Formal aspects of quantum field theory, string theory, supersymmetry, mathematical physics aspects of particle physics.
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2604.04817In higher-dimensional Einstein-AdS gravity, it is well known that planar and static anti-de Sitter black holes can be endowed with multiple rotation parameters via a large-gauge transformation. However, a similar prescription fails when multiple NUT parameters are added, thereby obstructing the study of holographic properties with more than one NUT charge. To pave the way towards this direction, we construct explicit planar AdS spacetimes having multiple NUT parameters in two simple ways that allow one to circumvent the strong restrictions imposed by the vacuum field equations. First, motivated by momentum relaxation holographic models, we construct multi-NUT spaces in AdS with flat horizons by adding free scalar fields possessing an axionic profile. In our second approach, we build similar configurations in Einstein gravity with quadratic-curvature corrections. As a byproduct, we end by presenting planar versions of the Kaluza-Klein monopole in AdS with different magnetic charges.
2604.04774We investigate Hawking radiation in noncommutative spacetime. For a dynamical black hole formed by the collapse of a matter shell, we demonstrate that spacetime noncommutativity modifies the interaction between the radiation field and the background geometry. In particular, the collapsing shell is effectively shifted by an amount proportional to the momentum of an outgoing Hawking mode. While the nonlocality inherent in noncommutative spacetime invalidates the conventional arguments for the robustness of Hawking radiation, the radiation decays substantially after the scrambling time, resulting in an exponentially long evaporation time.
We construct simple analytical solutions of renormalization group equations for the running coupling and for the Green functions in QCD in the asymptotic regime. These solutions have an explicit form and subsequently sum up the leading, subleading, and so on logarithms in all orders of PT. They easily reproduce the inverse logarithm expansion and allow for further summation and improvement of the asymptotic behaviour.
2604.04569In gauge theories, the mass of a field has been regarded as a purely on-shell concept: the pole mass is gauge-invariant, but the off-shell propagator has had no gauge-invariant definition of mass. We show that renormalization defines a gauge-invariant mass function at every virtuality, together with a gauge-invariant vertex. The virtual particle becomes as well defined as the on-shell one: the distinction is not dynamical but purely kinematic.
We investigate D-insatnton effects on the holographic Weyl semimetal in top-down approach. From the free energy of the D7 brane embedding solutions, we get phase diagram in terms of the electron mass, instanton number, and temperature in the unit of the weyl parameter. We calculate non-linear conductivities from the regularity condition of the probe D7 brane and investgate anomalous Hall phenomena in the boundary system. From the study of the phase diagram, we suggest the gaped phase induced by the instanton to a topological insulator.
We study anomalies in family unification models within the framework of the bordism classification of invertible field theories. These models are based on four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric nonlinear sigma models, in which the three generations of quarks and leptons arise as superpartners of the sigma model fields. We focus on models whose target spaces are constructed from the exceptional group $E_{7}$ and its subgroups. For the consistency of the theory, sigma model anomalies must be cancelled. We show the absence of global sigma model anomalies, which are encoded in the torsion part of the relevant bordism groups, by explicitly computing these groups using the Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence. In constructing family unification models, symmetries acting on the coset spaces are gauged, which may introduce additional anomalies. We identify the relevant bordism groups in this setting and demonstrate that no global anomalies arise when the isotropy subgroup of the coset space is gauged.
In this study, we present an analytical investigation of the superradiant scattering of a massive charged conformally coupled scalar field in rotating charged $de~Sitter$ black hole spacetimes within two gravitational theories: General Relativity (GR) and fourth-order Conformal (Weyl-squared) Gravity (CWG). For the massless charged conformally coupled scalar, we exploit a recently discovered correspondence between the Heun equation and the semiclassical limit of Belavin-Polyakov-Zamolodchikov (BPZ) equations in two-dimensional conformal field theory to solve for the superradiant amplification factors as controlled expansions in a small parameter scaling. For the massive charged conformally coupled scalar, we use WKB methods to derive an order of magnitude approximation for the amplification factors in the cosmological region in terms of those in the region $r_+\ll r \ll r_c$ where $r_+$ and $r_c$ are the outer and cosmological event horizons, respectively. For both the massless and massive sectors, suppression of superradiant amplification in CWG relative to that in GR is observed across the parameter regimes studied. Particularly, in the massive sector, we find strong exponential suppression of superradiant amplification on the order of $e^{-2μΛ^{-1/2}}$ in the cosmological region.
We directly show that the local ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density for Unruh radiation at a finite distance from the horizon is universal and satisfies the relation $ η/s = 1/(4πc_s^2) $, which involves the speed of sound $ c_s $. Since $ c_s^2 \leq 1 $ by causality, this establishes the close connection between the famous Kovtun-Son-Starinets bound and causality. Moreover, we show that the ratio of bulk to shear viscosity saturates another well-known bound for the bulk viscosity, predicted within holographic approach. We also show that the condition of isotropy of thermal radiation in the Rindler space leads to a novel sum rule relating the $ c^{(0)}(μ) $ and $ c^{(2)}(μ) $ spectral densities, and we explicitly demonstrate its validity for conformal field theory and free massive Dirac fields in any number of dimensions. The sum rule provides the validity of Pascal law and bears some similarity with Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rule for spin-dependent parton distributions. Our result suggests a new perspective on dissipative transport phenomena in media undergoing extreme acceleration, such as quark-gluon plasma created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.
2604.03720According to the correspondence principle of Horowitz and Polchinski, many black holes in string theory are continuously deformed to usual quantum systems involving D-branes and fundamental strings when the string coupling becomes sufficiently small. Therefore if we consider a configuration in space-time where the dilaton varies over an appropriate range, then a black hole moving in such a background will smoothly transition from the black hole state to a normal quantum state whose microstates are not hidden behind an event horizon. The possible obstruction to this mechanism comes from the fact that if the dilaton varies too fast then the adiabatic approximation may break down and / or the ambient space-time itself may collapse to a black hole and get hidden from the asymptotic observer. On the other hand, if the dilaton varies too slowly then the time that it takes for the black hole to travel the required distance will exceed the evaporation time of the black hole. We show that by choosing the background appropriately these obstructions can be avoided and a gentle motion towards the weak coupling region will convert the black hole into a normal quantum state without an event horizon.
2604.03500The space of local operators in the $Q$-cohomology of the holomorphic-topological supercharge in a four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ theory carries the structure of a Poisson vertex algebra. This note studies the Poisson vertex algebra associated to the pure $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauge theory with gauge group $SU(2)$. We propose an explicit Poisson vertex algebra $A$, claimed to be isomorphic to the algebra of holomorphic-topological observables to all orders in perturbation theory. We compute the Hilbert-Poincaré series of $A$ and show that it refines the Schur index of the pure $SU(2)$ theory. We show that $A$ admits a further differential $Q_{\text{inst}}$ which we hypothesize captures non-perturbative corrections, and compute the cohomology of this differential. We thus present an explicit candidate for the space of non-perturbative holomorphic-topological observables of Seiberg-Witten theory.
2604.03185We calculate the one-point functions of the marginal operator $\mathcal{L}'$ dual to the space-varying dilaton in 4D and 2D holographic Janus interfaces, extending results in arXiv:hep-th/0407073. We compare strongly-coupled supergravity and weakly-coupled CFT limits across $\mathcal{N}=0, 1, 2, 4$ holographic Janus interfaces in 4D SYM, and $\mathcal{N}=0, 4$ Janus interfaces for 2D D1-D5 CFT. Exact agreement between these regimes occurs only for the half-BPS interfaces in both 4D and 2D cases, while for other interfaces they agree to first order of the jump parameter. This result reinforces that exact weak/strong coupling matching for interface observables on supersymmetric (SUSY) conformal manifolds is exclusive to maximally SUSY interfaces.
2604.03126We derive a concrete closed string dual to any interacting Hermitian one-matrix model, away from the double-scaling limit. Matrix and string correlators manifestly agree, to all orders in the genus expansion and all orders in the 't Hooft coupling(s). The worldsheet theory consists of a supersymmetric B-twisted Landau-Ginzburg model coupled to 2d topological gravity. We provide a precise dictionary between traces of the matrix and vertex operators on the worldsheet. Matrix model correlators are explicitly mapped to computable integrals over the moduli space of Riemann surfaces. We perform several direct cross-checks on both sides of the duality. This work furnishes a detailed instantiation of gauge/string duality, in the standard 't Hooft regime, and hopefully a useful worldsheet toy model for the AdS/CFT correspondence, away from the free field limit.
2604.03003Planar AdS black branes have a scaling symmetry that maps a brane solution at one temperature to a solution at another. It is natural to expect that boundary representations of bulk field modes should inherit this symmetry i.e. their correlators should transform covariantly under boundary dilatations. We derive a covariance condition that any boundary representation of interior modes in a planar AdS black brane should satisfy. We then show that Papadodimas-Raju mirror operators satisfy this condition. Thus the Papadodimas-Raju reconstruction of the bulk interior, although state-dependent, inherits the scaling symmetry of planar AdS black holes.
Instantons play a crucial role in understanding non-perturbative dynamics in quantum field theories, including those with spontaneously broken gauge symmetries. In the broken phase, finite-size instanton-like configurations are no longer exact stationary points of the Euclidean action, in contrast to the symmetric phase. Non-perturbative effects in this setting are therefore typically studied within the constrained instanton framework. However, a previous study pointed out a possible difficulty in constructing consistent constrained instanton solutions based on conventional gauge-invariant constraints. In this work, we revisit the asymptotic structure of constrained instantons and re-examine the claimed difficulty. By carefully tracking the behavior of the solutions near the spatial origin and at infinity, we show that the required boundary conditions can be satisfied without encountering the inconsistency. We explicitly construct consistent constrained instantons in both massive $φ^4$ theory and Yang--Mills theory with spontaneous symmetry breaking, and we support our analytic matching procedure with numerical solutions. Our results establish that conventional gauge-invariant constraints can be consistently employed in semiclassical computations when asymptotic expansions are treated properly.
We present the first complete calculation of the analytic structure of the zero-spatial-momentum finite-temperature Landau-gauge gluon propagator carried out at one loop by a massive deformation of QCD perturbation theory -- the screened massive expansion -- at temperatures ranging from $T=0$ to $T\approx 3T_{c}$. We find no signatures of deconfinement in the form of meaningful changes in said structure. We argue that, beyond Euclidean space, massive perturbative methods -- including the Curci-Ferrari model -- might be missing crucial dynamical information as a consequence of the perturbative violation of QCD's Ward identities.
We argue that the topological structure of Abelian gauge theories, such as Maxwell electrodynamics, in the background of a Euclidean Schwarzschild black hole manifests itself through an asymmetry in Hawking radiation. In particular, the topology of the black hole manifold, characterised by a non-contractible 2-sphere and Euler characteristic $χ= 2$, admits non-trivial gauge-field configurations. These take the form of 2-form field strengths that are closed but not exact. From a topological perspective, such configurations are classified by the second cohomology group, which is isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z} \oplus \mathbb{Z}$, and are labelled by integer electric ($n$) and magnetic ($m$) charges, $(n,m)$. Self-dual ($n = m$) and anti-self-dual ($n = -m$) dyonic configurations carry vanishing Euclidean energy and are fully compatible with the Euclidean Schwarzschild geometry. More general dyonic configurations, by contrast, are interpreted as off-shell Euclidean field configurations. Nevertheless, both classes contribute to the thermal equilibrium vacuum and to finite-temperature correlation functions in the corresponding Lorentzian framework. Furthermore, because of the non-trivial topology, the electromagnetic $θ_{\rm EM}$-term contributes to the physical observables. In particular, it sources $CP$-asymmetric Hawking radiation, observable as an imbalance between left- and right-polarised photons in the emission spectrum. We briefly discuss some implications of this phenomenon.
We study QED$_2$ in de Sitter space as a minimal interacting gauge theory in which cosmological expansion directly competes with quantum dynamics. In cosmic time, the hopping redshifts as $1/a(t)$ while the electric term grows as $g^2 a(t)$, sweeping the spectrum through a moving narrow-gap region in the $(τ,m)$ plane. Exact diagonalization shows that this defines a pseudo-critical line governing the loss of adiabaticity, excitation growth, and redshifted response. Using matrix-product states at a fixed mass, we separate the fixed-cutoff thermodynamic limit from the continuum extrapolation. The late-time dip survives in the infinite physical box size limit, and shifts to later $τ$ as the lattice spacing goes to zero, with current data favoring $τ_* \approx 3.1$, while the dip depth remains less controlled. For Gibbs initial states, the same mechanism produces an irreversibility front in the relative entropy that tracks the pseudo-critical line and is detectable via LOCC-accessible observables. These results identify de Sitter QED$_2$ as a controlled setting for linking curved-space gauge dynamics, near-critical spectral structure, and operational irreversibility.
2604.02698Recent claims have suggested the absence of CP violation in theories with a $θ$-vacuum structure, particularly in quantum chromodynamics. We highlight several key points, from a perspective that is not widely discussed in the literature, which clarify why such conclusions are incorrect. In particular, an open boundary in a finite-volume theory must be accompanied by boundary degrees of freedom, the edge modes, in order to preserve large gauge invariance and faithfully capture the topological features of the theory. In the infinite-volume limit, these edge states become non-dynamical, leaving the standard $\uptheta$-vacuum structure intact, irrespective of whether this limit is taken before or after summing over topological sectors. Consequently, the $\uptheta$-vacuum structure does give rise to observable CP violation once the theory is consistently quantised.
This paper is concerned with eternal AdS black holes. The quantum cosmological future and past interior states of the black hole may be placed on an equal footing to the left and right AdS boundary data by considering the on-shell bulk action as a function of the left/right/future/past data: $S[φ^{(0)L},φ^{(0)R},φ^{(0)F},φ^{(0)P}]$. We call this object a holographic banner, and it obeys the Hamilton-Jacobi equation with respect to all four of its arguments. We compute the holographic banner for a scalar field in an AdS black hole background explicitly and use it to construct the semiclassical state in the future interior obtained from a thermofield double state in the past evolved by arbitrary time- and space-dependent boundary sources. When the spacetime itself is dynamical we explain how the holographic banner gives, in principle, a map from boundary data to near-singularity semiclassical quantum cosmology following chaotic BKL dynamics. We obtain the timescale for the BKL dynamics to ergodically mix the future interior quantum state, given a quantum variance in the past state or a classical ensemble of boundary theories.
2604.02414Dijkgraaf-Witten theories have a wide range of applications in topological phases of matter and the study of generalized global symmetries. We develop a method to construct BF-type Lagrangians for Dijkgraaf-Witten theories with non-abelian gauge group by gauging $H^{(0)}$ symmetries from a BF-Lagrangian of an abelian Dijkgraaf-Witten theory. When $H$ nontrivially permutes the operators of the original theory, the Lagrangian of the $H$-gauged theory is constructed with cohomologies with local coefficients. We analyze the structure of the Lagrangians and their gauge transformations with homotopy theory. We also construct the operator spectrum and verify the Lagrangians by matching elementary linking invariants.