Francesco Sannino

University of Southern Denmark | SDU · Quantum Theory Center (QTC)

We study phenomenological constraints in a simple SĒχy extension of the Standard Model with a 125-GeV Higgs, a vectorlike heavy electron (E), a complex scalar electron (S) and a Standard Model singlet Dirac fermion (χ). The interactions among the dark matter candidate χ and the Standard Model particles occur via loop-induced processes involving the...

Using the renormalization group framework we classify different extensions of the standard model according to their degree of naturality. A new relevant class of perturbative models involving elementary scalars is the one in which the theory simultaneously satisfies the Veltman conditions and is conformal at the classical level. We term these exten...

We show that quantum-induced marginal deformations of the Starobinsky gravitational action of the form $R^{2(1 -\alpha)}$, with $R$ the Ricci scalar and $\alpha$ a positive parameter, smaller than one half, can account for the recent experimental observations by BICEP2 of primordial tensor modes. We also suggest natural microscopic (non) gravitatio...

In reference [1] a unified description, both at the effective and fundamental Lagrangian level, of models of composite Higgs dynamics was proposed. In the unified framework the Higgs itself can emerge, depending on the way the electroweak symmetry is embedded, either as a pseudo-Goldstone boson or as a massive excitation of the condensate. The most...

We unveil the impact of the $\theta$-angle on the QCD phase diagram at nonzero isospin and strangeness chemical potentials for three light flavors and different quark mass ratios. We establish the phase boundaries as well as the nature of the associated phase transitions. The order parameters and the physical spectrum in the different phases are de...

We develop an effective metric description of 2+1 dimensional black holes describing deviations from the classical Ba\~nados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black hole. The latter is a classical 2+1 dimensional rotating black hole with constant negative curvature. The effective metric is constrained by imposing the black hole symmetries and asymptotic cla...

In previous work we have developed a model-independent, effective description of quantum deformed, spherically symmetric and static black holes in four dimensions. The deformations of the metric are captured by two functions of the physical distance to the horizon, which are provided in the form of self-consistent Taylor series expansions. While th...

In a recent work (Del Piano et al. in Phys Rev D 109(2):024045, 2024), we have described spherically symmetric and static quantum black holes as deformations of the classical Schwarzschild metric that depend on the physical distance to the horizon. We have developed a framework that allows us to compute the latter in a self-consistent fashion from...

We systematically analyze the impact of dilatonic dynamics on Skyrme spheres, crystals, and branes. The effects of the dilatonic model parameters, encompassing different underlying near-conformal dynamics, on the macroscopic properties of skyrmions such as their mass and radius are discussed. For spheres and crystals we identify special values of t...

We show that the epidemiological Renormalization Group (eRG) framework is a useful and minimal tool to effectively describe the temporal evolution of the Dengue multi-wave pandemics. We test the framework on the Dengue history of several countries located in both Latin America and Asia. We also observe a strong correlation between the total number...

Upon introducing a heavy quark in the perturbative regime of the QCD conformal window we precisely determine the associated heavy meson spectrum and wave functions in terms of the number of light flavors and mass. We then compute the conformal Isgur-Wise function which is a central quantity in heavy quark physics. We further determine the impact of...

We determine the scaling dimension $\Delta_n$ for the class of composite operators $\phi^n$ in the $\lambda \phi^4$ theory taking the double scaling limit $n\rightarrow \infty$ and $\lambda \rightarrow 0$ with fixed $\lambda n$ via a semiclassical approach. Our results resum the leading power of $n$ at any loop order. In the small $\lambda n$ regim...

Recent pandemics triggered the development of a number of mathematical models and computational tools apt at curbing the socio-economic impact of these and future pandemics. The need to acquire solid estimates from the data led to the introduction of effective approaches such as the \emph{epidemiological Renormalization Group} (eRG). A recognized r...

We investigate high and low energy implications of a gauge dual description of the Standard Model. The high energy electric theory features gauge dynamics involving only fermionic matter fields, while the low energy magnetic description features a quasi-supersymmetric spectrum testable at colliders. The flavour theory is constructed via operators g...

We provide the leading near conformal corrections on a cylinder to the scaling dimension of the lowest-lying fixed isospin charge Q operators defined at the lower boundary of the quantum chromodynamics conformal window, Δ ˜ Q = Δ ˜ Q * + ( m σ 4 π ν ) 2 Q Δ 3 B 1 + ( m π ( θ ) 4 π ν ) 4 Q 2 3 ( 1 − γ ) B 2 + O ( m σ 4 , m π 8 , m σ 2 m π 4 ) . Here...

Upon introducing an heavy quark in the perturbative regime of the QCD conformal window we precisely determine the associated heavy meson spectrum and wave functions in terms of the number of light flavours and mass. We then compute the conformal Isgur-Wise function which is a central quantity in heavy quark physics. We further determine the impact...

We show that it is possible to observe the Hawking radiation emitted by small black holes assumed to form in catastrophic astrophysical events such as black hole mergers. Gamma ray bursts in the TeV range are unique footprints of these asteroid-mass black hole morsels ejected during the merger. The time delay of the gamma ray bursts from the gravit...

We construct an example of a safe ultraviolet finite supersymmetric renormalizable SO(10) grand unified theory featuring a supersymmetric dynamical breaking mechanism. Our results constitute a step forward towards an ultraviolet safe extension of the Standard Model enjoying the benefits of grand unified theories. Published by the American Physical...

A bstract We determine anomalous dimensions of a family of fixed hypercharge operators in the Standard Model featuring the general Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa structure. The results are obtained at infinite orders in the couplings and to leading and subleading orders in the charge. The computed anomalous dimensions are shown to agree with the maximum...

A bstract We study under which conditions a first-order phase transition in a composite dark sector can yield an observable stochastic gravitational-wave signal. To this end, we employ the Linear-Sigma model featuring N f = 3, 4, 5 flavours and perform a Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis computation also accounting for the effects of the Polyakov loop. The...

We systematically compute the Λ b ( p , s b ) → Λ c ( 2595 ) + and Λ b ( p , s b ) → Λ c ( 2625 ) + form factors within the heavy quark effective theory (HQET) framework including O ( 1 / m c 2 ) . Besides taking into account the Standard Model–like vector and axial contributions, we further determine tensor and pseudotensor form factors. Our work...

Quantum gravity theories predict deformations of black hole solutions relative to their classical counterparts. A model-independent approach was advocated in Binetti et al. [Effective theory of quantum black holes, Phys. Rev. D 106, 046006 (2022)] that uses metric deformations parametrized in terms of physical quantities, such as the proper distanc...

We analyze the impact of positivity conditions on static spherically symmetric deformations of the Schwarzschild space-time. The metric is taken to satisfy, at least asymptotically, the Einstein equation in the presence of a nontrivial stress-energy tensor, on which we impose various physicality conditions. We systematically study and compare the i...

We systematically compute the $\Lambda_b(p, s_b) \rightarrow \Lambda_{c}(2595)^{+}$ and $\Lambda_b(p, s_b) \rightarrow \Lambda_{c}(2625)^{+}$ form factors within the Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET) framework including $\mathcal{O}(1/m_c^2)$. Besides taking into account the Standard Model-like vector and axial contributions, we further determine...

We provide an example of an ultraviolet finite supersymmetric grand unified theory of safe rather than free nature endowed with a supersymmetric dynamical breaking mechanism. Our results simultaneously enlarge the number of ultraviolet consistent supersymmetric grand unified theories while providing a relevant example of how to achieve a consistent...

Quantum gravity theories predict deformations of black hole solutions relative to their classical counterparts. A model-independent approach was advocated in \cite{Binetti:2022xdi} that uses metric deformations parametrised in terms of physical quantities, such as the proper distance. While such a description manifestly preserves the invariance of...

We determine the impact of the θ angle and axion physics on the near conformal dynamics of the large-charge baryon sector of SU(2) gauge theories with Nf fermions in the fundamental representation. We employ an effective approach featuring Goldstone and dilaton degrees of freedom augmented by the topological terms in the theory. We investigate how...

We compute the spectrum of the low-lying mesonic states with vector, scalar and pseudoscalar quantum numbers in QCD with one flavor. With three colors the fundamental and the two-index antisymmetric representations of the gauge group coincide. The latter is an orientifold theory that maps into the bosonic sector of N=1 super Yang-Mills theory in th...

We analyse the impact of positivity conditions on static spherically symmetric deformations of the Schwarzschild space-time. The metric is taken to satisfy, at least asymptotically, the Einstein equation in the presence of a non-trivial stress-energy tensor, on which we impose various physicality conditions. We systematically study and compare the...

The Standard Model of particle physics and its description of nature have been recently challenged by a series of precision measurements performed via different accelerator machines. Statistically significant anomalies emerged when measuring the muon magnetic momentum, and very recently when deducing the mass of the W boson. Here we consider a radi...

We compute the spectrum of the low-lying mesonic states with vector, scalar and pseudoscalar quantum numbers in QCD with one flavour. With three colours the fundamental and the two-index anti-symmetric representations of the gauge group coincide. The latter is an orientifold theory that maps into the bosonic sector of N = 1 super Yang-Mills theory...

We compute the spectrum of the low-lying mesonic states with vector, scalar and pseudoscalar quantum numbers in QCD with one flavour. With three colours the fundamental and the two-index anti-symmetric representations of the gauge group coincide. The latter is an orientifold theory that maps into the bosonic sector of $\mathcal{N} = 1$ super Yang-M...

Phase transitions in a non-perturbative regime can be studied by ab initio Lattice Field Theory methods. The status and future research directions for LFT investigations of Quantum Chromo-Dynamics under extreme conditions are reviewed, including properties of hadrons and of the hypothesized QCD axion as inferred from QCD topology in different phase...

We use one-flavour QCD (= 3) as a proxy to understand N = 1 SYM. For our simulations, we use tree-level improved Wilson fermions and a Symanzik improved gauge action. The hadron spectrum is obtained by using LapH smearing for different masses and simulation volumes. We also report on our efforts to increase the number of colours in our simulations,...

We use one-flavour QCD ($N_c=3$) as a proxy to understand $\mathcal{N}=1$ SYM. For our simulations, we use tree-level improved Wilson fermions and Symanzik improved gauge action. The hadron spectrum is obtained by using LapH smearing for different masses and simulation volumes. We also report on our efforts to increase the number of colours in our...

A bstract We analyze the impact of the θ -angle and axion dynamics for two-color (in fact any Sp(2 N )) QCD at nonzero baryon charge and as a function of the number of matter fields on the vacuum properties, the pattern of chiral symmetry breaking as well as the spectrum of the theory. We show that the vacuum acquires a rich structure when the unde...

The Standard Model of Particle Physics and its description of Nature have been recently challenged by a series of precision measurements performed via different accelerator machines. Statistically significant anomalies emerged in the heavy meson physics sector, when measuring the muon magnetic momentum, and very recently when deducing the mass of t...

In this paper we analyze the impact of vaccinations on spread of the COVID-19 virus for different age groups. More specifically, we examine the deployment of vaccines in the Nordic countries in a comparative analysis where we focus on factors such as healthcare stress level and severity of disease through new infections, hospitalizations, intensive...

Safe theories are quantum field theories whose continuum limit is defined by a non-Gaussian ultraviolet fixed point when the ultraviolet cutoff is removed. They constitute an important set in the space of quantum field theories. Here we develop the ‘safe’ gauge-string correspondence program according to which d-dimensional safe gauge theories, admi...

We consider the implications of the CDF collaboration high-precision measurement of the W boson mass on models with a non-standard Higgs. We show that this requires an enhancement of more than 5% in the non-standard Higgs coupling to the gauge bosons. This is naturally accommodated in dynamical models such as the dilaton Higgs, the Technicolor and...

We explore the quantum nature of black holes by introducing an effective framework that takes into account deviations from the classical results. The approach is based on introducing quantum corrections to the classical Schwarzschild geometry in a way that is consistent with the physical scales of the black hole and its classical symmetries. This i...

We determine the impact of the $\theta$-angle and axion physics on the near conformal dynamics of the large-charge baryon sector of $SU(2)$ gauge theories with $N_f$ fermions in the fundamental representation. We employ an effective approach featuring Goldstone and dilaton degrees of freedom augmented by the topological terms in the theory. By char...

We analyze the impact of the $\theta$-angle and axion dynamics for two-color (in fact any $Sp(2N)$) QCD at nonzero baryon charge and as a function of the number of matter fields on the vacuum properties, the pattern of chiral symmetry breaking as well as the spectrum of the theory. We show that the vacuum acquires a rich structure when the underlyi...

A bstract We critically analyze the body of results that hints to the existence of New Physics from possible violations of lepton universality observed by the LHCb experiment in the μ/e ratios R K and $$ {R}_{K^{\ast }} $$ R K ∗ to the g − 2 lepton anomalies. The analysis begins with a theoretical, in depth, study of the μ/e ratios R K and $$ {R}_{...

Never before such a vast amount of data, including genome sequencing, has been collected for any viral pandemic than for the current case of COVID-19. This offers the possibility to trace the virus evolution and to assess the role mutations play in its spread within the population, in real time. To this end, we focused on the Spike protein for its...

A bstract We investigate the analytic properties of the fixed charge expansion for a number of conformal field theories in different space-time dimensions. The models investigated here are O ( N ) and QED 3 . We show that in d = 3 − ϵ dimensions the contribution to the O ( N ) fixed charge Q conformal dimensions obtained in the double scaling limit...

We study the impact on the epidemiological dynamics of a class of restrictive measures that are aimed at reducing the number of contacts of individuals who have a higher risk of being infected with a transmittable disease. Such measures are currently either implemented or at least discussed in numerous countries worldwide to ward off a potential ne...

We consider the implications of the CDF collaboration high-precision measurement of the W boson mass on models with a non-standard Higgs. We show that this requires an enhancement of 3-10% in the non-standard Higgs coupling to the gauge bosons. This is naturally accommodated in dynamical models such as the dilaton Higgs, the Technicolor and gluebal...

We critically analyze the body of results that hints to the existence of New Physics from possible violations of lepton universality observed by the LHCb experiment in the $\mu/e$ ratios $R_{K}$ and $R_{K^*}$ to the $g-2$ lepton anomalies. The analysis begins with a theoretical, in depth, study of the $\mu/e$ ratios $R_{K}$ and $R_{K^*}$ as well as...

We explore the quantum nature of black holes by introducing an effective framework that takes into account deviations from the classical results. The approach is based on introducing quantum corrections to the classical Schwarzschild geometry in a way that is consistent with the physical scales of the black hole and its classical symmetries. This i...

We investigate the analytic properties of the fixed charge expansion for a number of conformal field theories in different space-time dimensions. The models investigated here are $O(N)$ and $QED_3$. We show that in $d=3-\epsilon$ dimensions the contribution to the $O(N)$ fixed charge $Q$ conformal dimensions obtained in the double scaling limit of...

We propose a physics-inspired mathematical model underlying the temporal evolution of competing virus variants that relies on the existence of (quasi) fixed points capturing the large time scale invariance of the dynamics. To motivate our result we first modify the time-honoured compartmental models of the SIR type to account for the existence of c...

We show that the observed anomalies in the lepton sector can be explained in extensions of the Standard Model that are natural and, therefore, resolve the Higgs sector hierarchy problem. The scale of new physics is around the TeV and Technicolor-like theories are ideal candidate models.

A bstract We study the gravitational-wave signal stemming from strongly coupled models featuring both, dark chiral and confinement phase transitions. We therefore identify strongly coupled theories that can feature a first-order phase transition. Employing the Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model, we focus our attention on SU(3) Yang-Mills theories fe...

A bstract The Weak Gravity Conjecture has recently been re-formulated in terms of a particle with non-negative self-binding energy. Because of the dual conformal field theory (CFT) formulation in the anti-de Sitter space, the conformal dimension ∆( Q ) of the lowest-dimension operator with charge Q under some global U(1) symmetry must be a convex f...

We numerically study QCD with a single quark flavour on the lattice probing predictions from effective field theories that are equivalent to minimal super-symmetric Yang-Mills theory in the large $N_c$ limit. The hadronic spectrum including excited states is analysed using one gauge coupling and several physical volumes and fermion masses. We use t...

Never before such a vast amount of data, including genome sequencing, has been collected for any viral pandemic than for the current case of COVID-19. This offers the possibility to trace the virus evolution and to assess the role mutations play in its spread within the population, in real time. To this end, we focused on the Spike protein for its...

We compute the scaling dimensions of a family of fixed-charge operators at the infrared fixed point of the O(N) model featuring cubic interactions in d=6−ε for arbitrary N to leading and subleading order in the charge but to all orders in the couplings. The results are used to analyze the conjectured equivalence with the O(N) model displaying quart...

We investigate the theoretical predictions for thrust distribution in the electron positron annihilation to three-jets process at NNLO for different values of the number of flavors, Nf. To determine the distribution along the entire renormalization group flow from the highest energies to zero energy we consider the number of flavors near the upper...

We study the gravitational-wave signal stemming from strongly coupled models featuring both, dark chiral and confinement phase transitions. We therefore identify strongly coupled theories that can feature a first-order phase transition. Employing the Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model, we focus our attention on SU(3) Yang-Mills theories featuring fe...

In this paper we analyze the impact of vaccinations on spread of the COVID-19 virus for different age groups. More specifically we examine the deployment of vaccines in the Nordic countries in a comparative analysis where we analyze factors such as healthcare stress level and severity of disease through new infections, hospitalizations, intensive c...

We study the impact on the epidemiological dynamics of a class of restrictive measures that are aimed at reducing the number of contacts of individuals who have a higher risk of being infected with a transmittable disease. Such measures are currently either implemented or at least discussed in numerous countries worldwide to ward off a potential ne...

The Weak Gravity Conjecture has recently been re-formulated in terms of a particle with non-negative self-binding energy. Because of the dual conformal field theory (CFT) formulation in the anti-de Sitter space the conformal dimension $\Delta (Q)$ of the lowest-dimension operator with charge Q under some global U(1) symmetry must be a convex functi...

We pave the way for future gravitational-wave detection experiments, such as the big bang observer and DECIGO, to constraint dark sectors made of SU(N) Yang-Mills confined theories. We go beyond the state-of-the-art by combining first principle lattice results and effective field theory approaches to infer essential information about the nonperturb...

Never before such a vast amount of data, including genome sequencing, has been collected for any viral pandemic than for the current case of COVID-19. This offers the possibility to trace the virus evolution and to assess the role mutations play in its spread within the population, in real time. To this end, we focused on the Spike protein for its...

We compute the scaling dimensions of a family of fixed-charge operators at the infrared fixed point of the $O(N)$ model featuring cubic interactions in $d=6-\epsilon$ for arbitrary $N$ to leading and subleading order in the charge but to all orders in the couplings. The results are used to analyze the conjectured equivalence with the $O(N)$ model d...