High Energy Physics

The inference of the present expansion rate from the Cosmic Microwave Background and other early-time probes (assuming standard
cosmology) is in significant tension with several direct measurements of the same quantity. If this discrepancy is not due to unresolved systematics, it could provide strong evidence for physics beyond the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. I will describe a few simple models that attempt to alleviate this Hubble tension. All of these scenarios contain additional energy density of new light particles at early times with interactions that modify the background cosmology and evolution of density perturbations in the early universe. First, I will motivate the existence of a decaying component of dark matter with a significant free-streaming length as a means of addressing this tension. Then I will consider models with self-interacting neutrino or dark radiation components. I will show that such scenarios face stringent cosmological and laboratory constraints. As a result, in these examples, the tension can be alleviated but not eliminated altogether.

We investigate putting 2+1 free and holographic theories on a product of time with a curved compact 2-d space. We then vary the geometry of the space, keeping the area fixed, at zero/finite temperature, and measure the Casimir/free energy respectively. I will begin by discussing the free theory for a Dirac fermion or scalar field on deformations of the round 2-sphere. I will discuss how the Dirac theory may arise in physical systems such as monolayer graphene. For small deformations we solve analytically using perturbation theory. For large deformations we use novel numerical methods to compute these energies for specific deformations, including ones that drive the space to become singular. I will give evidence that the round sphere globally maximises the Casimir/free energy, which may imply geometric instabilities for spheres of such mono layer materials, although probably not graphene. We then discuss the analog for a holographic theory by studying its gravity dual. Here we use gravity techniques to analytically prove at zero temperature the round sphere maximises the Casimir energy. We discuss attempts to show the same for free energy at finite temperature. And finally I will report on on-going numerical gravity calculations of the Casimir energy for specific  deformations of the round sphere which yield an unexpected result.

I will give an overview of holographic cosmology and discuss recent results and work in progress.

In holographic cosmology time evolution is mapped to inverse RG flow of the dual QFT. As such this framework naturally explains the arrow of time via the

monotonicity of RG flows. Properties of the RG flow are also responsible for the holographic resolution of the classic puzzles of hot big bang cosmology, such as the horizon problem, the flatness problem and the relic problem.

The holographic framework includes qualitatively new models describing a non-geometric  very early Universe, and such models provide an excellent fit to CMB data.  In the last part of the talk I will present on-going work with lattice gauge theorists aiming to compute on the lattice the QFT observables(the 2-point function of stress energy tensor) needed to compute holographically the cosmological  power spectrum in the regime where the dual QFT is non-perturbative.

Hawking famously observed that the formation and evaporation of black holes appears to violate the unitary evolution of quantum mechanics. Nonetheless, it has been recently discovered that a signature of unitarity, namely the "Page curve" describing the evolution of entropy, can be recovered from semiclassical gravity. This result relies on "replica wormholes" appearing in the gravitational path integral, which are examples of spacetime wormholes studied more than 30 years ago and related to interactions with closed "baby" universes. I will discuss the connection between these new and old ideas and the consequences for the black hole information problem. A central lesson is that a Hilbert space in quantum gravity can be dramatically modified by nonperturbative topology-changing processes.

We compute the partition function of 2D Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity at finite cutoff in two ways: (i) via an exact evaluation of the Wheeler-DeWitt wave-functional in radial quantization and (ii) through a direct computation of the Euclidean path integral. Both methods deal with Dirichlet boundary conditions for the metric and the dilaton. In the first approach, the radial wavefunctionals are found by reducing the constraint equations to two first order functional derivative equations that can be solved exactly, including factor ordering. In the second approach we perform the path integral exactly when summing over surfaces with disk topology, to all orders in perturbation theory in the cutoff. Both results precisely match the recently derived partition function in the Schwarzian theory deformed by an operator analogous to the TT¯ deformation in 2D CFTs. This equality can be seen as concrete evidence for the proposed holographic interpretation of the TT¯ deformation as the movement of the AdS boundary to a finite radial distance in the bulk.

Light dark photons are subject to various plasma effects, such as Debye screening and resonant oscillations, which can lead to a more complex cosmological evolution than is experienced by conventional cold dark matter candidates. Maintaining a consistent history of dark photon dark matter requires ensuring that the super-thermal abundance present in the early Universe (i) does not deviate significantly after the formation of the CMB, and (ii) does not excessively leak into the Standard Model plasma after BBN. In this talk, I will clarify the roles of resonant and non-resonant absorption and address some implications of plasma inhomogeneities on resonant transitions.

The information paradox can be realized in two-dimensional models of gravity. In this setting, we show that the large discrepancy between the von Neumann entropy as calculated by Hawking and the requirement of unitarity is fixed by including new saddles in the gravitational path integral. These saddles arise in the replica method as wormholes connecting different copies of the black hole. We will discuss their appearance both in asymptotically AdS and asymptotically flat theories of gravity.

In this talk I will discuss ongoing efforts at UChicago to explore matter made of light. I will begin with a broad introduction to the challenges associated with making matter from photons, focusing specifically on (1) how to trap photons and imbue them with synthetic mass and charge; (2) how to induce photons to collide with one another; and (3) how to drive photons to order, by cooling or otherwise. I will then provide as examples two state-of-the-art photonic quantum matter platforms: microwave photons coupled to superconducting resonators and transmon qubits, and optical photons trapped in multimode optical cavities and made to interact through Rydberg-dressing. In each case I will describe a synthetic material created in that platform: a Mott insulator of microwave photons, stabilized by coupling to an engineered, non-Markovian reservoir, and a Laughlin molecule of optical photons prepared by scattering photons through the optical cavity. Indeed, building materials photon-by-photon will provide us with a unique opportunity to learn what all of the above words mean, and why they are important for quantum-materials science. Finally, I will conclude with my view of the broad prospects of photonic matter in particular, and of synthetic matter more generally.