Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Boundary layers, transport and universal distribution in boundary driven active systems

  Pritha Dolai, Arghya Das

  SciPost Phys. 19, 088 (2025) · published 8 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss analytical results for a run-and-tumble particle (RTP) in one dimension in presence of boundary reservoirs. It exhibits "kinetic boundary layers", nonmonotonous distribution, current without density gradient, diffusion facilitated current reversal and optimisation on tuning dynamical parameters, and a new transport effect in the steady state. The spatial and internal degrees of freedom together possess a symmetry, using which we find the eigenspectrum for large systems. The eigenvalues are arranged in two bands which can mix in certain conditions resulting in a crossover in the relaxation. The late time distribution for large systems is obtained analytically; it retains a strong and often dominant "active" contribution in the bulk rendering an effective passive-like description inadequate. A nontrivial "Milne length" also emerges in the dynamics. Finally, a novel universality is proposed in the absorbing boundary problem for dynamics with short-range colored noise. Active processes driven by active reservoirs may thus provide a common physical ground for diverse and new nonequilibrium phenomena.

• Dynamic hysteresis across a dissipative multi-mode phase transition

  Marvin Röhrle, Jens Benary, Erik Bernhart, Herwig Ott

  SciPost Phys. 16, 158 (2024) · published 28 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Dissipative phase transitions are characteristic features in open quantum systems. Key signatures are the dynamical switching between different states in the vicinity of the phase transition and the appearance of hysteresis. Here, we experimentally study dynamic sweeps across a first order dissipative phase transition in a multi-mode driven-dissipative system. In contrast to previous studies, we perform sweeps of the dissipation strength instead of the driving strength. We extract exponents for the scaling of the hysteresis area in dependence of the sweep time and study the $g^{(2)}(0)$ correlations, which show non-trivial behavior. By changing the temperature of the system we investigate the importance of coherently pumping the system. We compare our results to numerical calculations done for a single mode variant of the system, and find surprisingly good agreement. Furthermore, we identify and discuss the differences between a scan of the dissipation strength and a scan of the driving strength.

• Flavor deformations and supersymmetry enhancement in $4d$ $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories

  Usman Naseer, Charles Thull

  SciPost Phys. 13, 058 (2022) · published 21 September 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories on four-dimensional manifolds that admit a Killing vector $v$ with isolated fixed points. It is possible to deform these theories by coupling position-dependent background fields to the flavor current multiplet. The partition function of the deformed theory only depends on the value of the background scalar fields at the fixed points of $v$. For a single adjoint hypermultiplet, the partition function becomes independent of the supergravity as well as the flavor background if the scalars attain special values at the fixed points. For these special values, supersymmetry at the fixed points enhances from the Donaldson-Witten twist to the Marcus twist or the Vafa-Witten twist of $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM. Our results explain the recently observed squashing independence of $\mathcal{N}=2^*$ theory on the squashed sphere and provide a new squashing independent point. Interpreted through the AGT-correspondence, this implies the $b$-independence of torus one-point functions of certain local operators in Liouville/Toda CFT. The position-dependent deformations imply relations between correlators of partially integrated operators in any $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFT with flavor symmetries.

• Critical behavior of a phase transition in the dynamics of interacting populations

  Thibaut Arnoulx de Pirey, Guy Bunin

  SciPost Phys. 18, 051 (2025) · published 13 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Many-variable differential equations with random coefficients provide powerful models for the dynamics of many interacting species in ecology. These models are known to exhibit a dynamical phase transition from a phase where population sizes reach a fixed point, to a phase where they fluctuate indefinitely. Here we provide a theory for the critical behavior close to the phase transition. We show that timescales diverge at the transition and that temporal fluctuations grow continuously upon crossing it. We further show the existence of three different universality classes, with different sets of critical exponents, highlighting the importance of the migration rate coupling the system to its surroundings.

• Resonant spin Hall effect of light in random photonic arrays

  Federico Carlini, Nicolas Cherroret

  SciPost Phys. 14, 104 (2023) · published 10 May 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  It has been recently shown that the coherent component of light propagating in transversally disordered media, the so-called coherent mode, exhibits an optical spin Hall effect (SHE). In non-resonant materials, however, this phenomenon shows up at a spatial scale much larger than the mean free path, making its observation challenging due to the exponential attenuation of the coherent mode. Here, we show that in disordered photonic arrays exhibiting Mie resonances, the SHE on the contrary appears at a scale smaller than the mean free path if one operates in the close vicinity of the lowest transverse-magnetic resonance of the array. In combination with a weak measurement, this gives rise to a giant SHE that should be observable in optically-thin media. Furthermore, we show that by additionally exploiting the cooperative emission of a flash of light following the abrupt extinction of the incoming beam, one can achieve a time-dependent SHE, observable at large optical thickness as well.

• Trapping effects in quantum atomic arrays

  Pengfei Zhang

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 010 (2022) · published 7 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quantum emitters, particularly atomic arrays with subwavelength lattice constant, have been proposed to be an ideal platform for studying the interplay between photons and electric dipoles. In this work, motivated by the recent experiment [1], we develop a microscopic quantum treatment using annihilation and creation operator of atoms in deep optical lattices. Using a diagrammatic approach on the Keldysh contour, we derive the cooperative scattering of the light and obtain the general formula for the $S$ matrix. We apply our method to study the trapping effect, which is beyond previous treatment with spin operators. If the optical lattices are formed by light fields with magical wavelength, the result matches previous results using spin operators. When there is a mismatch between the trapping potentials for atoms in the ground state and the excited state, atomic mirrors become imperfect, with multiple resonances in the optical response. We further study the effect of recoil for large but finite trapping frequency. Our results are consistent with existing experiments.

• Resonating valence bonds and spinon pairing in the Dicke model

  R. Ganesh, L. Theerthagiri, G. Baskaran

  SciPost Phys. 4, 044 (2018) · published 30 June 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Resonating valence bond (RVB) states are a class of entangled quantum many body wavefunctions with great significance in condensed matter physics. We propose a scheme to synthesize a family of RVB states using a cavity QED setup with two-level atoms (with states $\vert 0 \rangle$ and $\vert 1 \rangle$) coupled to a common photon mode. In the lossy cavity limit, starting with an initial state of $M$ atoms excited and $N$ atoms in the ground state, we show that this setup can be configured as a Stern Gerlach experiment. A measurement of photon emission collapses the wavefunction of atoms onto an RVB state composed of resonating long-ranged singlets of the form $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}[\vert 0 1 \rangle - \vert 1 0 \rangle]$. Each emitted photon reduces the number of singlets by unity, replacing it with a pair of lone spins or `spinons'. As spinons are formed coherently in pairs, they are analogous to Cooper pairs in a superconductor. To simulate pair fluctuations, we propose a protocol in which photons are allowed to escape the cavity undetected. This leads to a mixed quantum state with a fluctuating number of spinon pairs -- an inchoate superconductor. Remarkably, in the limit of large system sizes, this protocol reveals an underlying quantum phase transition. Upon tuning the initial spin polarization ($M-N$), the emission exhibits a continuous transition from a dark state to a bright state. This is reflected in the spinon pair number distribution which can be tuned from sub-poissonian to super-poissonian regimes. This opens an exciting route to simulate RVB states and superconductivity.

• WG2 Summary: Small-x, Diffraction and Vector Mesons

  Tolga Altinoluk, Marta Luszczak, Daniel Tapia Takaki

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 110 (2022) · published 13 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Here we briefly summarize the contributions to Working Group 2: Small-x, Diffraction and Vector Mesons, at the DIS2021 Workshop.

• Determination of phase space region for cross-check validation of the neutron detection in the BINA experiments

  B. Włoch, K. Bodek, I. Ciepał, M. Eslami-Kalantari, J. Golak, N. Kalantar-Nayestanaki, G. Khatri, St. Kistryn, B. Kłos, A. Kozela, J. Kuboś, P. Kulessa, A. Łobejko, A. Magiera, H. Mardanpour, J. Messchendorp, I. Mazumdar, W. Parol, A. Ramazani-Moghaddam-Arani, D. Rozpędzik, R. Skibiński, I. Skwira-Chalot, E. Stephan, A. Wilczek, H. Witała, A Wrońska, J. Zejma

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 3, 006 (2020) · published 24 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Deuteron breakup reactions are basic laboratories for testing nuclear force models. Recent improvements in the data analysis allow for direct identification of neutrons in the BINA detection setup. This opens up the opportunity to study new aspects of few-nucleon system dynamics like charge dependence of nuclear force or Coulomb interaction. In this paper we determine regions along the kinematical curves where differential cross section of deuteron-proton breakup reactions can be measured by the proton-neutron and proton-proton coincidences simultaneously. This is particularly useful for validation of the neutron detection technique.

• Rapid measurements and phase transition detections made simple by AC-GANs

  Jiewei Ding, Ho-Kin Tang, Wing Chi Yu

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 035 (2024) · published 11 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In recent years, significant attention has been paid to using end-to-end neural networks for analyzing Monte Carlo data. However, the exploration of non-end-to-end generative adversarial neural networks remains limited. Here, we investigate classical many-body systems using generative adversarial neural networks. We employ the conditional generative adversarial network with an auxiliary classifier (AC-GAN) and integrate self-attention layers into the generator. This modification enables the network learn the distribution of the two-dimensional (2D) XY model's spin configurations and the physical quantities of interest. Utilizing the symmetry of the systems, we discover that AC-GAN can be trained with a very small raw dataset. This approach allows us to obtain reliable measurements for models typically demanding large samples, such as the large-sized 2D XY and the 3D constrained Heisenberg models. Moreover, we demonstrate the capability of AC-GAN to identify the phase transition points by quantifying the distribution changes in the spin configurations of the systems.