arXiv subjects

Ohad Mamroud

Publications and source records attributed to Ohad Mamroud.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

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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arXiv2026

Chaos of Berry curvature for BPS microstates

We expect black hole microstates to differ in their chaotic properties from states associated with other geometries. For supersymmetric black holes, ordinary level statistics cannot diagnose this distinction, since their energy levels are exactly degenerate. We propose that there is an intrinsic probe of chaos, encoded in the mixing of the microstates under changes in the couplings of the theory, as determined by the non-Abelian Berry curvature of the BPS states under certain deformations. For states dual to horizonless geometries in holographic systems, such as 1/2-BPS states in the D1/D5 CFT and 1/4-BPS states in $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM, we find that the Berry curvature for marginal deformations is non-random and often exactly zero at generic couplings. By contrast, for states dual to supersymmetric black holes, we show through computations in $\mathcal{N}=2$ super-JT gravity and explicit numerics in the $\mathcal{N}=2$ SYK model that the Berry curvature resembles a random matrix. We also uncover interesting topological features of the $\mathcal{N}=2$ SYK moduli space, as probed by Chern numbers. These results suggest that the Berry curvature sharply distinguishes black hole microstates from smooth horizonless states and provides a robust diagnostic of chaos in supersymmetric sectors.

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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 $Λ_\mathrm{n}$ and $Λ_\mathrm{c}$ 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 $Λ_\mathrm{n}$ and spatial oscillations of amplitude $2Λ_\mathrm{c}$. 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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arXiv2025

Twisted times, the Schwarzian and its deformations in DSSYK

The IR dynamics of SYK is that of the Schwarzian theory, the effective theory of broken reparametrization invariance. In the double scaling limit, SYK is completely solvable by chord diagrams, whose generating functional is a bilocal Liouville theory. At low temperatures a set of modes in this description becomes soft. We interpret them as reparametrization of some twisted time coordinates, and show explicitly that they lead to the nonlinear Schwarzian theory. We further consider deformations of the theory in the double scaling limit, giving rise to diagrams with multiple species of chords, and show that the generating functional is now a Liouville theory with multiple fields. These deformations can be tracked to the IR and we discuss how they affect the Schwarzian.

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arXiv2024

A Cordial Introduction to Double Scaled SYK

We review recent progress regarding the double scaled Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model and other $p$-local quantum mechanical random Hamiltonians. These models exhibit an expansion using chord diagrams, which can be solved by combinatorial methods. We describe exact results in these models, including their spectrum, correlation functions, and Lyapunov exponent. In a certain limit, these techniques manifest the relation to the Schwarzian quantum mechanics, a theory of quantum gravity in $AdS_2$. More generally, the theory is controlled by a rigid algebraic structure of a quantum group, suggesting a theory of quantum gravity on non-commutative $q$-deformed $AdS_2$. We conclude with discussion of related universality classes, and survey some of the current research directions.

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arXiv2024

From Chaos to Integrability in Double Scaled SYK via a Chord Path Integral

We study thermodynamic phase transitions between integrable and chaotic dynamics. We do so by analyzing models that interpolate between the chaotic double scaled Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) and the integrable $p$-spin systems, in a limit where they are described by chord diagrams. We develop a path integral formalism by coarse graining over the diagrams, which we use to argue that the system has two distinct phases: one is continuously connected to the chaotic system, and the other to the integrable. They are separated by a line of first order transition that ends at some finite temperature.

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arXiv2024

A Path Integral for Chord Diagrams and Chaotic-Integrable Transitions in Double Scaled SYK

We study transitions from chaotic to integrable Hamiltonians in the double scaled SYK and $p$-spin systems. The dynamics of our models is described by chord diagrams with two species. We begin by developing a path integral formalism of coarse graining chord diagrams with a single species of chords, which has the same equations of motion as the bi-local ($GΣ$) Liouville action, yet appears otherwise to be different and in particular well defined. We then develop a similar formalism for two types of chords, allowing us to study different types of deformations of double scaled SYK and in particular a deformation by an integrable Hamiltonian. The system has two distinct thermodynamic phases: one is continuously connected to the chaotic SYK Hamiltonian, the other is continuously connected to the integrable Hamiltonian, separated at low temperature by a first order phase transition. We also analyze the phase diagram for generic deformations, which in some cases includes a zero-temperature phase transition.

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arXiv2024

The Bethe Ansatz for the superconformal index with unequal angular momenta

A few years ago it was shown that the superconformal index of the $\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetric $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills theory in the large $N$ limit matches with the entropy of $1/16$-supersymmetric black holes in type IIB string theory on $AdS_5\times S^5$. In some cases, an even more detailed match between the two sides is possible. When the two angular momentum chemical potentials in the index are equal, the superconformal index can be written as a discrete sum of Bethe ansatz solutions, and it was shown that specific terms in this sum are in a one-to-one correspondence to stable black hole solutions, and that the matching can be extended to non-perturbative contributions from wrapped D3-branes. A Bethe ansatz approach to computing the superconformal index exists also when the ratio of the angular momentum chemical potentials is any rational number, but in those cases it involves a sum over a very large number of terms (growing exponentially with $N$). Benini et al showed that a specific one of these terms matches with the black hole, but the role of the other terms is not clear. In this paper we analyze some of the additional contributions to the index in the Bethe ansatz approach, and we find that their matching to the gravity side is much more complicated than in the case of equal chemical potentials. In particular, we find some contributions that are larger than the one which was found to match the black holes, so that they must cancel with other large contributions. We give some evidence that cancellations of this type are possible, but we leave a full understanding of how they work to the future.

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arXiv2023

The SUSY Index Beyond the Cardy Limit

We analyze a set of contributions to the superconformal index of 4d $\mathcal{N} = 4$ $SU(N)$ super Yang-Mills using the Bethe Ansatz approach. These contributions dominate at the large $N$ limit, where their leading order in $N$ reproduces various supersymmetric Euclidean black hole saddles in the dual theory, and they also dominate for finite $N$ in high temperature Cardy-like limits. We compute the $O(N^0)$ terms, including those exponentially suppressed in the Cardy limit, and show that there are no $1/N$ corrections beyond them. Under certain assumptions, it implies that the gravitational perturbative series around these black hole saddles is 1-loop exact.

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arXiv2021

A gravity interpretation for the Bethe Ansatz expansion of the $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM index

The superconformal index of the $\mathcal{N}=4$ SU(N) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory counts the 1/16-BPS states in this theory, and has been used via the AdS/CFT correspondence to count black hole microstates of 1/16-BPS black holes. On one hand, this index may be related to the Euclidean partition function of the theory on $S^3\times S^1$ with complex chemical potentials, which maps by the AdS/CFT correspondence to a sum over Euclidean gravity solutions. On the other hand, the index may be expressed as a sum over solutions to Bethe Ansatz Equations (BAEs). We show that the known solutions to the BAEs that have a good large $N$ limit, for the case of equal chemical potentials for the two angular momenta, have a one-to-one mapping to (complex) Euclidean black hole solutions on the gravity side. This mapping captures both the leading contribution from the classical gravity action (of order $N^2$), as well as non-perturbative corrections in $1/N$, which on the gravity side are related to wrapped D3-branes. Some of the BA solutions map to orbifolds of the standard Euclidean black hole solutions (that obey exactly the same boundary conditions as the other solutions). A priori there are many more gravitational solutions than Bethe Ansatz solutions, but we show that by considering the non-perturbative effects, the extra solutions are ruled out, leading to a precise match between the solutions on both sides.

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arXiv2017

RG stability of integrable fishnet models

We address the question of perturbative consistency in the scalar fishnet models presented by Caetano, Gurdogan and Kazakov\cite{Gurdogan:2015csr, Caetano:2016ydc}. We argue that their 3-dimensional $ϕ^{6}$ fishnet model becomes perturbatively stable under renormalization in the large $N$ limit, in contrast to what happens in their 4-dimensional $ϕ^{4}$ fishnet model, in which double trace terms are known to be generated by the RG flow. We point out that there is a direct way to modify this second theory that protects it from such corrections. Additionally, we observe that the 6-dimensional $ϕ^{3}$ Lagrangian that spans an hexagonal integrable scalar fishnet is consistent at the perturbative level as well. The nontriviality and simplicity of this last model is illustrated by computing the anomalous dimensions of its $\text{tr}ϕ_i ϕ_j$ operators to all perturbative orders.

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