Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• The fate of discrete 1-form symmetries in 6d

  Fabio Apruzzi, Markus Dierigl, Ling Lin

  SciPost Phys. 12, 047 (2022) · published 1 February 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Recently introduced generalized global symmetries have been useful in order to understand non-perturbative aspects of quantum field theories in four and lower dimensions. In this paper we focus on 1-form symmetries of weakly coupled 6d supersymmetric gauge theories coupled to dynamical tensor multiplets. We study the consistency of global 1-form symmetries corresponding to the center of the gauge groups, or subgroups thereof, by activating their background fields, which makes the instanton density fractional. In 6d, an instanton background for a given gauge theory sources BPS strings via tadpole cancelation. The non-trivial 1-form symmetry background configurations contribute to the charge of the BPS strings. However, Dirac quantization imposes restrictions on the consistent 1-form backgrounds, since they can in general lead to and induce fractional charges, thus making (part of) the putative higher-form symmetry inconsistent. This gives explicit criteria to determine whether the discrete 1-form symmetries are realized. We implement these criteria in concrete examples originating from string compactifications. We also corroborate this by finding that a non-trivial fractional contribution is related to states which explicitly break the global 1-form symmetry appearing as massive excitations of the 6d BPS strings. For 6d theories consistently coupled to gravity, this hints at a symmetry breaking tower of states. When the fractional contributions are absent, the F-theory realization of the theories points to the gauging of the 1-form symmetry via the presence of non-trivial Mordell--Weil torsion.

  30 citations

• Constraints on beta functions in field theories

  Han Ma, Sung-Sik Lee

  SciPost Phys. 12, 046 (2022) · published 1 February 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The $\beta$-functions describe how couplings run under the renormalization group flow in field theories. In general, all couplings that respect the symmetry and locality are generated under the renormalization group flow, and the exact renormalization group flow is characterized by the $\beta$-functions defined in the infinite dimensional space of couplings. In this paper, we show that the renormalization group flow is highly constrained so that the $\beta$-functions defined in a measure zero subspace of couplings completely determine the $\beta$-functions in the entire space of couplings. We provide a quantum renormalization group-based algorithm for reconstructing the full $\beta$-functions from the $\beta$-functions defined in the subspace. As examples, we derive the full $\beta$-functions for the $O(N)$ vector model and the $O_L(N) \times O_R(N)$ matrix model entirely from the $\beta$-functions defined in the subspace of single-trace couplings.

  2 citations

• Towards quantifying information flows: relative entropy in deep neural networks and the renormalization group

  Johanna Erdmenger, Kevin T. Grosvenor, Ro Jefferson

  SciPost Phys. 12, 041 (2022) · published 26 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the analogy between the renormalization group (RG) and deep neural networks, wherein subsequent layers of neurons are analogous to successive steps along the RG. In particular, we quantify the flow of information by explicitly computing the relative entropy or Kullback-Leibler divergence in both the one- and two-dimensional Ising models under decimation RG, as well as in a feedforward neural network as a function of depth. We observe qualitatively identical behavior characterized by the monotonic increase to a parameter-dependent asymptotic value. On the quantum field theory side, the monotonic increase confirms the connection between the relative entropy and the c-theorem. For the neural networks, the asymptotic behavior may have implications for various information maximization methods in machine learning, as well as for disentangling compactness and generalizability. Furthermore, while both the two-dimensional Ising model and the random neural networks we consider exhibit non-trivial critical points, the relative entropy appears insensitive to the phase structure of either system. In this sense, more refined probes are required in order to fully elucidate the flow of information in these models.

  8 citations

• Liberating confinement from Lagrangians: 1-form symmetries and lines in 4d N=1 from 6d N=(2,0)

  Lakshya Bhardwaj, Max Hübner, Sakura Schäfer-Nameki

  SciPost Phys. 12, 040 (2022) · published 26 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study confinement in 4d N=1 theories obtained by deforming 4d N=2 theories of Class S. We argue that confinement in a vacuum of the N=1 theory is encoded in the 1-cycles of the associated N=1 curve. This curve is the spectral cover associated to a generalized Hitchin system describing the profiles of two Higgs fields over the Riemann surface upon which the 6d (2,0) theory is compactified. Using our method, we reproduce the expected properties of confinement in various classic examples, such as 4d N=1 pure Super-Yang-Mills theory and the Cachazo-Seiberg-Witten setup. More generally, this work can be viewed as providing tools for probing confinement in non-Lagrangian N=1 theories, which we illustrate by constructing an infinite class of non-Lagrangian N=1 theories that contain confining vacua. The simplest model in this class is an N=1 deformation of the N=2 theory obtained by gauging $SU(3)^3$ flavor symmetry of the $E_6$ Minahan-Nemeschansky theory.

  23 citations

• Generalized dilaton gravity in 2d

  Daniel Grumiller, Romain Ruzziconi, Céline Zwikel

  SciPost Phys. 12, 032 (2022) · published 21 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Generalized dilaton gravity in 2d is the most general consistent deformation of the Jackiw-Teitelboim model that maintains local Lorentz invariance. The action is generically not power-counting renormalizable, thus going beyond the class of models typically studied. Nevertheless, all these models are exactly soluble. We focus on a subclass of dilaton scale invariant models. Within this subclass, we identify a 3-parameter family of models that describe black holes asymptoting to AdS2 in the UV and to dS2 in the IR. Since these models could be interesting for holography, we address thermodynamics and boundary issues, including boundary charges, asymptotic symmetries and holographic renormalization.

  30 citations

• Half-wormholes in SYK with one time point

  Baur Mukhametzhanov

  SciPost Phys. 12, 029 (2022) · published 19 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this note we study the SYK model with one time point, recently considered by Saad, Shenker, Stanford, and Yao. Working in a collective field description, they derived a remarkable identity: the square of the partition function with fixed couplings is well approximated by a "wormhole" saddle plus a "pair of linked half-wormholes" saddle. It explains factorization of decoupled systems. Here, we derive an explicit formula for the half-wormhole contribution. It is expressed through a hyperpfaffian of the tensor of SYK couplings. We then develop a perturbative expansion around the half-wormhole saddle. This expansion truncates at a finite order and gives the exact answer. The last term in the perturbative expansion turns out to coincide with the wormhole contribution. In this sense the wormhole saddle in this model does not need to be added separately, but instead can be viewed as a large fluctuation around the linked half-wormholes.

  13 citations

• Squashing and supersymmetry enhancement in three dimensions

  Joseph Minahan, Usman Naseer, Charles Thull

  SciPost Phys. 12, 025 (2022) · published 17 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider mass-deformed theories with ${\cal N}\geq2$ supersymmetry on round and squashed three-spheres. By embedding the supersymmetric backgrounds in extended supergravity we show that at special values of mass deformations the supersymmetry is enhanced on the squashed spheres. When the $3d$ partition function can be obtained by a limit of a $4d$ index we also show that for these special mass deformations only the states annihilated by extra supercharges contribute to the index. By using an equivalence between partition functions on squashed spheres and ellipsoids, we explain the recently observed squashing independence of the partition function of mass-deformed ABJ(M) theory on the ellipsoid. We provide further examples of such simplification for various $3d$ supersymmetric theories.

  10 citations

• Comment on Coleman-DeLuccia instantons

  Tom Banks, Bingnan Zhang

  SciPost Phys. 12, 015 (2022) · published 11 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We complete an old argument that causal diamonds in the crunching region of the Lorentzian continuation of a Coleman-Deluccia instanton for transitions out of de Sitter space have finite area, and provide quantum models consistent with the principle of detailed balance, which can mimic the instanton transition probabilities for the cases where this diamond is larger or smaller than the causal patch of de Sitter space. We review arguments that potentials which do not have a positive energy theorem when the lowest de Sitter minimum is shifted to zero, may not correspond to real models of quantum gravity.

  1 citation

• Continuous gaussian measurements of the free boson CFT: A model for exactly solvable and detectable measurement-induced dynamics

  Y. Minoguchi, P. Rabl, M. Buchhold

  SciPost Phys. 12, 009 (2022) · published 7 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Hybrid evolution protocols, composed of unitary dynamics and repeated, weak or projective measurements, give rise to new, intriguing quantum phenomena, including entanglement phase transitions and unconventional conformal invariance. Defying the complications imposed by the non-linear and stochastic nature of the measurement process, we introduce a scenario of measurement-induced many body evolution, which possesses an exact analytical solution: bosonic Gaussian measurements. The evolution features a competition between the continuous observation of linear boson operators and a free Hamiltonian, and it is characterized by a unique and exactly solvable covariance matrix. Within this framework, we then consider an elementary model for quantum criticality, the free boson conformal field theory, and investigate in which way criticality is modified under measurements. Depending on the measurement protocol, we distinguish three fundamental scenarios (a) enriched quantum criticality, characterized by a logarithmic entanglement growth with a floating prefactor, or the loss of criticality, indicated by an entanglement growth with either (b) an area-law or (c) a volume-law. For each scenario, we discuss the impact of imperfect measurements, which reduce the purity of the wavefunction and are equivalent to Markovian decoherence, and present a set of observables, e.g., real-space correlations, the relaxation time, and the entanglement structure, to classify the measurement-induced dynamics for both pure and mixed states. Finally, we present an experimental tomography scheme, which grants access to the density operator of the system by using the continuous measurement record only.

  23 citations

• Fermi-gas correlators of ADHM theory and triality symmetry

  Yasuyuki Hatsuda, Tadashi Okazaki

  SciPost Phys. 12, 005 (2022) · published 5 January 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We analytically study the Fermi-gas formulation of sphere correlation functions of the Coulomb branch operators for 3d $\mathcal{N}=4$ ADHM theory with a gauge group $U(N)$, an adjoint hypermultiplet and $l$ hypermultiplets which can describe a stack of $N$ M2-branes at $A_{l-1}$ singularities. We find that the leading coefficients of the perturbative grand canonical correlation functions are invariant under a hidden triality symmetry conjectured from the twisted M-theory. The triality symmetry also helps us to fix the next-to-leading corrections analytically.

  6 citations