arXiv subjects

Edward A. Mazenc

Publications and source records attributed to Edward A. Mazenc.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Worldsheet Duals to One-Matrix Models

We 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.

hep-th↗

arXiv2026

Open-Closed-Open Triality Beyond Matrix Models

We explore the ideas of open-closed-open triality within twisted holography. Starting from two transverse stacks of branes in the B-model on the resolved conifold, we obtain two equivalent open string descriptions. Both are full-fledged field theories. In the appropriate limit, they simplify to gauged $βγ$-systems with determinant insertions, as expected from open string field theory. The $ρ$-matrix models that have appeared previously in the literature appear from an on-shell analysis of the field-theory actions. Most importantly, we show that the effective potential generated by integrating out the open strings on the other stack of branes exactly captures their backreaction on the geometry. In particular, we match the action of the probe branes to that of giant gravitons in the $\textit{deformed}$ conifold. The second open string description of the triality thus directly diagnoses the emergent bulk spacetime.

hep-th↗

arXiv2026

Matrix Correlators as Discrete Volumes of Moduli Space I: Recursion Relations, the BMN-limit and DSSYK

We show certain correlators in generic one-matrix models define a notion of ``discrete'' volumes of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces, generalizing the connection between random matrices and JT gravity. We prove they obey a discrete, Mirzakhani-like recursion relation. Their fundamental discreteness crucially relies upon studying these matrix integrals away from the usual double-scaling limit. In a BMN-like limit of large traces, this recursion universally goes over to a continuous one, and the correlators asymptote to the volumes of Kontsevich. Finally, we demonstrate that the ETH matrix integral for DSSYK furnishes a discrete, $q$-analog of the Weil--Petersson volumes, thereby proving a conjecture due to K. Okuyama.

hep-th↗

arXiv2024

Strings from Feynman Diagrams

For correlators in $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super Yang-Mills preserving half the supersymmetry, we manifestly recast the gauge theory Feynman diagram expansion as a sum over dual closed strings. Each individual Feynman diagram maps on to a Riemann surface with specific moduli. The Feynman diagrams thus correspond to discrete lattice points on string moduli space, rather than discretized worldsheets. This picture is valid to all orders in the $1/N$ expansion. Concretely, the mapping is carried out at the level of a two-matrix integral with its dual string description. It provides a microscopic picture of open/closed string duality for this topological subsector of the full AdS/CFT correspondence. At the same time, the concrete mechanism for how strings emerge from the matrix model Feynman diagrams predicts that multiple open string descriptions can exist for the same dual closed string theory. By considering the insertion of determinant operators in $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM, we indeed find six equivalent open-string descriptions. Each of them generates Feynman diagrams related to one another via (partial) graph duality, and hence encodes the same information. The embedding of these Kontsevich-like duals into the 1/2 SUSY sector of AdS/CFT is achieved by open strings on giant graviton branes.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

Deriving the Simplest Gauge-String Duality -- I: Open-Closed-Open Triality

We lay out an approach to derive the closed string dual to the simplest possible gauge theory, a single hermitian matrix integral, in the conventional 't Hooft large $N$ limit. In this first installment of three papers, we propose and verify an explicit correspondence with a (mirror) pair of closed topological string theories. On the A-model side, this is a supersymmetric $SL(2, \mathbb{R})_1/U(1)$ Kazama-Suzuki coset (with background momentum modes turned on). The mirror B-model description is in terms of a Landau-Ginzburg theory with superpotential $W(Z)=\frac{1}{Z}+t_2Z$ and its deformations. We arrive at these duals through an "open-closed-open triality". This is the notion that two open string descriptions ought to exist for the same closed string theory depending on how closed strings manifest themselves from open string modes. Applying this idea to the hermitian matrix model gives an exact mapping to the Imbimbo-Mukhi matrix model. The latter model is known to capture the physical correlators of the $c=1$ string theory at self-dual radius, which, in turn, has the equivalent topological string descriptions given above. This enables us to establish the equality of correlators, to all genus, between single trace operators in our original matrix model and those of the dual closed strings. Finally, we comment on how this simplest of dualities might be fruitfully viewed in terms of an embedding into the full AdS/CFT correspondence.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

de Sitter Microstates from $T\bar T+Λ_2$ and the Hawking-Page Transition

We obtain microstates accounting for the Gibbons-Hawking entropy in $dS_3$, along with a subleading logarithmic correction, from the solvable $T\bar T+Λ_2$ deformation of a seed CFT with sparse light spectrum. The microstates arise as the dressed CFT states near dimension $Δ=c/6$, associated with the Hawking-Page transition; they dominate the real spectrum of the deformed theory. We exhibit an analogue of the Hawking-Page transition in de Sitter. Appropriate generalizations of the $T\bar T+Λ_2$ deformation are required to treat model-dependent local bulk physics (subleading at large central charge) and higher dimensions. These results add considerably to the already strong motivation for the continued pursuit of such generalizations along with a more complete characterization of $T\bar T$ type theories, building from existing results in these directions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

The Schur Expansion of Characteristic Polynomials and Random Matrices

We develop a new framework to compute the exact correlators of characteristic polynomials, and their inverses, in random matrix theory. Our results hold for general potentials and incorporate the effects of an external source. In matrix model realizations of string theory, these correspond to correlation functions of exponentiated "(anti-)branes" in a given background of "momentum branes". Our method relies on expanding the (inverse) determinants in terms of Schur polynomials, then re-summing their expectation values over the allowed representations of the symmetric group. Beyond unifying previous, seemingly disparate calculations, this powerful technique immediately delivers two new results: 1) the full finite $N$ answer for the correlator of inverse determinant insertions in the presence of a matrix source, and 2) access to an interesting, novel regime $M>N$, where the number of inverse determinant insertions $M$ exceeds the size of the matrix $N$.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

A Path Integral Realization of Joint $J\bar T$, $T\bar J$ and $T\bar T$ Flows

We recast the joint $J\bar{T}$, $T\bar{J}$ and $T\bar{T}$ deformations as coupling the original theory to a mixture of topological gravity and gauge theory. This geometrizes the general flow triggered by irrelevant deformations built out of conserved currents and the stress-energy tensor, by means of a path integral kernel. The partition function of the deformed theory satisfies a diffusion-like flow equation similar to that found in the pure $T\bar{T}$ case. Our proposal passes two stringent tests. Firstly, we recover the classical deformed actions from the kernel, reproducing the known expressions for the free boson and fermion. Secondly, we explicitly compute the torus path integral along the flow and show it localizes to a finite-dimensional, one-loop exact integral over base space torus moduli. The dressed energy levels so obtained match exactly onto those previously reported in the literature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

A $T \bar{T}$ Deformation for Curved Spacetimes from 3d Gravity

We propose a generalisation of the $T \bar{T}$ deformation to curved spaces by defining, and solving, a suitable flow equation for the partition function. We provide evidence it is well-defined at the quantum level. This proposal identifies, for any CFT, the $T \bar{T}$ deformed partition function and a certain wavefunction of 3d quantum gravity. This connection, true for any $c$, is not a holographic duality --- the 3d theory is a "fake bulk." We however emphasise that this reduces to the known holographic connection in the classical limit. Concretely, this means the deformed partition function solves exactly not just one global equation, defining the $T \bar{T}$ flow, but in fact a local Wheeler-de Witt equation, relating the $T \bar{T}$ operator to the trace of the stress tensor. This also immediately suggests a version of the $T \bar{T}$ deformation with locally varying deformation parameter. We flesh out the connection to 3d gravity, showing that the partition function of the deformed theory is precisely a 3d gravity path integral. In particular, in the classical limit, this path integral reproduces the holographic picture of Dirichlet boundary conditions at a finite radius and mixed boundary conditions at the asymptotic boundary. Further, we reproduce known results in the flat space limit, as well as the large $c$ $S^2$ partition function, and conjecture an answer for the finite $c$ $S^2$ partition function.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Target Space Entanglement Entropy

We define a notion of target space entanglement entropy. Rather than partitioning the base space on which the theory is defined, we consider partitions of the target space. This is the physical case of interest for first-quantized theories, such as worldsheet string theory. We associate to each subregion of the target space a suitably chosen sub-algebra of observables $\mathcal{A}$. The entanglement entropy is calculated as the entropy of the density matrix restricted to $\mathcal{A}$. As an example, we illustrate our framework by computing spatial entanglement in first-quantized many-body quantum mechanics. The algebra $\mathcal{A}$ is chosen to reproduce the entanglement entropy obtained by embedding the state in the fixed particle sub-sector of the second-quantized Hilbert space. We then generalize our construction to the quantum field-theoretical setting.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Topological order in matrix Ising models

We study a family of models for an $N_1 \times N_2$ matrix worth of Ising spins $S_{aB}$. In the large $N_i$ limit we show that the spins soften, so that the partition function is described by a bosonic matrix integral with a single `spherical' constraint. In this way we generalize the results of [1] to a wide class of Ising Hamiltonians with $O(N_1,\mathbb{Z})\times O(N_2,\mathbb{Z})$ symmetry. The models can undergo topological large $N$ phase transitions in which the thermal expectation value of the distribution of singular values of the matrix $S_{aB}$ becomes disconnected. This topological transition competes with low temperature glassy and magnetically ordered phases.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Matrix Quantum Mechanics from Qubits

We introduce a transverse field Ising model with order N^2 spins interacting via a nonlocal quartic interaction. The model has an O(N,Z), hyperoctahedral, symmetry. We show that the large N partition function admits a saddle point in which the symmetry is enhanced to O(N). We further demonstrate that this `matrix saddle' correctly computes large N observables at weak and strong coupling. The matrix saddle undergoes a continuous quantum phase transition at intermediate couplings. At the transition the matrix eigenvalue distribution becomes disconnected. The critical excitations are described by large N matrix quantum mechanics. At the critical point, the low energy excitations are waves propagating in an emergent 1+1 dimensional spacetime.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Primordial Bispectrum from Multifield Inflation with Nonminimal Couplings

Realistic models of high-energy physics include multiple scalar fields. Renormalization requires that the fields have nonminimal couplings to the spacetime Ricci curvature scalar, and the couplings can be large at the energy scales of early-universe inflation. The nonminimal couplings induce a nontrivial field-space manifold in the Einstein frame, and they also yield an effective potential in the Einstein frame with nontrivial curvature. The ridges or bumps in the Einstein-frame potential can lead to primordial non-Gaussianities of observable magnitude. We develop a covariant formalism to study perturbations in such models and calculate the primordial bispectrum. As in previous studies of non-Gaussianities in multifield models, our results for the bispectrum depend sensitively on the fields' initial conditions.

astro-ph.CO↗