Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Spectral properties of Levy Rosenzweig-Porter model via supersymmetric approach

  Elizaveta Safonova, Mikhail Feigel'man, Vladimir Kravtsov

  SciPost Phys. 18, 010 (2025) · published 10 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  By using the Efetov's super-symmetric formalism we computed analytically the mean spectral density $\rho(E)$ for the Lévy and the Lévy -Rosenzweig-Porter random matrices which off-diagonal elements are strongly non-Gaussian with power-law tails. This makes the standard Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation inapplicable to such problems. We used, instead, the functional Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation which allowed to solve the problem analytically for large sizes of matrices. We show that $\rho(E)$ depends crucially on the control parameter that drives the system through the transition between the ergodic and the fractal phases and it can be used as an order parameter.

  3 citations

• Universal and non-universal large deviations in critical systems

  Ivan Balog, Bertrand Delamotte, Adam Rançon

  SciPost Phys. 18, 119 (2025) · published 2 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Rare events play a crucial role in understanding complex systems. Characterizing and analyzing them in scale-invariant situations is challenging due to strong correlations. In this work, we focus on characterizing the tails of probability distribution functions (PDFs) for these systems. Using a variety of methods, perturbation theory, functional renormalization group, hierarchical models, large $n$ limit, and Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate universal rare events of critical $O(n)$ systems. Additionally, we explore the crossover from universal to nonuniversal behavior in PDF tails, extending Cramér's series to strongly correlated variables. Our findings highlight the universal and nonuniversal aspects of rare event statistics. We also discuss the ubiquity of this power-law corrections to the leading compressed-exponential decay in these tails in and out-of-equilibrium.

  3 citations

• Fisher zeroes and the fluctuations of the spectral form factor of chaotic systems

  Guy Bunin, Laura Foini, Jorge Kurchan

  SciPost Phys. 17, 114 (2024) · published 15 October 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The spectral form factor of quantum chaotic systems has the familiar 'ramp $+$ plateau' form. Techniques to determine its form in the semiclassical or the thermodynamic limit have been devised, in both cases based on the average over an energy range or an ensemble of systems. For a single instance, fluctuations are large, do not go away in the limit, and depend on the element of the ensemble itself, thus seeming to question the whole procedure. Considered as the modulus of a partition function in complex inverse temperature $\beta_R+i\beta_I$ ($\beta_I \equiv \tau$ the time), the spectral form factor has regions of Fisher zeroes, the analogue of Yang-Lee zeroes for the complex temperature plane. The large spikes in the spectral form factor are in fact a consequence of near-misses of the line parametrized by $\beta_I$ to these zeroes. The largest spikes are indeed extensive and extremely sensitive to details, but we show that they are both exponentially rare and exponentially thin. Motivated by this, and inspired by the work of Derrida on the Random Energy Model, we study here a modified model of random energy levels in which we introduce level repulsion. We also check that the mechanism giving rise to spikes is the same in the SYK model.

  3 citations

• SIMP Dark Matter

  Yonit Hochberg

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 59 (2022) · published 29 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  These notes summarize the zoom-course on Strongly Interacting Massive Particle (SIMP) dark matter given at the Les Houches Summer School in the summer of 2021. An alternative title for this course would be `SIMPS, Cannibals and ELDERs', where our focus is on high-point interactions amongst dark matter particles. The spirit of the course is to give students a taste of these exciting developments in dark matter, while primarily teaching tricks and methods that are tough to captivate when reading textbooks or papers. These notes are written in similar spirit: I will put emphasis on how quantities scale and how to perform back of the envelope estimates, which should serve to help you when you develop the next great dark matter idea.

  3 citations

• Scaling laws in jet classification

  Joshua Batson, Yonatan Kahn

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 034 (2025) · published 28 March 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We demonstrate the emergence of scaling laws in the benchmark top versus QCD jet classification problem in collider physics. Six distinct physically-motivated classifiers exhibit power-law scaling of the binary cross-entropy test loss as a function of training set size, with distinct power law indices. This result highlights the importance of comparing classifiers as a function of dataset size rather than for a fixed training set, as the optimal classifier may change considerably as the dataset is scaled up. We speculate on the interpretation of our results in terms of previous models of scaling laws observed in natural language and image datasets.

  3 citations

• Unveiling UV/IR mixing via symmetry defects: A view from topological entanglement entropy

  Jintae Kim, Yun-Tak Oh, Daniel Bulmash, Jung Hoon Han

  SciPost Phys. 18, 110 (2025) · published 25 March 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Some topological lattice models in two spatial dimensions exhibit intricate lattice size dependence in their ground state degeneracy (GSD). This and other features such as the position-dependent anyonic excitations are manifestations of UV/IR mixing. In the first part of this paper, we perform an exact calculation of the topological entanglement entropy (TEE) for a specific model, the rank-2 toric code. This analysis includes both contractible and non-contractible boundaries, with the minimum entropy states identified specifically for non-contractible boundaries. Our results show that TEE for a contractible boundary remains independent of lattice size, whereas TEE for non-contractible boundaries, similarly to the GSD, shows intricate lattice-size dependence. In the latter part of the paper we focus on the fact that the rank-2 toric code is an example of a translation symmetry-enriched topological phase, and show that viewing distinct lattice size as a consequence of different translation symmetry defects can explain both our TEE results and the GSD of the rank-2 toric code. Our work establishes the translation symmetry defect framework as a robust description of the UV/IR mixing in topological lattice models.

  3 citations

• Generalized toric polygons, T-branes, and 5d SCFTs

  Antoine Bourget, Andrés Collinucci, Sakura Schäfer-Nameki

  SciPost Phys. 18, 079 (2025) · published 4 March 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  5d Superconformal Field Theories (SCFTs) are intrinsically strongly-coupled UV fixed points, whose realization hinges on string theoretic methods: they can be constructed by compactifying M-theory on local Calabi-Yau threefold singularities or alternatively from the world-volume of 5-brane-webs in type IIB string theory. There is a correspondence between 5-brane-webs and toric Calabi-Yau threefolds, however this breaks down when multiple 5-branes are allowed to end on a single 7-brane. In this paper, we extend this connection and provide a geometric realization of brane configurations including 7-branes. A web with 7-branes defines a so-called generalized toric polygon (GTP), which corresponds to combinatorial data that is obtained by removing vertices along external edges of a toric polygon. We identify the geometries associated to GTPs as non-toric deformations of toric Calabi-Yau threefolds and provide a precise, algebraic description of the geometry, when 7-branes are introduced along a single edge. The key ingredients in our analysis are T-branes in a type IIA frame, which includes D6-branes. We show that performing Hanany-Witten moves for the 7-branes on the type IIB side corresponds to switching on semisimple vacuum expectation values on the worldvolume of D6-branes, which in turn uplifts to complex structure deformations of the Calabi-Yau geometries. We test the proposal by computing the crepant resolutions of the deformed geometries, thereby checking consistency with the expected properties of the SCFTs.

  3 citations

• Tensor network study of the Shastry-Sutherland model with weak interlayer coupling

  Patrick C. G. Vlaar, Philippe Corboz

  SciPost Phys. 15, 126 (2023) · published 2 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The layered material SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$ has long been studied because of its fascinating physics in a magnetic field and under pressure. Many of its properties are remarkably well described by the Shastry-Sutherland model (SSM) - a two-dimensional frustrated spin system. However, the extent of the intermediate plaquette phase discovered in SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$ under pressure is significantly smaller than predicted in theory, which is likely due to the weak interlayer coupling that is present in the material but neglected in the model. Using state-of-the-art tensor network methods we study the SSM with a weak interlayer coupling and show that the intermediate plaquette phase is destabilized already at a smaller value around $J''/J\sim0.04-0.05$ than previously predicted from series expansion. Based on our phase diagram we estimate the effective interlayer coupling in SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$ to be around $J''/J\sim 0.027$ at ambient pressure.

  3 citations

• Subsystem symmetry fractionalization and foliated field theory

  Po-Shen Hsin, David T. Stephen, Arpit Dua, Dominic J. Williamson

  SciPost Phys. 18, 147 (2025) · published 2 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Topological quantum matter exhibits a range of exotic phenomena when enriched by subdimensional symmetries. This includes new features beyond those that appear in the conventional setting of global symmetry enrichment. A recently discovered example is a type of subsystem symmetry fractionalization that occurs through a different mechanism to global symmetry fractionalization. In this work we extend the study of subsystem symmetry fractionalization through new examples derived from the general principle of embedding subsystem symmetry into higher-form symmetry. This leads to new types of symmetry fractionalization that are described by foliation dependent higher-form symmetries. This leads to field theories and lattice models that support previously unseen anomalous subsystem symmetry fractionalization. Our work expands the range of exotic topological physics that is enabled by subsystem symmetry in field theory and on the lattice.

  3 citations

• Mulan: a part-per-million measurement of the muon lifetime and determination of the Fermi constant

  R. Carey, T. Gorringe, D.W. Hertzog

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 016 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The part-per-million measurement of the positive muon lifetime and determination of the Fermi constant by the MuLan experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute is reviewed. The experiment used an innovative, time-structured, surface muon beam and a near-4π, finely-segmented, plastic scintillator positron detector. Two in-vacuum muon stopping targets were used: a ferromagnetic foil with a large internal magnetic field, and a quartz crystal in a moderate external magnetic field. The experiment acquired a dataset of 1.6e12 positive muon decays and obtained a muon lifetime τ_µ = 2 196 980.3(2.2) ps (1.0 ppm) and Fermi constant G_F = 1.166 378 7(6) × 10−5 GeV^−2 (0.5 ppm). The thirty fold improvement in τ_µ has proven valuable for precision measurements in nuclear muon capture and the commensurate improvement in G_F has proven valuable for precision tests of the standard model.

  3 citations