Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Visions in quantum gravity

  Luca Buoninfante, Benjamin Knorr, K. Sravan Kumar, Alessia Platania, Damiano Anselmi, Ivano Basile, N. Emil J. Bjerrum-Bohr, Robert Brandenberger, Mariana Carrillo González, Anne-Christine Davis, Bianca Dittrich, Paolo Di Vecchia, John F. Donoghue, Fay Dowker, Gia Dvali, Astrid Eichhorn, Steven B. Giddings, Alessandra Gnecchi, Giulia Gubitosi, Lavinia Heisenberg, Renata Kallosh, Alexey S. Koshelev, Stefano Liberati, Renate Loll, Leonardo Modesto, Paulo Moniz, Daniele Oriti, Olga Papadoulaki, Jan M. Pawlowski, Roberto Percacci, Lesław Rachwał, Mairi Sakellariadou, Alberto Salvio, Kellogg Stelle, Sumati Surya, Arkady Tseytlin, Neil Turok, Thomas Van Riet, Richard P. Woodard

  SciPost Phys. Comm. Rep. 11 (2025) · published 25 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  To deepen our understanding of Quantum Gravity and its connections with black holes and cosmology, building a common language and exchanging ideas across different approaches is crucial. The Nordita Program "Quantum Gravity: from gravitational effective field theories to ultraviolet complete approaches" created a platform for extensive discussions, aimed at pinpointing both common grounds and sources of disagreements, with the hope of generating ideas and driving progress in the field. This contribution summarizes the twelve topical discussions held during the program and collects individual thoughts of speakers and panelists on the future of the field in light of these discussions.

  1 citation

• The geometry of Casimir W-algebras

  Raphaël Belliard, Bertrand Eynard, Sylvain Ribault

  SciPost Phys. 5, 051 (2018) · published 23 November 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be a simply laced Lie algebra, $\widehat{\mathfrak{g}}_1$ the corresponding affine Lie algebra at level one, and $\mathcal{W}(\mathfrak{g})$ the corresponding Casimir W-algebra. We consider $\mathcal{W}(\mathfrak{g})$-symmetric conformal field theory on the Riemann sphere. To a number of $\mathcal{W}(\mathfrak{g})$-primary fields, we associate a Fuchsian differential system. We compute correlation functions of $\widehat{\mathfrak{g}}_1$-currents in terms of solutions of that system, and construct the bundle where these objects live. We argue that cycles on that bundle correspond to parameters of the conformal blocks of the W-algebra, equivalently to moduli of the Fuchsian system.

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• Central exclusive diffractive production of axial-vector $f_{1}$ mesons in proton-proton collisions

  Piotr Lebiedowicz, Josef Leutgeb, Otto Nachtmann, Anton Rebhan, Antoni Szczurek

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 121 (2022) · published 13 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Exclusive production of axial-vector $f_{1}(1285)$ meson in proton-proton collisions via pomeron-pomeron fusion within the tensor-pomeron approach is discussed. Two ways to construct the pomeron-pomeron-$f_{1}$ coupling are presented. We adjust the parameters of our model to the WA102 experimental data and compare with predictions of the Sakai-Sugimoto model. Predictions for LHC experiments are given.

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• Probing lepton universality with (semi)-leptonic B decays

  Giovanni Banelli, Robert Fleischer, Ruben Jaarsma and Gilberto Tetlalmatzi-Xolocotzi

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 013 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The most recent measurements of the observables $R_{D^{(*)}}$ are in tension with the Standard Model offering hints of New Physics in $b\rightarrow c \ell \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ transitions. Motivated by these results, in this work we present an analysis on their $b\rightarrow u \ell \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ counterparts (for $\ell=e, ~\mu, ~\tau$). Our study has three main objectives. Firstly, using ratios of branching fractions, we assess the effects of beyond the Standard Model scalar and pseudoscalar particles in leptonic and semileptonic $B$ decays ($B^-\rightarrow \ell^- \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$, $\bar{B}\rightarrow \pi \ell \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ and $\bar{B}\rightarrow \rho \ell \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$). Here a key role is played by the leptonic $B$ processes, which are highly sensitive to new pseudoscalar interactions. In particular, we take advantage of the most recent measurement of the branching fraction of the channel $B^-\rightarrow \mu^-\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$ by the Belle collaboration. Secondly, we extract the CKM matrix element $|V_{ub}|$ while accounting simultaneously for New Physics contributions. Finally, we provide predictions for the branching fractions of yet unmeasured leptonic and semileptonic $B$ decays.

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• Effective description of non-equilibrium currents in cold magnetized plasma

  Nabil Iqbal

  SciPost Phys. 12, 078 (2022) · published 28 February 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The dynamics of cold strongly magnetized plasma -- traditionally the domain of force-free electrodynamics -- has recently been reformulated in terms of symmetries and effective field theory, where the degrees of freedom are the momentum and magnetic flux carried by a fluid of cold strings. In physical applications where the electron mass can be neglected one might expect the presence of extra light charged modes -- electrons in the lowest Landau level -- propagating parallel to the magnetic field lines. We construct an effective description of such electric charges, describing their interaction with plasma degrees of freedom in terms of a new collective mode that can be thought of as a bosonization of the electric charge density along each field line. In this framework QED phenomena such as charged pair production and the axial anomaly are described at the classical level. Formally, our construction corresponds to gauging a particular part of the higher form symmetry associated with magnetic flux conservation. We study some simple applications of our effective theory, showing that the scattering of magnetosonic modes generically creates particles and that the rotating Michel monopole is now surrounded by a cloud of electric charge.

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• Probing black hole microstate evolution with networks and random walks

  Anthony M. Charles, Daniel R. Mayerson

  SciPost Phys. 8, 077 (2020) · published 14 May 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We model black hole microstates and quantum tunneling transitions between them with networks and simulate their time evolution using well-established tools in network theory. In particular, we consider two models based on Bena-Warner three-charge multi-centered microstates and one model based on the D1-D5 system; we use network theory methods to determine how many centers (or D1-D5 string strands) we expect to see in a typical late-time state. We find three distinct possible phases in parameter space for the late-time behaviour of these networks, which we call ergodic, trapped, and amplified, depending on the relative importance and connectedness of microstates. We analyze in detail how these different phases of late-time behavior are related to the underlying physics of the black hole microstates. Our results indicate that the expected properties of microstates at late times cannot always be determined simply by entropic arguments; typicality is instead a highly non-trivial, emergent property of the full Hilbert space of microstates.

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• Crystallography, group cohomology, and Lieb–Schultz–Mattis constraints

  Chunxiao Liu, Weicheng Ye

  SciPost Phys. 18, 161 (2025) · published 20 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We compute the mod-2 cohomology ring for three-dimensional (3D) space groups and establish a connection between them and the lattice structure of crystals with space group symmetry. This connection allows us to obtain a complete set of Lieb-Schultz-Mattis constraints, specifying the conditions under which a unique, symmetric, gapped ground state cannot exist in 3D lattice magnets. We associate each of these constraints with an element in the third mod-2 cohomology of the space group, when the internal symmetry acts on-site and its projective representations are classified by powers of $\mathbb{Z}_2$. We demonstrate the relevance of our results to the study of $U(1)$ quantum spin liquids on the 3D pyrochlore lattice. We determine, through anomaly matching, the symmetry fractionalization patterns of both electric and magnetic charges, extending previous results from projective symmetry group classifications.

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• Time reversal-odd effects in QCD and beyond

  Dylan Manna, Andrea Signori, Christine Aidala

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 169 (2022) · published 14 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper we will describe a parallel between phenomenological and symmetry-based descriptions of the process dependence of the time-reversal-odd phenomena in QCD, such as the Sivers effect, with the goal of defining the essential elements that lead to such process dependence in QCD. This will then serve as a starting point to explore possible generalizations in a different gauge theory.

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• Massive fields and Wilson spools in JT gravity

  Jackson R. Fliss

  SciPost Phys. 19, 065 (2025) · published 3 September 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We give a prescription for minimally coupling massive matter to JT gravity with either sign of cosmological constant directly in its formulation as a topological BF theory. This coupling takes the form of a 'Wilson spool,' originally introduced in the context of three-dimensional gravity. The Wilson spool expresses the exact one-loop partition function as the integral over a Wilson loop operator. We construct the spool by considering the partition function of a massive scalar field on Euclidean dS$_2$ and on Euclidean AdS$_2$. We discuss its extension to other geometries (including the 'trumpet' and conical defect geometries) and its relation to the three-dimensional spool through dimensional reduction.

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• Fusion rules and structure constants of E-series minimal models

  Rongvoram Nivesvivat, Sylvain Ribault

  SciPost Phys. 18, 163 (2025) · published 21 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the ADE classification of Virasoro minimal models, the E-series is the sparsest: their central charges $c=1-6\frac{(p-q)^2}{pq}$ are not dense in the half-line $c∈ (-∞,1)$, due to $q=12,18,30$ taking only 3 values — the Coxeter numbers of $E_6, E_7, E_8$. The E-series is also the least well understood, with few known results beyond the spectrum. Here, we use a semi-analytic bootstrap approach for numerically computing 4-point correlation functions. We deduce non-chiral fusion rules, i.e. which 3-point structure constants vanish. These vanishings can be explained by constraints from null vectors, interchiral symmetry, simple currents, extended symmetries, permutations, and parity, except in one case for $q=30$. We conjecture that structure constants are given by a universal expression built from the double Gamma function, times polynomial functions of $\cos(\pi\frac{p}{q})$ with values in $\mathbb{Q}\big(\cos(\frac{\pi}{q})\big)$, which we work out explicitly for $q=12$. We speculate on generalizing E-series minimal models to generic integer values of $q$, and recovering loop CFTs as $p,q\to ∞$.

  1 citation