Conveners
Morning Contributed Talks
- Seth Koren
Morning Contributed Talks
- Fengwei Yang
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Kirtimaan Ajaykant Mohan25/04/2026, 09:00
We present a new determination of the strong coupling constant $\alpha_s$ from a global QCD analysis CT25 of parton distribution functions (PDFs) that incorporates high-precision experimental measurements from Run-2 of the Large Hadron Collider together with a large sample of other measurements over a wide interval of energies. In addition to providing an up-to-date determination of...
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Mario Flores-Hernández (University of Notre Dame)25/04/2026, 09:15
We study the decays $h \to \ell \bar{\ell} \left(Z \to \ell' \bar{\ell'}\right)$ and $h\to\ell\bar{\nu}_\ell\nu_{\ell'}\bar{\ell'}$ within the SMEFT framework and including effects up to $\mathcal O(1/\Lambda^4)$, where $\Lambda$ is the new physics scale suppressing higher dimensional operators. To work to this order, we must include the square of dimension-six operators and the interference...
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Stanford Broadwater (University of Kentucky)25/04/2026, 09:30
Models that explain baryogenesis and the dark matter abundance often feature exotic decays of baryons. As in Elor et al. (2019), we minimally extend the Standard Model with a GeV scale dark Majorana fermion $\chi$ and a TeV scale Y scalar with hypercharge of either 2/3 or -1/3. For exotic neutron or hyperon decays, we can constrain quark flavor couplings $|y_{\chi i}y_{jk}|$ to this Y scalar...
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Sohini Pal (University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA)25/04/2026, 09:45
Baryon number violation (BNV) provides one of the most sensitive probes of physics beyond the Standard Model. In this work, we investigate rare BNV tau decays induced by effective field theory (EFT) operators, including scenarios with associated dark-sector final states. We demonstrate that any framework generating BNV tau decays necessarily induces proton decay, leading to stringent...
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Isaac Wang25/04/2026, 11:30
A precise determination of the bubble wall velocity $v_w$ is crucial for making accurate predictions of the baryon asymmetry and gravitational wave (GW) signals in models of electroweak baryogenesis (EWBG).
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Working in the local thermal equilibrium approximation, we exploit entropy conservation to present efficient algorithms for computing $v_w$, significantly streamlining the calculation.
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Daven Wei Ren Ho25/04/2026, 11:45
Cosmological first-order phase transitions (FOPT) can occur in a secluded dark sector at relatively late times before recombination. Since bubble nucleation occurs stochastically as the FOPT unfolds, different regions of the universe transition at different times. On large scales, this random fluctuation sources a scalar curvature perturbation with a dimensionless power spectrum that scales...
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Taegyu Lee (Indiana University)25/04/2026, 12:00
Recent pulsar timing array observations have reported evidence for a common low frequency signal consistent with a stochastic gravitational wave background. In this work, we investigate the cosmic string interpretation of this signal in a non standard cosmological history featuring an early matter dominated era followed by a kination phase between the standard radiation dominated epoch....
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Yunjia Bao (University of Chicago)25/04/2026, 12:15
We propose a general framework in which a phase transition is triggered during cosmic inflation by the slow-roll dynamics of a spectator field. The topological defects formed at the transition are inflated outside the horizon, reenter it after inflation, and can subsequently generate characteristic gravitational-wave (GW) signals. Quantum fluctuations of the spectator field modulate the timing...
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Santiago Agui Salcedo (Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics)25/04/2026, 12:30
There is an increasing interest in the interplay between Open Quantum Systems and Inflationary Physics. A time-dependent background and limited access to the degrees of freedom invite the use of Open Quantum systems. It provides a more general framework than the unitary time evolution of a free state. In this talk, based on 2404.15416 and 2507.03103, we develop a local EFT for the scalar...
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