Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• A somewhat random walk through nuclear and particle physics

  Thomas D. Cohen, Nicholas R. Poniatowski

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 34 (2021) · published 20 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  These notes are an outgrowth of an advanced undergraduate course taught at the University of Maryland, College Park. They are intended as an introduction to various aspects of particle and nuclear physics with an emphasis on the role of symmetry. The basic philosophy is to introduce many of the fundamental ideas in nuclear and particle physics using relatively sophisticated mathematical tools -- but to do so in as a simplified a context to explain the underlying ideas. Thus, for example, the Higgs mechanism is discussed in terms of an Abelian Higgs model. The emphasis is largely, but not entirely theoretical in orientation. The goal is for readers to develop an understanding of many of the underlying issues in a relatively sophisticated way.

  1 citation

• Concentration of quantum equilibration and an estimate of the recurrence time

  Jonathon Riddell, Nathan J. Pagliaroli, Álvaro M. Alhambra

  SciPost Phys. 15, 165 (2023) · published 16 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that the dynamics of generic quantum systems concentrate around their equilibrium value when measuring at arbitrary times. This means that the probability of finding such values away from that equilibrium is exponentially suppressed, with a decay rate given by the effective dimension. Our result allows us to place a lower bound on the recurrence time of quantum systems, since recurrences corresponds to the rare events of finding a state away from equilibrium. In many-body systems, this bound is doubly exponential in system size. We also show corresponding results for free fermions, which display a weaker concentration and earlier recurrences.

  1 citation

• Dual applications of Chebyshev polynomials method: Efficiently finding thousands of central eigenvalues for many-spin systems

  Haoyu Guan, Wenxian Zhang

  SciPost Phys. 11, 103 (2021) · published 8 December 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Computation of a large group of interior eigenvalues at the middle spectrum is an important problem for quantum many-body systems, where the level statistics provides characteristic signatures of quantum chaos. We propose an exact numerical method, dual applications of Chebyshev polynomials (DACP), to simultaneously find thousands of central eigenvalues, where the level space decreases exponentially with the system size. To disentangle the near-degenerate problem, we employ twice the Chebyshev polynomials, to construct an exponential semicircle filter as a preconditioning step and to generate a large set of proper basis states in the desired subspace. Numerical calculations on Ising spin chain and spin glass shards confirm the correctness and efficiency of DACP. As numerical results demonstrate, DACP is $30$ times faster than the state-of-the-art shift-invert method for the Ising spin chain while $8$ times faster for the spin glass shards. In contrast to the shift-invert method, the computation time of DACP is only weakly influenced by the required number of eigenvalues, which renders it a powerful tool for large scale eigenvalues computations. Moreover, the consumed memory also remains a small constant (5.6 GB) for spin-$1/2$ systems consisting of up to $20$ spins, making it desirable for parallel computing.

  1 citation

• Disordered non-Fermi liquid fixed point for two-dimensional metals at Ising-nematic quantum critical points

  Kyoung-Min Kim, Ki-Seok Kim

  SciPost Phys. 17, 059 (2024) · published 23 August 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Understanding the influence of quenched random potential is crucial for comprehending the exotic electronic transport of non-Fermi liquid metals near metallic quantum critical points. In this study, we identify a stable fixed point governing the quantum critical behavior of two-dimensional non-Fermi liquid metals in the presence of a random potential disorder. By performing renormalization group analysis on a dimensional-regularized field theory for Ising-nematic quantum critical points, we systematically investigate the interplay between random potential disorder for electrons and Yukawa-type interactions between electrons and bosonic order-parameter fluctuations in a perturbative epsilon expansion. At the one-loop order, the effective field theory lacks stable fixed points, instead exhibiting a runaway flow toward infinite disorder strength. However, at the two-loop order, the effective field theory converges to a stable fixed point characterized by finite disorder strength, termed the "disordered non-Fermi liquid (DNFL) fixed point". Our investigation reveals that two-loop vertex corrections induced by Yukawa couplings are pivotal in the emergence of the DNFL fixed point, primarily through screening disorder scattering. Additionally, the DNFL fixed point is distinguished by a substantial anomalous scaling dimension of fermion fields, resulting in pseudogap-like behavior in the electron's density of states. These findings shed light on the quantum critical behavior of disordered non-Fermi liquid metals, emphasizing the indispensable role of higher-order loop corrections in such comprehension.

  1 citation

• CORSIKA 8 - the next-generation air shower simulation framework

  Tim Huege for the CORSIKA 8 Collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 028 (2023) · published 29 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  For more than 20 years, the community has heavily relied on CORSIKA for the simulation of extensive air showers, their Cherenkov light emission and their radio signals. While tremendously successful, the Fortran-based monolithic design of CORSIKA up to version 7 limits adaptation to new experimental needs, for example, in complex scenarios where showers transition from air into dense media, and to new computing paradigms such as the use of multi-core and GPU parallelization. With CORSIKA 8, we have reimplemented the core functionality of CORSIKA in a modern, modular, C++-based simulation framework, and successfully validated it against CORSIKA 7. Here, we discuss the philosophy of CORSIKA 8, showcase some example applications, and present the current state of implementation as well as the plans for the future.

  1 citation

• Double Virtual Contributions for Massless 2 -> 3 Scattering in NNLO QCD

  Vasily Sotnikov

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 7, 002 (2022) · published 20 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We review the recent advances in the calculation of two-loop QCD corrections for massless five-point scattering that paved the way for their broad phenomenological applications in calculation of NNLO QCD predictions. We first discuss the construction of a transcendental function basis which facilitates derivation of compact analytic representations for two-loop amplitudes and enables their fast and stable numerical evaluation over physical phase space. We then present the recent calculations of the leading-color two-loop corrections for hadroproduction of three photons and three jets.

  1 citation

• NNLO EW⊗QCD corrections to on-shell Z production

  Narayan Rana

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 7, 004 (2022) · published 20 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this proceeding, we outline the computational details and present the results for NNLO mixed EW⊗QCD corrections to on-shell production of Z boson at the LHC. We use the method of differential equation to obtain all the master integrals analytically, appearing in virtual and real-emission contributions. These results increase the accuracy of the predictions and contribute to reduce the theoretical uncertainties.

  1 citation

• New machine learning techniques for simulation-based inference: InferoStatic nets, kernel score estimation, and kernel likelihood ratio estimation

  Kyoungchul Kong, Konstantin T. Matchev, Stephen Mrenna, Prasanth Shyamsundar

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 14 (2023) · published 7 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose an intuitive, machine-learning approach to multiparameter inference, dubbed the InferoStatic Networks (ISN) method, to model the score and likelihood ratio estimators in cases when the probability density can be sampled but not computed directly. The ISN uses a backend neural network that models a scalar function called the inferostatic potential $\varphi$. In addition, we introduce new strategies, respectively called Kernel Score Estimation (KSE) and Kernel Likelihood Ratio Estimation (KLRE), to learn the score and the likelihood ratio functions from simulated data. We illustrate the new techniques with some toy examples and compare to existing approaches in the literature. We mention en passant some new loss functions that optimally incorporate latent information from simulations into the training procedure.

  1 citation

• Quantum revivals in HgTe/CdTe quantum wells and topological phase transitions

  Alberto Mayorgas, Manuel Calixto, Nicolás A. Cordero, Elvira Romera, Octavio Héctor Castaños Garza

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 029 (2024) · published 13 May 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The time evolution of a wave packet is a tool to detect topological phase transitions in two-dimensional Dirac materials, such as graphene and silicene. Here we extend the analysis to HgTe/CdTe quantum wells and study the evolution of their electron current wave packet, using 2D effective Dirac Hamiltonians and different layer thicknesses. We show that the two different periodicities that appear in this temporal evolution reach a minimum near the critical thickness, where the system goes from normal to inverted regime. Moreover, the maximum of the electron current amplitude changes with the layer thickness, identifying that current maxima reach their higher value at the critical thickness. Thus, we can characterize the topological phase transitions in terms of the periodicity and amplitude of the electron currents.

  1 citation

• Arrangement of nearby minima and saddles in the mixed spherical energy landscapes

  Jaron Kent-Dobias

  SciPost Phys. 16, 001 (2024) · published 4 January 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The mixed spherical models were recently found to violate long-held assumptions about mean-field glassy dynamics. In particular, the threshold energy, where most stationary points are marginal and that in the simpler pure models attracts long-time dynamics, seems to lose significance. Here, we compute the typical distribution of stationary points relative to each other in mixed models with a replica symmetric complexity. We examine the stability of nearby points, accounting for the presence of an isolated eigenvalue in their spectrum due to their proximity. Despite finding rich structure not present in the pure models, we find nothing that distinguishes the points that do attract the dynamics. Instead, we find new geometric significance of the old threshold energy, and invalidate pictures of the arrangement of most marginal inherent states into a continuous manifold.

  1 citation