Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Fractionally charged particles at the energy frontier: The SM gauge group and one-form global symmetry

  Seth Koren, Adam Martin

  SciPost Phys. 18, 004 (2025) · published 7 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The observed Standard Model is consistent with the existence of vector-like species with electric charge a multiple of $e/6$. The discovery of a fractionally charged particle would provide nonperturbative information about Standard Model physics, and furthermore rule out some or all of the minimal theories of unification. We discuss the phenomenology of such particles and focus particularly on current LHC constraints, for which we reinterpret various searches to bound a variety of fractionally charged representations. We emphasize that in some circumstances the collider bounds are surprisingly low or nonexistent, which highlights the discovery potential for these species which have distinctive signatures and important implications. We additionally offer pedagogical discussions of the representation theory of gauge groups with different global structures, and separately of the modern framework of Generalized Global Symmetries, either of which serves to underscore the bottom-up importance of these searches.

  1 citation

• Spin-1/2 XX chains with modulated gamma interaction

  M. Abbasi, S. Mahdavifar, M. Motamedifar

  SciPost Phys. Core 8, 001 (2025) · published 7 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the spin-1/2 XX chain with a modulated Gamma interaction (GI), which results from the superposition of uniform and staggered Gamma terms. We diagonalize the Hamiltonian of the model exactly using the Fermionization technique. We then probe the energy gap and identify the gapped and gapless regions. We also examine the staggered chiral, staggered nematic and dimer order parameters to determine the different phases of the ground state phase diagram with their respective long-range orders. Our findings indicate that the model undergoes first-order, second-order, gapless-gapless, and gapped-gapped phase transitions.

  6 citations

• Many-body perturbation theory for strongly correlated effective Hamiltonians using effective field theory methods

  Raphaël Photopoulos, Antoine Boulet

  SciPost Phys. 18, 003 (2025) · published 6 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Introducing low-energy effective Hamiltonians is usual to grasp most correlations in quantum many-body problems. For instance, such effective Hamiltonians can be treated at the mean-field level to reproduce some physical properties of interest. Employing effective Hamiltonians that contain many-body correlations renders the use of perturbative many-body techniques difficult because of the overcounting of correlations. In this work, we develop a strategy to apply an extension of the many-body perturbation theory starting from an effective interaction that contains correlations beyond the mean-field level. The goal is to re-organize the many-body calculation to avoid the overcounting of correlations originating from the introduction of correlated effective Hamiltonians in the description. For this purpose, we generalize the formulation of the Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory by including free parameters adjusted to reproduce the appropriate limits. In particular, the expansion in the bare weak-coupling regime and the strong-coupling limit serves as a valuable input to fix the value of the free parameters appearing in the resulting expression. This method avoids double counting of correlations using beyond-mean-field strategies for the description of many-body systems. The ground state energy of various systems relevant for ultracold atomic, nuclear, and condensed matter physics is reproduced qualitatively beyond the domain of validity of the standard many-body perturbation theory. Finally, our method suggests interpreting the formal results obtained as an effective field theory using the proposed reorganization of the many-body calculation. The results, like ground state energies, are improved systematically by considering higher orders in the extended many-body perturbation theory while maintaining a straightforward polynomial expansion.

• Kondo spectral functions at low-temperatures: A dynamical-exchange-correlation-field perspective

  Zhen Zhao

  SciPost Phys. 18, 002 (2025) · published 6 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We calculate the low-temperature spectral function of the symmetric single impurity Anderson model using a recently proposed dynamical exchange-correlation (xc) field formalism. The xc field, coupled to the one-particle Green's function, is obtained through analytic analysis and numerical extrapolation based on finite clusters. In the Kondo regime, the xc field is modeled by an Ansatz that takes into account the different asymptotic behaviors in the small- and large-time regimes. The small-time xc field contributes to the Hubbard side-band, whereas the large-time to the Kondo resonance. We illustrate these features in terms of analytical and numerical calculations for small- and medium-size finite clusters, and in the thermodynamic limit. The results indicate that the xc field formalism provides a good trade-off between accuracy and complexity in solving impurity problems. Consequently, it can significantly reduce the complexity of the many-body problem faced by first-principles approaches to strongly correlated materials.

  1 citation

• Dynamics of systems with varying number of particles: From Liouville equations to general master equations for open systems

  Mauricio J. del Razo, Luigi Delle Site

  SciPost Phys. 18, 001 (2025) · published 6 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A varying number of particles is one of the most relevant characteristics of systems of interest in nature and technology, ranging from the exchange of energy and matter with the surrounding environment to the change of particle number through internal dynamics such as reactions. The physico-mathematical modeling of these systems is extremely challenging, with the major difficulty being the time dependence of the number of degrees of freedom and the additional constraint that the increment or reduction of the number and species of particles must not violate basic physical laws. Theoretical models, in such a case, represent the key tool for the design of computational strategies for numerical studies that deliver trustful results. In this manuscript, we review complementary physico-mathematical approaches of varying number of particles inspired by rather different specific numerical goals. As a result of the analysis on the underlying common structure of these models, we propose a unifying master equation for general dynamical systems with varying number of particles. This equation embeds all the previous models and can potentially model a much larger range of complex systems, ranging from molecular to social agent-based dynamics.

  1 citation

• On a class of selection rules without group actions in field theory and string theory

  Justin Kaidi, Yuji Tachikawa, Hao Y. Zhang

  SciPost Phys. 17, 169 (2024) · published 19 December 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss a class of selection rules which i) do not come from group actions on fields, ii) are exact at tree level in perturbation theory, iii) are increasingly violated as the loop order is raised, and iv) eventually reduce to selection rules associated with an ordinary group symmetry. We start from basic field-theoretical examples in which fields are labeled by conjugacy classes rather than representations of a group, and discuss generalizations using fusion algebras or hypergroups. We also discuss how such selection rules arise naturally in string theory, such as for non-Abelian orbifolds or other cases with non-invertible worldsheet symmetries.

  13 citations

• WZW terms without anomalies: Generalised symmetries in chiral Lagrangians

  Joe Davighi, Nakarin Lohitsiri

  SciPost Phys. 17, 168 (2024) · published 13 December 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider a 4d non-linear sigma model on the coset $(\text{SU}(N)_L × \text{SU}(N)_R × \text{SU}(2))/(\text{SU}(N)_{L+R}× \mathrm{U}(1))\cong \text{SU}(N) × S^2$, that features a topological Wess–Zumino–Witten (WZW) term whose curvature is $\frac{n}{24\pi^2}{Tr}(g^{-1}dg)^3 \wedge \mathrm{Vol}_{S^2}$ where $g$ is the $\text{SU}(N)$ pion field. This WZW term, unlike its familiar cousin in QCD, does not match any chiral anomaly, so its microscopic origin is not obviously QCD-like. We find that generalised symmetries provide a key to unlocking a UV completion. The $S^2$ winding number bestows the theory with a 1-form symmetry, and the WZW term intertwines this with the $\text{SU}(N)^2$ flavour symmetry into a 2-group global symmetry. Like a 't Hooft anomaly, the 2-group symmetry should match between UV and IR, precluding QCD-like completions that otherwise give the right pion manifold. We instead construct a weakly-coupled UV completion that matches the 2-group symmetry, in which an abelian gauge field connects the QCD baryon number current to the winding number current of a $\mathbb{C}P^1$ model, and explicitly show how the mixed WZW term arises upon flowing to the IR. The coefficient is fixed to be the number of QCD colours and, strikingly, this matching must be 'tree-level exact' to satisfy a quantization condition. We discuss generalisations, and elucidate the more intricate generalised symmetry structure that arises upon gauging an anomaly-free subgroup of $\text{SU}(N)_{L+R}$. This WZW term may even play a phenomenological role as a portal to a dark sector, that determines the relic abundance of dark matter.

  2 citations

• Topologically ordered steady states in open quantum systems

  Zijian Wang, Xu-Dong Dai, He-Ran Wang, Zhong Wang

  SciPost Phys. 17, 167 (2024) · published 13 December 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The interplay between dissipation and correlation can lead to novel emergent phenomena in open systems. Here we investigate "steady-state topological order" defined by the robust topological degeneracy of steady states, which is a generalization of the ground-state topological degeneracy of closed systems. Specifically, we construct two representative Liouvillians using engineered dissipation, and exactly solve the steady states with topological degeneracy. We find that while the steady-state topological degeneracy is fragile under noise in two dimensions, it is stable in three dimensions, where a genuine many-body phase with topological degeneracy is realized. We identify universal features of steady-state topological physics such as the deconfined emergent gauge field and slow relaxation dynamics of topological defects. The transition from a topologically ordered phase to a trivial phase is also investigated via numerical simulation. Our work highlights the essential difference between ground-state topological order in closed systems and steady-state topological order in open systems.

  4 citations

• ML-based top taggers: Performance, uncertainty and impact of tower & tracker data integration

  Rameswar Sahu, Kirtiman Ghosh

  SciPost Phys. 17, 166 (2024) · published 12 December 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Machine learning algorithms have the capacity to discern intricate features directly from raw data. We demonstrated the performance of top taggers built upon three machine learning architectures: a BDT that uses jet-level variables (high-level features, HLF) as input, a CNN (a miniature version of ResNet) trained on the jet image, and a GNN (LorentzNet) trained on the particle cloud representation of a jet utilizing the 4-momentum (low-level features, LLF) of the jet constituents as input. We found significant performance enhancement for all three classes of classifiers when trained on combined data from calorimeter towers and tracker detectors. The high resolution of the tracking data not only improved the classifier performance in the high transverse momentum region, but the information about the distribution and composition of charged and neutral constituents of the fat jets and subjets helped identify the quark/gluon origin of sub-jets and hence enhances top tagging efficiency. The LLF-based classifiers, such as CNN and GNN, exhibit significantly better performance when compared to HLF-based classifiers like BDT, especially in the high transverse momentum region. Nevertheless, the LLF-based classifiers trained on constituents' 4-momentum data exhibit substantial dependency on the jet modeling within Monte Carlo generators. The composite classifiers, formed by stacking a BDT on top of a GNN/CNN, not only enhance the performance of LLF-based classifiers but also mitigate the uncertainties stemming from the showering and hadronization model of the event generator. We have conducted a comprehensive study on the influence of the fat jet's reconstruction and labeling procedure on the efficiency of the classifiers.

  4 citations

• B-type D-branes in hybrid models

  Johanna Knapp, Robert Pryor

  SciPost Phys. 17, 165 (2024) · published 12 December 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A hybrid model is a fibration of a Landau-Ginzburg orbifold over a geometric base. We study B-type D-branes in hybrid models. Imposing B-type supersymmetry on the boundary action, we show that D-branes are specified by matrix factorisations in the fibre direction, together with some geometric data associated to the base. We also deduce conditions for the compatibility of these branes with the bulk orbifold actions and R-symmetry. We construct examples of hybrid B-branes which are generalisations of well-studied branes in geometric and Landau-Ginzburg models. Hybrid models can arise at limiting points of the stringy Kähler moduli space of Calabi-Yaus, and can be realised as phases of the corresponding gauged linear sigma models (GLSMs). Using GLSM techniques, we establish connections between geometric branes and hybrid branes. As explicit examples, we consider one- and two-parameter Calabi-Yau hybrids with a $\mathbb{P}^1$-base.

  1 citation