arXiv subjects

Jing Shu

Publications and source records attributed to Jing Shu.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Earth Shielding and Daily Modulation from Electrophilic Boosted Dark Particles

Boosted dark particles of astrophysical origin can lead to nonstandard nuclear or electron recoil signals in direct detection experiments. %It has been shown that this interpretation successfully explains the excess of keV electron recoil events recently observed by the XENON1T experiment, and that a daily modulation of the signal in the detector is expected. We conduct an investigation of the daily modulation feature of a potential future signal of this type. In particular, we perform simulations of the dark particle interactions with electrons in atoms building up the Earth on its path to the detector, and provide in-depth predictions for the expected daily changes in the signal for various direct detection experiments, including XENONnT, PandaX, and LUX-ZEPLIN.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2023

Gravitational wave sources for Pulsar Timing Arrays

Very recently, several pulsar timing array collaborations, including CPTA, EPTA, and NANOGrav, reported their results from searches for an isotropic stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB), with each finding positive evidence for SGWB. In this work, we assessed the credibility of interpreting the Hellings-Downs correlated free-spectrum process of EPTA, PPTA, and NANOGrav as either the result of supermassive black hole binary mergers or various stochastic SGWB sources that originated in the early Universe, including first-order phase transitions, cosmic strings, domain walls, and large-amplitude curvature perturbations. Our observations show that the current new datasets do not display a strong preference for any specific SGWB source based on Bayesian analysis.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Detection of Early-Universe Gravitational Wave Signatures and Fundamental Physics

Detection of a gravitational-wave signal of non-astrophysical origin would be a landmark discovery, potentially providing a significant clue to some of our most basic, big-picture scientific questions about the Universe. In this white paper, we survey the leading early-Universe mechanisms that may produce a detectable signal -- including inflation, phase transitions, topological defects, as well as primordial black holes -- and highlight the connections to fundamental physics. We review the complementarity with collider searches for new physics, and multimessenger probes of the large-scale structure of the Universe.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Constraining cosmological phase transitions with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array

A cosmological first-order phase transition is expected to produce a stochastic gravitational wave background. If the phase transition temperature is on the MeV scale, the power spectrum of the induced stochastic gravitational waves peaks around nanohertz frequencies, and can thus be probed with high-precision pulsar timing observations. We search for such a stochastic gravitational wave background with the latest data set of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array. We find no evidence for a Hellings-Downs spatial correlation as expected for a stochastic gravitational wave background. Therefore, we present constraints on first-order phase transition model parameters. Our analysis shows that pulsar timing is particularly sensitive to the low-temperature ($T \sim 1 - 100$ MeV) phase transition with a duration $(β/H_*)^{-1}\sim 10^{-2}-10^{-1}$ and therefore can be used to constrain the dark and QCD phase transitions.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Constructing the general partial waves and renormalization in EFT

We construct the general partial wave amplitude basis for the $N\to M$ scattering, which consists of Poincaré Clebsch-Gordan coefficients, with Lorentz invariant forms given in terms of spinor-helicity variables. The inner product of the Clebsch-Gordan coefficients is defined, which converts on-shell phase space integration into an algebraic problem. We also develop the technique of partial wave expansions of arbitrary amplitudes, including those with infrared divergence. These are applied to the computation of anomalous dimension matrix for general effective operators, where unitarity cuts for the loop amplitudes, with an arbitrary number of external particles, are obtained via partial wave expansion.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Birefringence Tomography for Axion Cloud

An axion cloud surrounding a supermassive black hole can be naturally produced through the superradiance process. Its existence can be examined by the axion induced birefringence effect. It predicts an oscillation of the electric vector position angle of linearly polarized radiations. Stringent constraints of the existence of the axion in a particular mass window has been obtained based on the recent Event Horizon Telescope measurement on M87$^\star$. The future Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations will be able to measure the vicinity of many supermassive black holes, thus it opens the possibility to search for the existence of axions in a wide mass regime. In this paper, we study how different black hole properties and accretion flows influence the signatures of the axion induced birefringence. We include the impacts of black hole inclination angles, spins, magnetic fields, plasma velocity distributions, the thickness of the accretion flows. We pay special attention to characterize the washout effects induced by the finite thickness of the accretion flows and the lensed photons. Based on this study, we give prospects on how to optimize the axion search using future VLBI observations, such as the next-generation Event Horizon Telescope, to further increase the sensitivity.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Amplitude/Operator Basis in Chiral Perturbation Theory

We establish a systematic construction of the on-shell amplitude/operator basis for Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) in $D=4$ spacetime dimensions and with an arbitrary number of flavors $N_f$. For kinematic factors, we employ spinor-helicity variables to construct the soft blocks, which are local amplitudes satisfying the Adler's zero condition, as well as to take into account the reduction in the kinematic basis due to the Gram determinant, which arises at $O(p^{10})$ when the number of multiplicity $N$ in an amplitude becomes large: $N>D$. For flavor factors, we include group-theoretic relations at small $N_f$, $N_f\le N$, which decreases the flavor basis. The result is obtained by adapting the Young tensor method of constructing the operator basis for generic effective field theories to the case of non-linearly realized symmetries. Working in the massless quark limit, we present purely mesonic operators for both even- and odd-parity at $O(p^6)$ and $O(p^8)$ for $N=6$ and arbitrary $N_f$, and establish a direct correspondence between the amplitude basis and the operator basis. Furthermore, the redundancy due to the Gram determinant is studied at $O(p^{10})$ for $N=6, 8$ and 10.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Dissecting axion and dark photon with a network of vector sensors

We develop formalisms for a network of vector sensors, sensitive to certain spatial components of the signals, to identify the properties of a light axion or a dark photon background. These bosonic fields contribute to vector-like signals in the detectors, including effective magnetic fields triggering the spin precession, effective electric currents in a shielded room, and forces on the matter. The interplay between a pair of vector sensors and a baseline that separates them can potentially uncover rich information of the bosons, including angular distribution, polarization modes, source localization, and macroscopic circular polarization. Using such a network, one can identify the microscopic nature of a potential signal, such as distinguishing between the axion-fermion coupling and the dipole couplings with the dark photon.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Searching for cosmic string induced stochastic gravitational wave background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array

We search for stochastic gravitational wave background emitted from cosmic strings using the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array data over 15 years. While we find that the common power-law excess revealed by several pulsar timing array experiments might be accounted for by the gravitational wave background from cosmic strings, the lack of the characteristic Hellings-Downs correlation cannot establish its physical origin yet. The constraints on the cosmic string model parameters are thus derived with conservative assumption that the common power-law excess is due to unknown background. Two representative cosmic string models with different loop distribution functions are considered. We obtain constraints on the dimensionless string tension parameter $Gμ<10^{-11}\sim10^{-10}$, which is more stringent by two orders of magnitude than that obtained by the high-frequency LIGO-Virgo experiment for one model, and less stringent for the other. The results provide the chance to test the Grand unified theories, with the spontaneous symmetry breaking scale of $U(1)$ being two-to-three orders of magnitude below $10^{16}$ GeV. The pulsar timing array experiments are thus quite complementary to the LIGO-Virgo experiment in probing the cosmic strings and the underlying beyond standard model physics in the early Universe.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Speculations on the W-Mass Measurement at CDF

The W Mass determination at the Tevatron CDF experiment reported a deviation from the SM expectation at 7$σ$ level. We discuss a few possible interpretations and their collider implications. We perform electroweak global fits under various frameworks and assumptions. We consider three types of electroweak global fits in the effective-field-theory framework: the $S$-$T$, the $S$-$T$-$δG_F$, and the eight-parameter flavor-universal one. We discuss the amounts of tensions between different $m_W$ measurements reflected in these fits and the corresponding shifts in central values of these parameters. With these electroweak fit pictures in hand, we present a few different classes of models and discuss their compatibility with these results. We find that while explaining the $m_W$ discrepancy, the single gauge boson extensions face strong LHC direct search constraints unless the $Z'$ is fermiophobic (leptophobic) which can be realized if extra vector fermions (leptons) mix with the SM fermions (leptons). Vector-like top partners can partially generate the needed shift to the electroweak observables. The compatibility with top squark is also studied in detail. We find non-degenerate top squark soft masses enhance the needed operator coefficients, enabling an allowed explanation compatible with current LHC measurements. Overall, more theory and experimental developments are highly in demand to reveal the physics behind this discrepancy.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Theoretical developments in the SMEFT at dimension-8 and beyond

In this contribution to the Snowmass 2021 process we review theoretical developments in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) with a focus on effects at the dimension-8 level and beyond. We review the theoretical advances that led to the complete construction of the operator bases for the dimension-8 and dimension-9 SMEFT Lagrangians. We discuss the possibility of obtaining all-orders results in the $1/Λ$ expansion for certain SMEFT observables as well as the current status of renormalization group running and implications for positivity, and briefly present the on-shell approach to constructing SMEFT amplitudes. Finally we present several new phenomenological effects that first arise at dimension-8 and discuss the impact of these terms on experimental analyses.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Axion Haloscope Array With $\mathcal{PT}$ Symmetry

We generalize the recently proposed $\mathcal{P T}$-symmetric axion haloscope to a larger array with more $\mathcal{P T}$-symmetric structures. By broadening the response bandwidth of the signal without increasing the readout noise, the optimized scan rate of the axion haloscope is significantly enhanced, as well as is the signal power. Furthermore, we show that the robustness of the detector towards the variations of the array coupling is the strongest when a binary tree structure is introduced which contains a largely enhanced $\mathcal{P T}$ symmetry. The multiple allowed probing sensors can further increase the scan rate by a factor of the sensors' number due to the correlation of the signals. This type of array can strongly boost the search for an axion compared to single-mode resonant detection. The enhancement to the scan rate becomes the most manifest when applied to the proposed detection using a superconducting radio-frequency cavity with an ac magnetic field where most of the parameter space of the QCD axion above kHz can be probed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Stringent axion constraints with Event Horizon Telescope polarimetric measurements of M87$^\star$

The hitherto unprecedented angular resolution of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has created exciting opportunities in the search for new physics. Recently, the linear polarization of radiation emitted near the supermassive black hole M87$^\star$ was measured on four separate days, precisely enabling tests of the existence of a dense axion cloud produced by a spinning black hole. The presence of an axion cloud leads to a frequency-independent oscillation in the electric vector position angle (EVPA) of this linear polarization. For a nearly face-on M87$^\star$, this oscillation in the EVPA appears as a propagating wave along the photon ring. In this paper, we leverage the azimuthal distribution of EVPA measured by the EHT to study the axion-photon coupling. We propose a novel differential analysis procedure to reduce the astrophysical background, and derive stringent constraints on the existence of axions in the previously unexplored mass window $\sim (10^{-21}-10^{-20})$~eV.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Constructing Generic Effective Field Theory for All Masses and Spins

We fully solve the long-standing problem of operator basis construction for fields with any masses and spins. Based on the on-shell method, we propose a novel method to systematically construct a complete set of lowest dimensional amplitude bases at any given dimension through semi-standard Young tableaus of Lorentz subgroup $SU(2)_r$ and global symmetry $U(N)$ ($N$ is the number of external legs), which can be directly mapped into physical operator bases. We first construct a complete set of monomial bases whose dimension is not the lowest and a redundant set of bases that always contains a complete set of amplitude bases with the lowest dimension. Then we decompose the bases of the redundant set into the monomial bases from low to high dimension and eliminate the linear correlation bases. Finally, the bases with the lowest dimension can be picked up. We also propose a matrix projection method to construct the massive amplitude bases involving identical particles. The operator bases of a generic massive effective field theory can be efficiently constructed by the computer programs. A complete set of four-vector operators at dimensions up to six is presented.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background from PBH-ABH Mergers

The measurement of gravitational waves produced by binary black-hole mergers at the Advanced LIGO has encouraged extensive studies on the stochastic gravitational wave background. Recent studies have focused on gravitational wave sources made of the same species, such as mergers from binary primordial black holes or those from binary astrophysical black holes. In this paper, we study a new possibility -- the stochastic gravitational wave background produced by mergers of one primordial black hole and one astrophysical black hole. Such systems are necessarily present if primordial black holes exist. We study the isotropic gravitational wave background produced through the history of the Universe. We find it is very challenging to detect such a signal. We also demonstrate that it is improper to treat the gravitational waves produced by such binaries in the Milky Way as a directional stochastic background, due to a very low binary formation rate.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

High-precision search for dark photon dark matter with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array

The nature of dark matter remains obscure in spite of decades of experimental efforts. The mass of dark matter candidates can span a wide range, and its coupling with the Standard Model sector remains uncertain. All these unknowns make the etection of dark matter extremely challenging. Ultralight dark matter, with $m \sim10^{-22}$ eV, is proposed to reconcile the disagreements between observations and predictions from simulations of small-scale structures in the cold dark matter paradigm, while remaining consistent with other observations. Because of its large de Broglie wavelength and large local occupation number within galaxies, ultralight dark matter behaves like a coherently oscillating background field with an oscillating frequency dependent on its mass. If the dark matter particle is a spin-1 dark photon, such as the $U(1)_B$ or $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge boson, it can induce an external oscillating force and lead to displacements of test masses. Such an effect would be observable in the form of periodic variations in the arrival times of radio pulses from highly stable millisecond pulsars. In this study, we search for evidence of ultralight dark photon dark matter (DPDM) using 14-year high-precision observations of 26 pulsars collected with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array. While no statistically significant signal is found, we place constraints on coupling constants for the $U(1)_B$ and $U(1)_{B-L}$ DPDM. Compared with other experiments, the limits on the dimensionless coupling constant $ε$ achieved in our study are improved by up to two orders of magnitude when the dark photon mass is smaller than $3\times10^{-22}$~eV ($10^{-22}$~eV) for the $U(1)_{B}$ ($U(1)_{B-L}$) scenario.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Sun Heated MeV-scale Dark Matter and the XENON1T Electron Recoil Excess

The XENON1T collaboration reported an excess of the low-energy electron recoil events between 1 and 7 keV. We explore the possibility to explain such an anomaly by the MeV-scale dark matter (DM) heated by the interior of the Sun due to the same DM-electron interaction as in the detector. The kinetic energies of heated DM particles can reach a few keV, and can potentially account for the excess signals detected by XENON1T. We study different form factors of the DM-electron interactions, $F(q)\propto q^i$ with $i=0,1,2$ and $q$ being the momentum exchange, and find that for all these cases the inclusion of the Sun-heated DM component improves the fit to the XENON1T data. The inferred DM-electron scattering cross section (at $q=αm_e$ where $α$ is the fine structure constant and $m_e$ is electron mass) is from $\sim 10^{-38}$~cm$^2$ (for $i=0$) to $\sim 10^{-42}$~cm$^2$ (for $i=2$). We also derive constraints on the DM-electron cross sections for different form factors, which are stronger than previous results with similar assumptions. We emphasize that the Sun-heated DM scenario relies on the minimum assumption on DM models, which serves as a general explanation of the XENON1T anomaly via DM-electron interaction. The spectrum of the Sun-heated DM is typically soft comparing to other boosted DM, so the small recoil events are expected to be abundant in this scenario. More sensitive direct detection experiments with lower thresholds can possibly distinguish this scenario with other boosted DM models or solar axion models.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Probing new physics for $(g-2)_μ$ and gravitational waves

We study the possibility of probing new physics accounting for $(g-2)_μ$ anomaly and gravitational waves with pulsar timing array measurements. The model we consider is either a light gauge boson or neutral scalar interacting with muons. We show that the parameter spaces of dark $U(1)$ model with kinetic mixing explaining $(g-2)_μ$ anomaly can realize a first-order phase transition, and the yield-produced gravitational wave may address the common red noise observed in the NANOGrav 12.5-yr dataset.

hep-ph↗