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We present an update on the analysis of semileptonic $B\rightarrow D^{(*)}$ decays at non-zero recoil. Our computation employs $2 + 1 + 1$ FNAL-MILC ensembles with highly improved staggered quark (HISQ) action for sea and light valence quarks, while the bottom quark is treated using the clover action in the Fermilab interpretation. Simulations are performed across several lattice spacings, ranging approximately from $\sim 0.15$ fm to $\sim 0.06$ fm, and for various quark masses. We will present an overview of the analysis and show some preliminary results for the form factors.

We present results for the dominant light-quark connected contribution to the long-distance window (LD) of the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution (HVP) to the muon $g-2$ from lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Specifically, with a new determination of the lattice scale on MILC's physical-mass HISQ ensembles, using the $\Omega^-$ baryon mass, we obtain a result of $a^{ll,\,{\mathrm{LD}}}_{\mu}(\mathrm{conn.}) = 401.2(2.3)_{\mathrm{stat}}(3.6)_{\mathrm{syst}}[4.3]_{\mathrm{total}} \times 10^{-10}$. In addition, following up on our recent work on the short- (SD) and intermediate-distance (W) windows, we report updated values for these quantities with this new scale-setting determination. Summing these individual window contributions enables a sub-percent precision determination of the light-quark-connected contribution to HVP of $a^{ll}_{\mu}(\mathrm{conn.}) = 656.2(1.9)_{\mathrm{stat}}(4.0)_{\mathrm{syst}}[4.4]_{\mathrm{total}} \times 10^{-10}$. Finally, as a consistency check, we verify that an independent analysis of the full contribution is in agreement with the sum of individual windows. We discuss our future plans for improvements of our HVP calculations to meet the target precision of the Fermilab $g-2$ experiment., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2411.09656

Near-future experiments with Petawatt class lasers are expected to produce a high flux of gamma-ray photons and electron-positron pairs through Strong Field Quantum Electrodynamical processes. Simulations of the expected regime of laser-matter interaction are computationally intensive due to the disparity of the spatial and temporal scales and because quantum and classical descriptions need to be accounted for simultaneously (classical for collective effects and quantum for nearly-instantaneous events of hard photon emission and pair creation). A typical configuration for experiments is a scattering of an electron and a laser beam which can be mapped to an equivalent problem with constant magnetic field. We study the stochastic cooling of an electron beam in a strong constant uniform magnetic field, both its particle distribution functions and their energy momenta. We start by obtaining approximate closed-form analytical solutions to the relevant observables. Then, we apply the quantum-hybrid Variational Quantum Imaginary Time Evolution to the Fokker-Planck equation describing this process, and compare against theory and results from Particle-In-Cell simulations and classical Partial Differential Equation solvers, showing good agreement. This work will be useful as a first step towards quantum simulation of plasma physics scenarios where diffusion processes are important, in particular in strong electromagnetic fields.

The next generation of Petawatt-class lasers presents the opportunity to study positron production and acceleration experimentally, in an all-optical setting. Several configurations were proposed to produce and accelerate positrons in a single laser stage. However, these configurations have yielded limited positron beam quality and low particle count. This paper presents methods for improving the injection and retention of positrons obtained via Bethe-Heitler pair production and accelerated using direct laser acceleration (DLA) in a plasma channel. The work first introduces a semi-analytical model which predicts laser energy depletion in this highly nonlinear regime. We demonstrate through PIC simulations that accelerated electrons can induce charge inversion within the channel, leading to positron trapping and acceleration. We investigate how laser focusing position, channel wall density, target foil position and target thickness influence positron creation and retention. Our configuration can achieve an 8-fold increase in positron retention compared to previous studies and a higher number of positrons produced overall. This work establishes a robust, single-stage approach for obtaining positron beams, opening new avenues for experiments with Petawatt-class lasers and potential applications in electron-positron collisions and QED cascades.

We present complete results for the hadronic vacuum polarization (HVP) contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment $a_\mu$ in the short- and intermediate-distance window regions, which account for roughly 10% and 35% of the total HVP contribution to $a_\mu$, respectively. In particular, we perform lattice-QCD calculations for the isospin-symmetric connected and disconnected contributions, as well as corrections due to strong isospin-breaking. For the short-distance window observables, we investigate the so-called log-enhancement effects as well as the significant oscillations associated with staggered quarks in this region. For the dominant, isospin-symmetric light-quark connected contribution, we obtain $a^{ll,\,{\mathrm{SD}}}_{\mu}(\mathrm{conn.}) = 48.116(16)(94)[96] \times 10^{-10}$ and $a^{ll,\,{\mathrm{W}}}_{\mu}(\mathrm{conn.}) = 207.06(17)(63)[66] \times 10^{-10}$. We use Bayesian model averaging combined with a global bootstrap to fully estimate the covariance matrix between the individual contributions. Our determinations of the complete window contributions are $a^{{\mathrm{SD}}}_{\mu} = 69.01(2)(21)[21] \times 10^{-10}$ and $a^{{\mathrm{W}}}_{\mu} = 236.57(20)(94)[96] \times 10^{-10}$. This work is part of our ongoing effort to compute all contributions to HVP with an overall uncertainty at the few permille level.

Motivated by the contemporary advances in quantum implementation of non-unitary operations, we propose a new dilation method based on the biorthogonal representation of the non-unitary operator, mapping it to an isomorphic unitary matrix in the orthonormal computational basis. The proposed method excels in implementing non-unitary operators whose eigenvalues have absolute values exceeding one, when compared to other dilation and decomposition techniques. Unlike the Linear Combination of Unitaries (LCU) method, which becomes less efficient as the number of unitary summands grows, the proposed technique is optimal for small-dimensional non-unitary operators regardless of the number of unitary summands. Thus, it can complement the LCU method for implementing general non-unitary operators arising in positive only open quantum systems and pseudo-Hermitian systems., Comment: 8 Pages, 3 Figures

Studying the reliability of complex systems using machine learning techniques involves facing a series of technical and practical challenges, ranging from the intrinsic nature of the system and data to the difficulties in modeling and effectively deploying models in real-world scenarios. This study compares the effectiveness of classical statistical techniques and machine learning methods for improving complex system analysis in reliability assessments. We aim to demonstrate that classical statistical algorithms often yield more precise and interpretable results than black-box machine learning approaches in many practical applications. The evaluation is conducted using both real-world data and simulated scenarios. We report the results obtained from statistical modeling algorithms, as well as from machine learning methods including neural networks, K-nearest neighbors, and random forests., Comment: 33 pages; 5 figures

We generalize to (certain) Artin groups some results previously known for right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs). First, we generalize a result by Droms, B. Servatius, and H. Servatius, and prove that the derived subgroup of an Artin group is free if and only if the group is coherent. Second, coherent Artin groups over non complete graphs split as free amalgamated products along free abelian subgroups, and we extend to arbitrary Artin groups admitting such a splitting a recent result by Casals-Ruiz and the first author on finitely generated normal subgroups of RAAGs. Finally, we use splittings of even Artin groups of FC-type to generalize results of Minasyan and Osin on acylindrical hyperbolicity of their subgroups.

Convection-permitting models (CPMs) enable the representation of meteorological variables at horizontal high resolution spatial scales (higher than 4 km), where convection plays a significant role. Physical schemes need to be evaluated considering factors in the studied region such as orography and climate variability. This study investigates the sensitivity of the WRF model as CPM to the use of different physics schemes on Andalusia, a complex orography region in southern Iberian Peninsula (IP). A set of 1-year WRF simulations was completed based on two one-way nested domains: the parent domain (d01) spanning the entire IP with 5 km spatial resolution and the nested domain (d02) for the region of Andalusia at 1 km of spatial resolution. 12 physic schemes were examined from combinations of microphysics (MP) schemes including THOMPSON, WRF single moment 6-class (WSM6), and WRF single moment 7-class (WSM7), and different options for the convection in d01, the Grell 3D (G3), Grell-Freitas (GF), Kain-Fritsch (KF), and deactivated cumulus parameterization (OFF). The simulated precipitation and 2-m temperature for the year 2018, a very wet year, were compared with observational datasets to determine the optimal WRF configuration, including point-to-point and station-point comparisons at different time aggregations. In general, greater differences were shown when comparing the results of convection schemes in d01. Simulations completed with GF or OFF presented better performance compared to the reference datasets. Concerning the MP, although THOMPSON showed a better fit in high mountain areas, it generally presents a worse agreement with the reference datasets. In terms of temperature, the results were very similar and, therefore, the selection of the best configuration was based mainly on the precipitation results with the WSM7-GF scheme being suitable for Andalusia region.

We compute the vector, scalar, and tensor form factors for the $B\to \pi$, $B\to K$, and $B_s\to K$ amplitudes, which are needed to describe semileptonic $B$-meson decay rates for both the charged and neutral current cases. We use the highly improved staggered quark (HISQ) action for the sea and light valence quarks. The bottom quark is described by the clover action in the Fermilab interpretation. Simulations are carried out on $N_f = 2+1+1$ MILC HISQ ensembles at approximate lattice spacings from $0.15$ fm down to $0.057$ fm. We present blinded preliminary results for the form factors., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, proceedings of the 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2023), July 31 - August 4, 2023, Fermilab, USA

We present an update for results on $B$-meson semileptonic decays using the highly improved staggered quark (HISQ) action for both valence and 2+1+1 sea quarks. The use of the highly improved action, combined with the MILC collaboration's gauge ensembles with lattice spacings down to $\sim$0.03 fm, allows the $b$ quark to be treated with the same discretization as the lighter quarks. The talk will focus on updated results for $B_{(s)} \to D_{(s)}$, $B_{(s)} \to K$ scalar and vector form factors., Comment: Proceedings of the 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2023), July 31st - August 4th, 2023, Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, USA

This paper presents a maintenance policy for a modular system formed by K independent modules (n-subsystems) subjected to environmental conditions (shocks). For the modeling of this complex system, the use of the Matrix-Analytical Method (MAM) is proposed under a layered approach according to its hierarchical structure. Thus, the operational state of the system (top layer) depends on the states of the modules (middle layer), which in turn depend on the states of their components (bottom layer). This allows a detailed description of the system operation to plan maintenance actions appropriately and optimally. We propose a hierarchical decision-based maintenance strategy with periodic inspections as follows: at the time of the inspection, the condition of the system is first evaluated. If intervention is necessary, the modules are then checked to make individual decisions based on their states, and so on. Replacement or repair will be carried out as appropriate. An optimization problem is formulated as a function of the length of the inspection period and the intervention cost incurred over the useful life of the system. Our method shows the advantages, providing compact and implementable expressions. The model is illustrated on a submarine Electrical Control Unit (ECU)., Comment: 43 pages, 6 figures

We report on the ongoing effort of improving the determination of the gradient flow scale on the (2+1+1)-flavor HISQ ensembles generated by the MILC collaboration. We compute the scales $\sqrt{t_0}/a$ and $w_0/a$ with the Wilson and Symanzik flow using three discretizations for the action density: clover, Wilson and tree-level Symanzik improved. For the absolute scale setting, we intend to employ the $\Omega$-baryon mass, but are also using the pion decay constant while the $\Omega$-mass calculations are in progress., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, contribution to the 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2023), July 31 - August 4, 2023, Fermilab, USA

A result by Bridson, Howie, Miller, and Short states that if $S$ is a finitely presented subgroup of the direct product of free groups, then $S$ is virtually a nilpotent extension of a direct product of free groups. Moreover, if $S$ is a subgroup of type $FP_n$ of the direct product of $n$ free groups, then the nilpotent extension is finite, so $S$ is actually virtually the direct product of free groups. In this paper, these results are generalized to $2$-dimensional coherent right-angled Artin groups. More precisely, we show that a finitely presented subgroup of the direct product of $2$-dimensional coherent RAAGs is still virtually a nilpotent extension of a direct product of subgroups. If $S$ is moreover a type $FP_n$ subgroup of the direct product of $n$ $2$-dimensional coherent RAAGs, then $S$ is commensurable to a kernel of a character of a direct product of subgroups. Finally, we show that the multiple conjugacy problem and the membership problem are decidable for finitely presented subgroups of direct products of $2$-dimensional coherent RAAGs.

A rank $n$ generalized Baumslag-Solitar group is a group that splits as a finite graph of groups such that all vertex and edge groups are isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}^n$. In this paper we classify these groups in terms of their separability properties. Specifically, we determine when they are residually finite, subgroup separable and cyclic subgroup separable., Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures; v2: The proof of Theorem 4.2 has been modified; v3: Some minor changes according to the referee's comments. To appear in the Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society

This paper addresses pandemic statistics from a management perspective. Both input and output are easy to understand. Focus is on operations and cross border communication. To be able to work with simple available data some new missing data issues have to be solved from a mathematical statistical point of view. We illustrate our approach with data from France collected during the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Our new benchmark method also introduces a potential new division of labour while working with pandemic statistics allowing crucial input to be fed to the model via prior knowledge from external experts., Comment: 11 figures

In the early days of development of a pandemic there is no time for complicated data collection. One needs a simple cross-country benchmark approach based on robust data that is easy to understand and easy to collect. The recent pandemic has shown us what early available pandemic data might look like, because statistical data was published every day in standard news outlets in many countries. This paper provides new methodology for the analysis data where exposure is only vaguely understood and where the very definition of exposure might change over time. The exposure of poor quality is used to analyse and forecast events. Our example of such exposure is daily infections during a pandemic and the events are number of new infected patients in hospitals every day. Examples are given with French Covid-19 data on hospitalized patients and numbers of infected., Comment: 5 figures

This work investigates the variability of tungsten disulfide (WS$_2$)-based devices by experimental characterization in view of possible application in the field of hardware security. To this aim, a preliminary analysis was performed by measurements across voltages and temperatures on a set of seven Si/SiO$_2$/WS$_2$ back-gated devices, also considering the effect of different stabilization conditions on their conductivity. Obtained results show appreciable variability in the conductivity, while also revealing similar dependence on bias and temperature across tested devices. Overall, our analysis demonstrates that WS$_2$-based devices can be potentially exploited to ensure adequate randomness and robustness against environmental variations and then used as building blocks for hardware security primitives.

We present an update of the Fermilab Lattice and MILC Collaborations project to compute the form factors for semileptonic $B_{(s)}$-meson decays. Our calculation uses the highly improved staggered quark (HISQ) action for sea and valence quarks, and ensembles with up, down, strange, and charm quarks in the sea. Using a highly improved action with the MILC Collaboration's gauge ensembles with lattice spacings down to $a\approx0.03$ fm, allows the heavy valence quarks to be treated with the same discretization as the light and strange quarks. This unified treatment of the valence quarks allows for absolutely normalized vector currents, bypassing the need for perturbative matching, which has been a source of uncertainty in previous calculations of $B$-meson decay form factors by our collaboration. All preliminary form-factor results are blinded., Comment: Contribution to the 39th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (LATTICE2022), 8th-13th August 2022, Bonn, Germany. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2111.05184

We present a lattice-QCD calculation of the light-quark connected contribution to window observables associated with the leading-order hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, $a_\mu^{\mathrm{HVP,LO}}$. We employ the MILC Collaboration's isospin-symmetric QCD gauge-field ensembles, which contain four flavors of dynamical highly-improved-staggered quarks with four lattice spacings between $a\approx 0.06$-$0.15$~fm and close-to-physical quark masses. We consider several effective-field-theory-based schemes for finite-volume and other lattice corrections and combine the results via Bayesian model averaging to obtain robust estimates of the associated systematic uncertainties. After unblinding, our final results for the intermediate and ``W2'' windows are $a^{ll,{\mathrm W}}_{\mu}(\mathrm{conn.})=206.6(1.0) \times 10^{-10}$ and $a^{ll,\mathrm {W2}}_{\mu}(\mathrm{conn.}) = 100.7(3.2)\times 10^{-10}$, respectively., Comment: v3: Updated to reflect published version, which includes updates to the text in Sections II.B, III.C,D,E. Numerical results unchanged

We present lattice-QCD calculations of the hadronic form factors for the semileptonic decays $D\to\pi\ell\nu$, $D\to K\ell\nu$, and $D_s\to K\ell\nu$. Our calculation uses the highly improved staggered quark (HISQ) action for all valence and sea quarks and includes $N_f=2+1+1$ MILC ensembles with lattice spacings ranging from $a\approx0.12$ fm down to $0.042$ fm. At most lattice spacings, an ensemble with physical-mass light quarks is included. The HISQ action allows all the quarks to be treated with the same relativistic light-quark action, allowing for nonperturbative renormalization using partial conservation of the vector current. We combine our results with experimental measurements of the differential decay rates to determine $|V_{cd}|^{D\to\pi}=0.2238(11)^{\rm Expt}(15)^{\rm QCD}(04)^{\rm EW}(02)^{\rm SIB}[22]^{\rm QED}$ and $|V_{cs}|^{D\to K}=0.9589(23)^{\rm Expt}(40)^{\rm QCD}(15)^{\rm EW}(05)^{\rm SIB}[95]^{\rm QED}$ This result for $|V_{cd}|$ is the most precise to date, with a lattice-QCD error that is, for the first time for the semileptonic extraction, at the same level as the experimental error. Using recent measurements from BES III, we also give the first-ever determination of $|V_{cd}|^{D_s\to K}=0.258(15)^{\rm Expt}(01)^{\rm QCD}[03]^{\rm QED}$ from $D_s\to K \ell\nu$. Our results also furnish new Standard Model calculations of the lepton flavor universality ratios $R^{D\to\pi}=0.98671(17)^{\rm QCD}[500]^{\rm QED}$, $R^{D\to K}=0.97606(16)^{\rm QCD}[500]^{\rm QED}$, and $R^{D_s\to K}=0.98099(10)^{\rm QCD}[500]^{\rm QED}$, which are consistent within $2\sigma$ with experimental measurements. Our extractions of $|V_{cd}|$ and $|V_{cs}|$, when combined with a value for $|V_{cb}|$, provide the most precise test of second-row CKM unitarity, finding agreement with unitarity at the level of one standard deviation., Comment: 92 pages, V2 matches version accepted for publication in PRD. Expanded supplementary material for reconstructing our final results. An implementation of nonlinear shrinkage is also included

A classical result of Schreier states that nontrivial finitely generated normal subgroups of free groups are of finite index, that is, free groups can only quotient to finite groups with finitely generated kernel. In this note we extend this result to the class of right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs). More precisely, we prove that the quotient of a RAAG by a finitely generated (full) normal subgroup is abelian-by-finite and finite-by-abelian. As Schreier's result extends to nontrivial free products of groups, we further show that our result extends to graph products of groups. As a corollary, we deduce, among others, that finitely generated normal subgroups of RAAGs have decidable word, conjugacy and membership problems and that they are hereditarily conjugacy separable., Comment: v2: we corrected a typo in the abstract and added a citation to the work of Antolin, Minasyan and Sisto that answers one of the questions

Lattice quantum chromodynamics has proven to be an indispensable method to determine nonperturbative strong contributions to weak decay processes. In this white paper for the Snowmass community planning process we highlight achievements and future avenues of research for lattice calculations of weak $b$ and $c$ quark decays, and point out how these calculations will help to address the anomalies currently in the spotlight of the particle physics community. With future increases in computational resources and algorithmic improvements, percent level (and below) lattice determinations will play a central role in constraining the standard model or identifying new physics., Comment: contribution to Snowmass 2021; 19 pages; v2 corrected typo and added references

We give an update on the status of the Fermilab Lattice-HPQCD-MILC calculation of the contribution to the muon's anomolous magnetic moment from the light-quark, connected hadronic vacuum polarization. We present preliminary, blinded results in the intermediate window for this contribution, $a_{\mu, \textrm{W}}^{ll}$. The calculation is performed on $N_f =2+1+1$ highly-improved staggered quark (HISQ) ensembles from the MILC collaboration with physical pion mass at four lattice spacings between 0.15 fm and 0.06 fm. We also present preliminary results for a study of the two-pion contributions to the vector-current correlation function performed on the 0.15 fm ensemble where we see a factor of four improvement over traditional noise reduction techniques., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, contribution to the 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (LATTICE2021)

We present results for $B_{(s)}$- and $D_{(s)}$-meson semileptonic decays from ongoing calculations by the Fermilab Lattice and MILC Collaborations. Our calculation employs the highly improved staggered quark (HISQ) action for both sea and valence quarks and includes several ensembles with physical-mass up, down, strange, and charm quarks and lattice spacings ranging from $a\approx0.15$ fm down to 0.06 fm. At most lattice spacings, an ensemble with physical-mass light quarks is included. The use of the highly improved action, combined with the MILC Collaboration's gauge ensembles with lattice spacings down to $a\approx0.042$ fm, allows heavy valence quarks to be treated with the same discretization as the light and strange quarks. This unified treatment of the valence quarks allows (in some cases) for absolutely normalized currents, bypassing the need for perturbative matching, which has been a leading source of uncertainty in previous calculations of $B$-meson decay form factors by our collaboration. All preliminary form-factor results are blinded., Comment: Joint proceedings for talks at the 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, LATTICE2021, 26th-30th July, 2021, Zoom/Gather@Massachusetts Institute of Technology

For a group $G$ that is a limit group over Droms RAAGs such that $G$ has trivial center, we show that $\Sigma^1(G) = \emptyset = \Sigma^1(G, \mathbb{Q})$. For a group $H$ that is a finitely presented residually Droms RAAG we calculate $\Sigma^1(H)$ and $\Sigma^2(H)_{dis}$. In addition, we obtain a necessary condition for $[\chi]$ to belong to $\Sigma^n(H)$.

We present the first unquenched lattice-QCD calculation of the form factors for the decay $B\rightarrow D^\ast\ell\nu$ at nonzero recoil. Our analysis includes 15 MILC ensembles with $N_f=2+1$ flavors of asqtad sea quarks, with a strange quark mass close to its physical mass. The lattice spacings range from $a\approx 0.15$ fm down to $0.045$ fm, while the ratio between the light- and the strange-quark masses ranges from 0.05 to 0.4. The valence $b$ and $c$ quarks are treated using the Wilson-clover action with the Fermilab interpretation, whereas the light sector employs asqtad staggered fermions. We extrapolate our results to the physical point in the continuum limit using rooted staggered heavy-light meson chiral perturbation theory. Then we apply a model-independent parametrization to extend the form factors to the full kinematic range. With this parametrization we perform a joint lattice-QCD/experiment fit using several experimental datasets to determine the CKM matrix element $|V_{cb}|$. We obtain $\left|V_{cb}\right| = (38.40 \pm 0.68_{\textrm{th}} \pm 0.34_{\textrm{exp}} \pm 0.18_{\textrm{EM}})\times 10^{-3}$. The first error is theoretical, the second comes from experiment and the last one includes electromagnetic and electroweak uncertainties, with an overall $\chi^2\text{/dof} = 126/84$, which illustrates the tensions between the experimental data sets, and between theory and experiment. This result is in agreement with previous exclusive determinations, but the tension with the inclusive determination remains. Finally, we integrate the differential decay rate obtained solely from lattice data to predict $R(D^\ast) = 0.265 \pm 0.013$, which confirms the current tension between theory and experiment., Comment: 46 pages, 14 figures. Synthetic data, results and full correlation matrices available in the ancillary files. Version accepted for publication in EPJ C

We generalize some known results for limit groups over free groups and residually free groups to limit groups over Droms RAAGs and residually Droms RAAGs, respectively. We show that limit groups over Droms RAAGs are free-by-(torsion-free nilpotent). We prove that if $S$ is a full subdirect product of type $FP_s(\mathbb{Q})$ of limit groups over Droms RAAGs with trivial center, then the projection of $S$ to the direct product of any $s$ of the limit groups over Droms RAAGs has finite index. Moreover, we compute the growth of homology groups and the volume gradients for limit groups over Droms RAAGs in any dimension and for finitely presented residually Droms RAAGs of type $FP_m$ in dimensions up to $m$. In particular, this gives the values of the analytic $L^2$-Betti numbers of these groups in the respective dimensions., Comment: Accepted in Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc

A result of Baumslag and Roseblade states that a finitely presented subgroup of the direct product of two free groups is virtually a direct product of free groups. In this paper we generalise this result to the class of cyclic subgroup separable graphs of groups with free abelian vertex groups and cyclic edge groups. More precisely, we show that a finitely presented subgroup of the direct product of two groups in this class is virtually $H$-by-(free abelian), where $H$ is the direct product of two groups in the class. In particular, our result applies to 2-dimensional coherent right-angled Artin groups and residually finite tubular groups. Furthermore, we show that the multiple conjugacy problem and the membership problem are decidable for finitely presented subgroups of the direct product of two $2$-dimensional coherent RAAGs.

A result of Bridson, Howie, Miller and Short states that if $S$ is a subgroup of type $FP_{n}(\mathbb{Q})$ of the direct product of $n$ limit groups over free groups, then $S$ is virtually the direct product of limit groups over free groups. Furthermore, they characterise finitely presented residually free groups. In this paper these results are generalised to limit groups over Droms right-angled Artin groups. Droms RAAGs are the right-angled Artin groups with the property that all of their finitely generated subgroups are again RAAGs. In addition, we show that the generalised conjugacy problem is solvable for finitely presented groups that are residually a Droms RAAG and that their finitely presentable subgroups are separable.

Process-based hydrologic models allow to identify the behavior of a basin providing a mathematical description of the hydrologic processes underlying the runoff mechanisms that govern the streamflow generation. This study focuses on a macroscale application of the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model over 31 headwater subwatersheds belonging to the Duero River Basin, located in the Iberian Peninsula, through a three-part approach: (1) the calibration and validation of the VIC model for all the subwatersheds; (2) an integrated sensitivity analysis concerning the soil parameters chosen for the calibration, and (3) an assessment of equifinality and the efficiency of the calibration algorithm. The calibration and validation processes showed good results for most of the subwatersheds in a computationally efficient way using the Shuffled-Complex-Evolution algorithm. The sensitivity measures were obtained with the Standardized Regression Coefficients method through a post-process of the outputs of a Monte Carlo simulation carried out for 10 000 parameter samples for each subwatershed. This allowed to quantify the sensitivity of the water balance components to the selected parameters for the calibration and understanding the strong dependencies between them. The final assessment of the equifinality hypothesis manifested that there are many parameter samples with performances as good as the optimum, calculated using the calibration algorithm. For almost all the analyzed subwatersheds the calibration algorithm resulted efficient, reaching the optimal fit. Both the Monte Carlo simulation and the use of a calibration algorithm will be of interest for other feasible applications of the VIC model in other river basins., Comment: Published in Journal of Hydrology

We review the present status of the Standard Model calculation of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. This is performed in a perturbative expansion in the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ and is broken down into pure QED, electroweak, and hadronic contributions. The pure QED contribution is by far the largest and has been evaluated up to and including $\mathcal{O}(\alpha^5)$ with negligible numerical uncertainty. The electroweak contribution is suppressed by $(m_\mu/M_W)^2$ and only shows up at the level of the seventh significant digit. It has been evaluated up to two loops and is known to better than one percent. Hadronic contributions are the most difficult to calculate and are responsible for almost all of the theoretical uncertainty. The leading hadronic contribution appears at $\mathcal{O}(\alpha^2)$ and is due to hadronic vacuum polarization, whereas at $\mathcal{O}(\alpha^3)$ the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution appears. Given the low characteristic scale of this observable, these contributions have to be calculated with nonperturbative methods, in particular, dispersion relations and the lattice approach to QCD. The largest part of this review is dedicated to a detailed account of recent efforts to improve the calculation of these two contributions with either a data-driven, dispersive approach, or a first-principle, lattice-QCD approach. The final result reads $a_\mu^\text{SM}=116\,591\,810(43)\times 10^{-11}$ and is smaller than the Brookhaven measurement by 3.7$\sigma$. The experimental uncertainty will soon be reduced by up to a factor four by the new experiment currently running at Fermilab, and also by the future J-PARC experiment. This and the prospects to further reduce the theoretical uncertainty in the near future-which are also discussed here-make this quantity one of the most promising places to look for evidence of new physics., Comment: 196 pages, 103 figures, version published in Phys. Rept., bib files for the citation references are available from: https://muon-gm2-theory.illinois.edu

We report updates to an ongoing lattice-QCD calculation of the form factors for the semileptonic decays $B \to \pi \ell \nu$, $B_s \to K \ell \nu$, $B \to \pi \ell^+ \ell^-$, and $B \to K \ell^+ \ell^-$. The tree-level decays $B_{(s)} \to \pi (K) \ell \nu$ enable precise determinations of the CKM matrix element $|V_{ub}|$, while the flavor-changing neutral-current interactions $B \to \pi (K) \ell^+ \ell^-$ are sensitive to contributions from new physics. This work uses MILC's (2+1+1)-flavor HISQ ensembles at approximate lattice spacings between $0.057$ and $0.15$ fm, with physical sea-quark masses on four out of the seven ensembles. The valence sector is comprised of a clover $b$ quark (in the Fermilab interpretation) and HISQ light and $s$ quarks. We present preliminary results for the form factors $f_0$, $f_+$, and $f_T$, including studies of systematic errors., Comment: 7 pages; 3 figures; presented at the 37th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 16-22 June 2019, Wuhan, China

We present an update on the ongoing calculations by the Fermilab Lattice, HPQCD, and MILC Collaboration of the leading-order (in electromagnetism) hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. Our project employs ensembles with four flavors of highly improved staggered fermions, physical light-quark masses, and four lattice spacings ranging from $a \approx 0.06$ to 0.15 fm for most of the results thus far., Comment: LATTICE 2019, 7 pages, 7 figures

We calculate the contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment hadronic vacuum polarization from {the} connected diagrams of up and down quarks, omitting electromagnetism. We employ QCD gauge-field configurations with dynamical $u$, $d$, $s$, and $c$ quarks and the physical pion mass, and analyze five ensembles with lattice spacings ranging from $a \approx 0.06$ to~0.15~fm. The up- and down-quark masses in our simulations have equal masses $m_l$. We obtain, in this world where all pions have the mass of the $\pi^0$, $10^{10} a_\mu^{ll}({\rm conn.}) = 637.8\,(8.8)$, in agreement with independent lattice-QCD calculations. We then combine this value with published lattice-QCD results for the connected contributions from strange, charm, and bottom quarks, and an estimate of the uncertainty due to the fact that our calculation does not include strong-isospin breaking, electromagnetism, or contributions from quark-disconnected diagrams. Our final result for the total $\mathcal{O}(\alpha^2)$ hadronic vacuum polarization to the muon's anomalous magnetic moment is~$10^{10}a_\mu^{\rm HVP,LO} = 699(15)_{u,d}(1)_{s,c,b}$, where the errors are from the light-quark and heavy-quark contributions, respectively. Our result agrees with both {\it ab-initio} lattice-QCD calculations and phenomenological determinations from experimental $e^+e^-$-scattering data. It is $1.3\sigma$ below the "no new physics" value of the hadronic-vacuum-polarization contribution inferred from combining the BNL E821 measurement of $a_\mu$ with theoretical calculations of the other contributions., Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, 6 tables; updated to correct a small mistake in the finite volume correction resulting in small changes to the results, matches published version

We discuss preliminary results for the vector form factors $f_+^{\{\pi,K\}}$ at zero-momentum transfer for the decays $D\to\pi\ell\nu$ and $D\to K \ell\nu$ using MILC's $N_f = 2+1+1$ HISQ ensembles at four lattice spacings, $a \approx 0.042, 0.06, 0.09$, and 0.12 fm, and various HISQ quark masses down to the (degenerate) physical light quark mass. We use the kinematic constraint $f_+(q^2)= f_0(q^2)$ at $q^2 = 0$ to determine the vector form factor from our study of the scalar current, which yields $f_0(0)$. Results are extrapolated to the continuum physical point in the framework of hard pion/kaon SU(3) heavy-meson-staggered $\chi$PT and Symanzik effective theory. Our calculation improves upon the precision achieved in existing lattice-QCD calculations of the vector form factors at $q^2=0$. We show the values of the CKM matrix elements $|V_{cs}|$ and $|V_{cd}|$ that we would obtain using our preliminary results for the form factors together with recent experimental results, and discuss the implications of these values for the second row CKM unitarity., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, proceeding of The 36th Annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory

We use lattice QCD to calculate the form factors $f_+(q^2)$ and $f_0(q^2)$ for the semileptonic decay $B_s\to K\ell\nu$. Our calculation uses six MILC asqtad 2+1 flavor gauge-field ensembles with three lattice spacings. At the smallest and largest lattice spacing the light-quark sea mass is set to 1/10 the strange-quark mass. At the intermediate lattice spacing, we use four values for the light-quark sea mass ranging from 1/5 to 1/20 of the strange-quark mass. We use the asqtad improved staggered action for the light valence quarks, and the clover action with the Fermilab interpolation for the heavy valence bottom quark. We use SU(2) hard-kaon heavy-meson rooted staggered chiral perturbation theory to take the chiral-continuum limit. A functional $z$ expansion is used to extend the form factors to the full kinematic range. We present predictions for the differential decay rate for both $B_s\to K\mu\nu$ and $B_s\to K\tau\nu$. We also present results for the forward-backward asymmetry, the lepton polarization asymmetry, ratios of the scalar and vector form factors for the decays $B_s\to K\ell\nu$ and $B_s\to D_s \ell\nu$. Our results, together with future experimental measurements, can be used to determine the magnitude of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element $|V_{ub}|$., Comment: 57 pages, 22 figures, 13 tables

Motivated by the success of the flavour physics programme carried out over the last decade at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), we characterize in detail the physics potential of its High-Luminosity and High-Energy upgrades in this domain of physics. We document the extraordinary breadth of the HL/HE-LHC programme enabled by a putative Upgrade II of the dedicated flavour physics experiment LHCb and the evolution of the established flavour physics role of the ATLAS and CMS general purpose experiments. We connect the dedicated flavour physics programme to studies of the top quark, Higgs boson, and direct high-$p_T$ searches for new particles and force carriers. We discuss the complementarity of their discovery potential for physics beyond the Standard Model, affirming the necessity to fully exploit the LHC's flavour physics potential throughout its upgrade eras., Comment: Report from Working Group 4 on the Physics of the HL-LHC, and Perspectives at the HE-LHC, 292 pages

We describe a recent lattice-QCD calculation of the leptonic decay constants of heavy-light pseudoscalar mesons containing charm and bottom quarks and of the masses of the up, down, strange, charm, and bottom quarks. Results for these quantities are of the highest precision to date. Calculations use 24 isospin-symmetric ensembles of gauge-field configurations with six different lattice spacings as small as approximately 0.03 fm and several values of the light quark masses down to physical values of the average up- and down-sea-quark masses. We use the highly-improved staggered quark (HISQ) formulation for valence and sea quarks, including the bottom quark. The analysis employs heavy-quark effective theory (HQET). A novel HQET method is used in the determination of the quark masses., Comment: Talk presented CIPANP2018. 11 pages, LaTeX, 8 pdf figures

Using HISQ $N_f=2+1+1$ MILC ensembles with five different values of the lattice spacing, including four ensembles with physical quark masses, we have performed the most precise computation to date of the $K\to\pi\ell\nu$ vector form factor at zero momentum transfer, $f_+^{K^0\pi^-}(0)=0.9696(15)_\text{stat}(12)_\text{syst}$. This is the first calculation that includes the dominant finite-volume effects, as calculated in chiral perturbation theory at next-to-leading order. Our result for the form factor provides a direct determination of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element $|V_{us}|=0.22333(44)_{f_+(0)}(42)_\text{exp}$, with a theory error that is, for the first time, at the same level as the experimental error. The uncertainty of the semileptonic determination is now similar to that from leptonic decays and the ratio $f_{K^+}/f_{\pi^+}$, which uses $|V_{ud}|$ as input. Our value of $|V_{us}|$ is in tension at the 2--$2.6\sigma$ level both with the determinations from leptonic decays and with the unitarity of the CKM matrix. In the test of CKM unitarity in the first row, the current limiting factor is the error in $|V_{ud}|$, although a recent determination of the nucleus-independent radiative corrections to superallowed nuclear $\beta$ decays could reduce the $|V_{ud}|^2$ uncertainty nearly to that of $|V_{us}|^2$. Alternative unitarity tests using only kaon decays, for which improvements in the theory and experimental inputs are likely in the next few years, reveal similar tensions. As part of our analysis, we calculated the correction to $f_+^{K\pi}(0)$ due to nonequilibrated topological charge at leading order in chiral perturbation theory, for both the full-QCD and the partially-quenched cases. We also obtain the combination of low-energy constants in the chiral effective Lagrangian $[C_{12}^r+C_{34}^r-(L_5^r)^2](M_\rho)=(2.92\pm0.31)\cdot10^{-6}$., Comment: 42 pages and 12 figures. Expanded discussion of fit methodology. Finite volume error increased, conclusions unchanged. Version accepted by Phys. Rev. D

We calculate the up-, down-, strange-, charm-, and bottom-quark masses using the MILC highly improved staggered-quark ensembles with four flavors of dynamical quarks. We use ensembles at six lattice spacings ranging from $a\approx0.15$~fm to $0.03$~fm and with both physical and unphysical values of the two light and the strange sea-quark masses. We use a new method based on heavy-quark effective theory (HQET) to extract quark masses from heavy-light pseudoscalar meson masses. Combining our analysis with our separate determination of ratios of light-quark masses we present masses of the up, down, strange, charm, and bottom quarks. Our results for the $\overline{\text{MS}}$-renormalized masses are $m_u(2~\text{GeV}) = 2.130(41)$~MeV, $m_d(2~\text{GeV}) = 4.675(56)$~MeV, $m_s(2~\text{GeV}) = 92.47(69)$~MeV, $m_c(3~\text{GeV}) = 983.7(5.6)$~MeV, and $m_c(m_c) = 1273(10)$~MeV, with four active flavors; and $m_b(m_b) = 4195(14)$~MeV with five active flavors. We also obtain ratios of quark masses $m_c/m_s = 11.783(25)$, $m_b/m_s = 53.94(12)$, and $m_b/m_c = 4.578(8)$. The result for $m_c$ matches the precision of the most precise calculation to date, and the other masses and all quoted ratios are the most precise to date. Moreover, these results are the first with a perturbative accuracy of $\alpha_s^4$. As byproducts of our method, we obtain the matrix elements of HQET operators with dimension 4 and 5: $\overline{\Lambda}_\text{MRS}=555(31)$~MeV in the minimal renormalon-subtracted (MRS) scheme, $\mu_\pi^2 = 0.05(22)~\text{GeV}^2$, and $\mu_G^2(m_b)=0.38(2)~\text{GeV}^2$. The MRS scheme [Phys. Rev. D97, 034503 (2018), arXiv:1712.04983 [hep-ph]] is the key new aspect of our method., Comment: The published version; 32 pages and 7 figures