We compute the one-loop correction to the CFT data of all double-trace operators $[ϕϕ]_{n,\ell}$ for a $Φ^4$ theory in AdS$_3$, for arbitrary values of $n$, $\ell$, and of the scaling dimension $Δ_ϕ>1$. Working in the spectral representation, the $t$-channel one-loop bubble diagram is reduced to a product of spectral integrals dressed by the conformal $6j$ symbol. Both the spectral integrals and the subsequent sums over residues are performed analytically, yielding finite closed-form expressions for the anomalous dimensions in terms of higher hypergeometric functions. We discuss the structure of the results, including their large-spin and high-energy behaviors, and show that the anomalous dimensions are completely monotonic in spin.

Lecture notes on inflation. The lectures are three double lectures, held for the first time at the Nordita Winter School 2024 - Particle Physics and Cosmology, covering an advanced introduction to the theory of primordial inflation, as well as the linear and non-linear perturbation theory of slow-roll inflation/quasi-de Sitter spacetimes.

We formulate a holographic weak-link construction in which Josephson transport is controlled by the charge sector of a Reissner--Nordstrom-AdS black brane. The model is an Einstein-Maxwell-charged-scalar theory in asymptotically AdS$_4$, with a spatially inhomogeneous boundary chemical potential that creates two superconducting banks separated by a normal or weakly superconducting barrier. The Josephson phase difference is defined from gauge-invariant boundary data of the charged condensate, rather than from the black-hole charge itself, allowing a controlled extension of the standard holographic SNS junction to charged AdS backgrounds. We identify the current-phase relation, critical current, coherence length, and small-phase stiffness as the main observables. In the SNS regime, the critical current and midpoint condensate probe the same proximity scale, while higher harmonics in the current-phase relation diagnose enhanced transparency or departure from the opaque weak-link limit. The new ingredient is the near-extremal RN-AdS throat: as extremality is approached, the emergent AdS$_2\times\mathbb{R}^2$ region can radially dress the Josephson coupling before it reaches the ultraviolet boundary. After removing the ordinary spatial suppression due to the junction width, the residual critical current and phase stiffness are expected to exhibit scaling governed by the infrared dimension of the charged scalar in AdS$_2$. This separates ordinary proximity suppression, smooth finite-density corrections, and genuinely near-extremal throat control, providing a framework for phase-sensitive transport in charged holographic matter.

Within the framework of rapidity-only small-$x$ TMD factorization, the evolution with respect to the rapidity cutoff is initially governed by Sudakov double logarithms and subsequently by BFKL/BK single logarithms. The evolution equation proposed in this paper correctly reproduces both the Sudakov and BFKL limits, while providing a consistent interpolation between these two regimes.

A resonance can be represented by the Gamow vector $|ψ^{\rm Gamow}\rangle$ in the complex momentum space $|\vec p e^{-iθ}\rangle$. In this work we revisit its representation $|ψ^{\rm phys}\rangle$ in the real momentum space $|\vec p \rangle$ through the analytical continuation of Gamow wavefunction, which also satisfies with the Hamilton eigenequation with the assistance of a few discrete virtual state vectors whose kinetic energies are the complex eigenmass. Both the decreasing behavior of the resonance and the production of the decayed scattering states can be both simultaneously described by the time evolution $|ψ^{\rm phys},t\rangle=\exp(-iH t) \, |ψ^{\rm phys}\rangle$. The $|ψ^{\rm phys},t=0\rangle$ gives the finite-range confinement of the resonance while the $|ψ^{\rm phys},t\to +\infty\rangle$ provides a Breit-Wigner-like distribution of the final scattering states whose appearance probability is nonzero as $r\to \infty$. A toy model in hadron physics is used and numerically shows the above picture.

We examine possible correlations between $b \to s \ell_1^- \ell_2^+$ transitions -- both in the lepton flavor conserving ($\ell_1=\ell_2$) and violating case ($\ell_1 \neq \ell_2$) -- and purely leptonic flavor violating decays within the ABCD model [1], a minimal abelian extension of the Standard Model (SM) introducing a new $\text{U}(1)'$ symmetry. The associated neutral $Z'$ boson has generation-dependent, flavor non-universal couplings to SM fermions, governed by three rational parameters $ε_{1,2,3}$, which sum to zero to ensure gauge anomaly cancellation. Each $ε_i$ is common to all fermions of a given generation, thus inducing correlations among quark and lepton observables. For lepton flavor conserving (LFC) processes, only small deviations from SM predictions were found [2], reflecting the mutual constraints between the quark and lepton sectors, which preclude large discrepancies. On the other hand, the model allows tree-level lepton flavor violating (LFV) decays, yielding correlations between LFV $b\to s$ transitions and charged lepton decays. The analysis of such correlations shows that the current experimental upper bounds for the rates of $τ^- \to μ^-μ^+μ^-$, \ $μ^-\to e^- γ$, \ $μ^- \to e^- e^+e^-$ and $μ^- \to e^-$ conversion in nuclei constrain branching ratios of LFV $B_{(s)}$ decays in hierarchical order [2].

We study the weak magnetic and electric dipole moments of the $τ$ lepton as precision tests of the Standard Model (SM) and probes of heavy New Physics (NP). We present an updated SM prediction for the $τ$ weak magnetic dipole moment at one loop, including a careful assessment of theoretical uncertainties from electroweak scheme dependence. Working within the SM Effective Field Theory, we derive comprehensive current constraints on the $τ$ dipole operators from a combination of observables: the $τ$ weak and electromagnetic dipole moments, high-mass Drell-Yan tails at the LHC, $Z$ partial decay widths, and the electron electric dipole moment. Finally, we assess the prospects of measuring the SM value of the $τ$ weak magnetic moment at the FCC-$ee$ Tera-$Z$ run, and project the sensitivities of the leading observables to heavy NP at FCC-$ee$ and HL-LHC, paying particular attention to systematic uncertainties. We find that the $τ$ weak dipole moments are already among the leading probes of the $τ$ dipole operators, and will become increasingly dominant at future colliders.

We present a joint analysis of the processes $e^+e^- \to J/ψπ^+π^-$ and $e^+e^- \to J/ψK^+K^-$ at center-of-mass energies from 4.13 to 4.36 GeV. The amplitudes are constructed using the Dalitz-plot decomposition formalism, with the $e^+e^-$ energy dependence encoded through the $Y(4220)$ and $Y(4320)$ resonant structures together with a non-resonant production mechanism. The scalar $ππ/K\bar K$ final-state interaction is treated dispersively using a coupled-channel Omnès representation. This allows us to describe the measured total cross sections and one-dimensional invariant-mass distributions with a single set of energy-independent parameters. We find that a purely resonant description of the BESIII data is insufficient, requiring a non-resonant term at the amplitude level which undergoes $ππ/K\bar{K}$ rescattering. Within the present isobar model, we extract Breit-Wigner parameters for the $Z_c(3900)$, $Y(4220)$, and $Y(4320)$ states, and determine the corresponding subprocess cross sections.

Performing a global QCD analysis of data on the photon structure function $F_2^γ$ in $e^{+} e^{-}$ scattering, we determine new leading order (LO) and next-to-leading (NLO) parton distributions functions (PDFs) of the real photon. The resulting photon PDFs, referred to as VALO1.0, are obtained in the form of Monte Carlo (MC) replicas which assess the propagation of experimental uncertainties to the PDFs. To achieve well-converging fits, we employ a five-parameter hadron-like ansatz for the boundary conditions with simplifying assumptions on the flavor structure of the quark distributions and the large-$x$ behavior of the gluon distribution. This results in robust quark distributions at both LO and NLO and the gluon distribution at NLO with modest uncertainties, while leaving LO gluons still largely unconstrained. The resulting photon PDFs broadly agree with the parameterizations available in the literature and set the stage for future analyses including additional photoproduction data, which could help to increase the flexibility of our input PDFs. The LO and NLO VALO1.0 photon-PDF replicas, both in the DIS$_γ$ and $\overline{\rm MS}$ factorization schemes as well as the open-source $γ\texttt{EKO}$ code for solving the scale dependence of photon PDFs and the analysis framework $\texttt{VALOfitter}$ are made publicly available.

Dark matter (DM) annihilation into neutrinos provides a promising observational channel targeted by current and forthcoming neutrino detectors. However, the detection of such neutrino fluxes alone cannot uniquely determine their astrophysical or cosmological origin, such as the recent observations from Super-Kamiokande that hint at a small excess of electron antineutrino events. We propose that the effective number of neutrino species and the spectral distortion of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) can serve as complementary observables to probe neutrino signatures from DM annihilation. Using a simple model-independent analysis, we determine the detection windows of these cosmic observables that overlap with the experimental sensitivities from the Super-Kamiokande, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory, Hyper-Kamiokande, and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, showing that joint probes of large DM annihilation to neutrinos with MeV-GeV masses can be achieved by neutrino detectors and CMB experiments.

We investigate the energy-momentum tensor of pseudoscalar charmonium and bottomonium within the framework of the light-front quark model. The gravitational form factors (GFFs), namely the $A$ and $D$-terms, are evaluated in terms of the light-front wave functions. The corresponding spatial mechanical distributions in the transverse plane are obtained through the Fourier transform of these GFFs. To examine the sensitivity of the results to the internal quark-antiquark distribution inside the meson, two distinct Gaussian forms are employed for the spatial part of the wave function. We analyze several mechanical properties in the transverse plane, including the momentum density, pressure distribution, shear stress, force density, and internal energy density. The pressure distribution exhibits a node where it changes sign from positive (repulsive) to negative (attractive) with increasing transverse distance. The force distribution remains positive throughout the transverse plane, supporting the stability condition proposed in earlier studies. Most of the spatial distributions, except for the shear stress, are found to be sensitive to the choice of the spatial wave function near the center of the meson, while they become nearly insensitive toward the periphery. In contrast, the shear stress distribution exhibits noticeable sensitivity to the choice of wave function in the intermediate transverse region.

Ultralight dark matter behaves as a coherent wave, yet its quantum interference effects of elastic scattering with multiple targets have remained unexplored. We show that the nested test masses of MICROSCOPE realize such an ``interferometer'' for dark-matter wave scattering. Amplitudes from the two concentric cylinders interfere and redistribute the induced force between them. This effect produces unique and rotation-modulated signals set by the target geometry. Developing the theoretical framework and applying it to MICROSCOPE data, we obtain leading constraints on quadratic dark-matter--nucleon coupling for masses $10^{-3}$--$10^{-2}\,$eV, reaching cross sections of order $10^{-52}$ cm$^2$.

In the framework of the Chiral quark model (ChQM), we investigate the fully charmed and fully bottomed tetraquark with $J^{PC}=2^{++}$ including two structures: $Q\bar{Q}-Q\bar{Q}$ and $QQ-\bar{Q}\bar{Q}$. The bound-state calculation shows that there is no bound state in either $cc\bar{c}\bar{c}$ or $bb\bar{b}\bar{b}$ systems. However, by using the real-scaling method, some resonance states are obtained. For the $cc\bar{c}\bar{c}$ system, when the channel-coupling includes only three $S$-wave channels, two resonant states are obtained: one with a mass around $7002$ MeV and decay width near $54$ MeV, and another with a mass around $7227$ MeV and a decay width near $66$ MeV. The former can be regarded as a candidate for the $X(6900)$, and the latter can be considered as a candidate for the $X(7200)$. Upon adding the $χ_{c0}χ_{c2}$, $χ_{c1}χ_{c1}$, $χ_{c1}χ_{c2}$, $χ_{c2}χ_{c2}$ channels, both resonant states still remain. For the $bb\bar{b}\bar{b}$ system, only one resonant state is obtained, regardless of whether the four channels composition of the excited mesons are included or excluded. The mass and width of this resonant state are around $19743$ MeV and $67$ MeV, respectively. We suggest that future experiments search for the possible resonance state in the invariant mass spectrum of $ΥΥ$ or $ΥΥ(2S)$.

In this work, we investigate the phenomenological consequences of neutrino and muon interactions with matter. In our studies, we focused in phenomenological predictions for two experiments: FASER and IceCube. FASER is a detector located at the LHC that measures neutrinos produced in proton-proton collisions. A new version of FASER, FASER2, has been proposed to operate in the Forward Physics Facility during the high-luminosity regime of the LHC. The intense flux of tau neutrinos expected at FASER2 motivated us to study the polarization effects of the tau produced in charged current interactions. Our results show that the produced taus will not be completely polarized. Among the Standard Model particles, only neutrinos and muons produced in proton-proton collisions at the LHC can reach FASER. In our study, we show that muon-initiated events can reveal interesting nucleon properties, such as nuclear effects and the existence of an intrinsic charm. The high number of events induced by neutrinos at FASER motivated us to study rare processes in neutrino interaction, such as the neutrino trident. Our results indicate that the neutrino trident process can be observed at FASER2. We have also studied muon trident at the LHC, and we showed that tau pair production can be observed for the first time in this reaction. In contrast to neutrinos detected at the LHC, the neutrinos observed at IceCube come from natural sources, being mainly atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos. IceCube is capable of observing neutrinos across a wide energy spectrum, ranging from a few GeV to beyond PeV. We show that the study of these events can contribute to our understanding of the structure of target hadrons, as well as the search for physics effects beyond the Standard Model in the propagation of these neutrinos in the universe until they reach the Earth.

The confining flux tube of $(3+1)$d QCD is described by an effective string theory with $(1+1)$d worldsheet action that extends the Nambu-Goto form by the addition of a massive pseudoscalar worldsheet ``axion". As argued in companion papers concerning the modified phenomenology of the Lund string model at colliders, QCD flux tubes produced by high-energy collisions are likely to involve excitation of both worldsheet Nambu-Goldstone and axion modes, although the standard Lund model assumes a constant tension ground-state string. Here we detail the path-integral computation of the modified Schwinger-like process of string breaking via nucleation of quark-antiquark pairs in the presence of excitations above the string ground state. We find that the worldsheet axion leads to the dominant change in the string breaking process, the axion excitations producing, among other effects, a varying effective tension of the string, which can exponentially enhance or suppress the string breaking rate depending on the local phase of the excitation. Our computation employs a version of the Schwinger-Keldysh complex time contour method with initial state data specified by a density matrix. In an excited background the Euclidean saddle point is generically complex, but its continuation gives real initial data for post-decay evolution. Our results are of relevance for hadronisation models with excited QCD strings.

We present micrOMEGAs7, a major upgrade of the micrOMEGAs package for the computation of dark matter observables in generic models. This release introduces a generalized treatment of the Boltzmann equations, allowing for user-defined modifications of the Hubble expansion rate, entropy evolution, and non-thermal dark matter production from late-decaying cosmological components, thereby extending the framework beyond the standard radiation-dominated cosmology. The relic density can now be computed in scenarios such as low-temperature reheating, early matter domination, and kination. The new version also improves the treatment of sub-GeV dark matter, in particular annihilation into light mesons through scalar mediators, and provides updated spectra for indirect detection. Several experimental and observational constraints have been implemented or revised, including CMB bounds from Planck on energy injection during recombination and Fermi-LAT limits from dwarf spheroidal galaxies. For direct detection, a recast of recent LZ results has been included, and the code now takes into account effective electromagnetic couplings of spin-$1/2$ and spin-1 dark matter. Collider observables have also been extended through the implementation of CMS dilepton resonance constraints on $Z'$ mediators. Additional improvements include a more flexible treatment of effective relativistic degrees of freedom and an updated LHAPDF interface.

We investigate neutrino flavor evolution in strong gravitational fields within an open-quantum-system framework in curved spacetime. Starting from the Dirac equation in the vierbein formalism, we construct an effective flavor Hamiltonian incorporating gravitational redshift, spin--curvature couplings, and Kerr frame-dragging effects. Treating spin-connection fluctuations as a stochastic gravitational environment, we derive a Lindblad master equation and introduce a curvature-enhanced decoherence rate governed by local spacetime geometry. We compute oscillation probabilities, coherence loss, flavor-ratio distortions, entanglement entropy generation, and event-rate modifications for neutrinos propagating near Schwarzschild and Kerr compact objects. The resulting signatures are compared with projected sensitivities of IceCube-Gen2, KM3NeT, and P-ONE, and are further quantified through detector-level significance estimates. Our results provide a unified effective framework linking neutrino oscillations, gravitationally induced decoherence, quantum-information observables, and high-energy astrophysical neutrino measurements in strong-curvature environments.

We investigate the LHC phenomenology of a vector dark-sector effective theory containing two neutral massive vector states, both odd under a dark-parity symmetry. The lightest state is stable and provides a dark-matter candidate, while the leading interactions with the Standard Model arise from dimension-six operators involving the hypercharge field strength. In the prompt-decay regime considered in this work, the heavier state can decay radiatively, leading to a $γ+\text{jets}+E_T^{\text{miss}}$ signature when the two dark vectors are produced in association with QCD radiation. We study this topology at the LHC through a cut-based analysis, comparing an inclusive missing-transverse-momentum selection with a three-bin strategy that retains coarse shape information. The binned analysis is found to substantially improve the expected reach and probes regions of the parameter space compatible with the observed relic abundance in the standard freeze-out scenario. We also discuss the freeze-in interpretation and the limitations associated with the EFT description at high masses.

If the Universe is described by string theory or other extensions of the Standard Model, several light, axion-like states are predicted to exist. However, most experiments only search for one of these states. We show that searches for fifth forces can't assume a non-relativistic potential induced by a single axion field. We discuss the strength of the non-relativistic spin-dependent and spin-independent potentials in the most general case of $N_a$ different axions and show how the shape of the potentials can be used to distinguish between different axiverse scenarios.

Differential cross sections are the currency of scientific exchange in particle and nuclear physics. Recently, machine learning methods have enabled unbinned and high-dimensional cross section measurements through new approaches to unfolding. A key challenge with unfolding is that it is a bi-level optimization problem where constraints are available at the detector level while the target is at the particle level, linked by a stochastic detector response. Further complications arise when the particle-level and detector-level distributions have non-overlapping or only partially overlapping support, which can destabilize training and degrade unfolding performance. In this paper, we introduce a new unbinned unfolding technique called the Reweighting Adversarial Network (RAN), which can be viewed as a generalization of the Moment Unfolding protocol to accommodate full phase-space unfolding. RANs address the bi-level optimization problem through a particle-level reweighting function steered by a Wasserstein critic at the detector level. RANs do not require overlapping support at the detector level, nor multiple iterations of training. We evaluate the performance of RANs with Gaussian data and jet substructure studies, including cases specifically designed to stress test the method under vanishing support overlap. We demonstrate that RANs outperform state-of-the-art methods in accuracy and have a lower computational overhead.

We propose a novel scenario for the onset of the thermal Big Bang. In this framework, the inflaton transfers its energy exclusively into a dark sector, leaving the Standard Model (SM) sector temporarily trapped in a false vacuum. As the Hubble expansion rate rapidly decreases, the SM phase transition eventually completes, and the standard thermal Big Bang era commences upon the thermalization of the highly energetic bubble walls. We demonstrate that the large Lorentz boost of these bubble walls, combined with their Hubble-scale macroscopic size, generates distinctive gravitational-wave signatures from the SM vacuum decay. This stochastic gravitational-wave background provides a powerful new probe of the early Universe's expansion history, with a present-day energy density fraction that can reach $Ω_{\text{GW}} \sim 3\times10^{-8}$.

The next Galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) will offer a unique opportunity to determine the neutrino mass ordering. We focus on two observables: the electron neutrino ($ν_e$) neutronization burst and the rise-time of the electron antineutrino ($\barν_e$) flux during the accretion phase. The neutronization burst, a sharp $ν_e$ peak within $\sim 20$-$30$ ms, provides a clean and robust signature of mass ordering through its appearance or disappearance. During the accretion phase, the faster rise of heavy lepton flavor neutrinos ($ν_x$) leads to a distinct faster rise-time behavior of the oscillated $\barν_e$ signal, resulting in mass ordering discrimination. Using realistic CCSN simulations for multiple progenitor masses, we compute event rates and perform a statistical analysis for a Galactic ($10$~kpc) CCSN event at DUNE, Hyper-Kamiokande (HK), and JUNO detectors. The neutronization burst remains largely independent of SN hydrodynamic simulation models, with DUNE and HK achieving $\gtrsim 6σ$ and $\gtrsim 4σ$ sensitivity for normal (NO) to inverted ordering (IO) discrimination, respectively. However, the rise-time observable is prone to progenitor degeneracies. To mitigate this cumulative and ratio-based observables constructed at characteristic timescales ($20$ ms & $100$ ms) are used. The resulting confidence levels from the rise-time analysis to discriminate IO/NO in HK and JUNO are $\sim 5σ$ and $\sim 3σ$, respectively. Our results highlight the complementarity of detectors and observables, and demonstrate that combining neutronization burst and accretion phase information will be crucial for a definitive determination of the neutrino mass ordering in the next Galactic supernova.

We build a framework for Regge trajectories from the Nambu-Goto action. We compute the 6-preon Regge trajectory in a preon model, include the worldsheet conformal anomaly, and build the parameter-free Veneziano amplitude. The amplitude has s-channel poles matching the spectrum to 0.5%, and at fixed-angle scattering decays exponentially with a negative Gross-Mende coefficient, realized numerically to 0.03%. This is a soft, genuinely non-perturbative ultraviolet completion of the preon model - and thereby of the Standard Model, which emerges as its low-energy limit.

Low signal-to-noise ratios are a common problem in experiments attempting to measure photon-photon scattering. In the optical regime, where petawatt lasers with femtosecond pulse durations are used, the large beam sizes cause the major contribution of the background to be spread over up to 100 ps in arrival time, whereas the signal is confined to the femtosecond scale. We present a balanced homodyne measurement scheme, which exploits this property to suppress the background. By interfering the signal with a short reference pulse, the measurement becomes effectively gated to the pulse duration and is therefore only sensitive to the co-timed part of the light, reducing the effective background by 3-4 orders of magnitude. Additionally, increasing the reference pulse energy increases the amplitude of the measured quantity without changing the intrinsic signal-to-noise ratio. Using this property, other external noise sources can be made negligible by boosting the measured quantity above the noise floor. Using two-dimensional detectors further enhances the scheme by improving sensitivity and enabling self-referenced single-pulse measurements. In addition, an evaluation procedure based on maximum-likelihood estimation is presented and demonstrated. The robustness and performance of this scheme are demonstrated on simulated data, where a more than 100-fold reduction of measurement time compared to conventional photon-counting methods under realistic conditions is found.

During cosmological inflation, inhomogeneities arising from quantum vacuum fluctuations are stretched to become super-Hubble and effectively classical. As many scenarios of the origin involve nonlinearities or a breakdown of perturbativity in the infrared, the limitations of quantum field theory can be addressed using a stochastic description of the dynamics, the so-called stochastic inflation paradigm. However, the stochastic formalism was only recently formulated consistently within full General Relativity and has not yet been extended to more general theories of the early universe, which is the subject of this work. In order to find the stochastic sources for a wide class of fully nonlinear scalar-tensor theories, we apply our gauge-agnostic coarse-graining procedure to the linear equations of the effective field theory of dark energy. Each theory can then be mapped to its own set of stochastic equations of motion by identifying the corresponding coefficients in the EFT. We illustrate this with a few concrete and, in most cases, unprecedented examples, including Gauss-Bonnet, generalized Brans-Dicke, Horndeski, and braiding theories. Finally, we discuss other natural extensions to provide a phenomenologically complete stochastic framework. For example, we showcase the coarse-graining of multifield inflation in full General Relativity and argue for the generality of our procedure and thus its potential applications beyond the realm of inflation.

Searches for gravitational waves (GWs) from isolated supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) in pulsar timing array (PTA) data require simultaneous estimation of signal and noise parameters, so the dimensionality of the fit scales with the number of observed pulsars. This computational difficulty is exacerbated when source evolution from GW emission is included, since retaining both Earth and pulsar terms introduces the unknown pulsar distances. Existing frequentist methods such as the $\mathcal{F}$-statistic, restricted so far to non-evolving sources, effectively, imply a circular analysis, which may lead to biased estimators. We present a Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) and the associated $\mathcal{T}$-statistic that overcomes the aforementioned limitations. The formulation of the GLRT extends earlier work in which the dimensionality of the fitting problem was drastically reduced by semi-analytical maximization of the likelihood over the pulsar phase parameters, followed by efficient global optimization over the remaining parameters using Particle Swarm Optimization. Our simulations demonstrate that for an evolving SMBHB signal with chirp mass $\mathcal{M}=10^{9.2}\,M_\odot$ and signal-to-noise ratio $20$, this detection statistic achieves a $100\%$ detection probability at a false-alarm probability of $0.06$ in a 30-pulsar timing array, which is characterized by a $100~\mathrm{ns}$ root-mean-square white noise residual and pulsar-specific red noise.

Domain-wall(DW) networks are known to approach a relativistic scaling regime on fixed radiation- and matter-dominated backgrounds, forming the basis of the no-frustration conjecture. However, this picture assumes that the defect network remains gravitationally subdominant. We investigate the self-consistent evolution of DWs by coupling the velocity-dependent one-scale model to the Friedmann equation and radiation energy transfer. The resulting autonomous system allows the cosmic expansion history to evolve dynamically rather than being imposed externally. We demonstrate analytically that gravitational backreaction qualitatively changes the phase-space structure: the radiation-era scaling solution, which is a stable attractor on a fixed background, becomes a saddle once the expansion rate is promoted to a dynamical degree of freedom. Furthermore, we establish that no stable fixed point exists within the physical phase space. Consequently, the scaling regime survives only as a transient stage, and all trajectories are driven toward a wall dominated and kinematically frustrated state in which the walls freeze in comoving coordinates. Our results demonstrate that the scaling attractor is not preserved in self-gravitating DW networks and reveal the generic late-time frustration dynamics of wall domination.

In a recent paper, Arxiv:2605.23077, we have demonstrated that (conformal) Killing vectors give rise to stealth vector solutions of a specific bumblebee-type Proca theory supplemented by fine tuned curvature terms. Here we show that such a construction readily generalizes to hidden symmetries encoded in (conformal) Killing-Yano tensors, giving rise to the corresponding p-form stealth solutions. Similar to what happens with Killing vectors, the construction works on any background, providing a "physical visualization" of its symmetries. Several examples of spacetimes with so constructed p-form stealth hair are presented.

Several studies of black hole ringdown from particles plunging into black holes have identified contributions decaying at integer multiples of the surface gravity, called redshift modes, horizon modes, and direct waves. We show that, for Schwarzschild black holes, every one of these contributions has vanishing amplitude in the observable waveform. The cancellation follows from causality, which forces the source-integrated Green function to vanish on the light cone. Individual quasi-normal mode overtones still carry non-zero redshift-mode contributions, but these cancel exactly once the sum over overtones is performed; the so-called impulsive contribution to the waveform acts precisely as the counterterm enforcing this cancellation. Finally, we provide a motivation to the standard regularization of quasinormal mode excitation coefficients since divergences give rise to vanishing redshift modes.

We study the emission of gravitational waves by a test particle orbiting a non-rotating black hole in higher-derivative gravity theories with cubic and quartic contractions of the Riemann tensor. To this aim, we first derive the master equations describing even- and odd-parity perturbations in the presence of an arbitrary source term, and then construct a Post-Minkowskian expansion of the solutions to the homogeneous master equations. Specializing to a circular binary system, we compute the Post-Newtonian expansion of the waveform, as well as the energy and angular-momentum fluxes at infinity. We show that higher-derivative corrections to the waveform and to the fluxes always appear at 5PN order, and are universally proportional to the Love number describing the deformability of the geometry under the $\ell=2$ mode perturbation. These analytical results are validated against numerical computations, which also allow us to extend the analysis to larger velocities.