Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Off-shell strings II: Black hole entropy

  Amr Ahmadain, Aron C. Wall

  SciPost Phys. 17, 006 (2024) · published 5 July 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In 1994, Susskind and Uglum argued that it is possible to derive the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy $A/4G_N$ from string theory. In this article we explain the conceptual underpinnings of this argument, while elucidating its relationship to induced gravity and ER=EPR. Following an off-shell calculation by Tseytlin, we explicitly derive the classical closed string effective action from sphere diagrams at leading order in $\alpha^{\prime}$. We then show how to use this to obtain black hole entropy from the RG flow of the NLSM on conical manifolds. (We also briefly discuss the more problematic "open string picture" of Susskind and Uglum, in which strings end on the horizon.) We then compare these off-shell results with the rival "orbifold replica trick" using the on-shell $\mathbb{C}/Z_{N}$ background, which does not account for the leading order Bekenstein-Hawking entropy-unless perhaps tachyons are allowed to condense on the orbifold. Possible connections to the ER=EPR conjecture are explored. Finally, we discuss prospects for various extensions, including prospects for deriving holographic entanglement entropy in the bulk of AdS.

  8 citations

• Stabilizing the Laughlin state of light: Dynamics of hole fractionalization

  Pavel D. Kurilovich, Vladislav D. Kurilovich, José Lebreuilly, Steven M. Girvin

  SciPost Phys. 13, 107 (2022) · published 14 November 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Particle loss is the ultimate challenge for preparation of strongly correlated many-body states of photons. An established way to overcome the loss is to employ a stabilization setup that autonomously injects new photons in place of the lost ones. However, as we show, the effectiveness of such a stabilization setup is compromised for fractional quantum Hall states. There, a hole formed by a lost photon can separate into several remote quasiholes none of which can be refilled by injecting a photon locally. By deriving an exact expression for the steady-state density matrix, we demonstrate that isolated quasiholes proliferate in the steady state which damages the quality of the state preparation. The motion of quasiholes leading to their separation is allowed by a repeated process in which a photon is first lost and then quickly refilled in the vicinity of the quasihole. We develop the theory of this dissipative quasihole dynamics and show that it has diffusive character. Our results demonstrate that fractionalization might present an obstacle for both creation and stabilization of strongly-correlated states with photons.

  8 citations

• Emulating twisted double bilayer graphene with a multiorbital optical lattice

  Junhyun Lee, J. H. Pixley

  SciPost Phys. 13, 033 (2022) · published 25 August 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This work theoretically explores how to emulate twisted double bilayer graphene with ultracold atoms in multiorbital optical lattices. In particular, the quadratic band touching of Bernal stacked bilayer graphene is emulated using a square optical lattice with $p_x$, $p_y$, and $d_{x^2−y^2}$ orbitals on each site, while the effects of a twist are captured through the application of an incommensurate potential. The quadratic band touching is stable until the system undergoes an Anderson like delocalization transition in momentum space, which occurs concomitantly with a strongly renormalized single particle spectrum inducing flat bands, which is a generalization of the magic-angle condition realized in Dirac semimetals. The band structure is described perturbatively in the quasiperiodic potential strength, which captures miniband formation and the existence of magic-angles that qualitatively agrees with the exact numerical results in the appropriate regime. We identify several magic-angle conditions that can either have part or all of the quadratic band touching point become flat. In each case, these are accompanied by a diverging density of states and the delocalization of plane wave eigenstates. It is discussed how these transitions and phases can be observed in ultracold atom experiments.

  8 citations

• On spectrally flowed local vertex operators in AdS$_3$

  Sergio Iguri, Nicolas Kovensky

  SciPost Phys. 13, 115 (2022) · published 23 November 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We provide a novel local definition for spectrally flowed vertex operators in the $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$-WZW model, generalising the proposal of Maldacena and Ooguri in [arXiv:hep-th/0111180] for the singly-flowed case to all $\omega>1$. This allows us to establish the precise connection between the computation of correlators using the so-called spectral flow operator, and the methods introduced recently by Dei and Eberhardt in [arXiv:2105.12130] based on local Ward identities. We show that the auxiliary variable $y$ used in the latter paper arises naturally from a point-splitting procedure in the space-time coordinate. The recursion relations satisfied by spectrally flowed correlators, which take the form of partial differential equations in $y$-space, then correspond to null-state conditions for generalised spectral flowed operators. We highlight the role of certain $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ discrete module isomorphisms in this context, and prove the validity of the conjecture put forward in [arXiv:2105.12130] for $y$-space structure constants of three-point functions with arbitrary spectral flow charges.

  8 citations

• dS$\boldsymbol{_2}$ as excitation of AdS$\boldsymbol{_2}$

  Florian Ecker, Daniel Grumiller, Robert McNees

  SciPost Phys. 13, 119 (2022) · published 5 December 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We introduce a family of 2D dilaton gravity models with state-dependent constant curvature so that dS$_2$ emerges as an excitation of AdS$_2$. Curiously, the strong coupling region corresponds to the asymptotic region geometrically. Apart from these key differences, many features resemble the Almheiri--Polchinski model. We discuss perturbative and non-perturbative thermodynamical stability, bubble nucleation through matter shockwaves, and semiclassical backreaction effects. In some of these models, we find that low temperatures are dominated by AdS$_2$ but high temperatures are dominated by dS$_2$, concurrent with a recent proposal by Susskind.

  8 citations

• Decays of a bino-like particle in the low-mass regime

  Florian Domingo, Herbi K. Dreiner

  SciPost Phys. 14, 134 (2023) · published 30 May 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the phenomenology associated with a light bino-like neutralino with mass under the tau mass in the context of the R-parity violating Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. This is a well-motivated example of scenarios producing potentially light and long-lived exotic particles, which might be testable in far-detector experiments, such as the FASER experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. A quantitative assessment of the discovery potential or the extraction of limits run through a detailed understanding of the interactions of the light exotic fermion with Standard Model matter, in particular, the hadronic sector. Here, we propose a systematic analysis of the decays of such a particle and proceed to a model-independent derivation of the low-energy effects, so that this formalism may be transposed to other UV-completions or even stand as an independent effective field theory. We then stress the diversity of the possible phenomenology and more specifically discuss the features associated with the R-parity violating supersymmetric framework, for example neutron-antineutron oscillations.

  8 citations

• Emergent XY* transition driven by symmetry fractionalization and anyon condensation

  Michael Schuler, Louis-Paul Henry, Yuan-Ming Lu, Andreas M. Läuchli

  SciPost Phys. 14, 001 (2023) · published 11 January 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Anyons in a topologically ordered phase can carry fractional quantum numbers with respect to the symmetry group of the considered system, one example being the fractional charge of the quasiparticles and quasiholes in the fractional quantum Hall effect. When such symmetry-fractionalized anyons condense, the resulting phase must spontaneously break the symmetry and display a local order parameter. In this paper, we study the phase diagram and anyon condensation transitions of a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological order perturbed by Ising interactions in the Toric Code. The interplay between the global (``onsite'') Ising ($\mathbb{Z}_2$) symmetry and the lattice space group symmetries results in a non-trivial symmetry fractionalization class for the anyons, and is shown to lead to two characteristically different confined, symmetry-broken phases. To understand the anyon condensation transitions, we use the recently introduced critical torus energy spectrum technique to identify a line of emergent 2+1D XY* transitions ending at a fine-tuned (Ising$^2$)* critical point. We provide numerical evidence for the occurrence of two symmetry breaking patterns predicted by the specific symmetry fractionalization class of the condensed anyons in the explored phase diagram. In combination with large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations we measure unusually large critical exponents $\eta$ for the scaling of the correlation function at the continuous anyon condensation transitions, and we further identify lines of (weakly) first order transitions in the phase diagram. As an important additional result, we discuss the phase diagram of a resulting 2+1D Ashkin-Teller model, where we demonstrate that torus spectroscopy is capable of identifying emergent XY/O(2) critical behaviour, thereby solving some longstanding open questions in the domain of the 3D Ashkin-Teller models. To establish the generality of our results, we propose a field theoretical description capturing the transition from a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological order to either $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry broken phase, which is in excellent agreement with the numerical results.

  8 citations

• Class imbalance techniques for high energy physics

  Christopher W. Murphy

  SciPost Phys. 7, 076 (2019) · published 5 December 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A common problem in a high energy physics experiment is extracting a signal from a much larger background. Posed as a classification task, there is said to be an imbalance in the number of samples belonging to the signal class versus the number of samples from the background class. In this work we provide a brief overview of class imbalance techniques in a high energy physics setting. Two case studies are presented: (1) the measurement of the longitudinal polarization fraction in same-sign $WW$ scattering, and (2) the decay of the Higgs boson to charm-quark pairs.

  8 citations

• Noncoplanar magnetic orders and gapless chiral spin liquid on the kagome lattice with staggered scalar spin chirality

  Fabrizio Oliviero, João Augusto Sobral, Eric C. Andrade, Rodrigo G. Pereira

  SciPost Phys. 13, 050 (2022) · published 5 September 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Chiral three-spin interactions can suppress long-range magnetic order and stabilize quantum spin liquid states in frustrated lattices. We study a spin-1/2 model on the kagome lattice involving a staggered three-spin interaction $J_\chi$ in addition to Heisenberg exchange couplings $J_1$ on nearest-neighbor bonds and $J_d$ across the diagonals of the hexagons. We explore the phase diagram using a combination of a classical approach, parton mean-field theory, and variational Monte Carlo methods. We obtain a variety of noncoplanar magnetic orders, including a phase that interpolates between cuboc-1 and cuboc-2 states. In the regime of dominant $J_{\chi}$, we find a classically disordered region and argue that it may harbor a gapless chiral spin liquid with a spinon Fermi surface. Our results show that the competition between the staggered three-spin interaction and Heisenberg exchange interactions gives rise to unusual ground states of spin systems.

  8 citations

• Higgs decays to two leptons and a photon beyond leading order in the SMEFT

  Tyler Corbett, Thor Rasmussen

  SciPost Phys. 13, 112 (2022) · published 21 November 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present the three-body decay of the Higgs boson into two leptons and a photon to dimension-eight in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). In order to obtain this result we interfere the full one-loop Standard Model result with the tree-level result in the SMEFT. This is the first calculation of the partial width of the Higgs boson into two leptons and a photon in the SMEFT to incorporate the full one-loop dependence for the Standard Model as well as the full tree level dimension-eight dependence in the SMEFT. We find that this channel can aid in distinguishing strongly interacting and weakly interacting UV completions of the SMEFT under standard assumptions. We also find that this channel presents the opportunity to distinguish different operator Classes within the SMEFT, potentially including contact $H\bar\ell\ell\gamma$ operators which are first generated only at dimension-eight in the SMEFT.

  8 citations