Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Polarization-sensitive imaging in magnetic environments

  Nejc Blaznik, Dries van Oosten, Peter van der Straten

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 076 (2025) · published 31 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Nondestructive spin-resolved imaging of ultracold atomic gases requires calculating the differences of the refractive indices seen by two circular probe polarizations. Perfect overlap of the two images, corresponding to two different polarizations, is required well below the feature size of interest. In this paper, we demonstrate that the birefringence of atoms in magnetic field gradients results in polarization-dependent aberrations in the image, which deteriorates the overlap. To that end, we develop a model that couples atomic tensor polarizability with position-dependent spin orientation and yields aberration predictions for accumulated phase shifts in arbitrary field geometries. Applied to data from an ultra-cold atomic cloud trapped in a Ioffe-Pritchard trap, the model quantitatively reproduces the observed distortion across a range of temperatures. A residual offset of $\sim1\;\mu\mathrm{m}$ remains even under uniform field conditions, likely due to optical asymmetries. For images obtained through off-axis holography, the full complex field of the probe enables post-processing removal of all magnetically induced aberrations through a single numerically calculated Fourier-space phase mask.

• Freelance holography, part II: Moving boundary in gauge/gravity correspondence

  Aliasghar Parvizi, Mohammad M. Sheikh-Jabbari, Vahid Taghiloo

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 075 (2025) · published 31 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We continue developing the freelance holography program, formulating gauge/gravity correspondence where the gravity side is formulated on a space bounded by a generic timelike codimension-one surface inside AdS and arbitrary boundary conditions are imposed on the gravity fields on the surface. Our analysis is performed within the Covariant Phase Space Formalism (CPSF). We discuss how a given boundary condition on the bulk fields on a generic boundary evolves as we move the boundary to another boundary inside AdS and work out how this evolution is encoded in deformations of the holographic effective boundary theory. Our analyses here extend the extensively studied $\text{T}\bar{\text{T}}$-deformation by relaxing the boundary conditions at asymptotic AdS or at the cutoff surface to be any arbitrary one (besides Dirichlet). We discuss some of the implications of our general freelance holography setting.

• The effect of dephasing and spin-lattice relaxation during the switching processes in quantum antiferromagnets

  Asliddin Khudoyberdiev, Götz S. Uhrig

  SciPost Phys. 19, 117 (2025) · published 29 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The control of antiferromagnetic order can pave the way to large storage capacity as well as fast manipulation of stored data. Here achieving a steady-state of sublattice magnetization after switching is crucial to prevent loss of stored data. The present theoretical approach aims to obtain instantaneous stable states of the order after reorienting the Néel vector in open quantum antiferromagnets using time-dependent Schwinger boson mean-field theory. The Lindblad formalism is employed to couple the system to the environment. The quantum theoretical approach comprises differences in the effects of dephasing, originating from destructive interference of different wave vectors, and spin-lattice relaxation. We show that the spin-lattice relaxation results in an exponentially fast convergence to the steady-state after full ultrafast switching.

• Symmetry operators and gravity

  Ibrahima Bah, Patrick Jefferson, Konstantinos Roumpedakis, Thomas Waddleton

  SciPost Phys. 19, 116 (2025) · published 29 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We argue that topological operators for continuous symmetries written in terms of currents need regularization, which effectively gives them a small but finite width. The regulated operator is a finite tension object which fluctuates. In the zero-width limit these fluctuations freeze, recovering the properties of a topological operator. When gravity is turned on, the zero-width limit becomes ill-defined, thereby prohibiting the existence of topological operators.

  3 citations

• Lecture notes on large deviations in non-equilibrium diffusive systems

  Bernard Derrida

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 106 (2025) · published 29 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  These notes are a written version of lectures given in the 2024 Les Houches Summer School on Large deviations and applications. They are are based on a series of works published over the last 25 years on steady properties of non-equilibrium systems in contact with several heat baths at different temperatures or several reservoirs of particles at different densities. After recalling some classical tools to study non-equilibrium steady states, such as the use of tilted matrices, the Fluctuation theorem, the determination of transport coefficients, the Einstein relations or fluctuating hydrodynamics, they describe some of the basic ideas of the macroscopic fluctuation theory allowing to determine the large deviation functions of the density and of the current of diffusive systems.

• The complex Liouville string: The gravitational path integral

  Scott Collier, Lorenz Eberhardt, Beatrix Mühlmann

  SciPost Phys. 19, 115 (2025) · published 28 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We give a rigorous definition of sine dilaton gravity in terms of the worldsheet theory of the complex Liouville string [S. Collier et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 251602 (2025)]. The latter has a known exact solution that we leverage to explore the gravitational path integral of sine dilaton gravity – a quantum deformation of dS JT gravity that admits both AdS$_2$ and dS$_2$ vacua. We uncover that the gravitational path integral receives contributions from new saddles describing transitions between vacua in a third-quantized picture. We also discuss the sphere and disk partition function in this context and contrast our findings with other recent work on this theory.

• Superstring amplitudes meet surfaceology

  Qu Cao, Jin Dong, Song He, Fan Zhu

  SciPost Phys. 19, 114 (2025) · published 28 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We reformulate tree-level amplitudes in open superstring theory (type-I) in terms of stringy Tr$(\phi^3)$ amplitudes with various kinematical shifts in the "curve-integral" formulation: while the bosonic-string amplitude with $n$ pairs of "scaffolding" scalars comes from a particularly simple shift of the Tr$(\phi^3)$ one (corresponding to $n$ length-$2$ cycles), the analogous superstring amplitude requires "correction" terms given by bosonic-string amplitudes with longer, even-length "cycles", which are also Tr$(\phi^3)$ ones at shifted kinematics dictated by the cycles; in total it is expressed as a sum of $(2n-3)!!$ shifted amplitudes originated from the expansion of a reduced Pfaffian. Upon taking $n$ scaffolding residues, this leads to a new formula of the $n$-gluon superstring amplitude, which is manifestly symmetric in $n-1$ legs, as a gauge-invariant combination of mixed bosonic string amplitudes with gluons and scalars, which come from length-$2$ cycles and longer ones respectively (the total sum is associated with the expansion a $n× n$ symmetrical determinant); the corresponding prefactors are nested commutators of $2n$-gon kinematical variables, which nicely become traces of field-strengths for those legs corresponding to scalars in the mixed amplitudes. These interesting linear combinations of bosonic string amplitudes must guarantee the cancellation of tachyon poles and $F^3$ vertices etc., and they give new relations between the superstring amplitude and its bosonic-string building blocks to all orders in the $\alpha'$ expansion (the first order gives a new formula for gluon amplitudes with a single $F^3$ insertion in terms of Yang-Mills-scalar amplitudes). We provide both the worldsheet and "curve-integral" derivations, and discuss applications to heterotic and type II cases.

• Hasse diagrams for gapless SPT and SSB phases with non-invertible symmetries

  Lakshya Bhardwaj, Daniel Pajer, Sakura Schäfer-Nameki, Alison Warman

  SciPost Phys. 19, 113 (2025) · published 28 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss (1+1)d gapless phases with non-invertible global symmetries, also referred to as categorical symmetries. This includes gapless phases showing properties analogous to gapped symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases, known as gapless SPT (or gSPT) phases; and gapless phases showing properties analogous to gapped spontaneous symmetry broken (SSB) phases, that we refer to as gapless SSB (or gSSB) phases. We fit these gapless phases, along with gapped SPT and SSB phases, into a phase diagram describing possible deformations connecting them. This phase diagram is partially ordered and defines a so-called Hasse diagram. Based on these deformations, we identify gapless phases exhibiting symmetry protected criticality, that we refer to as intrinsically gapless SPT (igSPT) and intrinsically gapless SSB (igSSB) phases. This includes the first examples of igSPT and igSSB phases with non-invertible symmetries. Central to this analysis is the Symmetry Topological Field Theory (SymTFT), where each phase corresponds to a condensable algebra in the Drinfeld center of the symmetry category. On a mathematical note, gSPT phases are classified by functors between fusion categories, generalizing the fact that gapped SPT phases are classified by fiber functors; and gSSB phases are classified by functors from fusion to multi-fusion categories. Finally, our framework can be applied to understand gauging of trivially acting non-invertible symmetries, including possible patterns of decomposition arising due to such gaugings.

  2 citations

• Achieving quantum advantage in a search for a violations of the Goldbach conjecture, with driven atoms in tailored potentials

  Oleksandr V. Marchukov, Andrea Trombettoni, Giuseppe Mussardo, Maxim Olshanii

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 074 (2025) · published 28 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The famous Goldbach conjecture states that any even natural number $N$ greater than $2$ can be written as the sum of two prime numbers $p^{\text{(I)}}$ and $p^{\text{(II)}}$. In this article we propose a quantum analogue device that solves the following problem: given a small prime $p^{\text{(I)}}$, identify a member $N$ of a $\mathcal{N}$-strong set even numbers for which $N-p^{\text{(I)}}$ is also a prime. A table of suitable large primes $p^{\text{(II)}}$ is assumed to be known a priori. The device realizes the Grover quantum search protocol and as such ensures a $\sqrt{\mathcal{N}}$ quantum advantage. Our numerical example involves a set of 51 even numbers just above the highest even classical-numerically explored so far [T. O. e Silva, S. Herzog, and S. Pardi, Mathematics of Computation 83, 2033 (2013)]. For a given small prime number $p^{\text{(I)}}=223$, it took our quantum algorithm 5 steps to identify the number $N=4× 10^{18}+14$ as featuring a Goldbach partition involving $223$ and another prime, namely $p^{\text{(II)}}=4× 10^{18}-239$. Currently, our algorithm limits the number of evens to be tested simultaneously to $\mathcal{N} \sim \ln(N)$: larger samples will typically contain more than one even that can be partitioned with the help of a given $p^{\text{(I)}}$, thus leading to a departure from the Grover paradigm.

• Pseudospectral implementation of the Einstein-Maxwell system

  Jorge Expósito Patiño, Hannes Robert Rüter, David Hilditch

  SciPost Phys. 19, 112 (2025) · published 27 October 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Electromagnetism plays an important role in a variety of applications in gravity that we wish to investigate. To that end, in this work, we present an implementation of the Maxwell equations within the adaptive-mesh pseudospectral numerical relativity code BAMPS. We perform a thorough analysis of the evolution equations as a first order symmetric hyperbolic system of PDEs. This includes both the construction of the characteristic variables for use in our penalty boundary communication scheme, as well as radiation controlling, constraint preserving outer boundary conditions which, for the first time in a numerical context, are shown to be boundary-stable. After choosing a formulation of the Maxwell constraints that we may solve for initial data, we move on to show a suite of numerical tests. Our simulations, both within the Cowling approximation, and in full non-linear evolution, demonstrate rapid convergence of error with resolution, as well as consistency with known quasinormal decay rates on the Kerr background. Finally we evolve the electrovacuum equations of motion with strong data, a good representation of typical critical collapse runs.