Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Testing the mechanism of lepton compositeness

  Vincenzo Afferrante, Axel Maas, René Sondenheimer, Pascal Törek

  SciPost Phys. 10, 062 (2021) · published 10 March 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Strict gauge invariance requires that physical left-handed leptons are actually bound states of the elementary left-handed lepton doublet and the Higgs field within the standard model. That they nonetheless behave almost like pure elementary particles is explained by the Fr\"ohlich-Morchio-Strocchi mechanism. Using lattice gauge theory, we test and confirm this mechanism for fermions. Though, due to the current inaccessibility of non-Abelian gauged Weyl fermions on the lattice, a model which contains vectorial leptons but which obeys all other relevant symmetries has been simulated.

  4 citations

• Revisiting Wess-Zumino-Witten terms

  Yasunori Lee, Kantaro Ohmori, Yuji Tachikawa

  SciPost Phys. 10, 061 (2021) · published 10 March 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We revisit various topological issues concerning four-dimensional ungauged and gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) terms for $SU$ and $SO$ quantum chromodynamics (QCD), from the modern bordism point of view. We explain, for example, why the definition of the $4d$ WZW terms requires the spin structure. We also discuss how the mixed anomaly involving the 1-form symmetry of $SO$ QCD is reproduced in the low-energy sigma model.

  12 citations

• Entanglement gap, corners, and symmetry breaking

  Vincenzo Alba

  SciPost Phys. 10, 056 (2021) · published 8 March 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the finite-size scaling of the lowest entanglement gap $\delta\xi$ in the ordered phase of the two-dimensional quantum spherical model (QSM). The entanglement gap decays as $\delta\xi=\Omega/\sqrt{L\ln(L)}$. This is in contrast with the purely logarithmic behaviour as $\delta\xi=\pi^2/\ln(L)$ at the critical point. The faster decay in the ordered phase reflects the presence of magnetic order. We analytically determine the constant $\Omega$, which depends on the low-energy part of the model dispersion and on the geometry of the bipartition. In particular, we are able to compute the corner contribution to $\Omega$, at least for the case of a square corner.

  5 citations

• Matrix product operator symmetries and intertwiners in string-nets with domain walls

  Laurens Lootens, Jürgen Fuchs, Jutho Haegeman, Christoph Schweigert, Frank Verstraete

  SciPost Phys. 10, 053 (2021) · published 1 March 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We provide a description of virtual non-local matrix product operator (MPO) symmetries in projected entangled pair state (PEPS) representations of string-net models. Given such a PEPS representation, we show that the consistency conditions of its MPO symmetries amount to a set of six coupled equations that can be identified with the pentagon equations of a bimodule category. This allows us to classify all equivalent PEPS representations and build MPO intertwiners between them, synthesising and generalising the wide variety of tensor network representations of topological phases. Furthermore, we use this generalisation to build explicit PEPS realisations of domain walls between different topological phases as constructed by Kitaev and Kong [Commun. Math. Phys. 313 (2012) 351-373]. While the prevailing abstract categorical approach is sufficient to describe the structure of topological phases, explicit tensor network representations are required to simulate these systems on a computer, such as needed for calculating thresholds of quantum error-correcting codes based on string-nets with boundaries. Finally, we show that all these string-net PEPS representations can be understood as specific instances of Turaev-Viro state-sum models of topological field theory on three-manifolds with a physical boundary, thereby putting these tensor network constructions on a mathematically rigorous footing.

  27 citations

• Branes, quivers and wave-functions

  Taro Kimura, Miłosz Panfil, Yuji Sugimoto, Piotr Sułkowski

  SciPost Phys. 10, 051 (2021) · published 26 February 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider a large class of branes in toric strip geometries, both non-periodic and periodic ones. For a fixed background geometry we show that partition functions for such branes can be reinterpreted, on one hand, as quiver generating series, and on the other hand as wave-functions in various polarizations. We determine operations on quivers, as well as $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ transformations, which correspond to changing positions of these branes. Our results prove integrality of BPS multiplicities associated to this class of branes, reveal how they transform under changes of polarization, and imply all other properties of brane amplitudes that follow from the relation to quivers.

  7 citations

• The Holographic Nature of Null Infinity

  Alok Laddha, Siddharth G. Prabhu, Suvrat Raju, Pushkal Shrivastava

  SciPost Phys. 10, 041 (2021) · published 18 February 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We argue that, in a theory of quantum gravity in a four dimensional asymptotically flat spacetime, all information about massless excitations can be obtained from an infinitesimal neighbourhood of the past boundary of future null infinity and does not require observations over all of future null infinity. Moreover, all information about the state that can be obtained through observations near a cut of future null infinity can also be obtained from observations near any earlier cut although the converse is not true. We provide independent arguments for these two assertions. Similar statements hold for past null infinity. These statements have immediate implications for the information paradox since they suggest that the fine-grained von Neumann entropy of the state defined on a segment $(-\infty,u)$ of future null infinity is independent of u. This is very different from the oft-discussed Page curve that this entropy is sometimes expected to obey. We contrast our results with recent discussions of the Page curve in the context of black hole evaporation, and also discuss the relation of our results to other proposals for holography in flat space.

  70 citations

• Double soft theorem for generalised biadjoint scalar amplitudes

  Md. Abhishek, Subramanya Hegde, Dileep P. Jatkar, Arnab Priya Saha

  SciPost Phys. 10, 036 (2021) · published 16 February 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study double soft theorem for the generalised biadjoint scalar field theory whose amplitudes are computed in terms of punctures on $\mathbb{CP}^{k-1}$. We find that whenever the double soft limit does not decouple into a product of single soft factors, the leading contributions to the double soft theorems come from the degenerate solutions, otherwise the non degenerate solutions dominate. Our analysis uses the regular solutions to the scattering equations. Most of the results are presented for $k=3$ but we show how they generalise to arbitrary $k$. We have explicit analytic results, for any $k$, in the case when soft external states are adjacent.

  5 citations

• Symmetry restoration and the gluon mass in the Landau gauge

  Urko Reinosa, Julien Serreau, Rodrigo Carmo Terin, Matthieu Tissier

  SciPost Phys. 10, 035 (2021) · published 16 February 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the generation of a gluon screening mass in Yang-Mills theory in the Landau gauge. We propose a gauge-fixing procedure where the Gribov ambiguity is overcome by summing over all Gribov copies with some weight function. This can be formulated in terms of a local field theory involving constrained, nonlinear sigma model fields. We show that a phenomenon of radiative symmetry restoration occurs in this theory, similar to what happens in the standard nonlinear sigma model in two dimensions. This results in a nonzero gluon screening mass, as seen in lattice simulations.

  9 citations

• Phase transitions in the early universe

  Mark Hindmarsh, Marvin Lüben, Johannes Lumma, Martin Pauly

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 24 (2021) · published 15 February 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  These lecture notes are based on a course given by Mark Hindmarsh at the 24th Saalburg Summer School 2018 and written up by Marvin L\"uben, Johannes Lumma and Martin Pauly. The aim is to provide the necessary basics to understand first-order phase transitions in the early universe, to outline how they leave imprints in gravitational waves, and advertise how those gravitational waves could be detected in the future. A first-order phase transition at the electroweak scale is a prediction of many theories beyond the Standard Model, and is also motivated as an ingredient of some theories attempting to provide an explanation for the matter-antimatter asymmetry in our Universe. Starting from bosonic and fermionic statistics, we derive Boltzmann's equation and generalise to a fluid of particles with field dependent mass. We introduce the thermal effective potential for the field in its lowest order approximation, discuss the transition to the Higgs phase in the Standard Model and beyond, and compute the probability for the field to cross a potential barrier. After these preliminaries, we provide a hydrodynamical description of first-order phase transitions as it is appropriate for describing the early Universe. We thereby discuss the key quantities characterising a phase transition, and how they are imprinted in the gravitational wave power spectrum that might be detectable by the space-based gravitational wave detector LISA in the 2030s.

  74 citations

• Discrete theta angles, symmetries and anomalies

  Po-Shen Hsin, Ho Tat Lam

  SciPost Phys. 10, 032 (2021) · published 12 February 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Gauge theories in various dimensions often admit discrete theta angles, that arise from gauging a global symmetry with an additional symmetry protected topological (SPT) phase. We discuss how the global symmetry and 't Hooft anomaly depends on the discrete theta angles by coupling the gauge theory to a topological quantum field theory (TQFT). We observe that gauging an Abelian subgroup symmetry, that participates in symmetry extension, with an additional SPT phase leads to a new theory with an emergent Abelian symmetry that also participates in a symmetry extension. The symmetry extension of the gauge theory is controlled by the discrete theta angle which comes from the SPT phase. We find that discrete theta angles can lead to two-group symmetry in 4d QCD with $SU(N),SU(N)/\mathbb{Z}_k$ or $SO(N)$ gauge groups as well as various 3d and 2d gauge theories.

  49 citations