Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Wilson loops and spherical branes

  Davide Astesiano, Pieter Bomans, Fridrik Freyr Gautason, Valentina Giangreco M. Puletti, Alexia Nix

  SciPost Phys. 18, 050 (2025) · published 12 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study $\frac{1}{2}$-BPS Wilson loop operators in maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on $d$-dimensional spheres. Their vacuum expectation values can be computed at large $N$ through supersymmetric localisation. The holographic duals are given by back-reacted spherical D-branes. For $d≠ 4$, the resulting theories are non-conformal and correspondingly, the dual geometries do not possess an asymptotic AdS region. The main aim of this work is to compute the holographic Wilson loops by evaluating the partition function of a probe fundamental string and M2-brane in the dual geometry, focusing on the next-to-leading order. Along the way, we highlight a variety of issues related to the presence of a non-constant dilaton. In particular, the structure of the divergences of the one-loop partition functions takes a non-universal form in contrast to examples available in the literature. We devise a general framework to treat the divergences, successfully match the sub-leading scaling with $\lambda$ and $N$, and provide a first step towards obtaining the numerical prefactor.

  4 citations

• Chiral anomaly trapped in Weyl metals: Nonequilibrium valley polarization at zero magnetic field

  Pablo M. Perez-Piskunow, Nicandro Bovenzi, Anton R. Akhmerov, Maxim Breitkreiz

  SciPost Phys. 11, 046 (2021) · published 31 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In Weyl semimetals the application of parallel electric and magnetic fields leads to valley polarization -- an occupation disbalance of valleys of opposite chirality -- a direct consequence of the chiral anomaly. In this work, we present numerical tools to explore such nonequilibrium effects in spatially confined three-dimensional systems with a variable disorder potential, giving exact solutions to leading order in the disorder potential and the applied electric field. Application to a Weyl-metal slab shows that valley polarization also occurs without an external magnetic field as an effect of chiral anomaly "trapping": Spatial confinement produces chiral bulk states, which enable the valley polarization in a similar way as the chiral states induced by a magnetic field. Despite its finite-size origin, the valley polarization can persist up to macroscopic length scales if the disorder potential is sufficiently long ranged, so that direct inter-valley scattering is suppressed and the relaxation then goes via the Fermi-arc surface states.

  4 citations

• Consistent, multidimensional differential histogramming and summary statistics with YODA 2

  Andy Buckley, Louie Corpe, Matthew Filipovich, Christian Gutschow, Nick Rozinsky, Simon Thor, Yoran Yeh, Jamie Yellen

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 45 (2025) · published 16 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Histogramming is often taken for granted, but the power and compactness of partially aggregated, multidimensional summary statistics, and their fundamental connection to differential and integral calculus make them formidable statistical objects, especially when very large data volumes are involved. But expressing these concepts robustly and efficiently in high-dimensional parameter spaces and for large data samples is a highly non-trivial challenge – doubly so if the resulting library is to remain usable by scientists as opposed to software engineers. In this paper we summarise the core principles required for consistent generalised histogramming, and use them to motivate the design principles and implementation mechanics of the re-engineered YODA histogramming library, a key component of physics data–model comparison and statistical interpretation in collider physics.

  4 citations

• Real-time discrimination of photon pairs using machine learning at the LHC

  Sean Benson, Adrián Casais Vidal, Xabier Cid Vidal, Albert Puig Navarro

  SciPost Phys. 7, 062 (2019) · published 13 November 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  ALP-mediated decays and other as-yet unobserved $B$ decays to di-photon final states are a challenge to select in hadron collider environments due to the large backgrounds that come directly from the $pp$ collision. We present the strategy implemented by the LHCb experiment in 2018 to efficiently select such photon pairs. A fast neural network topology, implemented in the LHCb real-time selection framework achieves high efficiency across a mass range of $4-20$ GeV$/c^{2}$. We discuss implications and future prospects for the LHCb experiment.

  4 citations

• Universal geometry of two-neutron halos and Borromean Efimov states close to dissociation

  Pascal Naidon

  SciPost Phys. 15, 123 (2023) · published 29 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The geometry of Borromean three-body halos, such as two-neutron halo nuclei or triatomic molecules close to dissociation, is investigated using a three-body model. This model enables to analytically derive the universal geometric properties found recently within an effective-field theory for halos made of a core and two resonantly-interacting particles [Phys. Rev. Lett., 128, 212501 (2022)]. It is shown that these properties not only apply to the ground three-body state, but also to all the excited (Efimov) states where the core-particle interaction is resonant. Furthermore, a universal geometry persists away from the resonant regime between the two particles, for any state close to the three-body threshold. This "halo universality", which applies equally to all states, is different from the Efimov universality, which is only approximate for the ground state. It is explained by the separability of the hyper-radius and hyper-angles close to the three-body dissociation threshold.

  4 citations

• Hitting two BSM particles with one lepton-jet: search for a top partner decaying to a dark photon, resulting in a lepton-jet

  K. du Plessis, M. M. Flores, D. Kar, S. Sinha, H. van der Schyf

  SciPost Phys. 13, 018 (2022) · published 15 August 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A maverick top partner model, decaying to a dark photon was suggested. The dark photon decays to two overlapping electrons for dark photon masses of $\approx 100$ GeV, and results in a so-called lepton-jet. The event includes a top quark as well, which results in events with two boosted objects, one heavy and the other light. We propose a search strategy exploiting the unique signal topology. We show that for a set of kinematic selections, both in hadronic and leptonic decay channel of the SM top quark, almost all background can be eliminated, leaving enough signal events up to top partner mass of about 3 TeV for the search to be viable at the LHC.

  4 citations

• Electron glass effects in amorphous NbSi films

  Julien Delahaye, Thierry Grenet, Claire A Marrache-Kikuchi, Vincent Humbert, Laurent Bergé, Louis Dumoulin

  SciPost Phys. 8, 056 (2020) · published 9 April 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We report on non equilibrium field effect in insulating amorphous NbSi thin films having different Nb contents and thicknesses. The hallmark of an electron glass, namely the logarithmic growth of a memory dip in conductance versus gate voltage curves, is observed in all the films after a cooling from room temperature to 4.2 K. A very rich phenomenology is demonstrated. While the memory dip width is found to strongly vary with the film parameters, as was also observed in amorphous indium oxide films, screening lengths and temperature dependence of the dynamics are closer to what is observed in granular Al films. Our results demonstrate that the differentiation between continuous and discontinuous systems is not relevant to understand the discrepancies reported between various systems in the electron glass features. We suggest instead that they are not of fundamental nature and stem from differences in the protocols used and in the electrical inhomogeneity length scales within each material.

  4 citations

• Towards traversable wormholes from force-free plasmas

  Nabil Iqbal, Simon F. Ross

  SciPost Phys. 12, 086 (2022) · published 9 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The near-horizon region of magnetically charged black holes can have very strong magnetic fields. A useful low-energy effective theory for fluctuations of the fields, coupled to electrically charged particles, is force-free electrodynamics. The low energy collective excitations include a large number of Alfven wave modes, which have a massless dispersion relation along the field worldlines. We attempt to construct traversable wormhole solutions using the negative Casimir energy of the Alfven wave modes, analogously to the recent construction using charged massless fermions. The behaviour of massless scalars in the near-horizon region implies that the size of the wormholes is strongly restricted and cannot be made large, even though the force free description is valid in a larger regime.

  4 citations

• Semi-visible jets, energy-based models, and self-supervision

  Luigi Favaro, Michael Krämer, Tanmoy Modak, Tilman Plehn, Jan Rüschkamp

  SciPost Phys. 18, 042 (2025) · published 3 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present DarkCLR, a novel framework for detecting semi-visible jets at the LHC. DarkCLR uses a self-supervised contrastive-learning approach to create observables that are approximately invariant under relevant transformations. We use background-enhanced data to create a sensitive representation and evaluate the representations using a CLR-inspired anomaly score and a normalized autoencoder as density estimators. Our results show a remarkable sensitivity for a wide range of semi-visible jets and are more robust than a supervised classifier trained on a specific signal.

  4 citations

• QMetrology from QCosmology: Study with entangled two qubit open quantum system in De Sitter space

  Sayantan Choudhury, Satyaki Chowdhury, Nitin Gupta, Abinash Swain

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 006 (2021) · published 29 March 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper, our prime objective is to apply the techniques of parameter estimation theory and the concept of Quantum Metrology in the form of Fisher Information to investigate the role of certain physical quantities in the open quantum dynamics of a two entangled qubit system under the Markovian approximation. There exist various physical parameters which characterize such system, but can not be treated as any quantum mechanical observable. It becomes imperative to do a detailed parameter estimation analysis to determine the physically consistent parameter space of such quantities. We apply both Classical Fisher Information (CFI) and Quantum Fisher Information (QFI) to correctly estimate these parameters, which play significant role to describe the out-of-equilibrium and the long range quantum entanglement phenomena of open quantum system. Quantum Metrology, compared to classical parameter estimation theory, plays a two-fold superior role, improving the precision and accuracy of parameter estimation. Additionally, in this paper we present a new avenue in terms of Quantum Metrology, which beats the classical parameter estimation. We also present an interesting result of revival of out-of-equilibrium feature at the late time scales, arising due to the long range quantum entanglement at early time scale and provide a physical interpretation for the same in terms of Bell's Inequality Violation in early time scale giving rise to non-locality.

  4 citations