Talks

Direct detection experiments search for dark matter through its potential interactions with the SM particles. However, light dark matter models with particle masses below the GeV scale are still largely unconstrained. As we will see in this talk, sensitivity to such small momentum transfer can benefit from quantum sensors, which employ fundamental quantum mechanical phenomena to notice energy depositions otherwise unreachable. Quantum sensors can considerably extend the range in dark matter mass of traditional WIMP experiments and be complementary to other direct detection methods. In the first part of the talk, I will examine a proposal to use atom interferometers to detect a light dark matter subcomponent at sub-GeV masses. DM scattering off of one “arm” of the atom interferometer can cause trackable decoherence and phase shifts. Two key factors render atom interferometers highly competitive experiments for very low masses: they are sensitive to extremely low momentum deposition and their coherent atoms give them a boost in sensitivity. On the second part of the talk, I will present a new proposal to search for axions with optomechanical cavities.  As we will see, the Bose-enhancement of a final state coherent population of photons or phonons can help overcoming the strong suppression from the axion to photon coupling. A unique advantage of this novel search, axioptomechanics, is that the cavity size need no longer be matched to the axion mass, which allows to probe a wide window of axion masses.

Zoom Link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/92645586400?pwd=bm1VUEVqUzNOOXV2VnhEUkJtdWZrZz09

The tension between measurements of the Hubble constant obtained at different redshifts may provide a hint of new physics active in the relatively early universe, around the epoch of matter- radiation equality. A leading paradigm to resolve the tension is a period of early dark energy, in which a scalar field contributes a subdominant part of the energy budget of the universe at this time. This scenario faces significant fine-tuning problems which can be ameliorated by a non- trivial coupling of the scalar to the standard model neutrinos. These become non-relativistic close to the time of matter-radiation equality, resulting in an energy injection into the scalar that kick- starts the early dark energy phase, explaining its coincidence with this seemingly unrelated epoch. We present a minimal version of this neutrino-assisted early dark energy model, and perform a detailed analysis of its predictions and theoretical constraints. We consider both particle physics constraints — that the model constitute a well-behaved effective field theory for which the quantum corrections are under control, so that the relevant predictions are within its regime of validity — and the constraints provided by requiring a consistent cosmological evolution from early through to late times. Our work paves the way for testing this scenario using cosmological data sets. 

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/95613703701?pwd=amlmNUdXdXFuQitFVk8xTnNwcDlMUT09

A large class of Λ < 0 cosmologies have big-bang / big crunch spacetimes with time-symmetric backgrounds and asymptotically AdS Euclidean continuations suggesting a possible holographic realization. We argue that these models generically have time-dependent scalar fields, and these can lead to realistic cosmologies at the level of the homogeneous background geometry, with an accelerating phase prior to the turnaround and crunch. We first demonstrate via explicit effective field theory examples that models with an asymptotically AdS Euclidean continuation can also exhibit a period of accelerated expansion without fine tuning. We then show that certain significantly more tuned examples can give predictions arbitrarily close to a ΛCDM model. Finally, we demonstrate via an explicit construction that the potentials of interest can arise from a superpotential, thus suggesting that these solutions may be compatible with an underlying supersymmetric theory.

This talk is based on 2212.00050.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/93499736007?pwd=Qmw5cmZERUN3UmtwTzdKcEdXejJ5UT09

Periodic driving is a ubiquitous tool for controlling experimental quantum systems. When the drive fields are of comparable, incommensurate frequencies, new theoretical tools are required to treat the resulting quasiperiodic time dependence. Similarly, new and surprising phenomena of topological origin may emerge in this regime, including the quantized pumping of energy from one drive field to another. I will describe how to exploit this energy pumping to coherently translate––or boost––quantum states of a cavity in the Fock basis. This protocol enables the preparation of highly excited Fock states for use in quantum metrology––one need only boost low occupation Fock states. Energy pumping, and hence boosting, may be achieved nonadiabatically as a robust edge effect associated to a topological phase. I will present a simple coupled-layer model for the phase, and briefly describe the topological classification which characterizes its robust properties.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/94040881668?pwd=THh1WlIxZmZnYlp6QVRKRDhMWnk1UT09

Amalia Madden, Perimeter Institute & University of Waterloo

New searches for the QCD axion with piezoelectric materials

The QCD axion is one of the best motivated extensions to the Standard Model, providing a solution to the strong CP problem as well as being an excellent dark matter candidate. In this talk I will describe two new observables, the “piezoaxionic” and “ferroaxionic” effects, that could be used to search for the QCD axion over many orders of magnitude of unexplored parameter space. Both of these observables rely on the interaction between the QCD axion and a class of materials known as piezoelectrics. I will then discuss our current progress in designing new experiments that could measure these observables. This talk will be based on 2112.11466 and unpublished work.

Typicality, the feature that almost any microstate living in the microcanonical subspace cannot be locally distinguished from a thermal ensemble, lies at the fundamental part of statistical physics. However, one may wonder if there exists a sufficient amount of orthogonal atypical states to account for the whole entropy. 
In this talk, we show that, in some physical systems, there exists a sufficient amount of certain orthogonal atypical states to account for the leading order of the entropy in the following two scenarios, by finding proper upper bounds of the entanglement of formation (EoF) for each case and applying other techniques from quantum information theory. 
In the first scenario, the physical system under consideration is AdS black holes at the semiclassical limit G_N —> 0. In this case, microcanonical subspace is the subspace formed by the black hole microstates, and typical states are usually considered to have a smooth horizon as well as the black hole interior. We consider a class of atypical states called disentangled states which have large entanglement deficits compared to typical states such that they cannot have smooth horizons. In this scenario, we use a geometric quantity called entanglement wedge cross section to give upper bounds to EoF. 
In the second scenario, we consider generic quantum many-body systems with short-ranged interactions at the standard thermodynamic limit V —> ∞. In this case, it is known that typical microstates have volume law entanglement. We consider area-law entangled microstates as atypical states. We use reflected entropy to give upper bounds to EoF. 
We will also discuss the relations of our results with the additivity conjectures and atypical black hole microstate counting. 
This talk is based on 2211.11787. 

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/94823687961?pwd=V3QrSjUrTklheG1iU0RsckwzQmRTUT09

The Fukaya category of a symplectic manifold is an excellent toy model for exploring the general structure of boundary conditions in two-dimensional topological field theories. In this talk I will explain an analogue for three dimensional theories. The natural playground for boundary conditions in d=3 is the 3d A-model into a hyperKahler target space. Here the fundamental BPS equation is the Fueter equation. I will explain how studying certain boundary value problems for the Fueter equation, one is lead to something resembling a higher categorical structure. I will then argue how a similar structure also seems to appear after performing a massive deformation by a hyperKahler moment map. 

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/96574302292?pwd=dkpIVXN0UmFiRkdkenFzc2o2Nko0dz09

One central property of the S-matrix is its invariance under field redefinitions. I will discuss how the geometry of field space makes this invariance manifest. This geometric formulation also has practical consequences. Scattering amplitudes and the renormalization group equations for a theory of scalars and gauge bosons only depend on geometric quantities. Also, the scattering amplitudes satisfy a geometric soft theorem.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/98973018515?pwd=MFJFSGM4RS9KRHFOREFBc1gvWXYwQT09