Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Particle dynamics on torsional galilean spacetimes

  José Figueroa-O'Farrill, Can Görmez, Dieter Van den Bleeken

  SciPost Phys. 14, 059 (2023) · published 4 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study free particle motion on homogeneous kinematical spacetimes of galilean type. The three well-known cases of Galilei and (A)dS-Galilei spacetimes are included in our analysis, but our focus will be on the previously unexplored torsional galilean spacetimes. We show how in well-chosen coordinates free particle motion becomes equivalent to the dynamics of a damped harmonic oscillator, with the damping set by the torsion. The realization of the kinematical symmetry algebra in terms of conserved charges is subtle and comes with some interesting surprises, such as a homothetic version of hamiltonian vector fields and a corresponding generalization of the Poisson bracket. We show that the Bargmann extension is universal to all galilean kinematical symmetries, but also that it is no longer central for nonzero torsion. We also present a geometric interpretation of this fact through the Eisenhart lift of the dynamics.

  1 citation

• The pion-photon transition form factor at two loops in QCD

  Jing Gao, Tobias Huber, Yao Ji, Yu-Ming Wang

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 7, 022 (2022) · published 21 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We report on the fully analytic calculation of the leading-power contribution to the photon-pion transition form factor $\gamma \, \gamma^{\ast} \to \pi^0$ at two loops in QCD. The applied techniques are based on hard-collinear factorization, together with modern multi-loop methods. We focus both, on the technical details such as the treatment of evanescent operators, and the phenomenological implications. Our results indicate that the two-loop correction is numerically comparable to the one-loop effect in the same kinematic domain. We also demonstrate that our results will play a key role in disentangling various models for the twist-two pion distribution amplitude thanks to the envisaged precision at Belle II.

  1 citation

• Radiation statistics of a degenerate parametric oscillator at threshold

  Fabian Hassler, Steven Kim, Lisa Arndt

  SciPost Phys. 14, 156 (2023) · published 15 June 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  As a function of the driving strength, a degenerate parametric oscillator exhibits an instability at which spontaneous oscillations occur. Close to threshold, both the nonlinearity as well as fluctuations are vital to the accurate description of the dynamics. We study the statistics of the adiation that is emitted by the degenerate parametric oscillator at threshold. For a weak nonlinearity, we can employ a quasiclassical description. We identify a universal Liouvillian that captures the relevant long-time dynamics for large photon-numbers. We find that the cumulants obey a universal power-law scaling as a function of the nonlinearity. The Fano factor shows a maximum close, but not coinciding, with the threshold. Moreover, we predict a certain ratio of the first three cumulants to be independent of the microscopic details of the system and connect the results to experimental platforms.

  1 citation

• Lacing topological orders in two dimensions: Exactly solvable models for Kitaev's sixteen-fold way

  Jin-Tao Jin, Jian-Jian Miao, Yi Zhou

  SciPost Phys. 14, 087 (2023) · published 1 May 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A family of two-dimensional (2D) spin-1/2 models have been constructed to realize Kitaev's sixteen-fold way of anyon theories. Defining a one-dimensional (1D) path through all the lattice sites, and performing the Jordan-Wigner transformation with the help of the 1D path, we find that such a spin-1/2 model is equivalent to a model with $\nu$ species of Majorana fermions coupled to a static $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge field. Here each species of Majorana fermions gives rise to an energy band that carries a Chern number $\mathcal{C}=1$, yielding a total Chern number $\mathcal{C}=\nu$. It has been shown that the ground states are three (four)-fold topologically degenerate on a torus, when $\nu$ is an odd (even) number. These exactly solvable models can be achieved by quantum simulations.

  1 citation

• Codebase release 1.0 for SOLAX

  Louis Thirion, Philipp Hansmann, Pavlo Bilous

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 51-r1.0 (2025) · published 20 February 2025 | Toggle abstract · src

  Numerical modeling of fermionic many-body quantum systems presents similar challenges across various research domains, necessitating universal tools, including state-of-the-art machine learning techniques. Here, we introduce SOLAX, a Python library designed to compute and analyze fermionic quantum systems using the formalism of second quantization. SOLAX provides a modular framework for constructing and manipulating basis sets, quantum states, and operators, facilitating the simulation of electronic structures and determining many-body quantum states in finite-size Hilbert spaces. The library integrates machine learning capabilities to mitigate the exponential growth of Hilbert space dimensions in large quantum clusters. The core low-level functionalities are implemented using the recently developed Python library JAX. Demonstrated through its application to the Single Impurity Anderson Model, SOLAX offers a flexible and powerful tool for researchers addressing the challenges of many-body quantum systems across a broad spectrum of fields, including atomic physics, quantum chemistry, and condensed matter physics.

  1 citation

• Kolya: An open-source package for inclusive semileptonic B decays

  Matteo Fael, Ilija S. Milutin, K. Keri Vos

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 55 (2025) · published 25 March 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We introduce the code kolya, an open-source tool for phenomenological analyses of inclusive semileptonic $B\to X_c l\bar \nu_l$ decays. It contains a library to compute predictions for the total rate and various kinematic moments within the framework of the heavy quark expansion, utilizing the so-called kinetic scheme. The library currently includes power corrections up to $1/m_b^5$. All available QCD perturbative corrections are implemented via interpolation grids for fast numerical evaluation. We also include effects from new physics parameterized as Wilson coefficients of dimension-six operators in the weak effective theory below the electroweak scale. The library is interfaced to CRunDec for easy evaluation of the quark masses and strong coupling constant at different renormalization scales. The library is developed in Python and does not require compilation. The code is flexible and can be extended to other kinds of inclusive decays such as $B$ meson lifetimes, $B \to X_u l\bar \nu_l$ and $D$ meson decays.

  1 citation

• Results from recent analysis of KASCADE-Grande data

  Donghwa Kang, J. C. Arteaga-Velázquez, M. Bertaina, A. Chiavassa, K. Daumiller, V. de Souza, R. Engel, A. Gherghel-Lascu, C. Grupen, A. Haungs, J. R. Hörandel, T. Huege, K. -H. Kampert, K. Link, H. J. Mathes, S. Ostapchenko, T. Pierog, D. Rivera-Rangel, M. Roth, H. Schieler, F. G. Schröder, O. Sima, A. Weindl, J. Wochele, J. Zabierowski

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 036 (2023) · published 29 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  KASCADE and its extension array of KASCADE-Grande were devoted to measure individual air showers of cosmic rays in the primary energy range of 100 TeV to 1 EeV. The experiment has substantially contributed to investigate the energy spectrum and mass composition of cosmic rays in the transition region from galactic to extragalactic origin of cosmic rays as well as to quantify the characteristics of hadronic interaction models in the air shower development through validity tests using the multi-detector information from KASCADE-Grande. Although the data accumulation was completed in 2013, data analysis is still continuing. Recently, we investigated the reliability of the new hadronic interactions models of the SIBYLL version 2.3d only with the energy spectra from the KASCADE-Grande data. The evolution of the muon content of high energy air showers in the atmosphere is studied as well, using EPOS-LHC, SIBYLL 2.3, QGSJET-II-04 and SIBYLL 2.3c. In this talk, recent results from KASCADE-Grande and the update of the KASCADE Cosmic Ray Data Centre (KCDC) will be discussed.

  1 citation

• Two-loop amplitude generation in OpenLoops

  Stefano Pozzorini, Natalie Schär, Max F. Zoller

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 7, 018 (2022) · published 21 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Numerical tools, such as OpenLoops, provide NLO scattering amplitudes for a very wide range of hard scattering amplitudes in a fully automated way. In order to match the numerical precision of current and future experiments, however, the higher precision of NNLO calculations is essential, and their automation in a similar tool highly desirable. In our approach, D-dimensional amplitudes are decomposed into loop-momentum tensor integrals with coefficients constructed in four dimensions and rational terms. We present a fully generic algorithm for the efficient numerical construction of the tensor coefficients, which constitutes an important building block for an automated NNLO tool.

  1 citation

• Missing odd-order Shapiro steps do not uniquely indicate fractional Josephson effect

  P. Zhang, S. Mudi, M. Pendharkar, J. S. Lee, C. P. Dempsey, A. P. McFadden, S. D. Harrington, J. T. Dong, H. Wu, A. -H. Chen, M. Hocevar, C. J. Palmstrøm, S. M. Frolov

  SciPost Phys. 18, 203 (2025) · published 23 June 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Topological superconductivity is expected to spur Majorana zero modes-exotic states that are also considered a quantum technology asset. Fractional Josephson effect is their manifestation in electronic transport measurements, often under microwave irradiation. A fraction of induced resonances, known as Shapiro steps, should vanish, in a pattern that signifies the presence of Majorana modes. Here we report patterns of Shapiro steps expected in topological Josephson junctions, such as the missing first Shapiro step, or several missing odd-order steps. But our junctions, which are InAs quantum wells with Al contacts, are studied near zero magnetic field, meaning that they are not in the topological regime. We also observe other patterns such as missing even steps and several missing steps in a row, not relevant to topological superconductivity. Potentially responsible for our observations is rounding of not fully developed steps superimposed on non-monotonic resistance versus voltage curves, but several origins may be at play. Our results demonstrate that any single pattern, even striking, cannot uniquely identify topological superconductivity, and a multifactor approach is necessary to unambiguously establish this important phenomenon.

  1 citation

• General simulation method for spontaneous parametric down- and parametric up-conversion experiments

  Felix Riexinger, Mirco Kutas, Björn Haase, Patricia Bickert, Daniel Molter, Michael Bortz, Georg von Freymann

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 022 (2023) · published 29 March 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) sources are an important technology for quantum sensing and imaging. We demonstrate a general simulation method, based on modeling from first principles, reproducing the spectrally and spatially resolved absolute counts of a SPDC experiment. By additionally simulating parametric up- and down-conversion processes with thermal photons as well as effects of the optical system we accomplish good agreement with the experimental results. This method is broadly applicable and allows for the separation of contributing processes, virtual characterization of SPDC sources, and enables the simulation of many quantum based applications.

  1 citation