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PIKIMO 18, University of Kentucky, 19 April 2025

19 April 2025
Chemistry Physics (CP) Building
America/New_York timezone

Contribution List

11 out of 11 displayed
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  1. 9. Observable CMB B-modes from Cosmological Phase Transitions
    Gordan Krnjaic (Fermilab)
    19/04/2025, 09:30
  2. 4. Enhancing Solar Neutrino Sensitivity with Neutron Tagging
    Obada Nairat (The Ohio State University)
    19/04/2025, 10:30

    Solar neutrinos provide crucial insights into the Sun’s fusion processes and neutrino oscillations in matter. However, detecting them requires effective suppression of backgrounds. One of these is spallation backgrounds—beta decays of unstable isotopes produced by cosmic-ray muons— which pose a major challenge above 6 MeV. We show that neutron tagging, made possible by the recent addition of...

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  3. 5. Non-Gaussianity from explicit $U(1)$-breaking interactions
    Taegyu Lee (Indiana University)
    19/04/2025, 11:00

    We investigate primordial non-Gaussianity (NG) that arises from explicit $U(1)$ symmetry-breaking interactions during inflation, focusing on a nearly massless axial component of a complex scalar field $P$. We compute the resulting NG parameter $f_{\mathrm{NL}}$, allowing the axial field to act as either a curvaton or cold dark matter (CDM). We consider two scenarios in which the interaction...

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  4. 7. Constraining Cosmological Phase Transitions through Curvature Perturbations
    Daven Wei Ren Ho
    19/04/2025, 11:30

    Cosmological first order phase transitions proceed via the random nucleation and expansion of bubbles throughout space. This inherently stochastic process leads to statistical fluctuations across causally disconnected patches from which super-horizon curvature perturbations emerge. I will discuss how such phase transitions generate scalar perturbations that follow a universal power-law scaling...

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  5. 10. New Tools for Dark Matter and Gravitational Wave Detection: Cryogenic Optical Resonators and Long-Baseline Atom Interferometers
    Timothy Kovachy
    19/04/2025, 13:30

    Abstract: The search for dark matter and for new sources of gravitational waves offers potentially revolutionary opportunities to learn about the fundamental properties of the Universe. Strong astrophysical evidence indicates that dark matter makes up most of the matter in the Universe, yet its nature remains a great mystery. The detection of gravitational waves in currently unexplored...

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  6. 1. New Physics from Light Scalars in Rare Kaon Decay
    Rahul Pradeep (University of Cincinnati)
    19/04/2025, 14:30

    We introduce and investigate the effects of a light scalar interacting with the
    short-lived kaon and the KS → μ+μ− decay. We use the results of searches performed at
    kaon factories as well as the Standard Model predictions for this decay to constrain the
    couplings of a ϕ particle with a mass mϕ of the order of MeV. In addition to this we find
    the allowed parameter space for further CP...

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  7. 6. The Z \alpha^2 order radiative correction to nuclear beta decays
    Zehua Cao
    19/04/2025, 15:00

    Superallowed nuclear beta decays offer one of the most precise ways of extracting the CKM matrix |V_ud|, which is an important parameter in the Standard Model. QED radiative corrections play an important role in the precision computation of nuclear beta decays, which can be expressed in a series of Z \alpha and \alpha. Given the current experimental uncertainty, the order Z \alpha^2 correction...

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  8. 2. Electron EDM and Γ(μ → eγ) in the 2HDM
    Daniil Volkov (University of Cinccinati)
    19/04/2025, 15:30

    We present the first complete two-loop calculation of the electric dipole moment of the electron, as well as the rates of the lepton-flavor violating decays μ→e+γ and τ→e/μ+γ, in the unconstrained two-Higgs doublet model. We include the most general Yukawa interactions of the Higgs doublets with the Standard Model fermions up to quadratic order, and allow for generic phases in the Higgs...

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  9. 8. The Fermi Function, Factorization and the Neutron’s Lifetime
    Peter Vander Griend
    19/04/2025, 16:00

    The neutron lifetime is a precision observable of the Standard Model probing the CKM matrix element $|V_{ud}|$ and beyond the Standard Model physics. For nuclear beta decay, in the region of small electron velocity or the limit of large nuclear charge $Z$, a Fermi function is used to account for enhanced perturbative effects. In this talk, I will present the derivation of the quantum field...

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  10. 11. Primordial black holes and induced gravitational waves from an underdamped axion-like curvaton
    Dr Sai Chaitanya Tadepalli (Dept of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington)
    19/04/2025, 16:40

    We explore the generation of primordial black holes (PBHs) and second-order induced gravitational waves (GWs) arising from underdamped isocurvature fluctuations of an axion-like curvaton field. During inflation, the radial component of the curvaton undergoes underdamped evolution, leading to a resonant amplification of the curvaton's quantum fluctuations. This mechanism imprints...

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  11. 12. Direct detection of ultralight dark matter with charged lepton flavor violation
    Tony Menzo
    19/04/2025, 17:05

    I will discuss a class of ultralight dark matter models with charged-lepton-flavor violating couplings that can induce potentially observable time-dependent signals at the intensity frontier. I will highlight the sensitivity of current/future experiments and outline possible UV completions.

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