Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Neutrinoless double beta decay overview

  Laura Cardani

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 024 (2019) · published 20 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay is a hypothesised nuclear process in which two neutrons simultaneously decay into protons with no neutrino emission. The prized observation of this decay would point to the existence of a process that violates a fundamental symmetry of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and would allow to establish the nature of neutrinos. Today, the lower limits on the half-life of this process exceed 10$^{25}$-10$^{26}$ yr. I will review the current status of the searches for Double Beta Decay and the perspectives to enhance the experimental sensitivity in the next years.

  13 citations

• Page curves and bath deformations

  Elena Caceres, Arnab Kundu, Ayan K. Patra, Sanjit Shashi

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 033 (2022) · published 13 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the black hole information problem within a semiclassically gravitating AdS$_d$ black hole coupled to and in equilibrium with a $d$-dimensional thermal conformal bath. We deform the bath state by a relevant scalar deformation, triggering a holographic RG flow whose “trans-IR” region deforms from a Schwarzschild geometry to a Kasner universe. The setup manifests two independent scales which control both the extent of coarse-graining and the entanglement dynamics when counting Hawking degrees of freedom in the bath. In tuning either, we find nontrivial changes to the Page time and Page curve. We consequently view the Page curve as a probe of the holographic RG flow, with a higher Page time manifesting as a result of increased coarse-graining of the bath degrees of freedom.

  13 citations

• Dissipation-driven integrable fermionic systems: from graded Yangians to exact nonequilibrium steady states

  Enej Ilievski

  SciPost Phys. 3, 031 (2017) · published 29 October 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Using the Lindblad master equation approach, we investigate the structure of steady-state solutions of open integrable quantum lattice models, driven far from equilibrium by incoherent particle reservoirs attached at the boundaries. We identify a class of boundary dissipation processes which permits to derive exact steady-state density matrices in the form of graded matrix-product operators. All the solutions factorize in terms of vacuum analogues of Baxter's Q-operators which are realized in terms of non-unitary representations of certain finite dimensional subalgebras of graded Yangians. We present a unifying framework which allows to solve fermionic models and naturally incorporates higher-rank symmetries. This enables to explain underlying algebraic content behind most of the previously-found solutions.

  13 citations

• Blast from the past II: Constraints on heavy neutral leptons from the BEBC WA66 beam dump experiment

  Ryan Barouki, Giacomo Marocco, Subir Sarkar

  SciPost Phys. 13, 118 (2022) · published 28 November 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We revisit the search for heavy neutral leptons with the Big European Bubble Chamber in the 1982 proton beam dump experiment at CERN, focussing on those heavier than the kaon and mixing only with the tau neutrino, as these are far less constrained than their counterparts with smaller mass or other mixings. Recasting the previous search in terms of this model and including additional production and decay channels yields the strongest bounds to date, up to the tau mass. This applies also to our updated bounds on the mixing of heavy neutral leptons with the electron neutrino.

  13 citations

• Quark formation and phenomenology in binary neutron-star mergers using V-QCD

  Samuel Tootle, Christian Ecker, Konrad Topolski, Tuna Demircik, Matti Järvinen, Luciano Rezzolla

  SciPost Phys. 13, 109 (2022) · published 16 November 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Using full 3+1 dimensional general-relativistic hydrodynamic simulations of equal- and unequal-mass neutron-star binaries with properties that are consistent with those inferred from the inspiral of GW170817, we perform a detailed study of the quark-formation processes that could take place after merger. We use three equations of state consistent with current pulsar observations derived from a novel finite-temperature framework based on V-QCD, a non-perturbative gauge/gravity model for Quantum Chromodynamics. In this way, we identify three different post-merger stages at which mixed baryonic and quark matter, as well as pure quark matter, are generated. A phase transition triggered collapse already $\lesssim 10\,\rm{ms}$ after the merger reveals that the softest version of our equations of state is actually inconsistent with the expected second-long post-merger lifetime of GW170817. Our results underline the impact that gravitational wave observations of binary neutron-star mergers can have in constraining the equation of state of nuclear matter, especially in its most extreme regimes.

  13 citations

• Les Houches Lectures on Indirect Detection of Dark Matter

  Tracy R. Slatyer

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 53 (2022) · published 13 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  These lectures, presented at the 2021 Les Houches Summer School on Dark Matter, provide an introduction to key methods and tools of indirect dark matter searches, as well as a status report on the field circa summer 2021. Topics covered include the possible effects of energy injection from dark matter on the early universe, methods to calculate both the expected energy distribution and spatial distribution of particles produced by dark matter interactions, an outline of theoretical models that predict diverse signals in indirect detection, and a discussion of current constraints and some claimed anomalies. These notes are intended as an introduction to indirect dark matter searches for graduate students, focusing primarily on intuition-building estimates and useful concepts and tools.

  13 citations

• Correlations of zero-entropy critical states in the XXZ model: integrability and Luttinger theory far from the ground state

  R. Vlijm, I. S. Eliëns, J. -S. Caux

  SciPost Phys. 1, 008 (2016) · published 25 October 2016 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Pumping a finite energy density into a quantum system typically leads to `melted' states characterized by exponentially-decaying correlations, as is the case for finite-temperature equilibrium situations. An important exception to this rule are states which, while being at high energy, maintain a low entropy. Such states can interestingly still display features of quantum criticality, especially in one dimension. Here, we consider high-energy states in anisotropic Heisenberg quantum spin chains obtained by splitting the ground state's magnon Fermi sea into separate pieces. Using methods based on integrability, we provide a detailed study of static and dynamical spin-spin correlations. These carry distinctive signatures of the Fermi sea splittings, which would be observable in eventual experimental realizations. Going further, we employ a multi-component Tomonaga-Luttinger model in order to predict the asymptotics of static correlations. For this effective field theory, we fix all universal exponents from energetics, and all non-universal correlation prefactors using finite-size scaling of matrix elements. The correlations obtained directly from integrability and those emerging from the Luttinger field theory description are shown to be in extremely good correspondence, as expected, for the large distance asymptotics, but surprisingly also for the short distance behavior. Finally, we discuss the description of dynamical correlations from a mobile impurity model, and clarify the relation of the effective field theory parameters to the Bethe Ansatz solution.

  13 citations

• Isospin asymmetry in holographic baryonic matter

  Nicolas Kovensky, Andreas Schmitt

  SciPost Phys. 11, 029 (2021) · published 12 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study baryonic matter with isospin asymmetry, including fully dynamically its interplay with pion condensation. To this end, we employ the holographic Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model and the so-called homogeneous ansatz for the gauge fields in the bulk to describe baryonic matter. Within the confined geometry and restricting ourselves to the chiral limit, we map out the phase structure in the presence of baryon and isospin chemical potentials, showing that for sufficiently large chemical potentials condensed pions and isospin-asymmetric baryonic matter coexist. We also present first results of the same approach in the deconfined geometry and demonstrate that this case, albeit technically more involved, is better suited for comparisons with and predictions for real-world QCD. Our study lays the ground for future improved holographic studies aiming towards a realistic description of charge neutral, beta-equilibrated matter in compact stars, and also for more refined comparisons with lattice studies at nonzero isospin chemical potential.

  13 citations

• Topological thermal Hall effect for topological excitations in spin liquid: Emergent Lorentz force on the spinons

  Yong Hao Gao, Gang Chen

  SciPost Phys. Core 2, 004 (2020) · published 8 April 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the origin of Lorentz force on the spinons in a U(1) spin liquid. We are inspired by the previous observation of gauge field correlation in the pairwise spin correlation using the neutron scattering measurement when the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction intertwines with the lattice geometry. We extend this observation to the Lorentz force that exerts on the (neutral) spinons. The external magnetic field, that polarizes the spins, effectively generates an internal U(1) gauge flux for the spinons and twists the spinon motion through the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Such a mechanism for the emergent Lorentz force differs fundamentally from the induction of the internal U(1) gauge flux in the weak Mott insulating regime from the charge fluctuations. We apply this understanding to the specific case of spinon metals on the kagome lattice. Our suggestion of emergent Lorentz force generation and the resulting topological thermal Hall effect may apply broadly to other non-centrosymmetric spin liquids with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. We discuss the relevance with the thermal Hall transport in kagome materials volborthite and kapellasite.

  13 citations

• Entanglement Negativity in Flat Holography

  Debarshi Basu, Ashish Chandra, Himanshu Parihar, Gautam Sengupta

  SciPost Phys. 12, 074 (2022) · published 23 February 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We advance holographic constructions for the entanglement negativity of bipartite states in a class of $(1+1)-$dimensional Galilean conformal field theories dual to asymptotically flat three dimensional bulk geometries described by Einstein Gravity and Topologically Massive Gravity. The construction involves specific algebraic sums of the lengths of bulk extremal curves homologous to certain combinations of the intervals appropriate to such bipartite states. Our analysis exactly reproduces the corresponding replica technique results in the large central charge limit. We substantiate our construction through a semi classical analysis involving the geometric monodromy technique for the case of two disjoint intervals in such holographic Galilean conformal field theories.

  12 citations