Publications

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Perturbative unitarity and the wavefunction of the Universe

Soner Albayrak, Paolo Benincasa, Carlos Duaso Pueyo

SciPost Phys. 16, 157 (2024) · published 20 June 2024 | · pdf

Unitarity of time evolution is one of the basic principles constraining physical processes. Its consequences in the perturbative Bunch-Davies wavefunction in cosmology have been formulated in terms of the cosmological optical theorem. In this paper, we re-analyse perturbative unitarity for the Bunch-Davies wavefunction, focusing on: $i)$ the role of the $i\epsilon$-prescription and its compatibility with the requirement of unitarity; $ii)$ the origin of the different ``cutting rules''; $iii)$ the emergence of the flat-space optical theorem from the cosmological one. We take the combinatorial point of view of the cosmological polytopes, which provide a first-principle description for a large class of scalar graphs contributing to the wavefunctional. The requirement of the positivity of the geometry together with the preservation of its orientation determine the $i\epsilon$-prescription. In kinematic space it translates into giving a small negative imaginary part to all the energies, making the wavefunction coefficients well-defined for any value of their real part along the real axis. Unitarity is instead encoded into a non-convex part of the cosmological polytope, which we name \textit{optical polytope}. The cosmological optical theorem emerges as the equivalence between a specific polytope subdivision of the optical polytope and its triangulations, each of which provides different cutting rules. The flat-space optical theorem instead emerges from the non-convexity of the optical polytope. On the more mathematical side, we provide two definitions of this non-convex geometry, none of them based on the idea of the non-convex geometry as a union of convex ones.
Krylov complexity in a natural basis for the Schrödinger algebra

Dimitrios Patramanis, Watse Sybesma

SciPost Phys. Core 7, 037 (2024) · published 20 June 2024 | · pdf

We investigate operator growth in quantum systems with two-dimensional Schrödinger group symmetry by studying the Krylov complexity. While feasible for semisimple Lie algebras, cases such as the Schrödinger algebra which is characterized by a semi-direct sum structure are complicated. We propose to compute Krylov complexity for this algebra in a natural orthonormal basis, which produces a pentadiagonal structure of the time evolution operator, contrasting the usual tridiagonal Lanczos algorithm outcome. The resulting complexity behaves as expected. We advocate that this approach can provide insights to other non-semisimple algebras.
Celestial sector in CFT: Conformally soft symmetries

Leonardo Pipolo de Gioia, Ana-Maria Raclariu

SciPost Phys. 17, 002 (2024) · published 2 July 2024 | · pdf

We show that time intervals of width $\Delta \tau$ in 3-dimensional conformal field theories (CFT$_3$) on the Lorentzian cylinder admit an infinite dimensional symmetry enhancement in the limit $\Delta \tau → 0$. The associated vector fields are approximate solutions to the conformal Killing equations in the strip labelled by a function and a conformal Killing vector on the sphere. An Inonu-Wigner contraction yields a set of symmetry generators obeying the extended BMS$_4$ algebra. We analyze the shadow stress tensor Ward identities in CFT$_d$ on the Lorentzian cylinder with all operator insertions in infinitesimal time intervals separated by $\pi$. We demonstrate that both the leading and subleading conformally soft graviton theorems in $(d-1)$-dimensional celestial CFT (CCFT$_{d-1}$) can be recovered from the transverse traceless components of these Ward identities in the limit $\Delta \tau → 0$. A similar construction allows for the leading conformally soft gluon theorem in CCFT$_{d-1}$ to be recovered from shadow current Ward identities in CFT$_d$.
Integrable deformations from twistor space

Lewis T. Cole, Ryan A. Cullinan, Ben Hoare, Joaquin Liniado, Daniel C. Thompson

SciPost Phys. 17, 008 (2024) · published 10 July 2024 | · pdf

Integrable field theories in two dimensions are known to originate as defect theories of 4d Chern-Simons and as symmetry reductions of the 4d anti-self-dual Yang-Mills equations. Based on ideas of Costello, it has been proposed in work of Bittleston and Skinner that these two approaches can be unified starting from holomorphic Chern-Simons in 6 dimensions. We provide the first complete description of this diamond of integrable theories for a family of deformed sigma models, going beyond the Dirichlet boundary conditions that have been considered thus far. Starting from 6d holomorphic Chern-Simons theory on twistor space with a particular meromorphic 3-form $\Omega$, we construct the defect theory to find a novel 4d integrable field theory, whose equations of motion can be recast as the 4d anti-self-dual Yang-Mills equations. Symmetry reducing, we find a multi-parameter 2d integrable model, which specialises to the $\lambda$-deformation at a certain point in parameter space. The same model is recovered by first symmetry reducing, to give 4d Chern-Simons with generalised boundary conditions, and then constructing the defect theory.
Loop equations for generalised eigenvalue models

Edoardo Vescovi, Konstantin Zarembo

SciPost Phys. 17, 017 (2024) · published 18 July 2024 | · pdf

We derive the loop equation for the 1-matrix model with generic difference-type measure for eigenvalues and develop a recursive algebraic framework for solving it to an arbitrary order in the coupling constant in and beyond the planar approximation. The planar limit is solved exactly for a one-parametric family of models and in the general case at strong coupling. The Wilson loop in the $\mathcal{N}=2^*$ super-Yang-Mills theory and the Hoppe model are used to illustrate our methods.
Snowmass white paper: The cosmological bootstrap

Daniel Baumann, Daniel Green, Austin Joyce, Enrico Pajer, Guilherme L. Pimentel, Charlotte Sleight, Massimo Taronna

SciPost Phys. Comm. Rep. 1 (2024) · published 23 July 2024 | · pdf

This white paper summarizes recent progress in the cosmological bootstrap, an approach to the study of the statistics of primordial fluctuations from consistency with unitarity, locality and symmetry assumptions. We review the key ideas of the bootstrap method, with an eye towards future directions and ambitions of the program. Focusing on recent progress involving de Sitter and quasi-de Sitter backgrounds, we highlight the role of singularities and unitarity in constraining the form of the correlators. We also discuss nonperturbative formulations of the bootstrap, connections to anti-de Sitter space, and potential implications for holography.
The quantum perfect fluid in 2D

Aurélien Dersy, Andrei Khmelnitsky, Riccardo Rattazzi

SciPost Phys. 17, 019 (2024) · published 24 July 2024 | · pdf

We consider the field theory that defines a perfect incompressible 2D fluid. One distinctive property of this system is that the quadratic action for fluctuations around the ground state features neither mass nor gradient term. Quantum mechanically this poses a technical puzzle, as it implies the Hilbert space of fluctuations is not a Fock space and perturbation theory is useless. As we show, the proper treatment must instead use that the configuration space is the area preserving Lie group ${S\mathrm{Diff}}$. Quantum mechanics on Lie groups is basically a group theory problem, but a harder one in our case, since ${S\mathrm{Diff}}$ is infinite dimensional. Focusing on a fluid on the 2-torus $T^2$, we could however exploit the well known result ${S\mathrm{Diff}}(T^2)\sim SU(N)$ for $N\to ∞$, reducing for finite $N$ to a tractable case. $SU(N)$ offers a UV-regulation, but physical quantities can be robustly defined in the continuum limit $N\to∞$. The main result of our study is the existence of ungapped localized excitations, the vortons, satisfying a dispersion $\omega \propto k^2$ and carrying a vorticity dipole. The vortons are also characterized by very distinctive derivative interactions whose structure is fixed by symmetry. Departing from the original incompressible fluid, we constructed a class of field theories where the vortons appear, right from the start, as the quanta of either bosonic or fermionic local fields.
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 | · 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.
Aspects of categorical symmetries from branes: SymTFTs and generalized charges

Fabio Apruzzi, Federico Bonetti, Dewi S.W. Gould, Sakura Schäfer-Nameki

SciPost Phys. 17, 025 (2024) · published 29 July 2024 | · pdf

Recently it has been observed that branes in geometric engineering and holography have a striking connection with generalized global symmetries. In this paper we argue that branes, in a certain topological limit, not only furnish the symmetry generators, but also encode the so-called Symmetry Topological Field Theory (or SymTFT). For a $d$-dimensional QFT, this is a $(d+1)$-dimensional topological field theory, whose topological defects encode both the symmetry generators (invertible or non-invertible) and the generalized charges. Mathematically, the topological defects form the Drinfeld center of the symmetry category of the QFT. In this paper we derive the SymTFT and the Drinfeld center topological defects directly from branes. Central to the identification of these are Hanany-Witten brane configurations, which encode both topological couplings in the SymTFT and the generalized charges under the symmetries. We exemplify the general analysis with examples of QFTs realized in geometric engineering or holography.
Critical loop models are exactly solvable

Rongvoram Nivesvivat, Sylvain Ribault, Jesper Lykke Jacobsen

SciPost Phys. 17, 029 (2024) · published 1 August 2024 | · pdf

In two-dimensional critical loop models, including the O(n) and Potts models, the spectrum is exactly known, as are a few structure constants or ratios thereof. Using numerical conformal bootstrap methods, we study 235 of the simplest 4-point structure constants. For each structure constant, we find an analytic expression as a product of two factors: 1) a universal function of conformal dimensions, built from Barnes' double Gamma function, and 2) a polynomial function of loop weights, whose degree obeys a simple upper bound. We conjecture that all structure constants are of this form. For a few 4-point functions, we build corresponding observables in a lattice loop model. From numerical lattice results, we extract amplitude ratios that depend neither on the lattice size nor on the lattice coupling. These ratios agree with the corresponding ratios of 4-point structure constants.

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