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We propose a new mechanism of primordial black hole formation via an aborted phase transition during the early matter-dominated stage of reheating after inflation. In reheating, induced by the decay of a pressureless fluid dominating the Universe at the end of inflation, dubbed as reheaton, the temperature of the radiation bath typically increases, reaching a maximum temperature $T_{\rm max}$, and then decreases. We consider a first-order phase transition induced by the increase of the temperature that is aborted as $T_{\rm max}$ is higher than the critical temperature but not sufficiently high for the bubble nucleation rate to overcome the expansion of the Universe. Although bubbles never fully occupy the space, some may be nucleated and expand until the temperature once again decreases to the critical temperature. We argue that these bubbles shrink and disappear as the temperature drops further, leaving behind macroscopic spherical regions with positive density perturbations. These perturbed regions accrete the surrounding matter (reheatons) and eventually collapse into primordial black holes whose mass continues to grow until the onset of radiation domination. We estimate the abundance of these primordial black holes in terms of the bubble nucleation rate at $T_{\rm max}$, and demonstrate that the abundance can be significantly large from a phenomenological perspective., Comment: 7 pages + Supplementary Material, 4 figures

Context. A large fraction of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars develop carbon-rich atmospheres during their evolution. Based on their color and luminosity, these carbon stars can be easily distinguished from many other kinds of stars. However, a large number of G, K, and M giants are also distributed in the same region as carbon stars on the HR diagram. Their spectra have differences,especially in the prominent CN molecular bands. Aims. We aim to distinguish carbon stars from other kinds of stars using Gaia's XP spectra, while providing attribution explanations of key features necessary for identification, and even discovering additional new spectral key features. Methods. We proposed a classification model named `GaiaNet', an improved one-dimensional convolutional neural network specifically designed for handling Gaia's XP spectra. We utilized the SHAP interpretability model to calculate the SHAP value for each feature point in a spectrum, enabling us to explain the output of the `GaiaNet' model and provide further meaningful analysis Results. Compared to four traditional machine-learning methods, the `GaiaNet' model exhibits an average classification accuracy improvement of approximately 0.3% on the validation set, with the highest accuracy even reaching 100%. Utilizing the SHAP algorithm, we present a clear spectroscopic heatmap highlighting molecular band absorption features primarily distributed mainly around CN773.3 and CN895.0, and summarize five crucial feature regions for carbon star identification. Upon applying the trained classification model to the CSTAR sample with Gaia `xp_sampled_mean' spectra, we obtained 451 new candidate carbon stars as a by-product., Comment: 23 pages, 22 figures

Heavy vector boson dark matter at the TeV scale or higher may be produced non-thermally in a first-order phase transition taking place at a lower energy scale. While the production of vector dark matter has previously been studied for bubble wall collisions, here we calculate production by bubble wall expansion in a plasma, which can be the dominant production mechanism. We compute the results numerically and provide an analytical fit for the vector dark matter density. The numerical fit is also validated for scalar dark matter production, obtaining results in agreement with past literature. We find that vector pair production leads to bubble wall friction with a novel boost factor scaling behaviour compared to transition radiation emission of a single vector. We conclude that TeV-scale WIMP vector dark matter can be efficiently produced non-thermally by first-order phase transitions in a wide region of parameter space where thermal freeze-out is inefficient. In this scenario, the phase transition scale is predicted to be in the sub-GeV to $\mathcal{O}(10)$ TeV range and could therefore be accessible to future gravitational wave detectors., Comment: 39 pages, 13 figures

We study bounce solutions and associated negative modes in the class of piecewise linear triangular-shaped potentials that may be viewed as approximations of smooth potentials. In these simple potentials, the bounce solution and action can be obtained analytically for a general spacetime dimension $D$. The eigenequations for the fluctuations around the bounce are universal and have the form of a Schr\"odinger-like equation with delta-function potentials. This Schr\"odinger equation is solved exactly for the negative modes whose number is confirmed to be one. The latter result may justify the usefulness of such piecewise linear potentials in the study of false vacuum decay.

Freeze-in via the axion-photon coupling, $g_{\phi\gamma}$, can produce axions in the early Universe. At low reheating temperatures close to the minimum allowed value $T_{\rm reh}\approx T_{\rm BBN}\approx 10\,{\rm MeV}$, the abundance peaks for axion masses $m_\phi\approx T_{\rm reh}$. Such heavy axions are unstable and subsequently decay, leading to strong constraints on $g_{\phi\gamma}$ from astrophysics and cosmology. In this work, we revisit the computation of the freeze-in abundance and clarify important issues. We begin with a complete computation of the collision terms for the Primakoff process, electron-positron annihilation, and photon-to-axion (inverse-)decay, while approximately taking into account plasma screening and threshold effects. We then solve the Boltzmann equation for the full axion distribution function. We confirm previous results about the importance of both processes to the effective "relic abundance" (defined as density prior to decay), and provide useful fitting formulae to estimate the freeze-in abundance from the equilibrium interaction rate. For the distribution function, we find an out-of-equilibrium population of axions and introduce an effective temperature for them. We follow the evolution right up until decay, and find that the average axion kinetic energy is larger than a thermal relic by between 20\% and 80\%, which may have implications for limits on decaying axions from X-ray spectra. We extend our study to a two-axion system with quartic cross-coupling, and find that for typical/expected couplings, freeze-in of a second axion flavour by annihilations leads to a negligibly small contribution to the relic density., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 3 appendices

We introduce a change of perspective on tensor network states that is defined by the computational graph of the contraction of an amplitude. The resulting class of states, which we refer to as tensor network functions, inherit the conceptual advantages of tensor network states while removing computational restrictions arising from the need to converge approximate contractions. We use tensor network functions to compute strict variational estimates of the energy on loopy graphs, analyze their expressive power for ground-states, show that we can capture aspects of volume law time evolution, and provide a mapping of general feed-forward neural nets onto efficient tensor network functions. Our work expands the realm of computable tensor networks to ones where accurate contraction methods are not available, and opens up new avenues to use tensor networks., Comment: 4+9 pages, 13 figures

We discuss matters related to the point that topological quantization in the strong interaction is a consequence of an infinite spacetime volume. Because of the ensuing order of limits, i.e. infinite volume prior to summing over topological sectors, CP is conserved. Here, we show that this reasoning is consistent with the construction of the path integral from steepest-descent contours. We reply to some objections that aim to support the case for CP violation in the strong interactions that are based on the role of the CP-odd theta-parameter in three-form effective theories, the correct sampling of all configurations in the dilute instanton gas approximation and the volume dependence of the partition function. We also show that the chiral effective field theory derived from taking the volume to infinity first is in no contradiction with analyses based on partially conserved axial currents., Comment: 49 pages

We investigate the suppression of star formation in galaxy pairs based on the isolated galaxy pair sample derived from the SDSS survey. By comparing the star formation rate between late-type galaxies in galaxy pairs and those in the isolated environment, we detect the signal of star formation suppression in galaxy pairs at $d_p < 100$kpc and $200$kpc$ < d_p < 350$kpc. The occurrence of star formation suppression in these late-type galaxies requires their companion galaxies to have an early-type morphology ($n_s > 2.5$). Star formation suppression in wide galaxy pairs with $200$kpc$ < d_p < 350$kpc mainly occurs in massive late-type galaxies, while in close galaxy pairs with $d_p < 100$kpc, it only appears in late-type galaxies with a massive companion ( $\log M_\star > 11.0$), nearly independent of their own stellar mass. Based on these findings, we infer that star formation suppression in wide galaxy pairs is actually a result of galaxy conformity, while in close galaxy pairs, it stems from the influence of hot circum-galactic medium surrounding companion galaxies., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

The role of the QCD theta-parameter is investigated in pure Yang-Mills theory in the spacetime given by the four-dimensional Euclidean torus. While in this setting the introduction of possibly unphysical boundary conditions is avoided, it must be specified how the sum over the topological sectors is to be carried out. To connect with observables in real time, we perceive the partition function as the trace over the canonical density matrix. The system then corresponds to one of a finite temperature on a spatial three-torus. Carrying out the trace operation requires canonical quantization and gauge fixing. Fixing the gauge and demanding that the Hermiticity of the Hamiltonian is maintained leads to a restriction of the Hilbert space of physical wave functionals that generalizes the constraints derived from imposing Gauss' law. Consequently, we find that the states in the Hilbert space are properly normalizable under an inner product that integrates over each physical configuration represented by the gauge potential one time and one time only. The observables derived from the constrained Hilbert space do not violate charge-parity symmetry. We note that an exact hidden symmetry of the theory that is present for arbitrary values of theta in the Hamiltonian is effectively promoted to parity conservation in this constrained space. These results, derived on a torus in order to avoid the introduction of boundary conditions, also carry over to Minkowski spacetime when taking account of all possible gauge transformations., Comment: 36 pages

Assuming a toroidal space with finite volume, we derive analytically the full one-loop vacuum energy for a scalar field tunnelling between two degenerate vacua, taking into account discrete momentum. The Casimir energy is computed for an arbitrary number of dimensions using the Abel-Plana formula, while the one-loop instanton functional determinant is evaluated using the Green's functions for the fluctuation operators. The resulting energetic properties are non-trivial: both the Casimir effect and tunnelling contribute to the Null Energy Condition violation, arising from a non-extensive true vacuum energy. We discuss the relevance of this mechanism to induce a cosmic bounce, requiring no modified gravity or exotic matter., Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures

The B\"{o}deker-Moore thermal friction is usually used to determine whether or not a bubble wall can run away. However, the friction on the wall is not necessarily a monotonous function of the wall velocity and could have a maximum before it reaches the B\"{o}deker-Moore limit. In this paper, we compare the maximal hydrodynamic obstruction, a frictional force that exists in local thermal equilibrium, and the B\"{o}deker-Moore thermal friction. We study the former in a fully analytical way, clarifying its physical origin and providing a simple expression for its corresponding critical phase transition strength above which the driving force cannot be balanced out by the maximal hydrodynamic obstruction. We find that for large parameter space, the maximal hydrodynamic obstruction is larger than the B\"{o}deker-Moore thermal friction, indicating that the conventional criterion for the runaway behavior of the bubble wall may have to be modified. We also explain how to apply efficiently the modified criterion to particle physics models and discuss possible limitations of the analysis carried out in this paper., Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures; v2: refs updated, discussions added in Secs. 5 and 7, matches the version to appear in JCAP

The prompt emission, X-ray plateau, and X-ray flares of Gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are thought to be from internal dissipation, and the magnetar as the central engine with propeller fallback accretion is proposed to interpret the observed phenomena of GRBs. In this paper, by systematically searching for X-ray emission observed by Swift/Xry Telescope, we find that seven robust GRBs include both X-ray flares and plateau emissions with measured redshift. More interestingly, the X-ray flares/bumps for those seven GRBs are simultaneously observed in the gamma-ray band. By adopting the propeller fallback accretion model to fit the observed data, it is found that the free parameters of two GRBs (140512A and 180329B) can be constrained very well, while in the other five cases, more or less, they are not all sufficiently constrained. On the other hand, this requires that the conversion efficiency of the propeller is to be two or three times higher than that of the spindown dipole radiation of the magnetar. If this is the case, it is contradictory to the expectation from the propeller model: namely, a dirtier ejecta should be less efficient in producing gamma-ray emissions. Our results hint that at least the magnetar central engine with propeller fallback accretion model cannot interpret very well both the GRB X-ray flares simultaneously observed in the gamma-ray band and the X-ray flares of GRBs with a high Lorentz factor., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, updated references, match with published version

We develop a method for accurately calculating vacuum decay rates beyond the thin-wall regime in a pure scalar field theory at the one-loop level of the effective action. It accounts for radiative effects resulting from quantum corrections to the classical bounce, including gradient effects stemming from the inhomogeneity of the bounce background. To achieve this, it is necessary to compute not only the functional determinant of the fluctuation operator in the background of the classical bounce but also its functional derivative evaluated at the classical bounce. The former is efficiently calculated using the Gel'fand-Yaglom method. We illustrate how the latter can also be calculated with the same method, combined with a computation of various Green's functions., Comment: 35 pages, 5 figures; v2: presentation improved, refs updated; v3: a typo in Eq. (27) corrected, matches the published version

Based on the method of solving the complete Salpeter equation, we study the semileptonic decays of a $0^-$ heavy meson to $1P$, $2P$, or $3P$ heavy tensor mesons, $B_q \to (\bar c q)(nP) \ell^+ \nu_\ell$ $(q=u,d,s,c;n=1,2,3)$. The obtained branching ratio of $\mathcal{B} (B \rightarrow D_2^{\star}(2460)\ell^{+} \nu_{\ell})$ agrees with the experimental data. We predict $\mathcal{B}\left(B_s^{0} \rightarrow D_{s2}^{\star-}(1P) \ell^{+} \nu_{\ell}\right)$$=$$3.76\times 10^{-3}$ and $\mathcal{B}\left(B_c^+ \rightarrow \chi_{c2}(1P)\ell^{+} \nu_{\ell}\right)$$=$$1.82\times 10^{-3}$. The branching ratios of decays to $2P$ and $3P$ final states are found to be very small. The ratios $\mathcal{R}(\bar{D}_{2}^{\star 0})=0.045$, $\mathcal{R}({D}_{s2}^{\star})=0.048$ and $\mathcal{R}({\chi}_{c2})=0.059$ are also obtained. This study focuses on the contribution of relativistic corrections. The wave function of the pseudoscalar includes non-relativistic $S$-wave and relativistic $P$-wave. While for a tensor, it contains non-relativistic $P$-wave and relativistic $P$, $D$ and $F$ waves in its wave function. We find the individual contributions of relativistic partial waves are significant in the decay $B \to D_2^{\star }(2460)\ell^{+} \nu_{\ell}$, but the overall contribution of the relativistic effect is $24.4\%$, which is small due to cancellation. Similarly, for the decay $B_s^{0} \rightarrow D_{s2}^{\star-}(1P) \ell^{+} \nu_{\ell}$, the contribution of the relativistic effect is $28.8\%$. While for $B_c^+ \rightarrow \chi_{c2}(1P)\ell^{+} \nu_{\ell}$, the individual contributions of relativistic partial waves and the overall relativistic correction are both small, the later of which is $22.1\%$., Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures, to be published in PRD

Scalar dark matter (DM), and axions in particular, have an irreducible abundance of particles produced by freeze-in due to portal interactions with the Standard Model plasma in the early Universe. In addition, vacuum misalignment and other mechanisms can lead to the presence of a cold, oscillating condensate. Therefore, generically, the evolution of the DM in both forms, condensate and particles, needs to be studied simultaneously. In non-equilibrium quantum field theory, the condensate and particles are described by one- and two-point functions, respectively. The fundamental coupled equations of motion (EoMs) of these objects are non-local. To simplify the EoMs and bring them into a familiar form for relic abundance calculations, we perform a Markovianization process for a quasi-harmonically oscillating homogeneous condensate, leading to local EoMs for the particle distribution function and the envelope function of condensate oscillation. This reduces the dynamics to a pair of coupled Boltzmann equations, and we derive explicitly the form of the collision operators for all particle and condensate interactions., Comment: 40 pages, 3 figures; v2: refs updated, minor changes, to match the published version; v3: (after publication) minor typos corrected

We use the finite projected entangled pair state (PEPS) method to investigate the global phase diagram of the spin-1/2 square-lattice $J_1$-$J_2$-$J_3$ antiferromagnetic (AFM) Heisenberg model. The ground state phase diagram is established with a rich variety of phases: AFM, gapless quantum spin liquid, valence-bond solid (VBS), stripe, and incommensurate spiral phases. The nature of the VBS region is revealed, containing a plaquette VBS and a mixed columnar-plaquette VBS, with the emergence of short-range incommensurate spin correlations in some region. The long-range incommensurate magnetic phase is also explicitly characterized as a planar spiral with incommensurate spatial periodicities. Most interestingly, there exists several multicritical points connecting different phases. These findings elucidate the true nature of the long-standing square-lattice $J_1$-$J_2$-$J_3$ antiferromagnet at zero-temperature. Our results also pave the way to accurately simulate complex two-dimensional quantum systems that may host nonuniform features by means of finite PEPS., Comment: 13 pages; 19 figures

Motivated by the novel phenomena observed in the layered material $\rm SrCu_2(BO_3)_2$, the Shastry-Sutherland model (SSM) has been extensively studied as the minimal model for $\rm SrCu_2(BO_3)_2$. However, the nature of its quantum phase transition from the plaquette valence-bond solid (PVBS) to antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase is under fierce debate, posing a challenge to understand the underlying quantum criticality. Via the state-of-the-art tensor network simulations, we study the ground state of the SSM on large-scale size up to $20 \times 20$ sites. We identify the continuous transition nature accompanied by an emergent O(4) symmetry between the PVBS and AFM phase, which strongly suggests a deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP). Furthermore, we map out the phase diagram of an extended SSM that can be continuously tuned to the SSM, which demonstrates the same DQCP phenomena along a whole critical line. Our results indicate a compelling scenario for understanding the origin of the proposed proximate DQCP in recent experiments of $\rm SrCu_2(BO_3)_2$., Comment: 5+6 pages; 4+5 figures; 3 tables

We calculate the friction experienced by ultrarelativistic bubble walls resulting from the $1 \rightarrow 2$ light-to-heavy transition process, with finite-wall-width effects fully taken into account. In this process, the light particle is excited from the order-parameter scalar field, while the two heavy particles are excitations of a dark matter scalar field. Unlike earlier estimates suggesting a friction scaling as $\gamma_w^0$, where $\gamma_w$ represents the Lorentz factor of the wall velocity, our more precise numerical analysis reveals a logarithmic dependence of the friction on $\gamma_w$. We offer a numerical fit to capture this frictional pressure accurately. Our analysis verifies that the friction stemming from the $1 \rightarrow 2$ light-to-heavy transition is typically much smaller than the friction from the $1 \rightarrow 1$ transmission of the dark matter particles., Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures; v2: discussion on the $L_w\rightarrow 0$ limit (Sec. 4.3) added, title changed, refs updated; v3: matches the published version

Dark matter, if represented by a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetric scalar field, can manifest as both particles and condensates. In this paper, we study the evolution of an oscillating homogeneous condensate of a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetric scalar field in a thermal plasma in an FLRW universe. We focus on the perturbative regime where the oscillation amplitude is sufficiently small so that parametric resonance is inefficient. This perturbative regime necessarily comprises the late stage of the condensate decay and determines its fate. The coupled coarse-grained equations of motion for the condensate, radiation, and spacetime are derived from first principles using nonequilibrium quantum field theory. We obtain analytical expressions for the relevant microscopic quantities that enter the equations of motion and solve the latter numerically. We find that there is always a nonvanishing relic abundance for a condensate with a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry that is not spontaneously broken. This is because its decay rate decreases faster than the Hubble parameter at late times due to either the amplitude dependence or the temperature dependence in the condensate decay rate. Consequently, accounting for the condensate contribution to the overall dark matter relic density is essential for $\mathbb{Z}_2$ scalar singlet dark matter., Comment: 56 pages, 17 figures; v2: refs updated, minor changes, matches the version published in JCAP

Beamforming techniques are popular in speech-related applications due to their effective spatial filtering capabilities. Nonetheless, conventional beamforming techniques generally depend heavily on either the target's direction-of-arrival (DOA), relative transfer function (RTF) or covariance matrix. This paper presents a new approach, the intelligibility-aware null-steering (IANS) beamforming framework, which uses the STOI-Net intelligibility prediction model to improve speech intelligibility without prior knowledge of the speech signal parameters mentioned earlier. The IANS framework combines a null-steering beamformer (NSBF) to generate a set of beamformed outputs, and STOI-Net, to determine the optimal result. Experimental results indicate that IANS can produce intelligibility-enhanced signals using a small dual-microphone array. The results are comparable to those obtained by null-steering beamformers with given knowledge of DOAs., Comment: Preprint submitted to IEEE MLSP 2023

In this study, we discovered that the energy gap above the vacuum level in the projected bulk band structure of Ag(100) prevents electrons in the first-order field emission resonance (FER) from inducing the surface plasmons. This mechanism allows light emission from FER to reveal characteristics of triplet states and Auger-type excitation resulting from two-electron tunneling in FER. According to optical spectra, surface plasmons can be induced by electrons in the zeroth-order FER. However, corresponding radiative decay can also trigger Auger-type excitation, whose energy state is influenced by the sharpness-dependent image potential acting on the scanning tunneling microscope tip., Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures

Accurately determining bubble wall velocities in first-order phase transitions is of great importance for the prediction of gravitational wave signals and the matter-antimatter asymmetry. However, it is a challenging task which typically depends on the underlying particle physics model. Recently, it has been shown that assuming local thermal equilibrium can provide a good approximation when calculating the bubble wall velocity. In this paper, we provide a model-independent determination of bubble wall velocities in local thermal equilibrium. Our results show that, under the reasonable assumption that the sound speeds in the plasma are approximately uniform, the hydrodynamics can be fully characterized by four quantities: the phase strength $\alpha_n$, the ratio of the enthalpies in the broken and symmetric phases, $\Psi_n$, and the sound speeds in both phases, $c_s$ and $c_b$. We provide a code snippet that allows for a determination of the wall velocity and energy fraction in local thermal equilibrium in any model. In addition, we present a fit function for the wall velocity in the case $c_s = c_b = 1/\sqrt 3$., Comment: 34 pages, 6 figures; v2 matches published version