Department of Theoretical Physics

Urška Andrenšek, "Thickness modulation in supported epithelial sheets"
2024-02-29 14:00 - 15:00 (Europe/Ljubljana) | C/0-106 – Seminarska soba fizike (F5) (Jamova)
Surface patterns in epithelial tissues often arise due to effects of differential surface tension and elastic properties of supporting structures, such as basal membrane and bulk elastic substrate. While we cannot clearly distinguish between surface-tension and elastic contributions only from measurement of wave-length of surface patterns, thickness modulation of the tissue might give a better insight into the origins of specific pattern formation. Depending on magnitude of surface-tension and elastic energy contributions, the thickness modulation can change its amplitude and phase. I will present the theoretical predictions of effects that differential surface tension, basal membrane and elastic substrate have on surface-pattern formation and thickness modulation in mono-layered epithelial sheets.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/1875/

Mojca Krajnc (TBA)
2024-03-14 14:00 - 15:30 | Seminar room of physics (106) (IJS)
Speakers: Mojca Krajnc (Biotechnical Faculty)
https://indico.ijs.si/event/1778/

Marco Gorghetto: Early vs late string networks from a minimal QCD Axion
2024-03-19 14:00 - 15:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
We propose a new regime of minimal QCD axion dark matter that lies between the pre- and post-inflationary scenarios, such that the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is restored only on sufficiently large spatial scales. This leads to a novel cosmological evolution, in which strings and domain walls re-enter the horizon and annihilate later than in the ordinary post-inflationary regime, possibly even after the QCD crossover. Such dynamics can occur if the PQ symmetry is restored by inflationary fluctuations, i.e. the Hubble parameter during inflation $H_I$ is larger than the PQ breaking scale $f_a$, but it is not thermally restored afterwards. Solving the Fokker-Planck equation, we estimate the number of inflationary e-folds required for the PQ symmetry to be, on average, restored. Moreover, we show that, in the large parts of parameter space where the radial mode is displaced from the minimum by de Sitter fluctuations, a string network forms due to the radial mode oscillating over the top of its potential after inflation. In both cases we identify order one ranges in $H_I/f_a$ and in the quartic coupling $lambda$ of the PQ potential that lead to the late-string dynamics. In this regime the cosmological dark matter abundance can be reproduced for axion decay constants as low as the astrophysical constraint 𝒪$(10^8)$ GeV, corresponding to axion masses up to $10^{-2}$ eV, and with miniclusters with masses as large as 𝒪(10) solar masses.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/1997/

"Dynamics of Ribonucleoprotein Assembly in Time and Space"
2024-03-28 14:00 - 15:00 | Seminar room of physics (106) (IJS)
Speakers: Miha Modic (National Institute of Chemistry)
Successful embryo implantation induces rapid morphological progression from rosette to lumen and then to gastrulation, which is closely coordinated with cell fate transition. By integrating machine learning, metabolic RNA sequencing, iCLIP, and proteomics of the protein-RNA interactome with embryology, I will present a blueprint for understanding how multilayered molecular networks coordinate developmental transitions. I will highlight three studies that demonstrate how cross-regulatory molecular logic ensures the robustness of developmental signalling pathways to rewire ribonucleoprotein assembly to drive cell fate transitions (Modic et al., 2023), important for the onset of gastrulation (Modic et al., 2019) and embryonic morphogenesis (Modic & van Genderen et al, in resubmission; Modic et al., Biorxiv 2021).
https://indico.ijs.si/event/1799/

Fabio Staniscia, "Line adsorption in sessile droplets"
2024-04-04 14:00 - 15:00 | C/0-106 – Seminarska soba fizike (F5) (Jamova)
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2075/

Boštjan Vihar, "Developing in vitro models of human tissues"
2024-04-11 14:15 - 15:15 | Seminar room of physics (106) (IJS)
Speakers: Boštjan Vihar (IBV MF UM)
The presentation will establish basic concepts of tissue engineering, 3D biofabrication and the development of microphysiological systems, and provide insight into some of the work in progress at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor (IBV).The development of advanced in vitro models of human tissues stands at the forefront of advancing medical sciences by developing innovative solutions to complex health issues and requires an interdisciplinary approach combining different fields such as cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, materials science, additive technologies. The development process can vary substantially depending on the target tissue/application and the expected functional characteristics.At IBV different aspects of in vitro tissue model development are explored in parallel and in synergy in the hopes of obtaining new insights into the (patho)physiology of human tissues and organs and creating new ways for the treatment of complex diseases and personalized medicine.Our research activities include the cell culture of immortalized and primary cell lines, which are also isolated and characterization in-house. In parallel, polymer-based hydrogel formulations are developed to mimic the physico-chemical properties of native tissues and are combined with cells to form bioinks. Using extrusion-based, microfluidics and lithographic 3D printing techniques, tissue scaffolds and custom-made microfluidic devices are developed and integrated into microphysiological systems (organ-on-a-chip devices) which allow prolonged maturation, continuous monitoring and functional analysis.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/1866/

Labrini Athanasopoulou (TBA)
2024-04-18 14:00 - 15:00 | C/0-106 – Seminarska soba fizike (F5) (Jamova)
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2076/

Maciej Kierkla: EFT of supercooled phase transition
2024-05-09 14:00 - 15:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
We present an analysis of the first-order supercooled phase transition associated with symmetry breaking in the early Universe in a classically scale-invariant model. We analyze the role of higher order thermal corrections for these transitions, and to what extent they can be computed using dimensionally reduced effective field theory (3D EFT). This framework requires high temperature (HT) expansion to be valid, which seems challenging due to the presence of supercooling. We show how to reliably use the HT expansion in dimensionally reduced theory for the calculation of bubble nucleation rate. We compare the obtained results to the results of the most common scheme based on the so-called daisy resummation. We further compute all of phase transition characteristics, discuss various scenarios of completing the transition and predict resulting gravitational-wave spectra and their observational prospects in future experiments such as LISA.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2070/

Lorenzo Ubaldi: False Vacuum Decay From Thin to Thick Walls
2024-05-16 14:00 - 15:00 | https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/64706033081 Passcode: [REDACTED] (Zoom)
The computation of the false vacuum decay rate in the situation with nearly degenerate vacua can be performed analytically in the well known thin wall approximation. If we depart from the near degeneracy of the vacua, the approximation quickly ceases to work. This statement is known to practitioners of the field, but it has a caveat: it is true only if one works at the leading order of the thin wall approximation. In this talk I will describe how to organize the calculation to systematically include higher order corrections in the thin wall parameter expansion. The first few orders can be computed analytically. It is enough to include them to improve the approximation and get a very accurate estimate of the bounce action also deep into thick wall regimes, where the vacua are far apart. I plan to also briefly discuss how to deal in these cases with the calculation of the functional determinant, also known as the prefactor, in order to have the full proper understanding of the vacuum decay rate. In the whole talk I will only consider flat spacetime, without gravity.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2133/

Diego Redigolo: Dark sectors at flavor factories
2024-05-21 14:00 - 15:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
I will discuss new ideas for reporpusing current flavor experiments to hunt for dark sectors particles.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2134/

Nudžeim Selimović
2024-05-23 14:00 - 15:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2089/

Gašper Lipnik, "Force inference in epithelial tissues"
2024-05-23 14:00 - 15:00 | C/0-106 – Seminarska soba fizike (F5) (Jamova)
In this work, we explore the ways of determining the mechanical properties of epithelial tissues. Knowledge of the mechanical parameters like forces between and pressures within cells leads to a deeper understanding of the processes in these tissues. To determine these parameters, one can perform in vivo measurements using lasers, optical tweezers, micropipettes etc. However, in vivo measurements are invasive, technically challenging and local. Thus, it is best to use noninvasive and global methods. One theoretical approach is force inference from cell shapes and connectivity as seen in microscope images, and here we introduce three force inference methods.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2091/

Innes Bigaran: Leveraging intermediate resonances to probe CP-violation at colliders
2024-05-28 13:45 - 14:45 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
We study the phenomenological implications of interference between tree-level contributions to decays to three-body final states. CP-violation in these decays arise via different virtualities of intermediate resonances, and the presence of SM and/or new CP phases in a model Lagrangian. We highlight the manifestation of this CP-violating observable in the interference between SM charged-current decays and new-physics contributions to effective vector interactions in the EFT and in a UV-complete model featuring a scalar leptoquark, $S_1$. We present a novel method for searching for CP-violating new physics effects utilising the differential cross sections of $ppto d_i ell u_ell$ decays, with a detailed study of $ppto b tau u_tau$ simulating signal and background.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2146/

Mario Reig Lopez: Testing the far UV of the Standard Model with axions
2024-05-30 14:00 - 15:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
In this talk I will discuss axion couplings to gauge bosons in 4-dimensional Grand Unified Theories and in (heterotic) String Theory. The topological nature of these couplings allows them to be matched from the UV to the IR, and the ratio of the anomaly with photons and gluons for any axion is fixed by unification. I will show that this implies that there is a single axion — the QCD axion — with an anomalous coupling to photons. Other light axion-like particles can couple to photons by mixing with the QCD axion, and necessarily lie to the right of the QCD line prediction in the mass-coupling plane. As a result, a discovery of an axion to the left of the QCD line can rule out simple GUTs and some heterotic string compactifications.Based on: 2206.07053 and future work.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2085/

Bernat Corominas-Murtra, "Topological transitions and cell-cell adhesion properties in development"
2024-06-10 12:00 - 13:00 | Seminar room of physics (106) (IJS)
Speakers: Bernat Corominas-Murtra (Karl-Franzens University Graz)
The developmental process implies precise but significant changes in the geometry and structure of the embryonic tissues. Recent results show that apparently minor changes in adhesion at the local level of cell-cell contacts trigger deep, non-linear transitions in the topological organization of the whole embryonic tissue and, in consequence, change its material properties and facilitate geometrical deformations. Open questions remain, like the potential existence of causal feedbacks between cell differentiation processes and the potential heterogeneity of topological patterns existing within the tissue. The results presented in this talk are based on the fundamental assumption that predictive frameworks in theoretical biology must explore the connection between different scales of the system. In this particular case, we use topology to establish a bridge between the system’s scales defined by i) the cell level and ii) the tissue level. This enables us to predict global, non-trivial behaviours in tissues from the empirically feasible observables related to the mechanical properties of single cells.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2139/

Tatyana Gavrilchenko, "Lessons from the tracheal terminal cell: what a unicellular network can teach us about distribution network design principles"
2024-06-13 14:15 - 15:15 | Seminar room of physics (106) (IJS)
Speakers: Tatyana Gavrilchenko (Flatiron Institute, NY, USA)
The insect respiratory system is a network of air-filled tubes permeating the animal body, supplying oxygen for metabolic activity and removing waste carbon dioxide. The majority of gas exchange occurs in the finest regions of the tracheal system, the terminal cells. These cells have a unique and highly specialized tree-like structure with long thin branches, reminiscent of neuronal arbors. While many aspects of the terminal cell are understood on a molecular level, including the mechanisms that guide branch extension and lumen formation, the macroscopic network features that allow for proper oxygen distribution remain mysterious. We use the Drosophila terminal cell as a model system for fundamental developmental problems of network structure and functions, utilizing an imaging data set that fully maps the structure of over one hundred individual cells. First, we find that scaling relations succinctly encapsulate the dynamics of growing networks, and use the empirical scalings observed in the terminal cells to construct a minimal model of network growth that describes the system. Second, to understand the interplay between structure and function in the trees, we developed a model of oxygen distribution by a network embedded in a two-dimensional absorbing tissue, driven purely by diffusion along oxygen partial pressure gradients. Our method works well on complex geometries, including curved and branched networks that approximate the geometry of the terminal cells. These investigations offer insights into mammalian capillary networks, which have different structural features and delivery mechanisms from terminal cells but are guided by similar developmental principles. Understanding the salient features that govern the structure of these biological networks is essential to designing synthetic vasculature, a major step in the manufacture of artificial organs.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2138/

Ezequiel Alvarez: The Information frontier at the LHC
2024-06-17 14:00 - 15:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
Once we have obtained the data, the question is how much information is encoded in it and how we can extract it. Any framework with this purpose utilizes information-besides-data and mathematical and statistical tools. Bayesian statistics has the virtue that, by modeling the inner structure of the data, it allows us to inject prior information and its uncertainty as a catalyst to push out the information from the data. The framework also possesses tools to assess the results unbiasedness and its consistency with the data. We will show with examples at the LHC how to apply Bayesian tools in order to efficiently extract information about the physics inside. We discuss possible applications in improving data-driven methods, and in pp > hh > bbbb, however the generality of the results apply to rethinking a variety of observables. The method can exploit correlations at the event-by-event level and previously untapped strengths such as for instance continuity and unimodality of some distributions. We raise the question of whether there might be room for improvements in some of the current LHC analyses.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2135/

Martín Novoa-Brunet: NP @ High Precision beta decay
2024-06-26 13:00 - 14:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2166/

Manuel Szewc: Modeling Hadronization with Machine Learning
2024-06-27 14:00 - 15:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
A fundamental part of event generation, hadronization is currently simulated with the help of fine-tuned empirical models. Motivated by the difficulties of these models, in this talk I’ll present MLHAD: a proposed alternative where the empirical model is replaced by a surrogate Machine Learning-based model to be ultimately data-trainable. I’ll detail the current stage of development and discuss challenges and possible ways forward.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2088/

Chandan Hati: Nonstandard Nucleon Decays
2024-06-28 14:00 - 15:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
Nucleon decays are generic predictions of many well motivated theories, including those based on the unification of forces and supersymmetry. I will discuss how nonstandard nucleon decays offer a unique opportunity to broadly probe light new particles beyond the Standard Model with masses below few GeV, including axion-like particles, dark photons, sterile neutrinos, and scalar dark matter. Conventional searches can misinterpret and even completely miss such new physics. I will discuss a general strategy based on momenta of visible decay final states to probe these processes, offering a rich physics program for existing and upcoming experiments such as Super-Kamiokande, Hyper-Kamiokande, DUNE, and JUNO.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2173/

Luighi Leal: Correlating $0 ubetabeta$ decays and flavor observables in leptoquark models
2024-07-11 14:00 - 15:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2231/

Nudžeim Selimović: Topological Portal to the Dark Sector
2024-08-29 14:00 - 15:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
I will discuss a novel topological portal between quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and a dark QCD-like sector. Such a portal is present only for a unique coset structure after QCD confinement and it connects three QCD to two dark pions. When gauged, it is the leading portal between the two sectors, providing an elegant self-consistent scenario of light thermal inelastic dark matter. The inherent antisymmetrization due to a Wess–Zumino–Witten-like effective interaction leads to diminished annihilations at later times and suppressed direct detection. However, novel collider signatures offer tremendous prospects for discovery at Belle II. The talk is based on https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.09528 with Joe Davighi and Admir Greljo.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2247/

Jan Rozman, "From Substrate Dissipation to Internal Dissipation Vertex Model Dynamics: Generating Sustained Flows"
2024-09-02 14:00 - 15:00 | C/2-X – F1 čajnica (Jamova)
Speakers: Jan Rozman
Complex tissue flows in epithelia are driven by intra- and inter-cellular processes that generate, maintain, and coordinate mechanical forces. There has been growing evidence that cell shape anisotropy, manifested as nematic order, plays an important role in this process. Here we extend an active nematic vertex model by replacing substrate friction with internal viscous dissipation, dominant in epithelia not supported by a substrate or the extracellular matrix, which are found in many early-stage embryos. When coupled to cell shape anisotropy, the internal viscous dissipation allows for long-range velocity correlations and thus enables the spontaneous emergence of flows with a large degree of spatiotemporal organisation. We demonstrate sustained flow in epithelial sheets confined to a channel, providing a link between the cell-level vertex model of tissue dynamics and continuum active nematics, whose behaviour in a channel is theoretically understood and experimentally realisable. Our findings also show a simple mechanism that could account for collective cell migration correlated over distances large compared to the cell size, as observed during morphogenesis.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2245/

Somiealo Azote, "Quantitative Predictions of biomechanical drivers of cell delamination in stratified epithelia (skin epidermis) using a dynamic 3D vertex model"
2024-09-03 14:00 - 15:00 | C/2-X – F1 čajnica (Jamova)
Speakers: Somiealo Azote
During embryonic development, the skin epidermis gradually transitions from a single layer of stem cells to a stratified, multi-layered tissue. This process involves the coordinated differentiation and upward movement of basal cells, known as delamination. It is not clear what mechanisms control this differentiation and delamination, allowing cells to move upward across the sharp basal-suprabasal boundary to regulate stratified tissue self-renewal and homeostasis. Although some delamination events are coupled to cell division, we first focus on the simpler case where delamination occurs in the absence of cell division, and develop a biomechanical model to investigate several experimentally driven hypotheses for what drives delamination in those cases: i) changes in the adhesion of basal cells to extra cellular matrix in the basement membrane, ii) local fluidization of surrounding tissue due to fluctuations or nearby cell divisions, or iii) cell autonomous changes to cell-cell adhesion and cortical tension. Experimental data from the developing mammalian epithelium in the Niessen and Wickström labs have identified specific changes to the transcriptome of cells committed to delamination. Many of these changes are associated with cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion pathways. We incorporate them in the computational models as changes to the model parameters describing heterotypic and homotypic cell-cell interfacial tensions and adhesion to substrate. We make quantitative predictions for cell shape, delamination probabilities, and delamination rates that we compare directly to experiments, in both control and perturbed systems, to determine how different mechanisms are driving delamination.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2244/

Shoji, Baratella: The Standard Model lifetime is slightly shorter
2024-09-05 14:00 - 15:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
We revisit the decay rate of the electroweak vacuum in the Standard Model with the full one-loop prefactor. We focus on the gauge degrees of freedom and derive the degeneracy factors appearing in the functional determinant using group theoretical arguments. Our treatment shows that the transverse modes were previously overcounted, so we revise the calculation of that part of the prefactor. The new result modifies the gauge fields’ contribution by 7% and slightly decreases the previously predicted lifetime of the electroweak vacuum, which remains much longer than the age of the universe. Our discussion of the transverse mode degeneracy applies to any calculation of functional determinants involving gauge fields in four dimensions.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2176/

Pietro Baratella: Journal Club on WZW terms without anomalies: generalised symmetries in chiral Lagrangians
2024-09-12 14:00 - 15:00 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (F1 tea room)
Journal Club on WZW terms without anomalies: generalised symmetries in chiral Lagrangians (arXiv:2407.20340)Abstract:We consider a 4d non-linear sigma model on the coset $(text{SU}(N)_L times text{SU}(N)_R times text{SU}(2))/(text{SU}(N)_{L+R}times text{U})cong text{SU}(N) times S^2$, that features a topological Wess–Zumino–Witten (WZW) term whose curvature is $frac{n}{24pi^2}text{Tr}(g^{-1}dg)^3 wedge mathrm{Vol}_{S^2}$ where $g$ is the $text{SU}(N)$ pion field. This WZW term, unlike its familiar cousin in QCD, does not match any chiral anomaly,so its microscopic origin is not obviously QCD-like. We find that generalised symmetries provide a key to unlocking a UV completion.The $S^2$ winding number bestows the theory with a 1-form symmetry, and the WZW term intertwines this with the $text{SU}(N)^2$ flavour symmetry into a 2-group global symmetry. Like a ‘t Hooft anomaly, the 2-group symmetry should match between UV and IR, precluding QCD-like completions that otherwise give the right pion manifold. We instead construct a weakly-coupled UV completion that matches the 2-group symmetry, in which an abelian gauge field connects the QCD baryon number current to the winding number current of a $mathbb{C}P^1$ model, and explicitly show how the mixed WZW term arises upon flowing to the IR. The coefficient is fixed to be the number of QCD colours and, strikingly, this matching must be `tree-level exact’ to satisfy a quantization condition.We discuss generalisations, and elucidate the more intricate generalised symmetry structure that arises upon gauging an anomaly-free subgroup of $text{SU}(N)_{L+R}$. This WZW term may even play a phenomenological role as a portal to a dark sector, that determines the relic abundance of dark matter.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2259/

Nataša Adžić, "The role of effective interactions in predicting the exotic states of soft matter"
2024-09-12 14:15 - 15:15 | Seminar room of physics (106) (IJS)
Speakers: Nataša Adžič (Institute of Physics, Belgrade)
Studying static properties of colloidal suspensions is often a computationally expensive task due to their complex composition and interactions that appear at various length scales. Large macromolecules are surrounded by small solute particles and typically some other small components such as salt ions. One of the useful coarse-graining tools for studying self-organisation of macromolecules in solutions is the method of effective interactions. It is based on calculation of the effective Hamiltonian as a canonical trace over small degrees of freedom for the given fixed configuration of large ones . The calculated effective interaction can be further employed in Monte Carlo simulations between effective point particles that mimic behaviour of large macromolecules. In that way a fast scan of their phase organisation can be obtained. In this talk we will see how this method applies to self-organisation of various all-DNA dendrimers, macromolecules composed solely of short segments of DNA chains . R. Blaak, B. Capone, C. N. Likos, and L. Rovigatti, Accurate Coarse-Grained Potentials for Soft Matter Systems, in Computational Trends in Solvation and Transport in Liquids – Lecture Notes, IAS Series, Vol. 28, 2015. N. Adzic, C. Jochum, C. N. Likos, and E. Stiakakis, “Engineering Ultrasoft Interactions in Stiff All-DNA Dendrimers by Site-Specific Control of Scaffold Flexibility”, Small 2023, 2308763 (2024). E. Stiakakis, N. Jung, N. Adzic, T. Balandin, E. Kentzinger, U. Rucker, R. Biehl, J. Dhont, U. Jonas, and C. N. Likos, “Self Assembling Cluster Crystals from DNA Based Dendritic Nanostructres”, Nat. Commun. 12, 7167 (2021). N. Adzic, C. Jochum, E. Stiakakis, G. Kahl, C.N. Likos, “Self-organisation of planar and tripod-shaped DNA stars confined to the water-air interface”, in preparation for submission
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2262/

Herbi Dreiner: Testing Locality via Bell's Inequality at Colliders?
2024-09-24 11:00 - 12:00 | C/2-X – F1 čajnica (Jamova)
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2274/

Domen Vaupotič, "Programmable RNA Condensates"
2024-10-10 14:00 - 15:00 | A/1-106 – Seminarska soba fizike (F5) (Jamova)
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2280/

Joshua Lockyer: Exploring near-conformal dark sector theories
2024-10-10 15:30 - 16:30 | https://zoom.us/j/3601731049?pwd=[REDACTED] (A/1-106 – Seminarska soba fizike (F5))
Dark-showers offer a compelling collider signature for Hidden Valley models featuring a confining dark sector. Our work extends the investigation of these models to near-conformal theories where the running coupling, controlled by renormalization group equations (RGE), flows near to an infra-red fixed point. We establish a framework of two classes of RGE solutions which cover much of the parameter space of confining theories, allowing us to present the first phenomenological results of such near-conformal dark sector theories.
https://indico.ijs.si/event/2271/
