Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Looking for structure in the cobordism conjecture

  David Andriot, Nils Carqueville, Niccolò Cribiori

  SciPost Phys. 13, 071 (2022) · published 28 September 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The cobordism conjecture of the swampland program states that the bordism group of quantum gravity must be trivial. We investigate this statement in several directions, on both the mathematical and physical side. We consider the Whitehead tower construction as a possible organising principle for the topological structures entering the formulation of the conjecture. We discuss why and how to include geometric structures in bordism groups, such as higher U(1)-bundles with connection. The inclusion of magnetic defects is also addressed in some detail. We further elaborate on how the conjecture could predict Kaluza--Klein monopoles, and we study the gravity decoupling limit in the cobordism conjecture, with a few observations on NSNS string backgrounds. We end with comments in relation to T-duality, as well as the finiteness conjecture.

  16 citations

• Closed universes in two dimensional gravity

  Mykhaylo Usatyuk, Zi-Yue Wang, Ying Zhao

  SciPost Phys. 17, 051 (2024) · published 14 August 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study closed universes in simple models of two dimensional gravity, such as Jackiw-Teiteilboim (JT) gravity coupled to matter, and a toy topological model that captures the key features of the former. We find there is a stark contrast, as well as some connections, between the perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of the theory. We find rich semi-classical physics. However, when non-perturbative effects are included there is a unique closed universe state in each theory. We discuss possible meanings and interpretations of this observation.

  16 citations

• Realizing triality and $p$-ality by lattice twisted gauging in (1+1)d quantum spin systems

  Da-Chuan Lu, Zhengdi Sun, Yi-Zhuang You

  SciPost Phys. 17, 136 (2024) · published 15 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper, we study the twisted gauging on the (1+1)d lattice and construct various non-local mappings on the lattice operators. To be specific, we define the twisted Gauss law operator and implement the twisted gauging of the finite group on the lattice motivated by the orbifolding procedure in the conformal field theory, which involves the data of non-trivial element in the second cohomology group of the gauge group. We show the twisted gauging is equivalent to the two-step procedure of first applying the SPT entangler and then untwisted gauging. We use the twisted gauging to construct the triality (order 3) and $p$-ality (order $p$) mapping on the $\mathbb{Z}_p× \mathbb{Z}_p$ symmetric Hamiltonians, where $p$ is a prime. Such novel non-local mappings generalize Kramers-Wannier duality and they preserve the locality of symmetric operators but map charged operators to non-local ones. We further construct quantum process to realize these non-local mappings and analyze the induced mappings on the phase diagrams. For theories that are invariant under these non-local mappings, they admit the corresponding non-invertible symmetries. The non-invertible symmetry will constrain the theory at the multicritical point between the gapped phases. We further give the condition when the non-invertible symmetry can have symmetric gapped phase with a unique ground state.

  16 citations

• Brane detectors of a dynamical phase transition in a driven CFT

  Suchetan Das, Bobby Ezhuthachan, Arnab Kundu, Somnath Porey, Baishali Roy, Krishnendu Sengupta

  SciPost Phys. 15, 202 (2023) · published 23 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that a dynamical transition from a non-heating to a heating phase of a periodic $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ driven two dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) with a large central charge is perceived as a first order transition by a bulk brane embedded in the dual AdS. We construct the dual bulk metric corresponding to a driven CFT for both the heating and the non-heating phases. These metrics are different AdS$_2$ slices of the pure AdS$_3$ metric. We embed a brane in the obtained dual AdS space and provide an explicit computation of its free energy both in the probe limit and for an end-of-world (EOW) brane taking into account its backreaction. Our analysis indicates a finite discontinuity in the first derivative of the brane free energy as one moves from the non-heating to the heating phase (by tuning the drive amplitude and/or frequency of the driven CFT) thus demonstrating the presence of the bulk first order transition. Interestingly, no such transition is perceived by the bulk in the absence of the brane. We also provide explicit computations of two-point, four-point out-of-time correlators (OTOC) using the bulk picture. Our analysis shows that the structure of these correlators in different phases match their counterparts computed in the driven CFT. We analyze the effect of multiple EOW branes in the bulk and discuss possible extensions of our work for richer geometries and branes.

  15 citations

• Yangian bootstrap for massive Feynman integrals

  Florian Loebbert, Julian Miczajka, Dennis Müller, Hagen Münkler

  SciPost Phys. 11, 010 (2021) · published 13 July 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We extend the study of the recently discovered Yangian symmetry of massive Feynman integrals and its relation to massive momentum space conformal symmetry. After proving the symmetry statements in detail at one and two loop orders, we employ the conformal and Yangian constraints to bootstrap various one-loop examples of massive Feynman integrals. In particular, we explore the interplay between Yangian symmetry and hypergeometric expressions of the considered integrals. Based on these examples we conjecture single series representations for all dual conformal one-loop integrals in $D$ spacetime dimensions with generic massive propagators.

  15 citations

• Using machine learning to disentangle LHC signatures of Dark Matter candidates

  Charanjit Kaur Khosa, Veronica Sanz, Michael Soughton

  SciPost Phys. 10, 151 (2021) · published 22 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the prospects of characterising Dark Matter at colliders using Machine Learning (ML) techniques. We focus on the monojet and missing transverse energy (MET) channel and propose a set of benchmark models for the study: a typical WIMP Dark Matter candidate in the form of a SUSY neutralino, a pseudo-Goldstone impostor in the shape of an Axion-Like Particle, and a light Dark Matter impostor whose interactions are mediated by a heavy particle. All these benchmarks are tensioned against each other, and against the main SM background ($Z$+jets). Our analysis uses both the leading-order kinematic features as well as the information of an additional hard jet. We explore different representations of the data, from a simple event data sample with values of kinematic variables fed into a Logistic Regression algorithm or a Fully Connected Neural Network, to a transformation of the data into images related to probability distributions, fed to Deep and Convolutional Neural Networks. We also study the robustness of our method against including detector effects, dropping kinematic variables, or changing the number of events per image. In the case of signals with more combinatorial possibilities (events with more than one hard jet), the most crucial data features are selected by performing a Principal Component Analysis. We compare the performance of all these methods, and find that using the 2D images of the combined information of multiple events significantly improves the discrimination performance.

  15 citations

• Vector dominance, one flavored baryons, and QCD domain walls from the "hidden" Wess-Zumino term

  Avner Karasik

  SciPost Phys. 10, 138 (2021) · published 9 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We further explore a recent proposal that the vector mesons in QCD have a special role as Chern-Simons fields on various QCD objects such as domain walls and the one flavored baryons. We compute contributions to domain wall theories and to the baryon current coming from a generalized Wess-Zumino term including vector mesons. The conditions that lead to the expected Chern-Simons terms and the correct spectrum of baryons, coincide with the conditions for vector meson dominance. This observation provides a theoretical explanation to the phenomenological principle of vector dominance, as well as an experimental evidence for the identification of vector mesons as the Chern-Simons fields. By deriving the Chern-Simons theories directly from an action, we obtain new results about QCD domain walls. One conclusion is the existence of a first order phase transition between domain walls as a function of the quarks' masses. We also discuss applications of our results to Seiberg duality between gluons and vector mesons and provide new evidence supporting the duality.

  15 citations

• Chiral higher spin gravity and convex geometry

  Alexey Sharapov, Evgeny Skvortsov, Richard van Dongen

  SciPost Phys. 14, 162 (2023) · published 20 June 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Chiral Higher Spin Gravity is the minimal extension of the graviton with propagating massless higher spin fields. It admits any value of the cosmological constant, including zero. Its existence implies that Chern-Simons vector models have closed subsectors and supports the $3d$ bosonization duality. In this letter, we explicitly construct an $A_\infty$-algebra that determines all interaction vertices of the theory. The algebra turns out to be of pre-Calabi-Yau type. The corresponding products, some of which originate from Shoikhet-Tsygan-Kontsevich formality, are given by integrals over the configuration space of convex polygons.

  15 citations

• Stress Tensor flows, birefringence in non-linear electrodynamics and supersymmetry

  Christian Ferko, Liam Smith, Gabriele Tartaglino-Mazzucchelli

  SciPost Phys. 15, 198 (2023) · published 21 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We identify the unique stress tensor deformation which preserves zero-birefringence conditions in non-linear electrodynamics, which is a $4d$ version of the $T\overline{T}$ operator. We study the flows driven by this operator in the three Lagrangian theories without birefringence - Born-Infeld, Plebanski, and reverse Born-Infeld - all of which admit ModMax-like generalizations using a root-$T\overline{T}$-like flow that we analyse in our paper. We demonstrate one way of making this root-$T\overline{T}$-like flow manifestly supersymmetric by writing the deforming operator in $\mathcal{N} = 1$ superspace and exhibit two examples of superspace flows. We present scalar analogues in $d = 2$ with similar properties as these theories of electrodynamics in $d = 4$. Surprisingly, the Plebanski-type theories are fixed points of the classical $T\overline{T}$-like flows, while the Born-Infeld-type examples satisfy new flow equations driven by relevant operators constructed from the stress tensor. Finally, we prove that any theory obtained from a classical stress-tensor-squared deformation of a conformal field theory gives rise to a related "subtracted" theory for which the stress-tensor-squared operator is a constant.

  15 citations

• Edge physics at the deconfined transition between a quantum spin Hall insulator and a superconductor

  Ruochen Ma, Liujun Zou, Chong Wang

  SciPost Phys. 12, 196 (2022) · published 14 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the edge physics of the deconfined quantum phase transition (DQCP) between a spontaneous quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator and a spin-singlet superconductor (SC). Although the bulk of this transition is in the same universality class as the paradigmatic deconfined Neel to valence-bond-solid transition, the boundary physics has a richer structure due to proximity to a quantum spin Hall state. We use the parton trick to write down an effective field theory for the QSH-SC transition in the presence of a boundary. We calculate various edge properties in an $N\to\infty$ limit. We show that the boundary Luttinger liquid in the QSH state survives at the phase transition, but only as "fractional" degrees of freedom that carry charge but not spin. The physical fermion remains gapless on the edge at the critical point, with a universal jump in the fermion scaling dimension as the system approaches the transition from the QSH side. The critical point could be viewed as a gapless analogue of the quantum spin Hall state but with the full $SU(2)$ spin rotation symmetry, which cannot be realized if the bulk is gapped.

  15 citations