arXiv subjects

Brian McPeak

Publications and source records attributed to Brian McPeak.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Wormholes and the imaginary distance bound

Some of the simplest wormhole solutions involve massless scalar fields that take imaginary values. Massless fields can be interpreted as coupling constants in asymptotically flat or asymptotically AdS gravity theories. We argue that wormhole effects imply an imaginary distance bound, an upper limit for the analytic continuation of the theory to imaginary values of these couplings. In string theory examples, we find explicit effects that render the low-energy theory invalid either before or precisely at this wormhole limit. We argue that the existence of such effects enforcing the distance bound is a general feature of string theories containing wormholes. In some cases, the bounds we discuss coincide with the weak gravity conjecture, and with the Kontsevich-Segal-Witten condition on complex metrics.

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arXiv2025

Holographic duality from Howe duality: Chern-Simons gravity as an ensemble of code CFTs

We discuss the holographic correspondence between 3d "Chern-Simons gravity" and an ensemble of 2d Narain code CFTs. Starting from 3d abelian Chern-Simons theory, we construct an ensemble of boundary CFTs defined by gauging all possible maximal subgroups of the bulk one-form symmetry. Each maximal non-anomalous subgroup is isomorphic to a classical even self-dual error-correcting code over $\mathbb Z_p\times \mathbb Z_p$, providing a way to define a boundary "code CFT." The average over the ensemble of such theories is holographically dual to Chern-Simons gravity, a bulk theory summed over 3d topologies sharing the same boundary. In the case of prime $p$, the sum reduces to that over handlebodies, i.e. becomes the Poincaré series akin to that in semiclassical gravity. As the main result of the paper, we show that the mathematical identity underlying this holographic duality can be understood and rigorously proven using the framework of Howe duality over finite fields. This framework is concerned with the representation theory of two commuting groups forming a dual pair: the symplectic group of modular transformations of the boundary, and an orthogonal group mapping codes to each other. Finally, we reformulate the holographic duality as an identity between different averages over quantum stabilizer states, providing an interpretation in terms of quantum information theory.

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arXiv2025

Quantum bootstrap for central potentials

We study the quantum-mechanical bootstrap as it applies to the bound states of several central potentials in three dimensions. As part of this effort, we show how the bootstrap approach may be applied to ``non-algebraic'' potentials, such as the Yukawa potential (which asymptotically decays as an exponential) and a Gaussian potential. We additionally review the bootstrap of the Coulomb potential, demonstrate a high-precision bootstrap of the Cornell potential, and study conformal quantum mechanics. These results further recommend the bootstrap as a numerical method for high-precision calculations of ground-state physics, where applicable: for example, we are able to determine the critical coupling in the Cornell potential to better than one part in $10^7$, the most precise determination to date. Lower bounds on energies are also of high precision, occasionally one part in greater than $10^8$. Finally, we discuss the circumstances under which we are able to obtain meaningful upper bounds on ground-state energies.

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arXiv2025

Bootstrapping supersymmetric (matrix) quantum mechanics

We apply the quantum-mechanics bootstrap to supersymmetric quantum mechanics (SUSY QM) and to its matrix relative, the Marinari-Parisi model, which is conjectured to describe the worldvolume of unstable $D0$ branes. Using positivity of moment matrices together with Heisenberg, gauge, and (zero-temperature) thermal constraints, we obtain rigorous bounds on ground-state data. In the cases where SUSY is spontaneously broken, we find bounds that apply to the lowest-energy normalizable eigenstate. For $N = 1$ SUSY QM with a cubic superpotential, we obtain tight bounds that agree well with available approximation methods. At weak coupling they match well with the semiclassical instanton contribution to SUSY-breaking ground-state energy, while at strong coupling they exhibit the expected scaling and match well with Hamiltonian truncation. For the SUSY matrix QM, we construct a $44 \times 44$ bootstrap matrix and obtain bounds at large $N$. At strong coupling, we obtain the expected $E \sim κ\ g^{2/3}$ scaling of $E$ with $g$ and extract a lower bound on the coefficient $κ> .196$. At small coupling, the theory has a critical point $g_c$ where the two wells merge into one. We find a spurious kink at $g = \sqrt{2} g_c$. We attribute this to truncation error and solver limitations, and discuss possible improvements.

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arXiv2025

Positivity Bounds on Massive Vectors

In this paper, we explore positivity bounds for the effective field theory~(EFT) of a single weakly coupled massive vector field. The presence of both mass and spin makes the crossing properties of the amplitudes vastly complicated -- we address this by parametrizing the amplitudes as products of a polarization matrix and a vector of appropriately chosen functions with simpler crossing properties. The resulting framework involves sum rules and null constraints that allows us to constrain any combination of low-energy observables, such as EFT amplitudes. By varying the value of the vector mass over the cutoff scale, some of our bounds asymptote to the bounds obtained in the context of photons and massless scalars. This work paves the way for future applications to e.g. non-abelian massive vectors, glueballs and theories with spin larger than one.

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arXiv2024

Bootstrapping time-evolution in quantum mechanics

We present a method for obtaining a hierarchy of rigorous bounds on the time-evolution of a quantum mechanical system from an arbitrary initial state, systematically generalizing Mandelstam-Tamm-like relations. For any fixed level in the hierarchy, the bounds are tightest after short time-evolution and gradually loosen over time; we present evidence that for any fixed amount of time-evolution, the bounds can be made arbitrarily tight by moving up in the hierarchy. The computational effort to obtain the bounds scales polynomially with the number of degrees of freedom in the system being simulated. We demonstrate the method on both a single anharmonic oscillator and a system of two coupled anharmonic oscillators.

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arXiv2024

Causality bounds from charged shockwaves in 5d

Effective field theories are constrained by the requirement that their constituents never move superluminally on non-trivial backgrounds. In this paper, we study time delays experienced by photons propagating on charged shockwave backgrounds in five dimensions. In the absence of gravity -- where the shockwaves are electric fields sourced by boosted charges -- we derive positivity bounds for the four-derivative corrections to electromagnetism, reproducing previous results derived from scattering amplitudes. By considering the gravitational shockwaves sourced by Reissner-Nordström black holes, we derive new constraints in the presence of gravity. We observe the by-now familiar weakening of positivity bounds in the presence of gravity, but without the logarithmic divergences present in 4d. We find that the strongest bounds appear by examining the time delay near the horizon of the smallest possible black hole, and discuss on the validity of the EFT expansion in this region. We comment on our bounds in the context of the swampland program as well as their relation with the positivity bounds obtained from dispersion relations.

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arXiv2023

Electric shocks: bounding Einstein-Maxwell theory with time delays on boosted RN backgrounds

The requirement that particles propagate causally on non-trivial backgrounds implies interesting constraints on higher-derivative operators. This work is part of a systematic study of the positivity bounds derivable from time delays on shockwave backgrounds. First, we discuss shockwaves in field theory, which are infinitely boosted Coulomb-like field configurations. We show how a positive time delay implies positivity of four-derivative operators in scalar field theory and electromagnetism, consistent with the results derived using dispersion relations, and we comment on how additional higher-derivative operators could be included. We then turn to gravitational shockwave backgrounds. We compute the infinite boost limit of Reissner-Nordström black holes to derive charged shockwave backgrounds. We consider photons traveling on these backgrounds and interacting through four-derivative corrections to Einstein-Maxwell theory. The inclusion of gravity introduces a logarithmic term into the time delay that interferes with the straightforward bounds derivable in pure field theory, a fact consistent with CEMZ and with recent results from dispersion relations. We discuss two ways to extract a physically meaningful quantity from the logarithmic time delay -- by introducing an IR cutoff, or by considering the derivative of the time delay -- and comment on the bounds implied in each case. Finally, we review a number of additional shockwave backgrounds which might be of use in future applications, including spinning shockwaves, those in higher dimensions or with a cosmological constant, and shockwaves from boosted extended objects.

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arXiv2023

Averaging over codes and an $SU(2)$ modular bootstrap

Error-correcting codes are known to define chiral 2d lattice CFTs where all the $U(1)$ symmetries are enhanced to $SU(2)$. In this paper, we extend this construction to a broader class of length-$n$ codes which define full (non-chiral) CFTs with $SU(2)^n$ symmetry, where $n=c+\bar c$. We show that codes give a natural discrete ensemble of 2d theories in which one can compute averaged observables. The partition functions obtained from averaging over all codes weighted equally is found to be given by the sum over modular images of the vacuum character of the full extended symmetry group, and in this case the number of modular images is finite. This averaged partition function has a large gap, scaling linearly with $n$, in primaries of the full $SU(2)^n$ symmetry group. Using the sum over modular images, we conjecture the form of the genus-2 partition function. This exhibits the connected contributions to disconnected boundaries characteristic of wormhole solutions in a bulk dual.

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arXiv2023

Adding subtractions: comparing the impact of different Regge behaviors

Dispersion relations let us leverage the analytic structure of scattering amplitudes to derive constraints such as bounds on EFT coefficients. An important input is the large-energy behavior of the amplitude. In this paper, we systematically study how different large-energy behavior affects EFT bounds for the $2 \to 2$ amplitude of complex scalars coupled to photons, gravity, both, or neither. In many cases we find that singly-subtracted dispersion relations (1SDRs) yield exactly the same bounds as doubly subtracted relations (2SDRs). However, we identify another assumption, which we call "$t$-channel dominance," that significantly strengthens the EFT bounds. This assumption, which amounts to the requirement that the $++ \to ++$ amplitude has no $s$-channel exchange, is justified in certain cases and is analogous to the condition that the isospin-2 channel does not contribute to the pion amplitude. Using this assumption in the absence of massless exchanges, we find that the allowed region for the complex scalar EFT is identical to one recently discussed for pion scattering at large-$N$. In the case of gravity and a gauge field, we are able to derive a number of interesting bounds. These include an upper bound for $G$ in terms of the gauge coupling $e^2$ and the leading dispersive EFT coefficient, which is reminiscent of the weak gravity conjecture. In the $e \to 0$ limit, we find that assuming smeared 1SDRs plus $t$-channel dominance restores positivity on the leading EFT coefficient whose positivity was spoiled by the inclusion of gravity. We interpret this to mean that the negativity of that coefficient in the presence of gravity would imply that the global $U(1)$ symmetry must be gauged.

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arXiv2022

Analytic bootstrap of mixed correlators in the $\boldsymbol{O(n)}$ CFT

We use large spin perturbation theory and the Lorentzian inversion formula to compute order-$\varepsilon$ corrections to mixed correlators in the $O(n)$ Wilson-Fisher CFT in $4 - \varepsilon$ dimensions. In particular, we find the scaling dimensions and averaged OPE coefficients appearing in all correlators involving $φ$ and $φ^2$, for $φ^2$ in both the singlet and symmetric traceless representations of $O(n)$. We extend some computations to the next order, and find order-$\varepsilon^2$ data for a number of quantities for the Ising case at $n = 1$. Along the way, we discuss several interesting technical aspects which arise, including subleading corrections to mixed conformal blocks, projections onto higher twists in the inversion formula, and multiplet recombination.

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arXiv2022

Rigorous Bounds on Light-by-Light Scattering

We bound EFT coefficients appearing in $2 \to 2$ photon scattering amplitudes in four dimensions. After reviewing unitarity and positivity conditions in this context, we use dispersion relations and crossing symmetry to compute sum rules and null constraints. This allows us to derive new rigorous bounds on operators with four, six, and eight derivatives, including two-sided bounds on their ratios. Comparing with a number of partial UV completions, we find that some of our bounds are saturated by the amplitudes that arise from integrating out a massive scalar or axion, while others suggest the existence of unknown amplitudes.

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arXiv2022

Narain CFTs and Quantum Codes at Higher Genus

Code CFTs are 2d conformal field theories defined by error-correcting codes. Recently, Dymarsky and Shapere generalized the construction of code CFTs to include quantum error-correcting codes. In this paper, we explore this connection at higher genus. We prove that the higher-genus partition functions take the form of polynomials of higher-weight theta functions, and that the higher-genus modular group acts as simple linear transformations on these polynomials. We explain how to solve the modular constraints explicitly, which we do for genus 2. The result is that modular invariance at genus 1 and genus 2 is much more constraining than genus 1 alone. This allows us to drastically reduce the space of possible code CFTs. We also consider a number of examples of "isospectral theories" -- CFTs with the same genus 1 partition function -- and we find that they have different genus 2 partition functions. Finally, we make connection to some 2d CFTs known from the modular bootstrap. The $n = 4$ theory conjectured to have the largest possible gap, the $SO(8)$ WZW model, is a code CFT, allowing us to give an expression for its genus 2 partition function. We also find some other known CFTs which are not code theories but whose partition functions satisfy the same simple polynomial ansatz as the code theories. This leads us to speculate about the usefulness of the code polynomial form beyond the study of code CFTs.

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arXiv2022

Classical Codes and Chiral CFTs at Higher Genus

Higher genus modular invariance of two-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) is a largely unexplored area. In this paper, we derive explicit expressions for the higher genus partition functions of a specific class of CFTs: code CFTs, which are constructed using classical error-correcting codes. In this setting, the $\mathrm{Sp}(2g,\mathbb Z)$ modular transformations of genus $g$ Riemann surfaces can be recast as a simple set of linear maps acting on $2^g$ polynomial variables, which comprise an object called the code enumerator polynomial. The CFT partition function is directly related to the enumerator polynomial, meaning that solutions of the linear constraints from modular invariance immediately give a set of seemingly consistent partition functions at a given genus. We then find that higher genus constraints, plus consistency under degeneration limits of the Riemann surface, greatly reduces the number of possible code CFTs. This work provides a step towards a full understanding of the constraints from higher genus modular invariance on 2d CFTs.

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arXiv2022

Bounding Violations of the Weak Gravity Conjecture

The black hole weak gravity conjecture (WGC) is a set of linear inequalities on the four-derivative corrections to Einstein--Maxwell theory. Remarkably, in four dimensions, these combinations appear in the $2 \to 2$ photon amplitudes, leading to the hope that the conjecture might be supported using dispersion relations. However, the presence of a pole arising in the forward limit due to graviton exchange greatly complicates the use of such arguments. In this paper, we apply recently developed numerical techniques to handle the graviton pole, and we find that standard dispersive arguments are not strong enough to imply the black hole WGC. Specifically, under a fairly typical set of assumptions, including weak coupling of the EFT and Regge boundedness, a small violation of the black hole WGC is consistent with unitarity and causality. We quantify the size of this violation, which vanishes in the limit where gravity decouples and also depends logarithmically on an infrared cutoff. We discuss the meaning of these bounds in various scenarios. We also implement a method for bounding amplitudes without manifestly positive spectral densities, which could be applied to any system of non-identical states, and we use it to improve bounds on the EFT of pure photons in absence of gravity.

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arXiv2021

The Entropy Shift and Extremality Shift at Zero Temperature

There is a well-established connection between the higher-derivative corrections to the black hole entropy and the black hole extremality bound. The particular combination of EFT coefficients $c_i$ that controls the mass shift at fixed charge and temperature also controls the entropy shift at fixed charge and mass in the limit where the mass approaches the uncorrected value for the extremal mass. In this note, we use the classical entropy function formalism to examine the entropy corrections at exactly zero temperature, or at the corrected value for the extremal mass. We find that the zero-temperature entropy shift (a) is unrelated to the mass shift, (b) is $\mathcal{O}(c_i)$ in the EFT coefficients, rather than $\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{c_i})$, as is the constant-mass entropy shift, and (c) is negative in the example of the EFT arising at low energies from QED plus gravity.

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arXiv2021

Repulsive Black Holes and Higher-Derivatives

In two-derivative theories of gravity coupled to matter, charged black holes are self-attractive at large distances, with the force vanishing at zero temperature. However, in the presence of massless scalar fields and four-derivative corrections, zero-temperature black holes no longer need to obey the no-force condition. In this paper, we show how to calculate the long-range force between such black holes. We develop an efficient method for computing the higher-derivative corrections to the scalar charges when the two-derivative theory has a shift symmetry, and compute the resulting force in a variety of examples. We find that higher-derivative corrected black holes may be self-attractive or self-repulsive, depending on the value of the Wilson coefficients and the VEVs of scalar moduli. Indeed, we find black hole solutions which are both superextremal and self-attractive. Furthermore, we present examples where no choice of higher-derivative coefficients allows for self-repulsive black hole states in all directions in charge space. This suggests that, unlike the Weak Gravity Conjecture, which may be satisfied by the black hole spectrum alone, the Repulsive Force Conjecture requires additional constraints on the spectrum of charged particles.

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arXiv2021

Holography, Supergravity, and the Weak Gravity Conjecture

This dissertation represents work on three different subjects relating to quantum gravity and the AdS/CFT correspondence. First, we review a holographic computation of the one-loop corrections to the Weyl anomaly on Ricci flat backgrounds in six dimensions. This allows us to determine the correction to one linear combination of the anomaly coefficients. Then, we will show that these corrections may be obtained from the six-dimensional superconformal index. The second section covers consistent truncations on the Lunin-Maldacena background. We show how to restore minimal supersymmetry to this background by determining the reduction ansatz which includes the graviton and a gauge field of 5d $\mathcal{N} = 2$ supergravity. We also discuss our previously unpublished attempt to construct a truncation which includes a scalar field corresponding to the $β$-deformation parameter of the dual field theory. We show that if such a solution exists, it must differ drastically from the LM background. Finally, we discuss higher-derivative corrections to black hole solutions and the weak gravity conjecture in a few settings. First we compute higher-derivative corrections to the extremality bounds for black holes which are charged under an arbitrary number of $U(1)$ gauge fields, and determine the constraints implied by the WGC. Next we consider the higher-derivative corrections to thermodynamic quantities for charged black holes in Anti-de Sitter space. We confirm and clarify a previously noted relationship between the shift to the extremality bound and the shift to the Wald entropy. We also show that if the shift in the Wald entropy is assumed to be positive, then the coefficient of the $R_{μνρσ} R^{μνρσ}$ term in the effective Lagrangian must be positive as well.

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