arXiv subjects

Federico Galli

Publications and source records attributed to Federico Galli.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Temporal Entanglement from Twist Correlators in 2d Conformal Field Theory and Holography

We formulate timelike entanglement entropy and its R\'enyi extension in two-dimensional conformal field theory through the analytic continuation of replica twist correlators to time-ordered, timelike-separated insertions. This field-theoretic construction grounds and generalizes recent developments, and applies to temporal subregions of arbitrary extent. Within three-dimensional holography, the semiclassical boundary correlator identifies boundary-anchored complex geodesics as the relevant bulk saddles and selects the one with the smallest real part of the length. This provides a direct boundary derivation of the proposed complex extremal surface prescription and extends to R\'enyi index $n>1$, for which we explicitly construct the corresponding complex cosmic brane geometry in the vacuum. We develop these ideas in several representative settings, including locally and globally excited states and quantum operator quenches, making manifest the precise agreement between boundary twist correlator and bulk complex geodesic calculations. For AdS-Vaidya, our approach predicts a different result from earlier piecewise geodesic constructions, while reproducing the field theory answer. Across these examples, the operator ordering uniquely determines the imaginary part of the complex-valued entropy, which is quantized in units of $c\pi/6$ and sensitive to the effective causal structure but not to the underlying dynamics.

hep-th↗

arXiv2026

Surface-access limitation in catalytic porous monoliths: Performance diagnosis using pore-resolved CFD

Porous monoliths are promising catalyst supports due to their high surface area, interconnected channels, thermal stability and mechanical robustness. However, their tunable topology complicates design: trade-offs between conversion and pressure drop are not reliably captured by macroscopic descriptors, such as porosity, specific surface area, or tortuosity. Pore-resolved computational fluid dynamics~(PRCFD) addresses this gap by resolving pore-scale flow and transport, enabling diagnostics and discrimination between macroscopically similar structures. We investigate surface-access-boundedness: a case where conversion is limited by flow maldistribution and incomplete utilisation of the catalytic surface, even at low Damk\"ohler numbers (Da<1). Using palladium-nanoparticle-coated silicone monoliths for p-nitrophenol reduction, we perform reactive PRCFD in microcomputed-tomography-based geometries, calibrate a pseudo-heterogeneous eggshell reaction model, and validate transferability across samples and flow rates. We then diagnose surface-access-boundedness via the limited influence of diffusivity and reaction kinetics on conversion. Furthermore, we compare synthesised random monoliths with triply periodic minimal surface structures under matched porosity and surface area. Significantly, the required pumping power can decrease by up to an order of magnitude for the same molar production rate, depending on topology. These results show that, in heterogeneous systems affected by surface-access limitations, reactor performance is governed by structure-dependent surface accessibility rather than intrinsic kinetics or molecular diffusion alone, and that validated reactive PRCFD provides a practical framework to diagnose and compare porous reactor geometries under realistic operating conditions.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2025

Challenging the Abilities of Large Language Models in Italian: a Community Initiative

The rapid progress of Large Language Models (LLMs) has transformed natural language processing and broadened its impact across research and society. Yet, systematic evaluation of these models, especially for languages beyond English, remains limited. "Challenging the Abilities of LAnguage Models in ITAlian" (CALAMITA) is a large-scale collaborative benchmarking initiative for Italian, coordinated under the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics. Unlike existing efforts that focus on leaderboards, CALAMITA foregrounds methodology: it federates more than 80 contributors from academia, industry, and the public sector to design, document, and evaluate a diverse collection of tasks, covering linguistic competence, commonsense reasoning, factual consistency, fairness, summarization, translation, and code generation. Through this process, we not only assembled a benchmark of over 20 tasks and almost 100 subtasks, but also established a centralized evaluation pipeline that supports heterogeneous datasets and metrics. We report results for four open-weight LLMs, highlighting systematic strengths and weaknesses across abilities, as well as challenges in task-specific evaluation. Beyond quantitative results, CALAMITA exposes methodological lessons: the necessity of fine-grained, task-representative metrics, the importance of harmonized pipelines, and the benefits and limitations of broad community engagement. CALAMITA is conceived as a rolling benchmark, enabling continuous integration of new tasks and models. This makes it both a resource -- the most comprehensive and diverse benchmark for Italian to date -- and a framework for sustainable, community-driven evaluation. We argue that this combination offers a blueprint for other languages and communities seeking inclusive and rigorous LLM evaluation practices.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2024

Robust pore-resolved CFD through porous monoliths reconstructed by micro-computed tomography: From digitization to flow prediction

Porous media are ubiquitous in energy storage and conversion, catalysis, biomechanics, hydrogeology, as well as many other fields. These materials possess high surface-to-volume ratios and their complex channels can restrict and guide the flow. However, optimizing design parameters for specific applications remains challenging due to the intricate structure of porous media. Pore-resolved CFD reveals the effects of their structure on flow characteristics, but is limited by the performance of mesh generation algorithms for such complex geometries. To alleviate this issue, we use a sharp immersed boundary method which enables usage of Cartesian, non-conformal grids, within a massively parallel finite element framework. This method preserves the order convergence of the scheme and allows for adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). We introduce a radial basis function-based representation of solids that allows to solve the flow through complex geometries with precision. We verify the method using the method of manufactured solutions. We validate it using pressure drop measurements through porous silicone monoliths digitized by X-ray computed microtomography, for pore Reynolds numbers up to 30. Simulations are conducted using grids of 200M cells distributed over 8k cores, which would require 16 times more cells without AMR. Results reveal that pore network structure is the principal factor describing pressure evolution and that preferential channels are dominant at this scale. In this work, we demonstrate a robust and efficient workflow for pore-resolved simulations of porous monoliths. This work bridges the gap between sub-millimetric flow and macroscopic properties, which will open the door to design and optimize processes through the usage of physics-based digital twins of complex porous media.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

R\'enyi second laws for black holes

Hawking's black hole area theorem provides a geometric realization of the second law of thermodynamics and constrains gravitational processes. In this work we explore a one-parameter extension of this constraint formulated in terms of the monotonicity properties of R\'enyi entropies. We focus on black hole mergers in asymptotically AdS space and determine new restrictions which these R\'enyi second laws impose on the final state. We evaluate the entropic inequalities starting from the thermodynamic ensembles description of black hole geometries, and find that for many situations they set more stringent bounds than those imposed by the area increase theorem.

hep-th↗

arXiv2024

Boundary-induced transitions in M\"obius quenches of holographic BCFT

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 M\"obius-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 AdS$_3$, and find a precise match.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

Legal Summarisation through LLMs: The PRODIGIT Project

We present some initial results of a large-scale Italian project called PRODIGIT which aims to support tax judges and lawyers through digital technology, focusing on AI. We have focused on generation of summaries of judicial decisions and on the extraction of related information, such as the identification of legal issues and decision-making criteria, and the specification of keywords. To this end, we have deployed and evaluated different tools and approaches to extractive and abstractive summarisation. We have applied LLMs, and particularly on GPT4, which has enabled us to obtain results that proved satisfactory, according to an evaluation by expert tax judges and lawyers. On this basis, a prototype application is being built which will be made publicly available.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2021

Holographic and QFT Complexity with angular momentum

We study the influence of angular momentum on quantum complexity for CFT states holographically dual to rotating black holes. Using the holographic complexity=action (CA) and complexity=volume (CV) proposals, we study the full time dependence of complexity and the complexity of formation for two dimensional states dual to rotating BTZ. The obtained results and their dependence on angular momentum turn out to be analogous to those of charged states dual to Reissner-Nordström AdS black holes. For CA, our computation carefully accounts for the counterterm in the gravity action, which was not included in previous analysis in the literature. This affects the complexity early time dependence and its effect becomes negligible close to extremality. In the grand canonical ensemble, the CA and CV complexity of formation are linear in the temperature, and diverge with the same structure in the speed of light angular velocity limit. For CA the inclusion of the counterterm is crucial for both effects. We also address the problem of studying holographic complexity for higher dimensional rotating black holes, focusing on the four dimensional Kerr-AdS case. Carefully taking into account all ingredients, we show that the late time limit of the CA growth rate saturates the expected bound, and find the CV complexity of formation of large black holes diverges in the critical angular velocity limit. Our holographic analysis is complemented by the study of circuit complexity in a two dimensional free scalar model for a thermofield double (TFD) state with angular momentum. We show how this can be given a description in terms of non-rotating TFD states introducing mode-by-mode effective temperatures and times. We comment on the similarities and differences of the holographic and QFT complexity results.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Aspects of The First Law of Complexity

We investigate the first law of complexity proposed in arXiv:1903.04511, i.e., the variation of complexity when the target state is perturbed, in more detail. Based on Nielsen's geometric approach to quantum circuit complexity, we find the variation only depends on the end of the optimal circuit. We apply the first law to gain new insights into the quantum circuits and complexity models underlying holographic complexity. In particular, we examine the variation of the holographic complexity for both the complexity=action and complexity=volume conjectures in perturbing the AdS vacuum with coherent state excitations of a free scalar field. We also examine the variations of circuit complexity produced by the same excitations for the free scalar field theory in a fixed AdS background. In this case, our work extends the existing treatment of Gaussian coherent states to properly include the time dependence of the complexity variation. We comment on the similarities and differences of the holographic and QFT results.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

The First Law of Complexity

We investigate the variation of holographic complexity for two nearby target states. Based on Nielsen's geometric approach, we find the variation only depends on the end point of the optimal trajectory, a result which we designate the first law of complexity. As an example, we examine the complexity=action conjecture when the AdS vacuum is perturbed by a scalar field excitation, which corresponds to a coherent state. Remarkably, the gravitational contributions completely cancel and the final variation reduces to a boundary term coming entirely from the scalar field action. Hence the null boundary of Wheeler-DeWitt patch appears to act like the "end of the quantum circuit".

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

Holographic second laws of black hole thermodynamics

Recently, it has been shown that for out-of-equilibrium systems, there are additional constraints on thermodynamical evolution besides the ordinary second law. These form a new family of second laws of thermodynamics, which are equivalent to the monotonicity of quantum Rényi divergences. In black hole thermodynamics, the usual second law is manifest as the area increase theorem. Hence one may ask if these additional laws imply new restrictions for gravitational dynamics, such as for out-of-equilibrium black holes? Inspired by this question, we study these constraints within the AdS/CFT correspondence. First, we show that the Rényi divergence can be computed via a Euclidean path integral for a certain class of excited CFT states. Applying this construction to the boundary CFT, the Rényi divergence is evaluated as the renormalized action for a particular bulk solution of a minimally coupled gravity-scalar system. Further, within this framework, we show that there exist transitions which are allowed by the traditional second law, but forbidden by the additional thermodynamical constraints. We speculate on the implications of our findings.

hep-th↗

arXiv2017

Heavy-Heavy-Light-Light correlators in Liouville theory

We compute four-point functions of two heavy and two "perturbatively heavy" operators in the semiclassical limit of Liouville theory on the sphere. We obtain these "Heavy-Heavy-Light-Light" (HHLL) correlators to leading order in the conformal weights of the light insertions in two ways: (a) via a path integral approach, combining different methods to evaluate correlation functions from complex solutions for the Liouville field, and (b) via the conformal block expansion. This latter approach identifies an integral over the continuum of normalizable states and a sum over an infinite tower of lighter discrete states, whose contribution we extract by analytically continuing standard results to our HHLL setting. The sum over this tower reproduces the sum over those complex saddlepoints of the path integral that contribute to the correlator. Our path integral computations reveal that when the two light operators are inserted at equal time in radial quantization, the leading-order HHLL correlator is independent of their separation, and more generally that at this order there is no short-distance singularity as the two light operators approach each other. The conformal block expansion likewise shows that in the discrete sum short-distance singularities are indeed absent for all intermediate states that contribute. In particular, the Virasoro vacuum block, which would have been singular at short distances, is not exchanged. The separation-independence of equal-time correlators is due to cancelations between the discrete contributions. These features lead to a Lorentzian singularity that, in conformal theories with anti-de Sitter (AdS) duals, would be associated to locality below the AdS scale.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Entanglement Scrambling in 2d Conformal Field Theory

We investigate how entanglement spreads in time-dependent states of a 1+1 dimensional conformal field theory (CFT). The results depend qualitatively on the value of the central charge. In rational CFTs, which have central charge below a critical value, entanglement entropy behaves as if correlations were carried by free quasiparticles. This leads to long-term memory effects, such as spikes in the mutual information of widely separated regions at late times. When the central charge is above the critical value, the quasiparticle picture fails. Assuming no extended symmetry algebra, any theory with $c>1$ has diminished memory effects compared to the rational models. In holographic CFTs, with $c \gg 1$, these memory effects are eliminated altogether at strong coupling, but reappear after the scrambling time $t \gtrsim β\log c$ at weak coupling.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Holographic Entanglement Entropy from 2d CFT: Heavy States and Local Quenches

We consider the entanglement entropy in 2d conformal field theory in a class of excited states produced by the insertion of a heavy local operator. These include both high-energy eigenstates of the Hamiltonian and time-dependent local quenches. We compute the universal contribution from the stress tensor to the single interval Renyi entropies and entanglement entropy, and conjecture that this dominates the answer in theories with a large central charge and a sparse spectrum of low-dimension operators. The resulting entanglement entropies agree precisely with holographic calculations in three-dimensional gravity. High-energy eigenstates are dual to microstates of the BTZ black hole, so the corresponding holographic calculation is a geodesic length in the black hole geometry; agreement between these two answers demonstrates that entanglement entropy thermalizes in individual microstates of holographic CFTs. For local quenches, the dual geometry is a highly boosted black hole or conical defect. On the CFT side, the rise in entanglement entropy after a quench is directly related to the monodromy of a Virasoro conformal block.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Holographic thermalization of mutual and tripartite information in 2d CFTs

We discuss the concepts of mutual and tripartite information by referring to simple intuitive examples, and describe their use as probes of thermalization in holographic models. We then review our computation of these quantities in a simple time dependent model, in which energy injection in a strongly coupled field theory is modeled by a shell of null dust falling into 3d anti-de Sitter space. We complete those results with a discussion of the possible equilibrium phases of the tripartite information.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Soft Spectrum in Yukawa-Gauge Mediation

We introduce a model independent parametrization for a subclass of gauge mediated theories, which we refer to as Yukawa-gauge mediation. Within this formalism we study the resulting soft masses in the visible spectrum. We find general expressions for the gaugino and scalar masses. Under generic conditions, the gaugino mass is screened, vanishing at first order in the SUSY breaking scale.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Perturbative stability of SFT-based cosmological models

We review the appearance of multiple scalar fields in linearized SFT based cosmological models with a single non-local scalar field. Some of these local fields are canonical real scalar fields and some are complex fields with unusual coupling. These systems only admit numerical or approximate analysis. We introduce a modified potential for multiple scalar fields that makes the system exactly solvable in the cosmological context of Friedmann equations and at the same time preserves the asymptotic behavior expected from SFT. The main part of the paper consists of the analysis of inhomogeneous cosmological perturbations in this system. We show numerically that perturbations corresponding to the new type of complex fields always vanish. As an example of application of this model we consider an explicit construction of the phantom divide crossing and prove the perturbative stability of this process at the linear order. The issue of ghosts and ways to resolve it are briefly discussed.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Multi-scalar field cosmology from SFT: an exactly solvable approximation

We consider the appearance of multiple scalar fields in SFT inspired non-local models with a single scalar field at late times. In this regime all the scalar fields are free. This system minimally coupled to gravity can be analyzed approximately or numerically. The main result of this note is the introduction of an exactly solvable model which obeys an exact solution in the cosmological context for the Friedmann equations and that reproduces the behavior expected from SFT in the asymptotic regime. Different applications of such a potential to multi-field cosmological models are discussed.

hep-th↗