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  1. Abstract Stellar streams from disrupted globular clusters are dynamically cold structures that are sensitive to perturbations from dark matter subhalos, allowing them in principle to trace the dark matter substructure in the Milky Way. We model, within the context of Λ cold dark matter, the likelihood of dark matter subhalos to produce a significant feature in a GD-1-like stream and analyze the properties of such subhalos. We generate many realizations of the subhalo population within a Milky Way mass host halo using the semianalytic codeSatGen, accounting for effects such as tidal stripping and dynamical friction. The subhalo distributions are combined with a GD-1-like stream model, and the impact of subhalos that pass close to the stream are modeled withGala. We find that subhalos with masses in the range 2 × 106M–108Mat the time of the stream–subhalo encounter, corresponding to masses of about 2 × 107M–109Mat the time of infall, are the likeliest to produce gaps in a GD-1-like stream. We find that gaps occur on average ∼3 times per realization of the host system. These gaps have typical widths of ∼(5–27)° and fractional underdensities of ∼(10–30)%, with larger gaps being caused by heavier subhalos. The stream–subhalo encounters responsible for these have impact parameters (0.1–1.5) kpc and relative velocities ∼(200–410) km s−1. We also investigate the effects of increasing the host-halo mass on the gap properties and formation rate. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available September 16, 2026
  2. Abstract Processes that violate baryon number, most notably proton decay and n n ¯ transitions, are promising probes of physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) needed to understand the lack of antimatter in the Universe. To interpret current and forthcoming experimental limits, theory input from nuclear matrix elements to UV complete models enters. Thus, an interplay of experiment, effective field theory, lattice QCD, and BSM model building is required to develop strategies to accurately extract information from current and future data and maximize the impact and sensitivity of next-generation experiments. Here, we briefly summarize the main results and discussions from the workshop ‘INT-25-91W: Baryon Number Violation: From Nuclear Matrix Elements to BSM Physics,’ held at the Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 13–17 January 2025. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available August 7, 2026
  3. A<sc>bstract</sc> We investigate the space of consistent tree-level extensions of the maximal supergravities in ten dimensions. We parametrize theory space by the first few EFT coefficients and by the on-shell coupling of the lightest massive state, and impose on these data the constraints that follow from 2 → 2 supergraviton scattering. While Type II string theory lives strictly inside the allowed region, we uncover a novel extremal solution of the bootstrap problem, which appears to contain asinglelinear Regge trajectory, with the same slope as string theory. We repeat a similar analysis for supergluon scattering, where we find instead a continuous family of extremal solutions with a single Regge trajectory of varying slope. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available February 1, 2026
  4. Abstract We present the first suite of cosmological hydrodynamical zoom-in simulations of isolated dwarf galaxies for a dark sector that consists of cold dark matter and a strongly dissipative subcomponent. The simulations are implemented in GIZMO and include standard baryons following the FIRE-2 galaxy formation physics model. The dissipative dark matter is modeled as atomic dark matter (aDM), which forms a dark hydrogen gas that cools in direct analogy to the Standard Model. Our suite includes seven different simulations of ∼1010Msystems that vary over the aDM microphysics and the dwarf’s evolutionary history. We identify a region of aDM parameter space where the cooling rate is aggressive and the resulting halo density profile is universal. In this regime, the aDM gas cools rapidly at high redshifts, and only a small fraction survives in the form of a central dark gas disk; the majority collapses centrally into collisionless dark “clumps,” which are clusters of subresolution dark compact objects. These dark clumps rapidly equilibrate in the inner galaxy, resulting in an approximately isothermal distribution that can be modeled with a simple fitting function. Even when only a small fraction (∼5%) of the total dark matter is strongly dissipative, the central densities of classical dwarf galaxies can be enhanced by over an order of magnitude, providing a sharp prediction for observations. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available March 27, 2026
  5. A<sc>bstract</sc> In this paper, we construct the associated vertex operator algebras for all$$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 superconformal field theories of rank one. We give a uniform presentation through free-field realizations, which turns out to be a particularly suitable framework for this task. The elementary building blocks of the construction are dictated by the low energy degrees of freedom on the Higgs branch, which are well understood for rank-one theories. We further analyze the interplay between Higgs and Coulomb data on the moduli space of vacua, which tightly constrain the overall structure of the free field realizations. Our results suggest a plausible bottom-up classification scheme for low-rank SCFTs incorporating vertex algebra techniques. 
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  6. A<sc>bstract</sc> Conformal field theories that exhibit spontaneous breaking of conformal symmetry (a moduli space of vacua) must satisfy a set of bootstrap constraints, involving the usual data (scaling dimensions and OPE coefficients) as well as new data such as the spectrum of asymptotic states in the broken vacuum and form factors. The simplest bootstrap equation arises by expanding a two-point function of local operators in two channels, at short distance using the OPE and at large distance using the EFT in the broken vacuum. We illustrate this equation in what is arguably the simplest perturbative model that exhibits conformal symmetry breaking, namely the real ABC model ind= 4 −ϵdimensions. We investigate the convergence properties of the bootstrap equation and check explicitly many of the non-trivial relations that it imposes on theory data. 
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  7. A<sc>bstract</sc> In the standard$$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = (4, 4) AdS3/CFT2with symN(T4), as well as the$$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = (2, 2) Datta-Eberhardt-Gaberdiel variant with symN(T4/ℤ2), supersymmetric index techniques have not been applied so far to the CFT states with target-space momentum or winding. We clarify that the difficulty lies in a central extension of the SUSY algebra in the momentum and winding sectors, analogous to the central extension on the Coulomb branch of 4d$$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 gauge theories. We define modified helicity-trace indices tailored to the momentum and winding sectors, and use them for microstate counting of the corresponding bulk black holes. In the$$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = (4, 4) case we reproduce the microstate matching of Larsen and Martinec. In the$$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = (2, 2) case we resolve a previous mismatch with the Bekenstein-Hawking formula encountered in the topologically trivial sector by going to certain winding sectors. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available March 1, 2026
  8. Abstract The Muon Collider is one of the most promising future collider facilities with the potential to reach multi-TeV center-of-mass energy and high luminosity. Due to the significant Higgs boson production cross section in muon-antimuon collisions at such high energies, the collider offers an excellent opportunity for in-depth exploration of Higgs boson properties. It holds the capability to significantly advance our understanding of the Higgs sector to a very high level of precision. However, the presence of beam-induced background resulting from the decay of the beam muons poses unique challenges for detector development and event reconstruction. In this paper, the prospects for measuring various Higgs boson properties at a center-of-mass energy of 3 TeV are presented, using a detailed detector simulation in a realistic environment. The study demonstrates the feasibility of achieving high precision results with the current state-of-the-art detector design. In addition, the paper discusses the detector requirements necessary to achieve this level of accuracy. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available March 1, 2026
  9. A<sc>bstract</sc> The coupling of the Higgs boson to first and second generation fermions has yet to be measured experimentally. There still could be very large deviations in these couplings, as the origin of flavor is completely unknown. Nevertheless, if Yukawa couplings are modified, especially for light generations, there are generically strong constraints from flavor-changing neutral currents (FCNCs). Therefore, it is imperative to understand whether there exists viable UV physics consistent with current data that motivates future Higgs coupling probes. In particular, the charm-quark Yukawa is the next quark coupling that could be measured at the LHCifit is a few times larger than the SM and compatible with flavor data. This is difficult to achieve in the context of standard ansatz such as Minimal Flavor Violation. In this paper we show that within the framework of Spontaneous Flavor Violation (SFV), using a Two Higgs Doublet Model as an example, the Higgs can be sufficiently charming that new LHC probes are relevant. In this charming region, we show that new Higgs states near the EW scale with large couplings to quarks are required, providing complementary observables or new constraints on the SM Yukawa couplings. The down-type SFV mechanism enabling the suppression of FCNCs also allows for independent modifications to the up-quark Yukawa coupling, which we explore in detail as well. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available February 1, 2026
  10. A<sc>bstract</sc> Motivated by the long-term goal of finding holographic descriptions for$$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 1 and$$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 super QCD, we revisit the subject of “noncritical” superstring theory. Focusing on string models with 6d super Poincaré invariance, we provide a careful worldsheet derivation of the leading-order effective theories for the lowest modes. We identify them asseven-dimensional,maximally supersymmetricgauged supergravities: the SO(4) theory for noncritical IIA and the ISO(4) theory for noncritical IIB. The same theories also arise as consistent truncations onS3of the 10d IIB and IIA supergravities, respectively, where the chirality flip is as expected from T-duality. These effective supergravities should be interpreted in the following sense. The noncritical string can be viewed as a special case of a discrete series of backgrounds labelled by an integerk(which counts the number of NS5 branes in a certain duality frame); the “noncritical” value isk= 2, while fork→ ∞ one recovers a weakly-curved 10d target space. The effective supergravities described here give an accurate description of the interactions among the lowest modes fork→ ∞, with higher derivative corrections suppressed by powers of 1/k. We discuss BPS solutions of the 7d gauged supergravities and their uplift to 10d solutions. In particular, we find a novel class of solutions with RR flux, parametrized by a function of three variables that solves an elegant PDE. While we cannot solve the PDE in closed form except in trivial cases, we confirm that our solutions correspond to a 10d IIA Hanany-Witten setup with continuous distributions of both “color” D4 branes and “flavor” D6 branes. 
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