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Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions to gravitational wave (GW) signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology, and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by (1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, (2) calculating the degree of overlap among the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, (3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms among pairs of signals, and (4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by (1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and (2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the nondetection of GW lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects.

We report the observation of a coalescing compact binary with component masses 2.5–4.5M_⊙and 1.2–2.0M_⊙(all measurements quoted at the 90% credible level). The gravitational-wave signal GW230529_181500 was observed during the fourth observing run of the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA detector network on 2023 May 29 by the LIGO Livingston observatory. The primary component of the source has a mass less than 5M_⊙at 99% credibility. We cannot definitively determine from gravitational-wave data alone whether either component of the source is a neutron star or a black hole. However, given existing estimates of the maximum neutron star mass, we find the most probable interpretation of the source to be the coalescence of a neutron star with a black hole that has a mass between the most massive neutron stars and the least massive black holes observed in the Galaxy. We provisionally estimate a merger rate density of${55}_{-47}^{+127}{\mathrm{Gpc}}^{-3}{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$for compact binary coalescences with properties similar to the source of GW230529_181500; assuming that the source is a neutron star–black hole merger, GW230529_181500-like sources may make up the majority of neutron star–black hole coalescences. The discovery of this system implies an increase in the expected rate of neutron star–black hole mergers with electromagnetic counterparts and provides further evidence for compact objects existing within the purported lower mass gap.

A study of the anomalous couplings of the Higgs boson to vector bosons, including$${\textit{CP}}$$$\mathrm{CP}$-violation effects, has been conducted using its production and decay in the WW channel. This analysis is performed on proton–proton collision data collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC during 2016–2018 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138$$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$${\text{fb}}^{-1}$. The different-flavor dilepton$$({\textrm{e}} {{\upmu }})$$$\left(\text{e}\mu \right)$final state is analyzed, with dedicated categories targeting gluon fusion, electroweak vector boson fusion, and associated production with a W or Z boson. Kinematic information from associated jets is combined using matrix element techniques to increase the sensitivity to anomalous effects at the production vertex. A simultaneous measurement of four Higgs boson couplings to electroweak vector bosons is performed in the framework of a standard model effective field theory. All measurements are consistent with the expectations for the standard model Higgs boson and constraints are set on the fractional contribution of the anomalous couplings to the Higgs boson production cross section.

A measurement is presented of a ratio observable that provides a measure of the azimuthal correlations among jets with large transverse momentum$$p_{\textrm{T}}$$$p_{\text{T}}$. This observable is measured in multijet events over the range of$$p_{\textrm{T}} = 360$$$p_{\text{T}}=360$–$$3170\,\text {Ge}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V} $$$3170\text{Ge}\text{V}$based on data collected by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13$$\,\text {Te}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V}$$$\text{Te}\text{V}$, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 134$$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$${\text{fb}}^{-1}$. The results are compared with predictions from Monte Carlo parton-shower event generator simulations, as well as with fixed-order perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) predictions at next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy obtained with different parton distribution functions (PDFs) and corrected for nonperturbative and electroweak effects. Data and theory agree within uncertainties. From the comparison of the measured observable with the pQCD prediction obtained with the NNPDF3.1 NLO PDFs, the strong coupling at the Z boson mass scale is$$\alpha _\textrm{S} (m_{{\textrm{Z}}}) =0.1177 \pm 0.0013\, \text {(exp)} _{-0.0073}^{+0.0116} \,\text {(theo)} = 0.1177_{-0.0074}^{+0.0117}$$${\alpha }_{\text{S}}\left(m_{\text{Z}}\right)=0.1177\pm 0.0013{\text{(exp)}}_{-0.0073}^{+0.0116}\text{(theo)}=0.{1177}_{-0.0074}^{+0.0117}$, where the total uncertainty is dominated by the scale dependence of the fixed-order predictions. A test of the running of$$\alpha _\textrm{S}$$${\alpha }_{\text{S}}$in the$$\,\text {Te}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V}$$$\text{Te}\text{V}$region shows no deviation from the expected NLO pQCD behaviour.

Energy correlators that describe energy-weighted distances between two or three particles in a hadronic jet are measured using an event sample of$\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of$36.3{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The measured distributions are consistent with the trends in the simulation that reveal two key features of the strong interaction: confinement and asymptotic freedom. By comparing the ratio of the measured three- and two-particle energy correlator distributions with theoretical calculations that resum collinear emissions at approximate next-to-next-to-leading-logarithmic accuracy matched to a next-to-leading-order calculation, the strong coupling is determined at the$Z$boson mass:${\alpha }_S(m_Z)=0.1229_{-0.0050}^{+0.0040}$, the most precise${\alpha }_S(m_Z)$value obtained using jet substructure observables.