Pairwise Fisher graphs capture local covariance information, but they cannot distinguish an irreducible multi-observable radiation pattern from a collection of ordinary pairwise correlations. We show that this missing structure is naturally supplied by higher-order Fisher tensors. In a finite basis of binned EECs, ECFs, or EFPs, and in the natural exponential-family coordinates generated by that basis, the same local tensor has three equivalent interpretations: a coefficient in the local Kullback-Leibler expansion, a connected cumulant of the chosen correlator observables, and a signed weight on a hyperedge linking those observables. This gives an exact Fisher-correlator-hypergraph triality in the local exponential-family embedding. The triality provides a direct construction of physics-informed hypergraphs from correlator data. Extending the quadratic Fisher matrix to the first non-trivial higher tensor identifies genuinely connected multi-observable radiation patterns, supplies hyperedge weights for higher-order Laplacians and message passing, and gives a principled criterion for compressing observable bases beyond pairwise information. We develop these constructions and spell out why the exact cumulant interpretation is special to natural exponential-family coordinates. We illustrate the framework in four applications. In a minimal local-KL study, the cubic Fisher tensor reduces the KL truncation error and isolates the dominant triplet structure. In a two-versus-three prong jet substructure benchmark, the hypergraph selector improves compressed-basis classification. In a 33-observable basis-design problem, the Fisher hypergraph retains more third-order local response at twelve observables. A low-capacity learning benchmark then shows how the same Fisher hyperedges can be used as an interpretable inductive bias for message passing on correlator observables.
Measuring charge-parity (CP) violation in Higgs-fermion interactions is a key target of future precision Higgs programs. The decay H is particularly sensitive to the CP structure of the Higgs Yukawa coupling via τ spin correlation, while the clean environment of e^+e^- collisions at the Future Circular Collider (FCC) enables accurate reconstruction of CP-sensitive observables. In this letter, we study the sensitivity of FCC-ee to the Higgs CP state using H events produced in associated ZH production at √(s)=240 GeV. In the anomalous-coupling parametrization, we project a precision of Δϕ_ττ=± 2.5^∘ at 68
Particle physics and gravitational waves provide complementary probes of the deep structure of the Universe. Gravitational waves from the mergers of neutron stars and black holes are sensitive to the structure of dense quark matter and to different dark matter scenarios. Measurements of stochastic gravitational waves backgrounds can teach us about possible first order phase transitions in the early Universe, including providing sensitivity to the TeV scale which is of key interest to future particle collider experiments. Gravitational waves measurements will also give new probes of the evolution and expansion of the Universe, complementary to measurements with electromagnetic radiation. This Perspectives article explores the physics synergies between the science opportunities provided by next generation gravitational waves measurements and particle physics experiments. Gravitational waves can also probe deep into the early Universe reaching physics much above possible collider energies if the signals can be detected.
The Future Circular Collider (FCC) stands at the forefront of the European Strategy for Particle Physics as the future flagship project at CERN. The H →ττ decay, featuring a large branching ratio, clean identification in the FCC-ee environment, and the possibility to reconstruct tau spin-related observables, is an excellent channel to measure Higgs boson properties. This work shows the expected precision for the H →ττ cross-section measurement at the FCC-ee in the ZH production mechanism at √(s)= 240 GeV and √(s)= 365 GeV, as well as via the vector boson fusion process at √(s)= 365 GeV. Furthermore, we explore and evaluate a set of methods for reconstructing tau decays. These techniques are critical for unlocking the full physics potential of the FCC-ee and for improving the understanding of tau-related observables in both Standard Model measurements and New Physics searches. The obtained results significantly enhance the FCC-ee outlook in the H →ττ channel, improving it by at least an order of magnitude compared to the current uncertainties on the cross-sections measured at the LHC.
A machine-learning-based framework for constructing generator-level observables optimized for parameter extraction in particle physics analyses is introduced, referred to as the Optimal Observable Machine (OOM). Unfoldable differential distributions are learned that maximize sensitivity to a parameter of interest while remaining robust against detector effects, systematic uncertainties, and biases introduced by the unfolding procedure. Detector response and systematic uncertainties are explicitly incorporated into the training through a likelihood-based loss function, enabling a direct optimization of the expected measurement precision while minimizing the bias from any assumption on the parameter of interest itself. The approach is demonstrated in an application to top quark physics, focusing on the measurement of a recently observed pseudoscalar excess at the top quark pair production threshold in dilepton final states. It is shown that a generator-level observable with enhanced sensitivity and long-term reinterpretability can be constructed using this method.
This paper investigates the search for heavy neutral leptons (HNL) in the type I seesaw mechanism at the Future Circular Collider in its e+e− stage (FCC-ee), considering a luminosity of 125 ab−1 collected at √(s) = 91.2 GeV. The study examines two generations of heavy neutral leptons produced in association with Standard Model (SM) neutrinos and decaying to a purely leptonic final state. This theoretical framework can explain neutrino oscillations and other open questions of the SM, providing a broader perspective on the relevance of this experimental search. The analysis is performed using a fast simulation of the IDEA detector concept to study potential HNL interactions at the FCC-ee. The sensitivity contours are obtained from a selection of kinematic variables aimed at improving the signal-to-background ratio for the prompt production case. In the case of long-lived HNLs, the background can be almost fully eliminated by exploiting their displaced decay vertices. The study shows that the FCC-ee has a significant sensitivity to observing these objects in a region of the phase space not accessible by other experiments.
Beam dump experiments represent an effective way to probe new physics in a parameter space, where new particles have feeble couplings to the Standard Model sector and masses below the GeV scale. The LUXE experiment, designed primarily to study strong-field quantum electrodynamics, can be used also as a photon beam dump experiment with a unique reach for new spin-0 particles in the 10-350 MeV mass and 10-6-10-3 GeV-1 couplings to photons ranges. This is achieved via the "new physics search with optical dump" (NPOD) concept. While prior estimations were obtained with a simplified model of the experimental setup, in this work we present a systematic study of the new physics reach in the full, realistic experimental apparatus, including an existing detector to be used in the LUXE NPOD context. We furthermore investigate updated scenarios of LUXE's experimental plan and confirm that our results are in agreement with the original estimations of a background-free operation.
We introduce 1P1Q, a novel quantum data encoding scheme for high-energy physics (HEP), where each particle is assigned to an individual qubit, enabling direct representation of collision events on quantum circuits without classical compression. We demonstrate the effectiveness of 1P1Q in quantum machine learning (QML) through two applications: a quantum autoencoder (QAE) for unsupervised anomaly detection and a variational quantum circuit (VQC) for supervised classification of top quark jets. Our results show that the QAE successfully distinguishes signal jets from background quantum chromodynamics (QCD) jets, achieving superior performance compared to a classical autoencoder while utilizing significantly fewer trainable parameters. Similarly, the VQC achieves competitive classification performance, approaching state-of-the-art classical models despite its minimal computational complexity. Furthermore, we validate the QAE on real experimental data from the CMS detector, establishing the robustness of quantum algorithms in practical HEP applications. These results demonstrate that 1P1Q provides an effective and scalable quantum encoding strategy, offering new opportunities for applying quantum computing algorithms in collider data analysis.
Scientific collaborations require a strong computing infrastructure to successfully process and analyze data. While large-scale collaborations have access to resources such as Analysis Facilities, small-scale collaborations often lack the resources to establish and maintain such an infrastructure and instead operate with fragmented analysis environments, resulting in inefficiencies, hindering reproducibility and thus creating additional challenges for the collaboration that are not related to the experiment itself. We present a scalable, lightweight and maintainable Analysis Facility developed for the DARWIN collaboration as an example case study. Grid computing and storage resources are integrated into the facility, allowing for distributed computing and a common entry point for storage. The authentication and authorization infrastructure for all services is token-based, using an Indigo IAM instance. We discuss the architecture of the facility, its provided services, the user experience, and how it can serve as a sustainable blueprint for small-scale collaborations.
Classical deep neural networks can learn rich multi-particle correlations in collider data, but their inductive biases are rarely anchored in physics structure. We propose quantum-informed neural networks (QINNs), a general framework that brings quantum information concepts and quantum observables into purely classical models. While the framework is broad, in this paper, we study one concrete realisation that encodes each particle as a qubit and uses the Quantum Fisher Information Matrix (QFIM) as a compact, basis-independent summary of particle correlations. Using jet tagging as a case study, QFIMs act as lightweight embeddings in graph neural networks, increasing model expressivity and plasticity. The QFIM reveals distinct patterns for QCD and hadronic top jets that align with physical expectations. Thus, QINNs offer a practical, interpretable, and scalable route to quantum-informed analyses, that is, tomography, of particle collisions, particularly by enhancing well-established deep learning approaches.
The XLZD collaboration is developing a two-phase xenon time projection chamber with an active mass of 60–80 t capable of probing the remaining weakly interacting massive particle-nucleon interaction parameter space down to the so-called neutrino fog. In this work we show that, based on the performance of currently operating detectors using the same technology and a realistic reduction of radioactivity in detector materials, such an experiment will also be able to competitively search for neutrinoless double beta decay in 136 Xe using a natural-abundance xenon target. XLZD can reach a 3 σ discovery potential half-life of 5.7 × 10 27 years (and a 90% CL exclusion of 1.3 × 10 28 years) with 10 years of data taking, corresponding to a Majorana mass range of 7.3–31.3 meV (4.8–20.5 meV). XLZD will thus exclude the inverted neutrino mass ordering parameter space and will start to probe the normal ordering region for most of the nuclear matrix elements commonly considered by the community.
This report describes the experimental strategy and technologies for XLZD, the next-generation xenon observatory sensitive to dark matter and neutrino physics. In the baseline design, the detector will have an active liquid xenon target of 60 tonnes, which could be increased to 80 tonnes if the market conditions for xenon are favorable. It is based on the mature liquid xenon time projection chamber technology used in current-generation experiments, LZ and XENONnT. The report discusses the baseline design and opportunities for further optimization of the individual detector components. The experiment envisaged here has the capability to explore parameter space for Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) dark matter down to the neutrino fog, with a 3σ evidence potential for WIMP-nucleon cross sections as low as 3×10^-49 cm^2 (at 40 GeV/c^2 WIMP mass). The observatory will also have leading sensitivity to a wide range of alternative dark matter models. It is projected to have a 3σ observation potential of neutrinoless double beta decay of ^136Xe at a half-life of up to 5.7× 10^27 years. Additionally, it is sensitive to astrophysical neutrinos from the sun and galactic supernovae.
AbstractThe prospects are presented for precise measurements of the branching ratios of the purely leptonic $$B_c^+ \rightarrow \tau ^+ \nu _\tau $$ B c + → τ + ν τ and $$B^+ \rightarrow \tau ^+ \nu _\tau $$ B + → τ + ν τ decays at the Future Circular Collider (FCC). This work is focused on the hadronic $$\tau ^{+} \rightarrow \pi ^+ \pi ^+ \pi ^- {\bar{\nu }}_\tau $$ τ + → π + π + π - ν ¯ τ decay in both $$B_c^+ \rightarrow \tau ^+ \nu _\tau $$ B c + → τ + ν τ and $$B^+ \rightarrow \tau ^+ \nu _\tau $$ B + → τ + ν τ processes. Events are selected with two Boosted Decision Tree algorithms to optimise the separation between the two signal processes as well as the generic hadronic Z decay backgrounds. The range of the expected precision for both signals are evaluated in different scenarios of non-ideal background modelling. This paper demonstrates, for the first time, that the $$B^+ \rightarrow \tau ^+ \nu _\tau $$ B + → τ + ν τ decay can be well separated from both $$B_c^+ \rightarrow \tau ^+ \nu _\tau $$ B c + → τ + ν τ and generic $$Z\rightarrow b{\bar{b}}$$ Z → b b ¯ processes in the FCC-ee collision environment and proposes the corresponding branching ratio measurement as a novel way to determine the CKM matrix element $$|V_{ub}|$$ | V ub | . The theoretical impacts of both $$B^+ \rightarrow \tau ^+ \nu _\tau $$ B + → τ + ν τ and $$B_c^+ \rightarrow \tau ^+ \nu _\tau $$ B c + → τ + ν τ measurements on New Physics cases are discussed for interpretations in the generic Two-Higgs-doublet model and leptoquark models.
Using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the CMS experiment at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, the $\Lambda_\text{b}^0$ $\to$ J/$\psi\Xi^-$K$^+$ decay is observed for the first time, with a statistical significance exceeding 5 standard deviations. The relative branching fraction, with respect to the $\Lambda_\text{b}^0$ $\to$ $\psi$(2S)$\Lambda$ decay, is measured to be $\mathcal{B}$($\Lambda_\text{b}^0$ $\to$ J/$\psi\Xi^-$K$^+$)/$\mathcal{B}$( $\Lambda_\text{b}^0$ $\to$ $\psi$(2S)$\Lambda$) = [3.38 $\pm$ 1.02 $\pm$ 0.61 $\pm$ 0.03]%, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is related to the uncertainties in $\mathcal{B}$($\psi$(2S) $\to$ J/$\psi\pi^+\pi^-$) and $\mathcal{B}$($\Xi^-$ $\to$ $\Lambda\pi^-$).
We present a novel deep learning pipeline to perform a model-independent, likelihood-free search for anomalous (i.e., non-background) events in the proposed next generation multi-ton scale liquid Xenon-based direct detection experiment, DARWIN. We train an anomaly detector comprising a variational autoencoder and a classifier on extensive, high-dimensional simulated detector response data and construct a one-dimensional anomaly score optimised to reject the background only hypothesis in the presence of an excess of non-background-like events. We benchmark the procedure with a sensitivity study that determines its power to reject the background-only hypothesis in the presence of an injected WIMP dark matter signal, outperforming the classical, likelihood-based background rejection test. We show that our neural networks learn relevant energy features of the events from low-level, high-dimensional detector outputs, without the need to compress this data into lower-dimensional observables, thus reducing computational effort and information loss. For the future, our approach lays the foundation for an efficient end-to-end pipeline that eliminates the need for many of the corrections and cuts that are traditionally part of the analysis chain, with the potential of achieving higher accuracy and significant reduction of analysis time.
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, delivering proton-proton collisions at much higher energies and far higher luminosities than previous machines, has enabled a comprehensive programme of measurements of the standard model (SM) processes by the CMS experiment. These unprecedented capabilities facilitate precise measurements of the properties of a wide array of processes, the most fundamental being cross sections. The discovery of the Higgs boson and the measurement of its mass became the keystone of the SM. Knowledge of the mass of the Higgs boson allows precision comparisons of the predictions of the SM with the corresponding measurements. These measurements span the range from one of the most copious SM processes, the total inelastic cross section for proton-proton interactions, to the rarest ones, such as Higgs boson pair production. They cover the production of Higgs bosons, top quarks, single and multibosons, and hadronic jets. Associated parameters, such as coupling constants, are also measured. These cross section measurements can be pictured as a descending stairway, on which the lowest steps represent the rarest processes allowed by the SM, some never seen before.
Ultra-sensitive cryogenic calorimeters have become a favored technology with widespread application where eV-scale energy resolutions are needed. In this article, we characterize the performance of an X-ray magnetic microcalorimeter (MMC) using a Fe-55 source. Employing an optimum filter-based amplitude estimation and energy reconstruction, we demonstrate that an unprecedented FWHM resolution of $\Delta E_\mathrm{FWHM} = \left(1.25\pm0.17\mathrm{\scriptsize{(stat)}}^{+0.05}_{-0.07}\mathrm{\scriptsize{(syst)}}\right)\,\text{eV}$ can be achieved. We also derive the best possible resolution and discuss limiting factors affecting the measurement. The analysis pipeline for the MMC data developed in this paper is furthermore an important step for the realization of the proposed superfluid helium-based experiment DELight, which will search for direct interaction of dark matter with masses below 100 MeV/c$^2$.
The prospects are presented for precise measurements of the branching ratios of the purely leptonic B-c(+) -> tau(+)nu(tau) and B+ -> tau(+)nu(tau) decays at the Future Circular Collider (FCC). This work is focused on the hadronic tau(+) -> pi(+)pi(+)pi (-) nu(tau) decay in both B-c(+) -> tau(+)nu(tau) and B+ -> tau (+)nu(tau) processes. Events are selected with two Boosted Decision Tree algorithms to optimise the separation between the two signal processes as well as the generic hadronic Z decay backgrounds. The range of the expected precision for both signals are evaluated in different scenarios of non-ideal background modelling. This paper demonstrates, for the first time, that the B+ -> tau(+)nu(tau) decay can be well separated from both B-c(+) -> tau(+)nu(tau) and generic Z -> bb processes in the FCC-ee collision environment and proposes the corresponding branching ratio measurement as a novel way to determine the CKM matrix element |V-ub|. The theoretical impacts of both B+ -> tau(+)nu(tau) and B-c(+) -> tau(+)nu(tau) measurements on New Physics cases are discussed for interpretations in the generic Two-Higgs-doublet model and leptoquark models.
A test of lepton flavor universality in B ± → K ± μ + μ − and B ± → K ± e + e − decays, as well as a measurement of differential and integrated branching fractions of a nonresonant B ± → K ± μ + μ − decay are presented. The analysis is made possible by a dedicated data set of proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV recorded in 2018, by the CMS experiment at the LHC, using a special high-rate data stream designed for collecting about 10 billion unbiased b hadron decays. The ratio of the branching fractions B ( B ± → K ± μ + μ − ) to B ( B ± → K ± e + e − ) is determined from the measured double ratio R ( K ) of these decays to the respective branching fractions of the B ± → J / ψ K ± with J / ψ → μ + μ − and e + e − decays, which allow for significant cancellation of systematic uncertainties. The ratio R ( K ) is measured in the range 1.1 < q 2 < 6.0 GeV 2 , where q is the invariant mass of the lepton pair, and is found to be R ( K ) = 0.78 − 0.23 + 0.47 , in agreement with the standard model expectation R ( K ) ≈ 1 . This measurement is limited by the statistical precision of the electron channel. The integrated branching fraction in the same q 2 range, B ( B ± → K ± μ + μ − ) = ( 12.42 ± 0.68 ) × 10 − 8 , is consistent with the present world-average value and has a comparable precision.
The prospects are presented for precise measurements of the branching ratios of the purely leptonic B_c^+ →τ ^+ ν _τ and B^+ →τ ^+ ν _τ decays at the Future Circular Collider (FCC). This work is focused on the hadronic τ ^+→π ^+ π ^+ π ^- ν̅_τ decay in both B_c^+ →τ ^+ ν _τ and B^+ →τ ^+ ν _τ processes. Events are selected with two Boosted Decision Tree algorithms to optimise the separation between the two signal processes as well as the generic hadronic Z decay backgrounds. The range of the expected precision for both signals are evaluated in different scenarios of non-ideal background modelling. This paper demonstrates, for the first time, that the B^+ →τ ^+ ν _τ decay can be well separated from both B_c^+ →τ ^+ ν _τ and generic Z→ bb̅ processes in the FCC-ee collision environment and proposes the corresponding branching ratio measurement as a novel way to determine the CKM matrix element |V_ub| . The theoretical impacts of both B^+ →τ ^+ ν _τ and B_c^+ →τ ^+ ν _τ measurements on New Physics cases are discussed for interpretations in the generic Two-Higgs-doublet model and leptoquark models.