Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Fermionic duality: General symmetry of open systems with strong dissipation and memory

  Valentin Bruch, Konstantin Nestmann, Jens Schulenborg, Maarten R. Wegewijs

  SciPost Phys. 11, 053 (2021) · published 10 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the exact time-evolution of a broad class of fermionic open quantum systems with both strong interactions and strong coupling to wide-band reservoirs. We present a nontrivial fermionic duality relation between the evolution of states (Schr\"odinger) and of observables (Heisenberg). We show how this highly nonintuitive relation can be understood and exploited in analytical calculations within all canonical approaches to quantum dynamics, covering Kraus measurement operators, the Choi-Jamio{\l}kowski state, time-convolution and convolutionless quantum master equations and generalized Lindblad jump operators. We discuss the insights this offers into the divisibility and causal structure of the dynamics and the application to nonperturbative Markov approximations and their initial-slip corrections. Our results underscore that predictions for fermionic models are already fixed by fundamental principles to a much greater extent than previously thought.

  9 citations

• Non-unitary quantum many-body dynamics using the Faber polynomial method

  Rafael Diogo Soares, Marco Schirò

  SciPost Phys. 17, 128 (2024) · published 7 November 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Efficient numerical methods are still lacking to probe the unconventional dynamics of quantum many-body systems under non-unitary evolution. In this work, we use Faber polynomials to numerically simulate both the dynamics of non-Hermitian systems and the quantum jumps unravelling of the Lindblad dynamics. We apply the method to the non-interacting and interacting Hatano-Nelson models evolving from two different setups: i) a Néel state, and ii) a domain wall. In the first case, we study how interactions preserve the initial magnetic order against the skin effect. In the second example, we present numerical evidence of the existence of an effective hydrodynamic description for the domain-wall melting problem in the non-interacting limit. Additionally, we investigate both the conditional and unconditional dynamics of the quantum jump unravelling in two quantum spin chains, which exhibit either the non-Hermitian or the Liouvillian skin effect. This numerical method inherently generalises the well-established method based on Chebyshev polynomials to accommodate non-Hermitian scenarios.

  9 citations

• Asymmetric butterfly velocities in 2-local Hamiltonians

  Yong-Liang Zhang, Vedika Khemani

  SciPost Phys. 9, 024 (2020) · published 25 August 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The speed of information propagation is finite in quantum systems with local interactions. In many such systems, local operators spread ballistically in time and can be characterized by a ``butterfly velocity", which can be measured via out-of-time-ordered correlation functions. In general, the butterfly velocity can depend asymmetrically on the direction of information propagation. In this work, we construct a family of simple 2-local Hamiltonians for understanding the asymmetric hydrodynamics of operator spreading. Our models live on a one dimensional lattice and exhibit asymmetric butterfly velocities between the left and right spatial directions. This asymmetry is transparently understood in a free (non-interacting) limit of our model Hamiltonians, where the butterfly speed can be understood in terms of quasiparticle velocities.

  9 citations

• Precise predictions for boosted Higgs production

  Kathrin Becker, Fabrizio Caola, Andrea Massironi, Bernhard Mistlberger, Pier F. Monni, Xuan Chen, Stefano Frixione, Thomas Gehrmann, Nigel Glover, Keith Hamilton, Alexander Huss, Stephen P. Jones, Alexander Karlberg, Matthias Kerner, Kirill Kudashkin, Jonas M. Lindert, Gionata Luisoni, Michelangelo L. Mangano, Stefano Pozzorini, Emanuele Re, Gavin P. Salam, Eleni Vryonidou, Christopher Wever

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 001 (2024) · published 4 January 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Inclusive Higgs boson production at large transverse momentum is induced by different production channels. We focus on the leading production mechanism through gluon fusion, and perform a consistent combination of the state of the art calculations obtained in the infinite-top-mass effective theory at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) and in the full Standard Model (SM) at next-to-leading order (NLO). We thus present approximate QCD predictions for this process at NNLO, and a study of the corresponding perturbative uncertainties. This calculation is then compared with those obtained with commonly used event generators, and we observe that the description of the considered kinematic regime provided by these tools is in good agreement with state of the art calculations. Finally, we present accurate predictions for other production channels such as vector boson fusion, and associated production with a gauge boson, and with a $t\bar{t}$ pair. We find that, at large transverse momentum, the contribution of other production modes is substantial, and therefore must be included for a precise theory prediction of this observable.

  9 citations

• Observation of non-local impedance response in a passive electrical circuit

  Xiao Zhang, Boxue Zhang, Weihong Zhao, Ching Hua Lee

  SciPost Phys. 16, 002 (2024) · published 4 January 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In media with only short-ranged couplings and interactions, it is natural to assume that physical responses must be local. Yet, we discover that this is not necessarily true, even in a system as commonplace as an electric circuit array. This work reports the experimental observation of non-local impedance response in a designed circuit network consisting exclusively of passive elements such as resistors, inductors and capacitors (RLC). Measurements reveal that the removal of boundary connections dramatically affects the two-point impedance between certain distant nodes, even in the absence of any amplification mechanism for the voltage signal. This non-local impedance response is distinct from the reciprocal non-Hermitian skin effect, affecting only selected pairs of nodes even as the circuit Laplacian exhibits universally broken spectral bulk-boundary correspondence. Surprisingly, not only are component parasitic resistances unable to erode the non-local response, but they in fact give rise to novel loss-induced topological modes at sufficiently large system sizes, constituting a new manifestation of the critical non-Hermitian skin effect. Our findings chart a new route towards attaining non-local responses in photonic or electrical metamaterials without involving non-linear, non-local, active or amplificative elements.

  9 citations

• The Return of the Singularities: Applications of the Smeared Null Energy Condition

  Ben Freivogel, Eleni-Alexandra Kontou, Dimitrios Krommydas

  SciPost Phys. 13, 001 (2022) · published 15 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The classic singularity theorems of General Relativity rely on energy conditions that can be violated in semiclassical gravity. Here, we provide motivation for an energy condition obeyed by semiclassical gravity: the smeared null energy condition (SNEC), a proposed bound on the weighted average of the null energy along a finite portion of a null geodesic. We then prove a semiclassical singularity theorem using SNEC as an assumption. This theorem extends the Penrose theorem to semiclassical gravity. We also apply our bound to evaporating black holes and the traversable wormhole of Maldacena-Milekhin-Popov, and comment on the relationship of our results to other proposed semiclassical singularity theorems.

  9 citations

• Integrability for Feynman integrals

  Florian Loebbert

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 14, 008 (2023) · published 23 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We give a brief overview of the Yangian symmetry of Feynman integrals. After a short introduction to the Yangian and integrability, we motivate the emergence of integrable structures for Feynman integrals via the fishnet limit of AdS/CFT. We discuss the resulting Yangian differential equations for massless fishnets in four dimensions as well as generalizations to massive propagators and generic dimensions. We also comment on the relation to momentum space conformal symmetry and on examples in dimensional regularization. Finally we sketch the recent application to fishnet integrals in two spacetime dimensions and the curious identification of Yangian invariants with period integrals of Calabi-Yau geometries.

  9 citations

• Born again

  Jorge G. Russo, Paul K. Townsend

  SciPost Phys. 16, 124 (2024) · published 13 May 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Born's original 1933 theory of nonlinear electrodynamics (in contrast to the later Born-Infeld theory) is acausal for strong fields. We explore the issue of strong-field causality violation in families of theories containing Born and/or Born-Infeld, and many variants that have been previously proposed in contexts that include cosmology and black hole physics. Many of these variants are acausal and hence unphysical. A notable exception is the modified Born-Infeld theory with ModMax as its conformal weak-field limit.

  9 citations

• Branes, quivers and wave-functions

  Taro Kimura, Miłosz Panfil, Yuji Sugimoto, Piotr Sułkowski

  SciPost Phys. 10, 051 (2021) · published 26 February 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider a large class of branes in toric strip geometries, both non-periodic and periodic ones. For a fixed background geometry we show that partition functions for such branes can be reinterpreted, on one hand, as quiver generating series, and on the other hand as wave-functions in various polarizations. We determine operations on quivers, as well as $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ transformations, which correspond to changing positions of these branes. Our results prove integrality of BPS multiplicities associated to this class of branes, reveal how they transform under changes of polarization, and imply all other properties of brane amplitudes that follow from the relation to quivers.

  9 citations

• Off-shell strings I: S-matrix and action

  Amr Ahmadain, Aron C. Wall

  SciPost Phys. 17, 005 (2024) · published 5 July 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We explain why Tseytlin's off-shell formulation of string theory is well-defined. Although quantizing strings on an off-shell background requires an arbitrary choice of Weyl frame, this choice is not physically significant since it can be absorbed into a field redefinition of the target space fields. The off-shell formalism is particularly subtle at tree-level, due to the treatment of the noncompact conformal Killing group SL(2,$\mathbb{C}$) of the sphere. We prove that Tseytlin's sphere prescriptions recover the standard tree-level Lorentzian S-matrix, and show how to extract the stringy $i\varepsilon$ prescription from the UV cutoff on the worldsheet. We also demonstrate that the correct tree-level equations of motion are obtained to all orders in perturbation theory in $g_s$ and $\alpha^{\prime}$, and illuminate the close connection between the string action and the c-theorem.

  9 citations