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Considering inflationary magnetogenesis induced by time-dependent kinetic and axial couplings of a massless Abelian vector boson field breaking the conformal invariance we show in this Letter that, surprisingly, the spectral shape of the primordial magnetic field power spectrum is insensitive to the post-inflationary history, namely the barotropic parameter ($w$) and the gauge coupling functions of the post-inflationary era., Comment: 5 pages, plus references

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), typically due to intracranial aneurysms, demands precise imaging for effective treatment. Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA), despite being the gold standard, broadly visualizes cerebral blood flow, potentially masking key details in areas. This study introduces an approach integrating a 3D vascular atlas with 2D DSA images to allow targeted quantitative analysis in these crucial regions, thus enhancing diagnostic accuracy during interventions. Initially, DSA data was examined to ascertain the injection site. Following this, the appropriate viewing angle was determined to align accurately with the 3D vascular atlas. Utilizing this atlas, regions corresponding to the areas indicated as perfused were selected. Concurrently, a mask representing the perfused areas was created from the DSA sequence. This mask facilitated the initial coarse alignment of the projected 3D atlas to the DSA perfused territory deformable registration techniques, ensuring a precise overlay with the DSAs perfused territories. The performance of each overlay was measured using the Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM). The coregistration process revealed that deformable registrations was essential to achieve precise overlays of the 3D atlas projections with the 2D DSA perfused areas. This approach enabled the extraction of targeted quantitative angiography parameters, essential for detailed vascular assessment in subarachnoid hemorrhage cases. The integration of 3D atlas registration with 2D DSA projections facilitates a more precise and targeted diagnostic process for SAH during critical interventions. This image processing strategy enhances the visualization of affected arterial territories, potentially improving the accuracy of diagnostics and supporting better informed clinical decisions at the time of intervention, Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to be published in SPIE Medical Imaging 2025 conference proceeds

We review lattice results related to pion, kaon, $D$-meson, $B$-meson, and nucleon physics with the aim of making them easily accessible to the nuclear and particle physics communities. More specifically, we report on the determination of the light-quark masses, the form factor $f_+(0)$ arising in the semileptonic $K \to \pi$ transition at zero momentum transfer, as well as the decay-constant ratio $f_K/f_\pi$ and its consequences for the CKM matrix elements $V_{us}$ and $V_{ud}$. We review the determination of the $B_K$ parameter of neutral kaon mixing as well as the additional four $B$ parameters that arise in theories of physics beyond the Standard Model. For the heavy-quark sector, we provide results for $m_c$ and $m_b$ as well as those for the decay constants, form factors, and mixing parameters of charmed and bottom mesons and baryons. These are the heavy-quark quantities most relevant for the determination of CKM matrix elements and the global CKM unitarity-triangle fit. We review the status of lattice determinations of the strong coupling constant $\alpha_s$. We review the determinations of nucleon charges from the matrix elements of both isovector and flavour-diagonal axial, scalar and tensor local quark bilinears, and momentum fraction, helicity moment and the transversity moment from one-link quark bilinears. We also review determinations of scale-setting quantities. Finally, in this review we have added a new section on the general definition of the low-energy limit of the Standard Model., Comment: 435 pages, 53 Figures, 190 tables. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2111.09849, arXiv:1902.08191, some corrections and updated references

In this paper we do three things. First, we outline the conditions under which the interaction rate of inelastic processes that change the internal state of a system of $N$ targets scales as $N^2$. This is an effect distinct from coherent elastic scattering, but with the same scaling. Second, we compute rates for such processes for various weakly interacting particles. Finally, we point to potential quantum observables for these processes, beyond energy exchange. Maximal coherence in inelastic processes is achieved when the targets are placed in an equal superposition of the ground and excited states. These coherent inelastic processes are analogous to Dicke superradiance, and we thus refer to them as superradiant interactions. We compute the superradiant interaction rates for the Cosmic Neutrino Background (C$\nu$B), dark matter scattering and absorption, and late-universe particles, such as reactor neutrinos, when the two-level system is realized by nuclear or electron spins in a magnetic field. The rates can be sizeable on macroscopic yet small targets. For example, the C$\nu$B interacts with a rate of $\mathcal{O}(\text{Hz})$ when scattering off a 10~cm liquid or solid-state density spin-polarized sphere, a $\mathcal{O}(10^{21})$ enhancement compared to the incoherent contribution. For QCD axion dark matter, similar rates can be achieved with much smaller samples, $N \sim \mathcal{O}(10^{15})\left(\frac{m}{2\times 10^{-8}~\text{eV}}\right)^{-1/2}$, where $m$ is the axion mass. Using the Lindblad formalism, we show that these superradiant interactions can manifest as a source of noise on the system. This points to new observables, sensitive to the sum of the excitation and de-excitation rates, and can be viewed as introducing diffusion and decoherence to the system. The effects presented in this paper may point to a new class of ultra-low threshold detectors., Comment: 2 figures added and typos fixed; 19+4 pages, 2 appendices, 10 figures and 5 tables

Reprocessed X-ray radiation from active galactic nuclei (AGN) carries important information about the properties of the circumnuclear material around the black hole. The X-ray photons travel from the very center of the system and interact with that material often producing strong emission lines. The FeK$\alpha$ Compton shoulder is formed by fluorescent FeK$\alpha$ photons that perform Compton scatterings with the intercepting material and lose energy to form the distinct shoulder shape. In this work we use the ray-tracing code RefleX to explore how the physical properties of the medium, as well as its geometry, affect the shape of the Compton shoulder (CS). We start by running simulations using a simple toroidal reflector, to test the effect of the metal composition, metallicity, column density, dust presence and velocity on the FeK$\alpha$ line and its Compton shoulder. We confirm that the shape of the Compton shoulder is sensitive to the optical depth of the intercepting medium, which can be regulated by either changing the metal composition or the line of sight column density of the circumnuclear material. Next, we create a series of models, which feature different geometrical configurations of dust and gas, and explore how the Compton shoulder is affected by such configurations finding that components that can regulate the line-of-sight column density affect the FeK$\alpha$ and its CS. Finally, we test whether observatories such as the recently launched XRISM and future Athena will make the Compton shoulder a useful spectral feature of nearby AGN, by applying specific models on simulated spectra of the Circinus galaxy. The CS has the potential to be used to help constrain properties of the circumnuclear material yet with some limitations., Comment: 22 pages, 19 figures, accepted by MNRAS

Using the multi-point Pad\'e approach, we locate Lee-Yang edge singularities of the QCD pressure in the complex baryon chemical potential plane. These singularities are extracted from singularities in the net baryon-number density calculated in $N_f=2+1$ lattice QCD at physical quark mass and purely imaginary chemical potential. Taking an appropriate scaling ansatz in the vicinity of the conjectured QCD critical endpoint, we extrapolate the singularities on $N_\tau=6$ lattices to pure real baryon chemical potential to estimate the position of the critical endpoint (CEP). We find $T^{\rm CEP}=105^{+8}_{-18}$~ MeV and $\mu_B^{\rm CEP} = 422^{+80}_{-35}$~ MeV, which compares well with recent estimates in the literature. For the slope of the transition line at the critical point we find $-0.16(24)$., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figues

We investigate two classes of inflationary models, which lead to a stiff period after inflation that boosts the signal of primordial gravitational waves (GWs). In both families of models studied, we consider an oscillating scalar condensate, which when far away from the minimum it is overdamped by a warped kinetic term, a la $\alpha$-attractors. This leads to successful inflation. The oscillating condensate is in danger of becoming fragmented by resonant effects when non-linearities take over. Consequently, the stiff phase cannot be prolonged enough to enhance primordial GWs at frequencies observable in the near future for low orders of the envisaged scalar potential. However, this is not the case for a higher-order scalar potential. Indeed, we show that this case results in a boosted GW spectrum that overlaps with future observations without generating too much GW radiation to de-stabilise Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. For example, taking $\alpha={\cal O}(1)$, we find that the GW signal can be safely enhanced up to $\Omega_{\rm GW}(f)\sim 10^{-11}$ at frequency $f\sim 10^2\,$Hz, which will be observable by the Einstein Telescope (ET). Our mechanism ends up with a characteristic GW spectrum, which if observed, can lead to the determination of the inflation energy scale, the reheating temperature and the shape (steepness) of the scalar potential around the minimum., Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures; journal version

We briefly discuss cosmic inflation, which is the dominant paradigm for the generation of the large scale structure in the Universe and also for arranging for the initial conditions of the hot Big Bang. We then present quintessential inflation, which also accounts of the observed dark energy. We discuss how quintessential inflation can be successfully modelled in modified gravity in the Palatini formalism. Finally, we focus on the generation of primordial gravitational waves by inflation and how their spectrum can be enhanced when the early Universe goes through periods of stiff equation of state. This results in gravitational waves with a characteristic spectrum, which may well be observed in the near future, providing insights for the background theory., Comment: 10 pages, contribution to the 21st Lomonosov conference, August 24-30, 2023

The Bielefeld Parma Collaboration has in recent years put forward a method to probe finite density QCD by the detection of Lee-Yang singularities. The location of the latter is obtained by multi-point Pad\`e approximants, which are in turn calculated matching Taylor series results obtained from Monte Carlo computations at (a variety of values of) imaginary baryonic chemical potential. The method has been successfully applied to probe the Roberge Weiss phase transition and preliminary, interesting results are showing up in the vicinity of a possible QCD critical endpoint candidate. In this talk we will be concerned with a couple of significant aspects in view of a more powerful application of the method. First, we will discuss the possibility of detecting finite size scaling of Lee-Yang/Fisher singularities in finite density (lattice) QCD. Second, we will briefly mention our attempts at detecting both singularities in the complex chemical potential plane and singularities in the complex temperature plane. The former are obtained from rational approximations which are functions of the chemical potential at given values of the temperature; the latter are obtained from rational approximations which are functions of the temperature at given values of the chemical potential., Comment: 8 pages, Proceedings of the 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2023), July 31st - August 4th, 2023, Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, USA. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2301.03528

Using $N_f=2+1$ QCD calculations at physical quark mass and purely imaginary baryon chemical potential, we locate Lee-Yang edge singularities in the complex chemical potential plane. These singularities have been obtained by the multi-point Pad\'e approach applied to the net baryon number density. We recently showed that singularities extracted with this approach are consistent with universal scaling near the Roberge-Weiss transition. Here we study the universal scaling of these singularities in the vicinity of the QCD critical endpoint. Making use of an appropriate scaling ansatz, we extrapolate these singularities on $N_\tau=6$ and $N_\tau=8$ lattices towards the real axis to estimate the position of a possible QCD critical point. We find an approach toward the real axis with decreasing temperature. We compare this estimate with a HotQCD estimate obtained from poles of a [4,4]-Pad\'e resummation of the eighth-order Taylor expansion of the QCD pressure., Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, presented at the 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory

We discuss the scaling of the Yang-Lee singularity (YLs) and show how the universal scaling can be used to locate phase transitions in QCD. We describe two complementary methods to extract the location of the Yang-Lee singularity from lattice QCD data of the baryon-number density and higher order cumulants of the baryon number, obtained at imaginary chemical potential. The first method (multi-point Pad\'e resummation) is used to determine the Roberge-Weiss phase transition temperature. Our continuum extrapolated result is $T_{RW}=211.1\pm3.1$ MeV. The second method is based on the asymptotic behaviour of the Fourier coefficients of the baryon-number density. We discuss the derivation of a fitting function and demonstrate that the procedure can successfully locate the YLs in the Quark Meson model., Comment: 7 pages, 4figures, Proceedings of the 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2023), July 31st - August 4th, 2023, Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, USA

Using simulations at multiple imaginary chemical potentials for $(2+1)$-flavor QCD, we construct multi-point Pad\'e approximants. We determine the singularties of the Pad\'e approximants and demonstrate that they are consistent with the expected universal scaling behaviour of the Lee-Yang edge singularities. We also use a machine learning model, Masked Autoregressive Density Estimator (MADE), to estimate the density of the Lee-Yang edge singularities at each temperature. This ML model allows us to interpolate between the temperatures. Finally, we extrapolate to the QCD critical point using an appropriate scaling ansatz., Comment: 4 pages, prepared for Quark Matter 2023

Quintessence models have been widely examined in the context of scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, a subclass of Horndeski's theory, and were proposed as viable candidates for Dark Energy. However, the relatively recent observational constraints on the speed of gravitational waves $c_{\textrm{GW}}$ have resulted in many of those models being ruled out because they predict $c_{\textrm{GW}} \neq c$ generally. While these were formulated in the metric formalism of gravity, we put forward a new quintessence model with the scalar-Gauss-Bonnet action but in Weyl geometry, where the connection is not metric compatible. We find the fixed points of the dynamical system under some assumptions and determine their stability via linear analysis. The past evolution of the Universe can be reproduced correctly, but the late Universe constraints on $c_{\textrm{GW}}$ are grossly violated. Moreover, at these later stages tensor modes suffer from the gradient instabilities. We also consider the implications of imposing an additional constraint $c_{\textrm{GW}} = c$, but this does not lead to evolution that is consistent with cosmological observations, Comment: 37 pages, 2 figures, published version

With the current progress of quantum computing, quantum annealing is being introduced as a powerful method to solve hard computational problems. In this paper, we study the potential capability of quantum annealing in solving the phase unwrapping problem, an instance of hard computational problems. To solve the phase unwrapping problem using quantum annealing, we deploy the D-Wave Advantage machine which is currently the largest available quantum annealer. The structure of this machine, however, is not compatible with our problem graph structure. Consequently, the problem graph needs to be mapped onto the target (Pegasus) graph, and this embedding significantly affects the quality of the results. Based on our experiment and also D-Wave's reports, the lower chain lengths can result in a better performance of quantum annealing. In this paper, we propose a new embedding algorithm that has the lowest possible chain length for embedding the graph of the phase unwrapping problem onto the Pegasus graph. The obtained results using this embedding strongly outperform the results of Auto-embedding provided by D-Wave. Besides the phase unwrapping problem, this embedding can be used to embed any subset of our problem graph to the Pegasus graph.

I will review briefly how inflation is expected to generate a stochastic background of primordial gravitational waves (GWs). Then, I will discuss how such GWs can be enhanced by a stiff period following inflation, enough to be observable. I will present examples of this in the context of hybrid inflation with $\alpha$-attractors, or a period of hyperkination in Palatini gravity., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, contribution to proceedings of HEP2023, Ioannina, April 2023

Gauss-Bonnet Dark Energy has been a popular model to explain the accelerated expansion of the Universe. Quite generically it also predicts the speed of gravitational waves $c_{GW}$ to be different from the speed of light. This fact alone led some authors to exclude such models in view of the new tight observational constraints on $c_{GW}$. However, the behaviour of $c_{GW}$ depends on the choice of the Gauss-Bonnet (GB) coupling function. It is possible to construct models where $c_{GW}$ is always equal to the speed of light. More generally, $c_{GW}$ is a time dependent function with instances where both speeds coincide. Nevertheless, we observe that the bound on $c_{GW}$ excludes scenarios where the GB term directly affects the expansion of the Universe, even if the constraint on the variation of the coupling function does not appear to be strong. We perform the dynamical systems analysis to see if the expansion of the Universe could be affected indirectly by modulating the behaviour of the scalar field, which modulates the GB coupling. It is shown that either the bounds on $c_{GW}$ are violated by many orders of magnitude, or it might be very difficult to find models that are consistent with other cosmological observations., Comment: Some plots fixed and improved, new Appendix section added

Recent studies have proposed that the nuclear millimeter continuum emission observed in nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) could be created by the same population of electrons that gives rise to the X-ray emission that is ubiquitously observed in accreting black holes. We present the results of a dedicated high spatial resolution ($\sim$60-100 milliarcsecond) ALMA campaign on a volume-limited ($<50$ Mpc) sample of 26 hard X-ray ($>10$ keV) selected radio-quiet AGN. We find an extremely high detection rate (25/26 or $94^{+3}_{-6}\%$), which shows that nuclear emission at mm-wavelengths is nearly ubiquitous in accreting SMBHs. Our high-resolution observations show a tight correlation between the nuclear (1-23 pc) 100GHz and the intrinsic X-ray emission (1$\sigma$ scatter of $0.22$ dex). The ratio between the 100GHz continuum and the X-ray emission does not show any correlation with column density, black hole mass, Eddington ratio or star formation rate, which suggests that the 100GHz emission can be used as a proxy of SMBH accretion over a very broad range of these parameters. The strong correlation between 100GHz and X-ray emission in radio-quiet AGN could be used to estimate the column density based on the ratio between the observed 2-10keV ($F^{\rm obs}_{2-10\rm\,keV}$) and 100GHz ($F_{100\rm\,GHz}$) fluxes. Specifically, a ratio $\log (F^{\rm obs}_{2-10\rm\,keV}/F_{100\rm\,GHz})\leq 3.5$ strongly suggests that a source is heavily obscured [$\log (N_{\rm H}/\rm cm^{-2})\gtrsim 23.8$]. Our work shows the potential of ALMA continuum observations to detect heavily obscured AGN (up to an optical depth of one at 100GHz, i.e. $N_{\rm H}\simeq 10^{27}\rm\,cm^{-2}$), and to identify binary SMBHs with separations $<100$ pc, which cannot be probed by current X-ray facilities., Comment: ApJL in press

We consider cosmology with an inflaton scalar field with an additional quartic kinetic term. Such a theory can be motivated by Palatini $R+R^2$ modified gravity. Assuming a runaway inflaton potential, we take the Universe to become dominated by the kinetic energy density of the scalar field after inflation. Initially, the leading kinetic term is quartic and we call the corresponding period hyperkination. Subsequently, the usual quadratic kinetic term takes over and we have regular kination, until reheating. We study, both analytically and numerically, the spectrum of primordial gravitational waves generated during inflation and re-entering the horizon during the subsequent eras. We demonstrate that the spectrum is flat for modes re-entering during radiation domination and hyperkination and linear in frequency for modes re-entering during kination: kinetic domination boosts the spectrum, but hyperkination truncates its peak. As a result, the effects of the kinetic period can be extended to observable frequencies without generating excessive gravitational waves, which could otherwise destabilise the process of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We show that there is ample parameter space for the primordial gravitational waves to be observable in the near future. If observed, the amplitude and `knee' of the spectrum will provide valuable insights into the background theory., Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, published version, license updated

A compelling unified model of dark energy and early dark energy (EDE) is presented, using a scalar field with an exponential runaway potential, in the context of alpha-attractors. The field is originally trapped at an enhanced symmetry point, subsequently thaws to become successful EDE and eventually slow-rolls to become dark energy. EDE ameliorates the observed Hubble tension., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, contribution to proceedings of: Corfu Summer Institute 2022 "School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity", 28 August - 1 October, 2022, Corfu, Greece

We propose structures of size between $\sim 1$ meter to 100 meters that drastically alter the local distribution of the Cosmic Neutrino Background ($C\nu B$). These structures have a shape reminiscent of a sea urchin: They consist of rods of width $w$ and length $L \gg w$ periodically arranged on the surface of sphere of radius $R\sim L$. Such a structure functions as a diffraction phase grating and produces a region around its center where the fractional neutrino-antineutrino asymmetry is $\sim k\delta_\nu L$, where $k$ is the neutrino momentum, and $\delta_\nu$ the deviation of the neutrino index of refraction from unity. The asymmetry has a gradient set by the rod width. We find that the local neutrino asymmetry can be enhanced by $\mathcal{O}(\text{few}\times 10^6)$ relative to the naive Standard Model expectation, for reasonably sized structures. This results in a force $\mathcal{O}(10^3)$ times bigger than the one we recently pointed out due to the neutrinos' reflection on the surface of the Earth. While in this paper we do not propose a concrete detection setup, we estimate that the $\mathcal{O}(G_F)$ force on a test mass can be close to the Standard Quantum Limit of a torsion balance or a low frequency harmonic oscillator. Finally, we show that this $C \nu B$ diffractor can be used as a Dark Matter diffractor. For example, the QCD axion Dark Matter with decay constant $f_a$ around $10^9$ GeV can be sufficiently diffracted to produce a gradient force that is up to $\mathcal{O}(10^2)$ times larger than the one from the $C \nu B$. This is the first setup of this kind and the simplicity of our design suggests that there could be significant improvements that escape us., Comment: withdrawn due to a computational error in section 4