Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Cosmic censorship of trans-Planckian field ranges in gravitational collapse

  Himanshu Chaudhary, Chethan Krishnan

  SciPost Phys. 9, 036 (2020) · published 11 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A classical solution where the (scalar) field value moves by an ${\cal O}(1)$ range in Planck units is believed to signal the breakdown of Effective Field Theory (EFT). One heuristic argument for this is that such a field will have enough energy to be inside its own Schwarzschild radius, and will result in collapse. In this paper, we consider an inverse problem: what kind of field ranges arise during the gravitational collapse of a classical field? Despite the fact that collapse has been studied for almost a hundred years, most of the discussion is phrased in terms of fluid stress tensors, and not fields. An exception is the scalar collapse made famous by Choptuik. We re-consider Choptuik-like systems, but with the emphasis now on the evolution of the scalar. We give strong evidence that generic spherically symmetric collapse of a massless scalar field leads to super-Planckian field movement. But we also note that in every such supercritical collapse scenario, the large field range is hidden behind an apparent horizon. We also discuss how the familiar perfect fluid models for collapse like Oppenheimer-Snyder and Vaidya should be viewed in light of our results.

• Analytic and numerical bootstrap of CFTs with $O(m)\times O(n)$ global symmetry in 3D

  Johan Henriksson, Stefanos R. Kousvos, Andreas Stergiou

  SciPost Phys. 9, 035 (2020) · published 10 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Motivated by applications to critical phenomena and open theoretical questions, we study conformal field theories with $O(m)\times O(n)$ global symmetry in $d=3$ spacetime dimensions. We use both analytic and numerical bootstrap techniques. Using the analytic bootstrap, we calculate anomalous dimensions and OPE coefficients as power series in $\varepsilon=4-d$ and in $1/n$, with a method that generalizes to arbitrary global symmetry. Whenever comparison is possible, our results agree with earlier results obtained with diagrammatic methods in the literature. Using the numerical bootstrap, we obtain a wide variety of operator dimension bounds, and we find several islands (isolated allowed regions) in parameter space for $O(2)\times O(n)$ theories for various values of $n$. Some of these islands can be attributed to fixed points predicted by perturbative methods like the $\varepsilon$ and large-$n$ expansions, while others appear to arise due to fixed points that have been claimed to exist in resummations of perturbative beta functions.

  37 citations

• Heavy operators and hydrodynamic tails

  Luca V. Delacretaz

  SciPost Phys. 9, 034 (2020) · published 8 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The late time physics of interacting QFTs at finite temperature is controlled by hydrodynamics. For CFTs this implies that heavy operators -- which are generically expected to create thermal states -- can be studied semiclassically. We show that hydrodynamics universally fixes the OPE coefficients $C_{HH'L}$, on average, of all neutral light operators with two non-identical heavy ones, as a function of the scaling dimension and spin of the operators. These methods can be straightforwardly extended to CFTs with global symmetries, and generalize recent EFT results on large charge operators away from the case of minimal dimension at fixed charge. We also revisit certain aspects of late time thermal correlators in QFT and other diffusive systems.

  46 citations

• Finite temperature and quench dynamics in the Transverse Field Ising Model from form factor expansions

  Etienne Granet, Maurizio Fagotti, Fabian H. L. Essler

  SciPost Phys. 9, 033 (2020) · published 4 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the problems of calculating the dynamical order parameter two-point function at finite temperatures and the one-point function after a quantum quench in the transverse field Ising chain. Both of these can be expressed in terms of form factor sums in the basis of physical excitations of the model. We develop a general framework for carrying out these sums based on a decomposition of form factors into partial fractions, which leads to a factorization of the multiple sums and permits them to be evaluated asymptotically. This naturally leads to systematic low density expansions. At late times these expansions can be summed to all orders by means of a determinant representation. Our method has a natural generalization to semi-local operators in interacting integrable models.

  32 citations

• Non-hermitian holography

  Daniel Areán, Karl Landsteiner, Ignacio Salazar Landea

  SciPost Phys. 9, 032 (2020) · published 3 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quantum theory can be formulated with certain non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. An anti-linear involution, denoted by PT, is a symmetry of such Hamiltonians. In the PT-symmetric regime the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is related to a Hermitian one by a Hermitian similarity transformation. We extend the concept of non-Hermitian quantum theory to gauge-gravity duality. Non-Hermiticity is introduced via boundary conditions in asymptotically AdS spacetimes. At zero temperature the PT phase transition is identified as the point at which the solutions cease to be real. Surprisingly at finite temperature real black holes solutions can be found well outside the quasi-Hermitian regime. These backgrounds are however unstable to fluctuations which establishes the persistence of the holographic dual of the PT phase transition at finite temperature.

  16 citations

• Quantum quench dynamics in the transverse-field Ising model: A numerical expansion in linked rectangular clusters

  Jonas Richter, Tjark Heitmann, Robin Steinigeweg

  SciPost Phys. 9, 031 (2020) · published 3 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study quantum quenches in the transverse-field Ising model defined on different lattice geometries such as chains, two- and three-leg ladders, and two-dimensional square lattices. Starting from fully polarized initial states, we consider the dynamics of the transverse and the longitudinal magnetization for quenches to weak, strong, and critical values of the transverse field. To this end, we rely on an efficient combination of numerical linked cluster expansions (NLCEs) and a forward propagation of pure states in real time. As a main result, we demonstrate that NLCEs comprising solely rectangular clusters provide a promising approach to study the real-time dynamics of two-dimensional quantum many-body systems directly in the thermodynamic limit. By comparing to existing data from the literature, we unveil that NLCEs yield converged results on time scales which are competitive to other state-of-the-art numerical methods.

  18 citations

• Sustaining a temperature difference

  Matteo Polettini, Alberto Garilli

  SciPost Phys. 9, 030 (2020) · published 2 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We derive an expression for the minimal rate of entropy that sustains two reservoirs at different temperatures $T_0$ and $T_\ell$. The law displays an intuitive $\ell^{-1}$ dependency on the relative distance and a characterisic $\log^2 (T_\ell/T_0)$ dependency on the boundary temperatures. First we give a back-of-envelope argument based on the Fourier Law (FL) of conduction, showing that the least-dissipation profile is exponential. Then we revisit a model of a chain of oscillators, each coupled to a heat reservoir. In the limit of large damping we reobtain the exponential and squared-log behaviors, providing a self-consistent derivation of the FL. For small damping "equipartition frustration" leads to a well-known balistic behaviour, whose incompatibility with the FL posed a long-time challenge.

• $\mathcal{I}$/$c$-extremization in M/F-duality

  Marieke van Beest, Sebastjan Cizel, Sakura Schäfer-Nameki, James Sparks

  SciPost Phys. 9, 029 (2020) · published 1 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the holographic dual to $c$-extremization for 2d $(0,2)$ superconformal field theories (SCFTs) that have an AdS$_3$ dual realized in Type IIB with varying axio-dilaton, i.e. F-theory. M/F-duality implies that such AdS$_3$ solutions can be mapped to AdS$_2$ solutions in M-theory, which are holographically dual to superconformal quantum mechanics (SCQM), obtained by dimensional reduction of the 2d SCFTs. We analyze the corresponding map between holographic $c$-extremization in F-theory and $\mathcal{I}$-extremization in M-theory, where in general the latter receives corrections relative to the F-theory result.

  8 citations

• An invitation to the principal series

  Tarek Anous, Jim Skulte

  SciPost Phys. 9, 028 (2020) · published 1 September 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Scalar unitary representations of the isometry group of $d$-dimensional de Sitter space $SO(1,d)$ are labeled by their conformal weights $\Delta$. A salient feature of de Sitter space is that scalar fields with sufficiently large mass compared to the de Sitter scale $1/\ell$ have complex conformal weights, and physical modes of these fields fall into the unitary continuous principal series representation of $SO(1,d)$. Our goal is to study these representations in $d=2$, where the relevant group is $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$. We show that the generators of the isometry group of dS$_2$ acting on a massive scalar field reproduce the quantum mechanical model introduced by de Alfaro, Fubini and Furlan (DFF) in the early/late time limit. Motivated by the ambient dS$_2$ construction, we review in detail how the DFF model must be altered in order to accommodate the principal series representation. We point out a difficulty in writing down a classical Lagrangian for this model, whereas the canonical Hamiltonian formulation avoids any problem. We speculate on the meaning of the various de Sitter invariant vacua from the point of view of this toy model and discuss some potential generalizations.

  18 citations

• QED at NNLO with McMule

  P. Banerjee, T. Engel, A. Signer, Y. Ulrich

  SciPost Phys. 9, 027 (2020) · published 31 August 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  McMule is a framework for fully differential higher-order QED calculations of scattering and decay processes involving leptons. It keeps finite lepton masses, which regularises collinear singularities. Soft singularities are treated with dimensional regularisation and using FKS$^\ell$ subtraction. We describe the implementation of the framework in Fortran 95, list the processes that are currently implemented, and give instructions on how to run the code. In addition, we present new phenomenological results for muon-electron scattering and lepton-proton scattering, including the dominant NNLO corrections. While the applications presented focus on MUonE, MUSE, and P2, the code can be used for a large number of planned and running experiments.

  49 citations