel using a neural simulation-based inference technique in 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6633/adcd9a  

   The_ATLAS_Collaboration (May 2025, Reports on Progress in Physics)

   Abstract A measurement of off-shell Higgs boson production in the $H^{\ast }\to ZZ\to 4\ell$decay channel is presented. The measurement uses 140 fb⁻¹of proton–proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider and supersedes the previous result in this decay channel using the same dataset. The data analysis is performed using a neural simulation-based inference method, which builds per-event likelihood ratios using neural networks. The observed (expected) off-shell Higgs boson production signal strength in the $ZZ\to 4\ell$decay channel at 68% CL is ${0.87}_{-0.54}^{+0.75}$( ${1.00}_{-0.95}^{+1.04}$). The evidence for off-shell Higgs boson production using the $ZZ\to 4\ell$decay channel has an observed (expected) significance of 2.5σ(1.3σ). The expected result represents a significant improvement relative to that of the previous analysis of the same dataset, which obtained an expected significance of 0.5σ. When combined with the most recent ATLAS measurement in the $ZZ\to 2\ell 2\nu$decay channel, the evidence for off-shell Higgs boson production has an observed (expected) significance of 3.7σ(2.4σ). The off-shell measurements are combined with the measurement of on-shell Higgs boson production to obtain constraints on the Higgs boson total width. The observed (expected) value of the Higgs boson width at 68% CL is ${4.3}_{-1.9}^{+2.7}$( ${4.1}_{-3.4}^{+3.5}$) MeV. 

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2. Validation of Elemental and Isotopic Abundances in Late-M Spectral Types with the Benchmark HIP 55507 AB System

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad1243  

   Xuan, Jerry W.; Wang, Jason; Finnerty, Luke; Horstman, Katelyn; Grimm, Simon; Peck, Anne E.; Nielsen, Eric; Knutson, Heather A.; Mawet, Dimitri; Isaacson, Howard; et al (February 2024, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract M dwarfs are common host stars to exoplanets but often lack atmospheric abundance measurements. Late-M dwarfs are also good analogs to the youngest substellar companions, which share similarT_eff∼ 2300–2800 K. We present atmospheric analyses for the M7.5 companion HIP 55507 B and its K6V primary star with Keck/KPIC high-resolution (R∼ 35,000)K-band spectroscopy. First, by including KPIC relative radial velocities between the primary and secondary in the orbit fit, we improve the dynamical mass precision by 60% and find $M_B={88.0}_{-3.2}^{+3.4}{M}_{\mathrm{Jup}}$, putting HIP 55507 B above the stellar–substellar boundary. We also find that HIP 55507 B orbits its K6V primary star with $a={38}_{-3}^{+4}$au ande= 0.40 ± 0.04. From atmospheric retrievals of HIP 55507 B, we measure [C/H] = 0.24 ± 0.13, [O/H] = 0.15 ± 0.13, and C/O = 0.67 ± 0.04. Moreover, we strongly detect¹³CO (7.8σsignificance) and tentatively detect ${\mathrm{H}}_2^{18}\mathrm{O}$(3.7σsignificance) in the companion’s atmosphere and measure ${}^{12}\mathrm{CO}{/}^{13}\mathrm{CO}={98}_{-22}^{+28}$and ${\mathrm{H}}_2^{16}\mathrm{O}/{\mathrm{H}}_2^{18}\mathrm{O}={240}_{-80}^{+145}$after accounting for systematic errors. From a simplified retrieval analysis of HIP 55507 A, we measure ${}^{12}\mathrm{CO}{/}^{13}\mathrm{CO}={79}_{-16}^{+21}$and ${\mathrm{C}}^{16}\mathrm{O}/{\mathrm{C}}^{18}\mathrm{O}={288}_{-70}^{+125}$for the primary star. These results demonstrate that HIP 55507 A and B have consistent¹²C/¹³C and¹⁶O/¹⁸O to the <1σlevel, as expected for a chemically homogeneous binary system. Given the similar flux ratios and separations between HIP 55507 AB and systems with young substellar companions, our results open the door to systematically measuring¹³CO and ${\mathrm{H}}_2^{18}\mathrm{O}$abundances in the atmospheres of substellar or even planetary-mass companions with similar spectral types. 

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3. Strongly Lensed Supermassive Black Hole Binaries as Nanohertz Gravitational-wave Sources

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ace16f  

   Khusid, Nicole M.; Mingarelli, Chiara M. F.; Natarajan, Priyamvada; Casey-Clyde, J. Andrew; Barnacka, Anna (September 2023, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract Supermassive black hole binary systems (SMBHBs) should be the most powerful sources of gravitational waves (GWs) in the universe. Once pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) detect the stochastic GW background from their cosmic merger history, searching for individually resolvable binaries will take on new importance. Since these individual SMBHBs are expected to be rare, here we explore how strong gravitational lensing can act as a tool for increasing their detection prospects by magnifying fainter sources and bringing them into view. Unlike for electromagnetic waves, when the geometric optics limit is nearly always valid, for GWs the wave-diffraction-interference effects can become important when the wavelength of the GWs is larger than the Schwarzchild radius of the lens, i.e., $M_{\mathrm{lens}}\sim {10}^8{\left(\frac{f}{\mathrm{mHz}}\right)}^{-1}{M}_{\odot }$. For the GW frequency range explored in this work, the geometric optics limit holds. We investigate GW signals from SMBHBs that might be detectable with current and future PTAs under the assumption that quasars serve as bright beacons that signal a recent merger. Using the black hole mass function derived from quasars and a physically motivated magnification distribution, we expect to detect a few strongly lensed binary systems out toz≈ 2. Additionally, for a range of fixed magnifications 2 ≤μ≤ 100, strong lensing adds up to ∼30 more detectable binaries for PTAs. Finally, we investigate the possibility of observing both time-delayed electromagnetic signals and GW signals from these strongly lensed binary systems—that will provide us with unprecedented multi-messenger insights into their orbital evolution. 

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4. Measurement of the e+e− → $$ {B}_s^0{\overline{B}}_s^0X $$ cross section in the energy range from 10.63 to 11.02 GeV using inclusive $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ and D0 production

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2023)131  

   Zhukova, V; Mizuk, R; Adachi, I; Aihara, H; Al_Said, S; Asner, D M; Atmacan, H; Aulchenko, V; Aushev, T; Ayad, R; et al (August 2023, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> We report the first measurement of the inclusivee⁺e⁻→$$ b\overline{b} $$ $b\overline{b}$→$$ {D}_s^{\pm } $$ $D_s^{\pm }$Xande⁺e⁻→$$ b\overline{b} $$ $b\overline{b}$→ D⁰/$$ {\overline{D}}^0 $$ ${\overline{D}}^0$Xcross sections in the energy range from 10.63 to 11.02 GeV. Based on these results, we determineσ(e⁺e⁻→$$ {B}_s^0{\overline{B}}_s^0 $$ $B_s^0{\overline{B}}_s^0$X) andσ(e⁺e⁻→$$ B\overline{B} $$ $B\overline{B}$X) in the same energy range. We measure the fraction of$$ {B}_s^0 $$ $B_s^0$events at Υ(10860) to bef_s= ($$ {22.0}_{-2.1}^{+2.0} $$ ${22.0}_{-2.1}^{+2.0}$)%. We determine also the ratio of the$$ {B}_s^0 $$ $B_s^0$inclusive branching fractions$$ \mathcal{B} $$ $B$($$ {B}_s^0 $$ $B_s^0$→ D⁰/$$ {\overline{D}}^0 $$ ${\overline{D}}^0$X)/$$ \mathcal{B} $$ $B$($$ {B}_s^0 $$ $B_s^0$→$$ {D}_s^{\pm } $$ $D_s^{\pm }$X) = 0.416 ± 0.018 ± 0.092. The results are obtained using the data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energye⁺e⁻collider. 

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5. Measurement of the branching fractions of $$ \overline{B} $$ → D(*)K−$$ {K}_{(S)}^{\left(\ast \right)0} $$ and $$ \overline{B} $$ → D(*)$$ {D}_s^{-} $$ decays at Belle II

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2024)206  

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

   Abstract We present measurements of the branching fractions of eight$$ {\overline{B}}^0 $$ ${\overline{B}}^0$→D^(*)+K⁻$$ {K}_{(S)}^{\left(\ast \right)0} $$ $K_{\left(S\right)}^{\left(\ast \right)0}$,B⁻→D^(*)0K⁻$$ {K}_{(S)}^{\left(\ast \right)0} $$ $K_{\left(S\right)}^{\left(\ast \right)0}$decay channels. The results are based on data from SuperKEKB electron-positron collisions at the Υ(4S) resonance collected with the Belle II detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 362 fb⁻¹. The event yields are extracted from fits to the distributions of the difference between expected and observedBmeson energy, and are efficiency-corrected as a function ofm(K⁻$$ {K}_{(S)}^{\left(\ast \right)0} $$ $K_{\left(S\right)}^{\left(\ast \right)0}$) andm(D^(*)$$ {K}_{(S)}^{\left(\ast \right)0} $$ $K_{\left(S\right)}^{\left(\ast \right)0}$) in order to avoid dependence on the decay model. These results include the first observation of$$ {\overline{B}}^0 $$ ${\overline{B}}^0$→D⁺K⁻$$ {K}_S^0 $$ $K_S^0$,B⁻→D*⁰K⁻$$ {K}_S^0 $$ $K_S^0$, and$$ {\overline{B}}^0 $$ ${\overline{B}}^0$→D*⁺K⁻$$ {K}_S^0 $$ $K_S^0$decays and a significant improvement in the precision of the other channels compared to previous measurements. The helicity-angle distributions and the invariant mass distributions of theK⁻$$ {K}_{(S)}^{\left(\ast \right)0} $$ $K_{\left(S\right)}^{\left(\ast \right)0}$systems are compatible with quasi-two-body decays via a resonant transition with spin-parityJ^P= 1⁻for theK⁻$$ {K}_S^0 $$ $K_S^0$systems andJ^P= 1⁺for theK⁻K*⁰systems. We also present measurements of the branching fractions of four$$ {\overline{B}}^0 $$ ${\overline{B}}^0$→D^(*)+$$ {D}_s^{-} $$ $D_s^{-}$,B⁻→D^(*)0$$ {D}_s^{-} $$ $D_s^{-}$decay channels with a precision compatible to the current world averages. 

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