Talks

Starting from the Villain formulation with an additional constraint we construct a self-dual lattice version of U(1) field theory with a theta-term. An interesting feature is that the self-dual symmetry gives rise to an action that is local but not ultra-local, similar to lattice actions that implement chiral symmetry. We outline how electric and magnetic matter can be coupled in a self-dual way and discuss the emerging symmetry structure with the theta term. We present results from a Monte Carlo simulation of the self-dual system with electric and magnetic matter and explore spontaneous breaking of the self-dual symmetry.

The sign problem is arguably the greatest weakness of the otherwise highly efficient, non-perturbative Monte Carlo simulations. Recently, considerable progress has been made in alleviating the sign problem by deforming the integration contour of the path integral into the complex plane and applying machine learning to find near-optimal alternative contours. This deformation however requires a Jacobian determinant calculation which has a generic computational cost scaling as volume cubed. In this talk I am going to present a new architecture with linear runtime, based on complex-valued affine coupling layers.

States of Low Energy (SLEs) have been constructed in cosmological spacetimes as the ones that minimize the mode contribution to the regularized energy density. These have been shown to be an adequate choice of vacuum state for primordial perturbations in models that include a period of kinetic domination prior to inflation. This is precisely the case in Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC). In this talk we will review the construction and properties of SLEs for a general FLRW model and explore their application to LQC.

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/98112698584?pwd=NkFhMWVNM3gvc1lYQ3cvVDFGL0laUT09

The "infrared problem" is the generic emission of an infinite number of low-frequency quanta in any scattering process with massless fields. The "out" state contains an infinite number of such quanta which implies that it does not lie in the standard Fock representation. Consequently, the standard S-matrix is undefined as a map between "in" and "out" states in the standard Fock space. This fact is due to the existence of a low-frequency tail of the radiation field i.e. the memory effect. In massive QED, the Faddeev-Kulish representations have been argued to yield an I.R. finite S-matrix. We clarify the "preferred " status of such representations as eigenstates of the conserved "large gauge charge'' at spatial infinity. We prove a "No-Go" theorem for the existence of a suitable Hilbert space analogously constructed in massless QED, QCD, linearized quantum gravity with massive/massless sources, and in full quantum gravity. We then suggest an "infrared-finite" formulation of scattering theory in terms of correlation functions without any a priori choice of "in/out" Hilbert spaces.

 

Quantum complexity is emerging as a key property of many-body systems, including black holes, topological materials, and early quantum computers. A state's complexity quantifies the number of computational gates required to prepare the state from a simple tensor product. The greater a state's distance from maximal complexity, or ``uncomplexity,'' the more useful the state is as input to a quantum computation. Separately, resource theories -- simple models for agents subject to constraints -- are burgeoning in quantum information theory. We unite the two domains, confirming Brown and Susskind's conjecture that a resource theory of uncomplexity can be defined. The allowed operations, fuzzy operations, are slightly random implementations of two-qubit gates chosen by an agent. We formalize two operational tasks, uncomplexity extraction and expenditure. Their optimal efficiencies depend on an entropy that we engineer to reflect complexity. We also present two monotones, uncomplexity measures that decline monotonically under fuzzy operations, in certain regimes. This work unleashes on many-body complexity the resource-theory toolkit from quantum information theory.

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/96197686002?pwd=R2dPbTY3TEMxQWdESWpYeno3VDlOZz09

Based on 2203.09537. In the context of toy models of holography arising from 3d Chern-Simons theory, I will describe an approach in which, rather than summing over bulk geometries, one gauges a one-form global symmetry of the bulk theory. This ensures that the bulk theory has no global symmetries, and it makes the partition function on spacetimes with boundaries coincide with that of a modular-invariant 2d CFT on the boundary. In particular, on wormhole geometries one finds a factorized answer for the partition function.

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/91694973383?pwd=VWFCZWxtdy9GczUrN1JFc2xMVUhmdz09

Topics will include (but are not limited to): Canonical formulation of constrained systems, The Dirac program, First order formalism of gravity, Loop Quantum Gravity, Spinfoam models, Research at PI and other approaches to quantum gravity.