MIT Center for Theoretical Physics — a Leinweber Institute Publications

Over the last decade, numerical solutions of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) using the technique of lattice QCD have developed to a point where they are beginning to connect fundamental aspects of nuclear physics to the underlying degrees of freedom of the Standard Model. In this review, the progress of lattice QCD studies of nuclear matrix elements of electroweak currents and beyond-Standard-Model operators is summarized, and connections with effective field theories and nuclear models are outlined. Lattice QCD calculations of nuclear matrix elements can provide guidance for low-energy nuclear reactions in astrophysics, dark matter direct detection experiments, and experimental searches for violations of the symmetries of the Standard Model, including searches for additional CP violation in the hadronic and leptonic sectors, baryon-number violation, and lepton-number or flavor violation. Similarly, important inputs to neutrino experiments seeking to determine the neutrino-mass hierarchy and oscillation parameters, as well as other electroweak and beyond-Standard-Model processes can be determined. The phenomenological implications of existing studies of electroweak and beyond-Standard-Model matrix elements in light nuclear systems are discussed, and future prospects for the field toward precision studies of these matrix elements are outlined.

Whether quark- and gluon-initiated jets are modified differently by the quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions is a long-standing question that has thus far eluded a definitive experimental answer. A crucial complication for quark-gluon discrimination in both proton-proton and heavy-ion collisions is that all measurements necessarily average over the (unknown) quark-gluon composition of a jet sample. In the heavy-ion context, the simultaneous modification of both the fractions and substructure of quark and gluon jets by the quark-gluon plasma further obscures the interpretation. Here, we demonstrate a fully data-driven method for separating quark and gluon contributions to jet observables using a statistical technique called topic modeling. Assuming that jet distributions are a mixture of underlying “quark-like” and “gluon-like” distributions, we show how to extract quark and gluon jet fractions and constituent multiplicity distributions as a function of the jet transverse momentum. This proof-of-concept study is based on proton-proton and heavy-ion collision events from the Monte Carlo event generator Jewel with statistics accessible in Run 4 of the Large Hadron Collider. These results suggest the potential for an experimental determination of quark and gluon jet modifications.

We develop a universal approximation for the Renyi entropies of a pure state at late times in a non-integrable many-body system, which macroscopically resembles an equilibrium density matrix. The resulting expressions are fully determined by properties of the associated equilibrium density matrix, and are hence independent of the details of the initial state, while also being manifestly consistent with unitary time-evolution. For equilibrated pure states in gravity systems, such as those involving black holes, this approximation gives a prescription for calculating entanglement entropies using Euclidean path integrals which is consistent with unitarity and hence can be used to address the information loss paradox of Hawking. Applied to recent models of evaporating black holes and eternal black holes coupled to baths, it provides a derivation of replica wormholes, and elucidates their mathematical and physical origins. In particular, it shows that replica wormholes can arise in a system with a fixed Hamiltonian, without the need for ensemble averages.

We develop a flow-based sampling algorithm for \(SU(N)\) lattice gauge theories that is gauge-invariant by construction. Our key contribution is constructing a class of flows on an \(SU(N)\) variable (or on a \(U(N)\) variable by a simple alternative) that respect matrix conjugation symmetry. We apply this technique to sample distributions of single \(SU(N)\) variables and to construct flow-based samplers for \(SU(2)\) and \(SU(3)\) lattice gauge theory in two dimensions.

Bounds on transport represent a way of understanding allowable regimes of quantum and classical dynamics. Numerous such bounds have been proposed, either for classes of theories, or, by using general arguments, universally for all theories. Few are exact and inviolable. I present a new set of methods for deriving exact, rigorous and sharp bounds on all coefficients of hydrodynamic dispersion relations, including diffusivity and the speed of sound. These general techniques combine analytic properties of hydrodynamics and the theory of univalent (complex holomorphic and injective) functions. Particular attention is devoted to bounds relating transport to quantum chaos, which can be established through pole-skipping in quantum field theories with classical holographic duals. Examples of such bounds are shown along with holographic theories that can demonstrate the validity of the necessary assumptions involved. I also discuss examples of bounds without relation to chaos.

TeV-scale particles that couple to the standard model through the weak force represent a compelling class of dark matter candidates. The search for such weakly interacting massive particles has already spanned multiple decades, and whilst it has yet to provide any definitive evidence for their existence, viable parameter space remains. In this paper, we show that the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) has significant sensitivity to uncharted parameter space at the TeV mass scale. To do so, we focus on two prototypical dark matter candidates, the Wino and Higgsino. Sensitivity forecasts for both models are performed including the irreducible background from misidentified cosmic rays, as well as a range of estimates for the Galactic emissions at TeV energies. For each candidate, we find substantial expected improvements over existing bounds from current imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. In detail, for the Wino we find a sensitivity improvement of roughly an order of magnitude in ⟨σv⟩, whereas for the Higgsino we demonstrate that CTA has the potential to become the first experiment that has sensitivity to the thermal candidate. Taken together, these enhanced sensitivities demonstrate the discovery potential for dark matter at CTA in the 1–100 TeV mass range.