Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Non-invertible symmetries in finite-group gauge theory

  Clay Cordova, Davi Bastos Costa, Po-Shen Hsin

  SciPost Phys. 18, 019 (2025) · published 16 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the invertible and non-invertible symmetries of topological finite-group gauge theories in general spacetime dimensions, where the gauge group can be abelian or non-abelian. We focus in particular on the 0-form symmetry. The gapped domain walls that generate these symmetries are specified by boundary conditions for the gauge fields on either side of the wall. We investigate the fusion rules of these symmetries and their action on other topological defects including the Wilson lines, magnetic fluxes, and gapped boundaries. We illustrate these constructions with various novel examples, including non-invertible electric-magnetic duality symmetry in 3+1d $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory, and non-invertible analogs of electric-magnetic duality symmetry in non-abelian finite-group gauge theories. In particular, we discover topological domain walls that obey Fibonacci fusion rules in 2+1d gauge theory with dihedral gauge group of order 8. We also generalize the Cheshire string defect to analogous defects of general codimensions and gauge groups and show that they form a closed fusion algebra.

  1 citation

• Attention to the strengths of physical interactions: Transformer and graph-based event classification for particle physics experiments

  Luc Builtjes, Sascha Caron, Polina Moskvitina, Clara Nellist, Roberto Ruiz de Austri, Rob Verheyen, Zhongyi Zhang

  SciPost Phys. 19, 028 (2025) · published 28 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A major task in particle physics is the measurement of rare signal processes. Even modest improvements in background rejection, at a fixed signal efficiency, can significantly enhance the measurement sensitivity. Building on prior research by others that incorporated physical symmetries into neural networks, this work extends those ideas to include additional physics-motivated features. Specifically, we introduce energy-dependent particle interaction strengths, derived from leading-order SM predictions, into modern deep learning architectures, including Transformer Architectures (Particle Transformer), and Graph Neural Networks (Particle Net). These interaction strengths, represented as the SM interaction matrix, are incorporated into the attention matrix (transformers) and edges (graphs). Our results in event classification show that the integration of all physics-motivated features improves background rejection by $10\%-40\%$ over baseline models, with an additional gain of up to $9\%$ due to the SM interaction matrix. This study also provides one of the broadest comparisons of event classifiers to date, demonstrating how various architectures perform across this task. A simplified statistical analysis demonstrates that these enhanced architectures yield significant improvements in signal significance compared to a graph network baseline.

  1 citation

• Recent results from the TOTEM collaboration and the discovery of the odderon

  Christophe Royon

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 005 (2023) · published 28 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We describe the most recent results from the TOTEM collaboration on elastic, inelastic and total cross sections as well as the odderon discovery by the D0 and TOTEM collaborations.

  1 citation

• Non-unitarity maximizing unraveling of open quantum dynamics

  Ruben Daraban, Fabrizio Salas-Ramírez, Johannes Schachenmayer

  SciPost Phys. 18, 048 (2025) · published 7 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The dynamics of many-body quantum states in open systems is commonly numerically simulated by unraveling the density matrix into pure-state trajectories. In this work, we introduce a new unraveling strategy that can adaptively minimize the averaged entanglement in the trajectory states. This enables a more efficient classical representation of trajectories using matrix product decompositions. Our new approach is denoted non-unitarity maximizing unraveling (NUMU). It relies on the idea that adaptively maximizing the averaged non-unitarity of a set of Kraus operators leads to a more efficient trajectory entanglement destruction. Compared to other adaptive entanglement lowering algorithms, NUMU is computationally inexpensive. We demonstrate its utility in large-scale simulations with random quantum circuits. NUMU lowers runtimes in practical calculations, and it also provides new insight on the question of classical simulability of quantum dynamics. We show that for the quantum circuits considered here, unraveling methods are much less efficient than full matrix product density operator simulations, hinting to a still large potential for finding more advanced adaptive unraveling schemes.

  1 citation

• MuCap: Muon Capture on the Proton

  Malte Hildebrandt, Claude Petitjean

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 017 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The singlet muon capture rate $\Lambda_S$ on the proton $\mu^-\ p \to \nu_\mu n$ is determined in a high precision lifetime measurement. The main apparatus consists of a new hydrogen time projection chamber as muon detector, developed by PSI, surrounded by cylindrical wire chambers and a plastic scintillator hodoscope as electron detectors. The parameter $\Lambda_S$ is evaluated as the difference between the inverse $\mu\,p$ lifetime and that of the free $\mu^+$. The result $\Lambda_S^\text{MuCap} = (715.6 \pm 5.4^\text{stat} \pm 5.1^\text{sys})\,\text{s}^{-1}$ is in excellent agreement with the prediction of chiral perturbation theory $\Lambda_S^{\chi\text{PT}} = (715.4 \pm 6.9)\,\text{s}^{-1}$. From $\Lambda_S^\text{MuCap}$ a recent analysis derives for the induced pseudoscalar coupling $g^\text{MuCap}_p = 8.23 \pm 0.83$ whereas $\bar{g}^{\chi\text{PT}}_p = 8.25 \pm 0.25$.}

  1 citation

• Systematic analysis of relative phase extraction in one-dimensional Bose gases interferometry

  Taufiq Murtadho, Marek Gluza, Khatee Zathul Arifa, Sebastian Erne, Jörg Schmiedmayer, Nelly Huei Ying Ng

  SciPost Phys. 18, 065 (2025) · published 24 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Interference upon free expansion gives access to the relative phase between two interfering matter waves. Such measurements can be used to reconstruct the spatially-resolved relative phase, which is a key observable in many quantum simulations of quantum field theory and non-equilibrium experiments. However, in 1D systems, longitudinal dynamics is typically ignored in the analysis of experimental data. In our work, we give a detailed account of various effects and corrections that occur in finite temperatures due to longitudinal expansion. We provide an analytical formula showing a correction to the readout of the relative phase due to longitudinal expansion and mixing with the common phase. Furthermore, we numerically assess the error propagation to the estimation of the gases' physical quantities such as correlation functions and temperature. We also incorporate systematic errors arising from experimental imaging devices. Our work characterizes the reliability and robustness of interferometric measurements, directing us to the improvement of existing phase extraction methods necessary to observe new physical phenomena in cold-atomic quantum simulators.

  1 citation

• Probing lepton universality with (semi)-leptonic B decays

  Giovanni Banelli, Robert Fleischer, Ruben Jaarsma and Gilberto Tetlalmatzi-Xolocotzi

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 013 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The most recent measurements of the observables $R_{D^{(*)}}$ are in tension with the Standard Model offering hints of New Physics in $b\rightarrow c \ell \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ transitions. Motivated by these results, in this work we present an analysis on their $b\rightarrow u \ell \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ counterparts (for $\ell=e, ~\mu, ~\tau$). Our study has three main objectives. Firstly, using ratios of branching fractions, we assess the effects of beyond the Standard Model scalar and pseudoscalar particles in leptonic and semileptonic $B$ decays ($B^-\rightarrow \ell^- \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$, $\bar{B}\rightarrow \pi \ell \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ and $\bar{B}\rightarrow \rho \ell \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$). Here a key role is played by the leptonic $B$ processes, which are highly sensitive to new pseudoscalar interactions. In particular, we take advantage of the most recent measurement of the branching fraction of the channel $B^-\rightarrow \mu^-\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$ by the Belle collaboration. Secondly, we extract the CKM matrix element $|V_{ub}|$ while accounting simultaneously for New Physics contributions. Finally, we provide predictions for the branching fractions of yet unmeasured leptonic and semileptonic $B$ decays.

  1 citation

• Decay channels for double extremal black holes in four dimensions

  Johannes Aspman, Jan Manschot

  SciPost Phys. 16, 021 (2024) · published 22 January 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We explore decay channels for charged black holes with vanishing temperature in $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric compactifications of string theory. If not protected by supersymmetry, such extremal black holes are expected to decay as a consequence of the weak gravity conjecture. We concentrate on double extremal, non-supersymmetric black holes for which the values of the scalar fields are constant throughout space-time, and explore decay channels for which decay into BPS and anti-BPS constituents is energetically favorable. We demonstrate the existence of decay channels at tree level for large families of double extremal black holes. For specific charges, we also find stable non-supersymmetric black holes, suggesting recombination of (anti)-supersymmetric constituents to a non-supersymmetric object.

  1 citation

• Two-dimensional topological paramagnets protected by $\mathbb{Z}_3$ symmetry: Properties of the boundary Hamiltonian

  Hrant Topchyan, Vasilii Iugov, Mkhitar Mirumyan, Tigran Hakobyan, Tigran A. Sedrakyan, Ara G. Sedrakyan

  SciPost Phys. 18, 068 (2025) · published 25 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We systematically study gapless edge modes corresponding to $\mathbb{Z}_3$ symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases of two-dimensional three-state Potts paramagnets on a triangular lattice. First, we derive microscopic lattice models for the gapless edge and, using the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) approach, investigate the finite-size scaling of the low-lying excitation spectrum and the entanglement entropy. Based on the obtained results, we identify the universality class of the critical edge, namely the corresponding conformal field theory and the central charge. Finally, we discuss the inherent symmetries of the edge models and the emergent winding number symmetry. As a result, one-dimensional chains with this symmetry form a model that supports gapless excitations due to its tricritical symmetry. Numerically, we show that low-energy states in the continuous limit of the edge model can be described by conformal field theory (CFT) with central charge $c=1$, given by the coset $SU_k(3)/SU_k(2)$ CFT at level k=1.

  1 citation

• Thermalization of the quantum planar rotor with external potential

  Birthe Schrinski, Yoon Jun Chan, Björn Schrinski

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 040 (2025) · published 30 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study decoherence, diffusion, friction, and how they thermalize a planar rotor in the presence of an external potential. Representing the quantum master equation in terms of auxiliary Wigner functions in periodic phase space not only illustrates the thermalization process in a concise way, but also allows for an efficient numerical evaluation of the open quantum dynamics and its approximate analytical description. In particular, we analytically and numerically verify the existence of a steady state that, in the high-temperature regime, closely approximates a Gibbs state. We also derive the proper classical limit of the planar rotor time evolution and present exemplary numerical studies to verify our results.

  1 citation