Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Analytic conformal bootstrap and Virasoro primary fields in the Ashkin-Teller model

  Nikita Nemkov, Sylvain Ribault

  SciPost Phys. 11, 089 (2021) · published 9 November 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We revisit the critical two-dimensional Ashkin-Teller model, i.e. the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ orbifold of the compactified free boson CFT at $c=1$. We solve the model on the plane by computing its three-point structure constants and proving crossing symmetry of four-point correlation functions. We do this not only for affine primary fields, but also for Virasoro primary fields, i.e. higher twist fields and degenerate fields. This leads us to clarify the analytic properties of Virasoro conformal blocks and fusion kernels at $c=1$. We show that blocks with a degenerate channel field should be computed by taking limits in the central charge, rather than in the conformal dimension. In particular, Al. Zamolodchikov's simple explicit expression for the blocks that appear in four-twist correlation functions is only valid in the non-degenerate case: degenerate blocks, starting with the identity block, are more complicated generalized theta functions.

• Comment on Coleman-DeLuccia instantons

  Tom Banks, Bingnan Zhang

  SciPost Phys. 12, 015 (2022) · published 11 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We complete an old argument that causal diamonds in the crunching region of the Lorentzian continuation of a Coleman-Deluccia instanton for transitions out of de Sitter space have finite area, and provide quantum models consistent with the principle of detailed balance, which can mimic the instanton transition probabilities for the cases where this diamond is larger or smaller than the causal patch of de Sitter space. We review arguments that potentials which do not have a positive energy theorem when the lowest de Sitter minimum is shifted to zero, may not correspond to real models of quantum gravity.

• Entanglement negativity and defect extremal surface

  Yilu Shao, Ma-Ke Yuan, Yang Zhou

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 027 (2024) · published 8 May 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study entanglement negativity for evaporating black hole based on the holographic model with defect brane. We introduce a defect extremal surface formula for entanglement negativity. Based on partial reduction, we show the equivalence between defect extremal surface formula and island formula for entanglement negativity in AdS$_3$/BCFT$_2$. Extending the study to the model of eternal black hole plus CFT bath, we find that black hole-black hole negativity decreases until vanishing, left black hole-left radiation negativity is always a constant, radiation-radiation negativity increases and then saturates at a time later than Page time. In all the time dependent cases, defect extremal surface formula agrees with island formula.

• The high-temperature expansion of the thermal sunset

  Andreas Ekstedt, Johan Löfgren

  SciPost Phys. Core 3, 008 (2020) · published 22 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We give a prescription for calculating the high-temperature expansion of the thermal sunset integral to arbitrary order. We derive all terms odd in $T$, and rederive previous results up to $\mathcal{O}(T^0) $ for both bosonic and fermionic thermal sunsets in dimensional regularisation. We perform analytical and numerical cross-checks. Intermediate steps involve integrals over three Bessel functions.

• Time evolution of effective central charge and signatures of RG irreversibility after a quantum quench

  Axel Cortes Cubero

  SciPost Phys. 4, 016 (2018) · published 27 March 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  At thermal equilibrium, the concept of effective central charge for massive deformations of two-dimensional conformal field theories (CFT) is well understood, and can be defined by comparing the partition function of the massive model to that of a CFT. This temperature-dependent effective charge interpolates monotonically between the central charge values corresponding to the IR and UV fixed points at low and high temperatures, respectively. We propose a non-equilibrium, time-dependent generalization of the effective central charge for integrable models after a quantum quench, $c_{\rm eff}(t)$, obtained by comparing the return amplitude to that of a CFT quench. We study this proposal for a large mass quench of a free boson, where the charge is seen to interpolate between $c_{\rm eff}=0$ at $t=0$, and $c_{\rm eff}\sim 1$ at $t\to\infty$, as is expected. We use our effective charge to define an "Ising to Tricritical Ising" quench protocol, where the charge evolves from $c_{\rm eff}=1/2$ at $t=0$, to $c_{\rm eff}=7/10$ at $t\to\infty$, the corresponding values of the first two unitary minimal CFT models. We then argue that the inverse "Tricritical Ising to Ising" quench is impossible with our methods. These conclusions can be generalized for quenches between any two adjacent unitary minimal CFT models. We finally study a large mass quench into the "staircase model" (sinh-Gordon with a particular complex coupling). At short times after the quench, the effective central charge increases in a discrete "staircase" structure, where the values of the charge at the steps can be computed in terms of the central charges of unitary minimal CFT models. When the initial state is a pure state, one always finds that $c_{\rm eff}(t\to\infty)\geq c_{\rm eff}(t=0)$, though $c_{\rm eff}(t)$, generally oscillates at finite times. We explore how this constraint may be related to RG flow irreversibility.

• Effective field theory of fluctuating wall in open systems: from a kink in Josephson junction to general domain wall

  Keisuke Fujii, Masaru Hongo

  SciPost Phys. 12, 160 (2022) · published 13 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate macroscopic behaviors of fluctuating domain walls in nonequilibrium open systems with the help of the effective field theory based on symmetry. Since the domain wall in open systems breaks the translational symmetry, there appears a gapless excitation identified as the Nambu-Goldstone (NG) mode, which shows the non-propagating diffusive behavior in contrast to those in closed systems. After demonstrating the presence of the diffusive NG mode in the $(2+1)$-dimensional dissipative Josephson junction, we provide a symmetry-based general analysis for open systems breaking the one-dimensional translational symmetry. A general effective Lagrangian is constructed based on the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, which supports the presence of the gapless diffusion mode in the fluctuation spectrum in the thin wall regime. Besides, we also identify a term peculiar to the open system, which possibly leads to the instability in the thick-wall regime or the nonlinear Kardar-Parisi-Zhang coupling in the thin-wall regime although it is absent in the Josephson junction.

• The Compton Amplitude, lattice QCD and the Feynman-Hellmann approach

  K.U. Can, A. Hannaford-Gunn, R. Horsley, Y. Nakamura, H. Perlt, P.E.L. Rakow, E. Sankey, G. Schierholz, H. Stuben, R.D. Young, J.M. Zanotti

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 6, 003 (2022) · published 31 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A major objective of lattice QCD is the computation of hadronic matrix elements. The standard method is to use three-point and four-point correlation functions. An alternative approach, requiring only the computation of two-point correlation functions is to use the Feynman-Hellmann theorem. In this talk we develop this method up to second order in perturbation theory, in a context appropriate for lattice QCD. This encompasses the Compton Amplitude (which forms the basis for deep inelastic scattering) and hadron scattering. Some numerical results are presented showing results indicating what this approach might achieve.

• Some recent results on renormalization-group properties of quantum field theories

  Robert Shrock

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 6, 005 (2022) · published 31 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss some higher-loop studies of renormalization-group flows and fixed points in various quantum field theories.

• SU(3) hybrid static potentials at small quark-antiquark separations from fine lattices

  Carolin Schlosser, Marc Wagner

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 6, 009 (2022) · published 31 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We summarize our recent lattice gauge theory computation of the $\Pi_u$ and $\Sigma_u^-$ hybrid static potentials at small quark-antiquark separations. We provide parameterizations of the resulting lattice data points, which can be used for investigating masses and properties of heavy hybrid mesons in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation.

• Strong CP problem, electric dipole moment, and fate of the axion

  Gerrit Schierholz

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 6, 011 (2022) · published 31 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Three hard problems! In this talk I investigate the long-distance properties of quantum chromodynamics in the presence of a topological theta term. This is done on the lattice, using the gradient flow to isolate the long-distance modes in the functional integral measure and tracing it over successive length scales. It turns out that the color fields produced by quarks and gluons are screened, and confinement is lost, for vacuum angles |theta| > 0, thus providing a natural solution of the strong CP problem. This solution is compatible with recent lattice calculations of the electric dipole moment of the neutron, while it excludes the axion extension of the Standard Model.