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1. Anomalies in hadronic $B$ decays: An update

   https://doi.org/10.1103/5jp1-7cfw  

   Bhattacharya, Bhubanjyoti; Bouchard, Marianne; Hudy, Luke; Jean, Alexandre; London, David; MacKenzie, Christopher (September 2025, Physical Review D)

   Recently, $B\to PP$decays ( $B=\{B^0,B^{+},B_s^0\}$, $P=\{\pi ,K\}$) were analyzed under the assumption of flavor SU(3) symmetry ( ${\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_F$). Although the individual fits to $\mathrm{\Delta }S=0$or $\mathrm{\Delta }S=1$decays are good, it was found that the combined fit is very poor: there is a $3.6\sigma$disagreement with the ${\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_F$limit of the standard model ( ${\mathrm{SM}}_{{\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_F}$). One can remove this discrepancy by adding ${\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_F$-breaking effects, but 1000% ${\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_F$breaking is required. In this paper, we extend this analysis to include decays in which there is an $\eta$and/or ${\eta }^{\prime }$meson in the final state. We now find that the combined fit exhibits a $4.1\sigma$discrepancy with the ${\mathrm{SM}}_{{\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_F}$, and 1000% ${\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_F$-breaking effects are still required to explain the data. These results are rigorous, group-theoretically—no theoretical assumptions have been made. But when one adds some theoretical input motivated by QCD factorization, the discrepancy with the ${\mathrm{SM}}_{{\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_F}$grows to $4.9\sigma$. 

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2. Anomalies in Hadronic $B$ Decays

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.211802  

   Berthiaume, Raphaël; Bhattacharya, Bhubanjyoti; Boumris, Rida; Jean, Alexandre; Kumbhakar, Suman; London, David (November 2024, Physical Review Letters)

   In this Letter, we perform fits to $B\to PP$decays, where $B=\{B^0,B^{+},B_s^0\}$and the pseudoscalar $P=\{\pi ,K\}$, under the assumption of flavor SU(3) symmetry [ ${\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_F$]. Although the fits to $\mathrm{\Delta }S=0$or $\mathrm{\Delta }S=1$decays individually are good, the combined fit is very poor: there is a $3.6\sigma$disagreement with the ${\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_F$limit of the standard model ( ${\mathrm{SM}}_{{\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_{\mathrm{F}}}$). One can remove this discrepancy by adding ${\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_F$-breaking effects, but 1000% ${\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_F$breaking is required. The above results are rigorous, group theoretically—no dynamical assumptions have been made. When one adds an assumption motivated by QCD factorization, the discrepancy with the ${\mathrm{SM}}_{{\mathrm{SU}\left(3\right)}_{\mathrm{F}}}$grows to $4.4\sigma$. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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3. Constraints on $f\left(R\right)$ gravity from thermal-Sunyaev-Zel’dovich-effect-selected SPT galaxy clusters and weak lensing mass calibration from DES and HST

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.043519  

   Vogt, S_M L; Bocquet, S; Davies, C T; Mohr, J J; Schmidt, F; Ruan, C-Z; Li, B; Hernández-Aguayo, C; Grandis, S; Bleem, L E; et al (February 2025, Physical Review D)

   We present constraints on the $f\left(R\right)$gravity model using a sample of 1005 galaxy clusters in the redshift range 0.25–1.78 that have been selected through the thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect from South Pole Telescope data and subjected to optical and near-infrared confirmation with the multicomponent matched filter algorithm. We employ weak gravitational lensing mass calibration from the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 data for 688 clusters at $z<0.95$and from the Hubble Space Telescope for 39 clusters with $0.6<z<1.7$. Our cluster sample is a powerful probe of $f\left(R\right)$gravity, because this model predicts a scale-dependent enhancement in the growth of structure, which impacts the halo mass function (HMF) at cluster mass scales. To account for these modified gravity effects on the HMF, our analysis employs a semianalytical approach calibrated with numerical simulations. Combining calibrated cluster counts with primary cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization anisotropy measurements from the Planck 2018 release, we derive robust constraints on the $f\left(R\right)$parameter $f_{R0}$. Our results, ${\log }_{10}\left|f_{R0}\right|<-5.32$at the 95% credible level, are the tightest current constraints on $f\left(R\right)$gravity from cosmological scales. This upper limit rules out $f\left(R\right)$-like deviations from general relativity that result in more than a $\sim 20\%$enhancement of the cluster population on mass scales $M_{200\mathrm{c}}>3\times {10}^{14}{M}_{\odot }$. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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4. Leptogenesis during an era of early SU(2) confinement

   https://doi.org/10.1103/nmpt-fwz6  

   Bhalla-Ladd, India; Ginnett, Izzy; Tait, Tim_M P (October 2025, Physical Review D)

   We explore leptogenesis during a cosmological epoch during which the electroweak $\mathrm{SU}(2{)}_L$force is confined. During weak confinement, there is only one conserved nonanomalous global charge, $r$, which is a linear combination of lepton-number, baryon-number, and hypercharge. The inclusion of heavy Majorana neutrinos leads to an $r$-charge and $CP$-violating interaction with a composite scalar, $\mathrm{\Phi }$, and composite fermions, $\mathrm{\Psi }$, allowing for the generation of an $r$-charge asymmetry, which translates into a baryon asymmetry post $\mathrm{SU}(2{)}_L$deconfinement. Determining the resulting baryon asymmetry as a function of the model parameters, we find that the predicted baryon-asymmetry can match observations for a wide swath of parameter space: a weak confinement scale ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_W\sim {10}^{11}–{10}^{14}\mathrm{GeV}$, the sum of the Standard Model Yukawa couplings $\sum Y_{i\alpha }{Y}_{i\alpha }^{*}\sim {10}^{-2}-{10}^0$, $m_{\mathrm{\Phi }}/m_{\mathrm{\Psi }}\sim 0-0.5$, and a $\mathrm{\Phi }-\mathrm{\Psi }-\mathrm{\Psi }$coupling $\left|g\right|\sim 1$with complex phase ${\theta }_g\sim \pi /4$. While leptogenesis under the assumption of a standard cosmology relies on the complex phase of the neutrino Yukawa couplings, the asymmetry generated in this novel background cosmology primarily depends on a strong phase from $\mathrm{SU}(2{)}_L$confinement, ${\theta }_g$, and favors negligible $CP$-violation in the right-handed neutrino decays. 

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5. A QCD $R$ -axion

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.015048  

   Unwin, James; Yildirim, Tom (January 2025, Physical Review D)

   $R$-parity can be extended to a continuous global $\mathrm{U}(1{)}_R$symmetry. We investigate whether an anomalous $\mathrm{U}(1{)}_R$can be identified as the Peccei-Quinn symmetry suitable for solving the strong $CP$problem within supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model. In this case, $\mathrm{U}(1{)}_R$is broken at some intermediate scale and the quantum chromodynamics axion is the $R$-axion. Moreover, the $R$-symmetry can potentially be gauged via the Green-Schwarz mechanism within completions to supergravity, in order to evade the axion quality problem. Obstacles to realizing this scenario are highlighted and phenomenologically viable approaches are identified. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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