A Notable Modified Gravity Paper And The Running Of Gravitational Couplings

It is unclear to me why gravitational mass should differ from gravitational mass-energy for this purpose. Massless particles gravitate if they have energy.

Some time ago, it has been suggested that gravitons can acquire mass in the process of spontaneous symmetry breaking of diffeomorphisms through the condensation of scalar fields [Chamseddine and Mukhanov, JHEP, 2010]. Taking this possibility into account, in the present paper, first we show how the graviton mass intricately reshapes the gravitational potential akin to a Yukawa-like potential at large distances. Notably, this long-range force modifies the Newton's law in large distances and might explain the phenomena of dark matter. The most important finding in the present paper is the derivation of a modified Newtons law of gravity by modifying the Verlindes entropic force relation due to the graviton contribution. The graviton contribution to the entropy basically measures the correlation of graviton and matter fields which then reproduces the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy at the horizon. This result shows the dual description of gravity: in the language of quantum information and entropy the gravity can be viewed as an entropic force, however in terms of particles and fields, it can be viewed as a longe range force. Further we have recovered the corrected Einstein field equations as well as the ΛCDM where dark matter emerges as an apparent effect.

Kimet Jusufi, et al., "Modified gravity/entropic gravity correspondence due to graviton mass" arXiv:2405.05269 (April 25, 2024).

There is also a preprint on the beta function of gravity in a quantum gravity scenario that is particularly relevant globally to the running of Standard Model constants at extremely high energies and the cosmology of the immediate post-Big Bang period and in strong gravitational regimes.

We study the beta functions for the dimensionless couplings in quadratic curvature gravity, and find that there is a simple argument to restrict the possible form of the beta functions as derived from the counterterms at an arbitrary loop. The relation to the recent different results on beta functions is also commented on.

Hikaru Kawai, Nobuyoshi Ohta, "An Observation on the Beta Functions in Quadratic Gravity" arXiv:2405.05706 (May 9, 2024).

Connecting Denisovan DNA To Bones

A new study looks at what Denisovan ancient DNA codes for in order to determine which hominin remains that have been located are the best fit to that DNA. These remains would have been contemporaneous with the earliest modern humans and with Neanderthals.

The Dali and Harbin specimens that are a good fit to the expectation from the Denisovan DNA samples are from China. 

Dali Man was discovered in 1978 in Dali County, Shaanxi Province, China and dates to 280,000 to 240,000 years ago. 

The Harbin specimen was recovered in Harbin city in northeastern China and has a minimum uranium-series age of 146,000 year ago.

The Kabwe specimen, also known as the "Broken Hill skull" and "Rhodesian Man", which is also a good fit to Denisovan DNA expectations, was discovered in 1921 in Zambia, which is outside the range of places where Denisovan admixture is found in modern humans. It has traditionally been classified as Homo heidelbergensis, a species which is widely hypothesized to be a lineage ancestral to Denisovans, Neanderthals, and modern humans. This specimen is dated to 324,000 to 274,000 years ago.

Denisovans are an extinct group of humans whose morphology is mostly unknown. The scarcity of verified Denisovan fossils makes it challenging to study how they differed in their anatomy, and how well they were adapted to their environment. To gain insight into their evolutionary history, we used a genetic phenotyping approach, where Denisovan anatomy was inferred by detecting gene regulatory changes that likely altered Denisovan skeletal morphology. 

We then scanned Middle Pleistocene skulls for unclassified specimens that match our Denisovan profile and thus might have been related to Denisovans. We found that the Harbin, Dali, and Kabwe specimens show a particularly good match to the predicted Denisovan profile. We conclude that our genetic phenotyping approach could help classify unidentified specimens, and that Harbin, Dali, and Kabwe likely belonged to individuals closely linked to the Denisovan lineage.

Nadav Mishol, et al., "Candidate Denisovan fossils identified through gene regulatory phenotyping" bioRxiv (April 19, 2024) (emphasis and links in the abstract added editorially).

The First Farmers Of Cyprus Were Mostly Anatolian

Neolithic Cyprus was settled from Turkey, not Greece, by a sister population to the first farmers of Europe, very early in the Fertile Crescent derived Neolithic era. 

Archaeological evidence supports sporadic seafaring visits to the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus by Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers over 12,000 years ago, followed by permanent settlements during the early Neolithic. The geographical origins of these early seafarers have so far remained elusive. 

By systematically analysing all available genomes from the late Pleistocene to early Holocene Near East (c. 14,000–7000 cal BCE), we provide a comprehensive overview of the genetic landscape of the early Neolithic Fertile Crescent and Anatolia and infer the likely origins of three recently published genomes from Kissonerga-Mylouthkia (Cypriot Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, c. 7600–6800 cal BCE). These appear to derive roughly 80% of their ancestry from Aceramic Neolithic Central Anatolians residing in or near the Konya plain, and the remainder from a genetically basal Levantine population. 

Based on genome-wide weighted ancestry covariance analysis, we infer that this admixture event took place roughly between 14,000 and 10,000 BCE, coinciding with the transition from the Cypriot late Epipaleolithic to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA). Additionally, we identify strong genetic affinities between the examined Cypro-LPPNB individuals and later northwestern Anatolians and the earliest European Neolithic farmers. 

Our results inform archaeological evidence on prehistoric demographic processes in the Eastern Mediterranean, providing important insights into early seafaring, maritime connections, and insular settlement.

Alexandros Heraclides, et al., "Palaeogenomic insights into the origins of early settlers on the island of Cyprus" 14 Scientific Reports 9632 (April 26, 2024) (open access).

Some comments about early pottery

Pottery appears to have been an East Asian innovation, that arose prior to farming and herding in sedentary fishing based communities like the Jomon and people with similar lifestyles in what is now China and Korea, that gradually migrated to the West across North Asia, mostly arriving in West Asia and Europe after herding and farming had been developed there.

Also, it is worth noting that Western anthropologists use the term "Neolithic" to refer to the commencement of widespread use of domesticated plants and animals, while Soviet and post-Soviet anthropologists use the term "Neolithic" to refer to the commencement of widespread use of pottery.