Talks

I will review the analysis of boundary symmetries in first order 3d gravity, and explain how the study of the boundary current algebra and the Sugawara construction actually leads to two dual notions of diffeomorphism charges. This provides a new understanding of the relationship between the second order and first order formulations, and of the existence of finite distance asymptotic symmetries (as strange as this sounds) in topological theories. This analysis is performed on the most general theory of first order 3d gravity, which also enables to understand the duality between curvature and torsion, as well as the relationship with chiral and massive gravity.

We construct, for the first time, the time-domain gravitational-wave strain waveform from the collapse of a strongly gravitating Abelian Higgs cosmic string loop in full general relativity. We show that the strain exhibits a large memory effect during merger, ending with a burst and characteristic ringdown as a black hole is formed. Furthermore, we investigate the waveform and energy emitted as a function of width, radius and string tension Gμ. We find that the mass normalized gravitational-wave energy displays a strong dependence on the inverse of the string tension E_GW / M_0 ∝ 1/Gμ, with E_GW / M_0 ∼ O(1)% at the percent level, for the regime where Gμ ~ 1e-3 . Conversely, we show that the efficiency is only weakly dependent on the initial string width and initial string radii. Using these results, we argue that gravitational wave production is dominated by kinematical instead of geometrical considerations.

Many of previous approaches for the firewall puzzle rely on a hypothesis that interior partner modes are embedded on the early radiation of a maximally entangled black hole. Quantum information theory, however, casts doubt on this folklore and suggests a different tale; the outgoing Hawking mode will be decoupled from the early radiation once an infalling observer, with finite positive energy, jumps into a black hole. In this talk, I will provide counterarguments against current mainstream proposals and present an alternative resolution of the firewall puzzle which is consistent with predictions from quantum information theory. My proposal builds on the fact that interior operators can be constructed in a state-independent manner once an infalling observer is explicitly included as a part of the quantum system. Hence, my approach resolves a version of the firewall puzzle for typical black hole microstates as well on an equal footing.
 

The primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) is a key feature to screen various inflationary models and it is one of the main targets in the next generation galaxy surveys. In particular, the local-type of PNG makes the galaxy bias scale-dependent in large-scales, which is known as the scale-dependent bias, allowing to constrain the local-type PNG from galaxy surveys. In this talk, I will present the galaxy shape correlation, called the ``intrinsic alignment'', can explore the angular-dependent PNG. Using N-body simulations, we show the angular-dependent PNG induces the scale-dependent bias in the intrinsic alignment, just as the angular-independent PNG leads to the scale-dependent bias in the galaxy number density correlation. By combining photometric and spectroscopic surveys to measure the intrinsic alignment, future galaxy surveys are potentially capable of constraining the angular-dependent PNG better than CMB experiments.

How to deal with diffeomorphism symmetries is one of the difficult problems in general relativity. Because of the diffeomorphism symmetries, we need to consider diffeomorphism invariant operators and gravitational dressing. In this work, we consider a special gravitational dressing which is to locate the operator by shooting geodesic from the spatial boundary. We try to use Peierls bracket to study the commutator between this gravitational dressing operator and the ADM energy operator. We found the ADM energy increase/decrease when the extra created out-going particle is in front of/behind the event horizon. Our result strengthens the Marolf-Polchinski firewall argument in some sense. In the talk, I will first briefly review the Peierls bracket, which is a linear response interpretation of bracket computation in covariant phase space formalism. We also illustrate the Peierls bracket with several examples. After that, we use Peierls bracket to study the Hamiltonian flow of the gravitational dressing operator, from which we can read out the commutator between the gravitational dressing operator with the ADM energy operator.

The entanglement pattern of a quantum many-body system can be characterized by quasiparticles and emergent gauge fields, much like those found in Maxwell's theory. My talk begins with the basic aspects of symmetry fractionalization and emergent gauge fields in strongly correlated systems. I will further extend this paradigm into a new type of quantum many-body state, dubbed "fracton phase," from a quantum melting transition of plaquette paramagnetic crystals. These exotic states contain fractionalized sub-dimensional quasiparticles with constraint motion and emergent higher-rank gauge fields. Such constraint dynamics of the quasiparticles bring about an intriguing Bose metal phase with quasi-long range order and yields non-local quantum entanglement. In particular, the key peculiarities of this phase is the UV/IR mixing, where the short wavelength physics controls the low energy theory and hence challenges the standard notion of the renormalization group perspective.

If time is described by a fundamental process rather than a coordinate, it

interacts with any physical system that evolves in time. The resulting
dynamics has recently been shown to be consistent provided the fundamental
period of the time system is sufficiently small. A strong upper bound T_C
< 10^{-33}s of the fundamental period of time, several orders of magnitude
below any direct time measurement, can be obtained from bounds on
dynamical variations of the period of a lab system evolving in time.
Possible cosmological implications will be discussed.

Two of the dominant channels to produce black-hole binary mergers are believed to be the isolated evolution of stellar binaries in the field and dynamical formation in star clusters. Pair instabilities prevent stellar collapse from generating black holes more massive than about 45-60 solar mass. This  “mass gap” only applies to the field formation scenario: repeated mergers in clusters can fill the gap. A similar reasoning applies to the binary’s spin parameters. If black holes are born slowly rotating, the high-spin portion of the parameter space (the “spin gap”) can only be filled by black-hole binaries that are assembled dynamically. I will discuss how such signatures are a smoking gun for the hierarchical origin, and how recent detections (GW190521 and GW190412) fit in this context. I will also talk about how we may be able to reconstruct the properties of progenitors of second-generation black holes.

Walgate and Scott have determined the maximum number of generic pure quantum states in multipartite space that can be unambiguously discriminated by an LOCC measurement [Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 41:375305, 08 2008]. In this work, we determine this number in a more general setting in which the local parties have access to pre-shared entanglement in the form of a resource state. We find that, for an arbitrary pure resource state, this number is equal to the Krull dimension of (the closure of) the set of pure states obtainable from the resource state by SLOCC. This dimension is known for several resource states, for example the GHZ state.

Local state discrimination is closely related to the topic of entangled subspaces, which we study in its own right. We introduce r-entangled subspaces, which naturally generalize previously studied spaces to higher multipartite entanglement. We use algebraic geometric methods to determine the maximum dimension of an r-entangled subspace, and present novel explicit constructions of such spaces. We obtain similar results for symmetric and antisymmetric r-entangled subspaces, which correspond to entangled subspaces of bosonic and fermionic systems, respectively.

A planar map is a canonical model for a discrete surface which is studied in probability theory, combinatorics, theoretical physics, and geometry. Liouville quantum gravity provides a natural model for a continuum random surface with roots in string theory and conformal field theory. After introducing these objects, I will present a joint work with Xin Sun where we prove convergence of random planar maps to a Liouville quantum gravity surface under a discrete conformal embedding which we call the Cardy embedding.

In this talk I will discuss the universal properties of thermal transport in conformal field theories that are perturbed by a TTbar operator. TTbar-deformation is known to be an exactly solvable deformation in that the spectrum of the undeformed theory alone suffices to predict that of the deformed theory. Unique properties of TTbar deformation allow us to study the TTbar-deformed CFTs using two disparate methods: integrability and holography. I will apply these two approaches to study the non-equilibrium steady states and Drude weights, finding perfect agreement. I will also explain how the integrability-based approach yields the exact momentum diffusion constant, which, to our surprise, also happens to satisfy a universal formula. Finally I will briefly touch upon a curious connection between TTbar-deformed CFTs and an integrable cellular automaton model called the Rule 54 chain.

The discovery of astrophysical gravitational waves has opened a new avenue to explore the cosmos using transients. I will discuss a few new frontiers in the field of physical cosmology and fundamental physics that can be explored using gravitational waves from the current generation gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO/Virgo, and in the future from gravitational wave detectors such as LISA, Einstein Telescope, and Cosmic Explorer. I will elucidate the existence of synergies between electromagnetic probes and gravitational wave probes and their importance in understanding the standard model of cosmology and unveiling new physics.