MIT Center for Theoretical Physics — a Leinweber Institute Publications

Recent open quantum system studies showed that quarkonium time evolution inside the quark-gluon plasma is determined by transport coefficients that are defined in terms of a gauge invariant correlator of two chromoelectric field operators connected by an adjoint Wilson line. We study the Euclidean version of the correlator for quarkonium evolution and discuss the extraction of the transport coefficients from this Euclidean correlator, highlighting its difference from other problems that also require reconstructing a spectral function, such as the calculation of the heavy quark diffusion coefficient. Along the way, we explain why the transport coefficient \(\gamma_{\rm adj}\) differs from \(\gamma_{\rm fund}\) at finite temperature at \(\mathcal{O}(g^4)\), in spite of the fact that their corresponding spectral functions differ only by a temperature-independent term at the same order. We then discuss how to evaluate the Euclidean correlator via lattice QCD methods, with a focus on reducing the uncertainty caused by infrared renormalons in determining the renormalization factor nonperturbatively.

When analyzing real-world data it is common to work with event ensembles, which comprise sets of observations that collectively constrain the parameters of an underlying model of interest. Such models often have a hierarchical structure, where "local" parameters impact individual events and "global" parameters influence the entire dataset. We introduce practical approaches for optimal dataset-wide probabilistic inference in cases where the likelihood is intractable, but simulations can be realized via forward modeling. We construct neural estimators for the likelihood(-ratio) or posterior and show that explicitly accounting for the model's hierarchical structure can lead to tighter parameter constraints. We ground our discussion using case studies from the physical sciences, focusing on examples from particle physics (particle collider data) and astrophysics (strong gravitational lensing observations).

Ergodicity of quantum dynamics is often defined through statistical properties of energy eigenstates, as exemplified by Berry's conjecture in single-particle quantum chaos and the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis in many-body settings. In this work, we investigate whether quantum systems can exhibit a stronger form of ergodicity, wherein any time-evolved state uniformly visits the entire Hilbert space over time. We call such a phenomenon complete Hilbert-space ergodicity (CHSE), which is more akin to the intuitive notion of ergodicity as an inherently dynamical concept. CHSE cannot hold for time-independent or even time-periodic Hamiltonian dynamics, owing to the existence of (quasi)energy eigenstates which precludes exploration of the full Hilbert space. However, we find that there exists a family of aperiodic, yet deterministic drives with minimal symbolic complexity -- generated by the Fibonacci word and its generalizations -- for which CHSE can be proven to occur. Our results provide a basis for understanding thermalization in general time-dependent quantum systems.

Using the supergravity dual and the plane-wave limit as a guide, we conjecture the asymptotic large coupling form of the Hagedorn temperature for planar \(\mathcal{N}=4\) super Yang-Mills to order \(1/\sqrt{\lambda}\). This is two orders beyond the presently known behavior. Using the quantum spectral curve procedure of Harmark and Wilhelm, we show that our conjectured form is in excellent agreement with the numerical results.

Hyperbolic geometry on the one-bordered torus is numerically uniformized using Liouville theory. This geometry is relevant for the hyperbolic string tadpole vertex describing the one-loop quantum corrections of closed string field theory. We argue that the Lamé equation, upon fixing its accessory parameter via Polyakov conjecture, provides the input for the characterization. The explicit expressions for the Weil-Petersson metric as well as the local coordinates and the associated vertex region for the tadpole vertex are given in terms of classical torus conformal blocks. The relevance of this vertex for vacuum shift computations in string theory is highlighted.

We identify new universal properties of the energy eigenstates of chaotic systems with local interactions, which distinguish them both from integrable systems and from non-local chaotic systems. We study the relation between the energy eigenstates of the full system and products of energy eigenstates of two extensive subsystems, using a family of spin chains in (1+1) dimensions as an illustration. The magnitudes of the coefficients relating the two bases have a simple universal form as a function of \(\omega\), the energy difference between the full system eigenstate and the product of eigenstates. This form explains the exponential decay with time of the probability for a product of eigenstates to return to itself during thermalization. We also find certain new statistical properties of the coefficients. While it is generally expected that the coefficients are uncorrelated random variables, we point out that correlations implied by unitarity are important for understanding the transition probability between two products of eigenstates, and the evolution of operator expectation values during thermalization. Moreover, we find that there are additional correlations resulting from locality, which lead to a slower growth of the second Renyi entropy than the one predicted by an uncorrelated random variable approximation.

The heavy jet mass event shape has large perturbative logarithms near the leading order kinematic threshold at \(\rho = \frac{1}{3}\). Catani and Webber named these logarithms Sudakov shoulders and resummed them at double-logarithmic level. A resummation to next-to-leading logarithmic level was achieved recently. Here, we extend the resummation using an effective field theory framework to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic order and show how to combine it with the resummation of dijet logarithms. We also solve the open problem of an unphysical singularity in the resummed momentum space distribution, in a way similar to how it is resolved in the Drell-Yan \(q_T\) spectrum: through a careful analysis of the kinematics and scale-setting in position space. The heavy jet mass Sudakov shoulder is the first observable that does not involve transverse momentum for which position space resummation is critical. These advances may lead to a more precise extraction of the strong coupling constant from \(e^+ e^-\) data.

We propose extensions of the anti-\(k_t\) and Cambridge/Aachen hierarchical jet clustering algorithms that are designed to retain the exact jet kinematics of these algorithms, while providing an infrared-and-collinear-safe definition of jet flavour at any fixed order in perturbation theory. Central to our approach is a new technique called Interleaved Flavour Neutralisation (IFN), whereby the treatment of flavour is integrated with, but distinct from, the kinematic clustering. IFN allows flavour information to be meaningfully accessed at each stage of the clustering sequence, which enables a consistent assignment of flavour both to individual jets and to their substructure. We validate the IFN approach using a dedicated framework for fixed-order tests of infrared and collinear safety, which also reveals unanticipated issues in earlier approaches to flavoured jet clustering. We briefly explore the phenomenological impact of IFN with anti-\(k_t\) jets for benchmark tasks at the Large Hadron Collider.

We propose and analyze an approach to realize quantum computation and simulation using fermionic particles under quantum gas microscopes. Our work is inspired by a recent experimental demonstration of large-scale quantum registers, where tightly localized fermion pairs are used to encode qubits exhibiting long coherence time and robustness against laser intensity noise. We describe how to engineer the SWAP gate and high-fidelity controlled-phase gates by adjusting the fermion hopping as well as Feshbach interaction strengths. Combined with previously demonstrated single-qubit rotations, these gates establish the computational universality of the system. Furthermore, we show that 2D quantum Ising Hamiltonians with tunable transverse and longitudinal fields can be efficient simulated by modulating Feshbach interaction strengths. We present a sample-efficient protocol to characterize engineered gates and Hamiltonian dynamics based on an improved classical shadow process tomography that requires minimal experimental controls. Our work opens up new opportunities to harness existing ultracold quantum gases for quantum information sciences.

Infinite-component Chern-Simons-Maxwell theories with a periodic \(K\) matrix provide abundant examples of gapped and gapless, foliated and non-foliated fracton orders. In this paper, we study the ground state degeneracy of these theories. We show that the ground state degeneracy exhibit various patterns as a function of the linear system size -- the size of the \(K\) matrix. It can grow exponentially or polynomially, cycle over finitely many values, or fluctuate erratically inside an exponential envelope. We relate these different patterns of the ground state degeneracy with the roots of the ``determinant polynomial'', a Laurent polynomial, associated to the periodic \(K\) matrix. These roots also determine whether the theory is gapped or gapless. Based on the ground state degeneracy, we formulate a necessary condition for a gapped theory to be a foliated fracton order.

The energy-energy correlator (EEC) is an observable of wide interest for collider physics and Standard Model measurements, due to both its simple theoretical description in terms of the energy-momentum tensor and its novel features for experimental studies. Significant progress has been made in both applications and higher-order perturbative predictions for the EEC. Here, we analyze the nature of the asymptotic perturbative series for the EEC by determining its analytic form in Borel space under the bubble-sum approximation. This result provides information on the leading and subleading nonperturbative power corrections through renormalon poles. We improve the perturbative convergence of the \(\overline{\mathrm{MS}}\) series for the EEC, by removing its leading renormalon using an MSR scheme, which is independent of the bubble-sum approximation. Using the leading MSR scheme power correction determined by fits to thrust, we find good agreement with EEC OPAL data already at \({\mathcal O}(\alpha_s^2)\).

We present a description of saturation in small x deep inelastic scattering from power counting in a top-down effective theory derived from QCD. A factorization formula isolates the universal physics of the nucleus at leading power in x. The onset of saturation is then understood as a breakdown in the expansion in an emergent power counting parameter, which is defined by the matrix element of a gauge invariant operator. We demonstrate the presence of a novel collinear-soft radiation mode, which clarifies the role played by the medium size in deciding linear/non-linear evolution of the cross section in \(\ln x\).

We present a new method for analytic continuation of retarded Green functions, including Euclidean Green functions computed using lattice QCD. The method is based on conformal maps and construction of an interpolation function which is analytic in the upper half plane. A novel aspect of our method is rigorous bounding of systematic uncertainties, which are handled by constructing the full space of interpolating functions (at each point in the upper half-plane) consistent with the given Euclidean data and the constraints of analyticity. The resulting Green function in the upper half-plane has an appealing interpretation as a smeared spectral function.

We initiate the study of transverse momentum-dependent (TMD) fragmentation functions for heavy quarks, demonstrate their factorization in terms of novel nonperturbative matrix elements in heavy-quark effective theory (HQET), and prove new TMD sum rules that arise from heavy-quark spin symmetry. We discuss the phenomenology of heavy-quark TMD FFs at \(B\) factories and find that the Collins effect, in contrast to claims in the literature, is not parametrically suppressed by the heavy-quark mass. We further calculate all TMD parton distribution functions for the production of heavy quarks from polarized gluons within the nucleon and use our results to demonstrate the potential of the future EIC to resolve TMD heavy-quark fragmentation in semi-inclusive DIS, complementing the planned EIC program to use heavy quarks as probes of gluon distributions.

This manuscript concerns string one-loop corrections to the Kahler potential in 4d N=1 vacua of string theories, and it largely consists of two parts. In the first part, we compute the string one-loop correction to the dilaton kinetic term in heterotic string theories, and we show that the dilaton kinetic term is not renormalized at one-loop. We explain how this result can be reconciled with the well-known result on the string one-loop correction to the Kahler potential in heterotic string theories. In the second part, we study the dilaton dependence of the one-loop corrected Kahler potential in type II string theories. To do so, we compute the string one-loop correction to the kinetic action of the 4d-dilaton in type II string theories compactified on orientifolds of Calabi-Yau threefolds. We find that the string one-loop corrected 4d dilaton kinetic term in string-frame and Einstein-frame is determined by the Witten index and the new supersymmetric index of the string worldsheet CFT. Quite surprisingly, we find that in the vertex-frame, the open string contributions to the 4d dilaton kinetic term cancel, and the 4d dilaton kinetic term at string one-loop depends only on the Witten index of the closed string sector.

We present a class of exactly solvable 2D models whose ground states violate conventional beliefs about entanglement scaling in quantum matter. These beliefs are (i) that area law entanglement scaling originates from local correlations proximate to the boundary of the entanglement cut, and (ii) that ground state entanglement in 2D Hamiltonians cannot violate area law scaling by more than a multiplicative logarithmic factor. We explicitly present two classes of models defined by local, translation-invariant Hamiltonians, whose ground states can be exactly written as weighted superpositions of framed loop configurations. The first class of models exhibits area-law scaling, but of an intrinsically nonlocal origin so that the topological entanglement entropy scales with subsystem sizes. The second class of models has a rich ground state phase diagram that includes a phase exhibiting volume law entanglement.

Finite-volume pionless effective field theory (FVEFT\(_{ \pi\!/ }\)) at next-to-leading order (NLO) is used to analyze the two-nucleon lattice QCD spectrum of Ref.~\cite{Amarasinghe:2021lqa}, performed at quark masses corresponding to a pion mass of approximately \(800 \) MeV. Specifically, the effective theory is formulated in finite volume, and variational sets of wave functions are optimized using differential programming. Using these wave functions projected to the appropriate finite-volume symmetry group, variational bounds from FVEFT\(_{\pi\!/ }\) are obtained for the ground state, as well as excited states. By comparison with the lattice QCD GEVP spectrum, different low energy constants (LECs) are constrained. Relativistic corrections are incorporated, allowing for the extractions of NLO LECs, as well as the leading \(s\)-\(d\)-wave mixing term in the deuteron channel.

By quantifying the distance between two collider events, one can triangulate a metric space and reframe collider data analysis as computational geometry. One popular geometric approach is to first represent events as an energy flow on an idealized celestial sphere and then define the metric in terms of optimal transport in two dimensions. In this paper, we advocate for representing events in terms of a spectral function that encodes pairwise particle angles and products of particle energies, which enables a metric distance defined in terms of one-dimensional optimal transport. This approach has the advantage of automatically incorporating obvious isometries of the data, like rotations about the colliding beam axis. It also facilitates first-principles calculations, since there are simple closed-form expressions for optimal transport in one dimension. Up to isometries and event sets of measure zero, the spectral representation is unique, so the metric on the space of spectral functions is a metric on the space of events. At lowest order in perturbation theory in electron-positron collisions, our metric is simply the summed squared invariant masses of the two event hemispheres. Going to higher orders, we present predictions for the distribution of metric distances between jets in fixed-order and resummed perturbation theory as well as in parton-shower generators. Finally, we speculate on whether the spectral approach could furnish a useful metric on the space of quantum field theories.

Jet grooming is an important strategy for analyzing relativistic particle collisions in the presence of contaminating radiation. Most jet grooming techniques introduce hard cutoffs to remove soft radiation, leading to discontinuous behavior and associated experimental and theoretical challenges. In this paper, we introduce Pileup and Infrared Radiation Annihilation (PIRANHA), a paradigm for continuous jet grooming that overcomes the discontinuity and infrared sensitivity of hard-cutoff grooming procedures. We motivate PIRANHA from the perspective of optimal transport and the Energy Mover's Distance and review Apollonius Subtraction and Iterated Voronoi Subtraction as examples of PIRANHA-style grooming. We then introduce a new tree-based implementation of PIRANHA, Recursive Subtraction, with reduced computational costs. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of Recursive Subtraction in mitigating sensitivity to soft distortions from hadronization and detector effects, and additive contamination from pileup and the underlying event.

Generalizing the results of 1211.6077 and 1703.00905, we prove a formula for the pushforward of an arbitrary analytic function of the exceptional divisor class of a weighted blowup of an algebraic variety centered at a smooth complete intersection with normal crossing. We check this formula extensively by computing the generating function of intersection numbers of a weighted blowup of the generic SU(5) Tate model over arbitrary smooth base, and comparing the answer to known results. Motivated by applications to four-dimensional F-theory flux compactifications, we use our formula to compute the intersection pairing on the vertical part of the middle cohomology of elliptic Calabi-Yau 4-folds resolving the generic F\(_4\) and Sp(6) Tate models with non-minimal singularities. These resolutions lead to non-flat fibrations in which certain fibers contain 3-fold (divisor) components, whose physical interpretation in M/F-theory remains to be fully explored.