Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Noninvertible symmetry and topological holography for modulated SPT in one dimension

  Jintae Kim, Yizhi You, Jung Hoon Han

  SciPost Phys. 19, 110 (2025) · published 24 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We examine noninvertible symmetry (NIS) in one-dimensional (1D) symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases protected by dipolar and exponential-charge symmetries, which are two key examples of modulated SPT (MSPT). To set the stage, we first study NIS in the $\mathbb{Z}_N × \mathbb{Z}_N$ cluster model, extending previous work on the $\mathbb{Z}_2 × \mathbb{Z}_2$ case. For each symmetry type (charge, dipole, exponential), we explicitly construct the noninvertible Kramers-Wannier (KW) and Kennedy-Tasaki (KT) transformations, revealing dual models with spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB). The resulting symmetry group structure of the SSB model is rich enough that it allows the identification of other SSB models with the same symmetry. Using these alternative SSB models and KT duality, we generate novel MSPT phases distinct from those associated with the standard decorated domain wall picture, and confirm their distinctiveness by projective symmetry analyses at their interfaces. Additionally, we establish a topological-holographic correspondence by identifying the 2D bulk theories-two coupled layers of toric codes (charge), anisotropic dipolar toric codes (dipole), and exponentially modulated toric codes (exponential)-whose boundaries host the respective 1D MSPT phases.

  2 citations

• The complex Liouville string: The gravitational path integral

  Scott Collier, Lorenz Eberhardt, Beatrix Mühlmann

  SciPost Phys. 19, 115 (2025) · published 28 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We give a rigorous definition of sine dilaton gravity in terms of the worldsheet theory of the complex Liouville string [S. Collier et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 251602 (2025)]. The latter has a known exact solution that we leverage to explore the gravitational path integral of sine dilaton gravity – a quantum deformation of dS JT gravity that admits both AdS$_2$ and dS$_2$ vacua. We uncover that the gravitational path integral receives contributions from new saddles describing transitions between vacua in a third-quantized picture. We also discuss the sphere and disk partition function in this context and contrast our findings with other recent work on this theory.

  2 citations

• One-form symmetries and the 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ $A$-model: Topologically twisted indices and CS theories

  Cyril Closset, Elias Furrer, Osama Khlaif

  SciPost Phys. 18, 066 (2025) · published 24 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study three-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric Chern–Simons-matter gauge theories with a one-form symmetry in the $A$-model formalism on $\Sigma_g× S^1$. We explicitly compute expectation values of topological line operators that implement the one-form symmetry. This allows us to compute the topologically twisted index on the closed Riemann surface $\Sigma_g$ for any real compact gauge group $G$ as long as the ground states are all bosonic. All computations are carried out in the effective $A$-model on $\Sigma_g$, whose $S^1$ ground states are the so-called Bethe vacua. We discuss how the 3d one-form symmetry acts on the Bethe vacua, and also how its 't Hooft anomaly constrains the vacuum structure. In the special case of the $SU(N)_K$ $\mathcal{N}=2$ Chern–Simons theory, we obtain results for the $(SU(N)/\mathbb{Z}_r)^{\theta}_K$ $\mathcal{N}=2$ Chern–Simons theories, for all non-anomalous $\mathbb{Z}_r \subseteq \mathbb{Z}_N$ subgroups of the centre of the gauge group, and with a $\mathbb{Z}_r$ $\theta$-angle turned on. In the special cases with $N$ even, ${N\over r}$ odd and ${K\over r}$ even, we find a mixed 't Hooft anomaly between gravity and the $\mathbb{Z}_r^{(1)}$ one-form symmetry of the $SU(N)_K$ theory, and the infrared 3d TQFT after gauging is spin. In all cases, we count the Bethe states and the higher-genus states in terms of refinements of Jordan's totient function. This counting gives us the twisted indices if and only if the infrared 3d TQFT is bosonic. Our results lead to precise conjectures about integrality of indices, which appear to have a strong number-theoretic flavour. Note: this paper directly builds upon unpublished notes by Brian Willett from 2020.

  2 citations

• Wegner's Ising gauge spins versus Kitaev's Majorana partons: Mapping and application to anisotropic confinement in spin-orbital liquids

  Urban F. P. Seifert, Sergej Moroz

  SciPost Phys. 16, 147 (2024) · published 5 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Emergent gauge theories take a prominent role in the description of quantum matter, supporting deconfined phases with topological order and fractionalized excitations. A common construction of $\mathbb{Z}_2$ lattice gauge theories, first introduced by Wegner, involves Ising gauge spins placed on links and subject to a discrete $\mathbb{Z}_2$ Gauss law constraint. As shown by Kitaev, $\mathbb{Z}_2$ lattice gauge theories also emerge in the exact solution of certain spin systems with bond-dependent interactions. In this context, the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge field is constructed from Majorana fermions, with gauge constraints given by the parity of Majorana fermions on each site. In this work, we provide an explicit Jordan-Wigner transformation that maps between these two formulations on the square lattice, where the Kitaev-type gauge theory emerges as the exact solution of a spin-orbital (Kugel-Khomskii) Hamiltonian. We then apply our mapping to study local perturbations to the spin-orbital Hamiltonian, which correspond to anisotropic interactions between electric-field variables in the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory. These are shown to induce anisotropic confinement that is characterized by emergence of weakly-coupled one-dimensional spin chains. We study the nature of these phases and corresponding confinement transitions in both absence and presence of itinerant fermionic matter degrees of freedom. Finally, we discuss how our mapping can be applied to the Kitaev spin-1/2 model on the honeycomb lattice.

  2 citations

• Anisotropic Zeeman Splitting in YbNi4P2

  Sara Karbassi, Saman Ghannadzadeh, Kristin Kliemt, Manuel Brando, Cornelius Krellner, Sven Friedemann

  SciPost Phys. 5, 056 (2018) · published 30 November 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The electronic structure of heavy-fermion materials is highly renormalised at low temperatures with localised moments contributing to the electronic excitation spectrum via the Kondo effect. Thus, heavy-fermion materials are very susceptible to Lifshitz transitions due to the small effective Fermi energy arising on parts of the renormalised Fermi surface. Here, we study Lifshitz transitions that have been discovered in YbNi4P2 in high magnetic fields. We measure the angular dependence of the critical fields necessary to induce a number of Lifshitz transitions and find it to follow a simple Zeeman-shift model with anisotropic g-factor. This highlights the coherent nature of the heavy quasiparticles forming a renormalised Fermi surface. We extract information on the orientation of the Fermi surface parts giving rise to the Lifshitz transitions and we determine the anisotropy of the effective g-factor to be $\eta \approx 3.8$ in good agreement with the crystal field scheme of YbNi4P2.

  2 citations

• Superconductivity enhancement and particle-hole asymmetry: Interplay with electron attraction in doped Hubbard model

  Zhi Xu, Hong-Chen Jiang, Yi-Fan Jiang

  SciPost Phys. 19, 137 (2025) · published 25 November 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The role of near-neighbor electron attraction $V$ in strongly correlated systems has been at the forefront of recent research of unconventional superconductivity. However, its implications in the doped Hubbard model on expansive systems remain predominantly unexplored. In this study, we employ the density-matrix renormalization group to examine its effect in the lightly doped $t$-$t'$-Hubbard model on six-leg square cylinders, where $t$ and $t'$ are the first and second neighbor electron hopping amplitudes. In the electron-doped regime ($t'>0$), we find that attractive $V$ can substantially enhance superconducting correlations, driving the system into a pronounced superconducting phase when the attraction exceeds a modest value $V_c ≈ 0.5t$. In contrast, in the hole-doped regime ($t' <0$), while heightened superconducting correlations have also been observed in the charge stripe phase, the systems remain insulating with pronounced charge density wave order. Our results demonstrate the importance of the electron attraction in boosting superconductivity in broader doped Hubbard systems and highlight the asymmetry between the electron and hole-doped regimes.

  2 citations

• Quenched dynamics and pattern formation in clean and disordered Bogoliubov-de Gennes superconductors

  Bo Fan, Antonio Miguel García García

  SciPost Phys. 17, 049 (2024) · published 13 August 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the quench dynamics of a two dimensional superconductor in a square lattice of size up to $200× 200$ employing the self-consistent time dependent Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) formalism. In the clean limit, the dynamics of the order parameter for short times, characterized by a fast exponential growth and an oscillatory pattern, agrees with the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) prediction. However, unlike BCS, we observe for longer times a universal exponential decay of these time oscillations. We show explicitly that the origin of this exponential decay is the full emergence of spatial inhomogeneities of the order parameter characterized by the exponential growth of its variance. The addition of a weak disorder does not alter these results qualitatively. In this region, the spatial inhomogeneities rapidly develop into an intricate spatial structure consisting of ordered fragmented stripes in perpendicular directions where the order parameter is heavily suppressed. As the disorder strength increases, the fragmented stripes gradually turn into a square lattice of approximately circular spatial regions where the condensate is heavily suppressed. A further increase of disorder leads to the deformation and ultimate destruction of this lattice. We show these emergent spatial patterns are sensitive to the underlying lattice structure. We explore suitable settings for the experimental confirmation of these findings.

  2 citations

• Cancelling mod-2 anomalies by Green-Schwarz mechanism with $B_{\mu\nu}$

  Shota Saito, Yuji Tachikawa

  SciPost Phys. 19, 017 (2025) · published 16 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study if and when mod-2 anomalies can be canceled by the Green-Schwarz mechanism with the introduction of an antisymmetric tensor field $B_{\mu\nu}$. As explicit examples, we examine $SU(2)$ and more general $Sp(n)$ gauge theories in four and eight dimensions. We find that the mod-2 anomalies of 8d $\mathcal{N}=1$ $Sp(n)$ gauge theory can be canceled, as expected from it having a string theory realization, while the mod-2 Witten anomaly of 4d $SU(2)$ and $Sp(n)$ gauge theory cannot be canceled in this manner.

  2 citations

• Parallel assembly of neutral atom arrays with an SLM using linear phase interpolation

  Ivo H. A. Knottnerus, Yu Chih Tseng (曾于誌), Alexander Urech, Robert J. C. Spreeuw, Florian Schreck

  SciPost Phys. 19, 118 (2025) · published 31 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present fast parallel rearrangement of single atoms in optical tweezers into arbitrary geometries by updating holograms displayed by an ultra fast spatial light modulator. Using linear interpolation of the tweezer position and the optical phase between the start and end arrays, we can calculate and display holograms every few ms, limited by technology. To show the versatility of our method, we sort the same atomic sample into multiple geometries with success probabilities of $0.996(2)$ per rearrangement cycle. This makes the method a useful tool for rearranging large atom arrays for quantum computation and quantum simulation.

  2 citations

• Interface junctions in QCD${}_4$

  Pranay Gorantla, Ho Tat Lam

  SciPost Phys. 10, 085 (2021) · published 22 April 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study 3+1 dimensional $SU(N)$ Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) with $N_f$ degenerate quarks that have a spatially varying complex mass. It leads to a network of interfaces connected by interface junctions. We use anomaly inflow to constrain these defects. Based on the chiral Lagrangian and the conjectures on the interfaces, characterized by a spatially varying $\theta$-parameter, we propose a low-energy description of such networks of interfaces. Interestingly, we observe that the operators in the effective field theories on the junctions can carry baryon charges, and their spin and isospin representations coincide with baryons. We also study defects, characterized by spatially varying coupling constants, in 2+1 dimensional Chern-Simons-matter theories and in a 3+1 dimensional real scalar theory.

  2 citations