Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Plea for the use of the exact Stirling formula in statistical mechanics

  Didier Lairez

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 76 (2023) · published 30 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In statistical mechanics, the generally called Stirling approximation is actually an approximation of Stirling's formula. In this article, it is shown that the term that is dropped is in fact the one that takes fluctuations into account. The use of the Stirling's exact formula forces us to reintroduce them into the already proposed solutions of well-know puzzles such as the extensivity paradox or the Gibbs' paradox of joining two volumes of identical gas. This amendment clearly results in a gain in consistency and rigor of these solutions.

  2 citations

• Double-J/ψ system in the spotlight of recent LHCb data

  V. Baru, X.-K. Dong, F.-K. Guo, C. Hanhart, A. Nefediev, B.-S. Zou

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 6, 007 (2022) · published 31 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Recently the LHCb Collaboration announced intriguing results on the double-$J/\psi$ production in proton-proton collisions. A coupled-channel interpretation of the measured di-$J/\psi$ spectrum is presented and a possible nature of the proposed near-threshold state $X(6200)$ is discussed.

  2 citations

• Vertical and lateral manipulation of single Cs atoms on the semiconductor InAs(111)A

  Rian A. M. Ligthart, Cristophe Coinon, Ludovic Desplanque, Xavier Wallart, Ingmar Swart

  SciPost Phys. 16, 096 (2024) · published 5 April 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The tip of the scanning tunneling microscope can be used to position atoms and molecules on surfaces with atomic scale precision. Here, we report the controlled vertical and lateral manipulation of single Cs atoms on the InAs(111)A surface. The Cs adatom adsorbs on the In-vacancy site of the InAs(111)A—(2x2) surface reconstruction. Lateral manipulation is possible in all directions over the surface, not just along high-symmetry directions. Both pushing and pulling modes were observed in the height profile of the tip. We assembled two artificial structures, demonstrating the reliability of the manipulation procedures. Structures remained intact to a temperature of at least 44 K.

  2 citations

• Nonlinear sigma model description of deconfined quantum criticality in arbitrary dimensions

  Da-Chuan Lu

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 047 (2023) · published 6 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper, we propose using the nonlinear sigma model (NLSM) with the Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) term as a general description of deconfined quantum critical points that separate two spontaneously symmetry-breaking (SSB) phases in arbitrary dimensions. In particular, we discuss the suitable choice of the target space of the NLSM, which is in general the homogeneous space G/K, where $G$ is the UV symmetry and $K$ is generated by ${\mathfrak k}={\mathfrak h}_1\cap {\mathfrak h}_2$, and ${\mathfrak h}_i$ is the Lie algebra of the unbroken symmetry in each SSB phase. With this specific target space, the symmetry defects in both SSB phases are on equal footing, and their intertwinement is captured by the WZW term. The DQCP transition is then tuned by proliferating the symmetry defects. By coupling the $G/K$ NLSM with the WZW term to the background gauge field, the 't Hooft anomaly of this theory can be determined. The bulk symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phase that cancels the anomaly is described by the relative Chern-Simons term in odd spacetime dimensions or mixed $\theta$ term in even dimensions. We construct and discuss a series of models with Grassmannian symmetry defects in 3+1d. We also provide the fermionic model that reproduces the $G/K$ NLSM with the WZW term.

  2 citations

• Comparative microscopic study of entropies and their production

  Philipp Strasberg, Joseph Schindler

  SciPost Phys. 17, 143 (2024) · published 25 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the time evolution of eleven microscopic entropy definitions (of Boltzmann-surface, Gibbs-volume, canonical, coarse-grained-observational, entanglement and diagonal type) and three microscopic temperature definitions (based on Boltzmann, Gibbs or canonical entropy). This is done for the archetypal nonequilibrium setup of two systems exchanging energy, modeled here with random matrix theory, based on numerical integration of the Schrödinger equation. We consider three types of pure initial states (local energy eigenstates, decorrelated and entangled microcanonical states) and three classes of systems: (A) two normal systems, (B) a normal and a negative temperature system and (C) a normal and a negative heat capacity system. We find: (1) All types of initial states give rise to the same macroscopic dynamics. (2) Entanglement and diagonal entropy sensitively depend on the microstate, in contrast to all other entropies. (3) For class B and C, Gibbs-volume entropies can violate the second law and the associated temperature becomes meaningless. (4) For class C, Boltzmann-surface entropies can violate the second law and the associated temperature becomes meaningless. (5) Canonical entropy has a tendency to remain almost constant. (6) For a Haar random initial state, entanglement or diagonal entropy behave similar or identical to coarse-grained-observational entropy.

  2 citations

• Attenuating dynamics of strongly interacting fermionic superfluids in SYK solvable models

  Tian-Gang Zhou, Pengfei Zhang

  SciPost Phys. 15, 108 (2023) · published 21 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quench dynamics of fermionic superfluids are an active topic both experimentally and theoretically. Using the BCS theory, such non-equilibrium problems can be reduced to nearly independent spin dynamics, only with a time-dependent mean-field pairing term. This results in persisting oscillations of the pairing strength in certain parameter regimes. However, experiments have observed that the oscillations decay rapidly when the interaction becomes strong, such as in the unitary Fermi gas [Phys. Rev. Res. 3, 023205 (2021)]. Theoretical analysis on this matter is still absent. In this work, we construct an SYK-like model to analyze the effect of strong interactions in a one-dimensional BCS system. We employ the large-$N$ approximation and a Green's function-based technique to solve the equilibrium problem and quench dynamics. Our findings reveal that a strong SYK interaction suppresses the pairing order. Additionally, we verify that the system quickly thermalizes with SYK interactions, whether it involves intrinsic pairing order or proximity effect, resulting in a rapid decay of the oscillation strength. The decay rates exhibit different scaling laws against SYK interaction, which can be understood in terms of the Boltzmann equation. This work represents a first step towards understanding the attenuating dynamics of strongly interacting fermionic superfluids.

  2 citations

• Dark matter as a QCD effect in an anti de Sitter geometry: Cosmogonic implications of de Sitter, anti de Sitter and Poincaré symmetries

  Gilles Cohen-Tanoudji, Jean-Pierre Gazeau

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 14, 004 (2023) · published 23 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The $\Lambda$CDM standard model of cosmology involves two dark components of the universe, dark energy and dark matter. Whereas dark energy is usually associated with the (positive) cosmological constant $\Lambda$ associated with a de Sitter geometry, we propose to explain dark matter as a pure QCD effect, namely a gluonic Bose Einstein condensate with the status of a Cosmic Gluonic Background (CGB). This effect is due to the trace anomaly viewed as an effective negative cosmological constant determining an Anti de Sitter geometry and accompanying baryonic matter at the hadronization transition from the quark gluon plasma phase to the colorless hadronic phase. Our approach also allows to assume a ratio Dark/Visible equal to 11/2.

  2 citations

• The sky remembers everything: Celestial amplitude, shadow and OPE in quadratic EFT of gravity

  Arpan Bhattacharyya, Saptaswa Ghosh, Sounak Pal

  SciPost Phys. 19, 041 (2025) · published 15 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper, we compute the celestial amplitude arising from higher curvature corrections to Einstein gravity, incorporating phase dressing. The inclusion of such corrections leads to effective modifications of the theory's ultraviolet (UV) behaviour. In the eikonal limit, we find that, in contrast to Einstein's gravity, where the $u$ and $s$-channel contributions cancel, these contributions remain non-vanishing in the presence of higher curvature terms. We examine the analytic structure of the resulting amplitude and derive a dispersion relation for the phase-dressed eikonal amplitude in quadratic gravity. Furthermore, we investigate the celestial conformal block expansion of the Mellin-transformed conformal shadow amplitude within the framework of celestial conformal field theory (CCFT). As a consequence, we compute the corresponding operator product expansion (OPE) coefficients using the Burchnall-Chaundy expansion. In addition, we evaluate the OPE via the Euclidean OPE inversion formula across various kinematic channels and comment on its applicability and implications. Finally, we briefly explore the Carrollian amplitude associated with the corresponding quadratic EFT.

  2 citations

• Entanglement negativity and defect extremal surface

  Yilu Shao, Ma-Ke Yuan, Yang Zhou

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 027 (2024) · published 8 May 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study entanglement negativity for evaporating black hole based on the holographic model with defect brane. We introduce a defect extremal surface formula for entanglement negativity. Based on partial reduction, we show the equivalence between defect extremal surface formula and island formula for entanglement negativity in AdS$_3$/BCFT$_2$. Extending the study to the model of eternal black hole plus CFT bath, we find that black hole-black hole negativity decreases until vanishing, left black hole-left radiation negativity is always a constant, radiation-radiation negativity increases and then saturates at a time later than Page time. In all the time dependent cases, defect extremal surface formula agrees with island formula.

  2 citations

• Higher spin partition functions via the quasinormal mode method in de Sitter quantum gravity

  Victoria L. Martin, Andrew Svesko

  SciPost Phys. 9, 039 (2020) · published 14 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this note we compute the 1-loop partition function of spin-$s$ fields on Euclidean de Sitter space $S^{2n+1}$ using the quasinormal mode method. Instead of computing the quasinormal mode frequencies from scratch, we use the analytic continuation prescription $L_{\text{AdS}}\to iL_{\text{dS}}$, appearing in the dS/CFT correspondence, and Wick rotate the normal mode frequencies of fields on thermal $\text{AdS}_{2n+1}$ into the quasinormal mode frequencies of fields on de Sitter space. We compare the quasinormal mode and heat kernel methods of calculating 1-loop determinants, finding exact agreement, and furthermore explicitly relate these methods via a sum over the conformal dimension. We discuss how the Wick rotation of normal modes on thermal $\text{AdS}_{2n+1}$ can be generalized to calculating 1-loop partition functions on the thermal spherical quotients $S^{2n+1}/\mathbb{Z}_{p}$. We further show that the quasinormal mode frequencies encode the group theoretic structure of the spherical spacetimes in question, analogous to the recent analysis made for thermal AdS in (1910.07607) and (1910.11913).

  2 citations