Newsletter

Newsletter June 2025

Europe/Rome
Description

This is June’s edition of the newsletter of the COST action. The aim is to keep you updated on recent and upcoming conferences and postdoc positions on subjects related to WISPs.

 

Cosmic Wispers preprints

Leading bounds on micro- to picometer fifth forces from neutron star cooling 

Damiano F. G. Fiorillo, Alessandro Lella, Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Edoardo Vitagliano

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.19906

The equivalence principle and the inverse-square law of gravity could be violated at short distances 10^-6 to 10^-12 by scalars sporting a coupling g_N to nucleons and mass eV< m_𝛷 < MeV. We show for the first time that stringent bounds on the existence of these scalars can be obtained from the observed cooling of nearby isolated neutron stars (NSs). Although the latter can only give limits comparable to the classic SN 1987A cooling bound in the case of pseudoscalars such as the QCD axion, the shallow temperature dependence of the scalar emissivity results in a huge enhancement in the effect of 𝛷 on the cooling of cold NSs. As we do not find evidence of exotic energy losses, we can exclude couplings down to g_N < 5*10^-14. Our new bound supersedes all existing limits on scalars across six orders of magnitude in m_𝛷. Our conclusions also extend to Higgs portal models, for which the bound on the scalar-Higgs mixing angle is sin𝜃 < 6*10^-11.

 

Supersymmetric Horizons at the Edge of Effective Field Theory

Sermet Çağan, Omer Guleryuz, Cemal Berfu Senisik

 https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.18107

We propose the Supersymmetric Horizon Stabilization (SHS) mechanism: a minimal and analytically tractable framework in 4D supergravity that unifies trans-Planckian inflation, metastable de Sitter vacua, and asymptotic supersymmetry within a single effective potential. The setup is built from a logarithmic Kähler potential modified by nilpotent constraints and perturbed by controlled higher-derivative effects. It yields exponential field-space trajectories that reconcile large canonical excursions with finite moduli values. SHS dynamically avoids light towers and satisfies both the Gravitino and Swampland Distance Conjectures. It culminates in a supersymmetric UV boundary at infinite dynamical distance, motivating the Supersymmetric Horizon Conjecture (SHC): that consistent gravitational EFTs may begin and end with supersymmetry, dynamically broken in between. The framework also supports localized features in the potential capable of generating massive primordial black holes from enhanced scalar fluctuations. SHS thus offers a structurally simple yet observationally rich approach to embedding cosmology into supersymmetric EFTs.

 

We encourage participants in the COST action to send us a small summary, typically smaller than the abstract, of their own articles that will appear in the arXiv (after they appear, with their arXiv numbers). The summary will be disseminated in the newsletter.

Send email to 

Alessandro Lella: alessandro.lella@ba.infn.it

Damiano Fiorillo: damianofg@gmail.com

with subject: preprint summary for Cosmic WISPers newsletter.

 

PhD/Postdoc/Junior Positions

  • June

    • Postdoctoral position in astrophysics and quantum technology, Zaragoza link

    • Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Dark Matter experiment link

    • Postdoctoral Research position in XenonNT, Shenzhen link

    • Postdoctoral position in dark matter axion detection, Stockholm link

  • July

    • Postdoctoral fellows in Dark Matter search and Neutrino Physics in Argo, Queen’s University, Kingston link

 

Conferences

  • July

    • Les Houches Summer School 2025: The Dark Universe link

    • Dark Side of the Universe 2025 (DSU-2025) link

    • International Symposium on Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics: CosPA 2025 (CosPA 2025) link

    • International Conference "Dark Matter and Stars: Multi-Messenger Probes of Dark Matter and Modified Gravity" (ICDMS2025)  link

    • 11th Summer School in Particle and Astroparticle Physics (GRASPA2025) link

    • 30th International Symposium on Particles, Strings and Cosmology (PASCOS 2025) link

    • Windows into New Physics in the Sky link

  • August

    • New Ways to Discover Light New Physics link
    • Dark Matter and Neutrino Focus Week link
    • TAUP 2025 link
  • September

    • Invisibles Workshop 2025 link

    • 3rd General Meeting of the COST Action: Cosmic WISPers (CA21106) link

    • 3rd Training School of the COST Action: Cosmic WISPers (CA21106) link

    • Light Dark World 2025 (LDW 2025) link

    • 20th Patras Workshop on Axions WIMPs and WISPs link

    • 1st UNDARK workshop: Astrophysical searches of dark sectors with radio wave observations link

  • October 

    • 28th International Conference on Particle Physics & Cosmology (COSMO 2025) link

  • December

    • Strings & Cosmology Meeting link