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SubscribeCausality and Renormalization in Finite-Time-Path Out-of-Equilibrium φ^3 QFT
Our aim is to contribute to quantum field theory (QFT) formalisms useful for descriptions of short time phenomena, dominant especially in heavy ion collisions. We formulate out-of-equilibrium QFT within the finite-time-path formalism (FTP) and renormalization theory (RT). The potential conflict of FTP and RT is investigated in g phi^3 QFT, by using the retarded/advanced (R/A) basis of Green functions and dimensional renormalization (DR). For example, vertices immediately after (in time) divergent self-energy loops do not conserve energy, as integrals diverge. We "repair" them, while keeping d<4, to obtain energy conservation at those vertices. Already in the S-matrix theory, the renormalized, finite part of Feynman self-energy Sigma_{F}(p_0) does not vanish when |p_0|rightarrowinfty and cannot be split to retarded and advanced parts. In the Glaser--Epstein approach, the causality is repaired in the composite object G_F(p_0)Sigma_{F}(p_0). In the FTP approach, after repairing the vertices, the corresponding composite objects are G_R(p_0)Sigma_{R}(p_0) and Sigma_{A}(p_0)G_A(p_0). In the limit drightarrow 4, one obtains causal QFT. The tadpole contribution splits into diverging and finite parts. The diverging, constant component is eliminated by the renormalization condition langle 0|phi|0rangle =0 of the S-matrix theory. The finite, oscillating energy-nonconserving tadpole contributions vanish in the limit trightarrow infty .
Light Scalar Fields Foster Production of Primordial Black Holes
Scalar fields are ubiquitous in theories of high-energy physics. In the context of cosmic inflation, this suggests the existence of spectator fields, which provide a subdominant source of energy density. We show that spectator fields boost the inflationary production of primordial black holes, with single-field ultra-slow roll evolution supplanted by a phase of evolution along the spectator direction, and primordial perturbations amplified by the resulting multifield dynamics. This generic mechanism is largely free from the severe fine-tuning that afflicts single-field inflationary PBH models.
Latent Field Discovery In Interacting Dynamical Systems With Neural Fields
Systems of interacting objects often evolve under the influence of field effects that govern their dynamics, yet previous works have abstracted away from such effects, and assume that systems evolve in a vacuum. In this work, we focus on discovering these fields, and infer them from the observed dynamics alone, without directly observing them. We theorize the presence of latent force fields, and propose neural fields to learn them. Since the observed dynamics constitute the net effect of local object interactions and global field effects, recently popularized equivariant networks are inapplicable, as they fail to capture global information. To address this, we propose to disentangle local object interactions -- which are SE(n) equivariant and depend on relative states -- from external global field effects -- which depend on absolute states. We model interactions with equivariant graph networks, and combine them with neural fields in a novel graph network that integrates field forces. Our experiments show that we can accurately discover the underlying fields in charged particles settings, traffic scenes, and gravitational n-body problems, and effectively use them to learn the system and forecast future trajectories.
Einstein Fields: A Neural Perspective To Computational General Relativity
We introduce Einstein Fields, a neural representation that is designed to compress computationally intensive four-dimensional numerical relativity simulations into compact implicit neural network weights. By modeling the metric, which is the core tensor field of general relativity, Einstein Fields enable the derivation of physical quantities via automatic differentiation. However, unlike conventional neural fields (e.g., signed distance, occupancy, or radiance fields), Einstein Fields are Neural Tensor Fields with the key difference that when encoding the spacetime geometry of general relativity into neural field representations, dynamics emerge naturally as a byproduct. Einstein Fields show remarkable potential, including continuum modeling of 4D spacetime, mesh-agnosticity, storage efficiency, derivative accuracy, and ease of use. We address these challenges across several canonical test beds of general relativity and release an open source JAX-based library, paving the way for more scalable and expressive approaches to numerical relativity. Code is made available at https://github.com/AndreiB137/EinFields
Applications of Machine Learning to Lattice Quantum Field Theory
There is great potential to apply machine learning in the area of numerical lattice quantum field theory, but full exploitation of that potential will require new strategies. In this white paper for the Snowmass community planning process, we discuss the unique requirements of machine learning for lattice quantum field theory research and outline what is needed to enable exploration and deployment of this approach in the future.
Correlation functions of degenerate fields in Super-Liouville field theory
We study four-point correlation functions of degenerated fields in the NS sector in Super-Liouville field theory. We find integral expressions for these functions using the BPZ equation, and study some superconformal properties of these solutions. Finally, we present the general form for three-point correlation functions.
Bosonisation Cohomology: Spin Structure Summation in Every Dimension
Gauging fermion parity and summing over spin structures are subtly distinct operations. We introduce 'bosonisation cohomology' groups H_B^{d+2}(X) to capture this difference, for theories in spacetime dimension d equipped with maps to some X. Non-trivial classes in H_B^{d+2}(X) contain theories for which (-1)^F is anomaly-free, but spin structure summation is anomalous. We formulate a sequence of cobordism groups whose failure to be exact is measured by H_B^{d+2}(X), and from here we compute it for X=pt. The result is non-trivial only in dimensions din 4Z+2, being due to the presence of gravitational anomalies. The first few are H_B^4=Z_2, probed by a theory of 8 Majorana-Weyl fermions in d=2, then H_B^8=Z_8, H_B^{12}=Z_{16}times Z_2. We rigorously derive a general formula extending this to every spacetime dimension. Along the way, we compile many general facts about (fermionic and bosonic) anomaly polynomials, and about spin and pin^- (co)bordism generators, that we hope might serve as a useful reference for physicists working with these objects. We briefly discuss some physics applications, including how the H_B^{12} class is trivialised in supergravity. Despite the name, and notation, we make no claim that H_B^bullet(X) actually defines a cohomology theory (in the Eilenberg-Steenrod sense).
Quantum Monte Carlo simulations in the restricted Hilbert space of Rydberg atom arrays
Rydberg atom arrays have emerged as a powerful platform to simulate a number of exotic quantum ground states and phase transitions. To verify these capabilities numerically, we develop a versatile quantum Monte Carlo sampling technique which operates in the reduced Hilbert space generated by enforcing the constraint of a Rydberg blockade. We use the framework of stochastic series expansion and show that in the restricted space, the configuration space of operator strings can be understood as a hard rod gas in d+1 dimensions. We use this mapping to develop cluster algorithms which can be visualized as various non-local movements of rods. We study the efficiency of each of our updates individually and collectively. To elucidate the utility of the algorithm, we show that it can efficiently generate the phase diagram of a Rydberg atom array, to temperatures much smaller than all energy scales involved, on a Kagom\'e link lattice. This is of broad interest as the presence of a Z_2 spin liquid has been hypothesized recently.
Calculation of prompt diphoton production cross sections at Tevatron and LHC energies
A fully differential calculation in perturbative quantum chromodynamics is presented for the production of massive photon pairs at hadron colliders. All next-to-leading order perturbative contributions from quark-antiquark, gluon-(anti)quark, and gluon-gluon subprocesses are included, as well as all-orders resummation of initial-state gluon radiation valid at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The region of phase space is specified in which the calculation is most reliable. Good agreement is demonstrated with data from the Fermilab Tevatron, and predictions are made for more detailed tests with CDF and DO data. Predictions are shown for distributions of diphoton pairs produced at the energy of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Distributions of the diphoton pairs from the decay of a Higgs boson are contrasted with those produced from QCD processes at the LHC, showing that enhanced sensitivity to the signal can be obtained with judicious selection of events.
Simulating 2+1D Lattice Quantum Electrodynamics at Finite Density with Neural Flow Wavefunctions
We present a neural flow wavefunction, Gauge-Fermion FlowNet, and use it to simulate 2+1D lattice compact quantum electrodynamics with finite density dynamical fermions. The gauge field is represented by a neural network which parameterizes a discretized flow-based transformation of the amplitude while the fermionic sign structure is represented by a neural net backflow. This approach directly represents the U(1) degree of freedom without any truncation, obeys Guass's law by construction, samples autoregressively avoiding any equilibration time, and variationally simulates Gauge-Fermion systems with sign problems accurately. In this model, we investigate confinement and string breaking phenomena in different fermion density and hopping regimes. We study the phase transition from the charge crystal phase to the vacuum phase at zero density, and observe the phase seperation and the net charge penetration blocking effect under magnetic interaction at finite density. In addition, we investigate a magnetic phase transition due to the competition effect between the kinetic energy of fermions and the magnetic energy of the gauge field. With our method, we further note potential differences on the order of the phase transitions between a continuous U(1) system and one with finite truncation. Our state-of-the-art neural network approach opens up new possibilities to study different gauge theories coupled to dynamical matter in higher dimensions.
Algorithm-assisted discovery of an intrinsic order among mathematical constants
In recent decades, a growing number of discoveries in fields of mathematics have been assisted by computer algorithms, primarily for exploring large parameter spaces that humans would take too long to investigate. As computers and algorithms become more powerful, an intriguing possibility arises - the interplay between human intuition and computer algorithms can lead to discoveries of novel mathematical concepts that would otherwise remain elusive. To realize this perspective, we have developed a massively parallel computer algorithm that discovers an unprecedented number of continued fraction formulas for fundamental mathematical constants. The sheer number of formulas discovered by the algorithm unveils a novel mathematical structure that we call the conservative matrix field. Such matrix fields (1) unify thousands of existing formulas, (2) generate infinitely many new formulas, and most importantly, (3) lead to unexpected relations between different mathematical constants, including multiple integer values of the Riemann zeta function. Conservative matrix fields also enable new mathematical proofs of irrationality. In particular, we can use them to generalize the celebrated proof by Ap\'ery for the irrationality of zeta(3). Utilizing thousands of personal computers worldwide, our computer-supported research strategy demonstrates the power of experimental mathematics, highlighting the prospects of large-scale computational approaches to tackle longstanding open problems and discover unexpected connections across diverse fields of science.
A unified diagrammatic approach to quantum transport in few-level junctions for bosonic and fermionic reservoirs: Application to the quantum Rabi model
We apply the Nakajima-Zwanzig approach to open quantum systems to study steady-state transport across generic multi-level junctions coupled to bosonic or fermionic reservoirs. The method allows for a unified diagrammatic formulation in Liouville space, with diagrams being classified according to an expansion in the coupling strength between the reservoirs and the junction. Analytical, approximate expressions are provided up to fourth order for the steady-state boson transport that generalize to multi-level systems the known results for the low-temperature thermal conductance in the spin-boson model. The formalism is applied to the problem of heat transport in a qubit-resonator junction modeled by the quantum Rabi model. Nontrivial transport features emerge as a result of the interplay between the qubit-oscillator detuning and coupling strength. For quasi-degenerate spectra, nonvanishing steady-state coherences cause a suppression of the thermal conductance.
More on the Weak Gravity Conjecture via Convexity of Charged Operators
The Weak Gravity Conjecture has recently been re-formulated in terms of a particle with non-negative self-binding energy. Because of the dual conformal field theory (CFT) formulation in the anti-de Sitter space the conformal dimension Delta (Q) of the lowest-dimension operator with charge Q under some global U(1) symmetry must be a convex function of Q. This property has been conjectured to hold for any (unitary) conformal field theory and generalized to larger global symmetry groups. Here we refine and further test the convex charge conjecture via semiclassical computations for fixed charge sectors of different theories in different dimensions. We analyze the convexity properties of the leading and next-to-leading order terms stemming from the semiclassical computation, de facto, extending previous tests beyond the leading perturbative contributions and to arbitrary charges. In particular, the leading contribution is sufficient to test convexity in the semiclassical computations. We also consider intriguing cases in which the models feature a transition from real to complex conformal dimensions either as a function of the charge or number of matter fields. As a relevant example of the first kind, we investigate the O(N) model in 4+epsilon dimensions. As an example of the second type we consider the U(N)times U(M) model in 4-epsilon dimensions. Both models display a rich dynamics where, by changing the number of matter fields and/or charge, one can achieve dramatically different physical regimes. We discover that whenever a complex conformal dimension appears, the real part satisfies the convexity property.
Anti-Hong-Ou-Mandel effect with entangled photons
In the classical Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect pairs of photons with bosonic (fermionic) spatial wavefunction coalesce (anti-coalesce) when mixed on a lossless beamsplitter. Here we report that the presence of dissipation in the beamsplitter allows the observation of the anti-HOM effect, where bosons anti-coalesce and fermions show coalescent-like behavior. We provide an experimental demonstration of the anti-HOM effect for both bosonic and fermionic two-photon entangled states. Beyond its fundamental significance, the anti-HOM effect offers applications in quantum information and metrology where states of entangled photons are dynamically converted.
Neural Fields in Robotics: A Survey
Neural Fields have emerged as a transformative approach for 3D scene representation in computer vision and robotics, enabling accurate inference of geometry, 3D semantics, and dynamics from posed 2D data. Leveraging differentiable rendering, Neural Fields encompass both continuous implicit and explicit neural representations enabling high-fidelity 3D reconstruction, integration of multi-modal sensor data, and generation of novel viewpoints. This survey explores their applications in robotics, emphasizing their potential to enhance perception, planning, and control. Their compactness, memory efficiency, and differentiability, along with seamless integration with foundation and generative models, make them ideal for real-time applications, improving robot adaptability and decision-making. This paper provides a thorough review of Neural Fields in robotics, categorizing applications across various domains and evaluating their strengths and limitations, based on over 200 papers. First, we present four key Neural Fields frameworks: Occupancy Networks, Signed Distance Fields, Neural Radiance Fields, and Gaussian Splatting. Second, we detail Neural Fields' applications in five major robotics domains: pose estimation, manipulation, navigation, physics, and autonomous driving, highlighting key works and discussing takeaways and open challenges. Finally, we outline the current limitations of Neural Fields in robotics and propose promising directions for future research. Project page: https://robonerf.github.io
Topological Quantum Compilation Using Mixed-Integer Programming
We introduce the Mixed-Integer Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programming framework for the quantum compilation problem and apply it in the context of topological quantum computing. In this setting, quantum gates are realized by sequences of elementary braids of quasiparticles with exotic fractional statistics in certain two-dimensional topological condensed matter systems, described by effective topological quantum field theories. We specifically focus on a non-semisimple version of topological field theory, which provides a foundation for an extended theory of Ising anyons and which has recently been shown by Iulianelli et al., Nature Communications {\bf 16}, 6408 (2025), to permit universal quantum computation. While the proofs of this pioneering result are existential in nature, the mixed integer programming provides an approach to explicitly construct quantum gates in topological systems. We demonstrate this by focusing specifically on the entangling controlled-NOT operation, and its local equivalence class, using braiding operations in the non-semisimple Ising system. This illustrates the utility of the Mixed-Integer Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programming for topological quantum compilation.
Excitonic phases in a spatially separated electron-hole ladder model
We obtain the numerical ground state of a one-dimensional ladder model with the upper and lower chains occupied by spatially-separated electrons and holes, respectively. Under charge neutrality, we find that the excitonic bound states are always formed, i.e., no finite regime of decoupled electron and hole plasma exists at zero temperature. The system either behaves like a bosonic liquid or a bosonic crystal depending on the inter-chain attractive and intra-chain repulsive interaction strengths. We also provide the detailed excitonic phase diagrams in the intra- and inter-chain interaction parameters, with and without disorder. We also comment on the corresponding two-dimensional electron-hole bilayer exciton condensation.
Variational Formulation of Local Molecular Field Theory
In this note, we show that the Local Molecular Field theory of Weeks et. al. can be re-derived as an extremum problem for an approximate Helmholtz free energy. Using the resulting free energy as a classical, fluid density functional yields an implicit solvent method identical in form to the Molecular Density Functional theory of Borgis et. al., but with an explicit formula for the 'ideal' free energy term. This new expression for the ideal free energy term can be computed from all-atom molecular dynamics of a solvent with only short-range interactions. The key hypothesis required to make the theory valid is that all smooth (and hence long-range) energy functions obey Gaussian statistics. This is essentially a random phase approximation for perturbations from a short-range only, 'reference,' fluid. This single hypothesis is enough to prove that the self-consistent LMF procedure minimizes a novel density functional whose 'ideal' free energy is the molecular system under a specific, reference Hamiltonian, as opposed to the non-interacting gas of conventional density functionals. Implementation of this new functional into existing software should be straightforward and robust.
The UV Sensitivity of Axion Monodromy Inflation
We revisit axion monodromy inflation in the context of UV-complete theories and point out that its cosmological observables are sensitive to heavy fields with masses far above the Hubble scale, such as the moduli of flux compactifications. By studying a string-inspired two-field extension of axion monodromy, we reveal that the oscillatory modulation of the axion potential leads to continuous excitation of heavy fields during inflation when the modulation frequency exceeds the field masses. This finding challenges the conventional single-field description, as heavy moduli cannot be simply integrated out. Using a full bootstrap analysis, we demonstrate that this mechanism produces cosmological collider signals that bypass the usual Boltzmann suppression for heavy masses. Specifically, we identify detectably large signatures of heavy moduli in the primordial bispectrum, offering a promising avenue for probing high-energy physics through cosmological observations.
Characterisation of three-body loss in {}^{166}Er and optimised production of large Bose-Einstein condensates
Ultracold gases of highly magnetic lanthanide atoms have enabled the realisation of dipolar quantum droplets and supersolids. However, future studies could be limited by the achievable atom numbers and hindered by high three-body loss rates. Here we study density-dependent atom loss in an ultracold gas of {}^{166}Er for magnetic fields below 4 G, identifying six previously unreported, strongly temperature-dependent features. We find that their positions and widths show a linear temperature dependence up to at least 15,muK. In addition, we observe a weak, polarisation-dependent shift of the loss features with the intensity of the light used to optically trap the atoms. This detailed knowledge of the loss landscape allows us to optimise the production of dipolar BECs with more than 2 times 10^5 atoms and points towards optimal strategies for the study of large-atom-number dipolar gases in the droplet and supersolid regimes.
Graded Contact Geometry and the AKSZ Formalism
The AKSZ formalism is a construction of topological field theories where the target spaces are differential graded symplectic manifolds. In this paper, we describe an analogue of the AKSZ formalism where the target spaces are differential graded contact manifolds. We show that the space of fields inherits a weak contact structure, and we construct a solution to the analogue of the classical master equation, defined via the Jacobi bracket. In the n=1 case, we recover the Jacobi sigma model, and in the n=2 case, we obtain three-dimensional topological field theories associated to Courant-Jacobi algebroids.
Generalized chiral instabilities, linking numbers, and non-invertible symmetries
We demonstrate a universal mechanism of a class of instabilities in infrared regions for massless Abelian p-form gauge theories with topological interactions, which we call generalized chiral instabilities. Such instabilities occur in the presence of initial electric fields for the p-form gauge fields. We show that the dynamically generated magnetic fields tend to decrease the initial electric fields and result in configurations with linking numbers, which can be characterized by non-invertible global symmetries. The so-called chiral plasma instability and instabilities of the axion electrodynamics and (4+1)-dimensional Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory in electric fields can be described by the generalized chiral instabilities in a unified manner. We also illustrate this mechanism in the (2+1)-dimensional Goldstone-Maxwell model in electric field.
Testing the Cosmological Principle: Astrometric Limits on Systemic Motion of Quasars at Different Cosmological Epochs
A sample of 60,410 bona fide optical quasars with astrometric proper motions in Gaia EDR3 and spectroscopic redshifts above 0.5 in an oval 8400 square degree area of the sky is constructed. Using orthogonal Zernike functions of polar coordinates, the proper motion fields are fitted in a weighted least-squares adjustment of the entire sample and of six equal bins of sorted redshifts. The overall fit with 37 Zernike functions reveals a statistically significant pattern, which is likely to be of instrumental origin. The main feature of this pattern is a chain of peaks and dips mostly in the R.A. component with an amplitude of 25~muas yr^{-1}. This field is subtracted from each of the six analogous fits for quasars grouped by redshifts covering the range 0.5 through 7.03, with median values 0.72, 1.00, 1.25, 1.52, 1.83, 2.34. The resulting residual patterns are noisier, with formal uncertainties up to 8~muas yr^{-1} in the central part of the area. We detect a single high-confidence Zernike term for R.A. proper motion components of quasars with redshifts around 1.52 representing a general gradient of 30 muas yr^{-1} over 150degr on the sky. We do not find any small- or medium-scale systemic variations of the residual proper motion field as functions of redshift above the 2.5,sigma significance level.
Symmetry-invariant quantum machine learning force fields
Machine learning techniques are essential tools to compute efficient, yet accurate, force fields for atomistic simulations. This approach has recently been extended to incorporate quantum computational methods, making use of variational quantum learning models to predict potential energy surfaces and atomic forces from ab initio training data. However, the trainability and scalability of such models are still limited, due to both theoretical and practical barriers. Inspired by recent developments in geometric classical and quantum machine learning, here we design quantum neural networks that explicitly incorporate, as a data-inspired prior, an extensive set of physically relevant symmetries. We find that our invariant quantum learning models outperform their more generic counterparts on individual molecules of growing complexity. Furthermore, we study a water dimer as a minimal example of a system with multiple components, showcasing the versatility of our proposed approach and opening the way towards larger simulations. Our results suggest that molecular force fields generation can significantly profit from leveraging the framework of geometric quantum machine learning, and that chemical systems represent, in fact, an interesting and rich playground for the development and application of advanced quantum machine learning tools.
The Virtual Quantum Optics Laboratory
We present a web-based software tool, the Virtual Quantum Optics Laboratory (VQOL), that may be used for designing and executing realistic simulations of quantum optics experiments. A graphical user interface allows one to rapidly build and configure a variety of different optical experiments, while the runtime environment provides unique capabilities for visualization and analysis. All standard linear optical components are available as well as sources of thermal, coherent, and entangled Gaussian states. A unique aspect of VQOL is the introduction of non-Gaussian measurements using detectors modeled as deterministic devices that "click" when the amplitude of the light falls above a given threshold. We describe the underlying theoretical models and provide several illustrative examples. We find that VQOL provides a a faithful representation of many experimental quantum optics phenomena and may serve as both a useful instructional tool for students as well as a valuable research tool for practitioners.
Building an AdS/CFT superconductor
We show that a simple gravitational theory can provide a holographically dual description of a superconductor. There is a critical temperature, below which a charged condensate forms via a second order phase transition and the (DC) conductivity becomes infinite. The frequency dependent conductivity develops a gap determined by the condensate. We find evidence that the condensate consists of pairs of quasiparticles.
A mechanism to generate varying speed of light via Higgs-dilaton coupling: Theory and cosmological applications
We allow the Higgs field Phi to interact with a dilaton field chi of the background spacetime via the coupling chi^2,Phi^daggerPhi. Upon spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking, the Higgs VEV becomes proportional to chi. While traditionally this linkage is employed to make the Planck mass and particle masses dependent on chi, we present an textit alternative mechanism: the Higgs VEV will be used to construct Planck's constant hbar and speed of light c. Specifically, each open set vicinity of a given point x^* on the spacetime manifold is equipped with a replica of the Glashow-Weinberg-Salam action operating with its own effective values of hbar_* and c_* per hbar_*proptochi^{-1/2}(x^*) and c_*proptochi^{1/2}(x^*), causing these ``fundamental constants'' to vary alongside the dynamical field chi. Moreover, in each open set around x^*, the prevailing value chi(x^*) determines the length and time scales for physical processes occurring in this region as lproptochi^{-1}(x^*) and tauproptochi^{-3/2}(x^*). This leads to an textit anisotropic relation tau^{-1}propto l^{-3/2} between the rate of clocks and the length of rods, resulting in a distinct set of novel physical phenomena. For late-time cosmology, the variation of c along the trajectory of light waves from distant supernovae towards the Earth-based observer necessitates modifications to the Lema\^itre redshift relation and the Hubble law. These modifications are capable of: (1) Accounting for the Pantheon Catalog of SNeIa through a declining speed of light in an expanding Einstein--de Sitter universe, thus avoiding the need for dark energy; (2) Revitalizing Blanchard-Douspis-Rowan-Robinson-Sarkar's CMB power spectrum analysis that bypassed dark energy [A&A 412, 35 (2003)]; and (3) Resolving the H_0 tension without requiring a dynamical dark energy component.
Metallic AdS/CFT
We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to compute the conductivity of massive N=2 hypermultiplet fields at finite baryon number density in an N=4 SU(N_c) super-Yang-Mills theory plasma in the large N_c, large 't Hooft coupling limit. The finite baryon density provides charge carriers analogous to electrons in a metal. An external electric field then induces a finite current which we determine directly. Our result for the conductivity is good for all values of the mass, external field and density, modulo statements about the yet-incomplete phase diagram. In the appropriate limits it agrees with known results obtained from analyzing small fluctuations around equilibrium. For large mass, where we expect a good quasi-particle description, we compute the drag force on the charge carriers and find that the answer is unchanged from the zero density case. Our method easily generalizes to a wide class of systems of probe branes in various backgrounds.
AdS/QHE: Towards a Holographic Description of Quantum Hall Experiments
Transitions among quantum Hall plateaux share a suite of remarkable experimental features, such as semi-circle laws and duality relations, whose accuracy and robustness are difficult to explain directly in terms of the detailed dynamics of the microscopic electrons. They would naturally follow if the low-energy transport properties were governed by an emergent discrete duality group relating the different plateaux, but no explicit examples of interacting systems having such a group are known. Recent progress using the AdS/CFT correspondence has identified examples with similar duality groups, but without the DC ohmic conductivity characteristic of quantum Hall experiments. We use this to propose a simple holographic model for low-energy quantum Hall systems, with a nonzero DC conductivity that automatically exhibits all of the observed consequences of duality, including the existence of the plateaux and the semi-circle transitions between them. The model can be regarded as a strongly coupled analog of the old `composite boson' picture of quantum Hall systems. Non-universal features of the model can be used to test whether it describes actual materials, and we comment on some of these in our proposed model.
Symmetries and Asymptotically Flat Space
The construction of a theory of quantum gravity is an outstanding problem that can benefit from better understanding the laws of nature that are expected to hold in regimes currently inaccessible to experiment. Such fundamental laws can be found by considering the classical counterparts of a quantum theory. For example, conservation laws in a quantum theory often stem from conservation laws of the corresponding classical theory. In order to construct such laws, this thesis is concerned with the interplay between symmetries and conservation laws of classical field theories and their application to asymptotically flat spacetimes. This work begins with an explanation of symmetries in field theories with a focus on variational symmetries and their associated conservation laws. Boundary conditions for general relativity are then formulated on three-dimensional asymptotically flat spacetimes at null infinity using the method of conformal completion. Conserved quantities related to asymptotic symmetry transformations are derived and their properties are studied. This is done in a manifestly coordinate independent manner. In a separate step a coordinate system is introduced, such that the results can be compared to existing literature. Next, asymptotically flat spacetimes which contain both future as well as past null infinity are considered. Asymptotic symmetries occurring at these disjoint regions of three-dimensional asymptotically flat spacetimes are linked and the corresponding conserved quantities are matched. Finally, it is shown how asymptotic symmetries lead to the notion of distinct Minkowski spaces that can be differentiated by conserved quantities.
Conservation Laws and the Quantization of Gravity
Adopting general frameworks for quantum-classical dynamics, we analyze the interaction between quantum matter and a classical gravitational field. We point out that, assuming conservation of momentum or energy, and assuming that the dynamics obeys Hamiltonian formalism or a particular decomposition property set out in the paper, the classical gravitational field cannot change the momentum or energy of the quantum system, whereas the quantum gravitational field can do so. Drawing upon the fundamental relationship between conservation laws and the quantum properties of objects, our analysis offers new perspectives for the study of quantum gravity and provides a novel interpretation of existing experimental observations, such as free fall.
Indirect measurement of atomic magneto-optical rotation via Hilbert transform
The Kramers-Kronig relations are a pivotal foundation of linear optics and atomic physics, embedding a physical connection between the real and imaginary components of any causal response function. A mathematically equivalent, but simpler, approach instead utilises the Hilbert transform. In a previous study, the Hilbert transform was applied to absorption spectra in order to infer the sole refractive index of an atomic medium in the absence of an external magnetic field. The presence of a magnetic field causes the medium to become birefringent and dichroic, and therefore it is instead characterised by two refractive indices. In this study, we apply the same Hilbert transform technique to independently measure both refractive indices of a birefringent atomic medium, leading to an indirect measurement of atomic magneto-optical rotation. Key to this measurement is the insight that inputting specific light polarisations into an atomic medium induces absorption associated with only one of the refractive indices. We show this is true in two configurations, commonly referred to in literature as the Faraday and Voigt geometries, which differ by the magnetic field orientation with respect to the light wavevector. For both cases, we measure the two refractive indices independently for a Rb thermal vapour in a 0.6 T magnetic field, finding excellent agreement with theory. This study further emphasises the application of the Hilbert transform to the field of quantum and atomic optics in the linear regime.
Simulated Rotation Measure Sky from Primordial Magnetic Fields
Primordial Magnetic Fields (PMFs) -- magnetic fields originating in the early Universe and permeating the cosmological scales today -- can explain the observed microGauss-level magnetisation of galaxies and their clusters. In light of current and upcoming all-sky radio surveys, PMFs have drawn attention not only as major candidates for explaining the large-scale magnetisation of the Universe, but also as potential probes of early-Universe physics. In this paper, using cosmological simulations coupled with light-cone analysis, we study for the first time the imprints of the PMF structure on the mean rotation measure (RM) originating in the intergalactic medium (IGM), langle RM_{IGM}rangle. We introduce a new method for producing full-sky RM_{IGM} distributions and analyse the autocorrelation of RM_{IGM} on small and large angular scales; we find that PMF structures indeed show distinct signatures. The large-scale uniform model (characterised by an initially unlimited coherence scale) leads to correlations up to 90 degrees, while correlations for small-scale stochastic PMF models drop by factor of 100 at 0.17, 0.13 and 0.11 degrees angular scales, corresponding to 5.24, 4.03 and 3.52 Mpc scales (at z=2 redshift) for magnetic fields with comoving 3.49, 1.81, 1.00 Mpc/h coherence scales, respectively; the correlation amplitude of the PMF model with comoving sim 19 Mpc/h coherence scale drops only by factor of 10 at 1 degree (30.6 Mpc). These results suggests that improvements in the modelling of Galactic RM will be necessary to investigate the signature of large-scale correlated PMFs. A comparison of langle RM_{IGM}rangle redshift dependence obtained from our simulations with that from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey shows agreement with our previous upper limits' estimates on the PMF strength derived from RM-rms analysis.
Evaluating noises of boson sampling with statistical benchmark methods
The lack of self-correcting codes hiders the development of boson sampling to be large-scale and robust. Therefore, it is important to know the noise levels in order to cautiously demonstrate the quantum computational advantage or realize certain tasks. Based on those statistical benchmark methods such as the correlators and the clouds, which are initially proposed to discriminate boson sampling and other mockups, we quantificationally evaluate noises of photon partial distinguishability and photon loss compensated by dark counts. This is feasible owing to the fact that the output distribution unbalances are suppressed by noises, which are actually results of multi-photon interferences. This is why the evaluation performance is better when high order correlators or corresponding clouds are employed. Our results indicate that the statistical benchmark methods can also work in the task of evaluating noises of boson sampling.
Lambert W-function and Gauss class number one conjecture
We study fixed points of a function arising in a representation theory of the Drinfeld modules by the bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space. We prove that such points correspond to number fields of the class number one. As an application, one gets a solution to the Gauss conjecture for the real quadratic fields of class number one.
Log Soft Constraints on KMOC Formalism
The KMOC formalism provides a systematic framework for extracting classical observables perturbatively from on-shell scattering amplitudes. In this work, we apply this formalism to compute electromagnetic observables in four dimensions, focusing in particular on the linear memory effect and its tail contributions. Using the leading and subleading soft-photon theorems to construct the soft radiation kernel, we demonstrate how these infrared observables emerge directly from amplitude data. We further show that demanding the expected non-perturbative properties of memory and tail effects imposes a nontrivial set of consistency conditions on the underlying S-matrix. We interpret these constraints as imposing the requirement of macroscopic causality on the S-matrix via analysis of inclusive observables.
FiniteFieldSolve: Exactly Solving Large Linear Systems in High-Energy Theory
Large linear systems play an important role in high-energy theory, appearing in amplitude bootstraps and during integral reduction. This paper introduces FiniteFieldSolve, a general-purpose toolkit for exactly solving large linear systems over the rationals. The solver interfaces directly with Mathematica, is straightforward to install, and seamlessly replaces Mathematica's native solvers. In testing, FiniteFieldSolve is approximately two orders of magnitude faster than Mathematica and uses an order of magnitude less memory. The package also compares favorably against other public solvers in FiniteFieldSolve's intended use cases. As the name of the package suggests, solutions are obtained via well-known finite field methods. These methods suffer from introducing an inordinate number of modulo (or integer division) operations with respect to different primes. By automatically recompiling itself for each prime, FiniteFieldSolve converts the division operations into much faster combinations of instructions, dramatically improving performance. The technique of compiling the prime can be applied to any finite field solver, where the time savings will be solver dependent. The operation of the package is illustrated through a detailed example of an amplitude bootstrap.
Path-Integral Approach to Quantum Acoustics
A path-integral approach to quantum acoustics is developed here. In contrast to the commonly utilized particle perspective, this emerging field brings forth a long neglected but essential wave paradigm for lattice vibrations. Within the coherent state picture, we formulate a non-Markovian, stochastic master equation that captures the exact dynamics of any system with coupling linear in the bath coordinates and nonlinear in the system coordinates. We further demonstrate the capability of the presented master equation by applying the corresponding procedure to the eminent Fr\"ohlich model. In general, we establish a solid foundation for quantum acoustics as a kindred framework to quantum optics, while paving the way for deeper first-principle explorations of non-perturbative system dynamics driven by lattice vibrations.
Circular Polarization of Primordial Gravitational Waves in String-inspired Inflationary Cosmology
We study a mechanism to produce the circular polarization of primordial gravitational waves. The circular polarization is generated during the super-inflation driven by the Gauss-Bonnet term in the string-inspired cosmology. The instability in the tensor mode caused by the Gauss-Bonnet term and the parity violation due to the gravitational Chern-Simons term are the essential ingredients of the mechanism. We also discuss detectability of the produced circular polarization of gravitational waves. It turns out that the simple model of single-field inflation contradicts CMB observations. To circumvent this difficulty, we propose a two-field inflation model. In this two-field model, the circular polarization of gravitational waves is created in the frequency range designed by the Big-Bang Observer (BBO) or the deci-hertz gravitational-wave observatory (DECIGO).
Categorical Schrödinger Bridge Matching
The Schr\"odinger Bridge (SB) is a powerful framework for solving generative modeling tasks such as unpaired domain translation. Most SB-related research focuses on continuous data space R^{D} and leaves open theoretical and algorithmic questions about applying SB methods to discrete data, e.g, on finite spaces S^{D}. Notable examples of such sets S are codebooks of vector-quantized (VQ) representations of modern autoencoders, tokens in texts, categories of atoms in molecules, etc. In this paper, we provide a theoretical and algorithmic foundation for solving SB in discrete spaces using the recently introduced Iterative Markovian Fitting (IMF) procedure. Specifically, we theoretically justify the convergence of discrete-time IMF (D-IMF) to SB in discrete spaces. This enables us to develop a practical computational algorithm for SB which we call Categorical Schr\"odinger Bridge Matching (CSBM). We show the performance of CSBM via a series of experiments with synthetic data and VQ representations of images.
Stability of Superconducting Strings
We investigate the stability of superconducting strings as bound states of strings and fermion zero modes at both the classical and quantum levels. The dynamics of these superconducting strings can result in a stable configuration, known as a vorton. We mainly focus on global strings, but the majority of the discussion can be applied to local strings. Using lattice simulations, we study the classical dynamics of superconducting strings and confirm that they relax to the vorton configuration through Nambu-Goldstone boson radiation, with no evidence of over-shooting that would destabilize the vorton. We explore the tunneling of fermion zero modes out of the strings. Both our classical analysis and quantum calculations yield consistent results: the maximum energy of the zero mode significantly exceeds the fermion mass, in contrast to previous literature. Additionally, we introduce a world-sheet formalism to evaluate the decay rate of zero modes into other particles, which constitute the dominant decay channel. We also identify additional processes that trigger zero-mode decay due to non-adiabatic changes of the string configuration. In these decay processes, the rates are suppressed by the curvature of string loops, with exponential suppression for large masses of the final states. We further study the scattering with light charged particles surrounding the string core produced by the zero-mode current and find that a wide zero-mode wavefunction can enhance vorton stability.
Generating particle physics Lagrangians with transformers
In physics, Lagrangians provide a systematic way to describe laws governing physical systems. In the context of particle physics, they encode the interactions and behavior of the fundamental building blocks of our universe. By treating Lagrangians as complex, rule-based constructs similar to linguistic expressions, we trained a transformer model -- proven to be effective in natural language tasks -- to predict the Lagrangian corresponding to a given list of particles. We report on the transformer's performance in constructing Lagrangians respecting the Standard Model SU(3)times SU(2)times U(1) gauge symmetries. The resulting model is shown to achieve high accuracies (over 90\%) with Lagrangians up to six matter fields, with the capacity to generalize beyond the training distribution, albeit within architectural constraints. We show through an analysis of input embeddings that the model has internalized concepts such as group representations and conjugation operations as it learned to generate Lagrangians. We make the model and training datasets available to the community. An interactive demonstration can be found at: https://huggingface.co/spaces/JoseEliel/generate-lagrangians.
Adiabatic Solutions of the Haydys-Witten Equations and Symplectic Khovanov Homology
An influential conjecture by Witten states that there is an instanton Floer homology of four-manifolds with corners that in certain situations is isomorphic to Khovanov homology of a given knot K. The Floer chain complex is generated by Nahm pole solutions of the Kapustin-Witten equations on R^3 times R^+_y with an additional monopole-like singular behaviour along the knot K inside the three-dimensional boundary at y=0. The Floer differential is given by counting solutions of the Haydys-Witten equations that interpolate between Kapustin-Witten solutions along an additional flow direction R_s. This article investigates solutions of a decoupled version of the Kapustin-Witten and Haydys-Witten equations on R_s times R^3 times R^+_y, which in contrast to the full equations exhibit a Hermitian Yang-Mills structure and can be viewed as a lift of the extended Bogomolny equations (EBE) from three to five dimensions. Inspired by Gaiotto-Witten's approach of adiabatically braiding EBE-solutions to obtain generators of the Floer homology, we propose that there is an equivalence between adiabatic solutions of the decoupled Haydys-Witten equations and non-vertical paths in the moduli space of EBE-solutions fibered over the space of monopole positions. Moreover, we argue that the Grothendieck-Springer resolution of the Lie algebra of the gauge group provides a finite-dimensional model of this moduli space of monopole solutions. These considerations suggest an intriguing similarity between Haydys-Witten instanton Floer homology and symplectic Khovanov homology and provide a novel approach towards a proof of Witten's gauge-theoretic interpretations of Khovanov homology.
Molchanov's Formula and Quantum Walks: A Probabilistic Approach
This paper establishes a robust link between quantum dynamics and classical ones by deriving probabilistic representation for both continuous time and discrete time quantum walks. We first adapt Molchanov formula, originally employed in the study of Schrodinger operators on multidimensional integer lattice, to characterize the evolution of continuous time quantum walks. Extending this framework, we develop a probabilistic method to represent discrete time quantum walks on an infinite integer line, bypassing the locality constraints that typically inhibit direct application of Molchanov formula. The validity of our representation is empirically confirmed through a benchmark analysis of the Hadamard walk, demonstrating high fidelity with traditional unitary evolution. Our results suggest that this probabilistic lens offer a powerful alternative for learning multidimensional quantum walks and provides new analytical pathways for investigating quantum systems via classical stochastic processes.
Lectures on Holographic Superfluidity and Superconductivity
Four lectures on holography and the AdS/CFT correspondence applied to condensed matter systems. The first lecture introduces the concept of a quantum phase transition. The second lecture discusses linear response theory and Ward identities. The third lecture presents transport coefficients derived from AdS/CFT that should be applicable in the quantum critical region associated to a quantum phase transition. The fourth lecture builds in the physics of a superconducting or superfluid phase transition to the simple holographic model of the third lecture.
Flying with Photons: Rendering Novel Views of Propagating Light
We present an imaging and neural rendering technique that seeks to synthesize videos of light propagating through a scene from novel, moving camera viewpoints. Our approach relies on a new ultrafast imaging setup to capture a first-of-its kind, multi-viewpoint video dataset with picosecond-level temporal resolution. Combined with this dataset, we introduce an efficient neural volume rendering framework based on the transient field. This field is defined as a mapping from a 3D point and 2D direction to a high-dimensional, discrete-time signal that represents time-varying radiance at ultrafast timescales. Rendering with transient fields naturally accounts for effects due to the finite speed of light, including viewpoint-dependent appearance changes caused by light propagation delays to the camera. We render a range of complex effects, including scattering, specular reflection, refraction, and diffraction. Additionally, we demonstrate removing viewpoint-dependent propagation delays using a time warping procedure, rendering of relativistic effects, and video synthesis of direct and global components of light transport.
A comparison between higher-order nonclassicalities of superposition engineered coherent and thermal states
We consider an experimentally obtainable SUP operator, defined by using a generalized superposition of products of field annihilation (a) and creation (a^dagger) operators of the type, A = saa^dagger+t{a^dagger}a with s^2+t^2=1. We apply this SUP operator on coherent and thermal quantum states, the states thus produced are referred as SUP-operated coherent state (SOCS) and SUP-operated thermal state (SOTS), respectively. In the present work, we report a comparative study between the higher-order nonclassical properties of SOCS and SOTS. The comparison is performed by using a set of nonclassicality witnesses (e.g., higher-order antiubunching, higher-order sub-Poissonian photon statistics, higher-order squeezing, Agarwal-Tara parameter, Klyshko's condition). The existence of higher-order nonclassicalities in SOCS and SOTS have been investigated for the first time. In view of possible experimental verification of the proposed scheme, we present exact calculations to reveal the effect of non-unit quantum efficiency of quantum detector on higher-order nonclassicalities.
Physics-Informed Neural Networks for One-Dimensional Quantum Well Problems
We implement physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) to solve the time-independent Schr\"odinger equation for three canonical one-dimensional quantum potentials: an infinite square well, a finite square well, and a finite barrier. The PINN models incorporate trial wavefunctions that exactly satisfy boundary conditions (Dirichlet zeros at domain boundaries), and they optimize a loss functional combining the PDE residual with a normalization constraint. For the infinite well, the ground-state energy is known (E = pi^2 in dimensionless units) and held fixed in training, whereas for the finite well and barrier, the eigenenergy is treated as a trainable parameter. We use fully-connected neural networks with smooth activation functions to represent the wavefunction and demonstrate that PINNs can learn the ground-state eigenfunctions and eigenvalues for these quantum systems. The results show that the PINN-predicted wavefunctions closely match analytical solutions or expected behaviors, and the learned eigenenergies converge to known values. We present training logs and convergence of the energy parameter, as well as figures comparing the PINN solutions to exact results. The discussion addresses the performance of PINNs relative to traditional numerical methods, highlighting challenges such as convergence to the correct eigenvalue, sensitivity to initialization, and the difficulty of modeling discontinuous potentials. We also discuss the importance of the normalization term to resolve the scaling ambiguity of the wavefunction. Finally, we conclude that PINNs are a viable approach for quantum eigenvalue problems, and we outline future directions including extensions to higher-dimensional and time-dependent Schr\"odinger equations.
Accurate Differential Operators for Hybrid Neural Fields
Neural fields have become widely used in various fields, from shape representation to neural rendering, and for solving partial differential equations (PDEs). With the advent of hybrid neural field representations like Instant NGP that leverage small MLPs and explicit representations, these models train quickly and can fit large scenes. Yet in many applications like rendering and simulation, hybrid neural fields can cause noticeable and unreasonable artifacts. This is because they do not yield accurate spatial derivatives needed for these downstream applications. In this work, we propose two ways to circumvent these challenges. Our first approach is a post hoc operator that uses local polynomial fitting to obtain more accurate derivatives from pre-trained hybrid neural fields. Additionally, we also propose a self-supervised fine-tuning approach that refines the hybrid neural field to yield accurate derivatives directly while preserving the initial signal. We show applications of our method to rendering, collision simulation, and solving PDEs. We observe that using our approach yields more accurate derivatives, reducing artifacts and leading to more accurate simulations in downstream applications.
Universal Behavior of Entanglement Entropies in Interface CFTs from General Holographic Spacetimes
In previous work universal behavior was conjectured for the behavior of the logarithmic terms in the entanglement entropy of intervals in 1+1 dimensional interface conformal field theories (ICFTs). These putative universal terms were exhibited both in free field theories as well as a large class of holographic models. In this work we demonstrate that this same behavior in fact is realized in any holographic ICFT, significantly strengthening the case for the conjecture.
Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theories with a Liouville potential
We find and analyse solutions of Einstein's equations in arbitrary d dimensions and in the presence of a scalar field with a Liouville potential coupled to a Maxwell field. We consider spacetimes of cylindrical symmetry or again subspaces of dimension d-2 with constant curvature and analyse in detail the field equations and manifest their symmetries. The field equations of the full system are shown to reduce to a single or couple of ODE's which can be used to solve analytically or numerically the theory for the symmetry at hand. Further solutions can also be generated by a solution generating technique akin to the EM duality in the absence of a cosmological constant. We then find and analyse explicit solutions including black holes and gravitating solitons for the case of four dimensional relativity and the higher-dimensional oxydised 5-dimensional spacetime. The general solution is obtained for a certain relation between couplings in the case of cylindrical symmetry.
Aharonov-Bohm effects on the GUP framework
Modifying the fundamental commutation relation of quantum mechanics to reflect the influence of gravity is an important approach to reconcile the contradiction between quantum field theory and general relativity. In the past two decades, researchers have conducted extensive research on geometric phase problems in non-commutative spaces, but few have mentioned the correction of geometric phase problems using the Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP). This paper is the first to study the phase correction of Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect by GUP.
Gauge Invariant and Anyonic Symmetric Transformer and RNN Quantum States for Quantum Lattice Models
Symmetries such as gauge invariance and anyonic symmetry play a crucial role in quantum many-body physics. We develop a general approach to constructing gauge invariant or anyonic symmetric autoregressive neural network quantum states, including a wide range of architectures such as Transformer and recurrent neural network (RNN), for quantum lattice models. These networks can be efficiently sampled and explicitly obey gauge symmetries or anyonic constraint. We prove that our methods can provide exact representation for the ground and excited states of the 2D and 3D toric codes, and the X-cube fracton model. We variationally optimize our symmetry incorporated autoregressive neural networks for ground states as well as real-time dynamics for a variety of models. We simulate the dynamics and the ground states of the quantum link model of U(1) lattice gauge theory, obtain the phase diagram for the 2D Z_2 gauge theory, determine the phase transition and the central charge of the SU(2)_3 anyonic chain, and also compute the ground state energy of the SU(2) invariant Heisenberg spin chain. Our approach provides powerful tools for exploring condensed matter physics, high energy physics and quantum information science.
Exact Coset Sampling for Quantum Lattice Algorithms
We give a simple, fully correct, and assumption-light replacement for the contested "domain-extension" in Step 9 of a recent windowed-QFT lattice algorithm with complex-Gaussian windows~chen2024quantum. The published Step~9 suffers from a periodicity/support mismatch. We present a pair-shift difference construction that coherently cancels all unknown offsets, produces an exact uniform CRT-coset state over Z_{P}, and then uses the QFT to enforce the intended modular linear relation. The unitary is reversible, uses poly(log M_2) gates, and preserves the algorithm's asymptotics. Project Page: https://github.com/yifanzhang-pro/quantum-lattice.
Fault-tolerant simulation of Lattice Gauge Theories with gauge covariant codes
We show in this paper that a strong and easy connection exists between quantum error correction and Lattice Gauge Theories (LGT) by using the Gauge symmetry to construct an efficient error-correcting code for Abelian LGTs. We identify the logical operations on this gauge covariant code and show that the corresponding Hamiltonian can be expressed in terms of these logical operations while preserving the locality of the interactions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these substitutions actually give a new way of writing the LGT as an equivalent hardcore boson model. Finally we demonstrate a method to perform fault-tolerant time evolution of the Hamiltonian within the gauge covariant code using both product formulas and qubitization approaches. This opens up the possibility of inexpensive end to end dynamical simulations that save physical qubits by blurring the lines between simulation algorithms and quantum error correcting codes.
Single replica spin-glass phase detection using field variation and machine learning
The Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spin-glass model used the replica symmetry method to find the phase transition of the system. In 1979-1980, Parisi proposed a solution based on replica symmetry breaking (RSB), which allowed him to identify the underlying phases of complex systems such as spin-glasses. Regardless of the method used for detection, the intrinsic phase of a system exists whether or not replicas are considered. We introduce a single replica method of spin-glass phase detection using the field's variation experienced by each spin in a system configuration. This method focuses on a single replica with quenched random couplings. Each spin inevitably observes a different field from the others. Our results show that the mean and variance of fields named "Spontaneous Configurational Field" experienced by spins are suitable indicators to explore different ferromagnetic, paramagnetic, and mixed phases. To classify different phases of the system with defined indicators we have developed an algorithm based on machine learning to analyze the desired samples.
Are queries and keys always relevant? A case study on Transformer wave functions
The dot product attention mechanism, originally designed for natural language processing tasks, is a cornerstone of modern Transformers. It adeptly captures semantic relationships between word pairs in sentences by computing a similarity overlap between queries and keys. In this work, we explore the suitability of Transformers, focusing on their attention mechanisms, in the specific domain of the parametrization of variational wave functions to approximate ground states of quantum many-body spin Hamiltonians. Specifically, we perform numerical simulations on the two-dimensional J_1-J_2 Heisenberg model, a common benchmark in the field of quantum many-body systems on lattice. By comparing the performance of standard attention mechanisms with a simplified version that excludes queries and keys, relying solely on positions, we achieve competitive results while reducing computational cost and parameter usage. Furthermore, through the analysis of the attention maps generated by standard attention mechanisms, we show that the attention weights become effectively input-independent at the end of the optimization. We support the numerical results with analytical calculations, providing physical insights of why queries and keys should be, in principle, omitted from the attention mechanism when studying large systems.
Driving Enhanced Exciton Transfer by Automatic Differentiation
We model and study the processes of excitation, absorption, and transfer in various networks. The model consists of a harmonic oscillator representing a single-mode radiation field, a qubit acting as an antenna, a network through which the excitation propagates, and a qubit at the end serving as a sink. We investigate how off-resonant excitations can be optimally absorbed and transmitted through the network. Three strategies are considered: optimising network energies, adjusting the couplings between the radiation field, the antenna, and the network, or introducing and optimising driving fields at the start and end of the network. These strategies are tested on three different types of network with increasing complexity: nearest-neighbour and star configurations, and one associated with the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex. The results show that, among the various strategies, the introduction of driving fields is the most effective, leading to a significant increase in the probability of reaching the sink in a given time. This result remains stable across networks of varying dimensionalities and types, and the driving process requires only a few parameters to be effective.
The probabilistic world
Physics is based on probabilities as fundamental entities of a mathematical description. Expectation values of observables are computed according to the classical statistical rule. The overall probability distribution for one world covers all times. The quantum formalism arises once one focuses on the evolution of the time-local probabilistic information. Wave functions or the density matrix allow the formulation of a general linear evolution law for classical statistics. The quantum formalism for classical statistics is a powerful tool which allows us to implement for generalized Ising models the momentum observable with the associated Fourier representation. The association of operators to observables permits the computation of expectation values in terms of the density matrix by the usual quantum rule. We show that probabilistic cellular automata are quantum systems in a formulation with discrete time steps and real wave functions. With a complex structure the evolution operator for automata can be expressed in terms of a Hamiltonian involving fermionic creation and annihilation operators. The time-local probabilistic information amounts to a subsystem of the overall probabilistic system which is correlated with its environment consisting of the past and future. Such subsystems typically involve probabilistic observables for which only a probability distribution for their possible measurement values is available. Incomplete statistics does not permit to compute classical correlation functions for arbitrary subsystem-observables. Bell's inequalities are not generally applicable.
Autoregressive Transformer Neural Network for Simulating Open Quantum Systems via a Probabilistic Formulation
The theory of open quantum systems lays the foundations for a substantial part of modern research in quantum science and engineering. Rooted in the dimensionality of their extended Hilbert spaces, the high computational complexity of simulating open quantum systems calls for the development of strategies to approximate their dynamics. In this paper, we present an approach for tackling open quantum system dynamics. Using an exact probabilistic formulation of quantum physics based on positive operator-valued measure (POVM), we compactly represent quantum states with autoregressive transformer neural networks; such networks bring significant algorithmic flexibility due to efficient exact sampling and tractable density. We further introduce the concept of String States to partially restore the symmetry of the autoregressive transformer neural network and improve the description of local correlations. Efficient algorithms have been developed to simulate the dynamics of the Liouvillian superoperator using a forward-backward trapezoid method and find the steady state via a variational formulation. Our approach is benchmarked on prototypical one and two-dimensional systems, finding results which closely track the exact solution and achieve higher accuracy than alternative approaches based on using Markov chain Monte Carlo to sample restricted Boltzmann machines. Our work provides general methods for understanding quantum dynamics in various contexts, as well as techniques for solving high-dimensional probabilistic differential equations in classical setups.
Baryon-number-violating nucleon decays in SMEFT extended with a light scalar
New light particles have received considerable attention in recent years. Baryon-number-violating (BNV) nucleon decays involving such light particles are able to provide stringent constraints. They exhibit distinctive experimental signatures that merit thorough investigation. We systematically investigate BNV nucleon decay with a light scalar in an effective field theory framework. Within this framework, we set stringent bounds on BNV operators using available experimental data and predict the occurrence of several BNV three-body nucleon decays. We further study contributions to dinucleon to dilepton transitions in a nucleus mediated by the scalar, which complements single nucleon decay. Finally, we provide three ultraviolet-complete models that can generate different subsets of BNV operators in leading order. Our theoretical framework will facilitate experimental searches for those exotic nucleon decays.
Blueprint for a Scalable Photonic Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer
Photonics is the platform of choice to build a modular, easy-to-network quantum computer operating at room temperature. However, no concrete architecture has been presented so far that exploits both the advantages of qubits encoded into states of light and the modern tools for their generation. Here we propose such a design for a scalable and fault-tolerant photonic quantum computer informed by the latest developments in theory and technology. Central to our architecture is the generation and manipulation of three-dimensional hybrid resource states comprising both bosonic qubits and squeezed vacuum states. The proposal enables exploiting state-of-the-art procedures for the non-deterministic generation of bosonic qubits combined with the strengths of continuous-variable quantum computation, namely the implementation of Clifford gates using easy-to-generate squeezed states. Moreover, the architecture is based on two-dimensional integrated photonic chips used to produce a qubit cluster state in one temporal and two spatial dimensions. By reducing the experimental challenges as compared to existing architectures and by enabling room-temperature quantum computation, our design opens the door to scalable fabrication and operation, which may allow photonics to leap-frog other platforms on the path to a quantum computer with millions of qubits.
Transforming Simulation to Data Without Pairing
We explore a generative machine learning-based approach for estimating multi-dimensional probability density functions (PDFs) in a target sample using a statistically independent but related control sample - a common challenge in particle physics data analysis. The generative model must accurately reproduce individual observable distributions while preserving the correlations between them, based on the input multidimensional distribution from the control sample. Here we present a conditional normalizing flow model (CNF) based on a chain of bijectors which learns to transform unpaired simulation events to data events. We assess the performance of the CNF model in the context of LHC Higgs to diphoton analysis, where we use the CNF model to convert a Monte Carlo diphoton sample to one that models data. We show that the CNF model can accurately model complex data distributions and correlations. We also leverage the recently popularized Modified Differential Multiplier Method (MDMM) to improve the convergence of our model and assign physical meaning to usually arbitrary loss-function parameters.
Positive Geometries and Canonical Forms
Recent years have seen a surprising connection between the physics of scattering amplitudes and a class of mathematical objects--the positive Grassmannian, positive loop Grassmannians, tree and loop Amplituhedra--which have been loosely referred to as "positive geometries". The connection between the geometry and physics is provided by a unique differential form canonically determined by the property of having logarithmic singularities (only) on all the boundaries of the space, with residues on each boundary given by the canonical form on that boundary. In this paper we initiate an exploration of "positive geometries" and "canonical forms" as objects of study in their own right in a more general mathematical setting. We give a precise definition of positive geometries and canonical forms, introduce general methods for finding forms for more complicated positive geometries from simpler ones, and present numerous examples of positive geometries in projective spaces, Grassmannians, and toric, cluster and flag varieties. We also illustrate a number of strategies for computing canonical forms which yield interesting representations for the forms associated with wide classes of positive geometries, ranging from the simplest Amplituhedra to new expressions for the volume of arbitrary convex polytopes.
Higgs Effect Without Lunch
Reduction in effective spacetime dimensionality can occur in field-theory models more general than the widely studied dimensional reductions based on technically consistent truncations. Situations where wavefunction factors depend nontrivially on coordinates transverse to the effective lower dimension can give rise to unusual patterns of gauge symmetry breaking. Leading-order gauge modes can be left massless, but naturally occurring Stueckelberg modes can couple importantly at quartic order and higher, thus generating a "covert" pattern of gauge symmetry breaking. Such a situation is illustrated in a five-dimensional model of scalar electrodynamics in which one spatial dimension is taken to be an interval with Dirichlet/Robin boundary conditions on opposing ends. This simple model illuminates a mechanism which also has been found in gravitational braneworld scenarios.
Kibble-Zurek Mechanism and Beyond: Lessons from a Holographic Superfluid Disk
The superfluid phase transition dynamics and associated spontaneous vortex formation with the crossing of the critical temperature in a disk geometry is studied in the framework of the AdS/CFT correspondence by solving the Einstein-Abelian-Higgs model in an AdS_4 black hole. For a slow quench, the vortex density admits a universal scaling law with the cooling rate as predicted by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM), while for fast quenches, the density shows a universal scaling behavior as a function of the final temperature, that lies beyond the KZM prediction. The vortex number distribution in both the power-law and saturation regimes can be approximated by a normal distribution. However, the study of the universal scaling of the cumulants reveals non-normal features and indicates that vortex statistics in the newborn superfluid is best described by the Poisson binomial distribution, previously predicted in the KZM regime [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 240602 (2020)]. This is confirmed by studying the cumulant scalings as a function of the quench time and the quench depth. Our work supports the existence of a universal defect number distribution that accommodates the KZM scaling, its breakdown at fast quenches, and the additional universal scaling laws as a function of the final value of the control parameter.
Ergotropy and Capacity Optimization in Heisenberg Spin Chain Quantum Batteries
This study examines the performance of finite spin quantum batteries (QBs) using Heisenberg spin models with Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) and Kaplan--Shekhtman--Entin-Wohlman--Aharony (KSEA) interactions. The QBs are modeled as interacting quantum spins in local inhomogeneous magnetic fields, inducing variable Zeeman splitting. We derive analytical expressions for the maximal extractable work, ergotropy and the capacity of QBs, as recently examined by Yang et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 030402 (2023)]. These quantities are analytically linked through certain quantum correlations, as posited in the aforementioned study. Different Heisenberg spin chain models exhibit distinct behaviors under varying conditions, emphasizing the importance of model selection for optimizing QB performance. In antiferromagnetic (AFM) systems, maximum ergotropy occurs with a Zeeman splitting field applied to either spin, while ferromagnetic (FM) systems benefit from a uniform Zeeman field. Temperature significantly impacts QB performance, with ergotropy in the AFM case being generally more robust against temperature increases compared to the FM case. Incorporating DM and KSEA couplings can significantly enhance the capacity and ergotropy extraction of QBs. However, there exists a threshold beyond which additional increases in these interactions cause a sharp decline in capacity and ergotropy. This behavior is influenced by temperature and quantum coherence, which signal the occurrence of a sudden phase transition. The resource theory of quantum coherence proposed by Baumgratz et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 140401 (2014)] plays a crucial role in enhancing ergotropy and capacity. However, ergotropy is limited by both the system's capacity and the amount of coherence. These findings support the theoretical framework of spin-based QBs and may benefit future research on quantum energy storage devices.
Condensed matter and AdS/CFT
I review two classes of strong coupling problems in condensed matter physics, and describe insights gained by application of the AdS/CFT correspondence. The first class concerns non-zero temperature dynamics and transport in the vicinity of quantum critical points described by relativistic field theories. I describe how relativistic structures arise in models of physical interest, present results for their quantum critical crossover functions and magneto-thermoelectric hydrodynamics. The second class concerns symmetry breaking transitions of two-dimensional systems in the presence of gapless electronic excitations at isolated points or along lines (i.e. Fermi surfaces) in the Brillouin zone. I describe the scaling structure of a recent theory of the Ising-nematic transition in metals, and discuss its possible connection to theories of Fermi surfaces obtained from simple AdS duals.
Generating Molecular Conformer Fields
In this paper we tackle the problem of generating conformers of a molecule in 3D space given its molecular graph. We parameterize these conformers as continuous functions that map elements from the molecular graph to points in 3D space. We then formulate the problem of learning to generate conformers as learning a distribution over these functions using a diffusion generative model, called Molecular Conformer Fields (MCF). Our approach is simple and scalable, and achieves state-of-the-art performance on challenging molecular conformer generation benchmarks while making no assumptions about the explicit structure of molecules (e.g. modeling torsional angles). MCF represents an advance in extending diffusion models to handle complex scientific problems in a conceptually simple, scalable and effective manner.
Understanding and Mitigating Distribution Shifts For Machine Learning Force Fields
Machine Learning Force Fields (MLFFs) are a promising alternative to expensive ab initio quantum mechanical molecular simulations. Given the diversity of chemical spaces that are of interest and the cost of generating new data, it is important to understand how MLFFs generalize beyond their training distributions. In order to characterize and better understand distribution shifts in MLFFs, we conduct diagnostic experiments on chemical datasets, revealing common shifts that pose significant challenges, even for large foundation models trained on extensive data. Based on these observations, we hypothesize that current supervised training methods inadequately regularize MLFFs, resulting in overfitting and learning poor representations of out-of-distribution systems. We then propose two new methods as initial steps for mitigating distribution shifts for MLFFs. Our methods focus on test-time refinement strategies that incur minimal computational cost and do not use expensive ab initio reference labels. The first strategy, based on spectral graph theory, modifies the edges of test graphs to align with graph structures seen during training. Our second strategy improves representations for out-of-distribution systems at test-time by taking gradient steps using an auxiliary objective, such as a cheap physical prior. Our test-time refinement strategies significantly reduce errors on out-of-distribution systems, suggesting that MLFFs are capable of and can move towards modeling diverse chemical spaces, but are not being effectively trained to do so. Our experiments establish clear benchmarks for evaluating the generalization capabilities of the next generation of MLFFs. Our code is available at https://tkreiman.github.io/projects/mlff_distribution_shifts/.
Generalizable Neural Fields as Partially Observed Neural Processes
Neural fields, which represent signals as a function parameterized by a neural network, are a promising alternative to traditional discrete vector or grid-based representations. Compared to discrete representations, neural representations both scale well with increasing resolution, are continuous, and can be many-times differentiable. However, given a dataset of signals that we would like to represent, having to optimize a separate neural field for each signal is inefficient, and cannot capitalize on shared information or structures among signals. Existing generalization methods view this as a meta-learning problem and employ gradient-based meta-learning to learn an initialization which is then fine-tuned with test-time optimization, or learn hypernetworks to produce the weights of a neural field. We instead propose a new paradigm that views the large-scale training of neural representations as a part of a partially-observed neural process framework, and leverage neural process algorithms to solve this task. We demonstrate that this approach outperforms both state-of-the-art gradient-based meta-learning approaches and hypernetwork approaches.
Thera: Aliasing-Free Arbitrary-Scale Super-Resolution with Neural Heat Fields
Recent approaches to arbitrary-scale single image super-resolution (ASR) use neural fields to represent continuous signals that can be sampled at arbitrary resolutions. However, point-wise queries of neural fields do not naturally match the point spread function (PSF) of pixels, which may cause aliasing in the super-resolved image. Existing methods attempt to mitigate this by approximating an integral version of the field at each scaling factor, compromising both fidelity and generalization. In this work, we introduce neural heat fields, a novel neural field formulation that inherently models a physically exact PSF. Our formulation enables analytically correct anti-aliasing at any desired output resolution, and -- unlike supersampling -- at no additional cost. Building on this foundation, we propose Thera, an end-to-end ASR method that substantially outperforms existing approaches, while being more parameter-efficient and offering strong theoretical guarantees. The project page is at https://therasr.github.io.
Quantum Thermalization via Travelling Waves
Isolated quantum many-body systems which thermalize under their own dynamics are expected to act as their own thermal baths, thereby bringing their local subsystems to thermal equilibrium. Here we show that the infinite-dimensional limit of a quantum lattice model, as described by Dynamical Mean-Field theory (DMFT), provides a natural framework to understand this self-consistent thermalization process. Using the Fermi-Hubbard model as working example, we demonstrate that the emergence of a self-consistent bath thermalising the system is characterized by a sharp thermalization front, moving balistically and separating the initial condition from the long-time thermal fixed point. We characterize the full DMFT dynamics through an effective temperature for which we derive a travelling-wave equation of the Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piskunov (FKPP) type. This equation allows to predict the asymptotic shape of the front and its velocity, which match perfectly the full DMFT numerics. Our results provide a new angle to understand the onset of quantum thermalisation in closed isolated systems.
Out of equilibrium Phase Diagram of the Quantum Random Energy Model
In this paper we study the out-of-equilibrium phase diagram of the quantum version of Derrida's Random Energy Model, which is the simplest model of mean-field spin glasses. We interpret its corresponding quantum dynamics in Fock space as a one-particle problem in very high dimension to which we apply different theoretical methods tailored for high-dimensional lattices: the Forward-Scattering Approximation, a mapping to the Rosenzweig-Porter model, and the cavity method. Our results indicate the existence of two transition lines and three distinct dynamical phases: a completely many-body localized phase at low energy, a fully ergodic phase at high energy, and a multifractal "bad metal" phase at intermediate energy. In the latter, eigenfunctions occupy a diverging volume, yet an exponentially vanishing fraction of the total Hilbert space. We discuss the limitations of our approximations and the relationship with previous studies.
Conditionally Strongly Log-Concave Generative Models
There is a growing gap between the impressive results of deep image generative models and classical algorithms that offer theoretical guarantees. The former suffer from mode collapse or memorization issues, limiting their application to scientific data. The latter require restrictive assumptions such as log-concavity to escape the curse of dimensionality. We partially bridge this gap by introducing conditionally strongly log-concave (CSLC) models, which factorize the data distribution into a product of conditional probability distributions that are strongly log-concave. This factorization is obtained with orthogonal projectors adapted to the data distribution. It leads to efficient parameter estimation and sampling algorithms, with theoretical guarantees, although the data distribution is not globally log-concave. We show that several challenging multiscale processes are conditionally log-concave using wavelet packet orthogonal projectors. Numerical results are shown for physical fields such as the varphi^4 model and weak lensing convergence maps with higher resolution than in previous works.
Generalized thermalization for integrable system under quantum quench
We investigate equilibration and generalized thermalization of the quantum Harmonic chain under local quantum quench. The quench action we consider is connecting two disjoint harmonic chains of different sizes and the system jumps between two integrable settings. We verify the validity of the Generalized Gibbs Ensemble description for this infinite dimensional Hilbert space system and also identify equilibration between the subsystems as in classical systems. Using Bogoliubov transformations, we show that the eigenstates of the system prior to the quench evolve towards the Gibbs Generalized Ensemble description. Eigenstates that are more delocalized (in the sense of inverse participation ratio) prior to the quench, tend to equilibrate more rapidly. Further, through the phase space properties of a Generalized Gibbs Ensemble and the strength of stimulated emission, we identify the necessary criterion on the initial states for such relaxation at late times and also find out the states which would potentially not be described by the Gibbs Generalized Ensemble description.
Conformal Bootstrap with Reinforcement Learning
We introduce the use of reinforcement-learning (RL) techniques to the conformal-bootstrap programme. We demonstrate that suitable soft Actor-Critic RL algorithms can perform efficient, relatively cheap high-dimensional searches in the space of scaling dimensions and OPE-squared coefficients that produce sensible results for tens of CFT data from a single crossing equation. In this paper we test this approach in well-known 2D CFTs, with particular focus on the Ising and tri-critical Ising models and the free compactified boson CFT. We present results of as high as 36-dimensional searches, whose sole input is the expected number of operators per spin in a truncation of the conformal-block decomposition of the crossing equations. Our study of 2D CFTs uses only the global so(2,2) part of the conformal algebra, and our methods are equally applicable to higher-dimensional CFTs. When combined with other, already available, numerical and analytical methods, we expect our approach to yield an exciting new window into the non-perturbative structure of arbitrary (unitary or non-unitary) CFTs.
Categorical Hopfield Networks
This paper discusses a simple and explicit toy-model example of the categorical Hopfield equations introduced in previous work of Manin and the author. These describe dynamical assignments of resources to networks, where resources are objects in unital symmetric monoidal categories and assignments are realized by summing functors. The special case discussed here is based on computational resources (computational models of neurons) as objects in a category of DNNs, with a simple choice of the endofunctors defining the Hopfield equations that reproduce the usual updating of the weights in DNNs by gradient descent.
Spacetime Neural Network for High Dimensional Quantum Dynamics
We develop a spacetime neural network method with second order optimization for solving quantum dynamics from the high dimensional Schr\"{o}dinger equation. In contrast to the standard iterative first order optimization and the time-dependent variational principle, our approach utilizes the implicit mid-point method and generates the solution for all spatial and temporal values simultaneously after optimization. We demonstrate the method in the Schr\"{o}dinger equation with a self-normalized autoregressive spacetime neural network construction. Future explorations for solving different high dimensional differential equations are discussed.
Zero Sound from Holography
Quantum liquids are characterized by the distinctive properties such as the low temperature behavior of heat capacity and the spectrum of low-energy quasiparticle excitations. In particular, at low temperature, Fermi liquids exhibit the zero sound, predicted by L. D. Landau in 1957 and subsequently observed in liquid He-3. In this paper, we ask a question whether such a characteristic behavior is present in theories with holographically dual description. We consider a class of gauge theories with fundamental matter fields whose holographic dual in the appropriate limit is given in terms of the Dirac-Born-Infeld action in AdS_{p+1} space. An example of such a system is the N=4 SU(N_c) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with N_f massless N=2 hypermultiplets at strong coupling, finite baryon number density, and low temperature. We find that these systems exhibit a zero sound mode despite having a non-Fermi liquid type behavior of the specific heat. These properties suggest that holography identifies a new type of quantum liquids.
Beyond Symmetries : Anomalies in Transverse Ward--Takahashi Identities
Anomalies in transverse Ward--Takahashi identities are studied, allowing discussion of the feasibility of anomalies arising in general non-symmetry Ward--Takahashi identities. We adopt the popular Fujikawa's method and rigorous dimensional renormalization to verify the existence of transverse anomalies to one-loop order and any loop order, respectively. The arbitrariness of coefficients of transverse anomalies is revealed, and a way out is also proposed after relating transverse anomalies to Schwinger terms and comparing symmetry and non-symmetry anomalies. Papers that claim the non-existence of transverse anomalies are reviewed to find anomalies hidden in their approaches. The role played by transverse anomalies is discussed.
Deep Learning Hamiltonian Monte Carlo
We generalize the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo algorithm with a stack of neural network layers and evaluate its ability to sample from different topologies in a two dimensional lattice gauge theory. We demonstrate that our model is able to successfully mix between modes of different topologies, significantly reducing the computational cost required to generated independent gauge field configurations. Our implementation is available at https://github.com/saforem2/l2hmc-qcd .
Classical Glasses, Black Holes, and Strange Quantum Liquids
From the dynamics of a broad class of classical mean-field glass models one may obtain a quantum model with finite zero-temperature entropy, a quantum transition at zero temperature, and a time-reparametrization (quasi-)invariance in the dynamical equations for correlations. The low eigenvalue spectrum of the resulting quantum model is directly related to the structure and exploration of metastable states in the landscape of the original classical glass model. This mapping reveals deep connections between classical glasses and the properties of SYK-like models.
Graviton stimulated emission in squeezed vacuum states
We study the dynamics of gravitons in a squeezed vacuum state in a thermal radiation background. Unlike traditional treatments that rely on the Boltzmann equation, we employ the Heisenberg equation and average it over general quantum states. In contrast to the usual Boltzmann-based descriptions, our approach captures the subtleties arising from quantum coherence in different number eigenstates, which is essential for soft graviton modes in the squeezed vacuum state. Our new method successfully reproduces the previous one-loop results within the in-in formalism when the expansion parameter is small and deviates significantly as the parameter increases, indicating that our results extend beyond the one-loop in-in formalism. We examine the implications of graviton emission effects stimulated by quantum coherence in both flat and expanding backgrounds. In the flat background, it is found that backreaction of radiation on the spacetime dynamics is crucial for significant stimulated emission. In the expanding background, to avoid the subtleties associated with superhorizon modes, we investigate the effect of emission within the horizon immediately after reheating and find a significant effect. We examined the IR graviton evolution from a symmetry perspective and propose a regularization prescription to eliminate the secular growth problem.
Domain walls in the scaling regime: Equal Time Correlator and Gravitational Waves
Domain walls are topological defects that may have formed in the early Universe through the spontaneous breakdown of discrete symmetries, and can be a strong source of gravitational waves (GWs). We perform 3D lattice field theory simulations with CosmoLattice, considering grid sizes N = 1250, 2048 and 4096, to study the dynamics of the domain wall network and its GW signatures. We first analyze how the network approaches the scaling regime with a constant O(1) number of domain walls per Hubble volume, including setups with a large initial number of domains as expected in realistic scenarios, and find that scaling is always reached in a few Hubble times after the network formation. To better understand the properties of the scaling regime, we then numerically extract the Equal Time Correlator (ETC) of the energy-momentum tensor of the network, thus determining its characteristic shape for the case of domain walls, and verifying explicitly its functional dependence as predicted by scaling arguments. The ETC can be further extended to the Unequal Time Correlator (UTC) controlling the GW emission by making assumptions on the coherence of the source. By comparison with the actual GW spectrum evaluated by CosmoLattice, we are then able to infer the degree of coherence of the domain wall network. Finally, by performing numerical simulations in different background cosmologies, e.g. radiation domination and kination, we find evidence for a universal ETC at subhorizon scales and hence a universal shape of the GW spectrum in the UV, while the expansion history of the Universe may instead be determined by the IR features of the GW spectrum.
Cybloids - Creation and Control of Cybernetic Colloids
Colloids play an important role in fundamental science as well as in nature and technology. They have had a strong impact on the fundamental understanding of statistical physics. For example, colloids have helped to obtain a better understanding of collective phenomena, ranging from phase transitions and glass formation to the swarming of active Brownian particles. Yet the success of colloidal systems hinges crucially on the specific physical and chemical properties of the colloidal particles, i.e. particles with the appropriate characteristics must be available. Here we present an idea to create particles with freely selectable properties. The properties might depend, for example, on the presence of other particles (hence mimicking specific pair or many-body interactions), previous configurations (hence introducing some memory or feedback), or a directional bias (hence changing the dynamics). Without directly interfering with the sample, each particle is fully controlled and can receive external commands through a predefined algorithm that can take into account any input parameters. This is realized with computer-controlled colloids, which we term cybloids - short for cybernetic colloids. The potential of cybloids is illustrated by programming a time-delayed external potential acting on a single colloid and interaction potentials for many colloids. Both an attractive harmonic potential and an annular potential are implemented. For a single particle, this programming can cause subdiffusive behavior or lend activity. For many colloids, the programmed interaction potential allows to select a crystal structure at wish. Beyond these examples, we discuss further opportunities which cybloids offer.
Solving Conformal Field Theories with Artificial Intelligence
In this paper we deploy for the first time Reinforcement-Learning algorithms in the context of the conformal-bootstrap programme to obtain numerical solutions of conformal field theories (CFTs). As an illustration, we use a soft Actor-Critic algorithm and find approximate solutions to the truncated crossing equations of two-dimensional CFTs, successfully identifying well-known theories like the 2D Ising model and the 2D CFT of a compactified scalar. Our methods can perform efficient high-dimensional searches that can be used to study arbitrary (unitary or non-unitary) CFTs in any spacetime dimension.
Holographic Superconductors
It has been shown that a gravitational dual to a superconductor can be obtained by coupling anti-de Sitter gravity to a Maxwell field and charged scalar. We review our earlier analysis of this theory and extend it in two directions. First, we consider all values for the charge of the scalar field. Away from the large charge limit, backreaction on the spacetime metric is important. While the qualitative behaviour of the dual superconductor is found to be similar for all charges, in the limit of arbitrarily small charge a new type of black hole instability is found. We go on to add a perpendicular magnetic field B and obtain the London equation and magnetic penetration depth. We show that these holographic superconductors are Type II, i.e., starting in a normal phase at large B and low temperatures, they develop superconducting droplets as B is reduced.
Probability and complex quantum trajectories
It is shown that in the complex trajectory representation of quantum mechanics, the Born's Psi^{\star}Ψprobability density can be obtained from the imaginary part of the velocity field of particles on the real axis. Extending this probability axiom to the complex plane, we first attempt to find a probability density by solving an appropriate conservation equation. The characteristic curves of this conservation equation are found to be the same as the complex paths of particles in the new representation. The boundary condition in this case is that the extended probability density should agree with the quantum probability rule along the real line. For the simple, time-independent, one-dimensional problems worked out here, we find that a conserved probability density can be derived from the velocity field of particles, except in regions where the trajectories were previously suspected to be nonviable. An alternative method to find this probability density in terms of a trajectory integral, which is easier to implement on a computer and useful for single particle solutions, is also presented. Most importantly, we show, by using the complex extension of Schrodinger equation, that the desired conservation equation can be derived from this definition of probability density.
Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Driven and Active Coulomb Field Theories
The classical Coulomb gas model has served as one of the most versatile frameworks in statistical physics, connecting a vast range of phenomena across many different areas. Nonequilibrium generalisations of this model have so far been studied much more scarcely. With the abundance of contemporary research into active and driven systems, one would naturally expect that such generalisations of systems with long-ranged Coulomb-like interactions will form a fertile playground for interesting developments. Here, we present two examples of novel macroscopic behaviour that arise from nonequilibrium fluctuations in long-range interacting systems, namely (1) unscreened long-ranged correlations in strong electrolytes driven by an external electric field and the associated fluctuation-induced forces in the confined Casimir geometry, and (2) out-of-equilibrium critical behaviour in self-chemotactic models that incorporate the particle polarity in the chemotactic response of the cells. Both of these systems have nonlocal Coulomb-like interactions among their constituent particles, namely, the electrostatic interactions in the case of the driven electrolyte, and the chemotactic forces mediated by fast-diffusing signals in the case of self-chemotactic systems. The results presented here hint to the rich phenomenology of nonequilibrium effects that can arise from strong fluctuations in Coulomb interacting systems, and a rich variety of potential future directions, which are discussed.
Point cloud-based diffusion models for the Electron-Ion Collider
At high-energy collider experiments, generative models can be used for a wide range of tasks, including fast detector simulations, unfolding, searches of physics beyond the Standard Model, and inference tasks. In particular, it has been demonstrated that score-based diffusion models can generate high-fidelity and accurate samples of jets or collider events. This work expands on previous generative models in three distinct ways. First, our model is trained to generate entire collider events, including all particle species with complete kinematic information. We quantify how well the model learns event-wide constraints such as the conservation of momentum and discrete quantum numbers. We focus on the events at the future Electron-Ion Collider, but we expect that our results can be extended to proton-proton and heavy-ion collisions. Second, previous generative models often relied on image-based techniques. The sparsity of the data can negatively affect the fidelity and sampling time of the model. We address these issues using point clouds and a novel architecture combining edge creation with transformer modules called Point Edge Transformers. Third, we adapt the foundation model OmniLearn, to generate full collider events. This approach may indicate a transition toward adapting and fine-tuning foundation models for downstream tasks instead of training new models from scratch.
Quantum Visual Fields with Neural Amplitude Encoding
Quantum Implicit Neural Representations (QINRs) include components for learning and execution on gate-based quantum computers. While QINRs recently emerged as a promising new paradigm, many challenges concerning their architecture and ansatz design, the utility of quantum-mechanical properties, training efficiency and the interplay with classical modules remain. This paper advances the field by introducing a new type of QINR for 2D image and 3D geometric field learning, which we collectively refer to as Quantum Visual Field (QVF). QVF encodes classical data into quantum statevectors using neural amplitude encoding grounded in a learnable energy manifold, ensuring meaningful Hilbert space embeddings. Our ansatz follows a fully entangled design of learnable parametrised quantum circuits, with quantum (unitary) operations performed in the real Hilbert space, resulting in numerically stable training with fast convergence. QVF does not rely on classical post-processing -- in contrast to the previous QINR learning approach -- and directly employs projective measurement to extract learned signals encoded in the ansatz. Experiments on a quantum hardware simulator demonstrate that QVF outperforms the existing quantum approach and widely used classical foundational baselines in terms of visual representation accuracy across various metrics and model characteristics, such as learning of high-frequency details. We also show applications of QVF in 2D and 3D field completion and 3D shape interpolation, highlighting its practical potential.
Generating arbitrary polarization states by manipulating the thicknesses of a pair of uniaxial birefringent plates
We report an optical method of generating arbitrary polarization states by manipulating the thicknesses of a pair of uniaxial birefringent plates, the optical axes of which are set at a crossing angle of {\pi}/4. The method has the remarkable feature of being able to generate a distribution of arbitrary polarization states in a group of highly discrete spectra without spatially separating the individual spectral components. The target polarization-state distribution is obtained as an optimal solution through an exploration. Within a realistic exploration range, a sufficient number of near-optimal solutions are found. This property is also reproduced well by a concise model based on a distribution of exploration points on a Poincar\'e sphere, showing that the number of near-optimal solutions behaves according to a power law with respect to the number of spectral components of concern. As a typical example of an application, by applying this method to a set of phase-locked highly discrete spectra, we numerically demonstrate the continuous generation of a vector-like optical electric field waveform, the helicity of which is alternated within a single optical cycle in the time domain.
Photoemission "experiments" on holographic superconductors
We study the effects of a superconducting condensate on holographic Fermi surfaces. With a suitable coupling between the fermion and the condensate, there are stable quasiparticles with a gap. We find some similarities with the phenomenology of the cuprates: in systems whose normal state is a non-Fermi liquid with no stable quasiparticles, a stable quasiparticle peak appears in the condensed phase.
Completely Discretized, Finite Quantum Mechanics
I propose a version of quantum mechanics featuring a discrete and finite number of states that is plausibly a model of the real world. The model is based on standard unitary quantum theory of a closed system with a finite-dimensional Hilbert space. Given certain simple conditions on the spectrum of the Hamiltonian, Schr\"odinger evolution is periodic, and it is straightforward to replace continuous time with a discrete version, with the result that the system only visits a discrete and finite set of state vectors. The biggest challenges to the viability of such a model come from cosmological considerations. The theory may have implications for questions of mathematical realism and finitism.
Probing Invisible Decay of Z^prime at Muon Collider with Topological Data Analysis and Machine Learning
We explore the use of topological data analysis (TDA) combined with machine learning for discriminating standard model backgrounds from the invisible decay of the Z^prime boson associated with monophoton emission at a 3 TeV muon collider. Reconstructed events are mapped into a six-dimensional kinematic space and aggregated into bags of events, from which persistent homology is used to extract Betti number distributions. Within the Multiple Instance Learning paradigm, classifiers trained on these topological descriptors demonstrate significantly improved classification accuracy compared to the conventional ML approaches based on event-wise kinematic inputs. We also draw exclusion contours at 95\% CL in the (m_{Z^prime}, m_chi) parameter space, highlighting the potential of topological features to extend the discovery reach of future collider experiments.
Black holes and the loss landscape in machine learning
Understanding the loss landscape is an important problem in machine learning. One key feature of the loss function, common to many neural network architectures, is the presence of exponentially many low lying local minima. Physical systems with similar energy landscapes may provide useful insights. In this work, we point out that black holes naturally give rise to such landscapes, owing to the existence of black hole entropy. For definiteness, we consider 1/8 BPS black holes in N = 8 string theory. These provide an infinite family of potential landscapes arising in the microscopic descriptions of corresponding black holes. The counting of minima amounts to black hole microstate counting. Moreover, the exact numbers of the minima for these landscapes are a priori known from dualities in string theory. Some of the minima are connected by paths of low loss values, resembling mode connectivity. We estimate the number of runs needed to find all the solutions. Initial explorations suggest that Stochastic Gradient Descent can find a significant fraction of the minima.
Principal Landau Determinants
We reformulate the Landau analysis of Feynman integrals with the aim of advancing the state of the art in modern particle-physics computations. We contribute new algorithms for computing Landau singularities, using tools from polyhedral geometry and symbolic/numerical elimination. Inspired by the work of Gelfand, Kapranov, and Zelevinsky (GKZ) on generalized Euler integrals, we define the principal Landau determinant of a Feynman diagram. We illustrate with a number of examples that this algebraic formalism allows to compute many components of the Landau singular locus. We adapt the GKZ framework by carefully specializing Euler integrals to Feynman integrals. For instance, ultraviolet and infrared singularities are detected as irreducible components of an incidence variety, which project dominantly to the kinematic space. We compute principal Landau determinants for the infinite families of one-loop and banana diagrams with different mass configurations, and for a range of cutting-edge Standard Model processes. Our algorithms build on the Julia package Landau.jl and are implemented in the new open-source package PLD.jl available at https://mathrepo.mis.mpg.de/PLD/.
ANTN: Bridging Autoregressive Neural Networks and Tensor Networks for Quantum Many-Body Simulation
Quantum many-body physics simulation has important impacts on understanding fundamental science and has applications to quantum materials design and quantum technology. However, due to the exponentially growing size of the Hilbert space with respect to the particle number, a direct simulation is intractable. While representing quantum states with tensor networks and neural networks are the two state-of-the-art methods for approximate simulations, each has its own limitations in terms of expressivity and inductive bias. To address these challenges, we develop a novel architecture, Autoregressive Neural TensorNet (ANTN), which bridges tensor networks and autoregressive neural networks. We show that Autoregressive Neural TensorNet parameterizes normalized wavefunctions, allows for exact sampling, generalizes the expressivity of tensor networks and autoregressive neural networks, and inherits a variety of symmetries from autoregressive neural networks. We demonstrate our approach on quantum state learning as well as finding the ground state of the challenging 2D J_1-J_2 Heisenberg model with different systems sizes and coupling parameters, outperforming both tensor networks and autoregressive neural networks. Our work opens up new opportunities for scientific simulations of quantum many-body physics and quantum technology.
Improving thermal state preparation of Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model with reinforcement learning on quantum hardware
The Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, known for its strong quantum correlations and chaotic behavior, serves as a key platform for quantum gravity studies. However, variationally preparing thermal states on near-term quantum processors for large systems (N>12, where N is the number of Majorana fermions) presents a significant challenge due to the rapid growth in the complexity of parameterized quantum circuits. This paper addresses this challenge by integrating reinforcement learning (RL) with convolutional neural networks, employing an iterative approach to optimize the quantum circuit and its parameters. The refinement process is guided by a composite reward signal derived from entropy and the expectation values of the SYK Hamiltonian. This approach reduces the number of CNOT gates by two orders of magnitude for systems Ngeq12 compared to traditional methods like first-order Trotterization. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the RL framework in both noiseless and noisy quantum hardware environments, maintaining high accuracy in thermal state preparation. This work advances a scalable, RL-based framework with applications for quantum gravity studies and out-of-time-ordered thermal correlators computation in quantum many-body systems on near-term quantum hardware. The code is available at https://github.com/Aqasch/solving_SYK_model_with_RL.
Unbalanced Stückelberg Holographic Superconductors with Backreaction
We numerically investigate some properties of unbalanced St\"{u}ckelberg holographic superconductors, by considering backreaction effects of fields on the background geometry. More precisely, we study the impacts of the chemical potential mismatch and St\"{u}ckelberg mechanism on the condensation and conductivity types (electrical, spin, mixed, thermo-electric, thermo-spin and thermal conductivity). Our results show that the St\"{u}ckelberg's model parameters C_{alpha} and alpha not only have significant impacts on the phase transition, but also affect the conductivity pseudo-gap and the strength of conductivity fluctuations. Moreover, the effects of these parameters on a system will be gradually reduced as the imbalance grows. We also find that the influence of alpha on the amplitude of conductivity fluctuations depends on the magnitude of the both C_{alpha} and deltamu/mu in the electric and thermal conductivity cases. This results in that increasing alpha can damp the conductivity fluctuations of an unbalanced system in contrast to balanced ones.
6D (2,0) Bootstrap with soft-Actor-Critic
We study numerically the 6D (2,0) superconformal bootstrap using the soft-Actor-Critic (SAC) algorithm as a stochastic optimizer. We focus on the four-point functions of scalar superconformal primaries in the energy-momentum multiplet. Starting from the supergravity limit, we perform searches for adiabatically varied central charges and derive two curves for a collection of 80 CFT data (70 of these data correspond to unprotected long multiplets and 10 to protected short multiplets). We conjecture that the two curves capture the A- and D-series (2,0) theories. Our results are competitive when compared to the existing bounds coming from standard numerical bootstrap methods, and data obtained using the OPE inversion formula. With this paper we are also releasing our Python implementation of the SAC algorithm, BootSTOP. The paper discusses the main functionality features of this package.
Quantum mechanics with real numbers: entanglement, superselection rules and gauges
We show how imaginary numbers in quantum physics can be eliminated by enlarging the Hilbert Space followed by an imposition of - what effectively amounts to - a superselection rule. We illustrate this procedure with a qubit and apply it to the Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The procedure is somewhat reminiscent of the constrained quantization of the electromagnetic field, where, in order to manifestly comply with relativity, one enlargers the Hilbert Space by quantizing the longitudinal and scalar modes, only to subsequently introduce a constraint to make sure that they are actually not directly observable.
Two-photon interference: the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect
Nearly 30 years ago, two-photon interference was observed, marking the beginning of a new quantum era. Indeed, two-photon interference has no classical analogue, giving it a distinct advantage for a range of applications. The peculiarities of quantum physics may now be used to our advantage to outperform classical computations, securely communicate information, simulate highly complex physical systems and increase the sensitivity of precise measurements. This separation from classical to quantum physics has motivated physicists to study two-particle interference for both fermionic and bosonic quantum objects. So far, two-particle interference has been observed with massive particles, among others, such as electrons and atoms, in addition to plasmons, demonstrating the extent of this effect to larger and more complex quantum systems. A wide array of novel applications to this quantum effect is to be expected in the future. This review will thus cover the progress and applications of two-photon (two-particle) interference over the last three decades.
Solving Key Challenges in Collider Physics with Foundation Models
Foundation Models are neural networks that are capable of simultaneously solving many problems. Large Language Foundation Models like ChatGPT have revolutionized many aspects of daily life, but their impact for science is not yet clear. In this paper, we use a new Foundation Model for hadronic jets to solve three key challenges in collider physics. In particular, we show how experiments can (1) save significant computing power when developing reconstruction algorithms, (2) perform a complete uncertainty quantification for high-dimensional measurements, and (3) search for new physics with model agnostic methods using low-level inputs. In each case, there are significant computational or methodological challenges with current methods that limit the science potential of deep learning algorithms. By solving each problem, we take jet Foundation Models beyond proof-of-principle studies and into the toolkit of practitioners.
Precision holography for non-conformal branes
We set up precision holography for the non-conformal branes preserving 16 supersymmetries. The near-horizon limit of all such p-brane solutions with p \leq 4, including the case of fundamental string solutions, is conformal to AdS_{p+2} x S^{8-p} with a linear dilaton. We develop holographic renormalization for all these cases. In particular, we obtain the most general asymptotic solutions with appropriate Dirichlet boundary conditions, find the corresponding counterterms and compute the holographic 1-point functions, all in complete generality and at the full non-linear level. The result for the stress energy tensor properly defines the notion of mass for backgrounds with such asymptotics. The analysis is done both in the original formulation of the method and also using a radial Hamiltonian analysis. The latter formulation exhibits most clearly the existence of an underlying generalized conformal structure. In the cases of Dp-branes, the corresponding dual boundary theory, the maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory SYM_{p+1}, indeed exhibits the generalized conformal structure found at strong coupling. We compute the holographic 2-point functions of the stress energy tensor and gluon operator and show they satisfy the expected Ward identities and the constraints of generalized conformal structure. The holographic results are also manifestly compatible with the M-theory uplift, with the asymptotic solutions, counterterms, one and two point functions etc of the IIA F1 and D4 appropriately descending from those of M2 and M5 branes, respectively. We present a few applications including the computation of condensates in Witten's model of holographic YM_4 theory.
Lectures in Quantum Gravity
Formulating a quantum theory of gravity lies at the heart of fundamental theoretical physics. This collection of lecture notes encompasses a selection of topics that were covered in six mini-courses at the Nordita PhD school "Towards Quantum Gravity". The scope was to provide a coherent picture, from its foundation to forefront research, emphasizing connections between different areas. The lectures begin with perturbative quantum gravity and effective field theory. Subsequently, two ultraviolet-complete approaches are presented: asymptotically safe gravity and string theory. Finally, elements of quantum effects in black hole spacetimes are discussed.
Interference in Fuzzy Dark Matter Filaments: Idealised Models and Statistics
Fuzzy (wave) dark matter (FDM), the dynamical model underlying an ultralight bosonic dark matter species, produces a rich set of non-gravitational signatures that distinguishes it markedly from the phenomenologically related warm (particle) dark matter (WDM) scenario. The emergence of extended interference fringes hosted by cosmic filaments is one such phenomenon reported by cosmological simulations, and a detailed understanding of such may strengthen existing limits on the boson mass but also break the degeneracy with WDM, and provide a unique fingerprint of interference in cosmology. In this paper, we provide initial steps towards this goal. In particular, we show in a bottom-up approach, how the presence of interference in an idealised filament population can lead to a non-suppressive feature in the matter power spectrum -- an observation supported by fully-cosmological FDM simulations. To this end, we build on a theoretically motivated and numerically observed steady-state approximation for filaments and express the equilibrium dynamics of such in an expansion of FDM eigenstates. We optimise the size of the expansion by incorporating classical phase-space information. Ellipsoidal collapse considerations are used to construct a fuzzy filament mass function which, together with the reconstructed FDM wave function, allow us to efficiently compute the one-filament power spectrum. We showcase our non-perturbative interference model for a selection of boson masses and confirm our approach is able to produce the matter power boost observed in fully-cosmological FDM simulations. More precisely, we find an excess in correlation between the spatial scale associated with the FDM ground state and the quantum pressure scale. We speculate about applications of this effect in data analysis.
Strongly-Interacting Bosons in a Two-Dimensional Quasicrystal Lattice
Quasicrystals exhibit exotic properties inherited from the self-similarity of their long-range ordered, yet aperiodic, structure. The recent realization of optical quasicrystal lattices paves the way to the study of correlated Bose fluids in such structures, but the regime of strong interactions remains largely unexplored, both theoretically and experimentally. Here, we determine the quantum phase diagram of two-dimensional correlated bosons in an eightfold quasicrystal potential. Using large-scale quantum Monte Carlo calculations, we demonstrate a superfluid-to-Bose glass transition and determine the critical line. Moreover, we show that strong interactions stabilize Mott insulator phases, some of which have spontaneously broken eightfold symmetry. Our results are directly relevant to current generation experiments and, in particular, drive prospects to the observation of the still elusive Bose glass phase in two dimensions and exotic Mott phases.
On the statistical theory of self-gravitating collisionless dark matter flow: Scale and redshift variation of velocity and density distributions
This paper studies the scale and redshift variation of density and velocity distributions in self-gravitating collisionless dark matter flow by a halo-based non-projection approach. All particles are divided into halo and out-of-halo particles for redshift variation of distributions. Without projecting particle fields onto a structured grid, the scale variation is analyzed by identifying all particle pairs on different scales r. We demonstrate that: i) Delaunay tessellation can be used to reconstruct the density field. The density correlation, spectrum, and dispersion functions were obtained, modeled, and compared with the N-body simulation; ii) the velocity distributions are symmetric on both small and large scales and are non-symmetric with a negative skewness on intermediate scales due to the inverse energy cascade at a constant rate varepsilon_u; iii) On small scales, the even order moments of pairwise velocity Delta u_L follow a two-thirds law (-varepsilon_ur)^{2/3}, while the odd order moments follow a linear scaling langle(Delta u_L)^{2n+1}rangle=(2n+1)langle(Delta u_L)^{2n}ranglelangleDelta u_Lrangler; iv) The scale variation of the velocity distributions was studied for longitudinal velocities u_L or u_L^{'}, pairwise velocity (velocity difference) Delta u_L=u_L^{'}-u_L and velocity sum Sigma u_L=u^{'}_L+u_L. Fully developed velocity fields are never Gaussian on any scale, despite that they can initially be Gaussian; v) On small scales, u_L and Sigma u_L can be modeled by a X distribution to maximize the system entropy; vi) On large scales, Delta u_L and Sigma u_L can be modeled by a logistic or a X distribution; vii) the redshift variation of the velocity distributions follows the evolution of the X distribution involving a shape parameter alpha(z) decreasing with time.
Can an Anti-de Sitter Vacuum in the Dark Energy Sector Explain JWST High-Redshift Galaxy and Reionization Observations?
The James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) discovery of an unexpectedly high abundance of UV-bright galaxies at redshifts z > 10 poses a significant challenge to the standard LambdaCDM cosmology. This work tests whether this tension can be resolved solely by modifying the cosmological background, without invoking significant evolution in the astrophysical properties of early galaxies. We investigate an alternative framework featuring the presence of an anti-de Sitter vacuum in the dark energy sector, a model that naturally arises in quantum gravity models like string theory and can enhance early structure formation. Using a self-consistent semi-analytical model that couples galaxy evolution with reionization, we confront this scenario with a wide range of observations. We first show that while a model tailored to fit the high-z UV luminosity functions (UVLFs) shows promise, it is in strong tension with well-established cosmological constraints from the CMB and other low-redshift probes. Conversely, models within this framework that are consistent with these constraints provide only a modest boost to structure formation and fail to reproduce the observed JWST galaxy abundances at z > 10. While these models remain consistent with the cosmic reionization history, our primary result is that this class of cosmological modifications is insufficient on its own to explain the galaxy excess. Our study underscores the critical importance of holistic testing for any beyond-LambdaCDM proposal; apparent success in one observational regime does not guarantee overall viability. By demonstrating the limitations of a purely cosmological solution, our results strengthen the case that evolving astrophysical properties are a necessary ingredient for solving the challenge of early galaxy formation.
Towards strange metallic holography
We initiate a holographic model building approach to `strange metallic' phenomenology. Our model couples a neutral Lifshitz-invariant quantum critical theory, dual to a bulk gravitational background, to a finite density of gapped probe charge carriers, dually described by D-branes. In the physical regime of temperature much lower than the charge density and gap, we exhibit anomalous scalings of the temperature and frequency dependent conductivity. Choosing the dynamical critical exponent z appropriately we can match the non-Fermi liquid scalings, such as linear resistivity, observed in strange metal regimes. As part of our investigation we outline three distinct string theory realizations of Lifshitz geometries: from F theory, from polarised branes, and from a gravitating charged Fermi gas. We also identify general features of renormalisation group flow in Lifshitz theories, such as the appearance of relevant charge-charge interactions when z geq 2. We outline a program to extend this model building approach to other anomalous observables of interest such as the Hall conductivity.
Enhancing the Sensitivity for Triple Higgs Boson Searches with Deep Learning Techniques
Using two benchmark models containing extended scalar sectors beyond the Standard Model, we study deep learning techniques to enhance the sensitivity of resonant triple Higgs boson searches in the fully hadronic 6b channel, which suffers from the combinatorial challenge of reconstructing the Higgs bosons correctly from the multiple b-jets. More specifically, we employ the framework of Symmetry Preserving Attention Network (Spa-Net), which takes into account the permutational symmetry when a correct pairing of b-jets is achieved, to tackle both jet pairing and event classification. Significantly improved efficiency is achieved in signal and background discrimination. When comparing with the conventional Dense Neural Networks, Spa-Net results in up to 40\% more stringent limits on resonant production cross-sections. These results highlight the potential of using advanced machine learning techniques to significantly improve the sensitivity of triple Higgs boson searches in the fully hadronic channel.
Modeling Temperature, Frequency, and Strain Effects on the Linear Electro-Optic Coefficients of Ferroelectric Oxides
An electro-optic modulator offers the function of modulating the propagation of light in a material with electric field and enables seamless connection between electronics-based computing and photonics-based communication. The search for materials with large electro-optic coefficients and low optical loss is critical to increase the efficiency and minimize the size of electro-optic devices. We present a semi-empirical method to compute the electro-optic coefficients of ferroelectric materials by combining first-principles density-functional theory calculations with Landau-Devonshire phenomenological modeling. We apply the method to study the electro-optic constants, also called Pockels coefficients, of three paradigmatic ferroelectric oxides: BaTiO3, LiNbO3, and LiTaO3. We present their temperature-, frequency- and strain-dependent electro-optic tensors calculated using our method. The predicted electro-optic constants agree with the experimental results, where available, and provide benchmarks for experimental verification.
Predication of novel effects in rotational nuclei at high speed
The study of high-speed rotating matter is a crucial research topic in physics due to the emergence of novel phenomena. In this paper, we combined cranking covariant density functional theory (CDFT) with a similar renormalization group approach to decompose the Hamiltonian from the cranking CDFT into different Hermit components, including the non-relativistic term, the dynamical term, the spin-orbit coupling, and the Darwin term. Especially, we obtained the rotational term, the term relating to Zeeman effect-like, and the spin-rotation coupling due to consideration of rotation and spatial component of vector potential. By exploring these operators, we aim to identify novel phenomena that may occur in rotating nuclei. Signature splitting, Zeeman effect-like, spin-rotation coupling, and spin current are among the potential novelties that may arise in rotating nuclei. Additionally, we investigated the observability of these phenomena and their dependence on various factors such as nuclear deformation, rotational angular velocity, and strength of magnetic field.
Single-shot thermometry of simulated Bose--Einstein condensates using artificial intelligence
Precise determination of thermodynamic parameters in ultracold Bose gases remains challenging due to the destructive nature of conventional measurement techniques and inherent experimental uncertainties. We demonstrate an artificial intelligence approach for rapid, non-destructive estimation of the chemical potential and temperature from single-shot, in situ imaged density profiles of finite-temperature Bose gases. Our convolutional neural network is trained exclusively on quasi-2D `pancake' condensates in harmonic trap configurations. It achieves parameter extraction within fractions of a second. The model also demonstrates zero-shot generalisation across both trap geometry and thermalisation dynamics, successfully estimating thermodynamic parameters for toroidally trapped condensates with errors of only a few nanokelvin despite no prior exposure to such geometries during training, and maintaining predictive accuracy during dynamic thermalisation processes after a relatively brief evolution without explicit training on non-equilibrium states. These results suggest that supervised learning can overcome traditional limitations in ultracold atom thermometry, with extension to broader geometric configurations, temperature ranges, and additional parameters potentially enabling comprehensive real-time analysis of quantum gas experiments. Such capabilities could significantly streamline experimental workflows whilst improving measurement precision across a range of quantum fluid systems.
Old Quantum Mechanics by Bohr and Sommerfeld from a Modern Perspective
We review Bohr's atomic model and its extension by Sommerfeld from a mathematical perspective of wave mechanics. The derivation of quantization rules and energy levels is revisited using semiclassical methods. Sommerfeld-type integrals are evaluated by elementary techniques, and connections with the Schr\"{o}dinger and Dirac equations are established. Historical developments and key transitions from classical to quantum theory are discussed to clarify the structure and significance of the old quantum mechanics.
Exploring Quantum Spacetime with Topological Data Analysis
In a novel application of the tools of topological data analysis (TDA) to nonperturbative quantum gravity, we introduce a new class of observables that allows us to assess whether quantum spacetime really resembles a ``quantum foam" near the Planck scale. The key idea is to investigate the Betti numbers of coarse-grained path integral histories, regularized in terms of dynamical triangulations, as a function of the coarse-graining scale. In two dimensions our analysis exhibits the well-known fractal structure of Euclidean quantum gravity.
Cosmic Multipoles in Galaxy Surveys Part I: How Inferences Depend on Source Counts and Masks
We present a new approach to constructing and fitting dipoles and higher-order multipoles in synthetic galaxy samples over the sky. Within our Bayesian paradigm, we illustrate that this technique is robust to masked skies, allowing us to make credible inferences about the relative contributions of each multipole. We also show that dipoles can be recovered in surveys with small footprints, determining the requisite source counts required for concrete estimation of the dipole parameters. This work is motivated by recent probes of the cosmic dipole in galaxy catalogues. Namely, the kinematic dipole of the Cosmic Microwave Background, as arising from the motion of our heliocentric frame at approx 370 km,s^{-1}, implies that an analogous dipole should be observed in the number counts of galaxies in flux-density-limited samples. Recent studies have reported a dipole aligning with the kinematic dipole but with an anomalously large amplitude. Accordingly, our new technique will be important as forthcoming galaxy surveys are made available and for revisiting previous data.
