Scientific Series

The cosmic microwave background is a sensitive probe of early-Universe physics, and yet fundamental constants at recombination can differ from their present-day values due to degeneracies in the standard cosmological model. Such scenarios have been invoked to reconcile discrepant measurements of the present-day expansion rate, but even absent such motivation they raise the intriguing possibility of yet-undiscovered physics coupled directly to Standard Model particles. I will discuss theories in which a new scalar field shifts the electron's mass at early times; viable models are already stringently constrained by measurements of quasar absorption lines, the abundances of light elements, and the universality of free fall. I will show that the remaining parameter space is exactly that which allows not only the primary cosmic microwave background but also low-redshift distances to be consistent with observations. After presenting the results of parameter inference I will discuss additional cosmological and laboratory signatures of the model.

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Zoom link https://pitp.zoom.us/j/99705853481?pwd=MTZRWC9hREkvOXpiZkxCM3UvdnRNQT09

Driven by rapid advancements in quantum simulation capabilities across diverse physical platforms, open quantum systems are now of great interest, with special focus on thermalization processes of interacting many-body systems. Various techniques have been used to study operator spreading, to characterize entanglement dynamics, and even to identify exotic phases enabled by dynamical symmetries.

This talk will present a novel perspective on dynamical quantum systems that is capable of reproducing many previous results under a single intuitive framework and enables new results in symmetry-constrained systems. This is accomplished via a mapping between the dynamics averaged over Brownian random time evolution and the low-energy spectrum of a Lindblad superoperator, which acts as an effective Hamiltonian in a doubled Hilbert space. Doing so, we identify emergent hydrodynamics governing charge transport in open quantum systems with various symmetries, constraints, and ranges of interactions. By explicitly constructing dispersive excited states of this effective Hamiltonian using a single mode approximation, we provide a comprehensive understanding of diffusive, subdiffusive, and superdiffusive relaxation in many-body systems with conserved multipole moments and variable interaction ranges. Our approach further allows us to identify exotic Krylov-space-resolved diffusive relaxation despite the presence of dipole conservation, which we verify numerically. Therefore, we provide a simple, general, and versatile framework to qualitatively understand the dynamics of conserved operators under random unitary time evolution, and by extension, thermalizing quantum systems.

O. Ogunnaike, J. Feldmeier, J.Y. Lee, "Unifying Emergent Hydrodynamics and Lindbladian Low-Energy Spectra across Symmetries, Constraints, and Long-Range Interactions," arXiv:2304.13028 (accepted to PRL)

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Squeezing has proven to be a powerful tool for suppressing noise in bosonic quantum sensing and communication. However, it is fragile and the resulting quantum advantage is extremely vulnerable to loss and noise. In this seminar, I will first overview the method of formulating loss and noise and thereby characterizing the practical quantum advantages. Then I will present our recent progress on entanglement-assisted protocols using two-mode squeezed-vacuum states, which are robust to loss and noise. I will demonstrate the quantum advantages in three scenarios: dark matter search, absorption spectroscopy, and telecommunication. Notably, we derived the ultimate precision limit of noise sensing and dark matter search. As a result, we found the two-mode squeezed vacuum is the optimal quantum source for dark matter search at the limit of strong squeezing. This optimality extends to entanglement-assisted communication. In each of the presented scenarios, entanglement-assisted protocols yield quantum advantages of orders of magnitude over classical protocols.

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Zoom link https://pitp.zoom.us/j/94873478582?pwd=c1dxNEVtMGx0ZU4vZjRvTU5OakZoUT09

Abstract TBA

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Zoom link https://pitp.zoom.us/j/92901106970?pwd=SEdZajRQYWlrQzJhRnM0WnRpeHVNdz09

Network nonlocality, and more specifically, triangle network nonlocality, is a basic feature of modern causal modelling when going beyond Bell scenarios. However, despite the apparent simplicity of the problems one may formulate, relatively little is known due to the hardness of certifying nonlocality in networks. In this talk, I will describe a motivating example of a quantum triangle distribution, the Elegant Joint Measurement due to Nicolas Gisin, that is strongly believed to be nonlocal even in the presence of experimental noise. I will then present the ongoing effort to produce a computer-assisted proof of nonlocality for this distribution, thereby developing a toolkit to tackle general nonlocality problems. This effort is based on the inflation technique for causal inference, but taken to higher levels than what was generally considered tractable. This is made possible by a number of optimization techniques, involving symmetry reductions, branch-and-bound optimization, and most importantly, the use of a Frank-Wolfe algorithm to bypass the need to call a standard linear program solver.

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Zoom link https://pitp.zoom.us/j/97499052021?pwd=R1EyU2pmc1hFSzJ1UEpJQ1h0RnQzdz09

W-algebras are a family of vertex algebras obtained as Hamiltonian reductions of affine vertex algebras parametrized by nilpotent orbits. The W-algebras associated with regular nilpotent orbits enjoy the Feigin-Frenkel duality. More recently, Gaiotto and Rap\v{c}\'ak generalize this result to hook-type W-algebras with the triality for vertex algebras at the corner. In this talk, I will present the correspondence of representation categories for the hook-type W-superalgebras and how to gain general W-algebras in type A from hook-type W-algebras. The talk is based on joint works with my collaborators.

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Zoom link https://pitp.zoom.us/j/92163414611?pwd=a1A5NHUrbEpxUUVuS3pEd1VYQk5kdz09

Atmospheric characterisation of habitable-zone exoplanets is a major frontier of exoplanet science. The detection of atmospheric signatures of habitable Earth-like exoplanets is challenging due to their small planet-star size contrast and thin atmospheres with high mean molecular weight. Recently, a new class of habitable sub-Neptune exoplanets, called Hycean worlds, have been proposed, which are expected to be temperate ocean-covered worlds with H2-rich atmospheres. Their large sizes and extended atmospheres, compared to rocky planets of the same mass, make Hycean worlds significantly more accessible to atmospheric spectroscopy. Several temperate Sub-Neptunes have been identified in recent studies as candidate Hycean worlds orbiting nearby M dwarfs that make them highly conducive for transmission spectroscopy with JWST. Recently, we reported the first JWST spectrum of a possible Hycean world, K2-18 b, with detections of multiple carbon-bearing molecules in its atmosphere. In this talk, we will present constraints on the atmospheric composition of K2-18 b and on the temperature structure, clouds/hazes, atmospheric extent, chemical disequilibrium and the possibility of a habitable ocean underneath the atmosphere. We will discuss new observational and theoretical developments in the characterisation of candidate Hycean worlds, and their potential for habitability. Our findings demonstrate the unprecedented potential of JWST for characterising Hycean worlds, and temperate sub-Neptunes in general, and open a new era of atmospheric characterisation of habitable-zone exoplanets with JWST.

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Zoom link https://pitp.zoom.us/j/98012554989?pwd=b0pCYkIvYmd2Y2hueUExQXBNVG8vZz09

Abstract TBA

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Zoom link https://pitp.zoom.us/j/97897878725?pwd=dHZNUEc5cVlkU2ZNdU14bEhIRmFPZz09

Inflation remains one of the enigmas in fundamental physics. While it is difficult to distinguish different inflation models, information contained in primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) offers a route to break the degeneracy. In galaxy surveys, the local type PNG is usually probed by measuring the scale-dependent bias in the galaxy power spectrum on large scales, where cosmic variance and systematics are also large. Other types of PNG need bispectrum, which is computationally challenging and is contaminated by gravity. I will introduce a new approach to measuring PNG by using the reconstructed density field, a density field reversed to the initial conditions from late time. With the reconstructed density field, we can fit a new template at the field level, or compute a near optimal bispectrum estimator, to constrain PNG. By reconstructing the initial conditions, we remove the nonlinearity induced by gravity, which is a source of confusion when measuring PNG. Near optimal bispectrum estimator mitigates computational challenges. This new approach shows strong constraining power, offers an alternative way to the existing method with different systematics, and also follows organically the procedure of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) analysis in large galaxy surveys. I will present a reconstruction method using convolutional neural networks that significantly improves the performance of traditional reconstruction algorithms in the matter density field, which is crucial for more effectively probing PNG. This pipeline can enable new observational constraints on PNG from the ongoing Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and Euclid surveys, as well as from upcoming surveys, such as that of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

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Zoom link https://pitp.zoom.us/j/92361466496?pwd=ZlljUGlKaTVlSFZIV21NUHNGY2RRUT09

In quantum metrology, one of the major applications of quantum technologies, the ultimate precision of estimating an unknown parameter is often stated in terms of the Cramér-Rao bound. Yet, the latter is no longer guaranteed to carry an operational meaning in the regime where few measurement samples are obtained. We instead propose to quantify the quality of a metrology protocol by the probability of obtaining an estimate with a given accuracy. This approach, which we refer to as probably approximately correct (PAC) metrology, ensures operational significance in the finite-sample regime. The accuracy guarantees hold for any value of the unknown parameter, unlike the Cramér-Rao bound which assumes it is approximately known. We establish a strong connection to multi-hypothesis testing with quantum states, which allows us to derive an analogue of the Cramér-Rao bound which contains explicit corrections relevant to the finite-sample regime. We further study the asymptotic behavior of the success probability of the estimation procedure for many copies of the state and apply our framework to the example task of phase estimation with an ensemble of spin-1/2 particles. Overall, our operational approach allows the study of quantum metrology in the finite-sample regime and opens up a plethora of new avenues for research at the interface of quantum information theory and quantum metrology. TL;DR: In this talk, I will motivate why the Cramér-Rao bound might not always be the tool of choice to quantify the ultimate precision attainable in a quantum metrology task and give a (hopefully) intuitive introduction of how we propose to instead quantify it in a way that is valid in the single- and few-shot settings. We will together unearth a strong connection to quantum multi-hypothesis testing and conclude that there are many exiting and fundamental open questions in single-shot metrology!

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Zoom link https://pitp.zoom.us/j/92247273192?pwd=ZkprOFZ0eEdQYjJDY1hneFNLckFDZz09

In the last years, asymptotic symmetries have regained a lot of interest, and various extensions of the well known BMS group have been considered in the literature. Many charges associated to the diffeomorphisms of the sphere (superboosts and superrotations) have been proposed, but it has not been clear if these charges can be derived from a symplectic potential that is covariant and stationary, i.e satisfying the Wald-Zoupas usual requirements. In this talk I will consider a new asymptotic symmetry group, which is a one dimensional extension of the generalized-BMS group, and construct a stationary symplectic potential, covariant with respect to these symmetries, by adding corner terms to the usual Einstein-Hilbert symplectic potential. Then, we will recover the charges introduced by Compère, Fiorucci and Ruzziconi for superboosts and superrotations. In order to ensure covariance, we will need to introduce an edge mode which has already appeared in the literature, the supertranslation field. I will also explain that its introduction as a corner term can lead us to construct a local (asymptotic) notion of energy for the gravitational waves, providing a physical interpretation of the new charges.

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Zoom link https://pitp.zoom.us/j/97926664729?pwd=VzV2VmQ4eVlzcFdaZkNBNnpqRkMvUT09