Publications

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• Tighter lower bounds on quantum annealing times

  Luis Pedro García-Pintos, Mrunmay Sahasrabudhe, Christian Arenz

  SciPost Phys. 18, 159 (2025) · published 16 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We derive lower bounds on the time needed for a quantum annealer to prepare the ground state of a target Hamiltonian. These bounds do not depend on the annealing schedule and can take the local structure of the Hamiltonian into account. Consequently, the bounds are computable without knowledge of the annealer's dynamics and, in certain cases, scale with the size of the system. We discuss spin systems where the bounds are polynomially tighter than existing bounds, qualitatively capturing the scaling of the exact annealing times as a function of the number of spins.

  1 citation

• Witten index of BMN matrix quantum mechanics

  Chi-Ming Chang

  SciPost Phys. 19, 147 (2025) · published 5 December 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We compute the Witten index of the Berenstein-Maldacena-Nastase matrix quantum mechanics, which counts the number of ground states as well as the difference between the numbers of bosonic and fermionic BPS states with nonzero angular momenta. The Witten index sets a lower bound on the entropy, which exhibits $N^2$ growth that provides strong evidence for the existence of BPS black holes in M-theory, asymptotic to the plane-wave geometry. We also discuss a relation between the Witten index in the infinite $N$ limit and the superconformal index of the Aharony-Bergman-Jafferis-Maldacena theory.

  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

• Experimental investigation of a bipartite quench in a 1D Bose gas

  Léa Dubois, Guillaume Thémèze, Jérôme Dubail, Isabelle Bouchoule

  SciPost Phys. 20, 008 (2026) · published 15 January 2026 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Long wavelength dynamics of 1D Bose gases with repulsive contact interactions can be captured by Generalized HydroDynamics (GHD) which predicts the evolution of the local rapidity distribution. The latter corresponds to the momentum distribution of quasiparticles, which have infinite lifetime owing to the integrability of the system. Here we experimentally investigate the dynamics for an initial situation that is the junction of two semi-infinite systems in different stationary states, a protocol referred to as 'bipartite quench' protocol. More precisely we realise the particular case where one half of the system is the vacuum state. We show that the evolution of the boundary density profile exhibits ballistic dynamics obeying the Euler hydrodynamic scaling. The boundary profiles are similar to the ones predicted with zero-temperature GHD in the quasi-BEC regime, with deviations due to non-zero entropy effects. We show that this protocol, provided the boundary profile is measured with infinite precision, permits to reconstruct the rapidity distribution of the initial state. For our data, we extract the initial rapidity distribution by fitting the boundary profile and we use a 3-parameter Ansatz that goes beyond the thermal assumption. Finally, we investigate the local rapidity distribution inside the boundary profile, which, according to GHD, presents, on one side, features of zero-entropy states. The measured distribution shows the asymmetry predicted by GHD, although unelucidated deviations remain.

  1 citation

• The fate of the spin polaron in the 1D antiferromagnets

  Piotr Wrzosek, Adam Kłosiński, Yao Wang, Mona Berciu, Cliò Efthimia Agrapidis, Krzysztof Wohlfeld

  SciPost Phys. 17, 018 (2024) · published 19 July 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The stability of the spin polaron quasiparticle, well established in studies of a single hole in the 2D antiferromagnets, is investigated in the 1D antiferromagnets using a $t$-$J$ model. We perform an exact slave fermion transformation to the holon-magnon basis, and diagonalize numerically the resulting model in the presence of a single hole. We demonstrate that the spin polaron collapses - and the spin-charge separation takes over - due to the specific role played by the magnon-magnon interactions and the magnon hard-core constraint in the 1D $t$-$J$ model. Moreover, we prove that the spin polaron is stable for any strength of the magnon-magnon interaction other than the unique value found in a 1D antiferromagnet with the continuous symmetry of the spin interactions. Fine-tuning to this unique value is extremely unlikely to occur in quasi-1D antiferromagnets, therefore the spin polaron is the stable quasiparticle of realistic 1D materials. Our results lead to a new interpretation of the ARPES spectra of quasi-1D antiferromagnets in the spin polaron language.

  1 citation

• Efficiency of dynamical decoupling for (almost) any spin–boson model

  Alexander Hahn, Daniel Burgarth, Davide Lonigro

  SciPost Phys. 19, 035 (2025) · published 13 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Dynamical decoupling is a technique aimed at suppressing the interaction between a quantum system and its environment by applying frequent unitary operations on the system alone. In the present paper, we analytically study the dynamical decoupling of a two-level system coupled with a structured bosonic environment initially prepared in a thermal state. We find sufficient conditions under which dynamical decoupling works for such systems, and—most importantly—we find bounds for the convergence speed of the procedure. Our analysis is based on a new Trotter theorem for multiple Hamiltonians and involves a rigorous treatment of the evolution of mixed quantum states via unbounded Hamiltonians. A comparison with numerical experiments shows that our bounds reproduce the correct scaling in various relevant system parameters. Furthermore, our analytical treatment allows for quantifying the decoupling efficiency for boson baths with infinitely many modes, in which case a numerical treatment is unavailable.

  1 citation

• Ringdown in the SYK model

  Matthew Dodelson

  SciPost Phys. 19, 081 (2025) · published 30 September 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We analyze thermal correlators in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model away from the maximally chaotic limit. Despite the absence of a weakly curved black hole dual, the two point function decomposes into a sum over a discrete set of quasinormal modes. To compute the spectrum of modes, we analytically solve the Schwinger-Dyson equations to a high order in perturbation theory, and then numerically fit to a sum of exponentials using a technique analogous to the double cone construction. The resulting spectrum has a tree-like structure which is reminiscent of AdS black holes with curvature singularities. We present a simple toy model of stringy black holes that qualitatively reproduces some aspects of this structure.

  1 citation

• Two-dimensional Ising and Potts model with long-range bond disorder: A renormalization group approach

  Francesco Chippari, Marco Picco, Raoul Santachiara

  SciPost Phys. 15, 135 (2023) · published 4 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper we provide new analytic results on two-dimensional $q$-Potts models ($q ≥ 2$) in the presence of bond disorder correlations which decay algebraically with distance with exponent $a$. In particular, our results are valid for the long-range bond disordered Ising model ($q=2$). We implement a renormalization group perturbative approach based on conformal perturbation theory. We extend to the long-range case the RG scheme used in [V. Dotsenko et al., Nucl. Phys. B 455 701-23] for the short-range disorder. Our approach is based on a $2$-loop order double expansion in the positive parameters $(2-a)$ and $(q-2)$. We will show that the Weinrib-Halperin conjecture for the long-range thermal exponent can be violated for a non-Gaussian disorder. We compute the central charges of the long-range fixed points finding a very good agreement with numerical measurements.

  1 citation

• Anderson impurities in edge states with nonlinear and dissipative perturbations

  Vinayak M. Kulkarni, N. S. Vidhyadhiraja

  SciPost Phys. 19, 036 (2025) · published 13 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that exceptional points (EPs) and non-Hermitian behavior can emerge dynamically in impurity models with Hermitian microscopic origins. Using perturbative renormalization group (RG) analysis, Fock-space diagonalization, and spin-spin relaxation time calculations, we demonstrate that nonlinear (NL) dispersion and anisotropic pseudochiral ($\mathcal{PC}$) interactions generate complex fixed points and spectral defectiveness. The effective Kondo model features a square-root RG invariant linking planar and longitudinal Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) couplings, driving the onset of EPs. Our analysis reveals dissipative fixed points stabilized by an emergent Lie algebra structure and a scaling collapse in relaxation dynamics. Across both single- and two-impurity extensions, we identify a universal "sign-reversion" (SR) regime near critical NL coupling, where anisotropy preserves $\mathcal{PC}$ symmetry and SR serves as a signature of non-Hermitian flow. These results establish a new class of non-Hermitian criticality generated through RG evolution in otherwise Hermitian systems.

  1 citation

• The geometry of Casimir W-algebras

  Raphaël Belliard, Bertrand Eynard, Sylvain Ribault

  SciPost Phys. 5, 051 (2018) · published 23 November 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be a simply laced Lie algebra, $\widehat{\mathfrak{g}}_1$ the corresponding affine Lie algebra at level one, and $\mathcal{W}(\mathfrak{g})$ the corresponding Casimir W-algebra. We consider $\mathcal{W}(\mathfrak{g})$-symmetric conformal field theory on the Riemann sphere. To a number of $\mathcal{W}(\mathfrak{g})$-primary fields, we associate a Fuchsian differential system. We compute correlation functions of $\widehat{\mathfrak{g}}_1$-currents in terms of solutions of that system, and construct the bundle where these objects live. We argue that cycles on that bundle correspond to parameters of the conformal blocks of the W-algebra, equivalently to moduli of the Fuchsian system.

  1 citation