Scientific Series

I will start with an introduction into the framework of perturbative algebraic quantum field theory (pAQFT), which is a mathematically rigorous approach to perturbative QFT. In its original formulation, it is based on the Haag-Kastler axiomatic framework, where locality is a fundamental principle. In my talk I will discuss how it can be extended to treat also non-local observables, with potential applications to effective quantum gravity

Thus far, the non-linear regime of structure formation is only accessible through expensive numerical N-body simulations since the conventional ana-
lytic treatment of cosmic density fluctuations via the hydrodynamical equations runs into severe problems even in a mildly non-linear regime. I will give an overview of Kinetic Field Theory, a novel analytic approach to cosmic large-scale structure formation, which provides a density fluctuation power spectrum that agrees well with state of the art N-body simulations up to k = 10h Mpc−1. I will point out how Kinetic Field Theory avoids the difficulties of standard perturbation theory by construction and allows to proceed deeply into the non-linear regime of density fluctuations. I will give a summary of the most important results and recent developments for cosmic structure formation and briefly show applications of Kinetic Field Theory outside of cosmology, stressing the opportunities this method provides for the study of the physics behind structure formation. I will then focus my discussion on how the form of the interaction potential influences the formation of cosmic structures in the highly non-linear regime and the implications it bears on the NFW density profile of dark matter halos.

Scattering amplitudes of massive spin-2 particles generically grow with energy and lead to violations of perturbative unitarity. One way to partially soften such amplitudes is with the infinite towers of particles present in Kaluza-Klein theories. In this talk I will discuss in detail this mechanism of unitarization for general dimensional reductions of pure gravity and show that it leads to some interesting constraints on the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of the scalar Laplacian on closed manifolds. A consequence of these constraints is that there exists an upper bound on the gaps between Kaluza-Klein excitations of the graviton, which applies also to Calabi-Yau compactifications of string theory.   

Merging compact objects encode a vast deal of information about their progenitor stellar systems, such as the types of galactic environments they were born in, the intricacies of stellar evolution the persisted throughout their lives, and the physics of the supernovae that marked their deaths. In this talk, I will highlight multiple open questions that can be illuminated through a combination of compact objects observations (via gravitational waves and/or electromagnetic radiation) and computational modeling of environments that lead to the formation of black holes and neutron stars. I first focus on how the growing catalog of black hole mergers observed by the LIGO/Virgo network can place constraints on binary black hole formation scenarios, both by uncovering gravitational-wave sources that have features specific to a subset of formation scenarios (such as spins that are anti-aligned from the orbital angular momentum, high masses that occupy the pair instability mass gap, and distinguishable eccentricities at merger) and through pairing Bayesian hierarchical inference with state-of-the-art astrophysical models. Next, I will show how various uncertain aspects of binary stellar evolution and supernova physics can be constrained by phenomena attributed to merging neutron stars, such as enigmatic r-process enrichment in globular clusters and the association between short gamma-ray bursts and their host galaxies.

At the heart of the quantum measurement problem lies the ambiguity about exactly when to use the unitary evolution of the quantum state and when to use the state-update in dynamics of quantum mechanical systems. In the Wigner’s friend gedankenexperiment, different observers (one of whom is observed by the other) describe one and the same interaction differently. One – the friend – uses the state-update rule and the other – Wigner – chooses unitary evolution. This can lead to paradoxical situations in which Wigner and his friend assign different probabilities to the outcomes of subsequent measurements. In my talk, I will apply the Page-Wootters mechanism (PWM) as a timeless description of the Wigner's friend-like scenario. This description assigns one timeless state to the entire experimental scenario from which it is possible to derive probabilities without the need to involve the evolution of the quantum state during – and in-between – measurements. I will consider several rules for assigning two-time conditional probabilities within the PWM. All of these reduce to standard (“textbook”) rules for non-Wigner’s friend scenarios. However, when applied to the Wigner’s friend setup, they differ. Each rule potentially resolves the probability-assignment paradox in a different way. Moreover, one rule imposes that a joint probability distribution for the measurement outcomes of Wigner and his friend is well-defined only when Wigner’s measurement does not disturb the friend’s memory, in agreement with the recent “no-go theorem for observer-independent facts

(with Veronika Baumann, Flavio Del Santo, Alexander R. H. Smith, Flaminia Giacomini, and Esteban Castro-Ruiz)

In order to satisfy the Reeh-Schlieder theorem, I study the infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces using von Neumann algebras. I will first present the theorem that the entanglement wedge reconstruction and the equivalence of relative entropies between the boundary and the bulk (JLMS) are exactly identical. Then I will demonstrate the entanglement wedge reconstruction with a tensor network model of von Neumann algebra with type II1 factor, which guarantees the equivalence between the boundary and the bulk. I will further sketch that this toy model can be generalized to provide more general von Neumann algebras, including the case of a type III1 factor. This can give further insights to understanding quantum gravity from an algebraic perspective.

We will investigate a common property of the measurements used in measurement-based quantum computing paradigms. We will show how this relates to the notion of equiangular planes. We will ask when a continuous collection of such planes can give a universal model. Surprisingly, in a sense that will be made precise, octonionic lines turn out to be the unique answer. This research is motivated by the challenge to construct a measurement-based model that exploits chemical protection given by the symmetries of certain molecules.  A joint work with Michael Freedman and Zhenghan Wang.

Substantial astronomical observations have established that approximately 25% of the energy density of the universe is composed of cold non-baryonic dark matter, whose detection and characterization could be key to improving our understanding of the laws of physics. Over the past three decades, physicists have largely focused on searching for dark matter within the 10 GeV-1 TeV range (WIMPs), unfortunately without success.In this talk, we’ll discuss the experimental requirements when searching for dark matter throughout the mass range from 50meV- 500 MeV. We’ll also discuss recent R&D breakthroughs in athermal phonon sensor technology that will enable experiments that are being proposed using silicon, polar crystal and superfluid He as the detector material.

Our earlier findings indicate the violation of the 'volume simplicity' constraint in the current Spinfoam models (EPRL-FK-KKL). This result, and related problems in LQG, promted to revisit the metric/vielbein degrees of freedom in the classical Einstein-Cartan gravity. Notably, I address in detail what constitutes a 'geometry' and its 'group of motions' in such Poincare gauge theory. In a differential geometric scheme that I put forward the local translations are not broken but exact, and their relation to diffeomorphism transformations is clarified. The refined notion of a tensor takes into account the (relative) localization in spacetime, whereas the key concept of 'development' generalizes parallel transport (of vectors and points) to affine spaces. I advocate for this Cartan connection as the fundamental d.o.f. of the gravitational field, and discuss implications for discretization and quantization. Based on [1905.06931].

Subregion duality is an idea in holography which states that every subregion of the boundary theory has a corresponding subregion in the bulk theory, called the 'entanglement wedge', to which it is dual. In the classical limit of the gravity theory, we expect the fields in the entanglement wedge to permit a Hamiltonian description involving a phase space and Poisson brackets. In this talk, I will describe how this phase space arises from the point of view of the boundary theory. In particular, I will explain how it emerges from measurements of a certain quantum information-theoretic quantity known as the 'Uhlmann phase', in the boundary subregion.

In this talk I will discuss effective field theories for two classes of non-equilibrium systems, one far and one near equilibrium. The backbone of the approach is the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, which is the natural starting point for doing field theory in non-equilibrium situations. In the first part of the talk I will present an effective response for topological driven (Floquet) systems, which are inherently far from equilibrium. As an example, I will discuss a chiral Floquet drive coupled to a background $U(1)$ field, which gives rise to a theta term in the response action, and show that this is independent of smooth deformations of the underlying system. In the second part, I will discuss an ongoing project using effective field theories for hydrodynamics. I will show that chiral diffusion for interacting systems in 1+1 dimensions, which may be relevant to edge transport in quantum Hall systems, has an infrared instability. I will then discuss the fate of this instability.

Many well-known correlations between dark matter and baryons exist on galactic scales. These can essentially be encompassed by a simple scaling relation between observed and baryonic accelerations, historically known as the Mass Discrepancy Acceleration Relation (MDAR). This relation has prompted many theories that attempt to explain the correlations by invoking additional fundamental forces on baryons. Since a collisionless cold dark matter (CDM) model is desirable on scales of clusters and above, the standard lore has been that a theory which reduces to the MDAR on galaxy scales but behaves like CDM on larger scales provides an excellent fit to data. However, this statement should be revised in light of recent results showing that a fundamental force that reproduces the MDAR is often challenged at accommodating Milky Way dynamics. In this study, we test this claim on the  example of Superfluid Dark Matter. We find that a standard CDM model is strongly preferred over a static superfluid profile.  This is due to the fact that the superfluid model over-predicts vertical accelerations, even while reproducing galactic rotation curves.  Our results establish an important criterion that any dark matter model must satisfy within the Milky Way.