Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• On the complex structure of Yang-Mills theory

  Jan Horak, Jan M. Pawlowski, Nicolas Wink

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 048 (2025) · published 7 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the coupled set of spectral Dyson-Schwinger equations in Yang-Mills theory for ghost and gluon propagators. Within this set-up, we perform a systematic analytic evaluation of the constraints on generalised spectral representations in Yang-Mills theory that are most relevant for informed spectral reconstructions. Furthermore, we provide numerical results for the coupled set of ghost and gluon spectral functions for a range of potential mass gaps of the gluon, while allowing for small violations of the spectral representation. The analyses are accompanied by thorough discussion of the limitations and extensions of the present work.

  3 citations

• The asymptotic structure of cosmological integrals

  Paolo Benincasa, Francisco Vazão

  SciPost Phys. 19, 029 (2025) · published 11 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We provide a general analysis of the asymptotic behaviour of perturbative contributions to observables in arbitrary power-law FRW cosmologies, indistinctly the Bunch-Davies wavefunction of the universe and cosmological correlators. We consider a large class of scalar toy models, including conformally-coupled and massless scalars in arbitrary dimensions, that admits a first principle definition in terms of (generalised/weighted) cosmological polytopes. The perturbative contributions to an observable can be expressed as an integral of the canonical function associated to such polytopes and to site- and edge-weighted graphs. We show how the asymptotic behaviour of these integrals is governed by a special class of nestohedra living in the graph-weight space, both at tree and loop level. As the singularities of a cosmological process described by a graph can be associated to its subgraphs, we provide a realisation of the nestohedra as a sequential truncation of a top-dimensional simplex based on the underlying graph. This allows us to determine all the possible directions – both in the infra-red and in the ultra-violet –, where the integral can diverge as well as their degree of divergence. Both of them are associated to the facets of the nestohedra, which are identified by overlapping tubings of the graph: the specific tubing determines the divergent directions while the number of overlapping tubings its degree of divergence. This combinatorial formulation makes straightforward the application of sector decomposition for extracting the – both leading and subleading – divergences from the integral, as the sectors in which the integration domain can be tiled are identified by the collection of compatible facets of the nestohedra, with the latter that can be determined via the graph tubings. Finally, the leading divergence has a beautiful interpretation as a restriction of the canonical function of the relevant polytope onto a special hyperplane.

  3 citations

• Flavoured $(g-2)_\mu$ with dark lepton seasoning

  Harun Acaroğlu, Prateek Agrawal, Monika Blanke

  SciPost Phys. 15, 176 (2023) · published 24 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  As a joint explanation for the dark matter (DM) problem and the muon $(g-2)$ anomaly, we propose a simplified model of lepton-flavoured complex scalar DM with couplings to both the left- and right-handed leptons of the Standard Model (SM). Both interactions are governed by the same new flavour-violating coupling matrix $\lambda$, however we allow for a relative scaling of the coupling strength. The SM is further extended by two fermion representations, transforming as an $SU(2)_L$ doublet and singlet, respectively, and mediating these interactions. The fermions additionally couple to the SM Higgs doublet via a new Yukawa coupling. To study the model's phenomenology we first investigate constraints from collider searches, flavour experiments, precision tests of the SM, the DM relic density, and direct as well as indirect detection experiments individually. We then perform a combined analysis by demanding that all mentioned constraints are satisfied simultaneously. We use the results of this combined analysis and examine if the model is capable of accommodating the $(g-2)_\mu$ anomaly within its viable parameter space without introducing fine-tuned lepton masses. For all benchmark scenarios we consider, we find that the central value of $\Delta a_\mu^\text{exp}$ can be reached without generating too large corrections to the lepton masses. We hence conclude that this model qualifies as a viable and attractive lepton-flavoured DM model that at the same time solves the $(g-2)_\mu$ anomaly.

  3 citations

• Analogous Hawking radiation in butterfly effect

  Takeshi Morita

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 007 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose that Hawking radiation-like phenomena may be observed in systems that show butterfly effects. Suppose that a classical dynamical system has a Lyapunov exponent $\lambda_L$, and is deterministic and non-thermal ($T=0$). We argue that, if we quantize this system, the quantum fluctuations may imitate thermal fluctuations with temperature $T \sim \hbar \lambda_L/2 \pi $ in a semi-classical regime, and it may cause analogous Hawking radiation. We also discuss that our proposal may provide an intuitive explanation of the existence of the bound of chaos proposed by Maldacena, Shenker and Stanford.

  3 citations

• Anomalous continuous translations

  Nathan Seiberg

  SciPost Phys. 19, 031 (2025) · published 11 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss a large class of non-relativistic continuum field theories where the Euclidean spatial symmetry of the classical theory is violated in the quantum theory by an Adler-Bell-Jackiw-like anomaly. In particular, the continuous translation symmetry of the classical theory is broken in the quantum theory to a discrete symmetry. Furthermore, that discrete symmetry is extended by an internal symmetry, making it non-Abelian. This presentation streamlines and extends the discussion in [SciPost Phys. 18, 063 (2025)]. In an Appendix, we present an elementary introduction to 't Hooft and Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomalies using a well-known system.

  3 citations

• Charges in the extended BMS algebra: Definitions and applications

  Massimo Porrati

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 005 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This is a review of selected topics from recent work on symmetry charges in asymptotically flat spacetime done by the author in collaboration with U. Kol and R. Javadinezhad. First we reinterpret the reality constraint on the boundary graviton as the gauge fixing of a new local symmetry, called dual supertranslations. This symmetry extends the BMS group and bears many similarities to the dual (magnetic) gauge symmetry of electrodynamics. We use this new gauge symmetry to propose a new description of the TAUB-NUT space that does not contain closed time-like curves. Next we summarize progress towards the definition of Lorentz and super-Lorentz charges that commute with supertranslations and with the soft graviton mode.

  3 citations

• The complex Liouville string: Worldsheet boundaries and non-perturbative effects

  Scott Collier, Lorenz Eberhardt, Beatrix Mühlmann, Victor A. Rodriguez

  SciPost Phys. 19, 034 (2025) · published 12 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate general observables of the complex Liouville string with worldsheet boundaries. We develop a universal formalism that reduces such observables to ordinary closed string amplitudes without boundaries, applicable to any worldsheet string theory, but particularly simple in the context of 2d or minimal string theories. We apply this formalism to the duality of the complex Liouville string with the matrix integral proposed in [SciPost Phys. 19, 033 (2025); SciPost Phys. 18, 154 (2025)] and showcase the formalism by finding appropriate boundary conditions for various matrix model quantities of interest, such as the resolvent or the partition function. We also apply this formalism towards the computation of non-perturbative effects on the worldsheet mediated by ZZ-instantons. These are known to be plagued by extra subtleties which need input from string field theory to resolve. These computations probe and uncover the duality between the complex Liouville string and the matrix model at the non-perturbative level.

  3 citations

• All regular $4 \times 4$ solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation

  Luke Corcoran, Marius de Leeuw

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 045 (2024) · published 26 July 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We complete the classification of 4×4 regular solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation. Apart from previously known models, we find four new models of non-difference form. All the new models give rise to Hamiltonians and transfer matrices that have a non-trivial Jordan block structure. One model corresponds to a non-diagonalisable integrable deformation of the XXX spin chain.

  3 citations

• On the spin content of the classical massless Rarita-Schwinger system

  Mauricio Valenzuela, Jorge Zanelli

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 14, 047 (2023) · published 24 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We analyze the Rarita-Schwinger massless theory in the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian approaches. At the Lagrangian level, the standard gamma-trace gauge fixing constraint leaves a 1/2 and a 3/2 propagating Poincaré group helicities. At the Hamiltonian level, the result depends on whether the Dirac conjecture is assumed or not. In the affirmative case, a secondary first class constraint is added to the total Hamiltonian and a corresponding gauge fixing condition must be imposed, completely removing the 1/2 sector. In the opposite case, the 1/2 field propagates and the Hamilton field equations match the Euler-Lagrange equations.

  3 citations

• The inheritance of energy conditions: Revisiting no-go theorems in string compactifications

  Heliudson Bernardo, Suddhasattwa Brahma, Mir Mehedi Faruk

  SciPost Phys. 15, 225 (2023) · published 5 December 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  One of the fundamental challenges in string theory is to derive realistic four-dimensional cosmological backgrounds from it despite strict consistency conditions that constrain its possible low-energy backgrounds. In this work, we focus on energy conditions as covariant and background-independent consistency requirements in order to classify possible backgrounds coming from low-energy string theory in two steps. Firstly, we show how supergravity actions obey many relevant energy conditions under some reasonable assumptions. Remarkably, we find that the energy conditions are satisfied even in the presence of objects which individually violate them due to the tadpole cancellation condition. Thereafter, we list a set of conditions for a higher-dimensional energy condition to imply the corresponding lower-dimensional one, thereby categorizing the allowed low-energy solutions. As for any no-go theorem, our aim is to highlight the assumptions that must be circumvented for deriving four-dimensional spacetimes that necessarily violate these energy conditions, with emphasis on cosmological backgrounds.

  3 citations