This Letter presents the result of a 3+1 sterile neutrino search using 10.7 years of IceCube data. We analyze atmospheric muon neutrinos that traverse the Earth with energies ranging from 0.5 to 100 TeV, incorporating significant improvements in modeling neutrino flux and detector response compared to earlier studies. Notably, for the first time, we categorize data into starting and through-going events, distinguishing neutrino interactions with vertices inside or outside the instrumented volume, to improve energy resolution. The best-fit point for a 3+1 model is found to be at $\sin^2(2\theta_{24}) = 0.16$ and $\Delta m^{2}_{41} = 3.5$ eV$^2$, which agrees with previous iterations of this study. The result is consistent with the null hypothesis of no sterile neutrinos with a p-value of 3.1\%.

Autonomous driving systems are typically verified based on scenarios. To represent the positions and movements of cars in these scenarios, diagrams that utilize icons are typically employed. However, the interpretation of such diagrams is typically ambiguous, which can lead to misunderstandings among users, making them unsuitable for the development of high-reliability systems. To address this issue, this study introduces a notation called the car position diagram (CPD). The CPD allows for the concise representation of numerous scenarios and is particularly suitable for scenario analysis and design. In addition, we propose a method for converting CPD-based models into propositional logic formulas and enumerating all scenarios using a SAT solver. A tool for scenario enumeration is implemented, and experiments are conducted on both typical car behaviors and international standards. The results demonstrate that the CPD enables the concise description of numerous scenarios, thereby confirming the effectiveness of our scenario analysis method.

The gradual fall of the shear viscosity below 2.8K, observed in a liquid helium 4 flowing through a capillary, is examined. The disappearance of the shear viscosity in a capillary flow is a manifestation of superfluidity in dissipative phenomena, the onset mechanism of which is a subtle problem compared to that of superfluidity in non-dissipative phenomena. Applying the linear-response theory to the reciprocal of the shear viscosity coefficient, we relate these two types of superfluidity using the Kramers-Kronig relation. We obtain a formula describing the influence of Bose statistics on the kinematic shear viscosity in terms of the susceptibility. Compared to an ordinary liquid, a liquid helium 4 above the lambda point has a 1/1000 times smaller shear viscosity coefficient. Hence, although in the normal phase, it is already an anomalous liquid under the strong influence of Bose statistics. The coherent many-body wave function grows to an intermediate size between a macroscopic and a microscopic one, not as a thermal fluctuation but as a thermal equilibrium state. Beginning with bosons without the condensate, we make a perturbation calculation of its susceptibility with respect to the repulsive interaction. We examine how, with decreasing temperature, the growth of the coherent wave function gradually suppresses the shear viscosity, and finally leads to a frictionless flow at the lambda-point.

The Telescope Array (TA) collaboration has measured the energy spectrum of ultra-high energy cosmic rays with primary energies above 1.6 x 10^(18) eV. This measurement is based upon four years of observation by the surface detector component of TA. The spectrum shows a dip at an energy of 4.6 x 10^(18) eV and a steepening at 5.4 x 10^(19) eV which is consistent with the expectation from the GZK cutoff. We present the results of a technique, new to the analysis of ultra-high energy cosmic ray surface detector data, that involves generating a complete simulation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays striking the TA surface detector. The procedure starts with shower simulations using the CORSIKA Monte Carlo program where we have solved the problems caused by use of the "thinning" approximation. This simulation method allows us to make an accurate calculation of the acceptance of the detector for the energies concerned.

We delineate equilibrium phase structure and topological charge distribution of dense two-colour QCD at low temperature by using a lattice simulation with two-flavour Wilson fermions that has a chemical potential $\mu$ and a diquark source $j$ incorporated. We systematically measure the diquark condensate, the Polyakov loop, the quark number density and the chiral condensate with improved accuracy and $j\to0$ extrapolation over earlier publications; the known qualitative features of the low temperature phase diagram, which is composed of the hadronic, Bose-Einstein condensed (BEC) and BCS phases, are reproduced. In addition, we newly find that around the boundary between the hadronic and BEC phases, nonzero quark number density occurs even in the hadronic phase in contrast to the prediction of the chiral perturbation theory (ChPT), while the diquark condensate approaches zero in a manner that is consistent with the ChPT prediction. At the highest $\mu$, which is of order the inverse of the lattice spacing, all the above observables change drastically, which implies a lattice artifact. Finally, at temperature of order $0.45T_c$, where $T_c$ is the chiral transition temperature at zero chemical potential, the topological susceptibility is calculated from a gradient-flow method and found to be almost constant for all the values of $\mu$ ranging from the hadronic to BCS phase. This is a contrast to the case of $0.89T_c$ in which the topological susceptibility becomes small as the hadronic phase changes into the quark-gluon plasma phase.

We construct an extended version of the linear sigma model in such a way as to describe spin-$1$ hadrons as well as spin-$0$ hadrons in two-color QCD (QC$_2$D) by respecting the Pauli-Gürsey $SU(4)$ symmetry. Within a mean-field approximation, we therefrom examine a mass spectrum of the spin-$1$ hadrons at finite quark chemical potential ($\mu_q$) and zero temperature. Not only mean fields of scalar mesons and scalar-diquark baryons but also of vector mesons and vector-diquark baryons are incorporated. As a result, we find that, unless all of those four types of mean fields are taken into account, neither lattice result for the critical $\mu_q$ that corresponds to the onset of baryon superfluidity nor for $\mu_q$ dependence of the pion mass can be reproduced. We also find that a slight suppression of the $\rho$ meson mass in the superfluid phase, which was suggested by the lattice simulation, is reproduced by subtle mixing effects between spin-$0$ and spin-$1$ hadrons. Moreover, we demonstrate the emergence of an axialvector condensed phase and possibly of a vector condensed phase by identifying the values of $\mu_q$ at which the corresponding hadron masses vanish. The possible presence of iso-triplet $1^-$ diquarks that may be denoted by a tensor-type quark bilinear field is also discussed.

We measure H$\alpha$ luminosity functions (LFs) at redshifts $z \sim 4.5$ and 6.3 using the JWST MAGNIF (Medium-band Astrophysics with the Grism of NIRCam In Frontier fields) survey. MAGNIF obtained NIRCam grism spectra with the F360M and F480M filters in four Frontier Fields. We identify 248 H$\alpha$ emitters based on the grism spectra and photometric redshifts from combined HST and JWST imaging data. The numbers of the H$\alpha$ emitters show a large field-to-field variation, highlighting the necessity of multiple fields to mitigate cosmic variance. We calculate both observed and dust-corrected H$\alpha$ LFs in the two redshift bins. Thanks to the gravitational lensing, the measured H$\alpha$ LFs span three orders of magnitude in luminosity, and the faint-end luminosity reaches $L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha} \sim 10^{40.3} \mathrm{erg} \mathrm{s}^{-1}$ at $z \sim 4.5$ and $10^{41.5} \mathrm{erg} \mathrm{s}^{-1}$ at $z \sim 6.3$, corresponding to star-formation rates (SFRs) of $\sim$ 0.1 and 1.7 $\mathrm{M}_\odot \mathrm{yr}^{-1}$. We conclude no or weak redshift evolution of the faint-end slope of H$\alpha$ LF across $z\simeq0.4-6.3$, and the comparison with the faint-end slopes of UV LF indicates stochastic star formation history among low-mass H$\alpha$ emitters. The derived cosmic SFR densities are $0.058^{+0.008}_{-0.006}\ \ M_\odot\ \mathrm{yr}^{-1}\ \mathrm{Mpc}^{-3}$at$z \sim 4.5$and$0.025^{+0.009}_{-0.007}\ \ M_\odot\ \mathrm{yr}^{-1}\ \mathrm{Mpc}^{-3}$at$z \sim 6.3$. These are approximately 2.2 times higher than previous estimates based on dust-corrected UV LFs, but consistent with recent measurements from infrared surveys. We discuss uncertainties in the H$\alpha$ LF measurements, including those propagate from the lens models, cosmic variance, and AGN contribution.

Asteroid 162173 Ryugu has numerous craters. The initial measurement of impact craters on Ryugu, by Sugita et al. (2019), is based on Hayabusa2 ONC images obtained during the first month after the arrival of Hayabusa2 in June 2018. Utilizing new images taken until February 2019, we constructed a global impact crater catalogue of Ryugu, which includes all craters larger than 20 m in diameter on the surface of Ryugu. As a result, we identified 77 craters on the surface of Ryugu. Ryugu shows variation in crater density which cannot be explained by the randomness of cratering; there are more craters at lower latitudes and fewer at higher latitudes, and fewer craters in the western bulge (160 E - 290 E) than in the region around the meridian (300 E - 30 E). This variation implies a complicated geologic history for Ryugu. It seems that the longitudinal variation in crater density simply indicates variation in the crater ages; the cratered terrain around the meridian seems to be geologically old while the western bulge is relatively young. The latitudinal variation in crater density suggests that the equatorial ridge of Ryugu is a geologically old structure; however, this could be alternatively explained by a collision with many fission fragments during a short rotational period of Ryugu in the past.

We investigate the phase structure and the equation of state (EoS) for dense two-color QCD (QC$_2$D) at low temperature ($T = 40$ MeV, $32^4$ lattice) for the purpose of extending our previous works~\cite{Iida:2019rah, Iida:2022hyy} at $T=80$ MeV ($16^4$ lattice). Indeed, a rich phase structure below the pseudo-critical temperature $T_c$ as a function of quark chemical potential $\mu$ has been revealed, but finite volume effects in a high-density regime sometimes cause a wrong understanding. Therefore, it is important to investigate the temperature dependence down to zero temperature with large-volume simulations. By performing $32^4$ simulations, we obtain essentially similar results to the previous ones, but we are now allowed to get a fine understanding of the phase structure via the temperature dependence. Most importantly, we find that the hadronic-matter phase, which is composed of thermally excited hadrons, shrinks with decreasing temperature and that the diquark condensate scales as $\langle qq \rangle \propto \mu^2$ in the BCS phase, a property missing at $T=80$ MeV. From careful analyses, furthermore, we confirm a tentative conclusion that the topological susceptibility is independent of $\mu$. We also show the temperature dependence of the pressure, internal energy, and sound velocity as a function of $\mu$. The pressure increases around the hadronic-superfluid phase transition more rapidly at the lower temperature, while the temperature dependence of the sound velocity is invisible. Breaking of the conformal bound is also confirmed thanks to the smaller statistical error.

One of the uncertainties in interpretation of ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) data comes from the hadronic interaction models used for air shower Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The number of muons observed at the ground from UHECR-induced air showers is expected to depend upon the hadronic interaction model. One may therefore test the hadronic interaction models by comparing the measured number of muons with the MC prediction. In this paper, we present the results of studies of muon densities in UHE extensive air showers obtained by analyzing the signal of surface detector stations which should have high $\it{muon \, purity}$. The muon purity of a station will depend on both the inclination of the shower and the relative position of the station. In 7 years' data from the Telescope Array experiment, we find that the number of particles observed for signals with an expected muon purity of $\sim$65% at a lateral distance of 2000 m from the shower core is $1.72 \pm 0.10{\rm (stat.)} \pm 0.37 {\rm (syst.)}$ times larger than the MC prediction value using the QGSJET II-03 model for proton-induced showers. A similar effect is also seen in comparisons with other hadronic models such as QGSJET II-04, which shows a $1.67 \pm 0.10 \pm 0.36$ excess. We also studied the dependence of these excesses on lateral distances and found a slower decrease of the lateral distribution of muons in the data as compared to the MC, causing larger discrepancy at larger lateral distances.

We have searched for intermediate-scale anisotropy in the arrival directions of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays with energies above 57~EeV in the northern sky using data collected over a 5 year period by the surface detector of the Telescope Array experiment. We report on a cluster of events that we call the hotspot, found by oversampling using 20$^\circ$-radius circles. The hotspot has a Li-Ma statistical significance of 5.1$\sigma$, and is centered at R.A.=146.7$^{\circ}$, Dec.=43.2$^{\circ}$. The position of the hotspot is about 19$^{\circ}$ off of the supergalactic plane. The probability of a cluster of events of 5.1$\sigma$ significance, appearing by chance in an isotropic cosmic-ray sky, is estimated to be 3.7$\times$10$^{-4}$ (3.4$\sigma$).

We perform a detailed analysis of radial oscillations to discuss dynamical stability in two-fluid neutron stars composed of ordinary nuclear matter and a gravitationally coupled dark matter component. Using a fully relativistic two-fluid formalism, we solve the eigenvalue problem for a coupled system of equations with small-amplitude radial perturbations and derive the critical line corresponding to stability boundaries. We also compare these stability boundary lines obtained from the radial perturbations with those obtained from a generalized turning-point criterion based on extremization of mass and particle numbers, and find that the two methods agree to within better than $1\%$ across the parameter space explored. We consider both mirror dark matter and self-interacting fermionic dark matter models, and examine how microphysical properties$-$such as nuclear equations of state, dark matter mass, and vector coupling strength$-$reshape the topology of the stability boundary and gravitational mass contours. Our results reveal the emergence of ultra-dense and compact stars, with nuclear central densities exceeding single-fluid instability thresholds by factors of two or more, and the appearance of twin-star configurations with identical masses but distinct radii and internal fluid compositions. These findings have direct implications for the interpretation of neutron star observables and motivate future studies involving phase transitions, density discontinuities, or additional interactions in multi-component stellar systems. In particular, the emergence of exotic stable configurations beyond conventional stability limits underscores the need to reassess standard criteria in light of multi-fluid dynamics, with significant consequences for multimessenger probes of dense matter$-$including gravitational wave signals, mass-radius constraints, and post-merger remnants.

The directional detection of low-energy recoil ions can provide strong possibility for observation of dark matter in the Galaxy. Quenching factors for 5-200 keV recoil ions in N2, CO2, CF4 and CS2 gases are evaluated and Bragg-like curves, the electronic energy deposition as a function of the projected range, are presented. The Bragg-like curves are intended for directional search for the dark matter candidate, WIMPs, using the gas TPC. Quenching factors for very heavy ions produced in alpha-decay in dry air, N2, CO2, CF4 and CS2 are also estimated and compared with experimental values.

Previous measurements of the composition of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays(UHECRs) made by the High Resolution Fly's Eye(HiRes) and Pierre Auger Observatory(PAO) are seemingly contradictory, but utilize different detection methods, as HiRes was a stereo detector and PAO is a hybrid detector. The five year Telescope Array(TA) Middle Drum hybrid composition measurement is similar in some, but not all, respects in methodology to PAO, and good agreement is evident between data and a light, largely protonic, composition when comparing the measurements to predictions obtained with the QGSJetII-03 and QGSJet-01c models. These models are also in agreement with previous HiRes stereo measurements, confirming the equivalence of the stereo and hybrid methods. The data is incompatible with a pure iron composition, for all models examined, over the available range of energies. The elongation rate and mean values of Xmax are in good agreement with Pierre Auger Observatory data. This analysis is presented using two methods: data cuts using simple geometrical variables and a new pattern recognition technique.

We investigate the phase structure and the equation of state (EoS) for dense two-color QCD at low temperatures, $T = 40$ MeV ($32^4$ lattice) and $T = 80$ MeV ($16^4$ lattice). A rich phase structure below the pseudo-critical temperature $T_c$ as a function of quark chemical potential $\mu$ has been revealed. By performing $T = 40$ MeV simulations, essentially similar results to the previous ones at $T = 80$ MeV are obtained, but several finer understandings are achieved. Breaking of the conformal bound is also confirmed thanks to smaller statistical errors. This talk is mainly based on Refs.~\cite{Iida:2022hyy, Iida:2024irv}. It also includes related studies and subsequent developments that were not mentioned in the original papers.

We search for correlations between positions of extragalactic objects and arrival directions of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) with primary energy $E \ge 40$ EeV as observed by the surface detector array of the Telescope Array (TA) experiment during the first 40 months of operation. We examined several public astronomical object catalogs, including the Veron-Cetty and Veron catalog of active galactic nuclei. We counted the number of TA events correlated with objects in each catalog as a function of three parameters: the maximum angular separation between a TA event and an object, the minimum energy of the events, and the maximum redshift of the objects. We determine combinations of these parameters which maximize the correlations, and calculate the chance probabilities of having the same levels of correlations from an isotropic distribution of UHECR arrival directions. No statistically significant correlations are found when penalties for scanning over the above parameters and for searching in several catalogs are taken into account.

In the crust of a neutron star, global torsional oscillations could occur in two elastic layers. The outer and inner layers are composed of spherical and cylindrical nuclei and of cylindrical holes (tubes) and spherical holes (bubbles), respectively, while between these two layers, a phase of slab-like (lasagna) nuclei with vanishingly small elasticity is sandwiched. In this work, we update systematic calculations of the eigenfrequencies of the fundamental oscillations in the inner layer by newly allowing for the presence of tubes. We find that the frequencies still depend strongly on the slope parameter of the nuclear symmetry energy, $L$, while being almost independent of the incompressibility of symmetric nuclear matter. We also find that the fundamental frequencies in the inner layer can become smaller than those in the outer layer because the tube phase has a relatively small shear modulus and at the same time dominates the inner layer in thickness. As a result, we can successfully explain not only the quasi-periodic oscillations originally discovered in the observed X-ray afterglow of the giant flare of SGR 1806--20 but also many others recently found by a Bayesian procedure.

We report on a measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum by the Telescope Array Low-Energy Extension (TALE) air fluorescence detector. The TALE air fluorescence detector is also sensitive to the Cherenkov light produced by shower particles. Low energy cosmic rays, in the PeV energy range, are detectable by TALE as "Cherenkov Events". Using these events, we measure the energy spectrum from a low energy of $\sim 2$ PeV to an energy greater than 100 PeV. Above 100 PeV TALE can detect cosmic rays using air fluorescence. This allows for the extension of the measurement to energies greater than a few EeV. In this paper, we will describe the detector, explain the technique, and present results from a measurement of the spectrum using $\sim 1000$ hours of observation. The observed spectrum shows a clear steepening near $10^{17.1}$ eV, along with an ankle-like structure at $10^{16.2}$ eV. These features present important constraints on galactic cosmic rays origin and propagation models. The feature at $10^{17.1}$ eV may also mark the end of the galactic cosmic rays flux and the start of the transition to extra-galactic sources.

The Telescope Array observatory utilizes fluorescence detectors and surface detectors to observe air showers produced by ultra high energy cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere. Cosmic ray events observed in this way are termed hybrid data. The depth of air shower maximum is related to the mass of the primary particle that generates the shower. This paper reports on shower maxima data collected over 8.5 years using the Black Rock Mesa and Long Ridge fluorescence detectors in conjunction with the array of surface detectors. We compare the means and standard deviations of the observed $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ distributions with Monte Carlo $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ distributions of unmixed protons, helium, nitrogen, and iron, all generated using the QGSJet~II-04 hadronic model. We also perform an unbinned maximum likelihood test of the observed data, which is subjected to variable systematic shifting of the data $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ distributions to allow us to test the full distributions, and compare them to the Monte Carlo to see which elements are not compatible with the observed data. For all energy bins, QGSJet~II-04 protons are found to be compatible with Telescope Array hybrid data at the 95% confidence level after some systematic $X_{\mathrm{max}}$ shifting of the data. Three other QGSJet~II-04 elements are found to be compatible using the same test procedure in an energy range limited to the highest energies where data statistics are sparse.

Following a general form for the Schwinger boson representation of the su(M+1) Lipkin model presented in the previous paper, three types of the orthogonal sets characterizing the su(3)-algebra are proposed. In these three, third is presented in Appendix. The intrinsic state is specified by two quantum numbers and two excited state generating operators play a central role.