Tom Broadhurst, Jose M. Diego, George F. Smoot

Gravitational lensing allows the detection of binary black holes (BBH) at cosmological distances with chirp masses that appear to be enhanced by $1+z$ in the range $1<z<4$, in good agreement with the reported BBH masses. We propose this effect also accounts for the puzzling "mass gap" events (MG) newly reported by LIGO/Virgo, as distant, lensed NSBH events with $1<z<4$. The fitted mass of the neutron star member becomes $(1+z)\times 1.4M_\odot$, and is therefore misclassified as a low mass black hole. In this way, we derive a redshift of $z\simeq 3.5$ and $z\simeq 1.0$ for two newly reported "mass asymmetric" events GW190412 \& GW190814, by interpreting them as lensed NSBH events, comprising a stellar mass black hole and neutron star. Over the past year an additional 31 BBH events and 5 MG events have been reported with high probability ($>95\%$), from which we infer a factor $\simeq 5$ higher intrinsic rate of NSBH events than BBH events, reflecting a higher proportion of neutron stars formed by early star formation. We predict a distinctive locus for lensed NSBH events in the observed binary mass plane, spanning $1<z<4$ with a narrow mass ratio, $q \simeq 0.2$, that can be readily tested when the waveform data are unlocked. All such events may show disrupted NS emission and are worthy of prompt follow-up as the high lensing magnification means EM detections are not prohibitive despite the high redshifts that we predict. Such lensed NSBH events provide an exciting prospect of directly charting the history of coalescing binaries via the cosmological redshift of their waveforms, determined relative to the characteristic mass of the neutron star member.

Andrei G. Lebed

We review our recent theoretical results about inequivalence between passive gravitational mass and energy for a composite quantum body at a macroscopic level. In particular, we consider macroscopic ensembles of the simplest composite quantum bodies - hydrogen atoms. Our results are as follows. For the most ensembles, the Einstein's Equivalence Principle is valid. On the other hand, we discuss that for some special quantum ensembles - ensembles of the coherent superpositions of the stationary quantum states in the hydrogen atoms (which we call Gravitational demons) - the Equivalence Principle between passive gravitational mass and energy is broken. We show that, for such superpositions, the expectation values of passive gravitational masses are not related to the expectation values of energies by the famous Einstein's equation, i.e, $m_g \neq \frac{E}{c^2}$. Possible experiments at the Earth's laboratories are briefly discussed, in contrast to the numerous attempts and projects to discover the possible breakdown of the Einstein's Equivalence Principle during the space missions.

Elliott Gesteau, Monica Jinwoo Kang

We formulate the baby universe construction rigorously by giving a primordial role to the algebra of observables of quantum gravity rather than the Hilbert space. Utilizing diffeomorphism invariance, we study baby universe creation and annihilation via change in topology. We then construct the algebra of boundary observables for holographic theories and show that it enhances to contain an 'extra' Abelian tensor factor to describe the bulk in the quantum regime; via the gravitational path integral we realize this extra tensor factor, at the level of the Hilbert space, in the context of the Gelfand--Naimark--Segal (GNS) representation. We reformulate the necessary assumptions for the "baby universe hypothesis" using the GNS representation. When the baby universe hypothesis is satisfied, we demonstrate that the "miraculous cancellations" in the corresponding gravitational path integral have a natural explanation in terms of the character theory of Abelian groups. We find the necessary and sufficient mathematical condition for the baby universe hypothesis to hold, and transcribe it into sufficient physical conditions. We find that they are incompatible with a baby universe formation that is influenced by any bulk process from the AdS/CFT correspondence.

James Schombert, Stacy McGaugh, Federico Lelli

We explore the use of the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation (bTFR) as a new distance indicator. Advances in near-IR imaging and stellar population models, plus precise rotation curves, have reduced the scatter in the bTFR such that distance is the dominant source of uncertainty. Using 50 galaxies with accurate distances from Cepheids or tip magnitude of the red giant branch, we calibrate the bTFR on a scale independent of $H_o$. We then apply this calibrated bTFR to 95 independent galaxies from the SPARC sample, using CosmicFlows-3 velocities, to deduce the local value of $H_o$. We find $H_o$ = 75.1 +/- 2.3 (stat) +/- 1.5 (sys) km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$.

E. Aprile, J. Aalbers, F. Agostini, M. Alfonsi, L. Althueser, F. D. Amaro, V. C. Antochi, E. Angelino, J. R. Angevaare, F. Arneodo, D. Barge, L. Baudis, B. Bauermeister, L. Bellagamba, M. L. Benabderrahmane, T. Berger, A. Brown, E. Brown, S. Bruenner, G. Bruno, R. Budnik, C. Capelli, J. M. R. Cardoso, D. Cichon, B. Cimmino, M. Clark, D. Coderre, A. P. Colijn, J. Conrad, J. P. Cussonneau, M. P. Decowski, A. Depoian, P. Di Gangi, A. Di Giovanni, R. Di Stefano, S. Diglio, A. Elykov, G. Eurin, A. D. Ferella, W. Fulgione, P. Gaemers, R. Gaior, M. Galloway, F. Gao, L. Grandi, C. Hasterok, C. Hils, K. Hiraide, L. Hoetzsch, J. Howlett, M. Iacovacci, Y. Itow, F. Joerg, N. Kato, S. Kazama, M. Kobayashi, G. Koltman, A. Kopec, H. Landsman, R. F. Lang, L. Levinson, Q. Lin, S. Lindemann, M. Lindner, F. Lombardi, et al. (74 additional authors not shown)

We report results from searches for new physics with low-energy electronic recoil data recorded with the XENON1T detector. With an exposure of 0.65 tonne-years and an unprecedentedly low background rate of $76\pm2_{stat}$ events/(tonne$\times$year$\times$keV) between 1-30 keV, the data enables competitive searches for solar axions, an enhanced neutrino magnetic moment using solar neutrinos, and bosonic dark matter. An excess over known backgrounds is observed below 7 keV, rising towards lower energies and prominent between 2-3 keV. The solar axion model has a 3.5$\sigma$ significance, and a three-dimensional 90% confidence surface is reported for axion couplings to electrons, photons, and nucleons. This surface is inscribed in the cuboid defined by $g_{ae}<3.7\times10^{-12}$, $g_{ae}g_{an}^{eff}<4.6\times10^{-18}$, and $g_{ae}g_{a\gamma}<7.6\times10^{-22}~{GeV}^{-1}$, and excludes either $g_{ae}=0$ or $g_{ae}g_{a\gamma}=g_{ae}g_{an}^{eff}=0$. The neutrino magnetic moment signal is similarly favored over background at 3.2$\sigma$ and a confidence interval of $\mu_\nu\in(1.4,2.9)\times10^{-11} \mu_B$ (90% C.L.) is reported. Both results are in tension with stellar constraints. The excess can also be explained by $\beta$ decays of tritium, which was initially not considered, at 3.2$\sigma$ significance with a corresponding tritium concentration in xenon of $(6.2\pm2.0)\times10^{-25}$ mol/mol. Such a trace amount can be neither confirmed nor excluded with current knowledge of production and reduction mechanisms. The significances of the solar axion and neutrino magnetic moment hypotheses are decreased to 2.1$\sigma$ and 0.9$\sigma$, respectively, if an unconstrained tritium component is included in the fitting. This analysis also sets the most restrictive direct constraints to date on pseudoscalar and vector bosonic dark matter for most masses between 1 and 210 keV/c$^2$.