Publications

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Witten index of BMN matrix quantum mechanics

Chi-Ming Chang

SciPost Phys. 19, 147 (2025) · published 5 December 2025 | · pdf

We compute the Witten index of the Berenstein-Maldacena-Nastase matrix quantum mechanics, which counts the number of ground states as well as the difference between the numbers of bosonic and fermionic BPS states with nonzero angular momenta. The Witten index sets a lower bound on the entropy, which exhibits $N^2$ growth that provides strong evidence for the existence of BPS black holes in M-theory, asymptotic to the plane-wave geometry. We also discuss a relation between the Witten index in the infinite $N$ limit and the superconformal index of the Aharony-Bergman-Jafferis-Maldacena theory.
Graviton mass and entanglement islands in low spacetime dimensions

Hao Geng

SciPost Phys. 19, 146 (2025) · published 4 December 2025 | · pdf

It has been conjectured and proven that entanglement island is not consistent with long-range (massless) gravity in a large class of spacetimes, including typical asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes, in high spacetime dimensions. The conjecture and its proof are motivated by the observation that existing constructions of entanglement islands in high dimensions are all in gravitational theories where the graviton is massive for which the standard gravitational Gauss' law doesn't apply. In this letter, we show that this observation persists to lower dimensional cases. We achieve this goal by providing a unified description of the gravitational Gauss' law violation in island models that can work in any dimensions. This unified description teaches us new lessons on entanglement islands and subregion physics in quantum gravity. We focus on the case of the (1+1)-dimensional Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity for the purpose of demonstration.
Generalized symmetry enriched criticality in (3+1)d

Benjamin Moy

SciPost Phys. 19, 145 (2025) · published 3 December 2025 | · pdf

We construct two classes of continuous phase transitions in 3+1 dimensions between gapped phases that break distinct generalized global symmetries. Our analysis focuses on $SU(N)/\mathbb{Z}_N$ gauge theory coupled to $N_f$ flavors of Majorana fermions in the adjoint representation. For $N$ even and sufficiently large odd $N_f$, upon imposing time-reversal symmetry and an $SO(N_f)$ flavor symmetry, the massless theory realizes a quantum critical point between a gapped phase in which a $\mathbb{Z}_N$ one-form symmetry is completely broken and a phase where it is broken to $\mathbb{Z}_2$, leading to $\mathbb{Z}_{N/2}$ topological order. We characterize the possible patterns of symmetry fractionalization in these phases and provide an explicit lattice model that exhibits the transition. The critical point has an enhanced symmetry, which includes non-invertible analogues of time-reversal symmetry. Enforcing a non-invertible time-reversal symmetry and the $SO(N_f)$ flavor symmetry, for $N$ and $N_f$ both odd, we demonstrate that this critical point can appear between a topologically ordered phase and a phase that spontaneously breaks the non-invertible time-reversal symmetry, furnishing an analogue of deconfined quantum criticality for generalized symmetries.
Coupled dynamics of resource competition and constrained entrances in a multi-lane bidirectional exclusion process

Ashish Kumar Pandey, Arvind Kumar Gupta

SciPost Phys. Core 8, 089 (2025) · published 3 December 2025 | · pdf

Motivated by the role of limited particle resources in multi-species bidirectional transport processes observed in various biological and physical systems, we investigate a one-dimensional closed system consisting of two parallel lanes with narrow entrances, where each lane accommodates two oppositely directed particle species. Each particle species is linked to a separate finite reservoir, which is coupled to both lanes and regulates the entry rates of particle into the lanes. To analyze the effect of finite particle reservoirs on the stationary properties of the system, we employ a mean-field theoretical framework to characterize the density profiles, particle currents, and phase behavior, complemented by a boundary layer analysis based on fixed point methods to capture spatial variations near the boundaries. The impact of individual species population, quantified by species-specific filling factors, is systematically examined under both equal and unequal conditions. For equal filling factors, system undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking and supports both symmetric and asymmetric phases. In contrast, for unequal filling factors, only asymmetric phases are realized, with the phase diagram exhibiting up to five distinct phases. A striking feature observed in both scenarios is the emergence of a back-and-forth transition, along with a non-monotonic dependence of the number of phases on the filling factors. All theoretical findings are extensively validated through stochastic simulations based on the Gillespie algorithm, confirming the robustness of the analytical results.
A family of vertex algebras from Argyres-Douglas theory

Heeyeon Kim, Jaewon Song

SciPost Phys. 19, 144 (2025) · published 2 December 2025 | · pdf

We find that multiple vertex algebras can arise from a single 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal field theory (SCFT). The connection is given by the BPS monodromy operator $M$, which is a wall-crossing invariant quantity that captures the BPS spectrum on the Coulomb branch. For a class of low-rank Argyres-Douglas theories, we find that the trace of the multiple powers of the monodromy operator Tr$M^N$ yield modular functions that can be identified with the vacuum characters of certain vertex algebra for each $N$. In particular, we realize unitary VOAs of the Deligne-Cvitanović exceptional series type $(A_2)_1$, $(G_2)_1$, $(D_4)_1$, $(F_4)_1$, $(E_6)_1$ from Argyres-Douglas theories. We also find the modular invariant characters of the 'intermediate vertex algebras' $(E_{7\frac{1}{2}})_1$ and $(X_1)_1$. Our analysis allows us to construct 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauge theories that flow to $\mathcal{N}=4$ SCFTs in the IR, whose specialized half-index can be identified with these modular invariant characters.
Entangled universes

Divij Gupta, Matthew Headrick, Martin Sasieta

SciPost Phys. 19, 143 (2025) · published 1 December 2025 | · pdf

We propose a generalization of the RT and HRT holographic entanglement entropy formulas to spacetimes with asymptotically Minkowski as well as asymptotically AdS regions. We postulate that such spacetimes represent entangled states in a tensor product of Hilbert spaces, each corresponding to one asymptotic region. We show that our conjectured formula has the same general properties and passes the same general tests as the standard HRT formula. We provide further evidence for it by showing that in many cases the Minkowski asymptotic regions can be replaced by AdS ones using a domain wall. We illustrate the use of our formula by calculating entanglement entropies between asymptotic regions in Brill-Lindquist spacetimes, finding phase transitions similar to those known to occur in AdS. We construct networks of universes by gluing together Brill-Lindquist spaces along minimal surfaces. Finally, we discuss a variety of possible extensions and generalizations, including to universes with asymptotically de Sitter regions; in the latter case, we identify an ambiguity in the homology condition, leading to two different versions of the HRT formula which we call "orthodox" and "heterodox", with different physical interpretations.
Scaling laws of shrinkage induced fragmentation phenomena

Roland Szatmári, Akio Nakahara, So Kitsunezaki, Ferenc Kun

SciPost Phys. 19, 142 (2025) · published 1 December 2025 | · pdf

We investigate the shrinkage induced breakup of thin layers of heterogeneous materials attached to a substrate, a ubiquitous natural phenomenon with a wide range of potential applications. Focusing on the evolution of the fragment ensemble, we demonstrate that the system has two distinct phases: damage phase, where the layer is cracked, however, a dominant piece persists retaining the structural integrity of the layer, and a fragmentation phase, where the layer disintegrates into numerous small pieces. Based on finite size scaling we show that the transition between the two phases occurs at a critical damage analogous to continuous phase transitions. At the critical point a fully connected crack network emerges whose structure is controlled by the strength of adhesion to the substrate. In the strong adhesion limit, damage arises from random microcrack nucleation, resembling bond percolation, while weak adhesion facilitates stress concentration and the growth of cracks to large extensions. The critical exponents of the damage to fragmentation transition agree to a reasonable accuracy with those of two-dimensional bond percolation. Our findings provide a novel insights into the mechanism of shrinkage-induced cracking revealing generic scaling laws of the phenomenon.
On the role of non-linear latent features in bipartite generative neural networks

Tony Bonnaire, Giovanni Catania, Aurélien Decelle, Beatriz Seoane

SciPost Phys. 19, 141 (2025) · published 1 December 2025 | · pdf

We investigate the phase diagram and memory retrieval capabilities of Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs), an archetypal model of bipartite energy-based neural networks, as a function of the prior distribution imposed on their hidden units—including binary, multi-state, and ReLU-like activations. Drawing connections to the Hopfield model and employing analytical tools from statistical physics of disordered systems, we explore how the architectural choices and activation functions shape the thermodynamic properties of these models. Our analysis reveals that standard RBMs with binary hidden nodes and extensive connectivity suffer from reduced critical capacity, limiting their effectiveness as associative memories. To address this, we examine several modifications, such as introducing local biases and adopting richer hidden unit priors. These adjustments restore ordered retrieval phases and markedly improve recall performance, even at finite temperatures. Our theoretical findings, supported by finite-size Monte Carlo simulations, highlight the importance of hidden unit design in enhancing the expressive power of RBMs.
Threshold improved $Z H$ production at the LHC

Goutam Das, Chinmoy Dey, Meduri C. Kumar, Kajal Samanta

SciPost Phys. Comm. Rep. 14 (2025) · published 1 December 2025 | · pdf

We present precise theoretical results for the $ZH$ production cross section and invariant mass distribution at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) taking into account the effects of soft gluons. We improve both quark-initiated and gluon-initiated subprocesses through threshold resummation within the QCD framework and present combined results relevant for $13.6$ TeV LHC.
Impurity effect and vortex cluster phase in mesoscopic type-1.5 superconductors

Tian-Yi Han, Guo Wang, Jie Li, Hai Huang

SciPost Phys. 19, 140 (2025) · published 28 November 2025 | · pdf

Based on two-band time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory, we study the electromagnetic properties of two-band mesoscopic superconductors. We perform the numerical simulations with the finite element method, and determine the minimum sample size $L_c$ for the existence of the type-1.5 superconductivity from the obtained phase diagram in the absence of impurity. Meanwhile in the presence of an isotropic impurity, our numerical results reveal that the vortex cluster state induced by the attractive defect potential will gradually appear in the mesoscopic system with the sample size $L < L_c$, and the critical defect strength is about 0.2 in the $T_c$ disorder model. In addition, we also investigate the effect of anisotropic defect structures and multiple correlated disorders on the patterns of magnetic vortex distributions. Our theoretical study thus indicates that the diversity of impurity depositions has a significant influence on the semi-Meissner state in mesoscopic type-1.5 superconductors.

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