Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Charged lepton flavour violating processes

  Adrian Signer

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 014 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Charged lepton flavour violating processes are naturally present in many extensions of the Standard Model. After a brief overview on the experimental situation, an effective-field-theory framework is described that allows to interpret and compare the various experiments in a consistent way. The usefulness of this approach is then illustrated in the context of a specific model with a doubly charged scalar.

• The fermionic double smeared null energy condition

  Duarte Fragoso, Lihan Guo

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 045 (2025) · published 26 June 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Energy conditions are crucial for understanding why exotic phenomena such as traversable wormholes and closed timelike curves remain elusive. In this paper, we prove the Double Smeared Null Energy Condition (DSNEC) for the fermionic free theory in 4-dimensional flat Minkowski spacetime, extending previous work on the same energy condition for the bosonic case [J. R. Fliss and B. Freivogel, SciPost Phys. 12, 084 (2022); J. R. Fliss et al., SciPost Phys. 14, 024 (2023)] by adapting Fewster and Mistry's method [C. J. Fewster and B. Mistry, Phys. Rev. D 68, 105010 (2003)] to the energy-momentum tensor $T_{++}$. A notable difference from previous works lies in the presence of the $\gamma_0 \gamma_+$ matrix in $T_{++}$, causing a loss of symmetry. This challenge is addressed by making use of its square-root matrix. We provide explicit analytic results for the massless case as well as numerical insights for the mass-dependence of the bound in the case of Gaussian smearing.

• Prospects of a future multi-TeV muon collider

  M. Casarsa

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 061 (2022) · published 12 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A multi-TeV muon collider is a discovery machine and an invaluable tool for many new standard model precision measurements such as the shape of the Higgs boson potential. The update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics recognized the unique opportunity of a muon collider to reach the energy frontier, despite the challenges to produce intense collimated muon beams. The options of a collider at 3 TeV and a collider at 10 TeV or above are the main focus of the forming International Muon Collider Collaboration as well as of the discussion panels at the ongoing US Snowmass process.

• Flavor violating $\ell_i$ decay into $\ell_j$ and a light gauge boson

  Alejandro Ibarra, Marcela Marín, Pablo Roig

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 16, 011 (2025) · published 14 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The $\ell_i\to\ell_j\chi$ decays, with $\chi$ a boson associated to the $U(1)_\chi$ symmetry, have not been described satisfactorily so far for light spin-one $\chi$. In particular, observables exhibited an unphysical divergence in the limit of massless $\chi$, associated to its longitudinal polarizations. Based on gauge symmetry, we show how to correct this issue. To this end, we consider two general models realizing the effective field theory description. Being the LFV generated either at tree level or at one loop, these processes are well behaved for light $m_\chi$. We discuss the most salient phenomenological consequences and its relevance in the searches for this kind of decays.

• The study of hadron properties and structure in high energy multi-production processes

  Shi-Yuan Li

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 10, 039 (2022) · published 11 August 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In high energy scattering, the multi-production process is unique in its relevance to the total cross section and in its global properties, such as rapidity and other kinematic distributions. If there is a hard interaction, the jet rate and structure is a good arena for perturbative quantum chromodynamics. However, once any hadron is specified, its properties and structure must make sense, while the global and/or perturbative chromodynamic mechanism still can put important constraints. The relation of the hadron’s properties and structure with its production cross section, distribution etc. can be much more complex than its decay width. On the one hand there are many difficulties and challenges in the calculations, while on the other hand, the production process provides a unique way to study the details of properties and structure of the hadron, which is beyond the approach of its decay process. Here I review our works on such topics in recent years, mainly on the multi-quark state production in multi-production processes and the Bethe-Salpeter wave function in exclusive processes. For the former, I emphasize the unitarity of the hadronization process and relevant models, so that almost no multi-quark state is observed in multi-production processes. I also address how to calculate hadron molecule production in multi-production processes. The most recently observed T+cc is also stated with its relevance to colour and baryon number fluctuation of the preconfinement clusters. For the latter, I emphasize the Dirac structure of the hadron-quark coupling vertex.

• Political or environmental refugees? Re-examining the flight of the Vietnamese boat people, 1975-1995

  Saphia Fleury

  Mig. Pol. 4, 001 (2025) · published 15 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This paper examines ecocide in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War (1954 to 1975) and the extent to which it drove the ‘boat people’ mass migration from Vietnam from 1975 to the mid-1990s. The exodus has become an archetype of a ‘political’ refugee flow, based on a Western Cold War narrative of people fleeing en masse from the persecution of an autocratic Communist regime. This paper challenges this assumption, showing how the interplay of environmental factors with political and military decisions contributed to the post-war exodus. These findings are reached through the analysis of historical primary sources as well as 229 oral history interviews, some 40 per cent of which were conducted with former child refugees. The implications have contemporary relevance because modern migration flows are frequently mixed, and climate change is further complicating the reasons that people leave their homes and their ability to access asylum. The conclusion argues that ecocide can, in some contexts, be considered a form of persecution for the purpose of refugee determination.

• Characterizing far from equilibrium states of the one-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation

  Abhik Kumar Saha, Romain Dubessy

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 028 (2025) · published 6 March 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We use the mathematical toolbox of the inverse scattering transform to study quantita- tively the number of solitons in far from equilibrium one-dimensional systems described by the defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation. We present a simple method to iden- tify the discrete eigenvalues in the Lax spectrum and provide a extensive benchmark of its efficiency. Our method can be applied in principle to all physical systems described by the defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation and allows to identify the solitons velocity distribution in numerical simulations and possibly experiments.

• Measurement of the transverse polarization of electrons emitted in neutron decay – nTRV experiment

  K. Bodek, A. Kozela

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 015 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This paper recalls the main achievements of the nTRV experiment which measured two components of the transverse polarization ($\sigma_{T_{1}}$, $\sigma_{T_{2}}$) of electrons emitted in the $\beta$-decay of polarized, free neutrons and deduced two correlation coefficients, $R$ and $N$, that are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. The value of time-reversal odd coefficient $R$, 0.004$\pm$0.012$\pm$0.005, significantly improved limits on the relative strength of imaginary scalar coupling constant in the weak interaction. The value obtained for the time-reversal even correlation coefficient $N$, 0.067$\pm$0.011$\pm$0.004, agrees with the Standard Model expectation, providing an important sensitivity test of the electron polarimeter. One of the conclusions of this pioneering experiment was that the transverse electron polarization in the neutron $\beta$-decay is worth more systematic exploring by measurements of yet experimentally not attempted correlation coefficients such as $H$, $L$, $S$, $U$ and $V$. This article presents a brief outlook on that questions.

• The role of atomic interactions in cavity-induced continuous time crystals

  Christian Høj Johansen, Johannes Lang, Francesco Piazza

  SciPost Phys. 17, 089 (2024) · published 24 September 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider continuous time-crystalline phases in dissipative many-body systems of atoms in cavities, focusing on the role of short-range interatomic interactions. First, we show that the latter can alter the nature of the time crystal by changing the type of the underlying critical bifurcation. Second, we characterize the heating mechanism and dynamics resulting from the short-range interactions and demonstrate that they make the time crystal inherently metastable. We argue this is generic for the broader class of dissipative time crystals in atom-cavity systems whenever the cavity loss rate is comparable to the atomic recoil energy. We observe that such a scenario for heating has several similarities to the one proposed for preheating in the early universe, where the oscillating coherent inflation field decays into a cascade of exponentially growing fluctuations. By extending approaches for dissipative dynamical systems to our many-body problem, we obtain analytical predictions for the parameters describing the phase transition and the heating rate inside the time-crystalline phase. We underpin and extend the analytical predictions of the heating rates with numerical simulations, which also show that the metastable regime exists when the inherent stochastic nature is taken into account.

• Search for upward-going air showers with the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

  Emanuele De Vito

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 16, 029 (2025) · published 15 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The fluorescence detector (FD) of the Pierre Auger Observatory is sensitive to upward-going air showers for energies above $10^{17}$ eV. Given its operation time and wide field of view, the FD has the potential to support or constrain the recent "anomalous" observations by the ANITA detector, interpreted as upward-going air showers of unexplained nature. We have used 14 years of data collected by the FD to search for upward-going showers using a set of quality selection criteria defined using 10% of the full data sample. To distinguish candidates from false positives, calculate the exposure and obtain the expected background, dedicated simulations for signal (upward-going events) and background (downward-going events) have been performed. Results of the analysis after unblinding the data set are presented. Finally, the exposure and sensitivity for the specific scenario of a signal being ascribed to tau lepton decay are calculated and the corresponding upper limits are shown as a function of primary energy and in different zenith angle ranges.