Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Line operators in 4d Chern-Simons theory and Cherkis bows

  Nafiz Ishtiaque, Yehao Zhou

  SciPost Phys. 16, 052 (2024) · published 22 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that the phase spaces of a large family of line operators in 4d Chern-Simons theory with GL$_n$ gauge group are given by Cherkis bow varieties with $n$ crosses. These line operators are characterized by Hanany-Witten type brane constructions involving D3, D5, and NS5 branes in an $\Omega$-background. Linking numbers of the five-branes and mass parameters for the D3 brane theories determine the phase spaces and in special cases they correspond to vacuum moduli spaces of 3d $\mathcal{N}=4$ quiver theories. Examples include line operators that conjecturally create T, Q, and L-operators in integrable spin chains.

• Out-of-equilibrium full counting statistics in Gaussian theories of quantum magnets

  Riccardo Senese, Jacob H. Robertson, Fabian H. L. Essler

  SciPost Phys. 17, 139 (2024) · published 20 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the probability distributions of the subsystem (staggered) magnetization in ordered and disordered models of quantum magnets in D dimensions. We focus on Heisenberg antiferromagnets and long-range transverse-field Ising models as particular examples. By employing a range of self-consistent time-dependent mean-field approximations in conjunction with Holstein-Primakoff, Dyson-Maleev, Schwinger boson and modified spin-wave theory representations we obtain results in thermal equilibrium as well as during non-equilibrium evolution after quantum quenches. To extract probability distributions we derive a simple formula for the characteristic function of generic quadratic observables in any Gaussian theory of bosons.

• Boundary chaos: Spectral form factor

  Felix Fritzsch, Tomaž Prosen

  SciPost Phys. 17, 142 (2024) · published 22 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Random matrix spectral correlations is a defining feature of quantum chaos. Here, we study such correlations in a minimal model of chaotic many-body quantum dynamics where interactions are confined to the system's boundary, dubbed boundary chaos, in terms of the spectral form factor and its fluctuations. We exactly calculate the latter in the limit of large local Hilbert space dimension $q$ for different classes of random boundary interactions and find it to coincide with random matrix theory, possibly after a non-zero Thouless time. The latter effect is due to a drastic enhancement of the spectral form factor, when integer time and system size fulfill a resonance condition. We compare our semiclassical (large $q$) results with numerics at small local Hilbert space dimension ($q=2,3$) and observe qualitatively similar features as in the semiclassical regime.

• Exclusive electro-weak production of a charmed meson at high energy

  B. Pire, L. Szymanowski, J. Wagner

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 150 (2022) · published 14 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Exclusive electro-weak processes have peculiar features which make them complementary to usually discussed deeply virtual electroproduction processes such as deep virtual Compton scattering or meson production (and the corresponding crossed reactions). They allow in particular single charmed meson production, which we study in two different contexts : electroproduction at an electron ion collider and neutrino-production at a medium energy neutrino facility. We rely on the QCD collinear factorization framework where generalized parton distributions allow physicists to perform a nucleon tomography.

• Inferring flavor mixtures in multijet events

  Ezequiel Alvarez, Yuling Yao

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 076 (2024) · published 28 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Multijet events with heavy-flavors are of central importance at the LHC since many relevant processes–such as $t\bar t$, $hh$, $t\bar t h$ and others–have a preferred branching ratio for this final state. Current techniques for tackling these processes use hard-assignment selections through $b$-tagging working points, and suffer from systematic uncertainties because of the difficulties in Monte Carlo simulations. We develop a flexible Bayesian mixture model approach to simultaneously infer $b$-tagging score distributions and the flavor mixture composition in the dataset. We model multidimensional jet events, and to enhance estimation efficiency, we design structured priors that leverages the continuity and unimodality of the $b$-tagging score distributions. Remarkably, our method eliminates the need for a parametric assumption and is robust against model misspecification–It works for arbitrarily flexible continuous curves and is better if they are unimodal. We have run a toy inferential process with signal $bbbb$ and backgrounds $ccbb$ and $cccc$, and we find that with a few hundred events we can recover the true mixture fractions of the signal and backgrounds, as well as the true $b$-tagging score distribution curves, despite their arbitrariness and nonparametric shapes. We discuss prospects for taking these findings into a realistic scenario in a physics analysis. The presented results could be a starting point for a different and novel kind of analysis in multijet events, with a scope competitive with current state-of-the-art analyses. We also discuss the possibility of using these results in general cases of signals and backgrounds with approximately known continuous distributions and/or expected unimodality.

• Internal Levin-Wen models

  Vincentas Mulevičius, Ingo Runkel, Thomas Voß

  SciPost Phys. 17, 088 (2024) · published 24 September 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Levin--Wen models are a class of two-dimensional lattice spin models with a Hamiltonian that is a sum of commuting projectors, which describe topological phases of matter related to Drinfeld centres. We generalise this construction to lattice systems internal to a topological phase described by an arbitrary modular fusion category $\mathcal{C}$. The lattice system is defined in terms of an orbifold datum $\mathbb{A}$ in $\mathcal{C}$, from which we construct a state space and a commuting-projector Hamiltonian $H_{\mathbb{A}}$ acting on it. The topological phase of the degenerate ground states of $H_{\mathbb{A}}$ is characterised by a modular fusion category $\mathcal{C}_\mathbb{A}$ defined directly in terms of $\mathbb{A}$. By choosing different $\mathbb{A}$'s for a fixed $\mathcal{C}$, one obtains precisely all phases which are Witt-equivalent to $\mathcal{C}$. As special cases we recover the Kitaev and the Levin--Wen lattice models from instances of orbifold data in the trivial modular fusion category of vector spaces, as well as phases obtained by anyon condensation in a given phase $\mathcal{C}$.

• Gaussian state approximation of quantum many-body scars

  Wouter Buijsman, Yevgeny Bar Lev

  SciPost Phys. 17, 055 (2024) · published 15 August 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quantum many-body scars are atypical, highly nonthermal eigenstates embedded in a sea of thermal eigenstates that have been observed in, for example, kinetically constrained quantum many-body models. These special eigenstates are characterized by a bipartite entanglement entropy that scales as most logarithmically with the subsystem size. We use numerical optimization techniques to investigate if quantum many-body scars of the experimentally relevant PXP model can be well approximated by Gaussian states. Gaussian states are described by a number of parameters that scales quadratically with system size, thereby having a much lower complexity than generic quantum many-body states, for which this number scales exponentially. We find that while quantum many-body scars can typically be well approximated by (symmetrized) Gaussian states, this is not the case for ergodic (thermal) eigenstates. This observation suggests that the non-ergodic part of the PXP Hamiltonian is related to certain quadratic parent Hamiltonians, thereby hinting on the origin of the quantum many-body scars.

• Probing quantum entanglement and collectivity effects in e+p collisions at HERA H1

  Chuan Sun

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 147 (2022) · published 14 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Charged particle multiplicity spectra are measured at HERA H1 in DIS process at 319 GeV. The hadron entropy determined from the multiplicity spectra is compared to the gluon entropy predicted from a quantum-entanglement model. On the other hand, observed collective behaviours in high multiplicity pA, pp and ultra-peripheral PbPb collisions at RHIC and LHC motivate a study in ep collisions. Two- and multi-particle correlations are studied in DIS, as well as photoproduction events with collision energy <Wγp>~270 GeV.

• Photon-photon fusion and tau g-2 measurement in ATLAS

  Agnieszka Ogrodnik

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 15, 003 (2024) · published 2 April 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Relativistic heavy-ion beams at the LHC are accompanied by a large flux of equivalent photons. New measurements of exclusive dilepton production (electron, muon, and tau pairs) performed by the ATLAS experiment are discussed. We present the photon-induced production of tau pairs and constraints on the tau lepton's anomalous magnetic dipole moment. In addition, measurements of photon-induced electron and muon pair production are presented, which provide strong constraints on the nuclear photon flux and its dependence on the impact parameter and photon energy. Forward neutrons are utilised to provide an experimental handle on the impact parameter range sampled in the events.

• Lattice simulations of the QCD chiral transition at real $\mu_B$

  Attila Pasztor, Szabolcs Borsanyi, Zoltan Fodor, Matteo Giordano, Sandor D. Katz, Daniel Nogradi, Chik Him Wong

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 6, 002 (2022) · published 31 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Most lattice studies of hot and dense QCD matter rely on extrapolation from zero or imaginary chemical potentials. The ill-posedness of numerical analytic continuation puts severe limitations on the reliability of such methods. We studied the QCD chiral transition at finite real baryon density with the more direct sign reweighting approach. We simulate up to a baryochemical potential-temperature ratio of $\mu_B/T=2.7$, covering the RHIC Beam Energy Scan range, and penetrating the region where methods based on analytic continuation are unpredictive. This opens up a new window to study QCD matter at finite $\mu_B$ from first principles.