Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Proving the dimension-shift conjecture

  Ruth Britto, Guy R. Jehu, Andrea Orta

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 7, 009 (2022) · published 20 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We prove the conjecture made by Bern, Dixon, Dunbar, and Kosower that describes a simple dimension shifting relationship between the one-loop structure of N = 4 MHV amplitudes and all-plus helicity amplitudes in pure Yang-Mills theory. The proof captures all orders in dimensional regularisation using unitarity cuts, by combining massive spinor-helicity with Coulomb-branch supersymmetry. The form of these amplitudes can be given in terms of pentagon and box integrals using a generalised D-dimensional

• A pitfall in applying non-anticommuting $γ_5$ in $q\overline{q} \rightarrow ZH$ amplitudes

  Taushif Ahmed

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 7, 008 (2022) · published 20 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In computing the two-loop QCD corrections to a class of Feynman diagrams for the process $q\overline{q} \rightarrow ZH$ in Higgs effective field theory, we discover a striking phenomenon. We find the need for an additional local composite operator in the renormalised Lagrangian while employing a non-anticommuting $\gamma_5$ in dimensional regularisation. The computation using anticommuting $\gamma_5$, however, does not require any such amendment.

• Two-parton scattering in the high-energy limit: climbing two- and three-Reggeon ladders

  G. Falcioni, E. Gardi, N. Maher, C. Milloy, L. Vernazza

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 7, 007 (2022) · published 20 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We review recent progress on the calculation of scattering amplitudes in the high-energy limit. We start by illustrating the shockwave formalism, which allows one to calculate amplitudes as iterated solutions of rapidity evolution equations. We then focus on our recent results regarding 2 -> 2 parton scattering. We present the calculation of the imaginary part of the amplitude, at next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy in the high-energy logarithms, formally to all orders, and in practice to 13 loops. We then discuss the computation of the real part of the amplitude at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy and through four loops. Both computations are carried in full colour, and provide new insight into the analytic structure of scattering amplitudes and their infrared singularity structure.

• Master integrals contributing to two-loop leading colour QCD helicity amplitudes for top-quark pair production in the gluon fusion channel

  Ekta Chaubey

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 7, 001 (2022) · published 20 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss the analytic structure of the master integrals relevant for computing the com- plete set of leading-colour analytic helicity amplitudes for top-quark pair production via gluon fusion at two loops in QCD. This includes corrections due to massive fermion loops which give rise to integrals involving elliptic curves. We also elaborate on the structure of singularities that play an important role in the numerical evaluation of the iterated integrals and their analytic continuation.

• Edge physics at the deconfined transition between a quantum spin Hall insulator and a superconductor

  Ruochen Ma, Liujun Zou, Chong Wang

  SciPost Phys. 12, 196 (2022) · published 14 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the edge physics of the deconfined quantum phase transition (DQCP) between a spontaneous quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator and a spin-singlet superconductor (SC). Although the bulk of this transition is in the same universality class as the paradigmatic deconfined Neel to valence-bond-solid transition, the boundary physics has a richer structure due to proximity to a quantum spin Hall state. We use the parton trick to write down an effective field theory for the QSH-SC transition in the presence of a boundary. We calculate various edge properties in an $N\to\infty$ limit. We show that the boundary Luttinger liquid in the QSH state survives at the phase transition, but only as "fractional" degrees of freedom that carry charge but not spin. The physical fermion remains gapless on the edge at the critical point, with a universal jump in the fermion scaling dimension as the system approaches the transition from the QSH side. The critical point could be viewed as a gapless analogue of the quantum spin Hall state but with the full $SU(2)$ spin rotation symmetry, which cannot be realized if the bulk is gapped.

• Page curves and bath deformations

  Elena Caceres, Arnab Kundu, Ayan K. Patra, Sanjit Shashi

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 033 (2022) · published 13 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the black hole information problem within a semiclassically gravitating AdS$_d$ black hole coupled to and in equilibrium with a $d$-dimensional thermal conformal bath. We deform the bath state by a relevant scalar deformation, triggering a holographic RG flow whose “trans-IR” region deforms from a Schwarzschild geometry to a Kasner universe. The setup manifests two independent scales which control both the extent of coarse-graining and the entanglement dynamics when counting Hawking degrees of freedom in the bath. In tuning either, we find nontrivial changes to the Page time and Page curve. We consequently view the Page curve as a probe of the holographic RG flow, with a higher Page time manifesting as a result of increased coarse-graining of the bath degrees of freedom.

  4 citations

• Physical representations for scattering amplitudes and the wavefunction of the universe

  Paolo Benincasa, William J. Torres Bobadilla

  SciPost Phys. 12, 192 (2022) · published 10 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The way we organise perturbation theory is of fundamental importance both for computing the observables of relevance and for extracting fundamental physics out of them. If on one hand the different ways in which the perturbative observables can be written make manifest different features ({\it e.g.} symmetries as well as principles such as unitarity, causality and locality), on the other hand precisely demanding that some concrete features are manifest lead to different ways of organising perturbation theory. In the context of flat-space scattering amplitudes, a number of them are already known and exploited, while much less is known for cosmological observables. In the present work, we show how to systematically write down both the wavefunction of the universe and the flat-space scattering amplitudes, in such a way that they manifestly show physical poles only. We make use of the invariant definition of such observables in terms of {\it cosmological polytopes} and their {\it scattering facet}. In particular, we show that such representations correspond to triangulations of such objects through hyperplanes identified by the intersection of their facets outside of them. All possible triangulations of this type generate the different representations. This allows us to provide a general proof for the conjectured all-loop causal representation of scattering amplitudes. Importantly, all such representations can be viewed as making explicit a subset of compatible singularities, and our construction provides a way to extend Steinmann relations to higher codimension singularities for both the flat-space scattering amplitudes and the cosmological wavefunction.

• $\mathrm{T}\overline{\mathrm{T}}$-deformed 1d Bose gas

  Yunfeng Jiang

  SciPost Phys. 12, 191 (2022) · published 10 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  $\mathrm{T}\overline{\mathrm{T}}$ deformation was originally proposed as an irrelevant solvable deformation for 2d relativistic quantum field theories (QFTs). The same family of deformations can also be defined for integrable quantum spin chains which was first studied in the context of integrability in AdS/CFT. In this paper, we construct such deformations for yet another type of models, which describe a collection of particles moving in 1d and interacting in an integrable manner. The prototype of such models is the Lieb-Liniger model. This shows that such deformations can be defined for a very wide range of systems. We study the finite volume spectrum and thermodynamics of the $\mathrm{T}\overline{\mathrm{T}}$-deformed Lieb-Liniger model. We find that for one sign of the deformation parameter $(\lambda<0)$, the deformed spectrum becomes complex when the volume of the system is smaller than certain critical value, signifying the break down of UV physics. For the other sign $(\lambda>0)$, there exists an upper bound for the temperature, similar to the Hagedorn behavior of the $\mathrm{T}\overline{\mathrm{T}}$ deformed QFTs. Both behaviors can be attributed to the fact that $\mathrm{T}\overline{\mathrm{T}}$ deformation changes the size the particles. We show that for $\lambda>0$, the deformation increases the spaces between particles which effectively increases the volume of the system. For $\lambda<0$, $\mathrm{T}\overline{\mathrm{T}}$ deformation fattens point particles to finite size hard rods. This is similar to the observation that the action of $\mathrm{T}\overline{\mathrm{T}}$-deformed free boson is the Nambu-Goto action, which describes bosonic strings -- also an extended object with finite size.

  2 citations

• The extraordinary boundary transition in the 3d O(N) model via conformal bootstrap

  Jaychandran Padayasi, Abijith Krishnan, Max A. Metlitski, Ilya A. Gruzberg, Marco Meineri

  SciPost Phys. 12, 190 (2022) · published 9 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This paper studies the critical behavior of the 3d classical $\mathrm{O}(N)$ model with a boundary. Recently, one of us established that upon treating $N$ as a continuous variable, there exists a critical value $N_c > 2$ such that for $2 \leq N < N_c$ the model exhibits a new extraordinary-log boundary universality class, if the symmetry preserving interactions on the boundary are enhanced. $N_c$ is determined by a ratio of universal amplitudes in the normal universality class, where instead a symmetry breaking field is applied on the boundary. We study the normal universality class using the numerical conformal bootstrap. We find truncated solutions to the crossing equation that indicate $N_c \approx 5$. Additionally, we use semi-definite programming to place rigorous bounds on the boundary CFT data of interest to conclude that $N_c > 3$, under a certain positivity assumption which we check in various perturbative limits.

  3 citations

• The 3d twisted index and wall-crossing

  Mathew Bullimore, Andrea E.V. Ferrari, Heeyeon Kim

  SciPost Phys. 12, 186 (2022) · published 8 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the twisted index of 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric gauge theories on $S^1 \times \Sigma$ in the presence of a real FI parameter deformation. This parameter induces a 1d FI parameter for the effective supersymmetric quantum mechanics on $S^1$. Using supersymmetric localisation, the twisted index can be expressed as a contour integral. We show that the contour prescription is modified in the presence of the 1d FI parameter, leading to wall-crossing phenomena for the twisted index. In particular, we derive a general wall-crossing formula for abelian gauge theories. We also examine the origin of wall-crossing as change of stability condition in the algebro-geometric interpretation of the twisted index. These ideas are illustrated for abelian theories with $\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetry and in a non-abelian example that reproduces wall-crossing phenomena associated to moduli spaces of stable pairs.