Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• MEG: Muon to Electron and Gamma

  A.M. Baldini, T. Mori

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 019 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The possible existence of the muon to electron and gamma decay predicted by many new physics scenarios is investigated by stopping positive muons in a very thin target and measuring emitted photons and positrons with the best possible resolutions. Photons are measured by a 2.7 ton ultra pure liquid xenon detector while positron trajectories are measured in a specially designed gradient magnetic field by low-mass drift chambers and precisely timed by scintillation counters. A first phase of the experiment (MEG) ended in 2016, and excluded the existence of the decay with branching ratios larger than 4.2x10**(-13) (90% C.L.). This provides approximately 30 times stronger constraints on a variety of new physics models than previous experiments. In the second phase (MEG II), most of the detectors have been upgraded by adopting up-to-date technologies to improve the search sensitivity by another order of magnitude down to O(10**(-19) ). MEG II will pursue new physics beyond the Standard Model complementary to high energy collider experiments with a compatible or even higher sensitivity.

  3 citations

• Classical Lie bialgebras for AdS/CFT integrability by contraction and reduction

  Niklas Beisert, Egor Im

  SciPost Phys. 14, 157 (2023) · published 15 June 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Integrability of the one-dimensional Hubbard model and of the factorised scattering problem encountered on the worldsheet of AdS strings can be expressed in terms of a peculiar quantum algebra. In this article, we derive the classical limit of these algebraic integrable structures based on established results for the exceptional simple Lie superalgebra $\mathfrak{d}(2,1;\epsilon)$ along with standard $\mathfrak{sl}(2)$ which form supersymmetric isometries on 3D AdS space. The two major steps in this construction consist in the contraction to a 3D Poincaré superalgebra and a certain reduction to a deformation of the $\mathfrak{u}(2|2)$ superalgebra. We apply these steps to the integrable structure and obtain the desired Lie bialgebras with suitable classical r-matrices of rational and trigonometric kind. We illustrate our findings in terms of representations for on-shell fields on AdS and flat space.

  3 citations

• Mulan: a part-per-million measurement of the muon lifetime and determination of the Fermi constant

  R. Carey, T. Gorringe, D.W. Hertzog

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 016 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The part-per-million measurement of the positive muon lifetime and determination of the Fermi constant by the MuLan experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute is reviewed. The experiment used an innovative, time-structured, surface muon beam and a near-4π, finely-segmented, plastic scintillator positron detector. Two in-vacuum muon stopping targets were used: a ferromagnetic foil with a large internal magnetic field, and a quartz crystal in a moderate external magnetic field. The experiment acquired a dataset of 1.6e12 positive muon decays and obtained a muon lifetime τ_µ = 2 196 980.3(2.2) ps (1.0 ppm) and Fermi constant G_F = 1.166 378 7(6) × 10−5 GeV^−2 (0.5 ppm). The thirty fold improvement in τ_µ has proven valuable for precision measurements in nuclear muon capture and the commensurate improvement in G_F has proven valuable for precision tests of the standard model.

  3 citations

• The LHCspin project

  M. Santimaria, V. Carassiti, G. Ciullo, P. Di Nezza, P. Lenisa, S. Mariani, L. L. Pappalardo, E. Steffens

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 050 (2022) · published 12 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Broad and unexplored kinematic regions can be accessed at the LHC with fixed-target $pp$, $pA$ and $PbA$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=72-115~\rm{GeV}$. The LHCb detector is a fully-instrumented forward spectrometer able to run in fixed-target mode, and currently hosts a target gas cell to take data in the upcoming Run 3. The LHCspin project aims at extending this physics program to Run 4 and to bring polarised physics at the LHC. An overview of the physics potential and a description of the LHCspin experimental setup are presented.

  3 citations

• Competition between frustration and spin dimensionality in the classical antiferromagnetic $n$-vector model with arbitrary $n$

  Nikolaos P. Konstantinidis

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 042 (2023) · published 8 June 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A new method to characterize the strength of magnetic frustration is proposed by calculating the minimum dimensionality of the absolute ground states of the classical nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic $n$-vector model with arbitrary $n$. Platonic solids in three and four dimensions and Archimedean solids have lowest-energy configurations in a number of spin dimensions equal to their real-space dimensionality. Fullerene molecules and geodesic icosahedra can produce ground states in as many as five spin dimensions. Frustration is also characterized by the maximum value of the round-state energy when the exchange interactions are allowed to vary.

  3 citations

• On the complex structure of Yang-Mills theory

  Jan Horak, Jan M. Pawlowski, Nicolas Wink

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 048 (2025) · published 7 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the coupled set of spectral Dyson-Schwinger equations in Yang-Mills theory for ghost and gluon propagators. Within this set-up, we perform a systematic analytic evaluation of the constraints on generalised spectral representations in Yang-Mills theory that are most relevant for informed spectral reconstructions. Furthermore, we provide numerical results for the coupled set of ghost and gluon spectral functions for a range of potential mass gaps of the gluon, while allowing for small violations of the spectral representation. The analyses are accompanied by thorough discussion of the limitations and extensions of the present work.

  3 citations

• The Mu3e experiment

  F. Wauters on behalf of the Mu3e collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 020 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The \emph{Mu3e} experiment aims for a single event sensitivity of 2$\cdot$10$^{-15}$ on the charged lepton flavour violating $\mu^+\rightarrow e^+ e^+ e^-$ decay. The experimental apparatus, a light-weight tracker based on custom High-Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors placed in a 1~T magnetic field is currently under construction at the Paul Scherrer Institute, where it will use the full intense 10$^8$ $\mu^+$/s beam available. A final sensitivity of 1$\cdot$10$^{-16}$ is envisioned for a phase II experiment, driving the development of a new high-intensity DC muon source.

  3 citations

• Boundary operator expansion and extraordinary phase transition in the tricritical O(N) model

  Xinyu Sun, Shao-Kai Jian

  SciPost Phys. 18, 210 (2025) · published 27 June 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the boundary extraordinary transition of a three-dimensional (3D) tricritical $O(N)$ model. We first compute the mean-field Green's function with a general coupling of $|\vec \phi|^{2n}$ (with $n=3$ corresponding to the tricritical model) at the extraordinary phase transition. Then, using layer susceptibility, we obtain the boundary operator expansion for the transverse and longitudinal modes within the $\epsilon=3 - d$ expansion. Based on these results, we demonstrate that the tricritical point exhibits an extraordinary transition characterized by an ordered boundary for any $N$. This provides the first nontrivial example of continuous symmetry breaking in 2D in the context of boundary criticality.

  3 citations

• Aspects of 4d supersymmetric dynamics and geometry

  Shlomo S. Razamat, Evyatar Sabag, Orr Sela, Gabi Zafrir

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 78 (2024) · published 12 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this set of five Lectures we present a basic toolbox to discuss the dynamics of four dimensional supersymmetric quantum field theories. In particular we overview the program of geometrically engineering the four dimensional supersymmetric models as compactifications of six dimensional SCFTs. We discuss how strong coupling phenomena in four dimensions, such as duality and emergence of symmetry, can be naturally imbedded in the geometric constructions. The Lectures mostly review results which previously appeared in the literature but also contain some unpublished derivations.

  3 citations

• Charges in the extended BMS algebra: Definitions and applications

  Massimo Porrati

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 005 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This is a review of selected topics from recent work on symmetry charges in asymptotically flat spacetime done by the author in collaboration with U. Kol and R. Javadinezhad. First we reinterpret the reality constraint on the boundary graviton as the gauge fixing of a new local symmetry, called dual supertranslations. This symmetry extends the BMS group and bears many similarities to the dual (magnetic) gauge symmetry of electrodynamics. We use this new gauge symmetry to propose a new description of the TAUB-NUT space that does not contain closed time-like curves. Next we summarize progress towards the definition of Lorentz and super-Lorentz charges that commute with supertranslations and with the soft graviton mode.

  3 citations