Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Lepton flavor violation with tau leptons

  Julian Heeck

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 17, 005 (2025) · published 23 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We review the status and importance of lepton flavor violation with tauons, focusing on overlooked flavor-breaking patterns as well as tau-flavor violation in nucleon decays.

• ALPs and HNLs at LHC and muon colliders: Uncovering new couplings and signals

  Marta Burgos Marcos, Arturo de Giorgi, Luca Merlo, Jean-Loup Tastet

  SciPost Phys. 18, 084 (2025) · published 7 March 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Axion-like particles (ALPs) and heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) are two well-motivated classes of particles beyond the Standard Model. It is intriguing to explore the new detection opportunities that may arise if both particle types coexist. Part of the authors already investigated this scenario in a previous publication, within a simplified model containing an ALP and a single HNL, identifying particularly promising processes that could be searched for at the LHC. In this paper, we first consider the same setup with a broader range of both production processes and final states, both at the High-Luminosity LHC and at a future muon collider. Subsequently, we expand it to the more realistic scenario with at least two HNLs, necessary to describe the active neutrino masses. Different phenomenological signals are expected and we examine the complexities that emerge in this setup. This study paves the way for dedicated analysis at (forthcoming) colliders, potentially pinpointing the dynamics of ALPs and HNLs.

• Search for charged lepton flavor violation in $J/\psi$ decays at BESIII

  Xudong Yu

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 17, 010 (2025) · published 23 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the Standard Model, charged lepton flavor violation (CLFV) is heavily suppressed by tiny neutrino mass, while many theoretical models can enhance CLFV effects up to a detectable level. The observation of any CLFV process would be a clear signal of new physics beyond SM. BESIII experiment collected 10 billion $J/\psi$ data and searched for CLFV processes $J/\psi\to e\tau$ and $e\mu$. The upper limits at the 90\% confidence level are determined to be $\mathcal{B}(J/\psi\to e\tau)<7.5× 10^{-8}$ and $\mathcal{B}(J/\psi\to e\mu)<4.5× 10^{-9}$, respectively, which are the most stringent constraints in the heavy quarkonium system.

• Spin Density Matrix Elements for Exclusive $\rho^{0}$ Meson Muoproduction at COMPASS

  W.~Augustyniak

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 073 (2022) · published 12 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Spin density matrix elements were extracted from COMPASS data for exclusive $\rho^{0}$ meson muoproduction on a liquid hydrogen target. The measurement cover the kinematic range of 1.0 (GeV/$c$)$^2$ $< Q^{2} <$ 10.0 (GeV/$c$)$^2$, 5.0 GeV/$c^2$ $< W <$ 17.0 GeV/$c^2$ and 0.01 (GeV/$c$)$^2$ $<p^{2}_{T} < $ 0.5 (GeV/$c$)$^2$. Here, $W$ denotes the mass of the final hadronic system, $Q^{2}$ the virtuality of the exchanged photon and $p_{T}$ the transverse momentum of the $\rho^{0}$ meson with respect to the virtual-photon direction. We observe a violation of s-channel helicity conservation for the transition $\gamma^{*}_{T} \to \rho^{0}_{L}$. Additionally, we find a dominant contribution of the natural-parity-exchange transitions.

• Modular properties of generalised Gibbs ensembles

  Max Downing, Faisal Karimi

  SciPost Phys. 18, 085 (2025) · published 7 March 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the modular properties of Generalised Gibbs Ensembles (GGEs) in two dimensional conformal field theories. These are obtained by inserting higher spin charges in the expressions for the partition function of the theory. We investigate the particular case where KdV charges are inserted in the GGE. We first determine an asymptotic expression for the transformed GGE. This expression is an expansion in terms of the zero modes of all the quasi-primary fields in the theory, not just the KdV charges. While these charges are non-commuting they can be re-exponentiated to give an asymptotic expression for the transformed GGE in terms of another GGE. As an explicit example we focus on the Lee-Yang model. We use the Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz in the Lee-Yang model to first replicate the asymptotic results, and then find additional energies that need to be included in the transformed GGE in order to find the exact modular transformation.

• The 3d $A$-model and generalised symmetries, part I: Bosonic Chern-Simons theories

  Cyril Closset, Elias Furrer, Adam Keyes, Osama Khlaif

  SciPost Phys. 19, 106 (2025) · published 21 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The 3d $A$-model is a two-dimensional approach to the computation of supersymmetric observables of three-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric gauge theories. In principle, it allows us to compute half-BPS partition functions on any compact Seifert three-manifold (as well as of expectation values of half-BPS lines thereon), but previous results focussed on the case where the gauge group $\widetilde G$ is a product of simply-connected and/or unitary gauge groups. We are interested in the more general case of a compact gauge group $G=\widetilde G/\Gamma$, which is obtained from the $\widetilde G$ theory by gauging a discrete one-form symmetry. In this paper, we discuss in detail the case of pure $\mathcal{N}=2$ Chern-Simons theories (without matter) for simple groups $G$. When $G=\widetilde G$ is simply-connected, we demonstrate the exact matching between the supersymmetric approach in terms of Seifert fibering operators and the 3d TQFT approach based on topological surgery in the infrared Chern-Simons theory $\widetilde G_k$, including through the identification of subtle counterterms that relate the two approaches. We then extend this discussion to the case where the Chern-Simons theory $G_k$ can be obtained from $\widetilde G_k$ by the condensation of abelian anyons which are bosonic. Along the way, we revisit the 3d $A$-model formalism by emphasising its 2d TQFT underpinning.

• Experimental status of LNU in B decays in LHCb

  Sean Benson on behalf of the LHCb collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 011 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the Standard Model, the three charged leptons are identical copies of each other, apart from mass differences. Experimental tests of this feature in semileptonic decays of b-hadrons are highly sensitive to New Physics particles which preferentially couple to the 2nd and 3rd generations of leptons. A review of the latest lepton universality tests in semileptonic $b\to c$ transitions at LHCb is reported.

• Quantum scars and caustics in Majorana billiards

  R. Johanna Zijderveld, A. Mert Bozkurt, Michael Wimmer, İnanç Adagideli

  SciPost Phys. 17, 147 (2024) · published 28 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We demonstrate that the classical dynamics influence the localization behaviour of Majorana wavefunctions in Majorana billiards. By using a connection between Majorana wavefunctions and eigenfunctions of a normal state Hamiltonian, we show that Majorana wavefunctions in both p-wave and s-wave topological superconductors inherit the properties of the underlying normal state eigenfunctions. As an example, we demonstrate that Majorana wavefunctions in topological superconductors with chaotic shapes feature quantum scarring. Furthermore, we show a way to manipulate a localized Majorana wavefunction by altering the underlying classical dynamics using a local potential away from the localization region. Finally, in the presence of chiral symmetry breaking, we find that the Majorana wavefunction in convex-shaped Majorana billiards exhibits caustics formation, reminiscent of a normal state system with magnetic field.

• Athermal creep deformation of ultrastable amorphous solids

  Pinaki Chaudhuri, Ludovic Berthier, Misaki Ozawa

  SciPost Phys. 19, 092 (2025) · published 10 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We numerically investigate the athermal creep deformation of amorphous materials having a wide range of stability. The imposed shear stress serves as the control parameter, allowing us to examine the time-dependent transient response through both the macroscopic strain and microscopic observables. Least stable samples exhibit monotonicity in the transient strain rate versus time, while more stable samples display a pronounced non-monotonic S-shaped curve, corresponding to failure by sharp shear band formation. We identify a diverging timescale associated with the fluidization process and extract the corresponding critical exponents. Our results are compared with predictions from existing scaling theories relevant to soft matter systems. The numerical findings for stable, brittle-like materials represent a challenge for theoretical descriptions. We monitor the microscopic initiation of shear bands during creep responses. Our study encompasses creep deformation across a variety of materials ranging from ductile soft matter to brittle metallic and oxide glasses, all within the same numerical framework.

• Efficient scheme for time-dependent thermal pure quantum state: Application to the Kitaev model with armchair edges

  Hirokazu Taguchi, Akihisa Koga, Yuta Murakami

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 11, 003 (2023) · published 5 June 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the time-dependent thermal pure quantum state method and introduce the efficient scheme to evaluate the change in physical quantities induced by the time-dependent perturbations, which has been proposed in our previous paper [H. Taguchi et al., Phys. Rev. B 105, 125137 (2022)]. Here, we treat the Kitaev model to consider the Majorana-mediated spin transport, as an example. We demonstrate how efficient our scheme is to evaluate spin oscillations induced by the magnetic field pulse.