High Energy Physics

It has been proposed that microscopic black holes can catalyze decay of metastable false vacuum. The calculations of the decay rate existing in the literature make use of the Euclidean time formalism developed for equilibrium configurations. This is not the case, however, for a realistic black hole formed by gravitational collapse and emitting Hawking radiation. I will review the motivations to study black hole catalysis of vacuum decay, propose a general method to calculate the decay rate, and illustrate it on a two-dimensional toy model.

The last decade has seen significant progress in our understanding of scattering in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space. Through the AdS/CFT correspondence, we can reformulate scattering processes in AdS in terms of correlation functions in Conformal Field Theory (CFT), which are sharply defined by the requirements of Conformal Symmetry, Unitarity and a consistent Operator Product expansion. Accordingly, numerous highly effective techniques for the study of scattering in AdS have been developed. This has been driven largely by the Conformal Bootstrap programme, which aims to carve out the space of consistent CFTs (and, in turn, quantum gravities in AdS space) principally through the three basic consistency requirements above. In this talk I will describe some steps towards extending some of these techniques and results to boundary correlators in de Sitter (dS) space. Compared to AdS, we have little grasp of the properties required of consistent correlation functions in Euclidean CFTs dual to physics in dS. The boundaries at infinity in dS are space-like with no standard notion of locality and time, so the basic criteria that underpin the Conformal Bootstrap programme do not directly apply to the corresponding programme in dS, the so-called Cosmological bootstrap. I will show how boundary correlators in AdS and dS can be placed on a similar footing by introducing a Mellin-Barnes representation in momentum space, providing a framework that could facilitate bridging the gap between the Conformal and Cosmological bootstrap programmes. I will then discuss how the Mellin-Barnes representation itself can be a useful tool to study boundary correlators both in AdS and dS.

Following the recommendation of the Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics and in view of rising interest shown in the US Snowmass process, a new International Muon Collider Collaboration is forming, hosted at CERN. The presentation will introduce the muon collider concept, the reason for the renewed interest and the main challenges and opportunities.

From dark matter to the strong CP problem to the dynamics behind the weak scale, a variety of observations make for a compelling case that the Standard Model is an incomplete description of subatomic physics. Yet none of these puzzles provides unambiguous guidance on how we should proceed to find what comes next.

I will argue that this state of affairs calls for a multi-directional strategy in our quest for physics Beyond-the-Standard-Model. Only a combination of new theoretical developments and original ideas, confronted with the vast array of experiments at our disposal, will provide us with the big picture we need to move beyond.

In recent years quantum error correction(QEC) has become an important part of AdS/CFT. Unfortunately, there are no field-theoretic arguments about why QEC holds in known holographic systems. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by studying the error-correcting properties of the fermionic sector of various large N theories. Specifically, we examine SU(N) matrix quantum mechanics and 3-rank tensor O(N)^3 theories. Both of these theories contain large gauge groups. We argue that gauge singlet states indeed form a quantum error-correcting code. Our considerations are based purely on large N analysis and do not appeal to a particular form of Hamiltonian or holography. Based on: arXiv: 2008.12869

Models of Dark Matter (DM) can leave unique imprints on the Universe's small scale structure by boosting density perturbations on small scales. We study the capability of Pulsar Timing Arrays to search for, and constrain, subhalos from such models. The models of DM we consider are ordinary adiabatic perturbations in ΛCDM, QCD axion miniclusters, models with early matter domination, and vector DM produced during inflation.

If we live in a supersymmetric world, SUSY has to be broken at some (high) scale. I will show how the presence of a SUSY-breaking hidden sector can lead to gravitational wave (GW) signals at future interferometers. I will focus on first order phase transitions that can occur along the pseudomodulus universally related to SUSY breaking. Current bounds on the superpartners are compatible with GW signals at future interferometers, while the observation of a GW signal from a SUSY-breaking hidden sector would imply superpartners within the reach of future colliders.  Along the way, I will analyze the new field theoretical features of the phase transition along the pseudomodulus direction. These allow us to pinpoint what are the necessary requirements for a SUSY-breaking hidden sector to lead to strong GW signals.