We present a comprehensive two-loop computation of correlation functions involving two maximal giant gravitons and two arbitrary $\textit{R}$-charge single-trace half-BPS operators in $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 4 Super-Yang-Mills theory. By combining the partially-contracted giant graviton (PCGG) method with the $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 2 harmonic superspace formalism, we achieve significant simplifications in perturbative calculations. The resulting correlation functions encode rich CFT data, from which we derive sum rules for the OPE coefficients. These sum rules are in perfect agreement with integrability predictions. Furthermore, at the integrand level, we find a hidden higher dimensional symmetry present at both one- and two-loop orders. This symmetry was discovered recently at strong coupling, which generalizes its counterpart in correlation functions of single-trace operators.

China

Yu Wu

Yunfeng Jiang

Chang Liu

Yang Zhang

All giant graviton two-point functions at two-loops

The gauge field theory of the standard electroweak model in the presence of the electroweak bubble wall is investigated with a view to its applications to microscopic phenomena, which are believed to have occurred during the phase transition in the early universe. The asymptotic fields are defined anew so that the effects of the position-dependent Higgs condensate are taken into account through the position-dependent $\textit{W}$ and $\textit{Z}$ boson masses. A novel method of massive gauge field quantization in the $\textit{R}$ -gauge with $\textit{ξ}$ = 1 is proposed for the case of the position-dependent masses. Our procedure is based on the eigenfunction expansion method associated with second-order differential operators, i.e., a sort of generalized Fourier expansion. The commutation relations of creation and annihilation operators of various wave propagation modes are given in terms of what is known as the spectral function. The decoupling of unphysical states from the physical S-matrix is also investigated along the line of Kugo-Ojima’s quartet mechanism on the basis of the BRST symmetry. It is pointed out that one of the quartet fields is not merely the unphysical scalar field but should be a linear combination of the unphysical scalar and the gauge fields. The physical and unphysical polarizations of the gauge field waves are unambiguously distinguished and this will help us evaluate the friction caused by the physical polarization states of $\textit{W}$ and $\textit{Z}$ boson waves on the bubble wall during the phase transition in the early universe.

Japan

Takahiro Kubota

Gauge fields in the presence of the electroweak bubble wall

We compute the twist-2 matching of the transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD) linearly polarized gluon parton distribution and fragmentation functions at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N LO) in QCD, supplemented by next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (NNLL) small-$\textit{x}$ resummation for the gluon TMD fragmentation functions. These results provide high-precision fixed-order and resummed inputs to TMD phenomenology, and constitute essential theoretical ingredients for future studies of the spin structure and three-dimensional tomography of hadrons at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).

Germany

Yu Zhu

The N3LO twist-2 matching of linearly polarized gluon TMDs

We present a covariant framework for analyzing the interactions and decay rates of axion-like particles (ALPs) that couple to both gluons and quarks. We identify combinations of couplings that are invariant under quark-field redefinitions, and use them to obtain physical expressions for the prominent decay rates of such ALPs, which are compared with previous calculations for scenarios where ALPs couple exclusively to quarks or to gluons. Our framework can be used to obtain ALP decay rates for arbitrary ALP couplings to gluons and quarks across a broad range of ALP masses.

United States

Reuven Balkin

Israel

Ta’el Coren

Yotam Soreq

Mike Williams

A covariant description of the interactions of axion-like particles and hadrons

The dual formulations of an infinite tower of tree-level soft theorems in asymptotically flat spacetimes for scattering amplitudes in the standard energy-momentum basis and for correlators of a 2D celestial conformal field theory imply a correspondence between the celestial operator product expansion (OPE) and the higher spin charge bracket. We apply such correspondence to provide first a prescription to solve the double-soft limit ambiguity in the mixed-helicity sector of celestial OPEs. Furthermore, demanding the $\textit{charge OPE/bracket correspondence}$ to remain valid when operators are shadow transformed, we construct an algorithm to compute shadow celestial OPEs. We first test the algorithm by recovering results in the previous literature involving the celestial energy-momentum tensor; we then apply it to both gravity and Yang-Mills theory and generalize the OPE derivation to arbitrary spins.

Italy

Daniele Pranzetti

Domenico Salluce

Double-soft limit and celestial shadow OPE from charge bracket

We propose an $$ \mathcal{N}=2 $$ preserving deformation that leads to the confining phase of the 3d reduction of the $\textit{D}$ [SU($\textit{N}$)] Argyres-Douglas theories, referred to as 𝔻 [SU($\textit{N}$)]. This deformation incorporates monopole superpotential terms, which have recently played interesting roles in exploring possible RG fixed points of 3d supersymmetric gauge theories. Employing this confining phenomenon in 3d 𝔻 [SU($\textit{N}$)] theories, we also propose a deconfined version of the Kim-Park duality, an IR duality for 3d $$ \mathcal{N}=2 $$ adjoint SQCDs, where an adjoint matter field is replaced by a linear quiver tail of 𝔻 [SU($\textit{N}$)]. Surprisingly, both the confinement of deformed 𝔻 [SU($\textit{N}$)] and the deconfined Kim-Park duality can be proven only assuming some basic 3d $$ \mathcal{N}=2 $$ IR dualities. Finally, we propose a variant of the Kim-Park duality deformed by a single monopole superpotential term, which can also be derived using the same method.

Chiung Hwang

South Korea

Sungjoon Kim

S-confinement of 3d Argyres-Douglas theories and the Seiberg-like duality with an adjoint matter

We propose boundary terms for the action of the NS sector of supergravity on $\textit{M}$ × $\textit{S}$ × $\textit{T}$ spacetimes — where $\textit{M}$ is an AdS or a linear dilaton background — that render the Brown-York stress tensor and the on-shell action finite. For AdS backgrounds, we show that the on-shell action yields a free energy with chemical potentials determined by the $\textit{B}$-field. TsT (T-duality + shift + T-duality) transformations of these backgrounds generate classes of linear dilaton backgrounds distinguished by their boundary conditions. Among them, there is one class of backgrounds that reproduces features of the single-trace $$ T\overline{T} $$ deformation. These backgrounds have additional chemical potentials that can be turned off by large gauge transformations of the $\textit{B}$-field. We show that the Brown-York stress tensor of these backgrounds reproduces the energies and the trace flow equation of $$ T\overline{T} $$ -deformed CFTs. We also show that the on-shell action matches the $$ T\overline{T} $$ partition function and discuss the interpretation of these results.

Luis Apolo

The on-shell action of supergravity & the $\textit{B}$-side of TsT and single-trace $$ T\overline{T} $$

We compute next-to-next-to-leading order corrections to the decay width difference of mass eigenstates and the charge-parity (CP) asymmetry $\textit{a}$ in flavour-specific decays of neutral $\textit{B}$ mesons. We include both current-current and penguin operators at three-loop order. All input integrals in the transition amplitude are reduced to a small set of master integrals which depend on the ratio of the charm and bottom quark masses. The latter are computed using semi-analytic methods which provide deep expansions around properly selected values of $\textit{m}$ $\textit{/m}$ . We provide numerical results for ∆Γ and ∆Γ$\textit{/}$∆$\textit{M}$, both for the $\textit{B}$ and $\textit{B}$ system, including a detailed uncertainty analysis. Using the experimental value for the mass difference ∆$\textit{M}$ we predict ∆Γ = (0$\textit{.}$078 ± 0$\textit{.}$015) ps . For the CP asymmetries we find $$ {a}_{\textrm{fs}}^s=\left(2.27\pm 0.13\right)\times {10}^{-5} $$ and $$ {a}_{\textrm{fs}}^d=-\left(5.19\pm 0.30\right)\times {10}^{-4} $$ . Furthermore, we show that the ratios (∆Γ $\textit{/}$∆$\textit{M}$ )$\textit{/}$(∆Γ $\textit{/}$∆$\textit{M}$ ) and ∆Γ $\textit{/}$∆Γ can be predicted with high precision. The former quantity permits the prediction ∆Γ = (0$\textit{.}$00215 ± 0$\textit{.}$00013) ps from the measurements of ∆$\textit{M}$ and ∆Γ . We further discuss the impact of ∆Γ $\textit{/}$∆Γ on the CKM unitarity triangle and present ready-to-use formulae which permit improved predictions once updated results for the operator matrix elements are available.

Ulrich Nierste

Pascal Reeck

Vladyslav Shtabovenko

Matthias Steinhauser

Complete next-to-next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the decay matrix in $\textit{B}$-meson mixing at leading power

We investigate how IR modifications of the bulk geometry reshape long-range multipartite entanglement on the boundary in holography. We modify the IR geometries in two opposite directions: spherical modifications that enhance long-range entanglement and hyperbolic modifications that suppress them. We utilize various multipartite entanglement measures/signals to analyze the multipartite entanglement structures. These measures/signals are combinations of entanglement entropy, multi-entropy, entanglement wedge cross sections (EWCS) and multi-EWCS. Our results reveal that in the extremal limits of these two geometric modifications, the multipartite entanglement structures exhibit starkly contrasting behaviors: various measures saturate either their theoretical upper or lower bounds in the respective geometries. This demonstrates that IR deformations provide a practical holographic framework for realizing extremal entanglement regimes. Moreover, it serves as an effective tool for studying quantum marginal problems in holography. Finally, by observing how different measures respond to these engineered geometries, we gain clarifying insights into the specific types of multipartite entanglement that each measure/signal is particularly sensitive to.

Xin-Xiang Ju

Bo-Hao Liu

Ya-Wen Sun

Bo-Yu Xu

Yang Zhao

Holographic multipartite entanglement structures in IR modified geometries

We present a comprehensive next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD sum rule analysis for light hybrid mesons with $\textit{J}$ = 1 , incorporating condensates up to dimension-8 and NLO corrections to the perturbative, gluon condensate, and four-quark condensate contributions. These corrections are found to be substantial and reveal the necessity of contributions beyond leading order. Employing both Laplace (LSR) and Gaussian (GSR) sum rules, our analysis predicts a mass in the conservative range of 2$\textit{.}$1 – 2$\textit{.}$4 GeV for the light 1 hybrid. These predictions are significantly lower than previous leading-order (LO) estimates (around 2$\textit{.}$9 GeV) and bridge the gap between QCD sum rules and other approaches. Our findings establish the $\textit{ϕ}$(2170) resonance as a prime candidate for the light vector hybrid meson.

Shuang-Hong Li

Zhuo-Ran Huang

Wei Chen

Hong-Ying Jin

Revising the mass of light hybrid mesons: NLO QCD sum rules point to $\textit{ϕ}$(2170) as a prime candidate