Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• SModelS v2.3: Enabling global likelihood analyses

  Mohammad Mahdi Altakach, Sabine Kraml, Andre Lessa, Sahana Narasimha, Timothée Pascal, Wolfgang Waltenberger

  SciPost Phys. 15, 185 (2023) · published 6 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present version 2.3 of SModelS, a public tool for the fast reinterpretation of LHC searches for new physics on the basis of simplified-model results. The main new features are a database update with the latest available experimental results for full Run 2 luminosity, comprising in particular a large variety of electroweak-ino searches, and the ability to combine likelihoods from different analyses. This enables statistically more rigorous constraints and opens the way for global likelihood analyses for LHC searches. The physics impact is demonstrated for the electroweak-ino sector of the minimal supersymmetric standard model.

  7 citations

• A model of persistent breaking of continuous symmetry

  Noam Chai, Anatoly Dymarsky, Mikhail Goykhman, Ritam Sinha, Michael Smolkin

  SciPost Phys. 12, 181 (2022) · published 1 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider a UV-complete field-theoretic model in general dimensions, including $d=2+1$, that exhibits spontaneous breaking of continuous symmetry, persisting to arbitrarily large temperatures. Our model consists of two copies of the long-range vector models, with $O(m)$ and $O(N-m)$ global symmetry groups, perturbed by double-trace operators. Using conformal perturbation theory we find weakly-coupled IR fixed points for $N\geq 6$ that reveal a spontaneous breaking of global symmetry. Namely, at finite temperature the lower rank group is broken, with the pattern persisting at all temperatures due to scale-invariance. We provide evidence that the models in question are unitary and invariant under full conformal symmetry. Our work generalizes recent results, which considered the particular case of $m=1$ and reported persistent breaking of the discrete $\mathbb{Z}_2=O(1)$. Furthermore, we show that this model exhibits a continuous family of weakly interacting field theories at finite $N$.

  7 citations

• Non-coplanar magnetism, topological density wave order and emergent symmetry at half-integer filling of moiré Chern bands

  Patrick H. Wilhelm, Thomas C. Lang, Mathias S. Scheurer, Andreas M. Läuchli

  SciPost Phys. 14, 040 (2023) · published 20 March 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Twisted double- and mono-bilayer graphene are graphene-based moiré materials hosting strongly correlated fermions in a gate-tunable conduction band with a topologically non-trivial character. Using unbiased exact diagonalization complemented by unrestricted Hartree-Fock calculations, we find that the strong electron-electron interactions lead to a non-coplanar magnetic state, which has the same symmetries as the tetrahedral antiferromagnet on the triangular lattice and can be thought of as a skyrmion lattice commensurate with the moiré scale, competing with a set of ferromagnetic, topological charge density waves featuring an approximate emergent O(3) symmetry, "rotating" the different charge density wave states into each other. Direct comparison with exact diagonalization reveals that the ordered phases are accurately described within the unrestricted Hartree-Fock approximation. Exhibiting a finite charge gap and Chern number $|C|=1$, the formation of charge density wave order which is intimately connected to a skyrmion lattice phase is consistent with recent experiments on these systems.

  7 citations

• A natural composite Higgs via universal boundary conditions

  Simone Blasi, Csaba Csaki, Florian Goertz

  SciPost Phys. 10, 121 (2021) · published 31 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a novel realization of a composite Higgs, which can naturally produce top partners above the current LHC bounds without increasing the tuning above 10%. The essential ingredients are softened breaking of the Higgs shift symmetry as well as maximal symmetry, which turn out to perfectly complement each other. The 5D realization of this model is particularly simple: universal UV and IR boundary conditions for the bulk fermions containing the SM fields will cure the problems of existing holographic composite Higgs models and provide a complete viable model for a naturally light Higgs without much tuning.

  7 citations

• A no-go theorem for non-standard explanations of the $\tau\to K_S\pi\nu_\tau$ CP asymmetry

  Vincenzo Cirigliano, Andreas Crivellin, Martin Hoferichter

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 007 (2019) · published 18 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A new tensor interaction is the only possibility to explain the $2.8\sigma$ tension observed by the BaBar collaboration in the CP asymmetry in $\tau\to K_S\pi\nu_\tau$ with physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) realized above the electroweak scale. However, the strong phase generated by the interference between vector and tensor phases is suppressed by at least two orders of magnitude due to Watson's final-state-interaction theorem, and the strength of the CP-violating tensor interaction is strongly constrained by bounds from the neutron electric dipole moment and $D$-$\bar{D}$ mixing. As a result, a confirmation of the tension at Belle II would point to light BSM physics.

  7 citations

• Lasing in optically induced gap states in photonic graphene

  Marijana Milićević, Olivier Bleu, Dmitry D. Solnyshkov, Isabelle Sagnes, Aristide Lemaître, Luc Le Gratiet, Abdelmounaim Harouri, Jacqueline Bloch, Guillaume Malpuech, Alberto Amo

  SciPost Phys. 5, 064 (2018) · published 19 December 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We report polariton lasing in localised gap states in a honeycomb lattice of coupled micropillars. Localisation of the modes is induced by the optical potential created by the excitation beam, requiring no additional engineering of the otherwise homogeneous polariton lattice. The spatial shape of the gap states arises from the interplay of the orbital angular momentum eigenmodes of the cylindrical potential created by the excitation beam and the hexagonal symmetry of the underlying lattice. Our results provide insights into the engineering of defect states in two-dimensional lattices.

  7 citations

• Stress Tensor flows, birefringence in non-linear electrodynamics and supersymmetry

  Christian Ferko, Liam Smith, Gabriele Tartaglino-Mazzucchelli

  SciPost Phys. 15, 198 (2023) · published 21 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We identify the unique stress tensor deformation which preserves zero-birefringence conditions in non-linear electrodynamics, which is a $4d$ version of the $T\overline{T}$ operator. We study the flows driven by this operator in the three Lagrangian theories without birefringence - Born-Infeld, Plebanski, and reverse Born-Infeld - all of which admit ModMax-like generalizations using a root-$T\overline{T}$-like flow that we analyse in our paper. We demonstrate one way of making this root-$T\overline{T}$-like flow manifestly supersymmetric by writing the deforming operator in $\mathcal{N} = 1$ superspace and exhibit two examples of superspace flows. We present scalar analogues in $d = 2$ with similar properties as these theories of electrodynamics in $d = 4$. Surprisingly, the Plebanski-type theories are fixed points of the classical $T\overline{T}$-like flows, while the Born-Infeld-type examples satisfy new flow equations driven by relevant operators constructed from the stress tensor. Finally, we prove that any theory obtained from a classical stress-tensor-squared deformation of a conformal field theory gives rise to a related "subtracted" theory for which the stress-tensor-squared operator is a constant.

  7 citations

• Classification of chiral fermionic CFTs of central charge $\le$ 16

  Philip Boyle Smith, Ying-Hsuan Lin, Yuji Tachikawa, Yunqin Zheng

  SciPost Phys. 16, 058 (2024) · published 27 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We classify two-dimensional purely chiral unitary conformal field theories which are defined on two-dimensional surfaces equipped with spin structure and have central charge less than or equal to $16$, and discuss their duality webs. This result can be used to confirm that the list of non-supersymmetric ten-dimensional heterotic string theories found in the late 1980s is complete and does not miss any exotic example.

  7 citations

• Chiral $p$-wave superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene from dynamical mean field theory

  B. Pahlevanzadeh, P. Sahebsara, David Sénéchal

  SciPost Phys. 11, 017 (2021) · published 21 July 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We apply cluster dynamical mean field theory with an exact-diagonalization impurity solver to a Hubbard model for magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, built on the tight-binding model proposed by Kang and Vafek (2018), which applies to the magic angle $1.30^\circ$. We find that triplet superconductivity with $p+ip$ symmetry is stabilized by CDMFT, as well as a subdominant singlet $d+id$ state. A minimum of the order parameter exists close to quarter-filling and three-quarter filling, as observed in experiments.

  7 citations

• muCool: muon cooling for high-brightness μ+ beams

  Aldo Antognini, David Taqqu

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 030 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A number of experiments with muons are limited by the poor phase space quality of the muon beams currently available. The muCool project aims at developing a phase-space cooling method to transform a surface μ+ beam with 4 MeV energy and 1 cm size into a slow muon beam with eV energy and 1 mm size. In this process the phase space is reduced by a factor of 10^9 − 10^10 with efficiencies of 2 · 10^−5 − 2 · 10^−4 . The beam is then re-accelerated to keV-MeV energies. Such a beam opens up new avenues for research in fundamental particle physics with muons and muonium atoms as well as in the field of μSR spectroscopy.

  7 citations