Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Strengthening the atom-field coupling through the deep-strong regime via pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians

  M. A. de Ponte, F. Oliveira Neto, P. M. Soares, M. H. Y. Moussa

  SciPost Phys. 15, 091 (2023) · published 13 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a strategy for strengthening the atom-field interaction through a pseudo-Hermitian Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian. Apart from the engineering of an effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian, our strategy also relies on the accomplishment of short-time measurements on canonically conjugate variables. The resulting fast Rabi oscillations may be used for many quantum optics purposes and specially to shorten the processing time of quantum information.

  1 citation

• Coulomb branch surgery: Holonomy saddles, S-folds and discrete symmetry gaugings

  Elias Furrer, Horia Magureanu

  SciPost Phys. 17, 073 (2024) · published 5 September 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Symmetries of Seiberg–Witten (SW) geometries capture intricate physical aspects of the underlying 4d $\mathcal{N} = 2$ field theories. For rank-one theories, these geometries are rational elliptic surfaces whose automorphism group is a semi-direct product between the Coulomb branch (CB) symmetries and the Mordell-Weil group. We study quotients of the SW geometry by subgroups of its automorphism group, which most naturally become gaugings of discrete 0- and 1-form symmetries. Yet, new interpretations of these surgeries become evident when considering 5d $\mathcal{N}=1$ superconformal field theories. There, certain CB symmetries are related to symmetries of the corresponding $(p,q)$-brane web and, as a result, CB surgeries can give rise to (fractional) S-folds. Another novel interpretation of these quotients is the folding across dimensions: circle compactifications of the 5d $E_{2N_f + 1}$ Seiberg theories lead in the infrared to two copies of locally indistinguishable 4d SU(2) SQCD theories with $N_f$ fundamental flavours. This extends earlier results on holonomy saddles, while also reproducing detailed computations of 5d BPS spectra and predicting new 5d and 6d BPS quivers. Finally, we argue that the semi-direct product structure of the automorphism group of the SW geometry includes mixed 't Hooft anomalies between the 0- and 1-form symmetries, and we also present some new results on non-cyclic CB symmetries.

  1 citation

• Quasi-equilibrium polariton condensates in the non-linear regime and beyond

  Ned Goodman, Brendan C. Mulkerin, Jesper Levinsen, Meera M. Parish

  SciPost Phys. 15, 116 (2023) · published 26 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the many-body behavior of polaritons formed from electron-hole pairs strongly coupled to photons in a two-dimensional semiconductor microcavity. We use a microscopic mean-field BCS theory that describes polariton condensation in quasi-equilibrium across the full range of excitation densities. In the limit of vanishing density, we show that our theory recovers the exact single-particle properties of polaritons, while at low densities it captures non-linear polariton-polariton interactions within the Born approximation. For the case of highly screened contact interactions between charge carriers, we obtain analytic expressions for the equation of state of the many-body system. This allows us to show that there is a photon resonance at a chemical potential higher than the photon cavity energy, where the electron-hole pair correlations in the polariton condensate become universal and independent of the details of the carrier interactions. Comparing the effect of different ranged interactions between charge carriers, we find that the Rytova-Keldysh potential (relevant to transition metal dichalcogenides) offers the best prospect of reaching the BCS regime, where pairs strongly overlap and the minimum pairing gap occurs at finite momentum. Finally, going beyond thermal equilibrium, we argue that there are generically two polariton branches in the driven-dissipative system and we discuss the possibility of a density-driven exceptional point within our model.

  1 citation

• Higher-form symmetry and chiral transport in real-time Abelian lattice gauge theory

  Arpit Das, Adrien Florio, Nabil Iqbal, Napat Poovuttikul

  SciPost Phys. 17, 085 (2024) · published 19 September 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study classical lattice simulations of theories of electrodynamics coupled to charged matter at finite temperature, interpreting them using the higher-form symmetry formulation of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). We compute transport coefficients using classical Kubo formulas on the lattice and show that the properties of the simulated plasma are in complete agreement with the predictions from effective field theories. In particular, the higher-form formulation allows us to understand from hydrodynamic considerations the relaxation rate of axial charge in the chiral plasma observed in previous simulations. A key point is that the resistivity of the plasma – defined in terms of Kubo formulas for the electric field in the 1-form formulation of MHD – remains a well-defined and predictive quantity at strong electromagnetic coupling. However, the Kubo formulas used to define the conventional conductivity vanish at low frequencies due to electrodynamic fluctuations, and thus the concept of the conductivity of a gauged electric current must be interpreted with care.

  1 citation

• Lorentzian contours for tree-level string amplitudes

  Lorenz Eberhardt, Sebastian Mizera

  SciPost Phys. 17, 078 (2024) · published 11 September 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We engineer compact contours on the moduli spaces of genus-zero Riemann surfaces that achieve analytic continuation from Euclidean to Lorentzian worldsheets. These generalized Pochhammer contours are based on the combinatorics of associahedra and make the analytic properties of tree-level amplitudes entirely manifest for any number and type of external strings. We use them in practice to perform first numerical computations of open and closed string amplitudes directly in the physical kinematics for $n=4,5,6,7,8,9$. We provide a code that allows anyone to do such computations.

  1 citation

• Solvable models for 2+1D quantum critical points: Loop soups of 1+1D conformal field theories

  Amin Moharramipour, Dan Sehayek, Thomas Scaffidi

  SciPost Phys. 16, 061 (2024) · published 28 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We construct a class of solvable models for 2+1D quantum critical points by attaching 1+1D conformal field theories (CFTs) to fluctuating domain walls forming a "loop soup". Specifically, our local Hamiltonian attaches gapless spin chains to the domain walls of a triangular lattice Ising antiferromagnet. The macroscopic degeneracy between antiferromagnetic configurations is split by the Casimir energy of each decorating CFT, which is usually negative and thus favors a short loop phase with a finite gap. However, we found a set of 1D CFT Hamiltonians for which the Casimir energy is effectively positive, making it favorable for domain walls to coalesce into a single "snake" which is macroscopically long and thus hosts a CFT with a vanishing gap. The snake configurations are geometrical objects also known as fully-packed self-avoiding walks or Hamiltonian walks which are described by an $\mathrm{O}$(n=0) loop ensemble with a non-unitary 2+0D CFT description. Combining this description with the 1+1D decoration CFT, we obtain a 2+1D theory with unusual critical exponents and entanglement properties. Regarding the latter, we show that the log contributions from the decoration CFTs conspire with the spatial distribution of loops crossing the entanglement cut to generate a "non-local area law". Our predictions are verified by Monte Carlo simulations.

  1 citation

• Six-derivative Yang-Mills couplings in heterotic string theory

  Mohammad R. Garousi

  SciPost Phys. 17, 121 (2024) · published 28 October 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this work, we present a comprehensive analysis of the structure of six-derivative bosonic couplings in heterotic string theory. First, we determine the maximal covariant and Yang-Mills gauge invariant basis, which consists of 801 independent coupling constants. By imposing T-duality constraints on the circular reduction of these terms, we obtain 468 relations between the coupling constants at the six-derivative order and the known couplings at lower derivative orders. Through the use of field redefinitions, we are able to eliminate the remaining 333 coupling constants. Remarkably, we find that the Yang-Mills field strength only appears through the trace of two field strengths or their derivatives. Finally, we perform further field redefinition to rewrite the remaining couplings in a canonical form characterized by 85 independent couplings.

  1 citation

• Logarithmic correlation functions for critical dense polymers on the cylinder

  Alexi Morin-Duchesne, Jesper Lykke Jacobsen

  SciPost Phys. 7, 040 (2019) · published 30 September 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We compute lattice correlation functions for the model of critical dense polymers on a semi-infinite cylinder of perimeter $n$. In the lattice loop model, contractible loops have a vanishing fugacity whereas non-contractible loops have a fugacity $\alpha \in (0,\infty)$. These correlators are defined as ratios $Z(x)/Z_0$ of partition functions, where $Z_0$ is a reference partition function wherein only simple half-arcs are attached to the boundary of the cylinder. For $Z(x)$, the boundary of the cylinder is also decorated with simple half-arcs, but it also has two special positions $1$ and $x$ where the boundary condition is different. We investigate two such kinds of boundary conditions: (i) there is a single node at each of these points where a long arc is attached, and (ii) there are pairs of adjacent nodes at these points where two long arcs are attached. We find explicit expressions for these correlators for finite $n$ using the representation of the enlarged periodic Temperley-Lieb algebra in the XX spin chain. The resulting asymptotics as $n\to \infty$ are expressed as simple integrals that depend on the scaling parameter $\tau = \frac {x-1} n \in (0,1)$. For small $\tau$, the leading behaviours are proportional to $\tau^{1/4}$, $\tau^{1/4}\log \tau$, $\log \tau$ and $\log^2 \tau$. We interpret the lattice results in terms of ratios of conformal correlation functions. We assume that the corresponding boundary changing fields are highest weight states in irreducible, Kac or staggered Virasoro modules, with central charge $c=-2$ and conformal dimensions $\Delta = -\frac18$ or $\Delta = 0$. With these assumptions, we obtain differential equations of order two and three satisfied by the conformal correlation functions, solve these equations in terms of hypergeometric functions, and find a perfect agreement with the lattice results. We use the lattice results to compute structure constants and ratios thereof which appear in the operator product expansions of the boundary condition changing fields. The fusion of these fields is found to be non-abelian.

  1 citation

• Puzzles and pitfalls involving Haar-typicality in holography

  Ning Bao, Aidan Chatwin-Davies

  SciPost Phys. 4, 033 (2018) · published 19 June 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Holographic states that have a well-defined geometric dual in AdS/CFT are not faithfully represented by Haar-typical states in finite-dimensional models. As such, trying to apply principles and lessons from Haar-random ensembles of states to holographic states can lead to apparent puzzles and contradictions. We point out a handful of these pitfalls.

  1 citation

• Mode-shell correspondence, a unifying phase space theory in topological physics - Part I: Chiral number of zero-modes

  Lucien Jezequel, Pierre Delplace

  SciPost Phys. 17, 060 (2024) · published 23 August 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose a theory, that we call the mode-shell correspondence, which relates the topological zero-modes localised in phase space to a shell invariant defined on the surface forming a shell enclosing these zero-modes. We show that the mode-shell formalism provides a general framework unifying important results of topological physics, such as the bulk-edge correspondence, higher-order topological insulators, but also the Atiyah-Singer and the Callias index theories. In this paper, we discuss the already rich phenomenology of chiral symmetric Hamiltonians where the topological quantity is the chiral number of zero-dimensional zero-energy modes. We explain how, in a lot of cases, the shell-invariant has a semi-classical limit expressed as a generalised winding number on the shell, which makes it accessible to analytical computations.

  1 citation