Publications

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Non-invertible defects in 5d, boundaries and holography

Jeremias Aguilera Damia, Riccardo Argurio, Eduardo Garcia-Valdecasas

SciPost Phys. 14, 067 (2023) · published 12 April 2023 | · pdf

We show that very simple theories of abelian gauge fields with a cubic Chern-Simons term in 5d have an infinite number of non-invertible codimension two defects. They arise by dressing the symmetry operators of the broken electric 1-form symmetry with a suitable topological field theory, for any rational angle. We further discuss the same theories in the presence of a 4d boundary, and more particularly in a holographic setting. There we find that the bulk defects, when pushed to the boundary, have various different fates. Most notably, they can become codimension one non-invertible defects of a boundary theory with an ABJ anomaly.

31 citations
The fate of discrete 1-form symmetries in 6d

Fabio Apruzzi, Markus Dierigl, Ling Lin

SciPost Phys. 12, 047 (2022) · published 1 February 2022 | · pdf

Recently introduced generalized global symmetries have been useful in order to understand non-perturbative aspects of quantum field theories in four and lower dimensions. In this paper we focus on 1-form symmetries of weakly coupled 6d supersymmetric gauge theories coupled to dynamical tensor multiplets. We study the consistency of global 1-form symmetries corresponding to the center of the gauge groups, or subgroups thereof, by activating their background fields, which makes the instanton density fractional. In 6d, an instanton background for a given gauge theory sources BPS strings via tadpole cancelation. The non-trivial 1-form symmetry background configurations contribute to the charge of the BPS strings. However, Dirac quantization imposes restrictions on the consistent 1-form backgrounds, since they can in general lead to and induce fractional charges, thus making (part of) the putative higher-form symmetry inconsistent. This gives explicit criteria to determine whether the discrete 1-form symmetries are realized. We implement these criteria in concrete examples originating from string compactifications. We also corroborate this by finding that a non-trivial fractional contribution is related to states which explicitly break the global 1-form symmetry appearing as massive excitations of the 6d BPS strings. For 6d theories consistently coupled to gravity, this hints at a symmetry breaking tower of states. When the fractional contributions are absent, the F-theory realization of the theories points to the gauging of the 1-form symmetry via the presence of non-trivial Mordell--Weil torsion.

31 citations
Sailing past the End of the World and discovering the Island

Tarek Anous, Marco Meineri, Pietro Pelliconi, Julian Sonner

SciPost Phys. 13, 075 (2022) · published 30 September 2022 | · pdf

Large black holes in anti-de Sitter space have positive specific heat and do not evaporate. In order to mimic the behavior of evaporating black holes, one may couple the system to an external bath. In this paper we explore a rich family of such models, namely ones obtained by coupling two holographic CFTs along a shared interface (ICFTs). We focus on the limit where the bulk solution is characterized by a thin brane separating the two individual duals. These systems may be interpreted in a double holographic way, where one integrates out the bath and ends up with a lower-dimensional gravitational braneworld dual to the interface degrees of freedom. Our setup has the advantage that all observables can be defined and calculated by only relying on standard rules of AdS/CFT. We exploit this to establish a number of general results, relying on a detailed analysis of the geodesics in the bulk. Firstly, we prove that the entropy of Hawking radiation in the braneworld is obtained by extremizing the generalized entropy, and moreover that at late times a so-called `island saddle' gives the dominant contribution. We also derive Takayanagi's prescription for calculating entanglement entropies in BCFTs as a limit of our ICFT results.

31 citations
Quantum field theory and the Bieberbach conjecture

Parthiv Haldar, Aninda Sinha, Ahmadullah Zahed

SciPost Phys. 11, 002 (2021) · published 8 July 2021 | · pdf

An intriguing correspondence between ingredients in geometric function theory related to the famous Bieberbach conjecture (de Branges' theorem) and the non-perturbative crossing symmetric representation of 2-2 scattering amplitudes of identical scalars is pointed out. Using the dispersion relation and unitarity, we are able to derive several inequalities, analogous to those which arise in the discussions of the Bieberbach conjecture. We derive new and strong bounds on the ratio of certain Wilson coefficients and demonstrate that these are obeyed in one-loop $\phi^4$ theory, tree level string theory as well as in the S-matrix bootstrap. Further, we find two sided bounds on the magnitude of the scattering amplitude, which are shown to be respected in all the contexts mentioned above. Translated to the usual Mandelstam variables, for large $|s|$, fixed $t$, the upper bound reads $|\mathcal{M}(s,t)|\lesssim |s^2|$. We discuss how Szegö's theorem corresponds to a check of univalence in an EFT expansion, while how the Grunsky inequalities translate into nontrivial, nonlinear inequalities on the Wilson coefficients.

31 citations
On Current-Squared Flows and ModMax Theories

Christian Ferko, Liam Smith, Gabriele Tartaglino-Mazzucchelli

SciPost Phys. 13, 012 (2022) · published 4 August 2022 | · pdf

We show that the recently introduced ModMax theory of electrodynamics and its Born-Infeld-like generalization are related by a flow equation driven by a quadratic combination of stress-energy tensors. The operator associated to this flow is a $4d$ analogue of the $T\bar{T}$ deformation in two dimensions. This result generalizes the observation that the ordinary Born-Infeld Lagrangian is related to the free Maxwell theory by a current-squared flow. As in that case, we show that no analogous relationship holds in any other dimension besides $d=4$. We also demonstrate that the $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric version of the ModMax-Born-Infeld theory obeys a related supercurrent-squared flow which is formulated directly in $\mathcal{N}=1$ superspace.

31 citations
A physical protocol for observers near the boundary to obtain bulk information in quantum gravity

Chandramouli Chowdhury, Olga Papadoulaki, and Suvrat Raju

SciPost Phys. 10, 106 (2021) · published 17 May 2021 | · pdf

We consider a set of observers who live near the boundary of global AdS, and are allowed to act only with simple low-energy unitaries and make measurements in a small interval of time. The observers are not allowed to leave the near-boundary region. We describe a physical protocol that nevertheless allows these observers to obtain detailed information about the bulk state. This protocol utilizes the leading gravitational back-reaction of a bulk excitation on the metric, and also relies on the entanglement-structure of the vacuum. For low-energy states, we show how the near-boundary observers can use this protocol to completely identify the bulk state. We explain why the protocol fails completely in theories without gravity, including non-gravitational gauge theories. This provides perturbative evidence for the claim that one of the signatures of holography --- the fact that information about the bulk is also available near the boundary --- is already visible in the low-energy theory of gravity.

31 citations
Applications of dispersive sum rules: $ε$-expansion and holography

Dean Carmi, Joao Penedones, Joao A. Silva, Alexander Zhiboedov

SciPost Phys. 10, 145 (2021) · published 14 June 2021 | · pdf

We use Mellin space dispersion relations together with Polyakov conditions to derive a family of sum rules for Conformal Field Theories (CFTs). The defining property of these sum rules is suppression of the contribution of the double twist operators. Firstly, we apply these sum rules to the Wilson-Fisher model in $d=4-\epsilon$ dimensions. We re-derive many of the known results to order $\epsilon^4$ and we make new predictions. No assumption of analyticity down to spin $0$ was made. Secondly, we study holographic CFTs. We use dispersive sum rules to obtain tree-level and one-loop anomalous dimensions. Finally, we briefly discuss the contribution of heavy operators to the sum rules in UV complete holographic theories.

31 citations
Heavy operators and hydrodynamic tails

Luca V. Delacretaz

SciPost Phys. 9, 034 (2020) · published 8 September 2020 | · pdf

The late time physics of interacting QFTs at finite temperature is controlled by hydrodynamics. For CFTs this implies that heavy operators -- which are generically expected to create thermal states -- can be studied semiclassically. We show that hydrodynamics universally fixes the OPE coefficients $C_{HH'L}$, on average, of all neutral light operators with two non-identical heavy ones, as a function of the scaling dimension and spin of the operators. These methods can be straightforwardly extended to CFTs with global symmetries, and generalize recent EFT results on large charge operators away from the case of minimal dimension at fixed charge. We also revisit certain aspects of late time thermal correlators in QFT and other diffusive systems.

31 citations
Matrix product operator symmetries and intertwiners in string-nets with domain walls

Laurens Lootens, Jürgen Fuchs, Jutho Haegeman, Christoph Schweigert, Frank Verstraete

SciPost Phys. 10, 053 (2021) · published 1 March 2021 | · pdf

We provide a description of virtual non-local matrix product operator (MPO) symmetries in projected entangled pair state (PEPS) representations of string-net models. Given such a PEPS representation, we show that the consistency conditions of its MPO symmetries amount to a set of six coupled equations that can be identified with the pentagon equations of a bimodule category. This allows us to classify all equivalent PEPS representations and build MPO intertwiners between them, synthesising and generalising the wide variety of tensor network representations of topological phases. Furthermore, we use this generalisation to build explicit PEPS realisations of domain walls between different topological phases as constructed by Kitaev and Kong [Commun. Math. Phys. 313 (2012) 351-373]. While the prevailing abstract categorical approach is sufficient to describe the structure of topological phases, explicit tensor network representations are required to simulate these systems on a computer, such as needed for calculating thresholds of quantum error-correcting codes based on string-nets with boundaries. Finally, we show that all these string-net PEPS representations can be understood as specific instances of Turaev-Viro state-sum models of topological field theory on three-manifolds with a physical boundary, thereby putting these tensor network constructions on a mathematically rigorous footing.

30 citations
2-Group symmetries and M-theory

Michele Del Zotto, Iñaki García Etxebarria, Sakura Schäfer-Nameki

SciPost Phys. 13, 105 (2022) · published 8 November 2022 | · pdf

Quantum Field Theories engineered in M-theory can have 2-group symmetries, mixing 0-form and 1-form symmetry backgrounds in non-trivial ways. In this paper we develop methods for determining the 2-group structure from the boundary geometry of the M-theory background. We illustrate these methods in the case of 5d theories arising from M-theory on ordinary and generalised toric Calabi-Yau cones, including cases in which the resulting theory is non-Lagrangian. Our results confirm and elucidate previous results on 2-groups from geometric engineering.

30 citations

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