To predict mass maxima for spherically symmetric compact stars, we use the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation together with an equation of state (EoS). The EoS relates the pressure and energy density, and can be derived for different types of matter. We expect nuclear matter EoSs to break down for a large enough energy density, a threshold which may be surpassed as one approaches the center...
In this talk I will discuss the three-flavor quark-meson model including color superconductivity, with emphasis on the 2SC and CFL phases. We extend the quark-meson model to the quark meson diquark model. This is a renormalizable low energy effective model that describes the superconductive phases of QCD. We calculate the thermodynamic potential including quark loops. We map out the phase...
QCD-like theories are of interest in various areas of beyond-Standard-Model phenomenology, including composite Higgs models and strongly interacting pionic dark matter. The low-energy effective field theories provide a framework for describing the dynamics of such strongly coupled gauge theories.
In this work, we present next-to-leading order (NLO) expressions for masses, condensates, decay...
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are atomic nuclei that reach Earth with energies of up to several hundred exaelectronvolts. Identifying their sources is a key challenge in high-energy astrophysics. Motivated by the fact that candidate astrophysical accelerators exhibit high diversity in terms of their relevant properties, such as luminosity and Lorentz factor, we study the compatibility...
The modern amplitude program has not only introduced computationally efficient methods for particle scattering but also revealed surprisingly close relationships between seemingly disparate theories, such as Yang-Mills theory and general relativity. In this talk, I will present a novel type of duality that connects known effective field theories for massless scalars. This duality relates the...
The baryon asymmetry problem remains a crucial challenge in particle physics and cosmology. Electroweak baryogenesis, a leading mechanism to produce the matter-antimatter asymmetry we observe today, requires an extension of the Standard Model to achieve a sufficiently strong first-order phase transition (FOPT). Besides representing a target for several future-generation colliders, such Beyond...
This will be a brief update on progress in gravitational wave observations, focussing on the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA detectors. Prospects for observing gravitational-wave transients in the future will also be discussed.
Since the discovery of very-high-energy (E ≥ 100 TeV) astrophysical neutrinos in the 2010s by the IceCube neutrino observatory, their origin remains largely unknown. In our work, we investigate blazars — active galaxies with their relativistic jets pointing very close to the Earth — as potential sources of the neutrinos observed by IceCube. We use the brightest blazar flare in blazar 3C...
The so-called "strongly interacting massive particles" (SIMPs) refer to a class of dark matter candidates with the relic abundance set by the $3\to2$ interactions which allows for dark matter with sub-GeV masses, not yet strongly constrained by direct detection experiments. Interestingly, SIMP dark matter features relatively strong self-interactions that may explain the small-scale structure...
The Next-to-Minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) is a phenomenologically motivated supersymmetric model that includes a gauge-singlet superfield, two $SU(2)$ Higgs doublets and a set of five neutrally charged fermions (neutralinos). Thus, NMSSM can be used to study the properties of extended Higgs sectors and dark matter candidates. We target the union of these two and compute the...
Halo dark matter particles with sub-GeV masses do not possess sufficient kinetic energy to induce detectable recoils of heavy nuclei, direct detection experiments, hence, loose sensitivity to such light dark matter. Dark matter particles can be, however, accelerated by different mechanisms and even light dark matter can then provide observable signatures. These signatures include not only...
