Publications

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Scattering from an external field in quantum chromodynamics at high energies: From foundations to interdisciplinary connections

Athanasia-Konstantina Angelopoulou, Anh Dung Le, Stéphane Munier

SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 92 (2025) · published 12 March 2025 | · pdf

We review the factorization of the $S$-matrix elements in the context of particle scattering off an external field, which can serve as a model for the field of a large nucleus. The factorization takes the form of a convolution of light cone wave functions describing the physical incoming and outgoing states in terms of bare partons, and products of Wilson lines. The latter represent the interaction between the bare partons and the external field. Specializing to elastic scattering amplitudes of onia at very high energies, we introduce the color dipole model, which formulates the calculation of the modulus-squared of the wave functions in quantum chromodynamics with the help of a branching random walk, and the scattering amplitudes as observables on this classical stochastic process. Methods developed for general branching processes produce analytical formulas for the asymptotics of such observables, and thus enable one to derive exact large-rapidity expressions for onium-nucleus cross sections, from which electron-nucleus cross sections may be inferred.

2 citations
Topological insulators and geometry of vector bundles

Alexander S. Sergeev

SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 67 (2023) · published 12 April 2023 | · pdf

For a long time, band theory of solids has focused on the energy spectrum, or Hamiltonian eigenvalues. Recently, it was realized that the collection of eigenvectors also contains important physical information. The local geometry of eigenspaces determines the electric polarization, while their global twisting gives rise to the metallic surface states in topological insulators. These phenomena are central topics of the present notes. The shape of eigenspaces is also responsible for many intriguing physical analogies, which have their roots in the theory of vector bundles. We give an informal introduction to the geometry and topology of vector bundles and describe various physical models from this mathematical perspective.

2 citations
Ambitions for theory in the physics of life

William Bialek

SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 84 (2024) · published 15 August 2024 | · pdf

Theoretical physicists have been fascinated by the phenomena of life for more than a century. As we engage with more realistic descriptions of living systems, however, things get complicated. After reviewing different reactions to this complexity, I explore the optimization of information flow as a potentially general theoretical principle. The primary example is a genetic network guiding development of the fly embryo, but each idea also is illustrated by examples from neural systems. In each case, optimization makes detailed, largely parameter-free predictions that connect quantitatively with experiment.

2 citations
Galilei particles revisited

José Miguel Figueroa-O'Farrill, Simon Pekar, Alfredo Pérez, Stefan Prohazka

SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 93 (2025) · published 13 March 2025 | · pdf

We revisit the classifications of classical and quantum galilean particles: that is, we fully classify homogeneous symplectic manifolds and unitary irreducible projective representations of the Galilei group. Equivalently, these are coadjoint orbits and unitary irreducible representations of the Bargmann group, the universal central extension of the Galilei group. We provide an action principle in each case, discuss the nonrelativistic limit, as well as exhibit, whenever possible, the unitary irreducible representations in terms of fields on Galilei spacetime. Motivated by a forthcoming study of planons we pay close attention to the mobility of the less familiar massless Galilei particles.

2 citations
Parametric couplings in engineered quantum systems

Anja Metelmann

SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 66 (2023) · published 13 March 2023 | · pdf

Parametric couplings in engineered quantum systems are a powerful tool to control, manipulate and enhance interactions in a variety of platforms. It allows us to bring systems of different energy scales into communication with each other. This short chapter introduces the basic principles and discusses a few examples of how one can engineer parametric amplifiers with improved characteristics over conventional setups. Clearly, the selected examples are author-biased, and other interesting proposals and implementations can be found in the literature. The focus of this chapter is on parametric effects between linearly coupled harmonic oscillators, however, parametric modulation is also applicable with nonlinear couplings and anharmonic systems.

2 citations
A brief introduction to extended gravity and connections to dark energy: Illustrated with scalar field examples

Clare Burrage

SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 41 (2022) · published 15 March 2022 | · pdf

These lecture notes provide a brief introduction to extensions of gravity and their connections to dark energy. Due to time and space limitations this is not a comprehensive review of the field. Instead, I aim to introduce key concepts and ideas in this area through a series of examples based on scalar field extensions of gravity and models of dark energy.

1 citation
Simulation of the 1d XY model on a quantum computer

Marc Farreras, Alba Cervera-Lierta

SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 95 (2025) · published 11 June 2025 | · pdf

The field of quantum computing has grown fast in recent years, both in theoretical advancements and the practical construction of quantum computers. These computers were initially proposed, among other reasons, to efficiently simulate and comprehend the complexities of quantum physics. In this paper, we present a comprehensive scheme for the exact simulation of the 1-D XY model on a quantum computer. We successfully diagonalize the proposed Hamiltonian, enabling access to the complete energy spectrum. Furthermore, we propose a novel approach to design a quantum circuit to perform exact time evolution. Among all the possibilities this opens, we compute the ground and excited state energies for the symmetric XY model with spin chains of $n=4$ and $n=8$ spins. Further, we calculate the expected value of transverse magnetization for the ground state in the transverse Ising model. Both studies allow the observation of a quantum phase transition from an antiferromagnetic to a paramagnetic state. Additionally, we have simulated the time evolution of the state all spins up in the transverse Ising model. The scalability and high performance of our algorithm make it an ideal candidate for benchmarking purposes, while also laying the foundation for simulating other integrable models on quantum computers.

1 citation
Seven Études on dynamical Keldysh model

Dmitri V. Efremov, Mikhail N. Kiselev

SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 65 (2022) · published 6 December 2022 | · pdf

We present a comprehensive pedagogical discussion of a family of models describing the propagation of a single particle in a multicomponent non-Markovian Gaussian random field. We report some exact results for single-particle Green's functions, self-energy, vertex part and T-matrix. These results are based on a closed form solution of the Dyson equation combined with the Ward identity. Analytical properties of the solution are discussed. Further we describe the combinatorics of the Feynman diagrams for the Green's function and the skeleton diagrams for the self-energy and vertex, using recurrence relations between the Taylor expansion coefficients of the self-energy. Asymptotically exact equations for the number of skeleton diagrams in the limit of large $N$ are derived. Finally, we consider possible realizations of a multicomponent Gaussian random potential in quantum transport via complex quantum dot experiments.

1 citation
Engineering of anyons on M5-probes via flux quantization

Hisham Sati, Urs Schreiber

SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 107 (2025) · published 4 November 2025 | · pdf

These extended lecture notes survey a novel derivation of anyonic topological order (as seen in fractional quantum Hall systems) on single magnetized M5-branes probing Seifert orbi-singularities ("geometric engineering" of anyons), which we motivate from fundamental open problems in the field of quantum computing. The rigorous construction is non-Lagrangian and non-perturbative, based on previously neglected global completion of the M5-brane's tensor field by flux-quantization consistent with its non-linear self-duality and its twisting by the bulk C-field. This exists only in little-studied non-abelian generalized cohomology theories, notably in a twisted equivariant (and "twistorial") form of unstable Cohomotopy ("Hypothesis H"). As a result, topological quantum observables form Pontrjagin homology algebras of mapping spaces from the orbi-fixed worldvolume into a classifying 2-sphere. Remarkably, results from algebraic topology imply from this the quantum observables and modular functor of abelian Chern-Simons theory, as well as braid group actions on defect anyons of the kind envisioned as hardware for topologically protected quantum gates.

1 citation
Dark matter effective theory

Joachim Brod

SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 38 (2022) · published 31 January 2022 | · pdf

Les Houches 2021 lectures on dark matter effective field theory (short course). The aim of these two lectures is to calculate the DM-nucleus cross section for a simple example, and then generalize to the treatment of general effective interactions of spin-1/2 DM. Relativistic local operators, the heavy-DM effective theory, the chiral effective Lagrangian, and nuclear effective operators are briefly discussed.

1 citation

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