• Ten talks by international experts on string theory, cosmology, neutrino phenomena and lattice QCD defined the programme of the thirty-first edition of the Xmas Workshop at the Institute for Theoretical Physics UAM-CSIC.

Madrid, 11 December 2025.– The Institute for Theoretical Physics UAM-CSIC held the thirty-first edition of the IFT Xmas Workshop from 9 to 11 December, an annual meeting that brings together national and international researchers to review recent advances in theoretical physics, particle phenomenology and cosmology. The event was organised by IFT researchers Yashar Akrami, Alejandro Bermudez, David Cerdeño, Pilar Coloma, Sven Heinemeyer, Gregorio Herdoiza and Miguel Montero.

Over three days, ten invited talks were delivered covering a wide range of topics: string theory and holography, axions and cosmological scenarios, exotic compact objects, searches for new physics at the intensity frontier, neutrino astrophysics, quantum sensors, precision calculations in the Higgs sector, quantum field theory in de Sitter space, lattice QCD and quantum information.

A tour through some of the most active research lines

The first day included presentations by Yolanda Lozano (U. Oviedo) on defect conformal field theories in holographic contexts, and Alexander Westphal (DESY) on the role of axions in string-theory models. In the afternoon, Massimo Bianchi (Rome) offered new perspectives on configurations alternative to classical black holes, while Ryan Plestid (CERN) reviewed the current status of searches for physics beyond the Standard Model using high-intensity experiments.

The second day opened with an update by Rebecca Gozzini (IFIC) on the KM3NeT experiment and its astrophysical neutrino programme. This was followed by Diego Blas (IFAE), who discussed the use of quantum sensors to detect gravitational waves and dark matter. The afternoon session focused on collider phenomenology, with Giulia Zanderighi (MPI Munich) presenting advances in precision calculations for Higgs production processes, and Gonzalo Palma (U. Chile) analysing the infrared behaviour of quantum field theories in de Sitter space.

The final day featured a talk by Carsten Urbach (U. Bonn) on recent lattice QCD results applied to three-body resonances, and concluded with a presentation by Aram Harrow (MIT), who discussed developments in quantum information related to many-body systems.