Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Introducing the Journal of Robustness Reports

  František Bartoš, Alexandra Sarafoglou, Balazs Aczel, Suzanne Hoogeveen, Christopher D. Chambers, Eric-Jan Wagenmakers

  J. Robust. Rep. 0-Editorial (2025) · published 16 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The vast majority of empirical research articles report a single primary analysis outcome that is the result of a single analysis plan, executed by a single analysis team (usually the team that also designed the experiment and collected the data). However, recent many-analyst projects have demonstrated that different analysis teams generally adopt a unique approach and that there exists considerable variability in the associated conclusions. There appears to be no single optimal statistical analysis plan, and different plausible plans need not lead to the same conclusion. A high variability in outcomes signals that the conclusions are relatively fragile and dependent on the specifics of the analysis plan. Crucially, without multiple teams analyzing the data, it is difficult to gauge the extent to which the conclusions are robust. We have recently proposed that empirical articles of particular scientific interest or societal importance are accompanied by two or three short reports that summarize the results of alternative analyses conducted by independent experts [F. Bartoš et al., Nat. Hum. Behav. (2025)]. In order to showcase the practical feasibility and epistemic benefits of this approach we have founded the Journal of Robustness Reports, which is dedicated to publishing short reanalyses of empirical findings. This editorial describes the scope and the workflow of the Journal of Robustness Reports including the type and format of the published articles. We hope that the Journal of Robustness Reports will help make reanalyses of published findings the norm across the empirical sciences.

  2 citations

• Exponential networks for linear partitions

  Sibasish Banerjee, Mauricio Romo, Raphael Senghaas, Johannes Walcher

  SciPost Phys. 18, 128 (2025) · published 15 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Previous work has given proof and evidence that BPS states in local Calabi-Yau 3-folds can be described and counted by exponential networks on the punctured plane, with the help of a suitable non-abelianization map to the mirror curve. This provides an appealing elementary depiction of moduli of special Lagrangian submanifolds, but so far only a handful of examples have been successfully worked out in detail. In this note, we exhibit an explicit correspondence between torus fixed points of the Hilbert scheme of points on $\mathbb C^2\subset\mathbb C^3$ and anomaly free exponential networks attached to the quadratically framed pair of pants. This description realizes an interesting, and seemingly novel, "age decomposition" of linear partitions. We also provide further details about the networks' perspective on the full D-brane moduli space.

• Optical bounds on many-electron localization

  Ivo Souza, Richard M. Martin, Massimiliano Stengel

  SciPost Phys. 18, 127 (2025) · published 15 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We establish rigorous inequalities between different electronic properties linked to optical sum rules, and organize them into weak and strong bounds on three characteristic properties of insulators: electron localization length $\ell$ (the quantum fluctuations in polarization), electric susceptibility $\chi$, and optical gap $E_{\mathrm{G}}$. All-electron and valence-only versions of the bounds are given, and the latter are found to be more informative. The bounds on $\ell$ are particularly interesting, as they provide reasonably tight estimates for an ellusive ground-state property – the average localization length of valence electrons – from tabulated experimental data: electron density, high-frequency dielectric constant, and optical gap. The localization lengths estimated in this way for several materials follow simple chemical trends, especially for the alkali halides. We also illustrate our findings via analytically solvable harmonic oscillator models, which reveal an intriguing connection to the physics of long-ranged van der Waals forces.

  6 citations

• Remote detectability from entanglement bootstrap I: Kirby’s torus trick

  Bowen Shi, Jin-Long Huang, John McGreevy

  SciPost Phys. 18, 126 (2025) · published 14 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Remote detectability is often taken as a physical assumption in the study of topologically ordered systems, and it is a central axiom of mathematical frameworks of topological quantum field theories. We show under the entanglement bootstrap approach that remote detectability is a necessary property; that is, we derive it as a theorem. Starting from a single wave function on a topologically-trivial region satisfying the entanglement bootstrap axioms, we can construct states on closed manifolds. The crucial technique is to immerse the punctured manifold into the topologically trivial region and then heal the puncture. This is analogous to Kirby's torus trick. We then analyze a special class of such manifolds, which we call pairing manifolds. For each pairing manifold, which pairs two classes of excitations, we identify an analog of the topological $S$-matrix. This pairing matrix is unitary, which implies remote detectability between two classes of excitations. These matrices are in general not associated with the mapping class group of the manifold. As a by-product, we can count excitation types (e.g., graph excitations in 3+1d). The pairing phenomenon occurs in many physical contexts, including systems in different dimensions, with or without gapped boundaries. We provide a variety of examples to illustrate its scope.

• Giant spatial anisotropy of magnon Landau damping in altermagnets

  António T. Costa, João C. G. Henriques, Joaquín Fernández-Rossier

  SciPost Phys. 18, 125 (2025) · published 11 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Altermagnets are a new class of magnetic materials with zero net magnetization (like antiferromagnets) but spin-split electronic bands (like ferromagnets) over a fraction of reciprocal space. As in antiferromagnets, magnons in altermagnets come in two flavours, that either add one or remove one unit of spin to the $S=0$ ground state. However, in altermagnets these two magnon modes are non-degenerate along some directions in reciprocal space. Here we show that the lifetime of altermagnetic magnons, due to Landau damping caused by coupling to Stoner modes, has a very strong dependence on both flavour and direction. Strikingly, coupling to Stoner modes leads to a complete suppression of magnon propagation along selected spatial directions. This giant anisotropy will impact electronic, spin, and energy transport properties and may be exploited in spintronic applications.

  5 citations

• Rényi complexity in mean-field disordered systems

  Nina Javerzat, Eric Bertin, Misaki Ozawa

  SciPost Phys. 18, 124 (2025) · published 10 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Configurational entropy, or complexity, plays a critical role in characterizing disordered systems such as glasses, yet its measurement often requires significant computational resources. Recently, Rényi entropy, a one-parameter generalization of Shannon entropy, has gained attention across various fields of physics due to its simpler functional form, making it more practical for measurements. In this paper, we compute the Rényi version of complexity for prototypical mean-field disordered models, including the random energy model, its generalization, referred to as the random free energy model, and the $p$-spin spherical model. We first demonstrate that the Rényi complexity with index $m$ is related to the free energy difference for a generalized annealed Franz-Parisi potential with $m$ clones. Detailed calculations show that for models having one-step replica symmetry breaking (RSB), the Rényi complexity vanishes at the Kauzmann transition temperature $T_K$, irrespective of $m>1$, while RSB solutions are required even in the liquid phase. This study strengthens the link between Rényi entropy and the physics of disordered systems and provides theoretical insights for its practical measurements.

• Optimal, fast, and robust inference of reionization-era cosmology with the 21cmPIE-INN

  Benedikt Schosser, Caroline Heneka, Tilman Plehn

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 037 (2025) · published 10 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Modern machine learning will allow for simulation-based inference from reionization-era 21cm observations at the Square Kilometre Array. Our framework combines a convolutional summary network and a conditional invertible network through a physics-inspired latent representation. It allows for an efficient and extremely fast determination of the posteriors of astrophysical and cosmological parameters, jointly with well-calibrated and on average unbiased summaries. The sensitivity to non-Gaussian information makes our method a promising alternative to the established power spectra.

  5 citations

• Interaction quenches in Bose gases studied with a time-dependent hypernetted-chain Euler-Lagrange method

  Mathias Gartner, David Miesbauer, Michael Kobler, Julia Freund, Giuseppe Carleo, Robert E. Zillich

  SciPost Phys. 18, 123 (2025) · published 9 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a new variational method to study the dynamics of a closed bosonic many-body system, the time-dependent hypernetted-chain Euler-Lagrange method, tHNC. Based on the Jastrow ansatz, it accounts for quantum fluctuations in a non-perturbative way. The tHNC method scales well with the number of dimensions, as demonstrated by our results on one-, two-, and three-dimensional systems. We apply the tHNC method to interaction quenches, i.e. sudden changes of the interaction strength, in homogeneous Bose gases. When the quench is strong enough that the final state has roton excitations (as found and predicted for dipolar and Rydberg-dressed Bose-Einstein condensates, respectively), the pair distribution function exhibits stable oscillations. For validation, we compare tHNC results with time-dependent variational Monte Carlo results in one and two dimensions.

• Emptiness instanton in quantum polytropic gas

  Alexander G. Abanov, Dimitri M. Gangardt

  SciPost Phys. 18, 122 (2025) · published 9 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The emptiness formation problem is addressed for a one-dimensional quantum polytropic gas characterized by an arbitrary polytropic index $\gamma$, which defines the equation of state $P \sim \rho^\gamma$, where $P$ is the pressure and $\rho$ is the density. The problem involves determining the probability of the spontaneous formation of an empty interval in the ground state of the gas. In the limit of a macroscopically large interval, this probability is dominated by an instanton configuration. By solving the hydrodynamic equations in imaginary time, we derive the analytic form of the emptiness instanton. This solution is expressed as an integral representation analogous to those used for correlation functions in Conformal Field Theory. Prominent features of the spatiotemporal profile of the instanton are obtained directly from this representation.

• Lattice T-duality from non-invertible symmetries in quantum spin chains

  Salvatore D. Pace, Arkya Chatterjee, Shu-Heng Shao

  SciPost Phys. 18, 121 (2025) · published 8 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Dualities of quantum field theories are challenging to realize in lattice models of qubits. In this work, we explore one of the simplest dualities, T-duality of the compact boson CFT, and its realization in quantum spin chains. In the special case of the XX model, we uncover an exact lattice T-duality, which is associated with a non-invertible symmetry that exchanges two lattice U(1) symmetries. The latter symmetries flow to the momentum and winding U(1) symmetries with a mixed anomaly in the CFT. However, the charge operators of the two U(1) symmetries do not commute on the lattice and instead generate the Onsager algebra. We discuss how some of the anomalies in the CFT are nonetheless still exactly realized on the lattice and how the lattice U(1) symmetries enforce gaplessness. We further explore lattice deformations preserving both U(1) symmetries and find a rich gapless phase diagram with special $\mathrm{Spin}(2k)_1$ WZW model points and whose phase transitions all have dynamical exponent $z>1$.

  10 citations