Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Fermion mass hierarchies from supersymmetric gauged flavour symmetry in 5D

  Ketan M. Patel

  SciPost Phys. 10, 154 (2021) · published 24 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A mechanism to generate realistic fermion mass hierarchies based on supersymmetric gauged $U(1)_F$ symmetry in flat five-dimensional (5D) spacetime is proposed. The fifth dimension is compactified on $S^1/Z_2$ orbifold. The standard model fermions charged under the extra abelian symmetry along with their superpartners live in the 5D bulk. Bulk masses of fermions are generated by the vacuum expectation value of $N=2$ superpartner of $U(1)_F$ gauge field, and they are proportional to $U(1)_F$ charges of respective fermions. This decides localization of fermions in the extra dimension, which in turn gives rise to exponentially suppressed Yukawa couplings in the effective 4D theory. Anomaly cancellation puts stringent constraints on the allowed $U(1)_F$ charges which leads to correlations between the masses of quarks and leptons. We perform an extensive numerical scan and obtain several solutions for anomaly-free $U(1)_F$, which describe the observed pattern of fermion masses and mixing with all the fundamental parameters of order unity. It is found that the possible existence of SM singlet neutrinos substantially improves the spectrum of solutions by offering more freedom in choosing $U(1)_F$ charges. The model predicts $Z^\prime$ boson mediating flavour violating interactions in both the quark and lepton sectors with the couplings which can be explicitly determined from the Yukawa couplings.

  3 citations

• Kinetic field theory: Non-linear cosmic power spectra in the mean-field approximation

  Matthias Bartelmann, Johannes Dombrowski, Sara Konrad, Elena Kozlikin, Robert Lilow, Carsten Littek, Christophe Pixius, Felix Fabis

  SciPost Phys. 10, 153 (2021) · published 23 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We use the recently developed Kinetic Field Theory (KFT) for cosmic structure formation to show how non-linear power spectra for cosmic density fluctuations can be calculated in a mean-field approximation to the particle interactions. Our main result is a simple, closed and analytic, approximate expression for this power spectrum. This expression has two parameters characterising non-linear structure growth which can be calibrated within KFT itself. Using this self-calibration, the non-linear power spectrum agrees with results obtained from numerical simulations to within typically $\lesssim10\,\%$ up to wave numbers $k\lesssim10\,h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ at redshift $z = 0$. Adjusting the two parameters to optimise agreement with numerical simulations, the relative difference to numerical results shrinks to typically $\lesssim 5\,\%$. As part of the derivation of our mean-field approximation, we show that the effective interaction potential between dark-matter particles relative to Zel'dovich trajectories is sourced by non-linear cosmic density fluctuations only, and is approximately of Yukawa rather than Newtonian shape.

  8 citations

• Quantum hypothesis testing in many-body systems

  Jan de Boer, Victor Godet, Jani Kastikainen, Esko Keski-Vakkuri

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 019 (2021) · published 23 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  One of the key tasks in physics is to perform measurements in order to determine the state of a system. Often, measurements are aimed at determining the values of physical parameters, but one can also ask simpler questions, such as "is the system in state A or state B?". In quantum mechanics, the latter type of measurements can be studied and optimized using the framework of quantum hypothesis testing. In many cases one can explicitly find the optimal measurement in the limit where one has simultaneous access to a large number $n$ of identical copies of the system, and estimate the expected error as $n$ becomes large. Interestingly, error estimates turn out to involve various quantum information theoretic quantities such as relative entropy, thereby giving these quantities operational meaning. In this paper we consider the application of quantum hypothesis testing to quantum many-body systems and quantum field theory. We review some of the necessary background material, and study in some detail the situation where the two states one wants to distinguish are parametrically close. The relevant error estimates involve quantities such as the variance of relative entropy, for which we prove a new inequality. We explore the optimal measurement strategy for spin chains and two-dimensional conformal field theory, focusing on the task of distinguishing reduced density matrices of subsystems. The optimal strategy turns out to be somewhat cumbersome to implement in practice, and we discuss a possible alternative strategy and the corresponding errors.

  7 citations

• A comment on instantons and their fermion zero modes in adjoint QCD_2

  Andrei Smilga

  SciPost Phys. 10, 152 (2021) · published 22 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The adjoint 2-dimensional $QCD$ with the gauge group $SU(N)/Z_N$ admits topologically nontrivial gauge field configurations associated with nontrivial $\pi_1[SU(N)/Z_N] = Z_N$. The topological sectors are labelled by an integer $k=0,\ldots, N-1$. However, in contrast to $QED_2$ and $QCD_4$, this topology is not associated with an integral invariant like the magnetic flux or Pontryagin index. These instantons may admit fermion zero modes, but there is always an equal number of left-handed and right-handed modes, so that the Atiyah-Singer theorem, which determines in other cases the number of the modes, does not apply. The mod. 2 argument suggests that, for a generic gauge field configuration, there is either a single doublet of such zero modes or no modes whatsoever. However, the known solution of the Dirac problem for a wide class of gauge field configurations indicates the presence of $k(N-k)$ zero mode doublets in the topological sector $k$. In this note, we demonstrate in an explicit way that these modes are not robust under a generic enough deformation of the gauge background and confirm thereby the mod. 2 conjecture. The implications for the physics of this theory (screening vs. confinement issue) are briefly discussed.

  7 citations

• Using machine learning to disentangle LHC signatures of Dark Matter candidates

  Charanjit Kaur Khosa, Veronica Sanz, Michael Soughton

  SciPost Phys. 10, 151 (2021) · published 22 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the prospects of characterising Dark Matter at colliders using Machine Learning (ML) techniques. We focus on the monojet and missing transverse energy (MET) channel and propose a set of benchmark models for the study: a typical WIMP Dark Matter candidate in the form of a SUSY neutralino, a pseudo-Goldstone impostor in the shape of an Axion-Like Particle, and a light Dark Matter impostor whose interactions are mediated by a heavy particle. All these benchmarks are tensioned against each other, and against the main SM background ($Z$+jets). Our analysis uses both the leading-order kinematic features as well as the information of an additional hard jet. We explore different representations of the data, from a simple event data sample with values of kinematic variables fed into a Logistic Regression algorithm or a Fully Connected Neural Network, to a transformation of the data into images related to probability distributions, fed to Deep and Convolutional Neural Networks. We also study the robustness of our method against including detector effects, dropping kinematic variables, or changing the number of events per image. In the case of signals with more combinatorial possibilities (events with more than one hard jet), the most crucial data features are selected by performing a Principal Component Analysis. We compare the performance of all these methods, and find that using the 2D images of the combined information of multiple events significantly improves the discrimination performance.

  13 citations

• A final word on FCNC-Baryogenesis from two Higgs doublets

  Wei-Shu Hou, Tanmoy Modak, Tilman Plehn

  SciPost Phys. 10, 150 (2021) · published 21 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Electroweak baryogenesis in a two-Higgs doublet model is a well-motivated and testable scenario for physics beyond the Standard Model. An attractive way of providing $CP$ violation is through flavor-changing Higgs couplings, where linking top and charm quarks is hardly constrained by flavor and $CP$-violation constraints. We show how this scenario can be conclusively tested by searching for heavy charged and neutral Higgs bosons at the LHC. While the charged Higgs signature requires a dedicated analysis, the neutral Higgs signature will be covered by a general search for same-sign top pairs.

  6 citations

• Correlations of quantum curvature and variance of Chern numbers

  Omri Gat, Michael Wilkinson

  SciPost Phys. 10, 149 (2021) · published 21 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We analyse the correlation function of the quantum curvature in complex quantum systems, using a random matrix model to provide an exemplar of a universal correlation function. We show that the correlation function diverges as the inverse of the distance at small separations. We also define and analyse a correlation function of mixed states, showing that it is finite but singular at small separations. A scaling hypothesis on a universal form for both types of correlations is supported by Monte-Carlo simulations. We relate the correlation function of the curvature to the variance of Chern integers which can describe quantised Hall conductance.

  4 citations

• Gauging the Kitaev chain

  Umberto Borla, Ruben Verresen, Jeet Shah, Sergej Moroz

  SciPost Phys. 10, 148 (2021) · published 18 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We gauge the fermion parity symmetry of the Kitaev chain. While the bulk of the model becomes an Ising chain of gauge-invariant spins in a tilted field, near the boundaries the global fermion parity symmetry survives gauging, leading to local gauge-invariant Majorana operators. In the absence of vortices, the Higgs phase exhibits fermionic symmetry-protected topological (SPT) order distinct from the Kitaev chain. Moreover, the deconfined phase can be stable even in the presence of vortices. We also undertake a comprehensive study of a gently gauged model which interpolates between the ordinary and gauged Kitaev chains. This showcases rich quantum criticality and illuminates the topological nature of the Higgs phase. Even in the absence of superconducting terms, gauging leads to an SPT phase which is intrinsically gapless due to an emergent anomaly.

  23 citations

• Bogoliubov quasiparticles in superconducting qubits

  Leonid I. Glazman, Gianluigi Catelani

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 31 (2021) · published 18 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Extending the qubit coherence times is a crucial task in building quantum information processing devices. In the three-dimensional cavity implementations of circuit QED, the coherence of superconducting qubits was improved dramatically due to cutting the losses associated with the photon emission. Next frontier in improving the coherence includes the mitigation of the adverse effects of superconducting quasiparticles. In these lectures, we review the basics of the quasiparticles dynamics, their interaction with the qubit degree of freedom, their contribution to the qubit relaxation rates, and approaches to control their effect.

  36 citations

• Learning the ground state of a non-stoquastic quantum Hamiltonian in a rugged neural network landscape

  Marin Bukov, Markus Schmitt, Maxime Dupont

  SciPost Phys. 10, 147 (2021) · published 17 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Strongly interacting quantum systems described by non-stoquastic Hamiltonians exhibit rich low-temperature physics. Yet, their study poses a formidable challenge, even for state-of-the-art numerical techniques. Here, we investigate systematically the performance of a class of universal variational wave-functions based on artificial neural networks, by considering the frustrated spin-$1/2$ $J_1-J_2$ Heisenberg model on the square lattice. Focusing on neural network architectures without physics-informed input, we argue in favor of using an ansatz consisting of two decoupled real-valued networks, one for the amplitude and the other for the phase of the variational wavefunction. By introducing concrete mitigation strategies against inherent numerical instabilities in the stochastic reconfiguration algorithm we obtain a variational energy comparable to that reported recently with neural networks that incorporate knowledge about the physical system. Through a detailed analysis of the individual components of the algorithm, we conclude that the rugged nature of the energy landscape constitutes the major obstacle in finding a satisfactory approximation to the ground state wavefunction, and prevents learning the correct sign structure. In particular, we show that in the present setup the neural network expressivity and Monte Carlo sampling are not primary limiting factors.

  46 citations