Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Gravitational wave probes of dark matter: challenges and opportunities

  Gianfranco Bertone, Djuna Croon, Mustafa A. Amin, Kimberly K. Boddy, Bradley J. Kavanagh, Katherine J. Mack, Priyamvada Natarajan, Toby Opferkuch, Katelin Schutz, Volodymyr Takhistov, Christoph Weniger, Tien-Tien Yu

  SciPost Phys. Core 3, 007 (2020) · published 15 October 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this white paper, we discuss the prospects for characterizing and identifying dark matter using gravitational waves, covering a wide range of dark matter candidate types and signals. We argue that present and upcoming gravitational wave probes offer unprecedented opportunities for unraveling the nature of dark matter and we identify the most urgent challenges and open problems with the aim of encouraging a strong community effort at the interface between these two exciting fields of research.

  86 citations

• Measurement-induced criticality in extended and long-range unitary circuits

  Shraddha Sharma, Xhek Turkeshi, Rosario Fazio, Marcello Dalmonte

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 023 (2022) · published 21 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We explore the dynamical phases of unitary Clifford circuits with variable-range interactions, coupled to a monitoring environment. We investigate two classes of models, distinguished by the action of the unitary gates, which either are organized in clusters of finite-range two-body gates, or are pair-wise interactions randomly distributed throughout the system with a power-law distribution. We find the range of the interactions plays a key role in characterizing both phases and their measurement-induced transitions. For the cluster unitary gates we find a transition between a phase with volume-law scaling of the entanglement entropy and a phase with area-law entanglement entropy. Our results indicate that the universality class of the phase transition is compatible to that of short range hybrid Clifford circuits. Oppositely, in the case of power-law distributed gates, we find the universality class of the phase transition changes continuously with the parameter controlling the range of interactions. In particular, for intermediate values of the control parameter, we find a non-conformal critical line which separates a phase with volume-law scaling of the entanglement entropy from one with sub-extensive scaling. Within this region, we find the entanglement entropy and the logarithmic negativity present a cross-over from a phase with algebraic growth of entanglement with system size, and an area-law phase.

  78 citations

• The Folded Spin-1/2 XXZ Model: I. Diagonalisation, Jamming, and Ground State Properties

  Lenart Zadnik, Maurizio Fagotti

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 010 (2021) · published 29 April 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study an effective Hamiltonian generating time evolution of states on intermediate time scales in the strong-coupling limit of the spin-1/2 XXZ model. To leading order, it describes an integrable model with local interactions. We solve it completely by means of a coordinate Bethe Ansatz that manifestly breaks the translational symmetry. We demonstrate the existence of exponentially many jammed states and estimate their stability under the leading correction to the effective Hamiltonian. Some ground state properties of the model are discussed.

  75 citations

• The multi-faceted inverted harmonic oscillator: Chaos and complexity

  Arpan Bhattacharyya, Wissam Chemissany, S. Shajidul Haque, Jeff Murugan, Bin Yan

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 002 (2021) · published 8 February 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The harmonic oscillator is the paragon of physical models; conceptually and computationally simple, yet rich enough to teach us about physics on scales that span classical mechanics to quantum field theory. This multifaceted nature extends also to its inverted counterpart, in which the oscillator frequency is analytically continued to pure imaginary values. In this article we probe the inverted harmonic oscillator (IHO) with recently developed quantum chaos diagnostics such as the out-of-time-order correlator (OTOC) and the circuit complexity. In particular, we study the OTOC for the displacement operator of the IHO with and without a non-Gaussian cubic perturbation to explore genuine and quasi scrambling respectively. In addition, we compute the full quantum Lyapunov spectrum for the inverted oscillator, finding a paired structure among the Lyapunov exponents. We also use the Heisenberg group to compute the complexity for the time evolved displacement operator, which displays chaotic behaviour. Finally, we extended our analysis to N-inverted harmonic oscillators to study the behaviour of complexity at the different timescales encoded in dissipation, scrambling and asymptotic regimes.

  72 citations

• Multifractality and its role in anomalous transport in the disordered XXZ spin-chain

  David J. Luitz, Ivan M. Khaymovich, Yevgeny Bar Lev

  SciPost Phys. Core 2, 006 (2020) · published 30 April 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The disordered XXZ model is a prototype model of the many-body localization transition (MBL). Despite numerous studies of this model, the available numerical evidence of multifractality of its eigenstates is not very conclusive due severe finite size effects. Moreover it is not clear if similarly to the case of single-particle physics, multifractal properties of the many-body eigenstates are related to anomalous transport, which is observed in this model. In this work, using a state-of-the-art, massively parallel, numerically exact method, we study systems of up to 24 spins and show that a large fraction of the delocalized phase flows towards ergodicity in the thermodynamic limit, while a region immediately preceding the MBL transition appears to be multifractal in this limit. We discuss the implication of our finding on the mechanism of subdiffusive transport.

  59 citations

• Search for scalar induced gravitational waves in the international pulsar timing array data release 2 and NANOgrav 12.5 years datasets

  Virgile Dandoy, Valerie Domcke, Fabrizio Rompineve

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 060 (2023) · published 30 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We perform a Bayesian search in the latest Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) datasets for a stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background sourced by curvature perturbations at scales $10^5$ Mpc$^{-1}\lesssim$ k$\lesssim 10^8$ Mpc$^{-1}$. These re-enter the Hubble horizon at temperatures around and below the QCD crossover phase transition in the early Universe. We include a stochastic background of astrophysical origin in our search and properly account for constraints on the curvature power spectrum from the overproduction of primordial black holes (PBHs). We find that the International PTA Data Release 2 significantly favors the astrophysical model for its reported common-spectrum process, over the curvature-induced background. On the other hand, the two interpretations fit the NANOgrav 12.5 years dataset equally well. We then set new upper limits on the amplitude of the curvature power spectrum at small scales. These are independent from, and competitive with, indirect astrophysical bounds from the abundance of PBH dark matter. Upcoming PTA data releases will provide the strongest probe of the curvature power spectrum around the QCD epoch.

  55 citations

• Topological holography: Towards a unification of Landau and beyond-Landau physics

  Heidar Moradi, Seyed Faroogh Moosavian, Apoorv Tiwari

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 066 (2023) · published 16 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We outline a holographic framework that attempts to unify Landau and beyond-Landau paradigms of quantum phases and phase transitions. Leveraging a modern understanding of symmetries as topological defects/operators, the framework uses a topological order to organize the space of quantum systems with a global symmetry in one lower dimension. The global symmetry naturally serves as an input for the topological order. In particular, we holographically construct a String Operator Algebra (SOA) which is the building block of symmetric quantum systems with a given symmetry G in one lower dimension. This exposes a vast web of dualities which act on the space of G-symmetric quantum systems. The SOA facilitates the classification of gapped phases as well as their corresponding order parameters and fundamental excitations, while dualities help to navigate and predict various corners of phase diagrams and analytically compute universality classes of phase transitions. A novelty of the approach is that it treats conventional Landau and unconventional topological phase transitions on an equal footing, thereby providing a holographic unification of these seemingly-disparate domains of understanding. We uncover a new feature of gapped phases and their multi-critical points, which we dub fusion structure, that encodes information about which phases and transitions can be dual to each other. Furthermore, we discover that self-dual systems typically posses emergent non-invertible, i.e., beyond group-like symmetries. We apply these ideas to $1+1d$ quantum spin chains with finite Abelian group symmetry, using topologically-ordered systems in $2+1d$. We predict the phase diagrams of various concrete spin models, and analytically compute the full conformal spectra of non-trivial quantum phase transitions, which we then verify numerically.

  45 citations

• The derivative expansion in asymptotically safe quantum gravity: general setup and quartic order

  Benjamin Knorr

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 020 (2021) · published 9 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a general framework to systematically study the derivative expansion of asymptotically safe quantum gravity. It is based on an exact decoupling and cancellation of different modes in the Landau limit, and implements a correct mode count as well as a regularisation based on geometrical considerations. It is applicable independent of the truncation order. To illustrate the power of the framework, we discuss the quartic order of the derivative expansion and its fixed point structure as well as physical implications.

  39 citations

• Bosonic and fermionic Gaussian states from Kähler structures

  Lucas Hackl, Eugenio Bianchi

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 025 (2021) · published 22 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that bosonic and fermionic Gaussian states (also known as "squeezed coherent states") can be uniquely characterized by their linear complex structure $J$ which is a linear map on the classical phase space. This extends conventional Gaussian methods based on covariance matrices and provides a unified framework to treat bosons and fermions simultaneously. Pure Gaussian states can be identified with the triple $(G,\Omega,J)$ of compatible K\"ahler structures, consisting of a positive definite metric $G$, a symplectic form $\Omega$ and a linear complex structure $J$ with $J^2=-1\!\!1$. Mixed Gaussian states can also be identified with such a triple, but with $J^2\neq -1\!\!1$. We apply these methods to show how computations involving Gaussian states can be reduced to algebraic operations of these objects, leading to many known and some unknown identities. We apply these methods to the study of (A) entanglement and complexity, (B) dynamics of stable systems, (C) dynamics of driven systems. From this, we compile a comprehensive list of mathematical structures and formulas to compare bosonic and fermionic Gaussian states side-by-side.

  36 citations

• Testing new physics models with global comparisons to collider measurements: the Contur toolkit

  A. Buckley, J. M. Butterworth, L. Corpe, M. Habedank, D. Huang, D. Yallup, M. Altakach, G. Bassman, I. Lagwankar, J. Rocamonde, H. Saunders, B. Waugh, G. Zilgalvis

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 013 (2021) · published 20 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Measurements at particle collider experiments, even if primarily aimed at understanding Standard Model processes, can have a high degree of model independence, and implicitly contain information about potential contributions from physics beyond the Standard Model. The Contur package allows users to benefit from the hundreds of measurements preserved in the Rivet library to test new models against the bank of LHC measurements to date. This method has proven to be very effective in several recent publications from the Contur team, but ultimately, for this approach to be successful, the authors believe that the Contur tool needs to be accessible to the wider high energy physics community. As such, this manual accompanies the first user-facing version: Contur v2. It describes the design choices that have been made, as well as detailing pitfalls and common issues to avoid. The authors hope that with the help of this documentation, external groups will be able to run their own Contur studies, for example when proposing a new model, or pitching a new search.

  30 citations