Search Talks

The Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model exhibits conformal invariance and a maximal Lyapunov exponent in the large-N and low temperature limit, and thus belongs to the same universality class as a two-dimensional anti-de Sitter black hole. Poles corresponding to a tower of operators that are bilinear in the microscopic Majorana fermions can be found in the four-point function of the fermions. We propose a renormalization theory for UV perturbations to the model, and derive an effective action for the soft mode of the model that results from integrating out the lowest resonance and which is dominant in the IR. We show that a two-dimensional dilaton theory with a quadratic term precisely reproduces this effective action on its boundary.

We will study the entanglement structure of states in Chern-Simons (CS) theory defined on n-copies of a torus. We will focus on states created by performing the path-integral of CS theory on special 3-manifolds, namely link complements of n-component links in S^3. The corresponding entanglement entropies provide new framing independent link-invariants. In U(1)_k CS theory, we will give a general formula for the entanglement entropy across a bi-partition of a generic n-link into sub-links. In the non-Abelian case, we study various interesting 2 & 3-links including the Whitehead link & Borromean rings, both of which have non-trivial entanglement entropies. 

In this talk, we explore the possibility of gravitational wave production due to ultra-relativistic bubble wall collisions. This occurs due to a process of post-inflationary vacuum decay that takes place via quantum tunnelling within a warped throat (of Randall-Sundrum type). We emphasise the differences between vacuum decay via quantum tunnelling, and a thermal first order phase transition, and how potential gravitational wave signals from both processes differ. We explore a specific example in the context of type IIB string theory, although we argue that our conclusions are more generally applicable to theories with hidden sectors featuring metastable vacua. Many such transitions could have occurred in the post-inflationary Universe, as a large number of throats with exponentially different IR scales can be present in the string landscape, potentially leading to several signals of widely different frequencies – a soundscape connected to the landscape of vacua. Future detectors like LISA will have the required sensitivity to detect these potential signals.

I will discuss the coupling of non-relativistic field theories to curved spacetime, and develop a framework for analyzing the possible structure of non-relativistic (Lifshitz) scale anomalies using a cohomological formulation of the Wess-Zumino consistency condition. I will compare between cases with or without Galilean boost symmetry, and between cases with or without an equal time foliation of spacetime. In 2+1 dimensions with a dynamical critical exponent of z=2, the absence of a foliation structure allows for an A-type anomaly in the Galilean case, but also introduces the possibility of an infinite set of B-type anomalies.

I will also derive Ward identities for flat space correlation functions in Lifshitz field theories, and develop a method for calculating Lifshitz anomaly coefficients from these correlation functions using split dimensional regularization.

Two-dimensional materials such as graphene sheets can serve as excellent detectors for dark matter (DM) with couplings to electrons. The ionization energy of graphene is O(eV), making it sensitive to DM as light as an MeV, and the ejected electron may be detected without rescattering in the target, preserving directional information. I will describe the first experimental proposal for directional detection of MeV-GeV scale DM, which can be implemented in the PTOLEMY relic neutrino experiment and has comparable sensitivity to proposals using semiconductor targets. I will also describe some potential avenues for using gapless systems like Weyl semimetals to detect DM down to the keV limit for warm DM.

When the wavefunction of a macroscopic system unitarily evolves from a low-entropy initial state, there is good circumstantial evidence it develops "branches", i.e., a decomposition into orthogonal components that can't be distinguished from the corresponding incoherent mixture by feasible observations, with each component a simultaneous eigenstate of preferred macroscopic observables.  Is this decomposition unique?  Can the number of branches decrease in time?

Answering these questions is hard because branches are defined only intuitively, much like early investigations of algorithms prior to the Church–Turing thesis.  A rigorous definition could give a speed up to certain non-stationary matrix-product state numerical simulations, as well as solve Kent's Set Selection problem in the consistent histories formalism, a 20-year-old open challenge in the foundations of quantum mechanics. I introduce some tentative definitions based on the idea of redundant information, and establishing a uniqueness theorems. A key counterexample is provided by the Shor error-correction code, which demonstrates that branch structure with robust, redundant records on macroscopic scales can hide incompatible (noncommuting) structure on microscopic scales.

We study the effective twisted superpotential of 3d N=2 gauge theories compactified on a circle.  This is a rich object which encodes much of the protected information in these theories.  We review its properties, and survey some applications, including the algebra of Wilson loops, computation of supersymmetric partition functions on S^1 bundles, and the reduction of 3d dualities to two dimensions.

We introduce a simple and modern discussion of rotational superradiance based on quantum field theory. We work with an effective theory valid at scales much larger than the size of the spinning object responsible for superradiance. Within this framework, the probability of absorption by an object at rest completely determines the superradiant amplification rate when that same object is spinning. We first discuss in detail superradiant scattering of spin 0 particles with orbital angular momentum l = 1, and then extend our analysis to higher values of orbital angular momentum and spin. Along the way, we provide a simple derivation of vacuum friction—a “quantum torque” acting on spinning objects in empty space. Our results apply not only to black holes but to arbitrary spinning objects. We also discuss superradiant instability due to formation of bound states and, as an illustration, we calculate the instability rate Γ for bound states with massive spin 1 particles.

Abstract: We present the foundation for a holographic dictionary with depth perception. The dictionary consists of natural operators associated with CFT bilocals whose duals are simple, diffeomorphism-invariant bulk operators.  These objects admit a description as fields in kinematic space, a phase space for such probes.  The framework of kinematic space allows for conceptually simple derivations of many results known in the literature, including linearized Einstein’s equations, the relationship between conformal blocks and geodesic Witten diagrams, and the CFT representation of bulk local operators.   Reference: https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.03110

Soft theorems for the scattering of low energy photons and gravitons and cosmological consistency conditions on the squeezed-limit correlation functions are both understood to be consequences of invariance under large gauge transformations. I apply the same method used in cosmology -- based on the identification of an infinite set of "adiabatic modes" and the corresponding conserved currents -- to derive flat space soft theorems for electrodynamics and gravity. I discuss how the recent derivations based on the asymptotic symmetry groups (BMS) can be continued to a finite size sphere surrounding the scattering event. Finally, I comment on Hawking-Perry-Strominger proposal of "soft hair on black holes".

The space of causal diamonds recently brought to attention by de Boer et al. and Czech et al. provides an organizing principle for the dependence of entanglement entropy in conformal field theories on the spatial subregion considered. I will show that the inclusion relation of causal diamonds does not give rise to a consistent notion of a causal structure and thus does not provide an alternate metric on this space. I will also show that the entanglement entropy of ball shaped regions is not enough to reconstruct the areas of higher dimensional bulk surfaces in a static geometry. Instead, I will provide a new direction for the reconstruction of the areas of bulk surfaces from boundary data in holography, using the shape derivatives of the entanglement entropy of nearly ball shaped regions.

I will discuss the properties, and constraints on, new light

particles, which appear in many extensions of the Standard Model. An

especially well motivated example is the QCD axion, and I will show how

its mass and couplings can be extracted at high precision. I will also

discuss its properties at finite temperature, and possible distinguishing

features if it makes up dark matter. More generally, strong constraints on

the couplings of new light particles to the Standard Model come from their

production in the hot cores of stars, and the effect on stellar cooling.

The large electron density in stellar cores gives large thermal effects,

and I will show how these can parametrically change the production rates

compared to a 'tree level' calculation.