Publications

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• Thermalization and hydrodynamics of two-dimensional quantum field theories

  Luca V. Delacretaz, A. Liam Fitzpatrick, Emanuel Katz, Matthew T. Walters

  SciPost Phys. 12, 119 (2022) · published 7 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider 2d QFTs as relevant deformations of CFTs in the thermodynamic limit. Using causality and KPZ universality, we place a lower bound on the timescale characterizing the onset of hydrodynamics. The bound is determined parametrically in terms of the temperature and the scale associated with the relevant deformation. This bound is typically much stronger than $\frac{1}{T}$, the expected quantum equilibration time. Subluminality of sound further allows us to define a thermodynamic $C$-function, and constrain the sign of the $\mathcal T\bar{\mathcal T}$ term in EFTs.

  20 citations

• Information Scrambling with Conservation Laws

  Jonah Kudler-Flam, Ramanjit Sohal, Laimei Nie

  SciPost Phys. 12, 117 (2022) · published 4 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The delocalization or scrambling of quantum information has emerged as a central ingredient in the understanding of thermalization in isolated quantum many-body systems. Recently, significant progress has been made analytically by modeling non-integrable systems as stochastic systems, lacking a Hamiltonian picture, while honest Hamiltonian dynamics are frequently limited to small system sizes due to computational constraints. In this paper, we address this by investigating the role of conservation laws (including energy conservation) in the thermalization process from an information-theoretic perspective. For general non-integrable models, we use the equilibrium approximation to show that the maximal amount of information is scrambled (as measured by the tripartite mutual information of the time-evolution operator) at late times even when a system conserves energy. In contrast, we explicate how when a system has additional symmetries that lead to degeneracies in the spectrum, the amount of information scrambled must decrease. This general theory is exemplified in case studies of holographic conformal field theories (CFTs) and the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model. Due to the large Virasoro symmetry in 1+1D CFTs, we argue that, in a sense, these holographic theories are not maximally chaotic, which is explicitly seen by the non-saturation of the second R\'enyi tripartite mutual information. The roles of particle-hole and U(1) symmetries in the SYK model are milder due to the degeneracies being only two-fold, which we confirm explicitly at both large- and small-$N$. We reinterpret the operator entanglement in terms the growth of local operators, connecting our results with the information scrambling described by out-of-time-ordered correlators, identifying the mechanism for suppressed scrambling from the Heisenberg perspective.

  13 citations

• Introduction to Monte Carlo for matrix models

  Raghav G. Jha

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 46 (2022) · published 4 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider a wide range of matrix models and study them using the Monte Carlo technique in the large N limit. The results we obtain agree with exact analytic expres- sions and recent numerical bootstrap methods for models with one and two matrices. We then present new results for several unsolved multi-matrix models where no other tool is yet available. In order to encourage an exchange of ideas between different numerical approaches to matrix models, we provide programs in Python that can be easily modified to study potentials other than the ones discussed. These programs were tested on a laptop and took between a few minutes to several hours to finish depending on the model, N, and the required precision.

  2 citations

• Universal Deformations

  Aleksey Cherman, Theodore Jacobson, Maria Neuzil

  SciPost Phys. 12, 116 (2022) · published 1 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  QFTs with local topological operators feature unusual sectors called "universes," which are separated by infinite-tension domain walls. We show that such systems have relevant deformations with exactly-calculable effects. These deformations allow one to dial the vacuum energy densities of the universes. We describe applications of these deformations to confinement in 2d gauge theories, as well as a curious violation of the effective field theory naturalness principle.

  27 citations

• Tails of Instability and Decay: a Hydrodynamic Perspective

  Olalla A. Castro-Alvaredo, Cecilia De Fazio, Benjamin Doyon, Aleksandra A. Ziółkowska

  SciPost Phys. 12, 115 (2022) · published 31 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the context of quantum field theory (QFT), unstable particles are associated with complex-valued poles of two-body scattering matrices in the unphysical sheet of rapidity space. The Breit-Wigner formula relates this pole to the mass and life-time of the particle, observed in scattering events. In this paper, we uncover new, dynamical signatures of unstable excitations and show that they have a strong effect on the non-equilibrium properties of QFT. Focusing on a 1+1D integrable model, and using the theory of Generalized Hydrodynamics, we study the formation and decay of unstable particles by analysing the release of hot matter into a low-temperature environment. We observe the formation of tails and the decay of the emitted nonlinear waves, in sharp contrast to the situation without unstable excitations. We also uncover a new phenomenon by which a wave of a stable population of unstable particles may persist without decay for long times. We expect these signatures of the presence of unstable particles to have a large degree of universality. Our study shows that the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of many-body systems can be strongly affected not only by the spectrum, but also by excitations with finite life-times.

  4 citations

• A note on the identity module in $c=0$ CFTs

  Yifei He, Hubert Saleur

  SciPost Phys. 12, 100 (2022) · published 21 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  It has long been understood that non-trivial Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) with vanishing central charge ($c=0$) are logarithmic. So far however, the structure of the identity module -- the (left and right) Virasoro descendants of the identity field -- had not been elucidated beyond the stress-energy tensor $T$ and its logarithmic partner $t$ (the solution of the "$c\to 0$ catastrophe"). In this paper, we determine this structure together with the associated OPE of primary fields up to level $h=\bar{h}=2$ for polymers and percolation CFTs. This is done by taking the $c\to 0$ limit of $O(n)$ and Potts models and combining recent results from the bootstrap with arguments based on conformal invariance and self-duality. We find that the structure contains a rank-3 Jordan cell involving the field $T\bar{T}$, and is identical for polymers and percolation. It is characterized in part by the common value of a non-chiral logarithmic coupling $a_0=-{25\over 48}$.

  5 citations

• Bubble instabilities of mIIA on AdS$_4\times S^6$

  Pieter Bomans, Davide Cassani, Giuseppe Dibitetto, Nicolò Petri

  SciPost Phys. 12, 099 (2022) · published 18 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider compactifications of massive IIA supergravity on a six-sphere. This setup is known to give rise to non-supersymmetric AdS$_4$ vacua preserving SO$(7)$ as well as G$_2$ residual symmetry. Both solutions have a round $S^6$ metric and are supported by the Romans’ mass and internal $F_6$ flux. While the SO$(7)$ invariant vacuum is known to be perturbatively unstable, the G$_2$ invariant one has been found to have a fully stable Kaluza-Klein spectrum. Moreover, it has been shown to be protected against brane-jet instabilities. Motivated by these results, we study possible bubbling solutions connected to the G$_2$ vacuum, representing non-perturbative instabilities of the latter. We indeed find an instability channel represented by the nucleation of a bubble of nothing dressed up with a homogeneous D2 brane charge distribution in the internal space. Our solution generalizes to the case where $S^6$ is replaced by any six-dimensional nearly-Kähler manifold.

  21 citations

• Entanglement wedge in flat holography and entanglement negativity

  Debarshi Basu, Ashish Chandra, Vinayak Raj, Gautam Sengupta

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 013 (2022) · published 15 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We establish a construction for the entanglement wedge in asymptotically flat bulk geometries for subsystems in dual $(1+1)$-dimensional Galilean conformal field theories in the context of flat space holography. In this connection we propose a definition for the bulk entanglement wedge cross section for bipartite states of such dual non relativistic conformal field theories. Utilizing our construction for the entanglement wedge cross section we compute the entanglement negativity for such bipartite states through the generalization of an earlier proposal, in the context of the usual $AdS/CFT$ scenario, to flat space holography. The entanglement negativity obtained from our construction exactly reproduces earlier holographic results and match with the corresponding field theory replica technique results in the large central charge limit.

  26 citations

• Relative entropic uncertainty relation for scalar quantum fields

  Stefan Floerchinger, Tobias Haas, Markus Schröfl

  SciPost Phys. 12, 089 (2022) · published 10 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Entropic uncertainty is a well-known concept to formulate uncertainty relations for continuous variable quantum systems with finitely many degrees of freedom. Typically, the bounds of such relations scale with the number of oscillator modes, preventing a straight-forward generalization to quantum field theories. In this work, we overcome this difficulty by introducing the notion of a functional relative entropy and show that it has a meaningful field theory limit. We present the first entropic uncertainty relation for a scalar quantum field theory and exemplify its behavior by considering few particle excitations and the thermal state. Also, we show that the relation implies the multidimensional Heisenberg uncertainty relation.

  7 citations

• Branch Point Twist Field Form Factors in the sine-Gordon Model II: Composite Twist Fields and Symmetry Resolved Entanglement

  David X. Horvath, Pasquale Calabrese, Olalla A. Castro-Alvaredo

  SciPost Phys. 12, 088 (2022) · published 10 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper we continue the programme initiated in Part I, that is the study of entanglement measures in the sine-Gordon model. In both parts, we have focussed on one specific technique, that is the well-known connection between branch point twist field correlators and measures of entanglement in 1+1D integrable quantum field theory. Our papers apply this technique for the first time to a non-diagonal theory with an involved particle spectrum, the sine-Gordon model. In this Part II we focus on a different entanglement measure, the symmetry resolved entanglement, and develop its associated twist field description, exploiting the underlying U(1) symmetry of the theory. In this context, conventional branch point twist fields are no longer the fields required, but instead we must work with one of their composite generalisations, which can be understood as the field resulting from the fusion of a standard branch point twist field and the sine-Gordon exponential field associated with U(1) symmetry. The resulting composite twist field has correlators which as usual admit a form factor expansion. In this paper we write the associated form factor equations and solve them for various examples in the breather sector by using the method of angular quantisation. We show that, in the attractive regime, this is the sector which provides the leading contribution to the symmetry resolved entropies, both Renyi and von Neumann. We compute the latter in the limit of a large region size and show that they satisfy the property of equipartition, that is the leading contribution to the symmetry resolved entanglement is independent of the symmetry sector.

  36 citations