Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• The threefold way to quantum periods: WKB, TBA equations and q-Painlevé

  Fabrizio Del Monte, Pietro Longhi

  SciPost Phys. 15, 112 (2023) · published 25 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that TBA equations defined by the BPS spectrum of $5d$ $\mathcal{N}=1$ $SU(2)$ Yang-Mills on $S^1\times \mathbb{R}^4$ encode the q-Painlevé III$_3$ equation. We find a fine-tuned stratum in the physical moduli space of the theory where solutions to TBA equations can be obtained exactly, and verify that they agree with the algebraic solutions to q-Painlevé. Switching from the physical moduli space to that of stability conditions, we identify two one-parameter deformations of the fine-tuned stratum, where the general solution of the q-Painlevé equation in terms of dual instanton partition functions continues to provide explicit TBA solutions. Motivated by these observations, we propose a further extensions of the range of validity of this correspondence, under a suitable identification of moduli. As further checks of our proposal, we study the behavior of exact WKB quantum periods for the quantum curve of local $\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^1$.

  5 citations

• Radiative asymptotic symmetries of 3D Einstein-Maxwell theory

  Jorrit Bosma, Marc Geiller, Sucheta Majumdar, Blagoje Oblak

  SciPost Phys. 16, 092 (2024) · published 3 April 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the null asymptotic structure of Einstein-Maxwell theory in three-dimensional (3D) spacetimes. Although devoid of bulk gravitational degrees of freedom, the system admits a massless photon and can therefore accommodate electromagnetic radiation. We derive fall-off conditions for the Maxwell field that contain both Coulombic and radiative modes with non-vanishing news. The latter produces non-integrability and fluxes in the asymptotic surface charges, and gives rise to a non-trivial 3D Bondi mass loss formula. The resulting solution space is thus analogous to a dimensional reduction of 4D pure gravity, with the role of gravitational radiation played by its electromagnetic cousin. We use this simplified setup to investigate choices of charge brackets in detail, and compute in particular the recently introduced Koszul bracket. When the latter is applied to Wald-Zoupas charges, which are conserved in the absence of news, it leads to the field-dependent central extension found earlier in [Class. Quantum Gravity 32, 245001 (2015)]. We also consider (Anti-)de Sitter asymptotics to further exhibit the analogy between this model and 4D gravity with leaky boundary conditions.

  5 citations

• Dynamical mean field theory for models of confluent tissues and beyond

  Persia Jana Kamali, Pierfrancesco Urbani

  SciPost Phys. 15, 219 (2023) · published 30 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider a recently proposed model to understand the rigidity transition in confluent tissues and we derive the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) equations that describes several types of dynamics of the model in the thermodynamic limit: gradient descent, thermal Langevin noise and active drive. In particular we focus on gradient descent dynamics and we integrate numerically the corresponding DMFT equations. In this case we show that gradient descent is blind to the zero temperature replica symmetry breaking (RSB) transition point. This means that, even if the Gibbs measure in the zero temperature limit displays RSB, this algorithm is able to find its way to a zero energy configuration. We include a discussion on possible extensions of the DMFT derivation to study problems rooted in high-dimensional regression and optimization via the square loss function.

  5 citations

• Quantum-enhanced multiparameter estimation and compressed sensing of a field

  Youcef Baamara, Manuel Gessner, Alice Sinatra

  SciPost Phys. 14, 050 (2023) · published 27 March 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that a significant quantum gain corresponding to squeezed or over-squeezed spin states can be obtained in multiparameter estimation by measuring the Hadamard coefficients of a 1D or 2D signal. The physical platform we consider consists of two-level atoms in an optical lattice in a squeezed-Mott configuration, or more generally by correlated spins distributed in spatially separated modes. Our protocol requires the possibility to locally flip the spins, but relies on collective measurements. We give examples of applications to scalar or vector field mapping and compressed sensing.

  5 citations

• Dipole symmetry breaking and fractonic Nambu-Goldstone mode

  Evangelos Afxonidis, Alessio Caddeo, Carlos Hoyos, Daniele Musso

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 082 (2023) · published 28 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We introduce a family of quantum field theories for fields carrying monopole and dipole charges. In contrast to previous realizations, fields have quadratic two-derivative kinetic terms. The dipole symmetry algebra is realized in a discretized internal space and connected to the physical space through a background gauge field. We study spontaneous symmetry breaking of dipole symmetry in 1+1 dimensions in a large-$N$ limit. The trivial classical vacuum is lifted by quantum corrections into a vacuum which breaks dipole symmetry while preserving monopole charge. By means of a Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation, heat-kernel and large-$N$ techniques, we compute the effective action for the low-energy modes. We encounter a fractonic immobile Nambu-Goldstone mode whose dispersion characteristics avoid Coleman-Hohenberg-Mermin-Wagner theorem independently of the large-$N$ limit.

  5 citations

• The MSHT20 Parton Distribution Functions

  R.S. Thorne, S. Bailey, T. Cridge, L. Harland-Lang, A.D. Martin

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 018 (2022) · published 11 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present the new MSHT20 set of parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton, determined from a global analysis of the available hard scattering data and superseding the MMHT14 sets. The parameterisation is now adapted and extended and we include a large number of new data sets: the final HERA and Tevatron data, and a significant number of LHC data sets on vector boson production, inclusive jets and top quark distributions. We include up to NNLO QCD corrections for all data sets that play a major role in the fit. There are some changes to central PDF values and a significant reduction in the uncertainties, but the PDFs and the predictions using them are generally within one standard deviation of the MMHT14 results. We discuss the phenomenological impact of our results.

  5 citations

• How SU(2)$_4$ Anyons are Z$_3$ Parafermions

  Richard Fern, Johannes Kombe, Steven H. Simon

  SciPost Phys. 3, 037 (2017) · published 9 December 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the braid group representation which describes the non-abelian braiding statistics of the spin $1/2$ particle world lines of an SU(2)$_4$ Chern-Simons theory. Up to an abelian phase, this is the same as the non-Abelian statistics of the elementary quasiparticles of the $k=4$ Read-Rezayi quantum Hall state. We show that these braiding properties can be represented exactly using $\mathbb{Z}_3$ parafermion operators.

  5 citations

• Boundary SymTFT

  Lakshya Bhardwaj, Christian Copetti, Daniel Pajer, Sakura Schäfer-Nameki

  SciPost Phys. 19, 061 (2025) · published 28 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study properties of boundary conditions (BCs) in theories with categorical (or non-invertible) symmetries. We describe how the transformation properties, or (generalized) charges, of BCs are captured by topological BCs of Symmetry Topological Field Theory (SymTFT), which is a topological field theory in one higher spacetime dimension. As an application of the SymTFT characterization, we discuss the symmetry properties of boundary conditions for (1+1)d gapped and gapless phases. We provide a number of concrete examples in spacetime dimensions $d=2,3$. We furthermore expand the lattice description for (1+1)d anyon chains with categorical symmetries to include boundary conditions carrying arbitrary 1-charges under the symmetry.

  5 citations

• kdotpy: k·p theory on a lattice for simulating semiconductor band structures

  Wouter Beugeling, Florian Bayer, Christian Berger, Jan Böttcher, Leonid Bovkun, Christopher Fuchs, Maximilian Hofer, Saquib Shamim, Moritz Siebert, Li-Xian Wang, Ewelina M. Hankiewicz, Tobias Kießling, Hartmut Buhmann, Laurens W. Molenkamp

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 47 (2025) · published 28 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The software project kdotpy provides a Python application for simulating electronic band structures of semiconductor devices with k·p theory on a lattice. The application implements the widely used Kane model, capable of reliable predictions of transport and optical properties for a large variety of topological and non-topological materials with a zincblende crystal structure. The application automates the tedious steps of simulating band structures. The user inputs the relevant physical parameters on the command line, for example materials and dimensions of the device, magnetic field, and temperature. The program constructs the appropriate matrix Hamiltonian on a discretized lattice of spatial coordinates and diagonalizes it. The physical observables are extracted from the eigenvalues and eigenvectors and saved as output. The program is highly customizable with a large set of configuration options and material parameters.

  5 citations

• A non-unitary bulk-boundary correspondence: Non-unitary Haagerup RCFTs from S-fold SCFTs

  Dongmin Gang, Dongyeob Kim, Sungjay Lee

  SciPost Phys. 17, 064 (2024) · published 23 August 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We introduce a novel class of two-dimensional non-unitary rational conformal field theories (RCFTs) whose modular data are identical to the generalized Haagerup-Izumi modular data. Via the bulk-boundary correspondence, they are related to the three-dimensional non-unitary Haagerup topological field theories, recently constructed by a topological twisting of three-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ rank-zero superconformal field theories (SCFTs), called S-fold SCFTs. We propose that, up to the overall factors, the half-indices of the rank-zero SCFTs give the explicit Nahm representation of four conformal characters of the RCFTs including the vacuum character. Using the theory of Bantay-Gannon, we can successfully complete them into the full admissible conformal characters of the RCFTs.

  5 citations