Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• How to determine the shape of nuclear molecules with polarized gamma-rays

  Lorenzo Fortunato

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 3, 035 (2020) · published 26 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A method has been recently proposed to establish the geometry of the alpha-cluster arrangement in $^{12}$C making use of polarized gamma-rays. The ratio of intensities of scattered radiation at 90 degrees along and perpendicular to the initial direction of the electric field vector, called depolarization ratio, is a key quantity that allows to underpin the nature of totally symmetric modes of vibrations. This allows to connect with the underlying point-group structure and therefore to the geometric shape of the nuclear molecule. This method is reviewed for $^{12}$C and extended to other configurations, such as three unequal clusters and four identical clusters (e.g. $^{16}$O).

  1 citation

• Mean-field theory of first-order quantum superconductor-insulator transition

  Igor Poboiko, Mikhail Feigel'man

  SciPost Phys. 17, 066 (2024) · published 23 August 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Recent experimental studies on strongly disordered indium oxide films have revealed an unusual first-order quantum phase transition between the superconducting and insulating states (SIT). This transition is characterized by a discontinuous jump from non-zero to zero values of superfluid stiffness at the critical point, contradicting the conventional "scaling scenario" typically associated with SIT. In this paper, we present a theoretical framework for understanding this first-order transition. Our approach is based on the concept of competition between two fundamentally distinct ground states that arise from electron pairs initially localized by strong disorder: the superconducting state and the Coulomb glass insulator. These ground states are distinguished by two crucially different order parameters, suggesting a natural expectation of a discontinuous transition between them at $T=0$. This transition occurs when the magnitudes of the superconducting gap $\Delta$ and the Coulomb gap $E_C$ become comparable. Additionally, we extend our analysis to low non-zero temperatures and provide a mean-field "phase diagram" in the plane of $(T/\Delta,E_C/\Delta)$. Our results reveal the existence of a natural upper bound for the kinetic inductance of strongly disordered superconductors.

  1 citation

• MACK: Mismodeling addressed with contrastive knowledge

  Liam Rankin Sheldon, Dylan Sheldon Rankin, Philip Harris

  SciPost Phys. 18, 150 (2025) · published 6 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The use of machine learning methods in high energy physics typically relies on large volumes of precise simulation for training. As machine learning models become more complex they can become increasingly sensitive to differences between this simulation and the real data collected by experiments. We present a generic methodology based on contrastive learning which is able to greatly mitigate this negative effect. Crucially, the method does not require prior knowledge of the specifics of the mismodeling. While we demonstrate the efficacy of this technique using the task of jet-tagging at the Large Hadron Collider, it is applicable to a wide array of different tasks both in and out of the field of high energy physics.

  1 citation

• Visualizing near-coexistence of massless Dirac electrons and ultra-massive saddle point electrons

  Abhay Kumar Nayak, Jonathan Reiner, Hengxin Tan, Huixia Fu, Henry Ling, Chandra Shekhar, Claudia Felser, Tamar (Tami) Pereg-Barnea, Binghai Yan, Haim Beidenkopf, Nurit Avraham

  SciPost Phys. 15, 178 (2023) · published 25 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Strong singularities in the electronic density of states amplify correlation effects and play a key role in determining the ordering instabilities in various materials. Recently high order van Hove singularities (VHSs) with diverging power-law scaling have been classified in single-band electron models. We show that the 110 surface of Bismuth exhibits high order VHS with an usually high density of states divergence $\sim (E)^{-0.7}$. Detailed mapping of the surface band structure using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy combined with first-principles calculations show that this singularity occurs in close proximity to Dirac bands located at the center of the surface Brillouin zone. The enhanced power-law divergence is shown to originate from the anisotropic flattening of the Dirac band just above the Dirac node. Such near-coexistence of massless Dirac electrons and ultra-massive saddle points enables to study the interplay of high order VHS and Dirac fermions.

  1 citation

• One-dimensional Fermi polaron after a kick: Two-sided singularity of the momentum distribution, Bragg reflection and other exact results

  Oleksandr Gamayun, Oleg Lychkovskiy

  SciPost Phys. 17, 063 (2024) · published 23 August 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A mobile impurity particle immersed in a quantum fluid forms a polaron - a quasiparticle consisting of the impurity and a local disturbance of the fluid around it. We ask what happens to a one-dimensional polaron after a kick, i.e. an abrupt application of a force that instantly delivers a finite impulse to the impurity. In the framework of an integrable model describing an impurity in a one-dimensional gas of fermions or hard-core bosons, we calculate the distribution of the polaron momentum established when the post-kick relaxation is over. A remarkable feature of this distribution is a two-sided power-law singularity. It emerges due to one of two processes. In the first process, the whole impulse is transferred to the polaron, without creating phonon-like excitations of the fluid. In the second process, the impulse is shared between the polaron and the center-of-mass motion of the fluid, again without creating any fluid excitations. The latter process is, in fact, a Bragg reflection at the edge of the emergent Brillouin zone. We carefully analyze the conditions for each of the two processes. The asymptotic form of the distribution in the vicinity of the singularity is derived.

  1 citation

• The inversion of the Lorentz integral transform with controlled resolution

  Winfried Leidemann, Victor D. Efros, Veronica Yu. Shalamova

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 3, 037 (2020) · published 26 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The Lorentz integral transform (LIT) method is briefly presented. The ill-posedness of the inversion is discussed and it is pointed out that the LIT is an integral transform with a controlled resolution. As application the dipole response of a three-particle system bound in a hypercentral potential is considered. The inversion is performed in two ways, both employ expansions of the response function and of the LIT on a basis set and a transformed basis set, respectively. A previous study of the process under consideration seemed to point to serious problems in the inversion process. In the present work, however, it is shown that the LIT approach can be carried out in a reliable way.

  1 citation

• A minimal tensor network beyond free fermions

  Carolin Wille, Maksimilian Usoltcev, Jens Eisert, Alexander Altland

  SciPost Phys. 18, 196 (2025) · published 19 June 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This work proposes a minimal model extending the duality between classical statistical spin systems and fermionic systems beyond the case of free fermions. A Jordan-Wigner transformation applied to a two-dimensional tensor network maps the partition sum of a classical statistical mechanics model to a Grassmann variable integral, structurally similar to the path integral for interacting fermions in two dimensions. The resulting model is simple, featuring only two parameters: one governing spin-spin interaction (dual to effective hopping strength in the fermionic picture), the other measuring the deviation from the free fermion limit. Nevertheless, it exhibits a rich phase diagram, partially stabilized by elements of topology, and featuring three phases meeting at a multicritical point. Besides the interpretation as a spin and fermionic system, the model is closely related to loop gas and vertex models and can be interpreted as a parity-preserving (non-unitary) circuit. Its minimal construction makes it an ideal reference system for studying non-linearities in tensor networks and deriving results by means of duality.

  1 citation

• Next generation proton PDFs with deuteron and nuclear uncertainties

  Rosalyn L. Pearson, Richard D. Ball, Emanuele R. Nocera

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 026 (2022) · published 11 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  As data become more precise, estimating theoretical uncertainties in global PDF determinations is likely to become increasingly necessary to obtain correspondingly precise PDFs. Here we present a next generation of global proton PDFs (NNPDF4.0) that include theoretical uncertainties due to the use of heavy nuclear and deuteron data in the fit. We estimate these uncertainties by comparing the values of the nuclear observables computed with the nuclear PDFs against those computed with proton PDFs. For heavy nuclear PDFs we use the nuclear nNNPDF2.0 set, while for deuteron PDFs we develop an iterative procedure to determine proton and deuteron PDFs simultaneously, each including the uncertainties in the other. Accounting for nuclear uncertainties resolves some of the tensions in the global fit of the proton PDFs, especially those between the nuclear data and the extended LHC data set used in NNPDF4.0.

  1 citation

• Reconciling the FOPT and CIPT predictions for the hadronic tau decay rate

  Miguel A. Benitez-Rathgeb, Diogo Boito, Andre H. Hoang, Matthias Jamin

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 16, 007 (2025) · published 14 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In a recent work it was suggested that the discrepancy observed in the perturbation series behavior of the $\tau$ hadronic decay rate determined in the FOPT and CIPT approaches can be explained from a different infrared sensitivity inherent to both methods, assuming that the major source of the discrepancy is the asymptotic behavior of the series related to the gluon condensate renormalon. This implies that the predictions of both methods may be reconciled in infrared subtracted perturbation theory. In this talk we explore this implication concretely in the large-$\beta_0$ approximation, where the perturbation series is known to all orders, using a renormalon-free scheme for the gluon condensate.

  1 citation

• Codebase release 1.0 for kdotpy

  Wouter Beugeling, Florian Bayer, Christian Berger, Jan Böttcher, Leonid Bovkun, Christopher Fuchs, Maximilian Hofer, Saquib Shamim, Moritz Siebert, Li-Xian Wang, Ewelina M. Hankiewicz, Tobias Kießling, Hartmut Buhmann, Laurens W. Molenkamp

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 47-r1.0 (2025) · published 28 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · src

  The software project kdotpy provides a Python application for simulating electronic band structures of semiconductor devices with k·p theory on a lattice. The application implements the widely used Kane model, capable of reliable predictions of transport and optical properties for a large variety of topological and non-topological materials with a zincblende crystal structure. The application automates the tedious steps of simulating band structures. The user inputs the relevant physical parameters on the command line, for example materials and dimensions of the device, magnetic field, and temperature. The program constructs the appropriate matrix Hamiltonian on a discretized lattice of spatial coordinates and diagonalizes it. The physical observables are extracted from the eigenvalues and eigenvectors and saved as output. The program is highly customizable with a large set of configuration options and material parameters.

  1 citation