Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Renormalised spectral flows

  Jens Braun, Yong-rui Chen, Wei-jie Fu, Andreas Geißel, Jan Horak, Chuang Huang, Friederike Ihssen, Jan M. Pawlowski, Manuel Reichert, Fabian Rennecke, Yang-yang Tan, Sebastian Töpfel, Jonas Wessely, Nicolas Wink

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 061 (2023) · published 4 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We derive renormalised finite functional flow equations for quantum field theories in real and imaginary time that incorporate scale transformations of the renormalisation conditions, hence implementing a flowing renormalisation. The flows are manifestly finite in general non-perturbative truncation schemes also for regularisation schemes that do not implement an infrared suppression of the loops in the flow. Specifically, this formulation includes finite functional flows for the effective action with a spectral Callan-Symanzik cutoff, and therefore gives access to Lorentz invariant spectral flows. The functional setup is fully non-perturbative and allows for the spectral treatment of general theories. In particular, this includes theories that do not admit a perturbative renormalisation such as asymptotically safe theories. Finally, the application of the Lorentz invariant spectral functional renormalisation group is briefly discussed for theories ranging from real scalar and Yukawa theories to gauge theories and quantum gravity.

  7 citations

• Lectures on faster-than-light travel and time travel

  Barak Shoshany

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 10 (2019) · published 1 October 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  These lecture notes were prepared for a 25-hour course for advanced undergraduate students participating in Perimeter Institute's Undergraduate Summer Program. The lectures cover some of what is currently known about the possibility of superluminal travel and time travel within the context of established science, that is, general relativity and quantum field theory. Previous knowledge of general relativity at the level of a standard undergraduate-level introductory course is recommended, but all the relevant material is included for completion and reference. No previous knowledge of quantum field theory, or anything else beyond the standard undergraduate curriculum, is required. Advanced topics in relativity, such as causal structures, the Raychaudhuri equation, and the energy conditions are presented in detail. Once the required background is covered, concepts related to faster-than-light travel and time travel are discussed. After introducing tachyons in special relativity as a warm-up, exotic spacetime geometries in general relativity such as warp drives and wormholes are discussed and analyzed, including their limitations. Time travel paradoxes are also discussed in detail, including some of their proposed resolutions.

  7 citations

• Non-equilibrium steady state formation in 3+1 dimensions

  Christian Ecker, Johanna Erdmenger, Wilke van der Schee

  SciPost Phys. 11, 047 (2021) · published 1 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present the first holographic simulations of non-equilibrium steady state formation in strongly coupled $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM theory in 3+1 dimensions. We initially join together two thermal baths at different temperatures and chemical potentials and compare the subsequent evolution of the combined system to analytic solutions of the corresponding Riemann problem and to numeric solutions of ideal and viscous hydrodynamics. The time evolution of the energy density that we obtain holographically is consistent with the combination of a shock and a rarefaction wave: A shock wave moves towards the cold bath, and a smooth broadening wave towards the hot bath. Between the two waves emerges a steady state with constant temperature and flow velocity, both of which are accurately described by a shock+rarefaction wave solution of the Riemann problem. In the steady state region, a smooth crossover develops between two regions of different charge density. This is reminiscent of a contact discontinuity in the Riemann problem. We also obtain results for the entanglement entropy of regions crossed by shock and rarefaction waves and find both of them to closely follow the evolution of the energy density.

  7 citations

• Holographic quantum scars

  Diego Liska, Vladimir Gritsev, Ward Vleeshouwers, Jiří Minář

  SciPost Phys. 15, 106 (2023) · published 20 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss a construction of quantum many-body scars in the context of holography. We consider two-dimensional conformal field theories and use their dynamical symmetries, naturally realized through the Virasoro algebra, to construct scarred states. By studying their Loschmidt amplitude, we evaluate the states' periodic properties. A geometrical interpretation allows us to compute the expectation value of the stress tensor and entanglement entropy of these scarred states. We show that their holographic dual is related by a diffeomorphism to empty AdS, even for energies above the black hole threshold. We also demonstrate that expectation values in the scarred states are generally non-thermal and that their entanglement entropy grows with the energy as $\log(E)$ in contrast to $\sqrt{E}$ for the typical (bulk) states. Furthermore, we identify fixed points on the CFT plane associated with divergent or vanishing entanglement entropy in the limit where the scarred states have infinite energy.

  7 citations

• Birdtracks for SU(N)

  Stefan Keppeler

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 3 (2018) · published 27 September 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  I gently introduce the diagrammatic birdtrack notation, first for vector algebra and then for permutations. After moving on to general tensors I review some recent results on Hermitian Young operators, gluon projectors, and multiplet bases for SU(N) colour space.

  6 citations

• More on the three-gluon vertex in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in three and four dimensions

  Axel Maas, Milan Vujinović

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 019 (2022) · published 8 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The three-gluon vertex has been found to be a vital ingredient in non-perturbative functional approaches. We present an updated lattice calculation of it in various kinematical configurations for all tensor structures and multiple lattice parameters in three dimensions, and in a subset of those in four dimensions, for SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in minimal Landau gauge. In three dimensions an unambiguous zero crossing for the tree-level form-factor is established, and consistency for all investigated form factors with a power-like divergence towards the infrared is observed. Using very coarse lattices this is even seen towards momenta as low as about 15 MeV. The results in four dimensions are consistent with such a behavior, but do not yet reach deep enough into the infrared to establish it.

  6 citations

• Many phases of generalized 3D instanton crystals

  Matti Jarvinen, Vadim Kaplunovsky, Jacob Sonnenschein

  SciPost Phys. 11, 018 (2021) · published 23 July 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Nuclear matter at large number of colors is necessarily in a solid phase. In particular holographic nuclear matter takes the form of a crystal of instantons of the flavor group. In this article we initiate the analysis of the three-dimensional crystal structures and the orientation patterns for the two-body potential that follows from holographic duality. The outcome of the analysis includes several unexpected results. We perform simulations of ensembles of O(10000) instantons whereby we identify the lattice structure and orientations for the different values of the weight factors of the non-Abelian orientation terms in the two-body potential. The resulting phase diagram is surprisingly complex, including a variety of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic crystals with various global orientation patterns, and various "non-Abelian" crystals where orientations have no preferred direction. The latter include variants of face-centered-cubic, hexagonal, and simple cubic crystals which may have remarkably large or small aspect ratios. The simulation results are augmented by analytic analysis of the long-distance divergences, and numerical computation of the (divergence free) energy differences between the non-Abelian crystals, which allows us to precisely determine the structure of the phase diagram.

  6 citations

• An effective field theory of magneto-elasticity

  Shashin Pavaskar, Riccardo Penco, Ira Z. Rothstein

  SciPost Phys. 12, 155 (2022) · published 11 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We utilize the coset construction to derive the effective field theory of magnon-phonon interactions in (anti)-ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic insulating materials. The action is used to calculate the equations of motion which generalize the Landau-Lifshitz and stress equations to allow for magneto-acoustic couplings to all orders in the fields at lowest order in the derivative expansion. We also include the symmetry breaking effects due to Zeeman, and Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interactions. This effective theory is a toolbox for the study of magneto-elastic phenomena from first principles. As an example we use this theory to calculate the leading order contribution to the magnon decay width due to its the decay into phonons.

  6 citations

• Exactly solvable lattice Hamiltonians and gravitational anomalies

  Yu-An Chen, Po-Shen Hsin

  SciPost Phys. 14, 089 (2023) · published 2 May 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We construct infinitely many new exactly solvable local commuting projector lattice Hamiltonian models for general bosonic beyond group cohomology invertible topological phases of order two and four in any spacetime dimensions, whose boundaries are characterized by gravitational anomalies. Examples include the beyond group cohomology invertible phase without symmetry in (4+1)D that has an anomalous boundary $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological order with fermionic particle and fermionic loop excitations that have mutual $\pi$ statistics. We argue that this construction gives a new non-trivial quantum cellular automaton (QCA) in (4+1)D of order two. We also present an explicit construction of gapped symmetric boundary state for the bosonic beyond group cohomology invertible phase with unitary $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry in (4+1)D. We discuss new quantum phase transitions protected by different invertible phases across the transitions.

  6 citations

• Symplectic reduction of Yang-Mills theory with boundaries: from superselection sectors to edge modes, and back

  Aldo Riello

  SciPost Phys. 10, 125 (2021) · published 1 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  I develop a theory of symplectic reduction that applies to bounded regions in electromagnetism and Yang-Mills theory. In this theory gauge-covariant superselection sectors for the electric flux through the boundary of the region play a central role: within such sectors, there exists a natural, canonically defined, symplectic structure for the reduced Yang-Mills theory. This symplectic structure does not require the inclusion of any new degrees of freedom. In the non-Abelian case, it also supports a family of Hamiltonian vector fields, which I call ``flux rotations,'' generated by smeared, Poisson-non-commutative, electric fluxes. Since the action of flux rotations affects the total energy of the system, I argue that flux rotations fail to be dynamical symmetries of Yang-Mills theory restricted to a region. I also consider the possibility of defining a symplectic structure on the union of all superselection sectors. This in turn requires including additional boundary degrees of freedom aka ``edge modes.'' However, I argue that a commonly used phase space extension by edge modes is inherently ambiguous and gauge-breaking.

  6 citations