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Yu-Dai Tsai

Publications and source records attributed to Yu-Dai Tsai.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Naturally Resonant Dark Matter from Extra Dimensions

We explore the mass-resonance structure that naturally arises in extradimensional models. The resonance can enhance both dark matter annihilation and self-interactions. We demonstrate such a resonance structure by considering the fermionic dark matter and dark photon models on an $S^1/(Z_2 \times Z_2')$ orbifold. We also note that this model embeds a dark matter axial-vector coupling to the dark photon, thereby opening up the viable dark matter parameter space. We then present the unique predictions for direct-detection experiments and accelerator searches.

hep-ph

Nuclear Recoils from Invisible Neutron-Pair Annihilation and the LZ event

Two bound neutrons can annihilate into a single invisible scalar carrying baryon number two, producing a monochromatic nuclear recoil. Pair removal connects the $0^+$ ground states of even-even nuclei and, for several detector isotopes, leaves a stable daughter where single-neutron removal would leave a radioactive one. Below the first daughter excitation, the leading transition produces neither nuclear de-excitation nor subsequent daughter decay. We identify the corresponding mass windows in argon and xenon, including argon recoils up to $108\,\mathrm{keV}$, and obtain an approximate partial-lifetime bound of $8.5 \times 10^{26}\,\mathrm{yr}$ from DEAP-3600 data. Recoil lines in different isotopes reconstruct a common invisible-particle mass. The emitted scalar can itself be dark matter, making these searches a probe of ordinary matter converting into a dark sector.

hep-ph

Gravity Probe-DM: The Gravitational Laboratory for Dark Matter

Dark matter is inferred gravitationally across the Universe but has not been detected within the Solar System. The Sun inevitably focuses incident unbound dark matter into an irreducible downstream wake. Its structure encodes the incoming density and velocity distribution and, for wave dark matter, the de Broglie scale. We propose Gravity Probe-DM, a heliocentric search using precision ranging between spacecrafts. The exact two-spacecraft observable is the differential wake acceleration; for a short baseline, it becomes the wake tidal tensor projected along the baseline. For a $2.5\times10^6\,\mathrm{km}$ baseline crossing a $0.1\,\mathrm{AU}$ coherent width at $30\,\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}}$, a one-percent excess gives a raw uniform-core range scale of $0.63\,\mathrm{pm}$ over $5.77\,\mathrm d$. While the projected tide remains coherent over an interval $T$, the free response grows as $T^2$, reaching $2.5\,\mathrm{nm}$ over one year. An illustrative low-lag dark-disk component carrying $20\%$ of the reference local density and reaching a $30\%$ focused contrast gives a one-year scale of about $15\,\mathrm{nm}$. These pre-fit response scales show that trajectory design can move the signal from sub-picometre to nanometre scales. A detection would provide a purely gravitational map of local dark matter and probe the flow that produced it, including particle versus wave focusing. The Sun supplies the lens, spacecraft sample the wake, and precision ranging reads out its gravitational imprint.

hep-ph

Direct Detection of Millicharged Particles from Supernovae

This work proposes a new terrestrial probe for millicharged particles (mCPs) and demonstrates promising discovery prospects. mCPs can be copiously produced in core-collapse supernovae (SNe), and a fraction may escape, travel to Earth and yield distinct signals. The mCP mass induces a time-of-flight (ToF) delay relative to the SN neutrino burst, opening a clean search window after the neutrino signal has passed. We compute the mCP-induced electron-recoil signals at XENONnT, JUNO, DUNE, and Hyper-Kamiokande for benchmark SN scenarios, and find that for $\varepsilon = 10^{-9}$ and sub-MeV to MeV-scale masses, more than 10 events per year can be detected. This search can improve upon existing SN cooling bound on $\varepsilon$ by up to an order of magnitude.

hep-ph

Arithmetic Symmetry in Ideal Prouhet-Tarry-Escott Solutions

Motivated in part by anomaly cancellation for integral charge spectra in chiral gauge theory, we study the symmetric locus in the ideal degree-three Prouhet-Tarry-Escott problem. A symmetric integer solution is one whose entries are paired about a common center $c\in \frac12\mathbb Z$. This symmetry reduces the problem to a sum-of-two-squares equation, $x^2+y^2=u^2+v^2$, in integer variables, subject to the appropriate parity conditions. Thus the problem is governed by representations as sums of two squares. For the full symmetric locus, let $N_{\mathrm{sym}}(H)$ denote the number of nontrivial symmetric integer solutions of height at most $H$, counted with unordered multiset conventions and summed over the admissible centers. Then \begin{align*} N_{\mathrm{sym}}(H) = \frac{4\log 2}{3π^2}H^3\log H+O(H^3). \end{align*} The logarithmic enhancement comes from the second moment of the sum-of-two-squares representation function. In particular, the symmetric locus is larger than one would expect from the naive $H^3$ degree-weighted box-counting scale alone. This asymptotic identifies a large arithmetically structured subfamily of the ideal degree-three solution space, and suggests that paired anomaly-free integral charge spectra reflect a fundamental number-theoretic structure.

math.NT

Number Theory in Quantum Physics: Minicharged Particles and the Prouhet-Tarry-Escott Problem

In quantum gauge theories, anomaly cancellation severely restricts the allowed patterns of chiral charges. Here we show that, in a phenomenologically motivated framework for light minicharged particles, the anomaly cancellation conditions are equivalent to the degree $k=3$ Prouhet-Tarry-Escott problem in number theory. This correspondence immediately implies that the hidden sector must contain at least four minicharged states. For constructions based on minimal ideal solutions, the mass spectrum generically exhibits a near-degenerate doublet structure, so that the discovery of one minicharged particle would point to a partner state with the same minicharge and a nearby mass. Our results uncover an unexpected link between quantum consistency and number theory, with direct implications for model building and future searches.

hep-ph

QUPITER -- Space Quantum Sensors for Jovian-Bound Dark Matter

We propose utilizing space quantum sensors to detect ultralight dark matter (ULDM) bound to planetary bodies, focusing on Jupiter as the heaviest planet in the solar system. Leveraging Jupiter's deep gravitational potential and the wealth of experience from numerous successful missions, we present strong sensitivity projections on the mass and couplings of scalar ULDM. Future space missions offer unique opportunities to probe the ULDM interactions using quantum sensors, including superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometers. By measuring dark matter-induced magnetic field oscillations, we expect to achieve sensitivity orders of magnitude beyond the terrestrial probes and significantly improve detection prospects of theoretically motivated ULDM candidates.

hep-ph

Dedicated Searches for Millicharged Particles at Intensity-Frontier Facilities: SpinQuest and SHiP

We conduct a dedicated study of searches for millicharged particles (mCPs) utilizing scintillator-based detectors at high-intensity fixed-target experiments, with particular focus on the SpinQuest and forthcoming Search for Hidden Particles experiment (SHiP) facilities. The analysis incorporates the three primary production mechanisms: meson decays, Drell-Yan processes, and proton bremsstrahlung. In particular, our updated analysis reveals that proton bremsstrahlung dominates the production rate in the sub-GeV mass regime. Detailed detector simulations and background evaluations are performed to obtain realistic sensitivity estimates. Our results demonstrate that future experiments located in the SpinQuest and SHiP facilities can achieve substantial improvements in discovery potential, enhancing sensitivity to the mCP charge parameter $ε=q_χ/e$ (with $q_χ$ denoting the mCP electric charge) by up to two orders of magnitude relative to existing limits.

hep-ph

Input to the ESPPU 2026 update: Searching for millicharged particles with the FORMOSA experiment at the CERN LHC

In this contribution, we evaluate the sensitivity for particles with charges much smaller than the electron charge with a dedicated scintillator-based detector in the far forward region at the CERN LHC, FORMOSA. This contribution will outline the scientific case for this detector, its design and potential locations, and the sensitivity that can be achieved. The ongoing efforts to prove the feasibility of the detector with the FORMOSA demonstrator will be discussed. Finally, possible upgrades to the detector through the use of high-performance scintillator will be discussed.

hep-ex

Neutrino Electromagnetic Properties and the Weak Mixing Angle at the LHC Forward Physics Facility

The LHC produces an intense beam of highly energetic neutrinos of all three flavors in the forward direction, and the Forward Physics Facility (FPF) has been proposed to house a suite of experiments taking advantage of this opportunity. In this study, we investigate the FPF's potential to probe the neutrino electromagnetic properties, including neutrino millicharge, magnetic moment, and charge radius. We find that, due to the large flux of tau neutrinos at the LHC, the FPF detectors will be able to provide more sensitive constraints on the tau neutrino magnetic moment and millicharge than previous measurements at DONUT, by searching for excess in low recoil energy electron scattering events. We also find that, by precisely measuring the rate of neutral current deep inelastic scattering events, the FPF detectors have the potential to obtain the strongest experimental bounds on the neutrino charge radius for the electron neutrino, and one of the leading bounds for the muon neutrino flavor. The same signature could also be used to measure the weak mixing angle, and we estimate that $\sin^2 θ_W$ could be measured to about $3\%$ precision at a scale $Q \sim 10$ GeV, shedding new light on the longstanding NuTeV anomaly.

hep-ph

The Sound of Dark Sectors in Pulsar Timing Arrays

A phase transition in the dark sector (DS) presents a promising explanation for the stochastic gravitational wave (GW) signals detected in recent observations by Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs). Instead of focusing solely on fitting data with phenomenological parameters, we systematically delineate simple, underlying dark sector (DS) models at the microscopic, Lagrangian level and uncover the conditions required to yield the GW spectrum observed by PTAs. We also illustrate the possibilities of the DS cosmology, which may include a dark matter candidate with a $\mathcal{O}$(MeV) mass.

hep-ph

LANSCE-mQ: Dedicated search for milli/fractionally charged particles at LANL

In this paper, we propose an experiment, LANSCE-mQ, aiming to detect fractionally charged and millicharged particles (mCP) using an 800 MeV proton beam fixed target at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) facility. This search can shed new light on numerous fundamental questions, including charge quantization, the predictions of string theories and grand unification theories, the gauge symmetry of the Standard Model, dark sector models, and the tests of cosmic reheating. We propose to install two-layer scintillation detectors made of plastic (such as EJ-200) or CeBr3 to search for mCPs. Dedicated Geant4 detector simulations and in situ measurements have been conducted to obtain a preliminary determination of the background rate. The dominant backgrounds are beam-induced neutrons and coincident dark current signals from the photomultiplier tubes, while beam-induced gammas and cosmic muons are subdominant. We determined that LANSCE-mQ, the dedicated mCP experiment, has the leading mCP sensitivity for mass between ~ 1 MeV to 300 MeV.

hep-ph

Neural Erosion: Emulating Controlled Neurodegeneration and Aging in AI Systems

Creating controlled methods to simulate neurodegeneration in artificial intelligence (AI) is crucial for applications that emulate brain function decline and cognitive disorders. We use IQ tests performed by Large Language Models (LLMs) and, more specifically, the LLaMA 2 to introduce the concept of ``neural erosion." This deliberate erosion involves ablating synapses or neurons, or adding Gaussian noise during or after training, resulting in a controlled progressive decline in the LLMs' performance. We are able to describe the neurodegeneration in the IQ tests and show that the LLM first loses its mathematical abilities and then its linguistic abilities, while further losing its ability to understand the questions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that models neurodegeneration with text data, compared to other works that operate in the computer vision domain. Finally, we draw similarities between our study and cognitive decline clinical studies involving test subjects. We find that with the application of neurodegenerative methods, LLMs lose abstract thinking abilities, followed by mathematical degradation, and ultimately, a loss in linguistic ability, responding to prompts incoherently. These findings are in accordance with human studies.

cs.CL

Searching for millicharged particles with 1 kg of Skipper-CCDs using the NuMI beam at Fermilab

Oscura is a planned light-dark matter search experiment using Skipper-CCDs with a total active mass of 10 kg. As part of the detector development, the collaboration plans to build the Oscura Integration Test (OIT), an engineering test with 10% of the total mass. Here we discuss the early science opportunities with the OIT to search for millicharged particles (mCPs) using the NuMI beam at Fermilab. mCPs would be produced at low energies through photon-mediated processes from decays of scalar, pseudoscalar, and vector mesons, or direct Drell-Yan productions. Estimates show that the OIT would be a world-leading probe for mCPs in the MeV mass range.

hep-ex

Constraints on fifth forces and ultralight dark matter from OSIRIS-REx target asteroid Bennu

Using the OSIRIS-REx mission and ground-based tracking data for the asteroid Bennu, we derive new constraints on fifth forces and ultralight dark matter. The bounds we obtain are strongest for mediator masses $m \sim 10^{-18} - 10^{-17}\,{\rm eV}$, where we currently achieve the tightest bounds. Our limits can be translated to a wide class of models leading to Yukawa-type fifth forces, and we demonstrate how they apply to $U(1)_B$ dark photons and baryon-coupled scalars. Our results demonstrate the potential of asteroid tracking in probing well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model and ultralight dark matter satisfying the fuzzy dark matter constraints.

hep-ph

Cosmic Millicharge Background and Reheating Probes

We demonstrate that the searches for dark sector particles can provide probes of reheating scenarios, focusing on the cosmic millicharge background produced in the early universe. We discuss two types of millicharge particles (mCPs): either with, or without, an accompanying dark photon. These two types of mCPs have distinct theoretical motivations and cosmological signatures. We discuss constraints from the overproduction and mCP-baryon interactions of the mCP without an accompanying dark photon, with different reheating temperatures. We also consider the $ΔN_{\rm eff}$ constraints on the mCPs from kinetic mixing, varying the reheating temperature. The regions of interest in which the accelerator and other experiments can probe the reheating scenarios are identified in this paper for both scenarios. These probes can potentially allow us to set an upper bound on the reheating temperature down to $\sim 10$ MeV, much lower than the previously considered upper bound from inflationary cosmology at around $\sim 10^{16}$ GeV. In addition, we find parameter regions in which the two mCP scenarios may be differentiated by cosmological considerations. Finally, we discuss the implications of dedicated mCP searches and future CMB-S4 observations.

hep-ph

Novel constraints on fifth forces and ultralight dark sector with asteroidal data

We study for the first time the possibility of probing long-range fifth forces utilizing asteroid astrometric data, via the fifth force-induced orbital precession. We examine nine Near-Earth Object (NEO) asteroids whose orbital trajectories are accurately determined via optical and radar astrometry. Focusing on a Yukawa-type potential mediated by a new gauge field (dark photon) or a baryon-coupled scalar, we estimate the sensitivity reach for the fifth force coupling strength and mediator mass in the mass range $m \simeq (10^{-21}-10^{-15})\,{\rm eV}$, near the ``fuzzy'' dark matter region. Our estimated sensitivity is comparable to leading limits from equivalence principle tests, potentially exceeding these in a specific mass range. Furthermore, we set new constraints on Yukawa gravity. The fifth force-induced precession increases with the orbital semi-major axis in the limit of a small mass $m$, motivating the study of objects further away from the Sun. We discuss future prospects for extending our study to more than a million asteroids, including NEOs, main-belt asteroids, Hildas, and Jupiter Trojans, as well as trans-Neptunian objects and exoplanets.

hep-ph

Horizon-scale tests of gravity theories and fundamental physics from the Event Horizon Telescope image of Sagittarius A$^*$

Horizon-scale images of black holes (BHs) and their shadows have opened an unprecedented window onto tests of gravity and fundamental physics in the strong-field regime. We consider a wide range of well-motivated deviations from classical General Relativity (GR) BH solutions, and constrain them using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations of Sagittarius A$^*$ (Sgr A$^*$), connecting the size of the bright ring of emission to that of the underlying BH shadow and exploiting high-precision measurements of Sgr A$^*$'s mass-to-distance ratio. The scenarios we consider, and whose fundamental parameters we constrain, include various regular BHs, string-inspired space-times, violations of the no-hair theorem driven by additional fields, alternative theories of gravity, novel fundamental physics frameworks, and BH mimickers including well-motivated wormhole and naked singularity space-times. We demonstrate that the EHT image of Sgr A$^*$ places particularly stringent constraints on models predicting a shadow size larger than that of a Schwarzschild BH of a given mass, with the resulting limits in some cases surpassing cosmological ones. Our results are among the first tests of fundamental physics from the shadow of Sgr A$^*$ and, while the latter appears to be in excellent agreement with the predictions of GR, we have shown that a number of well motivated alternative scenarios, including BH mimickers, are far from being ruled out at present.

gr-qc