Marvin Röhrle, Jens Benary, Erik Bernhart, Herwig Ott

SciPost Phys. 16, 158 (2024) · published 28 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

Dissipative phase transitions are characteristic features in open quantum systems. Key signatures are the dynamical switching between different states in the vicinity of the phase transition and the appearance of hysteresis. Here, we experimentally study dynamic sweeps across a first order dissipative phase transition in a multi-mode driven-dissipative system. In contrast to previous studies, we perform sweeps of the dissipation strength instead of the driving strength. We extract exponents for the scaling of the hysteresis area in dependence of the sweep time and study the $g^{(2)}(0)$ correlations, which show non-trivial behavior. By changing the temperature of the system we investigate the importance of coherently pumping the system. We compare our results to numerical calculations done for a single mode variant of the system, and find surprisingly good agreement. Furthermore, we identify and discuss the differences between a scan of the dissipation strength and a scan of the driving strength.

Soner Albayrak, Paolo Benincasa, Carlos Duaso Pueyo

SciPost Phys. 16, 157 (2024) · published 20 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

Unitarity of time evolution is one of the basic principles constraining physical processes. Its consequences in the perturbative Bunch-Davies wavefunction in cosmology have been formulated in terms of the cosmological optical theorem. In this paper, we re-analyse perturbative unitarity for the Bunch-Davies wavefunction, focusing on: $i)$ the role of the $i\epsilon$-prescription and its compatibility with the requirement of unitarity; $ii)$ the origin of the different ``cutting rules''; $iii)$ the emergence of the flat-space optical theorem from the cosmological one. We take the combinatorial point of view of the cosmological polytopes, which provide a first-principle description for a large class of scalar graphs contributing to the wavefunctional. The requirement of the positivity of the geometry together with the preservation of its orientation determine the $i\epsilon$-prescription. In kinematic space it translates into giving a small negative imaginary part to all the energies, making the wavefunction coefficients well-defined for any value of their real part along the real axis. Unitarity is instead encoded into a non-convex part of the cosmological polytope, which we name \textit{optical polytope}. The cosmological optical theorem emerges as the equivalence between a specific polytope subdivision of the optical polytope and its triangulations, each of which provides different cutting rules. The flat-space optical theorem instead emerges from the non-convexity of the optical polytope. On the more mathematical side, we provide two definitions of this non-convex geometry, none of them based on the idea of the non-convex geometry as a union of convex ones.

Lorenzo Bartolini, Sven Bjarke Gudnason

SciPost Phys. 16, 156 (2024) · published 19 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We study the symmetry energy (SE), an important quantity in nuclear physics, in the Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model and in a much simpler hard-wall model of holographic QCD. The SE is the energy contribution to the nucleus due to having an unequal number of neutrons and protons. Using a homogeneous Ansatz representing smeared instantons and quantizing their isospin, we extract the SE and the proton fraction assuming charge neutrality and beta-equilibrium, using quantization of the isospin zeromode. We also show the equivalence between our method adapted from solitons and the usual way of the isospin controlled by a chemical potential at the holographic boundary. We find that the SE can be well described in the WSS model if we allow for a larger 't Hooft coupling and lower Kaluza-Klein scale than is normally used in phenomenological fits.

Marcos Mariño, Ramon Miravitllas

SciPost Phys. 16, 155 (2024) · published 19 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

The $1/N$ expansion of matrix models is asymptotic, and it requires non-perturbative corrections due to large $N$ instantons. Explicit expressions for large $N$ instanton amplitudes are known in the case of Hermitian matrix models with one cut, but not in the multi-cut case. We show that the recent exact results on topological string instanton amplitudes provide the non-perturbative contributions of large $N$ instantons in generic multi-cut, Hermitian matrix models. We present a detailed test in the case of the cubic matrix model by considering the asymptotics of its $1/N$ expansion, which we obtain at relatively high genus for a generic two-cut background. These results can be extended to certain non-conventional matrix models which admit a topological string theory description. As an application, we determine the large $N$ instanton corrections for the free energy of ABJM theory on the three-sphere, which correspond to D-brane instanton corrections in superstring theory. We also illustrate the applications of topological string instantons in a more mathematical setting by considering orbifold Gromov-Witten invariants. By focusing on the example of ${\mathbb C}^3/{\mathbb Z}_3$, we show that they grow doubly-factorially with the genus and we obtain and test explicit asymptotic formulae for them.

Nathan Seiberg, Sahand Seifnashri, Shu-Heng Shao

SciPost Phys. 16, 154 (2024) · published 17 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We discuss the exact non-invertible Kramers-Wannier symmetry of 1+1d lattice models on a tensor product Hilbert space of qubits. This symmetry is associated with a topological defect and a conserved operator, and the latter can be presented as a matrix product operator. Importantly, unlike its continuum counterpart, the symmetry algebra involves lattice translations. Consequently, it is not described by a fusion category. In the presence of this defect, the symmetry algebra involving parity/time-reversal is realized projectively, which is reminiscent of an anomaly. Different Hamiltonians with the same lattice non-invertible symmetry can flow in their continuum limits to infinitely many different fusion categories (with different Frobenius-Schur indicators), including, as a special case, the Ising CFT. The non-invertible symmetry leads to a constraint similar to that of Lieb-Schultz-Mattis, implying that the system cannot have a unique gapped ground state. It is either in a gapless phase or in a gapped phase with three (or a multiple of three) ground states, associated with the spontaneous breaking of the lattice non-invertible symmetry.