Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Comment on Coleman-DeLuccia instantons

  Tom Banks, Bingnan Zhang

  SciPost Phys. 12, 015 (2022) · published 11 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We complete an old argument that causal diamonds in the crunching region of the Lorentzian continuation of a Coleman-Deluccia instanton for transitions out of de Sitter space have finite area, and provide quantum models consistent with the principle of detailed balance, which can mimic the instanton transition probabilities for the cases where this diamond is larger or smaller than the causal patch of de Sitter space. We review arguments that potentials which do not have a positive energy theorem when the lowest de Sitter minimum is shifted to zero, may not correspond to real models of quantum gravity.

• Dissipative cooling induced by pulse perturbations

  Andrea Nava, Michele Fabrizio

  SciPost Phys. 12, 014 (2022) · published 11 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the dynamics brought on by an impulse perturbation in two infinite-range quantum Ising models coupled to each other and to a dissipative bath. We show that, if dissipation is faster the higher the excitation energy, the pulse perturbation cools down the low-energy sector of the system, at the expense of the high-energy one, eventually stabilising a transient symmetry-broken state at temperatures higher than the equilibrium critical one. Such non-thermal quasi-steady state may survive for quite a long time after the pulse, if the latter is properly tailored.

  5 citations

• Effects of intraspecific cooperative interactions in large ecosystems

  Ada Altieri, Giulio Biroli

  SciPost Phys. 12, 013 (2022) · published 11 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We analyze the role of the Allee effect, a positive correlation between population density and mean individual fitness, for ecological communities formed by a large number of species. Our study is performed using the generalized Lotka-Volterra model with random interactions between species. We obtain the phase diagram and analyze the nature of the multiple equilibria phase. Remarkable differences emerge with respect to the logistic growth case, thus revealing the major role played by the functional response in determining aggregate behaviours of ecosystems.

  7 citations

• Complete set of quasi-conserved quantities for spinning particles around Kerr

  Geoffrey Compère, Adrien Druart

  SciPost Phys. 12, 012 (2022) · published 10 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We revisit the conserved quantities of the Mathisson-Papapetrou-Tulczyjew equations describing the motion of spinning particles on a fixed background. Assuming Ricci-flatness and the existence of a Killing-Yano tensor, we demonstrate that besides the two non-trivial quasi-conserved quantities, i.e. conserved at linear order in the spin, found by R\"udiger, non-trivial quasi-conserved quantities are in one-to-one correspondence with non-trivial mixed-symmetry Killing tensors. We prove that no such stationary and axisymmetric mixed-symmetry Killing tensor exists on the Kerr geometry. We discuss the implications for the motion of spinning particles on Kerr spacetime where the quasi-constants of motion are shown not to be in complete involution.

  7 citations

• Unbounded entanglement production via a dissipative impurity

  Vincenzo Alba

  SciPost Phys. 12, 011 (2022) · published 10 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the entanglement dynamics in a free-fermion chain initially prepared in a Fermi sea and subjected to localized losses (dissipative impurity). We derive a formula describing the dynamics of the entanglement entropies in the hydrodynamic limit of long times and large intervals. The result depends only on the absorption coefficient of the effective delta potential describing the impurity in the hydrodynamic limit. Genuine dissipation-induced entanglement is certified by the linear growth of the logarithmic negativity. Finally, in the quantum Zeno regime at strong dissipation the entanglement growth is arrested (Zeno entanglement death).

  14 citations

• A Study of QCD Radiation in VBF Higgs Production with Vincia and Pythia

  Stefan Höche, Stephen Mrenna, Shay Payne, Christian T Preuss, Peter Skands

  SciPost Phys. 12, 010 (2022) · published 10 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss and illustrate the properties of several parton-shower algorithms available in Pythia and Vincia, in the context of Higgs production via vector boson fusion (VBF). In particular, the distinctive colour topology of VBF processes allows to define observables sensitive to the coherent radiation pattern of additional jets. We study a set of such observables, using the Vincia sector-antenna shower as our main reference, and contrast it to Pythia's transverse-momentum-ordered DGLAP shower as well as Pythia's dipole-improved shower. We then investigate the robustness of these predictions as successive levels of higher-order perturbative matrix elements are incorporated, including next-to-leading-order matched and tree-level merged calculations, using Powheg Box and Sherpa respectively to generate the hard events.

  7 citations

• Continuous gaussian measurements of the free boson CFT: A model for exactly solvable and detectable measurement-induced dynamics

  Y. Minoguchi, P. Rabl, M. Buchhold

  SciPost Phys. 12, 009 (2022) · published 7 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Hybrid evolution protocols, composed of unitary dynamics and repeated, weak or projective measurements, give rise to new, intriguing quantum phenomena, including entanglement phase transitions and unconventional conformal invariance. Defying the complications imposed by the non-linear and stochastic nature of the measurement process, we introduce a scenario of measurement-induced many body evolution, which possesses an exact analytical solution: bosonic Gaussian measurements. The evolution features a competition between the continuous observation of linear boson operators and a free Hamiltonian, and it is characterized by a unique and exactly solvable covariance matrix. Within this framework, we then consider an elementary model for quantum criticality, the free boson conformal field theory, and investigate in which way criticality is modified under measurements. Depending on the measurement protocol, we distinguish three fundamental scenarios (a) enriched quantum criticality, characterized by a logarithmic entanglement growth with a floating prefactor, or the loss of criticality, indicated by an entanglement growth with either (b) an area-law or (c) a volume-law. For each scenario, we discuss the impact of imperfect measurements, which reduce the purity of the wavefunction and are equivalent to Markovian decoherence, and present a set of observables, e.g., real-space correlations, the relaxation time, and the entanglement structure, to classify the measurement-induced dynamics for both pure and mixed states. Finally, we present an experimental tomography scheme, which grants access to the density operator of the system by using the continuous measurement record only.

  22 citations

• Bose polaron in a quantum fluid of light

  Amit Vashisht, Maxime Richard, Anna Minguzzi

  SciPost Phys. 12, 008 (2022) · published 6 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the Bose polaron problem in a nonequilibrium setting, by considering an impurity embedded in a quantum fluid of light realized by exciton-polaritons in a microcavity, subject to a coherent drive and dissipation on account of pump and cavity losses. We obtain the polaron effective mass, the drag force acting on the impurity, and determine polaron trajectories at a semiclassical level. We find different dynamical regimes, originating from the unique features of the excitation spectrum of driven-dissipative polariton fluids, in particular a non-trivial regime of acceleration against the flow. Our work promotes the study of impurity dynamics as an alternative testbed for probing superfluidity in quantum fluids of light.

  4 citations

• Correlations and commuting transfer matrices in integrable unitary circuits

  Pieter W. Claeys, Jonah Herzog-Arbeitman, Austen Lamacraft

  SciPost Phys. 12, 007 (2022) · published 6 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider a unitary circuit where the underlying gates are chosen to be R-matrices satisfying the Yang-Baxter equation and correlation functions can be expressed through a transfer matrix formalism. These transfer matrices are no longer Hermitian and differ from the ones guaranteeing local conservation laws, but remain mutually commuting at different values of the spectral parameter defining the circuit. Exact eigenstates can still be constructed as a Bethe ansatz, but while these transfer matrices are diagonalizable in the inhomogeneous case, the homogeneous limit corresponds to an exceptional point where multiple eigenstates coalesce and Jordan blocks appear. Remarkably, the complete set of (generalized) eigenstates is only obtained when taking into account a combinatorial number of nontrivial vacuum states. In all cases, the Bethe equations reduce to those of the integrable spin-1 chain and exhibit a global SU(2) symmetry, significantly reducing the total number of eigenstates required in the calculation of correlation functions. A similar construction is shown to hold for the calculation of out-of-time-order correlations.

  19 citations

• Automatic differentiation applied to excitations with projected entangled pair states

  Boris Ponsioen, Fakher F. Assaad, Philippe Corboz

  SciPost Phys. 12, 006 (2022) · published 6 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The excitation ansatz for tensor networks is a powerful tool for simulating the low-lying quasiparticle excitations above ground states of strongly correlated quantum many-body systems. Recently, the two-dimensional tensor network class of infinite entangled pair states gained new ground state optimization methods based on automatic differentiation, which are at the same time highly accurate and simple to implement. Naturally, the question arises whether these new ideas can also be used to optimize the excitation ansatz, which has recently been implemented in two dimensions as well. In this paper, we describe a straightforward way to reimplement the framework for excitations using automatic differentiation, and demonstrate its performance for the Hubbard model at half filling.

  16 citations