Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Universal features of higher-form symmetries at phase transitions

  Xiao-Chuan Wu, Chao-Ming Jian, Cenke Xu

  SciPost Phys. 11, 033 (2021) · published 18 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the behavior of higher-form symmetries at various quantum phase transitions. We consider discrete 1-form symmetries, which can be either part of the generalized concept ``categorical symmetry" (labelled as $\tilde{Z}_N^{(1)}$) introduced recently, or an explicit $Z_N^{(1)}$ 1-form symmetry. We demonstrate that for many quantum phase transitions involving a $Z_N^{(1)}$ or $\tilde{Z}_N^{(1)}$ symmetry, the following expectation value $ \langle \left( \log O_\mathcal{C} \right)^2 \rangle$ takes the form $\langle \left( \log O_\mathcal{C} \right)^2 \rangle \sim - \frac{A}{\epsilon} P+ b \log P $, where $O_\mathcal{C} $ is an operator defined associated with loop $\mathcal{C} $ (or its interior $\mathcal{A} $), which reduces to the Wilson loop operator for cases with an explicit $Z_N^{(1)}$ 1-form symmetry. $P$ is the perimeter of $\mathcal{C} $, and the $b \log P$ term arises from the sharp corners of the loop $\mathcal{C} $, which is consistent with recent numerics on a particular example. $b$ is a universal microscopic-independent number, which in $(2+1)d$ is related to the universal conductivity at the quantum phase transition. $b$ can be computed exactly for certain transitions using the dualities between $(2+1)d$ conformal field theories developed in recent years. We also compute the ``strange correlator" of $O_\mathcal{C} $: $S_{\mathcal{C} } = \langle 0 | O_\mathcal{C} | 1 \rangle / \langle 0 | 1 \rangle$ where $|0\rangle$ and $|1\rangle$ are many-body states with different topological nature.

  20 citations

• Comments on foliated gauge theories and dualities in 3+1d

  Po-Shen Hsin, Kevin Slagle

  SciPost Phys. 11, 032 (2021) · published 17 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the properties of foliated gauge fields and construct several foliated field theories in 3+1d that describe foliated fracton orders both with and without matter, including the recent hybrid fracton models. These field theories describe Abelian or non-Abelian gauge theories coupled to foliated gauge fields, and they fall into two classes of models that we call the electric models and the magnetic models. We show that these two classes of foliated field theories enjoy a duality. We also construct a model (using foliated gauge fields and an exactly solvable lattice Hamiltonian model) for a subsystem-symmetry protected topological (SSPT) phase, which is analogous to a one-form symmetry protected topological phase, with the subsystem symmetry acting on codimension-two subregions. We construct the corresponding gauged SSPT phase as a foliated two-form gauge theory. Some instances of the gauged SSPT phase are a variant of the X-cube model with the same ground state degeneracy and the same fusion, but different particle statistics.

  25 citations

• Entanglement entropy with Lifshitz fermions

  Dion Hartmann, Kevin Kavanagh, Stefan Vandoren

  SciPost Phys. 11, 031 (2021) · published 17 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate fermions with Lifshitz scaling symmetry and study their entanglement entropy in 1+1 dimensions as a function of the scaling exponent $z$. Remarkably, in the ground state the entanglement entropy vanishes for even values of $z$, whereas for odd values it is independent of $z$ and equal to the relativistic case with $z=1$. We show this using the correlation method on the lattice, and also using a holographic cMERA approach. The entanglement entropy in a thermal state is a more detailed function of $z$ and $T$ which we plot using the lattice correlation method. The dependence on the even- or oddness of $z$ still shows for small temperatures, but is washed out for large temperatures or large values of $z$.

  5 citations

• Mott transition in a cavity-boson system: A quantitative comparison between theory and experiment

  Rui Lin, Christoph Georges, Jens Klinder, Paolo Molignini, Miriam Büttner, Axel U. J. Lode, R. Chitra, Andreas Hemmerich, Hans Keßler

  SciPost Phys. 11, 030 (2021) · published 17 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The competition between short-range and cavity-mediated infinite-range interactions in a cavity-boson system leads to the existence of a superfluid phase and a Mott-insulator phase within the self-organized regime. In this work, we quantitatively compare the steady-state phase boundaries of this transition measured in experiments and simulated using the Multiconfigurational Time-Dependent Hartree Method for Indistinguishable Particles. To make the problem computationally feasible, we represent the full system by the exact many-body wave function of a two-dimensional four-well potential. We argue that the validity of this representation comes from the nature of both the cavity-atomic system and the Bose-Hubbard physics. Additionally we show that the chosen representation only induces small systematic errors, and that the experimentally measured and theoretically predicted phase boundaries agree reasonably. We thus demonstrate a new approach for the quantitative numerical determination of the superfluid--Mott-insulator phase boundary.

  9 citations

• Why space could be quantised on a different scale to matter

  Matthew J. Lake

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 014 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The scale of quantum mechanical effects in matter is set by Planck's constant, $\hbar$. This represents the quantisation scale for material objects. In this article, we present a simple argument why the quantisation scale for space, and hence for gravity, may not be equal to $\hbar$. Indeed, assuming a single quantisation scale for both matter and geometry leads to the `worst prediction in physics', namely, the huge difference between the observed and predicted vacuum energies. Conversely, assuming a different quantum of action for geometry, $\beta \ll \hbar$, allows us to recover the observed density of the Universe. Thus, by measuring its present-day expansion, we may in principle determine, empirically, the scale at which the geometric degrees of freedom should be quantised.

  4 citations

• Area law and OPE blocks in conformal field theory

  Jiang Long

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 013 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This is an introduction to the relationship between area law and OPE blocks in conformal field theory.

• Linear stability of Einstein and de Sitter universes in the quadratic theory of modified gravity

  Mudhahir Al-Ajmi

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 012 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the Einstein static and the de Sitter universe solutions and examine their instabilities in a subclass of quadratic modified theories for gravity. This modification proposed by Nash is an attempt to generalize general relativity. Interestingly, we discover that the Einstein static universe is unstable in the context of the modified gravity. In contrast to Einstein static universe, the de Sitter universe remains stable under metric perturbation up to the second order.

• Classical boundary field theory of Jacobi sigma models by Poissonization

  Ion V. Vancea

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 011 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper, we are going to construct the classical field theory on the boundary of the embedding of $\mathbb{R} \times S^{1}$ into the manifold $M$ by the Jacobi sigma model. By applying the poissonization procedure and by generalizing the known method for Poisson sigma models, we express the fields of the model as perturbative expansions in terms of the reduced phase space of the boundary. We calculate these fields up to the second order and illustrate the procedure for contact manifolds.

• Hawking flux of 4D Schwarzschild blackhole with supertransition correction to second-order

  Shingo Takeuchi

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 010 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Former part of this article is the proceeding for my talk on arXiv:2004.07474, which is a report on the issue in the title of this article. Later part is the detailed description of arXiv:2004.07474.

  1 citation

• Position-dependent mass quantum systems and ADM formalism

  Davood Momeni

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 009 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The classical Einstein-Hilbert (EH) action for general relativity (GR) is shown to be formally analogous to the classical system with position-dependent mass (PDM) models. The analogy is developed and used to build the covariant classical Hamiltonian as well as defining an alternative phase portrait for GR. The set of associated Hamilton's equations in the phase space is presented as a first-order system dual to the Einstein field equations. Following the principles of quantum mechanics, I build a canonical theory for the classical general. A fully consistent quantum Hamiltonian for GR is constructed based on adopting a high dimensional phase space. It is observed that the functional wave equation is timeless. As a direct application, I present an alternative wave equation for quantum cosmology. In comparison to the standard Arnowitt-Deser-Misner(ADM) decomposition and quantum gravity proposals, I extended my analysis beyond the covariant regime when the metric is decomposed into the 3+1 dimensional ADM decomposition. I showed that an equal dimensional phase space can be obtained if one applies ADM decomposed metric.