Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Analytic and numerical bootstrap of CFTs with $O(m)\times O(n)$ global symmetry in 3D

  Johan Henriksson, Stefanos R. Kousvos, Andreas Stergiou

  SciPost Phys. 9, 035 (2020) · published 10 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Motivated by applications to critical phenomena and open theoretical questions, we study conformal field theories with $O(m)\times O(n)$ global symmetry in $d=3$ spacetime dimensions. We use both analytic and numerical bootstrap techniques. Using the analytic bootstrap, we calculate anomalous dimensions and OPE coefficients as power series in $\varepsilon=4-d$ and in $1/n$, with a method that generalizes to arbitrary global symmetry. Whenever comparison is possible, our results agree with earlier results obtained with diagrammatic methods in the literature. Using the numerical bootstrap, we obtain a wide variety of operator dimension bounds, and we find several islands (isolated allowed regions) in parameter space for $O(2)\times O(n)$ theories for various values of $n$. Some of these islands can be attributed to fixed points predicted by perturbative methods like the $\varepsilon$ and large-$n$ expansions, while others appear to arise due to fixed points that have been claimed to exist in resummations of perturbative beta functions.

  27 citations

• Heavy operators and hydrodynamic tails

  Luca V. Delacretaz

  SciPost Phys. 9, 034 (2020) · published 8 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The late time physics of interacting QFTs at finite temperature is controlled by hydrodynamics. For CFTs this implies that heavy operators -- which are generically expected to create thermal states -- can be studied semiclassically. We show that hydrodynamics universally fixes the OPE coefficients $C_{HH'L}$, on average, of all neutral light operators with two non-identical heavy ones, as a function of the scaling dimension and spin of the operators. These methods can be straightforwardly extended to CFTs with global symmetries, and generalize recent EFT results on large charge operators away from the case of minimal dimension at fixed charge. We also revisit certain aspects of late time thermal correlators in QFT and other diffusive systems.

  30 citations

• Non-hermitian holography

  Daniel Areán, Karl Landsteiner, Ignacio Salazar Landea

  SciPost Phys. 9, 032 (2020) · published 3 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quantum theory can be formulated with certain non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. An anti-linear involution, denoted by PT, is a symmetry of such Hamiltonians. In the PT-symmetric regime the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is related to a Hermitian one by a Hermitian similarity transformation. We extend the concept of non-Hermitian quantum theory to gauge-gravity duality. Non-Hermiticity is introduced via boundary conditions in asymptotically AdS spacetimes. At zero temperature the PT phase transition is identified as the point at which the solutions cease to be real. Surprisingly at finite temperature real black holes solutions can be found well outside the quasi-Hermitian regime. These backgrounds are however unstable to fluctuations which establishes the persistence of the holographic dual of the PT phase transition at finite temperature.

  12 citations

• $\mathcal{I}$/$c$-extremization in M/F-duality

  Marieke van Beest, Sebastjan Cizel, Sakura Schäfer-Nameki, James Sparks

  SciPost Phys. 9, 029 (2020) · published 1 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the holographic dual to $c$-extremization for 2d $(0,2)$ superconformal field theories (SCFTs) that have an AdS$_3$ dual realized in Type IIB with varying axio-dilaton, i.e. F-theory. M/F-duality implies that such AdS$_3$ solutions can be mapped to AdS$_2$ solutions in M-theory, which are holographically dual to superconformal quantum mechanics (SCQM), obtained by dimensional reduction of the 2d SCFTs. We analyze the corresponding map between holographic $c$-extremization in F-theory and $\mathcal{I}$-extremization in M-theory, where in general the latter receives corrections relative to the F-theory result.

  7 citations

• An invitation to the principal series

  Tarek Anous, Jim Skulte

  SciPost Phys. 9, 028 (2020) · published 1 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Scalar unitary representations of the isometry group of $d$-dimensional de Sitter space $SO(1,d)$ are labeled by their conformal weights $\Delta$. A salient feature of de Sitter space is that scalar fields with sufficiently large mass compared to the de Sitter scale $1/\ell$ have complex conformal weights, and physical modes of these fields fall into the unitary continuous principal series representation of $SO(1,d)$. Our goal is to study these representations in $d=2$, where the relevant group is $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$. We show that the generators of the isometry group of dS$_2$ acting on a massive scalar field reproduce the quantum mechanical model introduced by de Alfaro, Fubini and Furlan (DFF) in the early/late time limit. Motivated by the ambient dS$_2$ construction, we review in detail how the DFF model must be altered in order to accommodate the principal series representation. We point out a difficulty in writing down a classical Lagrangian for this model, whereas the canonical Hamiltonian formulation avoids any problem. We speculate on the meaning of the various de Sitter invariant vacua from the point of view of this toy model and discuss some potential generalizations.

  11 citations

• QED at NNLO with McMule

  P. Banerjee, T. Engel, A. Signer, Y. Ulrich

  SciPost Phys. 9, 027 (2020) · published 31 August 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  McMule is a framework for fully differential higher-order QED calculations of scattering and decay processes involving leptons. It keeps finite lepton masses, which regularises collinear singularities. Soft singularities are treated with dimensional regularisation and using FKS$^\ell$ subtraction. We describe the implementation of the framework in Fortran 95, list the processes that are currently implemented, and give instructions on how to run the code. In addition, we present new phenomenological results for muon-electron scattering and lepton-proton scattering, including the dominant NNLO corrections. While the applications presented focus on MUonE, MUSE, and P2, the code can be used for a large number of planned and running experiments.

  34 citations

• JT gravity at finite cutoff

  Luca V. Iliesiu, Jorrit Kruthoff, Gustavo J. Turiaci, Herman Verlinde

  SciPost Phys. 9, 023 (2020) · published 21 August 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We compute the partition function of 2D Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity at finite cutoff in two ways: (i) via an exact evaluation of the Wheeler-DeWitt wavefunctional in radial quantization and (ii) through a direct computation of the Euclidean path integral. Both methods deal with Dirichlet boundary conditions for the metric and the dilaton. In the first approach, the radial wavefunctionals are found by reducing the constraint equations to two first order functional derivative equations that can be solved exactly, including factor ordering. In the second approach we perform the path integral exactly when summing over surfaces with disk topology, to all orders in perturbation theory in the cutoff. Both results precisely match the recently derived partition function in the Schwarzian theory deformed by an operator analogous to the $T\overline{T}$ deformation in 2D CFTs. This equality can be seen as concrete evidence for the proposed holographic interpretation of the $T\overline{T}$ deformation as the movement of the AdS boundary to a finite radial distance in the bulk.

  44 citations

• Toward a 3d Ising model with a weakly-coupled string theory dual

  Nabil Iqbal, John McGreevy

  SciPost Phys. 9, 019 (2020) · published 13 August 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  It has long been expected that the 3d Ising model can be thought of as a string theory, where one interprets the domain walls that separate up spins from down spins as two-dimensional string worldsheets. The usual Ising Hamiltonian measures the area of these domain walls. This theory has string coupling of unit magnitude. We add new local terms to the Ising Hamiltonian that further weight each spin configuration by a factor depending on the genus of the corresponding domain wall, resulting in a new 3d Ising model that has a tunable bare string coupling $g_s$. We use a combination of analytical and numerical methods to analyze the phase structure of this model as $g_s$ is varied. We study statistical properties of the topology of worldsheets and discuss the prospects of using this new deformation at weak string coupling to find a worldsheet description of the 3d Ising transition.

  14 citations

• Topological holography: The example of the D2-D4 brane system

  Nafiz Ishtiaque, Seyed Faroogh Moosavian, Yehao Zhou

  SciPost Phys. 9, 017 (2020) · published 5 August 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose a toy model for holographic duality. The model is constructed by embedding a stack of $N$ D2-branes and $K$ D4-branes (with one dimensional intersection) in a 6D topological string theory. The world-volume theory on the D2-branes (resp. D4-branes) is 2D BF theory (resp. 4D Chern-Simons theory) with $\mathrm{GL}_N$ (resp. $\mathrm{GL}_K$) gauge group. We propose that in the large $N$ limit the BF theory on $\mathbb{R}^2$ is dual to the closed string theory on $\mathbb R^2 \times \mathbb R_+ \times S^3$ with the Chern-Simons defect on $\mathbb R \times \mathbb R_+ \times S^2$. As a check for the duality we compute the operator algebra in the BF theory, along the D2-D4 intersection -- the algebra is the Yangian of $\mathfrak{gl}_K$. We then compute the same algebra, in the guise of a scattering algebra, using Witten diagrams in the Chern-Simons theory. Our computations of the algebras are exact (valid at all loops). Finally, we propose a physical string theory construction of this duality using a D3-D5 brane configuration in type IIB -- using supersymmetric twist and $\Omega$-deformation.

  16 citations

• The non-rational limit of D-series minimal models

  Sylvain Ribault

  SciPost Phys. Core 3, 002 (2020) · published 31 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the limit of D-series minimal models when the central charge tends to a generic irrational value $c\in (-\infty, 1)$. We find that the limit theory's diagonal three-point structure constant differs from that of Liouville theory by a distribution factor, which is given by a divergent Verlinde formula. Nevertheless, correlation functions that involve both non-diagonal and diagonal fields are smooth functions of the diagonal fields' conformal dimensions. The limit theory is a non-trivial example of a non-diagonal, non-rational, solved two-dimensional conformal field theory.