arXiv subjects

Marco Serone

Publications and source records attributed to Marco Serone.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Bounds on scattering amplitudes of non-identical scalar particles in 4d

We initiate the study of two-to-two scattering amplitudes involving two distinct scalar particles in $d = 4$ spacetime dimensions using the primal S-matrix bootstrap. We impose a $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ global symmetry under which the two particles are the lightest ones carrying charges $(-,+)$ and $(+,-)$, guaranteeing their absolute stability and absence of triangular anomalous thresholds. For unequal masses, the presence of a pseudo-physical cut whose discontinuity is not directly constrained by physical unitarity qualitatively changes the bootstrap problem. We find several observables to be unbounded, while others obey non-trivial one-sided bounds or become bounded once another observable is fixed. In the equal-mass limit, where the pseudo-physical region disappears, two-sided bounds are recovered. As a proof of concept, we show that supplying information about the pseudo-physical discontinuity through an Omn\`es parametrisation also restores boundedness. Our results provide a starting point for future studies of physical processes such as pion-kaon and pion-nucleon scattering.

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arXiv2026

Perturbative, Nonperturbative and Exact Aspects of Crystalline Phases in the Gross-Neveu Model

We study the crystalline phase of the $O(2N)$ Gross--Neveu model with a chemical potential for $a \leq N-2$ of the fermions. We analyze the problem in three independent ways: using perturbative QFT methods, a semiclassical large $N$ analysis, and integrability techniques (both at finite and large $N$). The resulting picture is consistent across all three approaches: at sufficiently large chemical potential $h$, an inhomogeneous phase emerges in which $a$-particle bound states condense and which, at large $N$, corresponds to a periodically oscillating chiral condensate. In this phase, the usual dynamically generated scale $\Lambda$ is replaced by two new dynamically generated scales $\Lambda_{\rm n}$ and $\Lambda_{\rm c}$. These two scales govern the multiple nonperturbative effects in the theory, corresponding in particular to the mass gaps of neutral and charged excitations on top of the inhomogeneous vacuum, respectively. They also control the nonperturbative corrections to observables such as the free energy and provide the parameters characterizing the oscillatory profile of the mean field at large $N$. In this paper, we provide the necessary details of each of the three methods, thereby complementing the results announced in a previous, shorter publication.

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arXiv2025

A Bootstrap Study of Confinement in AdS

Yang-Mills theory in AdS$_{4}$ with Dirichlet boundary conditions is expected to undergo a transition as the AdS radius varies, since the boundary data is incompatible with confinement in flat space. Various mechanisms have been proposed for the disappearance of the Dirichlet boundary condition. From the boundary viewpoint, the associated $3d$ CFT is a deformation of a generalised free theory of non-Abelian conserved currents, with the deformation governed by the bulk gauge coupling. We test these scenarios by deriving non-perturbative constraints from the numerical conformal bootstrap of the four-point function of non-Abelian conserved currents. We rule out the scenario in which the boundary current decouples. Bounds on the lightest scalar operators disfavour a bulk Higgs mechanism and instead point to a transition driven by a scalar singlet becoming marginal. We also obtain bounds on other scalar operators and on the current central charge, and we refine character-based techniques incorporating parity and charge-conjugation symmetry to determine the operator spectrum of the $3d$ Generalised Free Vector theory. These results may be of independent interest beyond Yang-Mills theory in AdS.

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arXiv2025

QCD in AdS

We study QCD on AdS space with scalars or fermions in the fundamental representation, extending earlier results on pure Yang-Mills theory. In the latter, the Dirichlet boundary condition is conjectured to disappear via merger and annihilation, as signaled by the lightest scalar singlet operator approaching marginality as the coupling increases. With matter, there are two candidate operators for this mechanism. We compute their one-loop anomalous dimensions via broken conformal Ward identities and Witten diagrams. In the confining phase, with Dirichlet (Neumann) boundary condition, their anomalous dimensions are negative (positive), consistent with the disappearance (persistence) of the associated boundary CFT in the flat-space limit. In the conformal window, one of these operators becomes the displacement operator of the IR CFT, as signaled by the vanishing of its one-loop anomalous dimension in the perturbative Banks-Zaks regime. Possible scenarios for the lower edge of the conformal window are discussed. Finally, we consider general boundary conditions on fermions and discuss their relation to chiral symmetry breaking in flat space.

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arXiv2025

Condensates, crystals, and renormalons in the Gross-Neveu model at finite density

We study the $O(2N)$ symmetric Gross-Neveu model at finite density in the presence of a $U(1)$ chemical potential $h$ for a generic number $a \leq N-2$ of fermion fields. By combining perturbative quantum field theory, semiclassical large $N$, and Bethe ansatz techniques, we show that at finite $N$ two new dynamically generated scales $\Lambda_\mathrm{n}$ and $\Lambda_\mathrm{c}$ appear in the theory, governing the mass gap of neutral and charged fermions, respectively. Above a certain threshold value for $h$, $a$-fermion bound states condense and form an inhomogeneous configuration, which at infinite $N$ is a crystal spontaneously breaking translations. At large $h$, this crystal has mean $\Lambda_\mathrm{n}$ and spatial oscillations of amplitude $2\Lambda_\mathrm{c}$. The two scales also control the nonperturbative corrections to the free energy, resolving a puzzle concerning fractional-power renormalons and predicting new ones.

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arXiv2024

On the $1/c$ expansion in $2d$ CFTs with degenerate operators

We analytically determine the large central charge asymptotic expansion of the Virasoro conformal blocks entering in four-point functions with external degenerate operators on a sphere in $2d$ CFTs, and study its resurgence properties as a function of the conformal cross-ratio $z$. We focus on the cases of four heavy $(2,1)$ degenerate operators, and two $(2,1)$ heavy degenerate ones plus two arbitrary light operators. The $1/c$ asymptotic series is Borel summable for generic values of $z$, but it jumps when a Stokes line is crossed. Starting from the $1/c$ series of the identity block, we show how a resurgent analysis allows us to completely determine the other Virasoro block and in fact to reconstruct the full correlator. We also show that forbidden singularities, known to exist in correlators with two heavy and two light operators, appear with four heavy operators as well. In both cases, they are turning points emanating Stokes lines, artefacts of the asymptotic expansion, and we show how they are non perturbatively resolved. More general correlators and implications for gravitational theories in $\text{AdS}_{3}$ are briefly discussed. Our results are based on new asymptotic expansions for large parameters $(a,b,c)$ of certain hypergeometric functions $\,_2 F_1(a,b,c;z)$ which can be useful in general.

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arXiv2024

The random free field scalar theory

Quantum field theories with quenched disorder are so hard to study that even exactly solvable free theories present puzzling aspects. We consider a free scalar field $\phi$ in $d$ dimensions coupled to a random source $h$ with quenched disorder. Despite the presence of a mass scale governing the disorder distribution, we derive a new description of the theory that allows us to show that the theory is gapless and invariant under conformal symmetry, which acts in a non-trivial way on $\phi$ and $h$. This manifest CFT description reveals the presence of exotic continuous symmetries, such as nilpotent bosonic ones, in the quenched theory. We also reconsider Cardy's CFT description defined through the replica trick. In this description, the nilpotent symmetries reveal a striking resemblance with Parisi-Sourlas supersymmetries. We provide explicit maps of correlation functions between such CFTs and the original quenched theory. The maps are non-trivial and show that conformal behaviour is manifest only when considering suitable linear combinations of averages of products of correlators. We also briefly discuss how familiar notions like normal ordering of composite operators and OPE can be generalized in the presence of the more complicated local observables in the quenched theory.

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arXiv2024

Exploring Confinement in Anti-de Sitter Space

We study Yang-Mills theory on four dimensional Anti-de Sitter space. The Dirichlet boundary condition cannot exist at arbitrarily large radius because it would give rise to colored asymptotic states in flat space. As observed in [1] this implies a deconfinement-confinement transition as the radius is increased. We gather hints on the nature of this transition using perturbation theory. We compute the anomalous dimensions of the lightest scalar operators in the boundary theory, finding that the singlet gets a larger negative anomalous dimension compared to the adjoint. We also compute the correction to the coefficient $C_J$ and we estimate that the singlet operator reaches marginality before the value of the coupling at which $C_J=0$. These results favor the scenario of merger and annihilation as the most promising candidate for the transition. For the Neumann boundary condition, the lightest scalar operator is found to have a positive anomalous dimension, in agreement with the idea that this boundary condition extrapolates smoothly to flat space. The perturbative calculations are made possible by a drastic simplification of the gauge field propagator in Fried-Yennie gauge. We also derive a general result for the leading-order anomalous dimension of the displacement operator for a generic perturbation in Anti-de Sitter, showing that it is related to the beta function of bulk couplings.

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arXiv2024

Lectures on Resurgence in Integrable Field Theories

There has been recently considerable progress in understanding the nature of perturbation theory in UV free and gapped $2d$ integrable field theories with renormalon singularities. Thanks to Bethe ansatz and large $N$ techniques, non-perturbative corrections can also be computed and lead to the reconstruction of the trans-series for the free energy in presence of a chemical potential. This is an ideal arena to test resurgence in QFT and determine if and how the exact result can be reconstructed from the knowledge of the perturbative series only. In these notes we give a pedagogical introduction to this subject starting from the basics. In the first lecture we give an overview of applications in QFT of Borel resummations before the advent of resurgence. The second lecture introduces the key concepts of resurgence and finally in the third lecture we discuss a specific application in the context of the principal chiral field model. Extended version of three lectures given at IHES and review talks given at Les Diablerets and Mainz, in 2023.

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arXiv2023

Anomalies and Persistent Order in the Chiral Gross-Neveu model

We study the $2d$ chiral Gross-Neveu model at finite temperature $T$ and chemical potential $\mu$. The analysis is performed by relating the theory to a $SU(N)\times U(1)$ Wess-Zumino-Witten model with appropriate levels and global identifications necessary to keep track of the fermion spin structures. At $\mu=0$ we show that a certain $\mathbb{Z}_2$-valued 't Hooft anomaly forbids the system to be trivially gapped when fermions are periodic along the thermal circle for any $N$ and any $T>0$. We also study the two-point function of a certain composite fermion operator which allows us to determine the remnants for $T>0$ of the inhomogeneous chiral phase configuration found at $T=0$ for any $N$ and any $\mu$. The inhomogeneous configuration decays exponentially at large distances for anti-periodic fermions while it persists for $T>0$ and any $\mu$ for periodic fermions, as expected from anomaly considerations. A large $N$ analysis confirms the above findings.

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arXiv2023

An anharmonic alliance: exact WKB meets EPT

Certain quantum mechanical systems with a discrete spectrum, whose observables are given by a transseries in $\hbar$, were shown to admit $\hbar_0$-deformations with Borel resummable expansions which reproduce the original model at $\hbar_0=\hbar$. Such expansions were dubbed Exact Perturbation Theory (EPT). We investigate how the above results can be obtained within the framework of the exact WKB method by studying the spectrum of polynomial quantum mechanical systems. Within exact WKB, energy eigenvalues are determined by exact quantization conditions defined in terms of Voros symbols $a_{γ_i}$, $γ_i$ being their associated cycles, and generally give rise to transseries in $\hbar$. After reviewing how the Borel summability of energy eigenvalues in the quartic anharmonic potential emerges in exact WKB, we extend it to higher order anharmonic potentials with quantum corrections. We then show that any polynomial potential can be $\hbar_0$-deformed to a model where the exact quantization condition reads simply $a_γ=-1$ and leads to the EPT Borel resummable series for all energy eigenvalues.

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arXiv2023

Symmetries and topological operators, on average

We study Ward identities and selection rules for local correlators in disordered theories where a 0-form global symmetry of a QFT is explicitly broken by a random coupling $h$ but it re-emerges after quenched average. We consider $h$ space-dependent or constant. In both cases we construct the symmetry operator implementing the group action, topological after average. In the first case, relevant in statistical systems with random impurities, such symmetries can be coupled to external backgrounds and can be gauged, like ordinary symmetries in QFTs. We also determine exotic selection rules arising when symmetries emerge after average in the IR, explaining the origin of LogCFTs from symmetry considerations. In the second case, relevant in AdS/CFT to describe the dual boundary theory of certain bulk gravitational theories, the charge operator is not purely codimension-1, it can be defined only on homologically trivial cycles and on connected spaces. Selection rules for average correlators exist, yet such symmetries cannot be coupled to background gauge fields in ordinary ways and cannot be gauged. When the space is disconnected, in each connected component charge violation occurs, as expected from Euclidean wormholes in the bulk theory. Our findings show the obstruction to interpret symmetries emergent after average as gauged in the bulk.

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arXiv2022

Free Energy on the Sphere for Non-Abelian Gauge Theories

We compute the $S^d$ partition function of the fixed point of non-abelian gauge theories in continuous $d$, using the $ε$-expansion around $d=4$. We illustrate in detail the technical aspects of the calculation, including all the factors arising from the gauge-fixing procedure, and the method to deal with the zero-modes of the ghosts. We obtain the result up to NLO, i.e. including two-loop vacuum diagrams. Depending on the sign of the one-loop beta function, there is a fixed point with real gauge coupling in $d>4$ or $d<4$. In the first case we extrapolate to $d=5$ to test a recently proposed construction of the UV fixed point of $5d$ $SU(2)$ Yang-Mills via a susy-breaking deformation of the $E_1$ SCFT. We find that the $F$ theorem allows the proposed RG flow. In the second case we extrapolate to $d=3$ to test whether QCD$_3$ with gauge group $SU(n_c)$ and $n_f$ fundamental matter fields flows to a CFT or to a symmetry-breaking phase. We find that within the regime with a real gauge coupling near $d=4$ the CFT phase is always favored. For lower values of $n_f$ we compare the average of $F$ between the two complex fixed points with its value at the symmetry-breaking phase to give an upper bound of the critical value $n_f^*$ below which the symmetry-breaking phase takes over.

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arXiv2022

On the Inhomogeneous Phase of the Chiral Gross-Neveu Model

There is substantial evidence that the ground state of the 2d chiral Gross-Neveu model, in the presence of a $U(1)$ fermion number chemical potential $μ$ and in the large $N$ limit, is given by a {\it chiral spiral} phase, namely an inhomogeneous phase with a chiral condensate having a spatially periodic phase. We show that the chiral spiral configuration persists at finite $N$ and $T=0$ for any $μ>0$. Our analysis is based on non-abelian bosonization, that relates the model to a $U(N)_1$ WZW model deformed by current-current interactions. In this description the appearance of the inhomogeneous phase is surprisingly simple. We also rederive the phase diagram of the large $N$ chiral Gross-Neveu model via a direct diagrammatic computation, finding agreement with previous results in the literature.

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arXiv2022

A Monte Carlo approach to the conformal bootstrap

We introduce an approach to find approximate numerical solutions of truncated bootstrap equations for Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) in arbitrary dimensions. The method is based on a stochastic search via a Metropolis algorithm guided by an action $S$ which is the logarithm of the truncated bootstrap equations for a single scalar field correlator. While numerical conformal bootstrap methods based on semi-definite programming put rigorous exclusion bounds on CFTs, this method looks for approximate solutions, which correspond to local minima of $S$, when present, and can be even far from the extremality region. By this protocol we find that if no constraint on the operator scaling dimensions is imposed, $S$ has a single minimum, corresponding to the Free Theory. If we fix the external operator dimension, however, we encounter minima that can be studied with our approach. Imposing a conserved stress-tensor, a $\mathbf{Z}_2$ symmetry and one relevant scalar, we identify two regions where local minima of $S$ are present. When projected in the $(Δ_σ, Δ_ε)$-plane, $σ$ and $ε$ being the external and the lightest exchanged operators, one of these regions essentially coincides with the extremality line found in previous bootstrap studies. The other region is along the generalized free theories in $d = 2$ and below that in both $d = 3$ and $d = 4$. We empirically prove that some of the minima found are associated to known theories, including the $2d$ and $3d$ Ising theories and the $2d$ Yang-Lee model.

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arXiv2022

Cancellation of IR Divergences in 3d Abelian Gauge Theories

Three dimensional abelian gauge theories classically in a Coulomb phase are affected by IR divergences even when the matter fields are all massive. Using generalizations of Ward-Takahashi identities, we show that correlation functions of gauge-invariant operators are IR finite to all orders in perturbation theory. Gauge invariance is sufficient but not necessary for IR finiteness. In particular we show that specific gauge-variant correlators, including the two-point function of matter fields, are also IR finite to all orders in perturbation theory. Possible applications of these results are briefly discussed.

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arXiv2021

Conformality Loss, Walking, and 4D Complex Conformal Field Theories at Weak Coupling

Four-dimensional gauge theories with matter can have regions in parameter space, often dubbed conformal windows, where they flow in the infrared to non-trivial conformal field theories. It has been conjectured that conformality can be lost because of merging of two nearby fixed points that move into the complex plane, and that a walking dynamics governed by scaling dimensions of operators defined at such complex fixed points can occur. We find controlled, parametrically weakly coupled, and ultraviolet-complete 4D gauge theories that explicitly realize this scenario. We show how the walking dynamics is controlled by the coupling of a double-trace operator that crosses marginality. The walking regime ends when the renormalization group flow of this coupling leads to a (weak) first-order phase transition with Coleman-Weinberg symmetry breaking. A light dilaton-like scalar particle appears in the spectrum, but it is not parametrically lighter than the other excitations.

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arXiv2021

Resurgence and $1/N$ Expansion in Integrable Field Theories

In theories with renormalons the perturbative series is factorially divergent even after restricting to a given order in $1/N$, making the $1/N$ expansion a natural testing ground for the theory of resurgence. We study in detail the interplay between resurgent properties and the $1/N$ expansion in various integrable field theories with renormalons. We focus on the free energy in the presence of a chemical potential coupled to a conserved charge, which can be computed exactly with the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz (TBA). In some examples, like the first $1/N$ correction to the free energy in the non-linear sigma model, the terms in the $1/N$ expansion can be fully decoded in terms of a resurgent trans-series in the coupling constant. In the principal chiral field we find a new, explicit solution for the large $N$ free energy which can be written as the median resummation of a trans-series with infinitely many, analytically computable IR renormalon corrections. However, in other examples, like the Gross-Neveu model, each term in the $1/N$ expansion includes non-perturbative corrections which can not be predicted by a resurgent analysis of the corresponding perturbative series. We also study the properties of the series in $1/N$. In the Gross-Neveu model, where this is convergent, we analytically continue the series beyond its radius of convergence and show how the continuation matches with known dualities with sine-Gordon theories.

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