21 September 2026

We study leptogenesis and Planck-scale remnant dark matter from primordial black hole (PBH) evaporation in a minimal Pati-Salam cosmology, with the gauge symmetry broken before inflation so that magnetic monopoles are diluted away. A singlet inflaton with a near-inflection potential enhances the curvature power spectrum on small scales, producing a narrow black hole population that briefly dominates the energy density. The Pati-Salam embedding ties the right-handed neutrino masses to the SU(2)_R breaking scale, and cosmological consistency forces both the scalar-sector Yukawa coupling and the heavy neutrino mass well below that scale. Two regimes emerge, depending on whether the black holes are hot enough to emit the lightest right-handed neutrino. Lighter PBHs drive non-thermal leptogenesis, while heavier ones require a thermal asymmetry and also affect it through entropy dilution. If quantum gravitational backreaction halts evaporation at the Planck scale, each PBH leaves a stable remnant whose present abundance scales as the inverse five-halves power of the initial mass. Suppressing remnants requires heavier black holes, but the lighter PBHs needed for non-thermal leptogenesis overproduce remnant dark matter. Thus, remnant dark matter and non-thermal leptogenesis are mutually exclusive. When the thermal contribution is included, a single initial PBH mass near 10^6 g accommodates the observed dark matter abundance, the heavy neutrino mass required by the baryon asymmetry, and the Pati-Salam breaking scale. The scenario predicts a stochastic gravitational wave background from Poisson fluctuations of the black hole distribution, within reach of future experiments, alongside high-frequency graviton emission constrained by future measurements of the effective number of relativistic species.

AutoTherm is a modular code automating the determination of thermal production and interaction rates for cosmology from Thermal Field Theory. This first release computes fully automatically the leading-order contribution from ultrarelativistic $2\leftrightarrow 2$ processes to the production rate of an off-equilibrium $\vartheta$ particle coupled to a thermal bath. It takes as input a FeynRules model file describing the Lagrangian of the bath-$\vartheta$ system. The AutoTherm program consists of a Wolfram package, which utilises FeynArts/FormCalc, together with a few Python modules for symbolic and numerical routines. Their combined usage leads from the model file to the rate, but each component can also be used in a standalone manner. The main strength of this release is the automated, model-independent handling of Hard Thermal Loop resummation, which is necessary whenever a $2\leftrightarrow 2$ process is mediated by a $t$-channel massless mediator. Developments in Thermal Field Theory reduce the apparently large model dependence to the determination of the thermal mass of the mediator, which we automate successfully. They further allow us to provide three leading-order-equivalent implementations of HTL resummation. Their spread provides a first estimate of the theory uncertainty from higher-order thermal corrections. We showcase the strength of our AutoTherm framework by successfully reproducing or correcting a host of results in the literature, such as the thermal production rate of ultrarelativistic right-handed neutrinos, of gravitons and gravitinos, of axions and of dark photons.

The scotogenic model offers an attractive framework that explains light neutrino masses while accommodating a viable dark matter candidate. In this work, we study the phenomenology of singlet fermion dark matter, $N_1$, produced via the freeze-in mechanism characterized by an instantaneous low reheating temperature, $T_{\text{rh}}$. We explore the model's viable parameter space, incorporating current bounds from lepton flavor violation ($\mu \to e \gamma$) and direct detection limits. We show that low-reheating scenarios significantly reshape the viable region for $N_1$ dark matter, improving prospects for testing the scotogenic model in the FIMP scenario while keeping it consistent with current lepton flavor violation and cosmological bounds.

The recent observation of the high-energy nuclear recoil event LZ230616 with a recoil energy around 248 keV provides an interesting possibility to probe inelastic doublet dark matter (iDM). However, the electroweak doublet DM scenarios face strong constraints from solar DM capture for DM masses around the TeV scale which give rise to correct thermal relic density. In this work, we revive the inelastic doublet DM (iDM) scenario via type-II seesaw. In particular, we consider an inert lepton doublet (ILD) DM. While the minimal ILD scenario gives the correct relic abundance around the TeV scale, it is strongly constrained by direct detection and solar DM capture. In the type-II seesaw, the presence of the scalar triplet generates the required mass splitting and provides additional annihilation channels, allowing the correct relic abundance for much larger DM masses. The larger DM mass also helps evade the solar capture and indirect detection constraints. Additionally, the scalar triplet gives sub-eV neutrino masses required by the oscillation data.

In this work we calculate, for the first time, the dominant perturbative contributions to axion--matter couplings explicitly in string theory. Concretely, we compute these couplings in Calabi--Yau compactifications of heterotic string theory where the vector bundle is a sum of line bundles. They are expressed as overlap integrals requiring the Ricci-flat metric, the Hermitian Yang-Mills bundle metric, and the matter field harmonic forms. We compute these by solving the corresponding coupled differential equations with neural networks. Our results establish a characteristic hierarchy of four-dimensional couplings: axions couple to fermions as $\mathcal{L} \supset c_\psi\,\frac{\partial_\mu a}{f_a}\, \psi^\dagger \bar{\sigma}^\mu \psi$ with $c_\psi$ an $\mathcal{O}(1)$ function of K\"ahler moduli for the model-dependent axions, while the corresponding coupling for the model-independent axion is suppressed by $\alpha_{\rm YM}$ at the ultraviolet matching scale. The model-dependent axions thus couple to fermions similarly as DFSZ-like four-dimensional axions, whereas the model-independent axion's couplings are loop-suppressed as in KSVZ-like constructions. The methods developed here apply directly to the large class of heterotic line bundle models with realistic spectra, and can be adapted to type II constructions.

We present evidence that ten-dimensional type IIB string theory orbifolded by the $\mathbb{Z}_3$ duality symmetry at the strong-coupling fixed point $\tau=\exp(2\pi i/3)$ defines a consistent theory. Motivated by its F-theory dual description and its duality with M-theory in nine dimensions and type IIA string theory in eight dimensions, we argue that the resulting theory is a ten-dimensional chiral non-supersymmetric theory with a discrete gauge symmetry whose bosonic quotient is the automorphism group of the Narain lattice $\Gamma^{2,2}(A_2)$ ($S_3 \times S_3 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$). We further identify the ten-dimensional tachyon fields with the corresponding Narain moduli. Gauge anomalies cancel nontrivially through a topological Green-Schwarz mechanism involving a $\mathbb{Z}_3$-valued two-form gauge symmetry: the ten-dimensional lift of the familiar zero-form orbifold quantum symmetry in the eight-dimensional type IIA description.

We prove some residually reducible $p$-adic Galois representations of number fields arise from modular forms. We study the universal deformation ring arising from deformations satisfying the Fontaine-Laffaille condition at primes over $p$. Under certain conditions, we establish the reduced universal deformation ring is a discrete valuation ring. The method uses pseudocharacters and certain bounds on Selmer groups, where the ideal of reducibility as defined by Bella\"iche and Chenevier is shown to be maximal and principal. A self-dual assumption is not needed in our argument. The main result on deformations applies to $n$-dimensional representations. In applications, a congruence between Hermitian modular forms due to Klosin is used with our results to prove modularity of some 4-dimensional $p$-adic representations of the imaginary quadratic field $\mathbf{Q}(i)$.

We prove that Stark-Shintani ray class invariants (Stark units) associated to real quadratic fields are algebraic numbers. These invariants are given by special values of Faddeev's modular quantum dilogarithm, introduced by Garoufalidis-Kashaev-Zagier. Our main discovery is that special values of modular quantum dilogarithm satisfy an explicit overdetermined system of polynomial equations, matching a variation on the defining equations of Andersen-Kashaev's notion of a quantum dilogarithm on a product of two cyclic groups. Solutions to this system of equations can be used to categorify fusion rings introduced by Izumi, and the algebraicity of the special values then follows by Ocneanu's rigidity theorem. As a byproduct, we obtain an explicit infinite family of irrational near-group fusion categories. As a further application, we prove a family of quadratic relations for Stark units recently conjectured by Appleby, Flammia, and Kopp motivated by Zauner's conjecture about SIC-POVMs (complex equiangular lines).

We give explicit annular normal forms and classify Frobenius structures for $p$-adic Schwarzian equations defined by developing differentials. For a unit of the Robba ring, reduction of order expresses the associated module as a quadratic rank-one twist of a unipotent extension determined by the residue. Frobenius existence is characterized by a square-class condition. At odd primes, there are exactly four differential-module types, and a uniform dominant-monomial hypothesis gives a Frobenius formula in analytic families across the zero-residue locus. For rational nonintegral annular powers, we obtain a diagonal normal form and a congruence criterion at odd primes; both results hold at every prime when the unit factor is an explicit square. Applied to the reducible modular equations $\theta^2y-\ell^2E_4y/144=0$, with $\gcd(\ell,6)=1$, this gives exactly two annular types at every prime and determines the least $s\geq1$ for which Frobenius under $q\mapsto q^{p^s}$ exists. The subfamily $\ell=12n+1$ has a single annular type. Heine--Stieltjes residue cancellation and nondegenerate Jacobi configurations provide explicit examples. We also prove an obstruction to constant projective Frobenius equivariance of Robba-ring developing maps.

Recently, Garvan and Sarma studied sums of non-overlined parts in overpartitions and partitions without repeated odd parts. In this paper, we study the corresponding statistic for overlined parts. We define $\mathrm{OSOME}(n)$ as the sum of all odd overlined parts minus the sum of all even overlined parts in the overpartitions of $n$. We obtain a closed form for its generating function and use it to prove congruences by elementary $q$-series methods, the theory of half-integral weight modular forms, and known congruences for the overpartition function.

Standard treatments of Earth matter effects in neutrino oscillation experiments assume that the coherent forward scattering potential experienced by propagating neutrinos is sourced entirely by the Standard Model electron density predicted by the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM). We examine how an anomalous matter potential localized in Earth's inner core, motivated by gravitationally captured dark matter or resonant mixing of active neutrinos with a light (eV-scale or lighter) sterile state, would distort the vu survival and vutove appearance probabilities relative to the Standard Model PREM expectation. Using a full three-flavor matrix-exponentiation propagation code with a four-shell PREM density profile, we parametrize the new-physics contribution as a fractional enhancement ecore of the electron-sector potential confined to the inner core (r<1221 km) and compute oscillation probabilities for near-vertically upgoing atmospheric neutrinos (L=8000to12742km). Trajectories that do not cross the inner core (L<=12500km) are essentially insensitive to ecore, reproducing the Standard Model expectation to better than 0.1%. In contrast, near-antipodal trajectories crossing the inner core (L>=12505km, corresponding to nadir angles within roughly half a degree of the vertical) show significant effects. The muon-neutrino survival probability is displaced by tens of percent for ecore=0.05to0.15 and by more than 100% at particular energies for the {\nu}{\mu} to {\nu}e appearance channel, with a pronounced neutrinoantineutrino asymmetry that mimics, but is physically distinct from, intrinsic CP violation. These results indicate that percent-level new-physics potentials confined to the inner core are within the discovery reach of high-statistics atmospheric neutrino telescopes such as IceCube Upgrade, KM3NeT/ORCA, and next-generation megaton-scale detectors.

The neutrino-matter interaction cause the final flavor compositions deviating from those expected in vacuum. In this work we consider neutrinos interact with ultra-light scalar dark matters $\phi$ ($m_\phi\ll 1\,{\rm eV}$). When the neutrinos emitted from a distant source and propagate through the dark matter medium, the MSW potential in the Hamiltonian is replaced by the hypothetical $\nu\phi$ effective potential. Two types of neutrino sources are adopted in our calculations. The first is point-like neutrino source, the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), which produce $\mathcal{O}({\rm TeV})$ neutrinos primarily through charged pion decay, yielding an initial flavor ratio of ($\nu_e,\nu_\mu,\nu_\tau$)=($1:2:0$). We focus on two specific AGNs, NGC 1068 and TXS 0506+056 in our analysis, whose distances from Earth are much larger than the neutrino oscillation lengths. We consider the range of $\nu\phi$ coupling constant such that the adiabatic condition and mean free path can be satisfied. Hence, by assuming neutrinos are produced randomly from their corona regions, we compute the averaged flavor ratio at Earth with $m_\phi=10,1,0.1\,{\rm peV}$ and $m_\phi=1,0.1,0.01\,{\rm feV}$, generate the ternary plots of neutrino flavors, and compare the results with the IceCube present and future sensitivities. The second source considered is the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (DSNB), it is an isotropic neutrino source with energy $\mathcal{O}({\rm MeV})$. Applying the core-collapse simulation neutrino temperatures to the DSNB flux, we repeat the similar analysis for the DSNB with $m_\phi=10^{-22}\,{\rm eV}$, and we estimate different neutrino flavors lies in the HK/DUNE/JUNO combined sensitivities limit.

We report the first measurement of flux-integrated cross sections as a function of kinematic imbalance variables for electron neutrino interactions on argon. Kinematic imbalance variables, applied here to electron neutrino interactions for the first time, are particularly interesting due to their sensitivity to effects such as Fermi motion, multinucleon processes, and final-state interactions, providing a detailed lens to study neutrino-nucleus interactions. These measurements are performed using MicroBooNE's full dataset of $1.3 \times 10^{21}$ protons on target from the Booster Neutrino Beam at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The measured cross sections are compared to several neutrino event generator configurations, revealing tensions between these models and data in the regions that are expected to be less dominated by final-state interactions.

We study the anomalous magnetic moments of charged leptons and their lepton flavor-violating decays in a Standard Model extension containing one $SU(2)_L$singlet and one $SU(2)_L$ triplet scalar leptoquark. Our results reveal significant correlations among $\Delta a_{e,\mu}$ and the decay rates of$e_b\to e_a\gamma$, and $h,Z\to e_b^\pm e_a^\mp$. In particular, the branching ratios $\mathrm{Br}(e_b\to e_a\gamma)$ and $\mathrm{Br}(h,Z\to e_b e_a)$ exhibit significant correlations. The model cannot simultaneously accommodate sizable values of $|\Delta a_e|=\mathcal{O}(10^{-13})$ and $|\Delta a_\mu|=\mathcal{O}(10^{-10})$. For $|\Delta a_\mu|=\mathcal{O}(10^{-10})$ and Br$(\mu \to e\gamma)>10^{-15}$, the decay rates are suppressed to Br$(\tau \to e\gamma)<\mathcal{O}(10^{-12})$ and Br$(h\to \tau e)<\mathcal{O}(10^{-6})$, while the remaining ones can reach the forthcoming experimental sensitivities. Conversely, for$|\Delta a_e|=\mathcal{O}(10^{-13})$, one obtains the suppressed decay rates Br$(\tau \to \mu \gamma)<\mathcal{O}(10^{-11})$ and Br$(h\to \tau \mu)<\mathcal{O}(10^{-7})$.

We test lepton flavor universality with a measurement of the branching-fraction ratios $R(D^{(*)}) \equiv \mathcal{B}(\bar{B} \rightarrow D^{(*)} \tau^{-} \bar{\nu}_{\tau})/\mathcal{B}(\bar{B} \rightarrow D^{(*)} \ell^{-} \bar{\nu}_{\ell})$, where $\ell$ denotes an electron or muon. The analysis uses $387\times 10^6$ $\Upsilon(\mathrm{4S})$ decays collected with the Belle II detector in energy-asymmetric $e^+e^-$ collisions. One $B$ meson is fully reconstructed in a hadronic decay mode, while the other is reconstructed either in $\bar{B}\rightarrow D^{(*)}\tau^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\tau}$, with $\tau^- \rightarrow \ell^- \bar{\nu}_{\ell}\nu_{\tau}$, or in $\bar{B}\rightarrow D^{(*)}\ell^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\ell}$. We extract the signal from the distributions of the residual calorimeter energy and the squared mass of the undetected particles, obtaining $R(D^{*}) = 0.242 \pm0.019(\mathrm{stat}) \pm0.016(\mathrm{syst})$ and $R(D) = 0.439 \pm 0.055(\mathrm{stat}) \pm 0.046(\mathrm{syst})$. These results are consistent with both the standard model predictions and previous measurements, and constitute the most precise determination of $R(D^{(*)})$ with hadronic tagging.

Microquasars are candidate sites for high energy particle production within our galaxy. Because their distances and compact emission regions limit direct observational constraints, numerical simulations are useful for connecting jet dynamics with possible multi messenger signatures. This work models neutrino production from relativistic magnetohydrodynamic microquasar jets, focusing on the proton photon channel associated with interactions between accelerated protons and ambient photon fields. Proton proton interactions are acknowledged as a possible process in dense environments, but they are not modeled in the present calculation. A ray tracing procedure is applied to the hydrodynamic simulation output to produce synthetic neutrino images from the perspective of a stationary observer. Synthetic spectra and intensity maps are presented and compared with representative sensitivities of current and future neutrino detectors.

The recent report of xenon recoiling with about 250 keV energy at the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter direct detection experiment was interpreted by the collaboration as either a momentum-dependent elastic scatter or an inelastic scatter. In this study, we take elastic operators listed by LZ that fit the datum to better than 3$\sigma$, and perform a log-likelihood analysis using the reported significances to reverse-engineer their best-fit Wilson coefficients. We then estimate for each operator the rate of dark matter capturing in the Sun, and assuming self-annihilations of the captured population to standard final states studied by IceCube, we place limits on them from measurements at IceCube and Super-Kamiokande of the fluxes of solar-direction and atmospheric neutrinos. We show that large ranges of dark matter masses around the weak scale that explain the LZ event are ruled out in this scenario, with the strongest limits placed by direct annihilations to neutrino-antineutrino final states.