Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Tunnelling to holographic traversable wormholes

  Suzanne Bintanja, Ben Freivogel, Andrew Rolph

  SciPost Phys. 16, 066 (2024) · published 5 March 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study nonperturbative effects of quantum gravity in a system consisting of a coupled pair of holographic CFTs. The AdS$_4$/CFT$_3$ system has three possible ground states: two copies of empty AdS, a pair of extremal AdS black holes, and an eternal AdS traversable wormhole. We give a recipe for calculating transition rates via gravitational instantons and test it by calculating the emission rate of radiation shells from a black hole. We calculate the nucleation rate of a traversable wormhole between a pair of AdS-RN black holes in the canonical and microcanonical ensembles. Our results give predictions of nonpertubative quantum gravity that can be tested in a holographic simulation.

  5 citations

• Massless Rarita-Schwinger equations: Half and three halves spin solution

  Mauricio Valenzuela, Jorge Zanelli

  SciPost Phys. 16, 065 (2024) · published 4 March 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Counting the degrees of freedom of the massless Rarita-Schwinger theory is revisited using Behrends-Fronsdal projectors. The identification of the gauge invariant part of the vector-spinor is thus straightforward, consisting of spins 1/2 and 3/2. The validity of this statement is supported by the explicit solution found in the standard gamma-traceless gauge. Since the obtained systems are deterministic -free of arbitrary functions of time- we argue that the often-invoked residual gauge symmetry lacks fundamental grounding and should not be used to enforce new external constraints. The result is verified by the total Hamiltonian dynamics. We conclude that eliminating the spin-1/2 mode via the extended Hamiltonian dynamics would be acceptable if the Dirac conjecture was assumed; however, this framework does not accurately describe the original Lagrangian system.

  4 citations

• Majorana chain and Ising model - (non-invertible) translations, anomalies, and emanant symmetries

  Nathan Seiberg, Shu-Heng Shao

  SciPost Phys. 16, 064 (2024) · published 1 March 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the symmetries of closed Majorana chains in 1+1d, including the translation, fermion parity, spatial parity, and time-reversal symmetries. The algebra of the symmetry operators is realized projectively on the Hilbert space, signaling anomalies on the lattice, and constraining the long-distance behavior. In the special case of the free Hamiltonian (and small deformations thereof), the continuum limit is the 1+1d free Majorana CFT. Its continuum chiral fermion parity $(-1)^{F_\text{L}}$ emanates from the lattice translation symmetry. We find a lattice precursor of its mod 8 't Hooft anomaly. Using a Jordan-Wigner transformation, we sum over the spin structures of the lattice model (a procedure known as the GSO projection), while carefully tracking the global symmetries. In the resulting bosonic model of Ising spins, the Majorana translation operator leads to a non-invertible lattice translation symmetry at the critical point. The non-invertible Kramers-Wannier duality operator of the continuum Ising CFT emanates from this non-invertible lattice translation of the transverse-field Ising model.

  73 citations

• Boundary signature of singularity in the presence of a shock wave

  Gary T. Horowitz, Henry Leung, Leonel Queimada, Ying Zhao

  SciPost Phys. 16, 060 (2024) · published 28 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Matter falling into a Schwarzschild-AdS black hole from the left causes increased focussing of ingoing geodesics from the right, and, as a consequence, they reach the singularity sooner. In a standard Penrose diagram, the singularity "bends down". We show how to detect this feature of the singularity holographically, using a boundary two-point function. We model the matter with a shock wave, and show that this bending down of the singularity can be read off from a novel analytic continuation of the boundary two-point function. Along the way, we obtain a generalization of the recently proposed thermal product formula for two-point correlators.

  13 citations

• Classification of chiral fermionic CFTs of central charge $\le$ 16

  Philip Boyle Smith, Ying-Hsuan Lin, Yuji Tachikawa, Yunqin Zheng

  SciPost Phys. 16, 058 (2024) · published 27 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We classify two-dimensional purely chiral unitary conformal field theories which are defined on two-dimensional surfaces equipped with spin structure and have central charge less than or equal to $16$, and discuss their duality webs. This result can be used to confirm that the list of non-supersymmetric ten-dimensional heterotic string theories found in the late 1980s is complete and does not miss any exotic example.

  24 citations

• The Virasoro minimal string

  Scott Collier, Lorenz Eberhardt, Beatrix Mühlmann, Victor A. Rodriguez

  SciPost Phys. 16, 057 (2024) · published 26 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We introduce a critical string theory in two dimensions and demonstrate that this theory, viewed as two-dimensional quantum gravity on the worldsheet, is equivalent to a double-scaled matrix integral. The worldsheet theory consists of Liouville CFT with central charge c$≥$ 25 coupled to timelike Liouville CFT with central charge 26-c. The double-scaled matrix integral has as its leading density of states the universal Cardy density of primaries in a two-dimensional CFT, thus motivating the name Virasoro minimal string. The duality holds for any value of the continuous parameter $c$ and reduces to the JT gravity/matrix integral duality in the large central charge limit. It thus provides a precise stringy realization of JT gravity. The main observables of the Virasoro minimal string are quantum analogues of the Weil-Petersson volumes, which are computed as absolutely convergent integrals of worldsheet CFT correlators over the moduli space of Riemann surfaces. By exploiting a relation of the Virasoro minimal string to three-dimensional gravity and intersection theory on the moduli space of Riemann surfaces, we are able to give a direct derivation of the duality. We provide many checks, such as explicit numerical - and in special cases, analytic - integration of string diagrams, the identification of the CFT boundary conditions with asymptotic boundaries of the two-dimensional spacetime, and the matching between the leading non-perturbative corrections of the worldsheet theory and the matrix integral. As a byproduct, we discover natural conformal boundary conditions for timelike Liouville CFT.

  46 citations

• Quantum current and holographic categorical symmetry

  Tian Lan, Jing-Ren Zhou

  SciPost Phys. 16, 053 (2024) · published 23 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We establish the formulation for quantum current. Given a symmetry group G, let $\mathcal{C}$:=Rep G be its representation category. Physically, symmetry charges are objects of $\mathcal{C}$ and symmetric operators are morphisms in $\mathcal{C}$. The addition of charges is given by the tensor product of representations. For any symmetric operator O crossing two subsystems, the exact symmetry charge transported by O can be extracted. The quantum current is defined as symmetric operators that can transport symmetry charges over an arbitrary long distance. A quantum current exactly corresponds to an object in the Drinfeld center $Z_1(\mathcal{C})$. The condition for quantum currents to be superconducting is also specified, which corresponds to condensation of anyons in one higher dimension. To express the local conservation, the internal hom must be used to compute the charge difference, and the framework of enriched category is inevitable. To illustrate these ideas, we develop a rigorous scheme of renormalization in one-dimensional lattice systems and analyse the fixed-point models. It is proved that in the fixed-point models, superconducting quantum currents form a Lagrangian algebra in $Z_1(\mathcal{C})$ and the boundary-bulk correspondence is verified in the enriched setting. Overall, the quantum current provides a natural physical interpretation to the holographic categorical symmetry.

  8 citations

• Line operators in 4d Chern-Simons theory and Cherkis bows

  Nafiz Ishtiaque, Yehao Zhou

  SciPost Phys. 16, 052 (2024) · published 22 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that the phase spaces of a large family of line operators in 4d Chern-Simons theory with GL$_n$ gauge group are given by Cherkis bow varieties with $n$ crosses. These line operators are characterized by Hanany-Witten type brane constructions involving D3, D5, and NS5 branes in an $\Omega$-background. Linking numbers of the five-branes and mass parameters for the D3 brane theories determine the phase spaces and in special cases they correspond to vacuum moduli spaces of 3d $\mathcal{N}=4$ quiver theories. Examples include line operators that conjecturally create T, Q, and L-operators in integrable spin chains.

  1 citation

• Dipole symmetries from the topology of the phase space and the constraints on the low-energy spectrum

  Tomáš Brauner, Naoki Yamamoto, Ryo Yokokura

  SciPost Phys. 16, 051 (2024) · published 20 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We demonstrate the general existence of a local dipole conservation law in bosonic field theory. The scalar charge density arises from the symplectic form of the system, whereas the tensor current descends from its stress tensor. The algebra of spatial translations becomes centrally extended in presence of field configurations with a finite nonzero charge. Furthermore, when the symplectic form is closed but not exact, the system may, surprisingly, lack a well-defined momentum density. This leads to a theorem for the presence of additional light modes in the system whenever the short-distance physics is governed by a translationally invariant local field theory. We also illustrate this mechanism for axion electrodynamics as an example of a system with Nambu-Goldstone modes of higher-form symmetries.

  4 citations

• A symmetry principle for gauge theories with fractons

  Yuji Hirono, Minyoung You, Stephen Angus, Gil Young Cho

  SciPost Phys. 16, 050 (2024) · published 20 February 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Fractonic phases are new phases of matter that host excitations with restricted mobility. We show that a certain class of gapless fractonic phases are realized as a result of spontaneous breaking of continuous higher-form symmetries whose conserved charges do not commute with spatial translations. We refer to such symmetries as nonuniform higher-form symmetries. These symmetries fall within the standard definition of higher-form symmetries in quantum field theory, and the corresponding symmetry generators are topological. Worldlines of particles are regarded as the charged objects of 1-form symmetries, and mobility restrictions can be implemented by introducing additional 1-form symmetries whose generators do not commute with spatial translations. These features are realized by effective field theories associated with spontaneously broken nonuniform 1-form symmetries. At low energies, the theories reduce to known higher-rank gauge theories such as scalar/vector charge gauge theories, and the gapless excitations in these theories are interpreted as Nambu-Goldstone modes for higher-form symmetries. Due to the nonuniformity of the symmetry, some of the modes acquire a gap, which is the higher-form analogue of the inverse Higgs mechanism of spacetime symmetries. The gauge theories have emergent nonuniform magnetic symmetries, and some of the magnetic monopoles become fractonic. We identify the 't Hooft anomalies of the nonuniform higher-form symmetries and the corresponding bulk symmetry-protected topological phases. By this method, the mobility restrictions are fully determined by the choice of the commutation relations of charges with translations. This approach allows us to view existing (gapless) fracton models such as the scalar/vector charge gauge theories and their variants from a unified perspective and enables us to engineer theories with desired mobility restrictions.

  12 citations