Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Many-body chaos near a thermal phase transition

  Alexander Schuckert, Michael Knap

  SciPost Phys. 7, 022 (2019) · published 19 August 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study many-body chaos in a (2+1)D relativistic scalar field theory at high temperatures in the classical statistical approximation, which captures the quantum critical regime and the thermal phase transition from an ordered to a disordered phase. We evaluate out-of-time ordered correlation functions (OTOCs) and find that the associated Lyapunov exponent increases linearly with temperature in the quantum critical regime, and approaches the non-interacting limit algebraically in terms of a fluctuation parameter. OTOCs spread ballistically in all regimes, also at the thermal phase transition, where the butterfly velocity is maximal. Our work contributes to the understanding of the relation between quantum and classical many-body chaos and our method can be applied to other field theories dominated by classical modes at long wavelengths.

  13 citations

• Thermal conformal blocks

  Yan Gobeil, Alexander Maloney, Gim Seng Ng, Jie-qiang Wu

  SciPost Phys. 7, 015 (2019) · published 1 August 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study conformal blocks for thermal one-point-functions on the sphere in conformal field theories of general dimension. These thermal conformal blocks satisfy second order Casimir differential equations and have integral representations related to AdS Witten diagrams. We give an analytic formula for the scalar conformal block in terms of generalized hypergeometric functions. As an application, we deduce an asymptotic formula for the three-point coeffcients of primary operators in the limit where two of the operators are heavy.

  33 citations

• The Machine Learning landscape of top taggers

  Gregor Kasieczka, Tilman Plehn, Anja Butter, Kyle Cranmer, Dipsikha Debnath, Barry M. Dillon, Malcolm Fairbairn, Darius A. Faroughy, Wojtek Fedorko, Christophe Gay, Loukas Gouskos, Jernej F. Kamenik, Patrick T. Komiske, Simon Leiss, Alison Lister, Sebastian Macaluso, Eric M. Metodiev, Liam Moore, Ben Nachman, Karl Nordström, Jannicke Pearkes, Huilin Qu, Yannik Rath, Marcel Rieger, David Shih, Jennifer M. Thompson, Sreedevi Varma

  SciPost Phys. 7, 014 (2019) · published 30 July 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Based on the established task of identifying boosted, hadronically decaying top quarks, we compare a wide range of modern machine learning approaches. Unlike most established methods they rely on low-level input, for instance calorimeter output. While their network architectures are vastly different, their performance is comparatively similar. In general, we find that these new approaches are extremely powerful and great fun.

  165 citations

• Out of time ordered effective dynamics of a quartic oscillator

  Bidisha Chakrabarty, Soumyadeep Chaudhuri

  SciPost Phys. 7, 013 (2019) · published 29 July 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the dynamics of a quantum Brownian particle weakly coupled to a thermal bath. Working in the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, we develop an effective action of the particle up to quartic terms. We demonstrate that this quartic effective theory is dual to a stochastic dynamics governed by a non-linear Langevin equation. The Schwinger-Keldysh effective theory, or the equivalent non-linear Langevin dynamics, is insufficient to determine the out of time order correlators (OTOCs) of the particle. To overcome this limitation, we construct an extended effective action in a generalised Schwinger-Keldysh framework. We determine the additional quartic couplings in this OTO effective action and show their dependence on the bath's 4-point OTOCs. We analyse the constraints imposed on the OTO effective theory by microscopic reversibility and thermality of the bath. We show that these constraints lead to a generalised fluctuation-dissipation relation between the non-Gaussianity in the distribution of the thermal noise experienced by the particle and the thermal jitter in its damping coefficient. The quartic effective theory developed in this work provides extension of several results previously obtained for the cubic OTO dynamics of a Brownian particle.

  8 citations

• Unimodular jordanian deformations of integrable superstrings

  Stijn J. van Tongeren

  SciPost Phys. 7, 011 (2019) · published 23 July 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We find new homogeneous r matrices containing supercharges, and use them to find new backgrounds of Yang-Baxter deformed superstrings. We obtain these as limits of unimodular inhomogeneous r matrices and associated deformations of AdS2 x S2 x T6 and AdS5 x S5. Our r matrices are jordanian, but also unimodular, and lead to solutions of the regular supergravity equations of motion. In general our deformations are equivalent to particular non-abelian T duality transformations. Curiously, one of our backgrounds is also equivalent to one produced by TsT transformations and an S duality transformation.

  26 citations

• Bootstrapping MN and tetragonal CFTs in three dimensions

  Andreas Stergiou

  SciPost Phys. 7, 010 (2019) · published 17 July 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Conformal field theories (CFTs) with MN and tetragonal global symmetry in $d=2+1$ dimensions are relevant for structural, antiferromagnetic and helimagnetic phase transitions. As a result, they have been studied in great detail with the $\varepsilon=4-d$ expansion and other field theory methods. The study of these theories with the nonperturbative numerical conformal bootstrap is initiated in this work. Bounds for operator dimensions are obtained and they are found to possess sharp kinks in the MN case, suggesting the existence of full-fledged CFTs. Based on the existence of a certain large-$N$ expansion in theories with MN symmetry, these are argued to be the CFTs predicted by the $\varepsilon$ expansion. In the tetragonal case no new kinks are found, consistently with the absence of such CFTs in the $\varepsilon$ expansion. Estimates for critical exponents are provided for a few cases describing phase transitions in actual physical systems. In two particular MN cases, corresponding to theories with global symmetry groups $O(2)^2\rtimes S_2$ and $O(2)^3\rtimes S_3$, a second kink is found. In the $O(2)^2\rtimes S_2$ case it is argued to be saturated by a CFT that belongs to a new universality class relevant for the structural phase transition of NbO$_2$ and paramagnetic-helimagnetic transitions of the rare-earth metals Ho and Dy. In the $O(2)^3\rtimes S_3$ case it is suggested that the CFT that saturates the second kink belongs to a new universality class relevant for the paramagnetic-antiferromagnetic phase transition of the rare-earth metal Nd.

  25 citations

• A web of 2d dualities: ${\bf Z}_2$ gauge fields and Arf invariants

  Andreas Karch, David Tong, Carl Turner

  SciPost Phys. 7, 007 (2019) · published 10 July 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We describe a web of well-known dualities connecting quantum field theories in $d=1+1$ dimensions. The web is constructed by gauging ${\bf Z}_2$ global symmetries and includes a number of perennial favourites such as the Jordan-Wigner transformation, Kramers-Wannier duality, bosonization of a Dirac fermion, and T-duality. There are also less-loved examples, such as non-modular invariant $c=1$ CFTs that depend on a background spin structure.

  107 citations

• Entanglement evolution and generalised hydrodynamics: interacting integrable systems

  Vincenzo Alba, Bruno Bertini, Maurizio Fagotti

  SciPost Phys. 7, 005 (2019) · published 8 July 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the dynamics of bipartite entanglement after the sudden junction of two leads in interacting integrable models. By combining the quasiparticle picture for the entanglement spreading with Generalised Hydrodynamics we derive an analytical prediction for the dynamics of the entanglement entropy between a finite subsystem and the rest. We find that the entanglement rate between the two leads depends only on the physics at the interface and differs from the rate of exchange of thermodynamic entropy. This contrasts with the behaviour in free or homogeneous interacting integrable systems, where the two rates coincide.

  70 citations

• Phases of scrambling in eigenstates

  Tarek Anous, Julian Sonner

  SciPost Phys. 7, 003 (2019) · published 4 July 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We use the monodromy method to compute expectation values of an arbitrary number of light operators in finitely excited ("heavy") eigenstates of holographic 2D CFT. For eigenstates with scaling dimensions above the BTZ threshold, these behave thermally up to small corrections, with an effective temperature determined by the heavy state. Below the threshold we find oscillatory and not decaying behavior. As an application of these results we compute the expectation of the out-of-time order arrangement of four light operators in a heavy eigenstate, i.e. a six-point function. Above the threshold we find maximally scrambling behavior with Lyapunov exponent $2\pi T_{\rm eff}$. Below threshold we find that the eigenstate OTOC shows persistent harmonic oscillations.

  48 citations

• On 2d CFTs that interpolate between minimal models

  Sylvain Ribault

  SciPost Phys. 6, 075 (2019) · published 25 June 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate exactly solvable two-dimensional conformal field theories that exist at generic values of the central charge, and that interpolate between A-series or D-series minimal models. When the central charge becomes rational, correlation functions of these CFTs may tend to correlation functions of minimal models, or diverge, or have finite limits which can be logarithmic. These results are based on analytic relations between four-point structure constants and residues of conformal blocks.

  10 citations