Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• The hitchhiker's guide to 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal field theories

  Mohammad Akhond, Guillermo Arias-Tamargo, Alessandro Mininno, Hao-Yu Sun, Zhengdi Sun, Yifan Wang, Fengjun Xu

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 64 (2022) · published 26 October 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Superconformal field theory with $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetry in four dimensional spacetime provides a prime playground to study strongly coupled phenomena in quantum field theory. Its rigid structure ensures valuable analytic control over non-perturbative effects, yet the theory is still flexible enough to incorporate a large landscape of quantum systems. Here we aim to offer a guidebook to fundamental features of the 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal field theories and basic tools to construct them in string/M-/F-theory. The content is based on a series of lectures at the Quantum Field Theories and Geometry School (https://sites.google.com/view/qftandgeometrysummerschool/home) in July 2020.

  5 citations

• Effects of Hawking evaporation on PBH distributions

  Markus R. Mosbech, Zachary S. C. Picker

  SciPost Phys. 13, 100 (2022) · published 25 October 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Primordial black holes (PBHs) may lose mass by Hawking evaporation. For sufficiently small PBHs, they may lose a large portion of their formation mass by today, or evaporate completely if they form with mass $M<M_\mathrm{crit}\sim5\times10^{14}~\mathrm{g}$. We investigate the effect of this mass loss on extended PBH distributions, showing that the shape of the distribution is significantly changed between formation and today. We reconsider the $\gamma$-ray constraints on PBH dark matter in the Milky Way center with a correctly 'evolved' lognormal distribution, and derive a semi-analytic time-dependent distribution which can be used to accurately project monochromatic constraints to extended distribution constraints. We also derive the rate of black hole explosions in the Milky Way per year, finding that although there can be a significant number, it is extremely unlikely to find one close enough to Earth to observe. Along with a more careful argument for why monochromatic PBH distributions are unlikely to source an exploding PBH population today, we (unfortunately) conclude that we are unlikely to witness any PBH explosions.

  8 citations

• Twistor space origins of the Newman-Penrose map

  Kara Farnsworth, Michael L. Graesser, Gabriel Herczeg

  SciPost Phys. 13, 099 (2022) · published 24 October 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Recently, we introduced the "Newman-Penrose map", a novel correspondence between a certain class of solutions of Einstein's equations and self-dual solutions of the vacuum Maxwell equations, which we showed was closely related to the classical double copy. Here, we give an alternative definition of this correspondence in terms of quantities that are defined naturally on twistor space, and a shear-free null geodesic congruence on Minkowski space whose twistorial character is articulated by the Kerr theorem. The advantage of this reformulation is that it is purely geometrical in nature, being manifestly invariant under both spacetime diffeomorphisms and projective transformations on twistor space. While the original formulation of the map may be more convenient for most explicit calculations, the twistorial formulation we present here may be of greater theoretical utility.

  14 citations

• Moral lines of credit: Forging race projects, citizenship, and nation on online U.S. spousal reunification forums

  Gina Marie Longo

  Mig. Pol. 1, 005 (2022) · published 24 October 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This study investigates how U.S. citizens petitioning for “green cards” on behalf of foreign national spouses uphold the U.S. racial project as they navigate the spousal reunification process. It also explores the role of online communities as crucial “brokers” and mediators between citizen, noncitizen, and the state. This work troubles the dichotomy between immigration officers/couples while giving primacy to the citizen-spouse’s voices. Using content analysis of an online forum where petitioners exchange advice with similar others, I show the citizen’s complicity with the racialized hierarchical order of the American nation. Ultimately, family migration policies and regulations are exercises in state-building, and nation-building, and citizens partake in it while trying to secure their own family, disciplining themselves to align with the state’s ideal of what a proper future nation should look like.

  3 citations

• Hilbert space fragmentation in a 2D quantum spin system with subsystem symmetries

  Alexey Khudorozhkov, Apoorv Tiwari, Claudio Chamon, Titus Neupert

  SciPost Phys. 13, 098 (2022) · published 19 October 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider a 2D quantum spin model with ring-exchange interaction that has subsystem symmetries associated to conserved magnetization along rows and columns of a square lattice, which implies the conservation of the global dipole moment. In a certain regime, the model is non-integrable, but violates the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis through an extensive Hilbert space fragmentation, including an exponential number of inert subsectors with trivial dynamics, arising from kinetic constraints. While subsystem symmetries are quite restrictive for the dynamics, we show that they alone cannot account for such a number of inert states, even with infinite-range interactions. We present a procedure for constructing shielding structures that can separate and disentangle dynamically active regions from each other. Notably, subsystem symmetries allow the thickness of the shields to be dependent only on the interaction range rather than on the size of the active regions, unlike in the case of generic dipole-conserving systems.

  19 citations

• Neural network approach to reconstructing spectral functions and complex poles of confined particles

  Thibault Lechien, David Dudal

  SciPost Phys. 13, 097 (2022) · published 13 October 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Reconstructing spectral functions from propagator data is difficult as solving the analytic continuation problem or applying an inverse integral transformation are ill-conditioned problems. Recent work has proposed using neural networks to solve this problem and has shown promising results, either matching or improving upon the performance of other methods. We generalize this approach by not only reconstructing spectral functions, but also (possible) pairs of complex poles or an infrared (IR) cutoff. We train our network on physically motivated toy functions, examine the reconstruction accuracy and check its robustness to noise. Encouraging results are found on both toy functions and genuine lattice QCD data for the gluon propagator, suggesting that this approach may lead to significant improvements over current state-of-the-art methods.

  9 citations

• $T\bar{T}$ in JT Gravity and BF Gauge Theory

  Stephen Ebert, Christian Ferko, Hao-Yu Sun, Zhengdi Sun

  SciPost Phys. 13, 096 (2022) · published 13 October 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  JT gravity has a first-order formulation as a two-dimensional BF theory, which can be viewed as the dimensional reduction of the Chern-Simons description of $3d$ gravity. We consider $T\bar{T}$-type deformations of the $(0+1)$-dimensional dual to this $2d$ BF theory and interpret the deformation as a modification of the BF theory boundary conditions. The fundamental observables in this deformed BF theory, and in its $3d$ Chern-Simons lift, are Wilson lines and loops. In the $3d$ Chern-Simons setting, we study modifications to correlators involving boundary-anchored Wilson lines which are induced by a $T\bar{T}$ deformation on the $2d$ boundary; results are presented at both the classical level (using modified boundary conditions) and the quantum-mechanical level (using conformal perturbation theory). Finally, we calculate the analogous deformed Wilson line correlators in $2d$ BF theory below the Hagedorn temperature where the principal series dominates over the discrete series.

  22 citations

• Joule heating in bad and slow metals

  Paolo Glorioso, Sean A. Hartnoll

  SciPost Phys. 13, 095 (2022) · published 12 October 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Heat supplied to a metal is absorbed by the electrons and then transferred to the lattice. In conventional metals energy is released to the lattice by phonons emitted from the Lindhard continuum. However in a 'bad' metal, with short mean free path, the low energy Lindhard continuum is destroyed. Furthermore in a 'slow' metal, with Fermi velocity less than the sound velocity, particle-hole pairs are kinematically unable to emit phonons. To describe energy transfer to the lattice in these cases we obtain a general Kubo formula for the energy relaxation rate in terms of the electronic density spectral weight $\text{Im} \, G^R_{nn}(\omega_k,k)$ evaluated on the phonon dispersion $\omega_k$. We apply our Kubo formula to the high temperature Hubbard model, using recent data from quantum Monte Carlo and experiments in ultracold atoms to characterize $\text{Im} \, G^R_{nn}(\omega_k,k)$. We furthermore use recent data from electron energy-loss spectroscopy to estimate the energy relaxation rate of the cuprate strange metal to a high energy optical phonon. As a second, distinct, application of our formalism we consider 'slow' metals. These are defined to have Fermi velocity less than the sound velocity, so that particle-hole pairs are kinematically unable to emit phonons. We obtain an expression for the energy relaxation rate of a slow metal in terms of the optical conductivity.

  2 citations

• Topological states in double monolayer graphene

  Ying-Hai Wu

  SciPost Phys. 13, 094 (2022) · published 12 October 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Motivated by the experiments on double monolayer graphene that observe a variety of fractional quantum Hall states [Liu et al., Nat. Phys. 15, 893 (2019); Li et al., Nat. Phys. 15, 898 (2019)], we study the special setting in which two monolayers have different areas. It has not been considered before and allows us to construct a class of exotic topological states. The elementary excitations of these states do not carry fractional charges but obey fractional statistics. This is in sharp contrast to all previously studied cases, where the two properties are intimately connected and serve as hallmarks of fractional quantum Hall states. Numerical calculations are performed to demonstrate that some states can be realized with realistic parameters.

• Classification of Convergent OPE Channels for Lorentzian CFT Four-Point Functions

  Jiaxin Qiao

  SciPost Phys. 13, 093 (2022) · published 12 October 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We analyze the convergence properties of operator product expansions (OPE) for Lorentzian CFT four-point functions of scalar operators. We give a complete classification of Lorentzian four-point configurations. All configurations in each class have the same OPE convergence properties in s-, t- and u-channels. We give tables including the information of OPE convergence for all classes. Our work justifies that in a subset of the configuration space, Lorentzian CFT four-point functions are genuine analytic functions. Our results are valid for unitary CFTs in $d\geq2$. Our work also provides some Lorentzian regions where one can do bootstrap analysis in the sense of functions.

  2 citations