Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Diagonal fields in critical loop models

  Sylvain Ribault

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 020 (2023) · published 27 March 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In critical loop models, there exist diagonal fields with arbitrary conformal dimensions, whose $3$-point functions coincide with those of Liouville theory at $c\leq 1$. We study their $N$-point functions, which depend on the $2^{N-1}$ weights of topologically inequivalent loops on a sphere with $N$ punctures. Using a numerical conformal bootstrap approach, we find that $4$-point functions decompose into infinite but discrete linear combinations of conformal blocks. We conclude that diagonal fields belong to an extension of the $O(n)$ model.

  6 citations

• Higher-point integrands in $\mathcal{N} = 4$ super Yang-Mills theory

  Till Bargheer, Thiago Fleury, Vasco Gonçalves

  SciPost Phys. 15, 059 (2023) · published 10 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We compute the integrands of five-, six-, and seven-point correlation functions of twenty-prime operators with general polarizations at the two-loop order in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory. In addition, we compute the integrand of the five-point function at three-loop order. Using the operator product expansion, we extract the two-loop four-point function of one Konishi operator and three twenty-prime operators. Two methods were used for computing the integrands. The first method is based on constructing an ansatz, and then numerically fitting for the coefficients using the twistor-space reformulation of $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory. The second method is based on the OPE decomposition. Only very few correlator integrands for more than four points were known before. Our results can be used to test conjectures, and to make progresses on the integrability-based hexagonalization approach for correlation functions.

  6 citations

• Hamiltonian truncation crafted for UV-divergent QFTs

  Olivier Delouche, Joan Elias Miro, James Ingoldby

  SciPost Phys. 16, 105 (2024) · published 19 April 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We develop the theory of Hamiltonian Truncation (HT) to systematically study RG flows that require the renormalization of coupling constants. This is a necessary step towards making HT a fully general method for QFT calculations. We apply this theory to a number of QFTs defined as relevant deformations of d=1+1 CFTs. We investigated three examples of increasing complexity: The deformed Ising, Tricritical-Ising, and non-unitary minimal model M(3,7). The first two examples provide a crosscheck of our methodologies against well established characteristics of these theories. The M(3,7) CFT deformed by its $\mathbb{Z}_2$-even operators shows an intricate phase diagram that we clarify. At a boundary of this phase diagram we show that this theory flows, in the IR, to the M(3,5) CFT.

  6 citations

• Remarks on Berry connection in QFT, anomalies, and applications

  Mykola Dedushenko

  SciPost Phys. 15, 167 (2023) · published 17 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Berry connection has been recently generalized to higher-dimensional QFT, where it can be thought of as a topological term in the effective action for background couplings. Via the inflow, this term corresponds to the boundary anomaly in the space of couplings, another notion recently introduced in the literature. In this note we address the question of whether the old-fashioned Berry connection (for time-dependent couplings) still makes sense in a QFT on $\Sigma^{(d)}× \mathbb{R}$, where $\Sigma^{(d)}$ is a $d$-dimensional compact space and $\mathbb{R}$ is time. Compactness of $\Sigma^{(d)}$ relieves us of the IR divergences, so we only have to address the UV issues. We describe a number of cases when the Berry connection is well defined (which includes the $tt^*$ equations), and when it is not. We also mention a relation to the boundary anomalies and boundary states on the Euclidean $\Sigma^{(d)} × \mathbb{R}_{≥ 0}$. We then work out the examples of a free 3D Dirac fermion and a 3D $\mathcal{N}=2$ chiral multiplet. Finally, we consider 3D theories on $\mathbb{T}^2× \mathbb{R}$, where the space $\mathbb{T}^2$ is a two-torus, and apply our machinery to clarify some aspects of the relation between 3D SUSY vacua and elliptic cohomology. We also comment on the generalization to higher genus.

  6 citations

• Symmetry energy in holographic QCD

  Lorenzo Bartolini, Sven Bjarke Gudnason

  SciPost Phys. 16, 156 (2024) · published 19 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the symmetry energy (SE), an important quantity in nuclear physics, in the Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model and in a much simpler hard-wall model of holographic QCD. The SE is the energy contribution to the nucleus due to having an unequal number of neutrons and protons. Using a homogeneous Ansatz representing smeared instantons and quantizing their isospin, we extract the SE and the proton fraction assuming charge neutrality and beta-equilibrium, using quantization of the isospin zeromode. We also show the equivalence between our method adapted from solitons and the usual way of the isospin controlled by a chemical potential at the holographic boundary. We find that the SE can be well described in the WSS model if we allow for a larger 't Hooft coupling and lower Kaluza-Klein scale than is normally used in phenomenological fits.

  6 citations

• Cosmological cutting rules for Bogoliubov initial states

  Diptimoy Ghosh, Enrico Pajer, Farman Ullah

  SciPost Phys. 18, 005 (2025) · published 7 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The field theoretic wavefunction in cosmological spacetimes has received much attention as a fundamental object underlying the generation of primordial perturbations in our universe. Assuming an initial Bunch-Davies state, unitary time evolution implies an infinite set of cutting rules for the wavefunction to all orders in perturbation theory, collectively known as the cosmological optical theorem. In this work, we generalise these results to the case of Bogoliubov initial states, accounting for both parity-even and parity-odd interactions. We confirm our findings in a few explicit examples, assuming IR-finite interactions. In these examples, we preserve scale invariance by adiabatically turning on interactions in the infinite past rather than imposing a Bogoliubov state at some finite initial time. Finally, we give a prescription for computing Bogoliubov wavefunction coefficients from the corresponding Bunch-Davies coefficients for both $n$-point contact and four-point exchange diagrams.

  6 citations

• Topological effects and conformal invariance in long-range correlated random surfaces

  Nina Javerzat, Sebastian Grijalva, Alberto Rosso, Raoul Santachiara

  SciPost Phys. 9, 050 (2020) · published 12 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider discrete random fractal surfaces with negative Hurst exponent $H<0$. A random colouring of the lattice is provided by activating the sites at which the surface height is greater than a given level $h$. The set of activated sites is usually denoted as the excursion set. The connected components of this set, the level clusters, define a one-parameter ($H$) family of percolation models with long-range correlation in the site occupation. The level clusters percolate at a finite value $h=h_c$ and for $H\leq-\frac{3}{4}$ the phase transition is expected to remain in the same universality class of the pure (i.e. uncorrelated) percolation. For $-\frac{3}{4}<H< 0$ instead, there is a line of critical points with continously varying exponents. The universality class of these points, in particular concerning the conformal invariance of the level clusters, is poorly understood. By combining the Conformal Field Theory and the numerical approach, we provide new insights on these phases. We focus on the connectivity function, defined as the probability that two sites belong to the same level cluster. In our simulations, the surfaces are defined on a lattice torus of size $M\times N$. We show that the topological effects on the connectivity function make manifest the conformal invariance for all the critical line $H<0$. In particular, exploiting the anisotropy of the rectangular torus ($M\neq N$), we directly test the presence of the two components of the traceless stress-energy tensor. Moreover, we probe the spectrum and the structure constants of the underlying Conformal Field Theory. Finally, we observed that the corrections to the scaling clearly point out a breaking of integrability moving from the pure percolation point to the long-range correlated one.

  6 citations

• Hidden conformal symmetries from Killing towers with an application to large-D/CFT

  Cynthia Keeler, Victoria Martin, Alankrita Priya

  SciPost Phys. 12, 170 (2022) · published 23 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We generalize the notion of hidden conformal symmetry in Kerr/CFT to Kerr-(A)dS black holes in arbitrary dimensions. We build the SL(2, R) generators directly from the Killing tower, whose Killing tensors and Killing vectors enforce the separability of the equations of motion. Our construction amounts to an explicit relationship between hidden conformal symmetries and Killing tensors: we use the Killing tower to build a novel tensor equation connecting the SL(2,R) Casimir with the radial Klein-Gordon operator. For asymptotically flat black holes in four and five dimensions we recover previously known results that were obtained using the "near-region" limit and the monodromy method. We then perform a monodromy evaluation of the Klein-Gordon scalar wave equation for all Kerr-(A)dS black holes, finding explicit forms for the zero mode symmetry generators. We also extend this analysis to the large-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole as a step towards buliding a Large-D/CFT correspondence.

  6 citations

• Proving the 6d Cardy formula and matching global gravitational anomalies

  Chi-Ming Chang, Martin Fluder, Ying-Hsuan Lin, Yifan Wang

  SciPost Phys. 11, 036 (2021) · published 23 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A Cardy formula for 6d superconformal field theories (SCFTs) conjectured by Di Pietro and Komargodski governs the universal behavior of the supersymmetric partition function on $S^1_\beta \times S^5$ in the limit of small $\beta$ and fixed squashing of the $S^5$. For a general 6d SCFT, we study its 5d effective action, which is dominated by the supersymmetric completions of perturbatively gauge-invariant Chern-Simons terms in the small $\beta$ limit. Explicitly evaluating these supersymmetric completions gives the precise squashing dependence in the Cardy formula. For SCFTs with a pure Higgs branch (also known as very Higgsable SCFTs), we determine the Chern-Simons levels by explicitly going onto the Higgs branch and integrating out the Kaluza-Klein modes of the 6d fields on $S^1_\beta$. We then discuss tensor branch flows, where an apparent mismatch between the formula in Di Pietro-Komargodski and the free field answer requires an additional contribution from BPS strings. This "missing contribution" is further sharpened by the relation between the fractional part of the Chern-Simons levels and the (mixed) global gravitational anomalies of the 6d SCFT. We also comment on the Cardy formula for 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs in relation to Higgs branch and Coulomb branch flows.

  6 citations

• Quantum Monte Carlo simulation of the 3D Ising transition on the fuzzy sphere

  Johannes Stephan Hofmann, Florian Goth, Wei Zhu, Yin-Chen He, Emilie Huffman

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 028 (2024) · published 9 May 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a numerical quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method for simulating the 3D phase transition on the recently proposed fuzzy sphere [Phys. Rev. X 13, 021009 (2023)]. By introducing an additional SU(2) layer degree of freedom, we reformulate the model into a form suitable for sign-problem-free QMC simulation. From the finite-size-scaling, we show that this QMC-friendly model undergoes a quantum phase transition belonging to the 3D Ising universality class, and at the critical point we compute the scaling dimensions from the state-operator correspondence, which largely agrees with the prediction from the conformal field theory. These results pave the way to construct sign-problem-free models for QMC simulations on the fuzzy sphere, which could advance the future study on more sophisticated criticalities.

  6 citations