Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Aspects of high energy scattering

  Chris D. White

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 13 (2020) · published 7 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Scattering amplitudes in quantum field theories are of widespread interest, due to a large number of theoretical and phenomenological applications. Much is known about the possible behaviour of amplitudes, that is independent of the details of the underlying theory. This knowledge is often neglected in modern QFT courses, and the aim of these notes - aimed at graduate students - is to redress this. We review the possible singularities that amplitudes can have, before examining the generic behaviour that can arise in the high-energy limit. Finally, we illustrate the results using examples from QCD and gravity.

  5 citations

• Lorentz symmetry fractionalization and dualities in (2+1)d

  Po-Shen Hsin, Shu-Heng Shao

  SciPost Phys. 8, 018 (2020) · published 4 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss symmetry fractionalization of the Lorentz group in (2+1)d non-spin quantum field theory (QFT), and its implications for dualities. We prove that two inequivalent non-spin QFTs are dual as spin QFTs if and only if they are related by a Lorentz symmetry fractionalization with respect to an anomalous $\mathbb{Z}_2$ one-form symmetry. Moreover, if the framing anomalies of two non-spin QFTs differ by a multiple of 8, then they are dual as spin QFTs if and only if they are also dual as non-spin QFTs. Applications to summing over the spin structures, time-reversal symmetry, and level/rank dualities are explored. The Lorentz symmetry fractionalization naturally arises in Chern-Simons matter dualities that obey certain spin/charge relations, and is instrumental for the dualities to hold when viewed as non-spin theories.

  28 citations

• Connecting quasinormal modes and heat kernels in 1-loop determinants

  Cynthia Keeler, Victoria L. Martin, Andrew Svesko

  SciPost Phys. 8, 017 (2020) · published 3 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We connect two different approaches for calculating functional determinants on quotients of hyperbolic spacetime: the heat kernel method and the quasinormal mode method. For the example of a rotating BTZ background, we show how the image sum in the heat kernel method builds up the logarithms in the quasinormal mode method, while the thermal sum in the quasinormal mode method builds up the integrand of the heat kernel. More formally, we demonstrate how the heat kernel and quasinormal mode methods are linked via the Selberg zeta function. We show that a 1-loop partition function computed using the heat kernel method may be cast as a Selberg zeta function whose zeros encode quasinormal modes. We discuss how our work may be used to predict quasinormal modes on more complicated spacetimes.

  13 citations

• Current operators in integrable spin chains: lessons from long range deformations

  Balázs Pozsgay

  SciPost Phys. 8, 016 (2020) · published 3 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the finite volume mean values of current operators in integrable spin chains with local interactions, and provide an alternative derivation of the exact result found recently by the author and two collaborators. We use a certain type of long range deformation of the local spin chains, which was discovered and explored earlier in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. This method is immediately applicable also to higher rank models: as a concrete example we derive the current mean values in the SU(3)-symmetric fundamental model, solvable by the nested Bethe Ansatz. The exact results take the same form as in the Heisenberg spin chains: they involve the one-particle eigenvalues of the conserved charges and the inverse of the Gaudin matrix.

  51 citations

• On gauging finite subgroups

  Yuji Tachikawa

  SciPost Phys. 8, 015 (2020) · published 31 January 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study in general spacetime dimension the symmetry of the theory obtained by gauging a non-anomalous finite normal Abelian subgroup $A$ of a $\Gamma$-symmetric theory. Depending on how anomalous $\Gamma$ is, we find that the symmetry of the gauged theory can be i) a direct product of $G=\Gamma/A$ and a higher-form symmetry $\hat A$ with a mixed anomaly, where $\hat A$ is the Pontryagin dual of $A$; ii) an extension of the ordinary symmetry group $G$ by the higher-form symmetry $\hat A$; iii) or even more esoteric types of symmetries which are no longer groups. We also discuss the relations to the effect called the $H^3(G,\hat A)$ symmetry localization obstruction in the condensed-matter theory and to some of the constructions in the works of Kapustin-Thorngren and Wang-Wen-Witten.

  222 citations

• Rank $Q$ E-string on a torus with flux

  Sara Pasquetti, Shlomo S. Razamat, Matteo Sacchi, Gabi Zafrir

  SciPost Phys. 8, 014 (2020) · published 29 January 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss compactifications of rank $Q$ E-string theory on a torus with fluxes for abelian subgroups of the $E_8$ global symmetry of the $6d$ SCFT. We argue that the theories corresponding to such tori are built from a simple model we denote as $E[USp(2Q)]$. This model has a variety of non trivial properties. In particular the global symmetry is $USp(2Q)\times USp(2Q)\times U(1)^2$ with one of the two $USp(2Q)$ symmetries emerging in the IR as an enhancement of an $SU(2)^Q$ symmetry of the UV Lagrangian. The $E[USp(2Q)]$ model after dimensional reduction to $3d$ and a subsequent Coulomb branch flow is closely related to the familiar $3d$ $T[SU(Q)]$ theory, the model residing on an S-duality domain wall of $4d$ $\mathcal{N}=4$ $SU(Q)$ SYM. Gluing the $E[USp(2Q)]$ models by gauging the $USp(2Q)$ symmetries with proper admixtures of chiral superfields gives rise to systematic constructions of many examples of $4d$ theories with emergent IR symmetries. We support our claims by various checks involving computations of anomalies and supersymmetric partition functions. Many of the needed identities satisfied by the supersymmetric indices follow directly from recent mathematical results obtained by E. Rains.

  48 citations

• Near horizon dynamics of three dimensional black holes

  Daniel Grumiller, Wout Merbis

  SciPost Phys. 8, 010 (2020) · published 23 January 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We perform the Hamiltonian reduction of three dimensional Einstein gravity with negative cosmological constant under constraints imposed by near horizon boundary conditions. The theory reduces to a Floreanini-Jackiw type scalar field theory on the horizon, where the scalar zero modes capture the global black hole charges. The near horizon Hamiltonian is a total derivative term, which explains the softness of all oscillator modes of the scalar field. We find also a (Korteweg-de Vries) hierarchy of modified boundary conditions that we use to lift the degeneracy of the soft hair excitations on the horizon.

  25 citations

• Gauss law, minimal coupling and fermionic PEPS for lattice gauge theories

  Patrick Emonts, Erez Zohar

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 12 (2020) · published 17 January 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In these lecture notes, we review some recent works on Hamiltonian lattice gauge theories, that involve, in particular, tensor network methods. The results reviewed here are tailored together in a slightly different way from the one used in the contexts where they were first introduced, by looking at the Gauss law from two different points of view: for the gauge field it is a differential equation, while from the matter point of view, on the other hand, it is a simple, explicit algebraic equation. We will review and discuss what these two points of view allow and do not allow us to do, in terms of unitarily gauging a pure-matter theory and eliminating the matter from a gauge theory, and relate that to the construction of PEPS (Projected Entangled Pair States) for lattice gauge theories.

  16 citations

• Generalized hydrodynamics regime from the thermodynamic bootstrap program

  Axel Cortés Cubero, Miłosz Panfil

  SciPost Phys. 8, 004 (2020) · published 13 January 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Within the generalized hydrodynamics (GHD) formalism for quantum integrable models, it is possible to compute simple expressions for a number of correlation functions at the Eulerian scale. Specializing to integrable relativistic field theories, we show the same correlators can be computed as a sum over form factors, the GHD regime corresponding to the leading contribution with one particle-hole pair on a finite energy-density background. The thermodynamic bootstrap program (TBP) formalism was recently introduced as an axiomatic approach to computing such finite-energy-density form factors for integrable field theories. We derive a new axiom within the TBP formalism from which we easily recover the predicted GHD Eulerian correlators. We also compute higher form factor contributions, with more particle-hole pairs, within the TBP, allowing for the computation of correlation functions in the diffusive, and beyond, GHD regimes. The two particle-hole form factors agree with expressions recently conjectured within the~GHD.

  33 citations

• Anomalies in the space of coupling constants and their dynamical applications II

  Clay Córdova, Daniel S. Freed, Ho Tat Lam, Nathan Seiberg

  SciPost Phys. 8, 002 (2020) · published 7 January 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We extend our earlier work on anomalies in the space of coupling constants to four-dimensional gauge theories. Pure Yang-Mills theory (without matter) with a simple and simply connected gauge group has a mixed anomaly between its one-form global symmetry (associated with the center) and the periodicity of the $\theta$-parameter. This anomaly is at the root of many recently discovered properties of these theories, including their phase transitions and interfaces. These new anomalies can be used to extend this understanding to systems without discrete symmetries (such as time-reversal). We also study $SU(N)$ and $Sp(N)$ gauge theories with matter in the fundamental representation. Here we find a mixed anomaly between the flavor symmetry group and the $\theta$-periodicity. Again, this anomaly unifies distinct recently-discovered phenomena in these theories and controls phase transitions and the dynamics on interfaces.

  135 citations