Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• On the topology of solutions to random continuous constraint satisfaction problems

  Jaron Kent-Dobias

  SciPost Phys. 18, 158 (2025) · published 15 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the set of solutions to $M$ random polynomial equations whose $N$ variables are restricted to the $(N-1)$-sphere. Each equation has independent Gaussian coefficients and a target value $V_0$. When solutions exist, they form a manifold. We compute the average Euler characteristic of this manifold in the limit of large $N$, and find different behavior depending on the target value $V_0$, the ratio $\alpha=M/N$, and the variances of the coefficients. We divide this behavior into five phases with different implications for the topology of the solution manifold. When $M=1$ there is a correspondence between this problem and level sets of the energy in the spherical spin glasses. We conjecture that the transition energy dividing two of the topological phases corresponds to the energy asymptotically reached by gradient descent from a random initial condition, possibly resolving an open problem in out-of-equilibrium dynamics. However, the quality of the available data leaves the question open for now.

  2 citations

• Intertwined order of generalized global symmetries

  Benjamin Moy, Eduardo Fradkin

  SciPost Phys. 18, 157 (2025) · published 15 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the interplay of generalized global symmetries in 2+1 dimensions in a lattice model that couples a $\mathbb{Z}_N$ clock model to a $\mathbb{Z}_N$ gauge theory via a topological interaction. This coupling binds the charges of one symmetry to the disorder operators of the other, and when these composite objects condense, they give rise to emergent generalized symmetries with mixed 't Hooft anomalies. These anomalies result in phases with ordinary symmetry breaking, topological order, and symmetry-protected topological (SPT) order, where the different types of order are not independent but intimately related. We further explore the gapped boundary states of these exotic phases and develop theories for phase transitions between them. Additionally, we extend this lattice model to incorporate a non-invertible global symmetry, which can be spontaneously broken, leading to domain walls with non-trivial fusion rules.

  2 citations

• Political or environmental refugees? Re-examining the flight of the Vietnamese boat people, 1975-1995

  Saphia Fleury

  Mig. Pol. 4, 001 (2025) · published 15 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This paper examines ecocide in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War (1954 to 1975) and the extent to which it drove the ‘boat people’ mass migration from Vietnam from 1975 to the mid-1990s. The exodus has become an archetype of a ‘political’ refugee flow, based on a Western Cold War narrative of people fleeing en masse from the persecution of an autocratic Communist regime. This paper challenges this assumption, showing how the interplay of environmental factors with political and military decisions contributed to the post-war exodus. These findings are reached through the analysis of historical primary sources as well as 229 oral history interviews, some 40 per cent of which were conducted with former child refugees. The implications have contemporary relevance because modern migration flows are frequently mixed, and climate change is further complicating the reasons that people leave their homes and their ability to access asylum. The conclusion argues that ecocide can, in some contexts, be considered a form of persecution for the purpose of refugee determination.

• The club sandwich: Gapless phases and phase transitions with non-invertible symmetries

  Lakshya Bhardwaj, Lea E. Bottini, Daniel Pajer, Sakura Schäfer-Nameki

  SciPost Phys. 18, 156 (2025) · published 14 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We provide a generalization of the Symmetry Topological Field Theory (SymTFT) framework to characterize phase transitions and gapless phases with categorical symmetries. The central tool is the club sandwich, which extends the SymTFT setup to include an interface between two topological orders: there is a symmetry boundary, which is gapped, and a physical boundary that may be gapless, but in addition, there is also a gapped interface in the middle. The club sandwich generalizes so-called Kennedy-Tasaki (KT) transformations. Building on the results in [L. Bhardwaj et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 161601 (2024); L. Bhardwaj et al., SciPost Phys. 18, 032 (2025)] on gapped phases with categorical symmetries, we construct gapless theories describing phase transitions with non-invertible symmetries by applying suitable KT transformations on known phase transitions provided by the critical Ising model and the 3-state Potts model. We also describe in detail the order parameters in these gapless theories characterizing the phase transitions, which are generally mixtures of conventional and string-type order parameters mixed together by the action of categorical symmetries. Additionally, removing the physical boundary from the club sandwiches results in club quiches, which characterize all possible gapped boundary phases with (possibly non-invertible) symmetries that can arise on the boundary of a bulk gapped phase. We also provide a mathematical characterization of gapped boundary phases with symmetries as pivotal tensor functors whose targets are pivotal multi-fusion categories.

  18 citations

• SKATR: A self-supervised summary transformer for SKA

  Ayodele Ore, Caroline Heneka, Tilman Plehn

  SciPost Phys. 18, 155 (2025) · published 14 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The Square Kilometer Array will initiate a new era of radio astronomy by allowing 3D imaging of the Universe during Cosmic Dawn and Reionization. Modern machine learning is crucial to analyze the highly structured and complex signal. However, accurate training data is expensive to simulate, and supervised learning may not generalize. We introduce a self-supervised vision transformer, SKATR, whose learned encoding can be cheaply adapted for downstream tasks on 21cm maps. Focusing on regression and generative inference of astrophysical and cosmological parameters, we demonstrate that SKATR representations are maximally informative and that SKATR generalizes out-of-domain to differently-simulated, noised, and higher-resolution datasets.

  1 citation

• The complex Liouville string: The matrix integral

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

  SciPost Phys. 18, 154 (2025) · published 13 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose a duality between the complex Liouville string and a two-matrix integral. The complex Liouville string is defined by coupling two Liouville theories with complex central charges $c = 13 ± i \lambda$ on the worldsheet. The matrix integral is characterized by its spectral curve which allows us to compute the perturbative string amplitudes recursively via topological recursion. This duality constitutes a controllable instance of holographic duality. The leverage on the theory is provided by the rich analytic structure of the string amplitudes that we discussed in [arXiv:2409.18759] and allows us to perform numerous tests on the duality.

  7 citations

• Intrinsically/purely gapless-SPT from non-invertible duality transformations

  Linhao Li, Masaki Oshikawa, Yunqin Zheng

  SciPost Phys. 18, 153 (2025) · published 13 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The Kennedy-Tasaki (KT) transformation was used to construct the gapped symmetry protected topological (SPT) phase from the symmetry breaking phase with open boundary condition, and was generalized in our proceeding work [Phys. Rev. B 108, 214429 (2023)] on a ring by sacrificing the unitarity, and should be understood as a non-invertible duality transformation. In this work, we further apply the KT transformation to systematically construct gapless symmetry protected topological phases. This construction reproduces the known examples of (intrinsically) gapless SPT where the non-trivial topological features come from the gapped sectors by means of decorated defect constructions. We also construct new (intrinsically) purely gapless SPTs where there are no gapped sectors, hence are beyond the decorated defect construction. This construction elucidates the field theory description of the various gapless SPTs, and can also be applied to analytically study the stability of various gapless SPT models on the lattice under certain symmetric perturbations.

  15 citations

• New physics through flavor tagging at FCC-ee

  Admir Greljo, Hector Tiblom, Alessandro Valenti

  SciPost Phys. 18, 152 (2025) · published 12 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Leveraging recent advancements in machine learning-based flavor tagging, we develop an optimal analysis for measuring the hadronic cross-section ratios $R_b$, $R_c$, and $R_s$ at the FCC-ee during its $WW$, $Zh$, and $t\bar{t}$ runs. Our results indicate up to a two-order-of-magnitude improvement in precision, providing an unprecedented test of the SM. Using these observables, along with $R_\ell$ and $R_t$, we project sensitivity to flavor non-universal four-fermion (4F) interactions within the SMEFT, contributing both at the tree-level and through the renormalization group (RG). We highlight a subtle complementarity with RG-induced effects at the FCC-ee's $Z$-pole. Our analysis demonstrates significant improvements over the current LEP-II and LHC bounds in probing flavor-conserving 4F operators involving heavy quark flavors and all lepton flavors. As an application, we explore simplified models addressing current $B$-meson anomalies, demonstrating that FCC-ee can effectively probe the relevant parameter space. Finally, we design optimized search strategies for quark flavor-violating 4F interactions.

  9 citations

• Spectral anomalies and broken symmetries in maximally chaotic quantum maps

  Laura Shou, Amit Vikram, Victor Galitski

  SciPost Phys. 18, 151 (2025) · published 12 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Spectral statistics such as the level spacing statistics and spectral form factor (SFF) are widely expected to accurately identify "ergodicity," including the presence of underlying macroscopic symmetries, in generic quantum systems ranging from quantized chaotic maps to interacting many-body systems. By studying various quantizations of maximally chaotic maps that break a discrete classical symmetry upon quantization, we demonstrate that this approach can be misleading and fail to detect macroscopic symmetries. Notably, the same classical map can exhibit signatures of different random matrix symmetry classes in short-range spectral statistics depending on the quantization. While the long-range spectral statistics encoded in the early time ramp of the SFF are more robust and correctly identify macroscopic symmetries in several common quantizations, we also demonstrate analytically and numerically that the presence of Berry-like phases in the quantization leads to spectral anomalies, which break this correspondence. Finally, we provide numerical evidence that long-range spectral rigidity remains directly correlated with ergodicity in the quantum dynamical sense of visiting a complete orthonormal basis.

• MACK: Mismodeling addressed with contrastive knowledge

  Liam Rankin Sheldon, Dylan Sheldon Rankin, Philip Harris

  SciPost Phys. 18, 150 (2025) · published 6 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The use of machine learning methods in high energy physics typically relies on large volumes of precise simulation for training. As machine learning models become more complex they can become increasingly sensitive to differences between this simulation and the real data collected by experiments. We present a generic methodology based on contrastive learning which is able to greatly mitigate this negative effect. Crucially, the method does not require prior knowledge of the specifics of the mismodeling. While we demonstrate the efficacy of this technique using the task of jet-tagging at the Large Hadron Collider, it is applicable to a wide array of different tasks both in and out of the field of high energy physics.

  1 citation