Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Symmetries versus the spectrum of $ J\bar T$-deformed CFTs

  Monica Guica

  SciPost Phys. 10, 065 (2021) · published 11 March 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  It has been recently shown that classical $J\bar T$ - deformed CFTs possess an infinite-dimensional Witt-Ka\v{c}-Moody symmetry, generated by certain field-dependent coordinate and gauge transformations. On a cylinder, however, the equal spacing of the descendants' energies predicted by such a symmetry algebra is inconsistent with the known finite-size spectrum of $J\bar T$ - deformed CFTs. Also, the associated quantum symmetry generators do not have a proper action on the Hilbert space. In this article, we resolve this tension by finding a new set of (classical) conserved charges, whose action is consistent with semi-classical quantization, and which are related to the previous symmetry generators by a type of energy-dependent spectral flow. The previous inconsistency between the algebra and the spectrum is resolved because the energy operator does not belong to the spectrally flowed sector.

  6 citations

• Extreme boundary conditions and random tilings

  Jean-Marie Stéphan

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 26 (2021) · published 12 March 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Standard statistical mechanical or condensed matter arguments tell us that bulk properties of a physical system do not depend too much on boundary conditions. Random tilings of large regions provide counterexamples to such intuition, as illustrated by the famous 'arctic circle theorem' for dimer coverings in two dimensions. In these notes, I discuss such examples in the context of critical phenomena, and their relation to 1+1d quantum particle models. All those turn out to share a common feature: they are inhomogeneous, in the sense that local densities now depend on position in the bulk. I explain how such problems may be understood using variational (or hydrodynamic) arguments, how to treat long range correlations, and how non trivial edge behavior can occur. While all this is done on the example of the dimer model, the results presented here have much greater generality. In that sense the dimer model serves as an opportunity to discuss broader methods and results. [These notes require only a basic knowledge of statistical mechanics.]

  6 citations

• Jets in Evolving Matter within the Opacity Expansion Approach

  Andrey V. Sadofyev, Matthew D. Sievert, Ivan Vitev

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 046 (2022) · published 12 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In a recent study [1] we have extended the opacity expansion approach to describe jet-medium interactions including medium motion effects in the context of heavy-ion collisions. We have computed color field of the in-medium sources, including the effects of the transverse field components and the energy transfer between the medium and jet. The corresponding contributions are sub-eikonal in nature, and were previously ignored in the literature. Here we discuss how our approach can be applied to describe the medium motion effects in the context of Deep Inelastic Scattering.

  6 citations

• p-forms on the celestial sphere

  Laura Donnay, Erfan Esmaeili, Carlo Heissenberg

  SciPost Phys. 15, 026 (2023) · published 25 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We construct a basis of conformal primary wavefunctions (CPWs) for $p$-form fields in any dimension, calculating their scalar products and exhibiting the change of basis between conventional plane wave and CPW mode expansions. We also perform the analysis of the associated shadow transforms. For each family of $p$-form CPWs, we observe the existence of pure gauge wavefunctions of conformal dimension $\Delta=p$, while shadow $p$-forms of this weight are only pure gauge in the critical spacetime dimension value $D=2p+2$. We then provide a systematic technique to obtain the large-$r$ asymptotic limit near $\mathscr I$ based on the method of regions, which naturally takes into account the presence of both ordinary and contact terms on the celestial sphere. In $D=4$, this allows us to reformulate in a conformal primary language the links between scalars and dual two-forms.

  6 citations

• Relaxation and entropy generation after quenching quantum spin chains

  Máté Lencses, Octavio Pomponio, Gabor Takacs

  SciPost Phys. 9, 011 (2020) · published 22 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This work considers entropy generation and relaxation in quantum quenches in the Ising and $3$-state Potts spin chains. In the absence of explicit symmetry breaking we find universal ratios involving R\'enyi entropy growth rates and magnetisation relaxation for small quenches. We also demonstrate that the magnetisation relaxation rate provides an observable signature for the "dynamical Gibbs effect" which is a recently discovered characteristic non-monotonous behaviour of entropy growth linked to changes in the quasi-particle spectrum.

  6 citations

• Correlation functions by separation of variables: the XXX spin chain

  Giuliano Niccoli, Hai Pei, Véronique Terras

  SciPost Phys. 10, 006 (2021) · published 12 January 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We explain how to compute correlation functions at zero temperature within the framework of the quantum version of the Separation of Variables (SoV) in the case of a simple model: the XXX Heisenberg chain of spin 1/2 with twisted (quasi-periodic) boundary conditions. We first detail all steps of our method in the case of anti-periodic boundary conditions. The model can be solved in the SoV framework by introducing inhomogeneity parameters. The action of local operators on the eigenstates are then naturally expressed in terms of multiple sums over these inhomogeneity parameters. We explain how to transform these sums over inhomogeneity parameters into multiple contour integrals. Evaluating these multiple integrals by the residues of the poles outside the integration contours, we rewrite this action as a sum involving the roots of the Baxter polynomial plus a contribution of the poles at infinity. We show that the contribution of the poles at infinity vanishes in the thermodynamic limit, and that we recover in this limit for the zero-temperature correlation functions the multiple integral representation that had been previously obtained through the study of the periodic case by Bethe Ansatz or through the study of the infinite volume model by the q-vertex operator approach. We finally show that the method can easily be generalized to the case of a more general non-diagonal twist: the corresponding weights of the different terms for the correlation functions in finite volume are then modified, but we recover in the thermodynamic limit the same multiple integral representation than in the periodic or anti-periodic case, hence proving the independence of the thermodynamic limit of the correlation functions with respect to the particular form of the boundary twist.

  6 citations

• The seniority quantum number in Tensor Network States

  Klaas Gunst, Dimitri Van Neck, Peter Andreas Limacher, Stijn De Baerdemacker

  SciPost Chem. 1, 001 (2021) · published 15 January 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We employ tensor network methods for the study of the seniority quantum number -- defined as the number of unpaired electrons in a many-body wave function -- in molecular systems. Seniority-zero methods recently emerged as promising candidates to treat strong static correlations in molecular systems, but are prone to deficiencies related to dynamical correlation and dispersion. We systematically resolve these deficiencies by increasing the allowed seniority number using tensor network methods. In particular, we investigate the number of unpaired electrons needed to correctly describe the binding of the neon and nitrogen dimer and the $D_{6h}$ symmetry of benzene.

  6 citations

• Quantum eigenstates from classical Gibbs distributions

  Pieter W. Claeys, Anatoli Polkovnikov

  SciPost Phys. 10, 014 (2021) · published 22 January 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss how the language of wave functions (state vectors) and associated non-commuting Hermitian operators naturally emerges from classical mechanics by applying the inverse Wigner-Weyl transform to the phase space probability distribution and observables. In this language, the Schr\"odinger equation follows from the Liouville equation, with $\hbar$ now a free parameter. Classical stationary distributions can be represented as sums over stationary states with discrete (quantized) energies, where these states directly correspond to quantum eigenstates. Interestingly, it is now classical mechanics which allows for apparent negative probabilities to occupy eigenstates, dual to the negative probabilities in Wigner's quasiprobability distribution. These negative probabilities are shown to disappear when allowing sufficient uncertainty in the classical distributions. We show that this correspondence is particularly pronounced for canonical Gibbs ensembles, where classical eigenstates satisfy an integral eigenvalue equation that reduces to the Schr\"odinger equation in a saddle-point approximation controlled by the inverse temperature. We illustrate this correspondence by showing that some paradigmatic examples such as tunneling, band structures, Berry phases, Landau levels, level statistics and quantum eigenstates in chaotic potentials can be reproduced to a surprising precision from a classical Gibbs ensemble, without any reference to quantum mechanics and with all parameters (including $\hbar$) on the order of unity.

  6 citations

• Anomaly Awareness

  Charanjit K. Khosa, Veronica Sanz

  SciPost Phys. 15, 053 (2023) · published 8 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a new algorithm for anomaly detection called Anomaly Awareness. The algorithm learns about normal events while being made aware of the anomalies through a modification of the cost function. We show how this method works in different Particle Physics situations and in standard Computer Vision tasks. For example, we apply the method to images from a Fat Jet topology generated by Standard Model Top and QCD events, and test it against an array of new physics scenarios, including Higgs production with EFT effects and resonances decaying into two, three or four subjets. We find that the algorithm is effective identifying anomalies not seen before, and becomes robust as we make it aware of a varied-enough set of anomalies.

  6 citations

• Normal modes in thermal AdS via the Selberg zeta function

  Victoria L. Martin, Andrew Svesko

  SciPost Phys. 9, 009 (2020) · published 21 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The heat kernel and quasinormal mode methods of computing 1-loop partition functions of spin $s$ fields on hyperbolic quotient spacetimes $\mathbb{H}^{3}/\mathbb{Z}$ are related via the Selberg zeta function. We extend that analysis to thermal $\text{AdS}_{2n+1}$ backgrounds, with quotient structure $\mathbb{H}^{2n+1}/\mathbb{Z}$. Specifically, we demonstrate the zeros of the Selberg function encode the normal mode frequencies of spin fields upon removal of non-square-integrable modes. With this information we construct the 1-loop partition functions for symmetric transverse traceless tensors in terms of the Selberg zeta function and find exact agreement with the heat kernel method.

  6 citations