Publications

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• Rank $Q$ E-string on spheres with flux

  Chiung Hwang, Shlomo S. Razamat, Evyatar Sabag, Matteo Sacchi

  SciPost Phys. 11, 044 (2021) · published 30 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider compactifications of rank $Q$ E-string theory on a genus zero surface with no punctures but with flux for various subgroups of the $\mathrm{E}_8\times \mathrm{SU}(2)$ global symmetry group of the six dimensional theory. We first construct a simple Wess--Zumino model in four dimensions corresponding to the compactification on a sphere with one puncture and a particular value of flux, the cap model. Using this theory and theories corresponding to two punctured spheres with flux, one can obtain a large number of models corresponding to spheres with a variety of fluxes. These models exhibit interesting IR enhancements of global symmetry as well as duality properties. As an example we will show that constructing sphere models associated to specific fluxes related by an action of the Weyl group of $\mathrm{E}_8$ leads to the S-confinement duality of the $\mathrm{USp}(2Q)$ gauge theory with six fundamentals and a traceless antisymmetric field. Finally, we show that the theories we discuss possess an $\mathrm{SU}(2)_{\text{ISO}}$ symmetry in four dimensions that can be naturally identified with the isometry of the two-sphere. We give evidence in favor of this identification by computing the `t Hooft anomalies of the $\mathrm{SU}(2)_{\text{ISO}}$ in 4d and comparing them with the predicted anomalies from 6d.

  17 citations

• Hydrodynamics of spin currents

  Domingo Gallegos, Umut Gursoy, Amos Yarom

  SciPost Phys. 11, 041 (2021) · published 26 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study relativistic hydrodynamics in the presence of a non vanishing spin chemical potential. Using a variety of techniques we carry out an exhaustive analysis, and identify the constitutive relations for the stress tensor and spin current in such a setup, allowing us to write the hydrodynamic equations of motion to second order in derivatives. We then solve the equations of motion in a perturbative setup and find surprisingly good agreement with measurements of global $\Lambda$-hyperon polarization carried out at RHIC.

  74 citations

• Jacobi-Lie T-plurality

  Jose J. Fernandez-Melgarejo, Yuho Sakatani

  SciPost Phys. 11, 038 (2021) · published 23 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose a Leibniz algebra, to be called DD$^+$, which is a generalization of the Drinfel'd double. We find that there is a one-to-one correspondence between a DD$^+$ and a Jacobi-Lie bialgebra, extending the known correspondence between a Lie bialgebra and a Drinfel'd double. We then construct generalized frame fields $E_A{}^M\in\text{O}(D,D)\times\mathbb{R}^+$ satisfying the algebra ${\cal L}_{E_A}E_B = - X_{AB}{}^C\,E_C$, where $X_{AB}{}^C$ are the structure constants of the DD$^+$ and ${\cal L}$ is the generalized Lie derivative in double field theory. Using the generalized frame fields, we propose the Jacobi-Lie $T$-plurality and show that it is a symmetry of double field theory. We present several examples of the Jacobi-Lie $T$-plurality with or without Ramond-Ramond fields and the spectator fields.

  5 citations

• Proving the 6d Cardy formula and matching global gravitational anomalies

  Chi-Ming Chang, Martin Fluder, Ying-Hsuan Lin, Yifan Wang

  SciPost Phys. 11, 036 (2021) · published 23 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A Cardy formula for 6d superconformal field theories (SCFTs) conjectured by Di Pietro and Komargodski governs the universal behavior of the supersymmetric partition function on $S^1_\beta \times S^5$ in the limit of small $\beta$ and fixed squashing of the $S^5$. For a general 6d SCFT, we study its 5d effective action, which is dominated by the supersymmetric completions of perturbatively gauge-invariant Chern-Simons terms in the small $\beta$ limit. Explicitly evaluating these supersymmetric completions gives the precise squashing dependence in the Cardy formula. For SCFTs with a pure Higgs branch (also known as very Higgsable SCFTs), we determine the Chern-Simons levels by explicitly going onto the Higgs branch and integrating out the Kaluza-Klein modes of the 6d fields on $S^1_\beta$. We then discuss tensor branch flows, where an apparent mismatch between the formula in Di Pietro-Komargodski and the free field answer requires an additional contribution from BPS strings. This "missing contribution" is further sharpened by the relation between the fractional part of the Chern-Simons levels and the (mixed) global gravitational anomalies of the 6d SCFT. We also comment on the Cardy formula for 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs in relation to Higgs branch and Coulomb branch flows.

  4 citations

• Spontaneous symmetry breaking in free theories with boundary potentials

  Vladimir Procházka, Alexander Söderberg

  SciPost Phys. 11, 035 (2021) · published 19 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Patterns of symmetry breaking induced by potentials at the boundary of free $O(N)$-models in $d=3- \epsilon$ dimensions are studied. We show that the spontaneous symmetry breaking in these theories leads to a boundary RG flow ending with $N - 1$ Neumann modes in the IR. The possibility of fluctuation-induced symmetry breaking is examined and we derive a general formula for computing one-loop effective potentials at the boundary. Using the $\epsilon$-expansion we test these ideas in an $O(N)\oplus O(N)$-model with boundary interactions. We determine the RG flow diagram of this theory and find that it has an IR-stable critical point satisfying conformal boundary conditions. The leading correction to the effective potential is computed and we argue the existence of a phase boundary separating the region flowing to the symmetric fixed point from the region flowing to a symmetry-broken phase with a combination of Neumann and Dirchlet boundary conditions.

  2 citations

• Late time physics of holographic quantum chaos

  Alexander Altland, Julian Sonner

  SciPost Phys. 11, 034 (2021) · published 18 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quantum chaotic systems are often defined via the assertion that their spectral statistics coincides with, or is well approximated by, random matrix theory. In this paper we explain how the universal content of random matrix theory emerges as the consequence of a simple symmetry-breaking principle and its associated Goldstone modes. This allows us to write down an effective-field theory (EFT) description of quantum chaotic systems, which is able to control the level statistics up to an accuracy ${\cal O} \left(e^{-S} \right)$ with $S$ the entropy. We explain how the EFT description emerges from explicit ensembles, using the example of a matrix model with arbitrary invariant potential, but also when and how it applies to individual quantum systems, without reference to an ensemble. Within AdS/CFT this gives a general framework to express correlations between "different universes" and we explicitly demonstrate the bulk realization of the EFT in minimal string theory where the Goldstone modes are bound states of strings stretching between bulk spectral branes. We discuss the construction of the EFT of quantum chaos also in higher dimensional field theories, as applicable for example for higher-dimensional AdS/CFT dual pairs.

  50 citations

• Comments on foliated gauge theories and dualities in 3+1d

  Po-Shen Hsin, Kevin Slagle

  SciPost Phys. 11, 032 (2021) · published 17 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the properties of foliated gauge fields and construct several foliated field theories in 3+1d that describe foliated fracton orders both with and without matter, including the recent hybrid fracton models. These field theories describe Abelian or non-Abelian gauge theories coupled to foliated gauge fields, and they fall into two classes of models that we call the electric models and the magnetic models. We show that these two classes of foliated field theories enjoy a duality. We also construct a model (using foliated gauge fields and an exactly solvable lattice Hamiltonian model) for a subsystem-symmetry protected topological (SSPT) phase, which is analogous to a one-form symmetry protected topological phase, with the subsystem symmetry acting on codimension-two subregions. We construct the corresponding gauged SSPT phase as a foliated two-form gauge theory. Some instances of the gauged SSPT phase are a variant of the X-cube model with the same ground state degeneracy and the same fusion, but different particle statistics.

  25 citations

• Entanglement entropy with Lifshitz fermions

  Dion Hartmann, Kevin Kavanagh, Stefan Vandoren

  SciPost Phys. 11, 031 (2021) · published 17 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate fermions with Lifshitz scaling symmetry and study their entanglement entropy in 1+1 dimensions as a function of the scaling exponent $z$. Remarkably, in the ground state the entanglement entropy vanishes for even values of $z$, whereas for odd values it is independent of $z$ and equal to the relativistic case with $z=1$. We show this using the correlation method on the lattice, and also using a holographic cMERA approach. The entanglement entropy in a thermal state is a more detailed function of $z$ and $T$ which we plot using the lattice correlation method. The dependence on the even- or oddness of $z$ still shows for small temperatures, but is washed out for large temperatures or large values of $z$.

  5 citations

• Area law and OPE blocks in conformal field theory

  Jiang Long

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 013 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This is an introduction to the relationship between area law and OPE blocks in conformal field theory.

• Classical boundary field theory of Jacobi sigma models by Poissonization

  Ion V. Vancea

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 011 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper, we are going to construct the classical field theory on the boundary of the embedding of $\mathbb{R} \times S^{1}$ into the manifold $M$ by the Jacobi sigma model. By applying the poissonization procedure and by generalizing the known method for Poisson sigma models, we express the fields of the model as perturbative expansions in terms of the reduced phase space of the boundary. We calculate these fields up to the second order and illustrate the procedure for contact manifolds.

  1 citation