Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Quantum null energy condition and its (non)saturation in 2d CFTs

  Christian Ecker, Daniel Grumiller, Wilke van der Schee, Shahin Sheikh-Jabbari, Philipp Stanzer

  SciPost Phys. 6, 036 (2019) · published 25 March 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the Quantum Null Energy Condition (QNEC) for holographic conformal field theories in two spacetime dimensions (CFT$_2$). We show that QNEC saturates for all states dual to vacuum solutions of AdS$_3$ Einstein gravity, including systems that are far from thermal equilibrium. If the Ryu-Takayanagi surface encounters bulk matter QNEC does not need to be saturated, whereby we give both analytical and numerical examples. In particular, for CFT$_2$ with a global quench dual to AdS$_3$-Vaidya geometries we find a curious half-saturation of QNEC for large entangling regions. We also address order one corrections from quantum backreactions of a scalar field in AdS$_3$ dual to a primary operator of dimension $h$ in a large central charge expansion and explicitly compute both, the backreacted Ryu--Takayanagi surface part and the bulk entanglement contribution to EE and QNEC. At leading order for small entangling regions the contribution from bulk EE exactly cancels the contribution from the back-reacted Ryu-Takayanagi surface, but at higher orders in the size of the region the contributions are almost equal while QNEC is not saturated. For a half-space entangling region we find that QNEC is gapped by $h/4$ in the large $h$ expansion.

  20 citations

• GRAND: A Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection

  Charles Timmermans for the GRAND collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 042 (2019) · published 21 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  GRAND will be a distributed set of about 20 arrays of radio antennas, totalling 200,000 km2. We aim to study the ultra high energy universe through the detection of neutrinos, photons and cosmic rays at energies at the EeV scale. In addition GRAND will be used to study astronomical objects like FRBs and GRBs. We will describe the physics motivation, the detection strategy, the first stages of GRAND and the path to creating the complete setup.

• Tau neutrinos in IceCube, KM3NeT and the Pierre Auger Observatory

  Daan van Eijk

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 030 (2019) · published 20 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In 2018, the IceCube collaboration reported evidence for the identification of a blazar as an astrophysical neutrino source. That evidence is briefly summarised here before focusing on the prospects of tau neutrino physics in IceCube, both at high energies (astrophysical neutrinos) and at lower energies (atmospheric neutrino oscillations). In addition, future neutrino detectors such as KM3NeT and the IceCube Upgrade and their tau neutrino physics potential are discussed. Finally, the detection mechanism for high-energy (tau) neutrinos in the Pierre Auger Observatory and the resulting flux upper limits are presented.

  1 citation

• Neutrinoless double beta decay overview

  Laura Cardani

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 024 (2019) · published 20 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay is a hypothesised nuclear process in which two neutrons simultaneously decay into protons with no neutrino emission. The prized observation of this decay would point to the existence of a process that violates a fundamental symmetry of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and would allow to establish the nature of neutrinos. Today, the lower limits on the half-life of this process exceed 10$^{25}$-10$^{26}$ yr. I will review the current status of the searches for Double Beta Decay and the perspectives to enhance the experimental sensitivity in the next years.

  13 citations

• Quantum gravity, renormalizability and diffeomorphism invariance

  Tim R. Morris

  SciPost Phys. 5, 040 (2018) · published 30 October 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that the Wilsonian renormalization group (RG) provides a natural regularisation of the Quantum Master Equation such that to first order the BRST algebra closes on local functionals spanned by the eigenoperators with constant couplings. We then apply this to quantum gravity. Around the Gaussian fixed point, RG properties of the conformal factor of the metric allow the construction of a Hilbert space $\mathfrak{L}$ of renormalizable interactions, non-perturbative in $\hbar$, and involving arbitrarily high powers of the gravitational fluctuations. We show that diffeomorphism invariance is violated for interactions that lie inside $\mathfrak{L}$, in the sense that only a trivial quantum BRST cohomology exists for interactions at first order in the couplings. However by taking a limit to the boundary of $\mathfrak{L}$, the couplings can be constrained to recover Newton's constant, and standard realisations of diffeomorphism invariance, whilst retaining renormalizability. The limits are sufficiently flexible to allow this also at higher orders. This leaves open a number of questions that should find their answer at second order. We develop much of the framework that will allow these calculations to be performed.

  17 citations

• Effective universality in quantum gravity

  Astrid Eichhorn, Peter Labus, Jan M. Pawlowski, Manuel Reichert

  SciPost Phys. 5, 031 (2018) · published 4 October 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the asymptotic safety scenario for a scalar-gravity system. This system contains two avatars of the dynamical Newton coupling, a gravitational self-coupling and a scalar-graviton coupling. We uncover an effective universality for the dynamical Newton coupling on the quantum level: its momentum-dependent avatars are in remarkable quantitative agreement in the scaling regime of the UV fixed point. For the background Newton coupling, this effective universality is not present, but qualitative agreement remains.

  68 citations

• Asymmetric dark matter: residual annihilations and self-interactions

  Iason Baldes, Marco Cirelli, Paolo Panci, Kalliopi Petraki, Filippo Sala, Marco Taoso

  SciPost Phys. 4, 041 (2018) · published 26 June 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Dark matter (DM) coupled to light mediators has been invoked to resolve the putative discrepancies between collisionless cold DM and galactic structure observations. However, $\gamma$-ray searches and the CMB strongly constrain such scenarios. To ease the tension, we consider asymmetric DM. We show that, contrary to the common lore, detectable annihilations occur even for large asymmetries, and derive bounds from the CMB, $\gamma$-ray, neutrino and antiproton searches. We then identify the viable space for self-interacting DM. Direct detection does not exclude this scenario, but provides a way to test it.

  47 citations

• Puzzles and pitfalls involving Haar-typicality in holography

  Ning Bao, Aidan Chatwin-Davies

  SciPost Phys. 4, 033 (2018) · published 19 June 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Holographic states that have a well-defined geometric dual in AdS/CFT are not faithfully represented by Haar-typical states in finite-dimensional models. As such, trying to apply principles and lessons from Haar-random ensembles of states to holographic states can lead to apparent puzzles and contradictions. We point out a handful of these pitfalls.

  1 citation

• Momentum correlations as signature of sonic Hawking radiation in Bose-Einstein condensates

  A. Fabbri, N. Pavloff

  SciPost Phys. 4, 019 (2018) · published 9 April 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the two-body momentum correlation signal in a quasi one dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of a sonic horizon. We identify the relevant correlation lines in momentum space and compute the intensity of the corresponding signal. We consider a set of different experimental procedures and identify the specific issues of each measuring process. We show that some inter-channel correlations, in particular the Hawking quantum-partner one, are particularly well adapted for witnessing quantum non-separability, being resilient to the effects of temperature and/or quantum quenches.

  13 citations

• Strongly Interacting Light Dark Matter

  Sebastian Bruggisser, Francesco Riva, Alfredo Urbano

  SciPost Phys. 3, 017 (2017) · published 2 September 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the presence of approximate global symmetries that forbid relevant interactions, strongly coupled light Dark Matter (DM) can appear weakly coupled at small energy and generate a sizable relic abundance. Fundamental principles like unitarity restrict these symmetries to a small class, where the leading interactions are captured by effective operators up to dimension-8. Chiral symmetry, spontaneously broken global symmetries and non-linearly realized supersymmetry are examples of this. Their DM candidates (composite fermions, pseudo Nambu-Goldstone Bosons and Goldstini) are interesting targets for LHC missing-energy searches.

  25 citations