iTHEMS Theoretical Physics Seminar
83 events
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Seminar
Dark matter from inflationary quantum fluctuations
December 9 (Mon) at 14:00 - 15:30, 2024
Mohammad Ali Gorji (Junior Faculty, Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe, Institute for Basic Science, Republic of Korea)
We explore a scenario in which dark matter is a massive bosonic field, arising solely from quantum fluctuations generated during inflation. In this framework, dark matter exhibits primordial isocurvature perturbations with an amplitude of O(1) at small scales that are beyond the reach of current observations, such as those from the CMB and large-scale structure. Assuming a monochromatic initial power spectrum, we identify the viable parameter space defined by dark matter mass and the length scale of perturbations. A key prediction of this scenario is copious formation of subsolar dark matter halos at high redshifts.
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Nuclear clustering phenomena revealed by knockout reaction
November 20 (Wed) at 15:30 - 17:00, 2024
Kazuki Yoshida (Assistant Professor, Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka University)
Nuclear clustering is one of the unique phenomena in the nucleon many-body system. Historically, alpha formation has been known since the very early years of the nuclear physics, in the light and heavy mass regions. The former is known as the alpha clustering and its threshold rule, which was introduced by the Ikeda diagram in 1968. The latter has been known since the beginning of the nuclear physics as the alpha decay phenomena; the formation of alpha particles and their tunneling through the Coulomb barrier. Recently, the alpha clustering has been experimentally confirmed in the medium mass nuclei, 112-124Sn (Tin isotopes), using the alpha knockout reaction. Triggered by the experimental observation, the alpha knockout reaction is used as a reaction probe for the alpha clustering phenomena. In this talk, I will give an overview of the clustering phenomena and its reaction observables, in particular I will introduce the idea that the alpha knockout reaction can be a probe for the alpha formation on the alpha decay nuclei. In general, this idea can be applied to probe the particle trapped in the potential resonance.
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Forming primordial black holes
November 11 (Mon) at 14:00 - 15:30, 2024
Zachary Picker (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Los Angeles, USA)
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are black holes which form in the early universe. Not only are PBHs good dark matter candidates, but they have a wide range of fascinating phenomenology (even if they are only a fraction of the dark matter). In this talk I will review a somewhat under-discussed aspect of the PBH gospel---their formation mechanisms. In fact, there is a wide variety of ways to form PBHs of different sizes and abundances, and many of our favorite BSM theories can have PBHs in their spectra. I will then discuss some of our particular upcoming research on PBH formation, where attractive Yukawa forces in a dark sector can lead to the early formation of dense dark structures called Fermi balls which can collapse to black holes, with novel cosmological implications.
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Quantum signature kernels
October 30 (Wed) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2024
Samuel Crew (Postdoctoral Fellow, Imperial College London, UK)
Arising from rough path theory, the signature transform captures features of time-series data by constructing a so-called path signature. This feature has proven valuable for various machine learning tasks. However, computing the associated signature kernel classically remains computationally intensive. In this talk, I will present recent developments in generalising the signature kernel to randomised Lie group path developments. I will discuss a quantum approach via matrix models with an associated unitary quantum signature kernel to propose a quantum algorithm for its computation.
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Holographic Gubser flow
October 29 (Tue) at 13:30 - 14:30, 2024
Sukrut Mondkar (Postdoctoral Researcher, Harish-Chandra Research Institute, India)
Gubser flow is an evolution with cylindrical and boost symmetries, which can be best studied by mapping the future wedge of Minkowski space ℝ^{(3,1)} to dS_3 × ℝ in a conformal relativistic theory. Here, we sharpen the analytic results of Banerjee, Mitra, Mukhopadhyay Soloviev, EPJC (2024) and validate them via the first numerical exploration of the Gubser flow in a holographic conformal field theory. Remarkably, the leading generic behavior at large de Sitter time is free-streaming in transverse directions and the sub-leading behavior is that of a color glass condensate. We also show that Gubser flow can be smoothly glued to the vacuum outside the future Minkowski wedge generically given that the energy density vanishes faster than any power when extrapolated to early proper time or to large distances from the central axis. We find that at intermediate times the ratio of both the transverse and longitudinal pressures to the energy density converge approximately to a fixed point which is hydrodynamic only for large initial energy densities. We argue that our results suggest that the Gubser flow is better applied to collective behavior in jets rather than the full medium in the phenomenology of heavy ion collisions and can reveal new clues to the mechanism of confinement. The talk will be based on Mitra, Mondkar, Mukhopadhyay, Soloviev, arxiv:2408.04001/hep-th (accepted for publication in JHEP).
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Main Research Building
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Open Effective Field Theories for primordial cosmology
October 18 (Fri) at 13:30 - 15:00, 2024
Thomas Colas (Postdoc, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, UK)
Imprints of new physics on observable cosmology may require the modelling of dissipation and noise. In this talk, I will present an open effective field theory for primordial cosmology where the inflaton sector interacts with an unknown environment. The approach recovers the usual effective field theory of inflation in a certain limit and extends it to account for local dissipation and noise. Non-Gaussianities are generated that peak in the equilateral configuration for large dissipation and in the folded configurations for small dissipation. The construction provides an embedding for local dissipative models of inflation and a framework to study dissipative and stochastic effects in cosmology.
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Application of Complex Scaling Method to Scattering Calculations of Atomic Systems
October 8 (Tue) at 13:30 - 15:00, 2024
Taishi Sano (Master's Student, Waseda University)
Based on our paper [1], this presentation will show the application of complex scaling method(CSM) to scattering calculations of atomic systems. While CSM has been extensively used to study resonance states, the application of CSM to scattering calculations was proposed recently with applications in nuclear physics. In our study, we apply the CSM scattering calculation to atomic systems and propose an effective correction to avoid the problem of slow convergence to the number of complex eigen energies. Our results with the effective correction agree well with those reported in the literature for positron scattering with the targets Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, H, He, He+, and Li2+. In this presentation, we introduce the framework of phase-shift calculation using the CSM together with the examples of the positron scattering, and advantages and features of this approach. [This seminar is co-hosted by Few-body Systems in Physics Laboratory, RIKEN Nishina Center.]
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Algebraic curves and parametric resurgence
July 29 (Mon) at 16:30 - 17:45, 2024
Samuel Crew (Postdoctoral Fellow, Imperial College London, UK)
In this talk I will discuss recent work together with Ines Aniceto (Southampton) on algebraic examples of parametric resurgence. We discuss a simple example to elucidate the so-called higher order Stokes phenomena and discuss how a Borel inner-outer matching procedure allows us to view parametric resurgence as a series of non-parametric resurgence problems.
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Main Research Building
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Thermal radiation exchange in primordial gravitational waves
July 18 (Thu) at 13:30 - 15:00, 2024
Atsuhisa Ota (Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China)
The radiation-dominated universe is a key component of standard Big Bang cosmology. Radiation comprises numerous quantum elementary particles, and its macroscopic behavior is described by taking the quantum thermal average of its constituents. The dynamics of gravitational waves are considered in this smooth fluid. While interactions between individual particles and gravitational waves are often neglected in this context, it raises the question of whether such a hydrodynamical approximation is reasonable. To address this question, we explored the quantum mechanical aspects of gravitational waves in a universe dominated by a massless scalar field, whose averaged energy-momentum tensor serves as background radiation. We computed thermal loop corrections for the gravitational wave power spectrum using the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. Interestingly, we found that the loop effect enhances the super-horizon primordial gravitational wave spectrum, indicating that the inflationary spectrum is not conserved, contrary to conventional wisdom. These findings have significant implications for our understanding of the early universe. In this talk, I will begin with the basics of cosmology and explain the significance of these results and their relevant observational consequences.
Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Surface defect in N=4 SYM and integrability
July 17 (Wed) at 16:00 - 17:00, 2024
Hiroki Kawai (Ph.D. Student, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
In the N=4 super Yang-Mills theory, it is well-known that the one-loop anomalous dimension operator for the single trace operators is equivalent to an integrable spin chain. Recent works have extended the application of integrability to scenarios involving a BPS boundary or defects such as 't Hooft line. One can describe the correlators of the single trace operators as an overlap between the Bethe state and the corresponding defect state. This overlap can be exactly calculated if the defect state is a so-called integrable state. We show that the state corresponding to the Gukov-Witten surface defect is integrable. We also calculate the tree-level one-point function of the single trace operators and set up the perturbation calculation in this defect background for one-loop corrections.
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Main Research Building
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Quantum Error Transmutation
July 17 (Wed) at 10:30 - 11:30, 2024
Daniel Zhang (Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford, UK)
We introduce a generalisation of quantum error correction, relaxing the requirement that a code should identify and correct a set of physical errors on the Hilbert space of a quantum computer exactly, instead allowing recovery up to a pre-specified admissible set of errors on the code space. We call these quantum error transmuting codes. They are of particular interest for the simulation of noisy quantum systems, and for use in algorithms inherently robust to errors of a particular character. Necessary and sufficient algebraic conditions on the set of physical and admissible errors for error transmutation are derived, generalising the Knill-Laflamme quantum error correction conditions. We demonstrate how some existing codes, including fermionic encodings, have error transmuting properties to interesting classes of admissible errors. Additionally, we report on the existence of some new codes, including low-qubit and translation invariant examples.
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Mapping the Phase Space of toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds using Explainable Machine Learning
July 16 (Tue) at 13:30 - 14:30, 2024
Rak-Kyeong Seong (Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Republic of Korea)
This talk will give a brief introduction on how bipartite graphs on a torus represent 4-dimensional quiver gauge theories and their moduli space which is a toric Calabi-Yau 3-fold - a cone over a Sasaki-Einstein 5-manifold. Under mirror symmetry, the bipartite graph can be identified with the tropical projection of the mirror curve obtained from the Newton polytope associated to the toric Calabi-Yau 3-fold. Changes to the complex structure moduli of the mirror Calabi-Yau determine the overall shape of the bipartite graph on the torus. For certain choices of complex structure moduli, the bipartite graph undergoes a graph mutation which is identified with Seiberg duality of the associated 4-dimensional quiver gauge theory. This talk will discuss recent progress in understanding when such mutations occur from the point of view of Calabi-Yau mirror symmetry with the help of new computational techniques such as machine learning.
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Tensionless Strings in a Kalb-Ramond Background
July 10 (Wed) at 16:00 - 17:00, 2024
Ritankar Chatterjee (Ph.D. Student, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India)
We investigate tensionless (or null) bosonic string theory with a constant Kalb-Ramond background turned on. In analogy with the tensile case, we find that the constant Kalb-Ramond field has a non-trivial effect on the spectrum only when the theory is compactified on an S^1 ⊗d background with d ≥ 2. We discuss the effect of this constant background field on the tensionless spectrum constructed on three known consistent null string vacua. We elucidate further on the intriguing fate of duality symmetries in these classes of string theories when the background field is turned on. Based on: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01385
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Main Research Building
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Worldline Path Integrals for the Graviton and 1-Loop Divergences in Quantum Gravity
June 28 (Fri) at 16:00 - 17:20, 2024
Fiorenzo Bastianelli (Professor, University of Bologna, Italy)
In this talk, I will discuss perturbative quantum gravity at the 1-loop level by reviewing and systematizing old results on UV divergences and presenting new findings along with new methods for their calculation. The traditional approach to this problem employs the Schwinger-DeWitt heat kernel method. We extend this approach by incorporating worldline path integrals to compute the perturbative expansion at small proper time. In addition, we explore a more principled approach that utilizes the BRST path integral quantization of the N=4 spinning particle, which describes the graviton in first quantization. Using these methods, we calculate the one-loop divergences in quantum gravity with a cosmological constant in arbitrary dimensions. When evaluated on-shell, these calculations yield a set of gauge-invariant coefficients that characterize pure quantum gravity with a cosmological constant. These coefficients may serve as benchmarks for comparing various approaches to quantum gravity.
Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Magnonic spin current and shot noise in an itinerant Fermi gas
June 25 (Tue) at 13:30 - 15:00, 2024
Tingyu Zhang (Ph.D. Student, Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo)
Spin transport phenomena at strongly-correlated interfaces play central roles in fundamental physics as well as spintronic applications. Although the spin-flip tunneling process, a key mechanism of spin transport, has been extensively studied in solid-state systems, its behavior in itinerant Fermi gases remains elusive. In this regard we study the spin tunneling in a repulsively interacting ultracold Fermi gas based on the conventional quasiparticle tunneling process. we investigate the spin current induced by quasiparticle and spin-flip tunneling processes to see their bias dependence and interaction dependence. To anatomize spin carriers, we propose the detection of the spin current noise in the system. The Fano factor, which is defined as the ratio between the spin current and its noise can serve as a probe of elementary carriers of spin transport. The change of the Fano factor microscopically evinces a crossover from the quasiparticle transport to magnon transport in itinerant fermionic systems.
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Grassmann Tensor Renormalization Group for two-flavor Schwinger model with a theta term
June 24 (Mon) at 16:00 - 17:00, 2024
Hayato Kanno (Special Postdoctoral Researcher, Theory Group, RIKEN BNL Research Center, RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science (RNC))
QCD has been understood through numerical calculations by the Monte Carlo method. However, this method does not work for some parameter regions because of the sign problem. For example, QCD with a theta term has a sign problem, so the nature of QCD with a finite theta parameter is unknown. The theta dependence is also important to axion physics. To reveal such systems, tensor network methods are powerful tools. Tensor network methods have been developed by condensed matter theorists. Furthermore, recently there have been some attempts to apply them to high energy physics. In particular, the tensor renormalization group (TRG) method is remarkable for its applicability to higher dimensions. The Schwinger model is known as a two-dimensional toy model of QCD. It has the chiral symmetry and theta term as the same as QCD. In this study, the free energy of the two-flavor Schwinger model is calculated in a broad range of mass and theta parameters. We use TRG to calculate it, with obvious 2pi periodicity of theta parameter. We check the consistency with analytical values in large and small mass limits.
Venue: via Zoom / Seminar Room #359
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Boundary-induced transitions in Möbius quenches of holographic BCFT
May 15 (Wed) at 16:00 - 17:30, 2024
Dongsheng Ge (Project Researcher, Department of physics, Osaka University)
Boundary effects play an interesting role in finite-size physical systems. In this work, we study the boundary-induced properties of 1+1-dimensional critical systems driven by inhomogeneous Möbius-like quenches. We focus on the entanglement entropy in BCFTs with a large central charge and a sparse spectrum of low-dimensional operators. We find that the choice of boundary conditions leads to different scenarios of dynamical phase transitions. We also derive these results in a holographic description in terms of intersecting branes in AdS3, and find a precise match.
Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Role of self-gravity on the central halo structure of fuzzy dark matter
April 30 (Tue) at 13:30 - 15:00, 2024
Yusuke Manita (Affiliated Scientist, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University)
Fuzzy dark matter (FDM) is a dark matter model that is characterized by the ultralight masses around 10−22 eV. As FDM has the wave-like nature, the self-gravitating structure is described by the Schrödinger-Poisson equation. Previous simulations based on the Schrödinger-Poisson equation have demonstrated that soliton-like structure having a high-density flat core is formed at the central region of the FDM halos, and the size of such a core is typically determined by the de Broglie wavelength. Away from the central core, the density profile of the FDM halos resembles that of the cold dark matter halos on average, and is shown to be described by the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile. In this paper, we study the role of the self-gravity of the soliton core, and its relation to the bulk halo properties by solving the Schrödinger-Poisson equation in a simplified setup. The findings indicate that the contribution from the soliton self-gravity must dominate over the NFW potential in order to sustain the soliton.
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Main Research Building
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
A night out with ghosts
April 24 (Wed) at 16:00 - 17:30, 2024
Veronica Errasti Diez (Research Fellow, Faculty of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany)
Field theories are the chief theoretical framework for physics. For instance, the Standard Model and General Relativity are widely accepted as accounting for subatomic particle and gravitational behavior, respectively. Nonetheless, even such acclaimed field theories have their limitations, such as the mysterious neutrino masses and dark sector. A natural and popular way around the hurdles consists in generalizations of field theories, via the inclusion of non-linear and/or higher-order corrections. Unless painstakingly avoided, these corrections lead to the propagation of negative kinetic energy modes, or ghosts for short. Ghosts have earned an appalling fame: kill, exorcise, avoid… No efforts are spared to guarantee their absence. In this talk, we will delve into the root causes for the ill name of ghosts. As a result, we will take up the cudgels for ghosts. While they do have a strong tendency to yield ill-behaved theories, ghosts are not intrinsically pathological. As we will see, good-natured ghosts open the door to multi-disciplinary tantalizing opportunities…! And ghosts make excellent party-goers, so make sure not to miss this appointment!
Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Main Research Building
Event Official Language: English
83 events