Welcome

• Massimiliano Procura (University of Vienna (AT))

Ultra-peripheral collisions with ALICE

• Roman Lavicka (Austrian Academy of Sciences (AT))

Photon-induced reactions in ultra-peripheral collisions (UPCs) at the LHC have been studied using the ALICE detector for several years. The ALICE detector can measure the photoproduction cross section for vector mesons at various rapidities, centre-of-mass energies and collision systems. This allows us to study the energy evolution of the gluon content of the different targets: protons, Xe and Pb nuclei. I will give an introduction to UPC studies with ALICE, discuss recent results, and present prospects for searches of beyond Standard Model physics in near (Run 3 and 4) and far (Run 5, ALICE3 detector) future with UPCs.

Low-mass dielectron measurements in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions with ALICE at the LHC

• Daniel Samitz (Austrian Academy of Sciences (AT))

The measurement of low-mass e+e− pairs is a powerful tool to study the properties of the quark-gluon plasma created in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Since such pairs do not interact strongly and are emitted during all stages of the collisions, they allow us to investigate the full time evolution and dynamics of the medium created. In particular, thermal radiation emitted by the colliding system, both during the partonic and hadronic phase, contributes to the dielectron yield over a broad mass range and gives insight into the temperature of the medium together with real photon measurements. In this contribution, I will present the most recent low-mass dielectron measurements with the ALICE detector at LHC, in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at different energies. The results will be compared with the expected dielectron yields from known hadronic sources and with theoretical predictions.

Nuclear data evaluation of light nuclear reaction systems

• Helmut Leeb (Atominstitut, TU Wien (AT))

The quantitative knowledge of reaction cross sections is an important prerequisite for the development of novel nuclear technologies as well as for research in several fields of science, e.g. medicine, astrophysics, space research etc. At present nuclear data evaluation techniques are well established for medium heavy and heavy nuclear systems. The situation of nuclear data evaluation of light nuclear systems is less satisfactory and its improvement is subject of worldwide efforts. In this presentation an overview of recent achievements in this field by the nuclear data group at TU Wien is given. Especially, recent developments in reduced R-matrix analyses and first R-matrix calculations of three-body breakup channels will be presented.

Neutron Experiments on Quantum States at Pico Scale

• Hartmut Abele

Perfect crystal interferometry with thermal neutrons has been a powerful tool to study foundations of quantum mechanics for almost half a century, performed at the high-flux reactor ILL at Grenoble, France, where the Atominstitut (ATI) owns a permanent beamline for thermal neutrons (S18) and develops new quantum techniques at other beamlines using very-cold neutrons (VCNs) and ultra-cold neutrons (UCNs). We propose to build three new innovative interferometers, targeted at the preparation and control of quantum states. The increased sensitivity and precision of up to three orders of magnitude are achieved by advanced future setups, in particular a) a split-crystal interferometer setup for thermal neutrons, utilising the outstanding experience of nano-positioning of INRiM, b) the realization of a VCN interferometer, and c) to develop a quantum storage ring for an UCN setup, were longer interaction times are available for the quantum bouncing ball in a technically challenging gravity resonance spectroscopy setup. We endorse access to the three proposed facilities S18-IFM, VCN-IFM, and UCN-IFM for other users.

NuPECC report

• Eberhard Widmann (Austrian Academy of Sciences (AT))

I will report on the activities of NuPECC, particularly on the new Long Range Plan which will be drafted this year.

Vacuum energy, the Casimir effect, and Newton's non-constant

• Benjamin Koch

We explore the possibility that the quantum vacuum energy density of the Casimir effect contributes to a (local) gravitational vacuum energy density. This hypothesis has several important consequences, reaching from quantum scale-dependence to the prospect of novel experimental insight concerning the quantum origin of the cosmological energy density associated with the accelerated expansion of the universe.

Carrollian Physics

• Daniel Grumiller

The Carrollian limit is the opposite of the Galilean limit. I give a brief overview of the recent proliferation of activities in Carrollian physics, including flat-space holography, near-horizon physics, fluid dynamics, ultra-relativistic strings, and exotic quantum field theories.

CoE aftermath

• Jochen Schieck (Austrian Academy of Sciences (AT))
• Eberhard Widmann (Austrian Academy of Sciences (AT))

Where should we go?

Dark matter searches with CRESST and COSINUS

• Samir Banik

Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers (CRESST) is a direct detection dark matter (DM) search experiment located at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy. The experiment employs cryogenic and scintillating crystals to search for nuclear recoils from DM particles, and has achieved thresholds below 100 eV for a wide range of target materials including CaWO4, LiAlO2, Al2O3, and Si. The sensitivity to measure small energy depositions makes CRESST one of the leading experiments in sub-GeV dark matter search. A major challenge for all low-mass dark matter searches is the presence of an unknown event population at very low energies, called the low energy excesses (LEE). The scientific effort at CRESST in the latest run has been primarily towards an understanding of the origin of this excess. We report dark matter search results as well as updates on the understanding of LEE from CRESST-III. While numerous experiments are constraining DM parameter space, DAMA/LIBRA has been detecting annual modulation signal compatible with DM in our galaxy for about 25 years. Cryogenic Observatory for SIg- natures seen in Next-generation Underground Searches (COSINUS) is a direct-detection DM search experiment that aims to provide a model-independent cross-check for the signal observed by DAMA/LIBRA. COSINUS uses NaI as the target material (same as DAMA) and the temperature sensor technology developed within the CRESST collaboration. While the use of the same target material provides a test devoid of any material- dependant effect, the sensor technology of CRESST gives an additional ability to event-by-event discriminate β/γ events from nuclear recoils. We present the status and plans of the COSINUS experiment.

Effective theory applications to precision calculations in particle physics

• Alessandro Broggio

Effective field theory methods have been extremely successful in pushing the precision frontier for a large class of processes in particle physics. In this talk, I will present my recent work on the applications of Soft-Collinear Effective Theory both to the development of the GENEVA Monte Carlo event generator and to the study of subleading power corrections in the context of soft-gluon (threshold) resummation.

Challenges for event generators at future experiments

• Simon Platzer (University of Graz (AT))

I will discuss the challenges we face in advancing Monte Carlo event generators and precision calculations towards future experiments, notably FCC and EIC, but also to reactions beyond colliders.

Effective field theories for BSM physics

• Tyler Corbett (U Vienna)

After runs 1 and 2 at the LHC there seems to be little evidence of new physics at the energy scales the LHC can probe. Given this situation a natural approach to looking for beyond the Standard Model physics is the use of Effective Field Theories (EFTs) which allow us to study decoupled physics (i.e. physics at mass scales beyond the reach of collider experiments) in a systematically improvable manner consistent with the tenets of Quantum Field Theory. I will briefly summarize my work with EFTs, specifically the Standard Model EFT (SMEFT) and a new geometric approach to the SMEFT referred to as the geoSMEFT. I will then briefly explain some open questions I'm interested in exploring with the intention of provoking discussion, especially with experimentalists, about how this work might be interfaced with experiment.

Exotic hadron spectroscopy with functional methods

• Gernot Eichmann

I will discuss progress on exotic hadron spectroscopy with functional methods such as Dyson-Schwinger and Bethe-Salpeter equations. Based on meson and baryon calculations, there have been advances in studying tetraquarks in the light- and heavy-quark sector and their mixing with q-qbar states, glueballs in Yang-Mills theory, and first exploratory calculations for pentaquarks and hybrid mesons are underway. This goes hand in hand with more precise determinations of QCD's n-point correlation functions that enter in such calculations.

Masses and mixings in minimally parameterised UV completions of the Standard Model

• Reinhard Alkofer (University of Graz)

Simple parameterisations of new physics that results in an ultraviolet complete gauge-fermion sector of the Standard Model are explored. Specifically, we add an anti-screening contribution to the beta functions of the gauge couplings and a flavour-independent, anti-screening contribution to the beta functions of the quarks' and leptons’ Yukawa couplings. These two free parameters give rise to a number of Renormalization Group fixed points. Some of them lead to a low-energy flavour structure and mixing pattern in agreement with the Standard Model. Successes and failures of this attempt to determine some of the free parameters of the Standard Model by the Renormalization Group flow will be discussed.

FAKT matters

• Massimiliano Procura (University of Vienna (AT))

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