Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Modular invariance faces precision neutrino data

  Juan Carlos Criado, Ferruccio Feruglio

  SciPost Phys. 5, 042 (2018) · published 1 November 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We analyze a modular invariant model of lepton masses, with neutrino masses originating either from the Weinberg operator or from the seesaw. The constraint provided by modular invariance is so strong that neutrino mass ratios, lepton mixing angles and Dirac/Majorana phases do not depend on any Lagrangian parameter. They only depend on the vacuum of the theory, parametrized in terms of a complex modulus and a real field. Thus eight measurable quantities are described by the three vacuum parameters, whose optimization provides an excellent fit to data for the Weinberg operator and a good fit for the seesaw case. Neutrino masses from the Weinberg operator (seesaw) have inverted (normal) ordering. Several sources of potential corrections, such as higher dimensional operators, renormalization group evolution and supersymmetry breaking effects, are carefully discussed and shown not to affect the predictions under reasonable conditions.

  177 citations

• Tangent-space methods for uniform matrix product states

  Laurens Vanderstraeten, Jutho Haegeman, Frank Verstraete

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 7 (2019) · published 15 January 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In these lecture notes we give a technical overview of tangent-space methods for matrix product states in the thermodynamic limit. We introduce the manifold of uniform matrix product states, show how to compute different types of observables, and discuss the concept of a tangent space. We explain how to variationally optimize ground-state approximations, implement real-time evolution and describe elementary excitations for a given model Hamiltonian. Also, we explain how matrix product states approximate fixed points of one-dimensional transfer matrices. We show how all these methods can be translated to the language of continuous matrix product states for one-dimensional field theories. We conclude with some extensions of the tangent-space formalism and with an outlook to new applications.

  172 citations

• Comments on one-form global symmetries and their gauging in 3d and 4d

  Po-Shen Hsin, Ho Tat Lam, Nathan Seiberg

  SciPost Phys. 6, 039 (2019) · published 29 March 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study 3d and 4d systems with a one-form global symmetry, explore their consequences, and analyze their gauging. For simplicity, we focus on $\mathbb{Z}_N$ one-form symmetries. A 3d topological quantum field theory (TQFT) $\mathcal{T}$ with such a symmetry has $N$ special lines that generate it. The braiding of these lines and their spins are characterized by a single integer $p$ modulo $2N$. Surprisingly, if $\gcd(N,p)=1$ the TQFT factorizes $\mathcal{T}=\mathcal{T}'\otimes \mathcal{A}^{N,p}$. Here $\mathcal{T}'$ is a decoupled TQFT, whose lines are neutral under the global symmetry and $\mathcal{A}^{N,p}$ is a minimal TQFT with the $\mathbb{Z}_N$ one-form symmetry of label $p$. The parameter $p$ labels the obstruction to gauging the $\mathbb{Z}_N$ one-form symmetry; i.e.\ it characterizes the 't Hooft anomaly of the global symmetry. When $p=0$ mod $2N$, the symmetry can be gauged. Otherwise, it cannot be gauged unless we couple the system to a 4d bulk with gauge fields extended to the bulk. This understanding allows us to consider $SU(N)$ and $PSU(N)$ 4d gauge theories. Their dynamics is gapped and it is associated with confinement and oblique confinement -- probe quarks are confined. In the $PSU(N)$ theory the low-energy theory can include a discrete gauge theory. We will study the behavior of the theory with a space-dependent $\theta$-parameter, which leads to interfaces. Typically, the theory on the interface is not confining. Furthermore, the liberated probe quarks are anyons on the interface. The $PSU(N)$ theory is obtained by gauging the $\mathbb{Z}_N$ one-form symmetry of the $SU(N)$ theory. Our understanding of the symmetries in 3d TQFTs allows us to describe the interface in the $PSU(N)$ theory.

  168 citations

• The Machine Learning landscape of top taggers

  Gregor Kasieczka, Tilman Plehn, Anja Butter, Kyle Cranmer, Dipsikha Debnath, Barry M. Dillon, Malcolm Fairbairn, Darius A. Faroughy, Wojtek Fedorko, Christophe Gay, Loukas Gouskos, Jernej F. Kamenik, Patrick T. Komiske, Simon Leiss, Alison Lister, Sebastian Macaluso, Eric M. Metodiev, Liam Moore, Ben Nachman, Karl Nordström, Jannicke Pearkes, Huilin Qu, Yannik Rath, Marcel Rieger, David Shih, Jennifer M. Thompson, Sreedevi Varma

  SciPost Phys. 7, 014 (2019) · published 30 July 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Based on the established task of identifying boosted, hadronically decaying top quarks, we compare a wide range of modern machine learning approaches. Unlike most established methods they rely on low-level input, for instance calorimeter output. While their network architectures are vastly different, their performance is comparatively similar. In general, we find that these new approaches are extremely powerful and great fun.

  166 citations

• Diffusion in generalized hydrodynamics and quasiparticle scattering

  Jacopo De Nardis, Denis Bernard, Benjamin Doyon

  SciPost Phys. 6, 049 (2019) · published 25 April 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We extend beyond the Euler scales the hydrodynamic theory for quantum and classical integrable models developed in recent years, accounting for diffusive dynamics and local entropy production. We review how the diffusive scale can be reached via a gradient expansion of the expectation values of the conserved fields and how the coefficients of the expansion can be computed via integrated steady-state two-point correlation functions, emphasising that PT-symmetry can fully fix the inherent ambiguity in the definition of conserved fields at the diffusive scale. We develop a form factor expansion to compute such correlation functions and we show that, while the dynamics at the Euler scale is completely determined by the density of single quasiparticle excitations on top of the local steady state, diffusion is due to scattering processes among quasiparticles, which are only present in truly interacting systems. We then show that only two-quasiparticle scattering processes contribute to the diffusive dynamics. Finally we employ the theory to compute the exact spin diffusion constant of a gapped XXZ spin-1/2 chain at finite temperature and half-filling, where we show that spin transport is purely diffusive.

  164 citations

• Illuminating the photon content of the proton within a global PDF analysis

  Valerio Bertone, Stefano Carrazza, Nathan P. Hartland, Juan Rojo

  SciPost Phys. 5, 008 (2018) · published 25 July 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Precision phenomenology at the LHC requires accounting for both higher-order QCD and electroweak corrections as well as for photon-initiated subprocesses. Building upon the recent NNPDF3.1 fit, in this work the photon content of the proton is determined within a global analysis supplemented by the LUXqed constraint relating the photon PDF to lepton-proton scattering structure functions: NNPDF3.1luxQED. The uncertainties on the resulting photon PDF are at the level of a few percent, with photons carrying up to 0.5% of the proton's momentum. We study the phenomenological implications of NNPDF3.1luxQED at the LHC for Drell-Yan, vector boson pair, top quark pair, and Higgs plus vector boson production. We find that photon-initiated contributions can be significant for many processes, leading to corrections of up to 20%. Our results represent a state-of-the-art determination of the partonic structure of the proton including its photon component.

  162 citations

• A note on generalized hydrodynamics: inhomogeneous fields and other concepts

  Benjamin Doyon, Takato Yoshimura

  SciPost Phys. 2, 014 (2017) · published 22 April 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Generalized hydrodynamics (GHD) was proposed recently as a formulation of hydrodynamics for integrable systems, taking into account infinitely-many conservation laws. In this note we further develop the theory in various directions. By extending GHD to all commuting flows of the integrable model, we provide a full description of how to take into account weakly varying force fields, temperature fields and other inhomogeneous external fields within GHD. We expect this can be used, for instance, to characterize the non-equilibrium dynamics of one-dimensional Bose gases in trap potentials. We further show how the equations of state at the core of GHD follow from the continuity relation for entropy, and we show how to recover Euler-like equations and discuss possible viscosity terms.

  161 citations

• Anomalies in the space of coupling constants and their dynamical applications I

  Clay Córdova, Daniel S. Freed, Ho Tat Lam, Nathan Seiberg

  SciPost Phys. 8, 001 (2020) · published 6 January 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  It is customary to couple a quantum system to external classical fields. One application is to couple the global symmetries of the system (including the Poincar\'{e} symmetry) to background gauge fields (and a metric for the Poincar\'{e} symmetry). Failure of gauge invariance of the partition function under gauge transformations of these fields reflects 't Hooft anomalies. It is also common to view the ordinary (scalar) coupling constants as background fields, i.e. to study the theory when they are spacetime dependent. We will show that the notion of 't Hooft anomalies can be extended naturally to include these scalar background fields. Just as ordinary 't Hooft anomalies allow us to deduce dynamical consequences about the phases of the theory and its defects, the same is true for these generalized 't Hooft anomalies. Specifically, since the coupling constants vary, we can learn that certain phase transitions must be present. We will demonstrate these anomalies and their applications in simple pedagogical examples in one dimension (quantum mechanics) and in some two, three, and four-dimensional quantum field theories. An anomaly is an example of an invertible field theory, which can be described as an object in (generalized) differential cohomology. We give an introduction to this perspective. Also, we use Quillen's superconnections to derive the anomaly for a free spinor field with variable mass. In a companion paper we will study four-dimensional gauge theories showing how our view unifies and extends many recently obtained results.

  153 citations

• Planckian dissipation, minimal viscosity and the transport in cuprate strange metals

  Jan Zaanen

  SciPost Phys. 6, 061 (2019) · published 20 May 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Could it be that the matter from the electrons in high Tc superconductors is of a radically new kind that may be called "many body entangled compressible quantum matter"? Much of this text is intended as an easy to read tutorial, explaining recent theoretical advances that have been unfolding at the cross roads of condensed matter- and string theory, black hole physics as well as quantum information theory. These developments suggest that the physics of such matter may be governed by surprisingly simple principles. My real objective is to present an experimental strategy to test critically whether these principles are actually at work, revolving around the famous linear resistivity characterizing the strange metal phase. The theory suggests a very simple explanation of this "unreasonably simple" behavior that is actually directly linked to remarkable results from the study of the quark gluon plasma formed at the heavy ion colliders: the "fast hydrodynamization" and the "minimal viscosity". This leads to high quality predictions for experiment: the momentum relaxation rate governing the resistivity relates directly to the electronic entropy, while at low temperatures the electron fluid should become unviscous to a degree that turbulent flows can develop even on the nanometre scale.

  153 citations

• Non-invertible higher-categorical symmetries

  Lakshya Bhardwaj, Lea E. Bottini, Sakura Schäfer-Nameki, Apoorv Tiwari

  SciPost Phys. 14, 007 (2023) · published 26 January 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We sketch a procedure to capture general non-invertible symmetries of a $d$-dimensional quantum field theory in the data of a higher-category, which captures the local properties of topological defects associated to the symmetries. We also discuss fusions of topological defects, which involve condensations/gaugings of higher-categorical symmetries localized on the worldvolumes of topological defects. Recently some fusions of topological defects were discussed in the literature where the dimension of topological defects seems to jump under fusion. This is not possible in the standard description of higher-categories. We explain that the dimension-changing fusions are understood as higher-morphisms of the higher-category describing the symmetry. We also discuss how a 0-form sub-symmetry of a higher-categorical symmetry can be gauged and describe the higher-categorical symmetry of the theory obtained after gauging. This provides a procedure for constructing non-invertible higher-categorical symmetries starting from invertible higher-form or higher-group symmetries and gauging a 0-form symmetry. We illustrate this procedure by constructing non-invertible 2-categorical symmetries in 4d gauge theories and non-invertible 3-categorical symmetries in 5d and 6d theories. We check some of the results obtained using our approach against the results obtained using a recently proposed approach based on 't Hooft anomalies.

  153 citations