Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Why are fractional charges of orientifolds compatible with Dirac quantization?

  Yuji Tachikawa, Kazuya Yonekura

  SciPost Phys. 7, 058 (2019) · published 1 November 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Orientifold $p$-planes with $p\le4$ have fractional D$p$-charges, and therefore appear inconsistent with Dirac quantization with respect to D$(6-p)$-branes. We explain in detail how this issue is resolved by taking into account the anomaly of the worldvolume fermions using the $\eta$ invariants. We also point out relationships to the classification of interacting fermionic symmetry protected topological phases. In an appendix, we point out that the duality group of type IIB string theory is the pin+ version of the double cover of $GL(2,\mathbb{Z})$.

  49 citations

• Black holes, heavy states, phase shift and anomalous dimensions

  Manuela Kulaxizi, Gim Seng Ng, Andrei Parnachev

  SciPost Phys. 6, 065 (2019) · published 7 June 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We compute the phase shift of a highly energetic particle traveling in the background of an asymptotically AdS black hole. In the dual CFT, the phase shift is related to a four point function in the Regge limit. The black hole mass is translated to the ratio between the conformal dimension of a heavy operator and the central charge. This ratio serves as a useful expansion parameter; its power measures the number of stress tensors appearing in the intermediate channel. We compute the leading term in the phase shift in a holographic CFT of arbitrary dimensionality using Conformal Regge Theory and observe complete agreement with the gravity result. In a two-dimensional CFT with a large central charge the heavy-heavy-light-light Virasoro vacuum block reproduces the gravity phase shift to all orders in the expansion parameter. We show that the leading order phase shift is related to the anomalous dimensions of certain double trace operators and verify this agreement using known results for the latter. We also perform a separate gravity calculation of these anomalous dimensions to second order in the expansion parameter and compare with the phase shift expansion.

  49 citations

• Dynamics of Majorana-based qubits operated with an array of tunable gates

  Bela Bauer, Torsten Karzig, Ryan V. Mishmash, Andrey E. Antipov, Jason Alicea

  SciPost Phys. 5, 004 (2018) · published 19 July 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the dynamics of Majorana zero modes that are shuttled via local tuning of the electrochemical potential in a superconducting wire. By performing time-dependent simulations of microscopic lattice models, we show that diabatic corrections associated with the moving Majorana modes are quantitatively captured by a simple Landau-Zener description. We further simulate a Rabi-oscillation protocol in a specific qubit design with four Majorana zero modes in a single wire and quantify constraints on the timescales for performing qubit operations in this setup. Our simulations utilize a Majorana representation of the system, which greatly simplifies simulations of superconductors at the mean-field level.

  49 citations

• Emergence of PT-symmetry breaking in open quantum systems

  Julian Huber, Peter Kirton, Stefan Rotter, Peter Rabl

  SciPost Phys. 9, 052 (2020) · published 19 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The effect of PT-symmetry breaking in coupled systems with balanced gain and loss has recently attracted considerable attention and has been demonstrated in various photonic, electrical and mechanical systems in the classical regime. Here we generalize the definition of PT symmetry to finite-dimensional open quantum systems, which are described by a Markovian master equation. Specifically, we show that the invariance of this master equation under a certain symmetry transformation implies the existence of stationary states with preserved and broken parity symmetry. As the dimension of the Hilbert space grows, the transition between these two limiting phases becomes increasingly sharp and the classically expected PT-symmetry breaking transition is recovered. This quantum-to-classical correspondence allows us to establish a common theoretical framework to identify and accurately describe PT-symmetry breaking effects in a large variety of physical systems, operated both in the classical and quantum regimes.

  48 citations

• Absence of dynamical localization in interacting driven systems

  David J. Luitz, Yevgeny Bar Lev, Achilleas Lazarides

  SciPost Phys. 3, 029 (2017) · published 25 October 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Using a numerically exact method we study the stability of dynamical localization to the addition of interactions in a periodically driven isolated quantum system which conserves only the total number of particles. We find that while even infinitesimally small interactions destroy dynamical localization, for weak interactions density transport is significantly suppressed and is asymptotically diffusive, with a diffusion coefficient proportional to the interaction strength. For systems tuned away from the dynamical localization point, even slightly, transport is dramatically enhanced and within the largest accessible systems sizes a diffusive regime is only pronounced for sufficiently small detunings.

  48 citations

• Spin Liquid versus Spin Orbit Coupling on the Triangular Lattice

  Jason Iaconis, Chunxiao Liu, Gábor B. Halász, Leon Balents

  SciPost Phys. 4, 003 (2018) · published 19 January 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this paper, we explore the relationship between strong spin-orbit coupling and spin liquid physics. We study a very general model on the triangular lattice where spin-orbit coupling leads to the presence of highly anisotropic interactions. We use variational Monte Carlo to study both $U(1)$ quantum spin liquid states and ordered ones, via the Gutzwiller projected fermion construction. We thereby obtain the ground state phase diagram in this phase space. We furthermore consider effects beyond the Gutzwiller wavefunctions for the spinon Fermi surface quantum spin liquid, which are of particular importance when spin-orbit coupling is present.

  48 citations

• Higher central charges and topological boundaries in 2+1-dimensional TQFTs

  Justin Kaidi, Zohar Komargodski, Kantaro Ohmori, Sahand Seifnashri, Shu-Heng Shao

  SciPost Phys. 13, 067 (2022) · published 26 September 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A 2+1-dimensional topological quantum field theory (TQFT) may or may not admit topological (gapped) boundary conditions. A famous necessary, but not sufficient, condition for the existence of a topological boundary condition is that the chiral central charge $c_-$ has to vanish. In this paper, we consider conditions associated with "higher" central charges, which have been introduced recently in the math literature. In terms of these new obstructions, we identify necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a topological boundary in the case of bosonic, Abelian TQFTs, providing an alternative to the identification of a Lagrangian subgroup. Our proof relies on general aspects of gauging generalized global symmetries. For non-Abelian TQFTs, we give a geometric way of studying topological boundary conditions, and explain certain necessary conditions given again in terms of the higher central charges. Along the way, we find a curious duality in the partition functions of Abelian TQFTs, which begs for an explanation via the 3d-3d correspondence.

  48 citations

• Asymmetric dark matter: residual annihilations and self-interactions

  Iason Baldes, Marco Cirelli, Paolo Panci, Kalliopi Petraki, Filippo Sala, Marco Taoso

  SciPost Phys. 4, 041 (2018) · published 26 June 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Dark matter (DM) coupled to light mediators has been invoked to resolve the putative discrepancies between collisionless cold DM and galactic structure observations. However, $\gamma$-ray searches and the CMB strongly constrain such scenarios. To ease the tension, we consider asymmetric DM. We show that, contrary to the common lore, detectable annihilations occur even for large asymmetries, and derive bounds from the CMB, $\gamma$-ray, neutrino and antiproton searches. We then identify the viable space for self-interacting DM. Direct detection does not exclude this scenario, but provides a way to test it.

  48 citations

• The spin Drude weight of the XXZ chain and generalized hydrodynamics

  Andrew Urichuk, Yahya Oez, Andreas Klümper, Jesko Sirker

  SciPost Phys. 6, 005 (2019) · published 11 January 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Based on a generalized free energy we derive exact thermodynamic Bethe ansatz formulas for the expectation value of the spin current, the spin current-charge, charge-charge correlators, and consequently the Drude weight. These formulas agree with recent conjectures within the generalized hydrodynamics formalism. They follow, however, directly from a proper treatment of the operator expression of the spin current. The result for the Drude weight is identical to the one obtained 20 years ago based on the Kohn formula and TBA. We numerically evaluate the Drude weight for anisotropies $\Delta=\cos(\gamma)$ with $\gamma = n\pi/m$, $n\leq m$ integer and coprime. We prove, furthermore, that the high-temperature asymptotics for general $\gamma=\pi n/m$---obtained by analysis of the quantum transfer matrix eigenvalues---agrees with the bound which has been obtained by the construction of quasi-local charges.

  48 citations

• Phases of scrambling in eigenstates

  Tarek Anous, Julian Sonner

  SciPost Phys. 7, 003 (2019) · published 4 July 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We use the monodromy method to compute expectation values of an arbitrary number of light operators in finitely excited ("heavy") eigenstates of holographic 2D CFT. For eigenstates with scaling dimensions above the BTZ threshold, these behave thermally up to small corrections, with an effective temperature determined by the heavy state. Below the threshold we find oscillatory and not decaying behavior. As an application of these results we compute the expectation of the out-of-time order arrangement of four light operators in a heavy eigenstate, i.e. a six-point function. Above the threshold we find maximally scrambling behavior with Lyapunov exponent $2\pi T_{\rm eff}$. Below threshold we find that the eigenstate OTOC shows persistent harmonic oscillations.

  48 citations