Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Higher spin swampland conjecture for massive AdS$_{3}$ gravity

  Rajae Sammani, El Hassan Saidi

  SciPost Phys. 18, 173 (2025) · published 3 June 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper, we show that a possible version of the swampland weak gravity conjecture for higher spin (HS) massive topological AdS$_{3}$ gravity can be expressed in terms of mass M$_{\mathrm{hs}}$, charge Q$_{\mathrm{hs}}$ and coupling constant ${\large g}_{\mathrm{hs}}$ of 3D gravity coupled to higher spin fields as M$_{\mathrm{hs}}≤ \sqrt{2}$Q$_{\mathrm{hs}}{\large g}_{\mathrm{hs}}M_{\mathrm{Pl}}$. The higher spin charge is given by the $SO(1,2)$ quadratic Casimir Q$_{\mathrm{hs}}^{2}=s\left( s-1\right) $ and the HS coupling constant by ${\large g}_{\mathrm{hs}}^{2}=2/\left( M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^{2}l_{\mathrm{AdS}_{3}}^{2}\right) $ while the mass expressed like $\left( l_{\mathrm{AdS}_{3}}\text{M}_{\mathrm{hs}}\right) ^{2}$ is defined as $\left( 1+\mathrm{\mu }l_{\mathrm{AdS}_{3}}\right) ^{2}s\left( s-1\right) +\left[1-\left( \mathrm{\mu }l_{\mathrm{AdS}_{3}}\right) ^{2}\left( s-1\right) \right]$.

  1 citation

• Minimal areas from entangled matrices

  Jackson R. Fliss, Alexander Frenkel, Sean A. Hartnoll, Ronak M. Soni

  SciPost Phys. 18, 171 (2025) · published 2 June 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We define a relational notion of a subsystem in theories of matrix quantum mechanics and show how the corresponding entanglement entropy can be given as a minimisation, exhibiting many similarities to the Ryu-Takayanagi formula. Our construction brings together the physics of entanglement edge modes, noncommutative geometry and quantum internal reference frames, to define a subsystem whose reduced state is (approximately) an incoherent sum of density matrices, corresponding to distinct spatial subregions. We show that in states where geometry emerges from semiclassical matrices, this sum is dominated by the subregion with minimal boundary area. As in the Ryu-Takayanagi formula, it is the computation of the entanglement that determines the subregion. We find that coarse-graining is essential in our microscopic derivation, in order to control the proliferation of highly curved and disconnected non-geometric subregions in the sum.

  1 citation

• Orbifolds of chiral fermionic CFTs and their duality

  Kohki Kawabata, Shinichiro Yahagi

  SciPost Phys. 18, 166 (2025) · published 26 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider chiral fermionic conformal field theories (CFTs) constructed from lattices and investigate their orbifolds under reflection and shift $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetries. For lattices based on binary error-correcting codes, we show the duality between reflection and shift orbifolds using a triality structure inherited from the binary codes. Additionally, we systematically compute the partition functions of the orbifold theories for both binary and nonbinary codes. Finally, we explore applications of this code-based construction in the search for supersymmetric CFTs and chiral fermionic CFTs without continuous symmetries.

• A radial variable for de Sitter two-point functions

  Manuel Loparco, Jiaxin Qiao, Zimo Sun

  SciPost Phys. 18, 164 (2025) · published 21 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We introduce a "radial" two-point invariant for quantum field theory in de Sitter (dS) analogous to the radial coordinate used in conformal field theory. We show that the two-point function of a free massive scalar in the Bunch-Davies vacuum has an exponentially convergent series expansion in this variable with positive coefficients only. Assuming a convergent Källén-Lehmann decomposition, this result is then generalized to the two-point function of any scalar operator non-perturbatively. A corollary of this result is that, starting from two-point functions on the sphere, an analytic continuation to an extended complex domain is admissible. dS two-point configurations live inside or on the boundary of this domain, and all the paths traced by analytic continuation between dS and the sphere or between dS and Euclidean Anti-de Sitter are also contained within this domain.

  1 citation

• Fusion rules and structure constants of E-series minimal models

  Rongvoram Nivesvivat, Sylvain Ribault

  SciPost Phys. 18, 163 (2025) · published 21 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the ADE classification of Virasoro minimal models, the E-series is the sparsest: their central charges $c=1-6\frac{(p-q)^2}{pq}$ are not dense in the half-line $c∈ (-∞,1)$, due to $q=12,18,30$ taking only 3 values — the Coxeter numbers of $E_6, E_7, E_8$. The E-series is also the least well understood, with few known results beyond the spectrum. Here, we use a semi-analytic bootstrap approach for numerically computing 4-point correlation functions. We deduce non-chiral fusion rules, i.e. which 3-point structure constants vanish. These vanishings can be explained by constraints from null vectors, interchiral symmetry, simple currents, extended symmetries, permutations, and parity, except in one case for $q=30$. We conjecture that structure constants are given by a universal expression built from the double Gamma function, times polynomial functions of $\cos(\pi\frac{p}{q})$ with values in $\mathbb{Q}\big(\cos(\frac{\pi}{q})\big)$, which we work out explicitly for $q=12$. We speculate on generalizing E-series minimal models to generic integer values of $q$, and recovering loop CFTs as $p,q\to ∞$.

  1 citation

• Monopole breaking of Chern-Weil symmetries

  Eduardo García-Valdecasas, Matthew Reece, Motoo Suzuki

  SciPost Phys. 18, 162 (2025) · published 20 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Gauge theories in $d$ dimensions with a nontrivial fundamental group admit a $(d-3)$-form magnetic symmetry and a $(d-5)$-form instantonic symmetry. These are examples of Chern-Weil symmetries, with conserved currents built out of the gauge field strength, which can only be explicitly broken through violations of the Bianchi identity. For U(1) gauge theory, it is clear that magnetic monopoles violate not only the $(d-3)$-form magnetic symmetry but also lower-form symmetries like the instantonic symmetry. It is also known that an improved instanton number symmetry current, which is conserved, can be constructed in the case that the magnetic monopole admits a dyonic excitation. We study the generalization to other gauge groups, showing that magnetic monopoles also violate instantonic symmetries for nonabelian groups like PSU($n$), and that dyon modes can restore such symmetries. Furthermore, we show that in many (but not all) examples where a gauge group $G$ is Higgsed to a gauge group $H$, the structure of monopoles and dyons emerging from the Higgsing process explicitly breaks the instantonic symmetries of $H$ to those of $G$. The meaning of explicit breaking of a $(d-5)$-form symmetry is clearest for $d > 4$, but these results also extend to $d = 4$, where the breaking is interpreted as an obstruction to coupling the theory to a background axion field.

• Crystallography, group cohomology, and Lieb–Schultz–Mattis constraints

  Chunxiao Liu, Weicheng Ye

  SciPost Phys. 18, 161 (2025) · published 20 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We compute the mod-2 cohomology ring for three-dimensional (3D) space groups and establish a connection between them and the lattice structure of crystals with space group symmetry. This connection allows us to obtain a complete set of Lieb-Schultz-Mattis constraints, specifying the conditions under which a unique, symmetric, gapped ground state cannot exist in 3D lattice magnets. We associate each of these constraints with an element in the third mod-2 cohomology of the space group, when the internal symmetry acts on-site and its projective representations are classified by powers of $\mathbb{Z}_2$. We demonstrate the relevance of our results to the study of $U(1)$ quantum spin liquids on the 3D pyrochlore lattice. We determine, through anomaly matching, the symmetry fractionalization patterns of both electric and magnetic charges, extending previous results from projective symmetry group classifications.

  1 citation

• Snowmass 2021 cross frontier report: Dark matter complementarity

  Antonio Boveia, Mohamed Berkat, Thomas Y. Chen, Aman Desai, Caterina Doglioni, Alex Drlica-Wagner, Susan Gardner, Stefania Gori, Joshua Greaves, Patrick Harding, Philip C. Harris, W. Hugh Lippincott, Maria Elena Monzani, Katherine Pachal, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Gray Rybka, Bibhushan Shakya, Jessie Shelton, Tracy R. Slatyer, Amanda Steinhebel, Philip Tanedo, Natalia Toro, Yun-Tse Tsai, Mike Williams, Lindley Winslow, Jaehoon Yu, Tien-Tien Yu

  SciPost Phys. Comm. Rep. 7 (2025) · published 19 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The fundamental nature of Dark Matter is a central theme of the Snowmass 2021 process, extending across all frontiers. In the last decade, advances in detector technology, analysis techniques and theoretical modeling have enabled a new generation of experiments and searches while broadening the types of candidates we can pursue. Over the next decade, there is great potential for discoveries that would transform our understanding of dark matter. In the following, we outline a road map for discovery developed in collaboration among the frontiers. A strong portfolio of experiments that delves deep, searches wide, and harnesses the complementarity between techniques is key to tackling this complicated problem, requiring expertise, results, and planning from all Frontiers of the Snowmass 2021 process.

  2 citations

• 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.

  20 citations

• 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.

  8 citations