Scientific Series

In recent years the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) has emerged as a well defined and systematically improvable theory to study the constraints on physics beyond the Standard Model. This formalism explains old mysteries in interpreting LEP data and offers a field theory framework to combine such data with LHC measurements of the properties of the Higgs. We discuss the current status of these combined studies. The lack of evidence for new physics resonances at LHC has also encouraged new approaches to explaining the observed value of the electroweak scale, in the presence of physics beyond the Standard Model. One such approach is the Neutrino Option, that generates the electroweak scale from an underlying Majorana scale, when Neutrino masses come about due to a seesaw mechanism. We discuss how this approach is embedded into the SMEFT.

As a proxy for a Quantum Gravity theory, String Theory introduces new degrees of freedom and symmetries that should play a major role in the physics of the early universe. We motivate the introduction of these ingredients as we review some of the issues of the inflationary paradigm. Among these new ingredients, T-duality may help us to solve the Big Bang singularity and yield a different cosmological scenario. Thus, we review how this has been thought in the context of Double Field Theory, which aims to build a covariant field theory under T-duality's group, and consider its cosmological applications. 

I will discuss recent developments in the theory of relativistic turbulence, from both pure physics and astronomical perspectives. Turbulence in relativistic fluids and plasmas has applicability in high energy density physics, in early-universe cosmology, and in high energy astrophysics. I will focus on its connections with multi-messenger astrophysics, particularly in the context of binary neutron star (BNS) mergers, and the electromagnetic signals that accompany their gravitational wave emission. My talk will include (1) an overview of methods used to simulate and characterize relativistic turbulence, (2) implications of dynamo theory to the dynamics of BNS mergers, (3) new ideas emerging in the theory of "radiation-mediated" relativistic turbulence, and (4) efforts in modeling the prompt and afterglow emission from GW-170817.

Recent years have shown that error correction is one of the most fundamental ingredients of various physical phenomena, from topological order to holography. However, only toy models and fixed point ground states could have been studied, even though the error-correcting properties are expected to hold generally in the low energy subspace.

In this talk, we will employ Matrix Product State formalism and see how low energy eigenstates of 1D translationally invariant Hamiltonians can form quantum error-correcting codes. Before diving into the results, we will review the necessary basics of quantum error correction and matrix product states.

Joint work with Martina Gschwendtner, Robert Koenig and Eugene Tang.

I give an overview of trapped ion quantum information experiments and discuss prospects for implementing multi-valued quantum logic using trapped ions. Qudits (the multi-state generalization of qubits) are attractive for quantum computing because they enable a much larger Hilbert space for the same number of trapped ions, which may allow us to improve the information capacity of a quantum processor. I describe possible advantages and disadvantages of using qudits in place of qubits, and lay out some of the protocols that my lab will test for implementing measurements, single-qudit operations, and two-qudit operations in a trapped ion system.

Supersymmetry (SUSY) has not been verified so far as a fundamental symmetry in particle physics. Emergent phenomena in condensed matter physics bring the possibility of realizing SUSY as an IR symmetry. We show that 2+1D N=2 Nf=2 supersymmetric quantum electrodynamics (SQED3) with dynamical gauge bosons and fermionic gauginos emerges naturally at the tricritical point of nematic pair-density-wave (PDW) quantum phase transition on the surface of a correlated topological insulator hosting three Dirac cones, such as the topological Kondo insulator SmB6. It provides a first example of emergent supersymmetric gauge theory in condensed matter systems. We also investigate the possibility of emergent 3+1D SUSY theory in lattice models. By constructing an explicit fermionic lattice model featuring two 3D Weyl nodes, we find a continuous PDW quantum phase transition as a function of attractive Hubbard interaction. We further show that N=1 3+1D SUSY emerges at the PDW transition, which we believe is the first realization of emergent 3+1D space-time SUSY in microscopic lattice models. Supersymmetry allows us to determine certain critical exponents and the optical conductivity at the strongly coupled fixed point exactly, which may be measured in future experiments.

In this talk I will discuss generalising the mapping from quantum error correcting codes to stat. mech. models (originally due to Dennis, Kitaev, Landahl and Preskill) to the case of correlated Pauli noise. This mapping connects the error correcting threshold to a phase transition, allowing us to use methods for studying stat. mech. models to estimate code thresholds. Using this, I will present numerical estimates of toric code thresholds under correlated noise. Time permitting, I will also discuss how this mapping can be used to give a tensor network-based algorithm for approximate optimal decoding of 2d topological codes, generalising the decoder of Bravyi, Suchara and Vargo.

We review the color memory effect which is the non-abelian gauge theory analog of the gravitational memory effect, in which the passage of color radiation induces a net relative SU(3) color rotation of a pair of nearby quarks. Then, we show how the color memory effect arises in Regge limit scattering processes and propose that this effect can be measured in the Regge limit of deeply inelastic scattering at electron-ion colliders.

Repeated null-results at dark matter experiments targeted at WIMP masses, have resulted in the spotlight shifting to lighter dark matter and more exotic WIMP candidates. In this talk I shall present the rich level structure of molecules and nuclei as a tool to explore MeV scale dark matter and dark forces. I will also present a novel detector concept that supplies energy to dark matter, thus accessing inelastic dark matter parameter space.

In this talk I will consider the S-matrix bootstrap of four dimensional scattering amplitudes with O(3) symmetry and no bound states and apply the formalism to pion physics. I will discuss the remarkable location where QCD seems to lie in the multi-dimensional space of zeros, scattering length and resonance mass values, based on various experimental and theoretical expectations.

Operator scrambling is a crucial ingredient of quantum chaos. Specifically, in the quantum chaotic system, a simple operator can become increasingly complicated under unitary time evolution. This can be diagnosed by various measures such as square of the commutator (out-of-time-ordered correlator), operator entanglement entropy etc. In this talk, we discuss operator dynamics in three representative models: a 2-local spin model with all-to-all interaction, a chaotic spin chain with long-range interactions,  and the quantum linear map. In the first two examples, we explore the operator dynamics by using the quantum Brownian circuit approach and transform the operator spreading into a classical stochastic problem. Although the speeds of scrambling are quite different, a simple operator can eventually approach a "highly entangled" operator with operator entanglement entropy taking a volume law value (close to the Page value). Meanwhile, the spectrum of the operator reduced density matrix develops a universal spectral correlation which can be characterized by the Wishart random matrix ensemble.  In contrast, in the third example (the quantum linear map), although the square of commutator can increase exponentially with time, a simple operator does not scramble but performs chaotic motion in the operator basis space determined by the classical linear map. We show that once we modify the quantum linear map such that operator can mix in the operator basis, the operator entanglement entropy can grow and eventually saturate to its Page value, thus making it a truly quantum chaotic model.

The gravitational waves from a binary inspiral carry unique information about the internal structure of compact objects. This information is of major interest for neutron stars, offering the possibility for advancing our understanding matter and fundamental interactions in unexplored regimes. I will discuss the imprints of an object’s internal structure, and in particular neutron star matter, on the gravitational waves generated during an inspiral, methods for analytically modeling these effects, and what we have learned from GW170817. I will also outline future prospects and challenges.