arXiv subjects

Valentino F. Foit

Publications and source records attributed to Valentino F. Foit.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Anchored random clusters and SLE excursions

We provide a pedagogical review of CFT techniques to compute certain Schramm-Loewner Evolution (SLE) observables in the upper half-plane. The approach relies on the ability to express the observables as bulk-boundary correlation functions that involve degenerate boundary operators and, therefore, obey certain differential equations. In particular, we recover Schramm's left-passage probability for SLE, the SLE Green's functions, and the generalized densities of ``anchored'' critical percolation clusters first obtained by Kleban, Simmons, and Ziff. We also obtain new formulas corresponding to the densities of pivotal points between critical Fortuin-Kasteleyn (FK) clusters.

math-ph↗

arXiv2025

Group Averaging for Physics Applications: Accuracy Improvements at Zero Training Cost

Many machine learning tasks in the natural sciences are precisely equivariant to particular symmetries. Nonetheless, equivariant methods are often not employed, perhaps because training is perceived to be challenging, or the symmetry is expected to be learned, or equivariant implementations are seen as hard to build. Group averaging is an available technique for these situations. It happens at test time; it can make any trained model precisely equivariant at a (often small) cost proportional to the size of the group; it places no requirements on model structure or training. It is known that, under mild conditions, the group-averaged model will have a provably better prediction accuracy than the original model. Here we show that an inexpensive group averaging can improve accuracy in practice. We take well-established benchmark machine learning models of differential equations in which certain symmetries ought to be obeyed. At evaluation time, we average the models over a small group of symmetries. Our experiments show that this procedure always decreases the average evaluation loss, with improvements of up to 37\% in terms of the VRMSE. The averaging produces visually better predictions for continuous dynamics. This short paper shows that, under certain common circumstances, there are no disadvantages to imposing exact symmetries; the ML4PS community should consider group averaging as a cheap and simple way to improve model accuracy.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2022

Scalar conformal primary fields in the Brownian loop soup

The Brownian loop soup is a conformally invariant statistical ensemble of random loops in two dimensions characterized by an intensity $λ>0$, with central charge $c=2 λ$. Recent progress resulted in an analytic form for the four-point function of a class of scalar conformal primary "layering vertex operators" $\mathcal{O}_β$ with dimensions $(Δ, Δ)$, with $Δ= \fracλ{10}(1-\cosβ)$, that compute certain statistical properties of the model. The Virasoro conformal block expansion of the four-point function revealed the existence of a new set of operators with dimensions $(Δ+ k/3, Δ+ k'/3)$, for all non-negative integers $k, k'$ satisfying $|k-k'| = 0$ mod 3. In this paper we introduce the edge counting field $\mathcal E(z)$ that counts the number of loop boundaries that pass close to the point $z$. We rigorously prove that the $n$-point functions of $\mathcal E$ are well defined and behave as expected for a conformal primary field with dimensions $(1/3, 1/3)$. We analytically compute the four-point function $\langle \mathcal{O}_β(z_1) \mathcal{O}_{-β}(z_2) \mathcal{E}(z_3) \mathcal{E}(z_4) \rangle$ and analyze its conformal block expansion. The operator product expansions of $\mathcal{E} \times \mathcal{E}$ and $\mathcal{E} \times \mathcal{O}_β$ produce higher-order edge operators with "charge" $β$ and dimensions $(Δ+ k/3, Δ+ k/3)$. Hence, we have explicitly identified all scalar primary operators among the new set mentioned above. We also re-compute the central charge by an independent method based on the operator product expansion and find agreement with previous methods.

math-ph↗

arXiv2021

The Brownian loop soup stress-energy tensor

The Brownian loop soup (BLS) is a conformally invariant statistical ensemble of random loops in two dimensions characterized by an intensity $λ>0$. Recently, we constructed families of operators in the BLS and showed that they transform as conformal primary operators. In this paper we provide an explicit expression for the BLS stress-energy tensor and compute its operator product expansion with other operators. Our results are consistent with the conformal Ward identities and our previous result that the central charge is $c = 2 λ$. In the case of domains with boundary we identify a boundary operator that has properties consistent with the boundary stress-energy tensor. We show that this operator generates local deformations of the boundary and that it is related to a boundary operator that induces a Brownian excursion starting or ending at its insertion point.

math-ph↗

arXiv2020

New Recipes for Brownian Loop Soups

We define a large new class of conformal primary operators in the ensemble of Brownian loops in two dimensions known as the ``Brownian loop soup,'' and compute their correlation functions analytically and in closed form. The loop soup is a conformally invariant statistical ensemble with central charge $c = 2 λ$, where $λ> 0$ is the intensity of the soup. Previous work identified exponentials of the layering operator $e^{i βN(z)}$ as primary operators. Each Brownian loop was assigned $\pm 1$ randomly, and $N(z)$ was defined to be the sum of these numbers over all loops that encircle the point $z$. These exponential operators then have conformal dimension ${\fracλ{10}}(1 - \cos β)$. Here we generalize this procedure by assigning a more general random value to each loop. The operator $e^{i βN(z)}$ remains primary with conformal dimension $\frac λ{10}(1 - ϕ(β))$, where $ϕ(β)$ is the characteristic function of the probability distribution used to assign random values to each loop. Using recent results we compute in closed form the exact two-point functions in the upper half-plane and four-point functions in the full plane of this very general class of operators. These correlation functions depend analytically on the parameters $λ, β_i, z_i$, and on the characteristic function $ϕ(β)$. They satisfy the conformal Ward identities and are crossing symmetric. As in previous work, the conformal block expansion of the four-point function reveals the existence of additional and as-yet uncharacterized conformal primary operators.

math-ph↗

arXiv2019

Exact Correlation Functions in the Brownian Loop Soup

We compute analytically and in closed form the four-point correlation function in the plane, and the two-point correlation function in the upper half-plane, of layering vertex operators in the two dimensional conformally invariant system known as the Brownian Loop Soup. These correlation functions depend on multiple continuous parameters: the insertion points of the operators, the intensity of the soup, and the charges of the operators. In the case of the four-point function there is non-trivial dependence on five continuous parameters: the cross-ratio, the intensity, and three real charges. The four-point function is crossing symmetric. We analyze its conformal block expansion and discover a previously unknown set of new conformal primary operators.

math-ph↗

arXiv2019

Bulk reconstruction for spinor fields in AdS/CFT

We develop the representation of free spinor fields in the bulk of Lorentzian anti-de Sitter space in terms of smeared operators in the dual conformal field theory. To do this we expand the bulk field in a complete set of normalizable modes, work out the extrapolate dictionary for spinor fields, and show that the bulk field can be reconstructed from its near-boundary behavior. In some cases chirality and reality conditions can be imposed in the bulk. We study the action of the CFT modular Hamiltonian on bulk fermions to show that they transform with the expected spinor Lie derivative, and we calculate bulk--boundary two-point functions starting from CFT correlators.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Gravitational wave echoes from black hole area quantization

Gravitational-wave astronomy has the potential to substantially advance our knowledge of the cosmos, from the most powerful astrophysical engines to the initial stages of our universe. Gravitational waves also carry information about the nature of black holes. Here we investigate the potential of gravitational-wave detectors to test a proposal by Bekenstein and Mukhanov that the area of black hole horizons is quantized in units of the Planck area. Our results indicate that this quantization could have a potentially observable effect on the classical gravitational wave signals received by detectors. In particular, we find distorted gravitational-wave "echoes" in the post-merger waveform describing the inspiral and merger of two black holes. These echoes have a specific frequency content that is characteristic of black hole horizon area quantization.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Testing Quantum Black Holes with Gravitational Waves

We argue that near-future detections of gravitational waves from merging black hole binaries can test a long-standing proposal, originally due Bekenstein and Mukhanov, that the areas of black hole horizons are quantized in integer multiples of the Planck area times an $\mathcal O(1)$ dimensionless constant $α$. This condition quantizes the frequency of radiation that can be absorbed or emitted by a black hole. If this quantization applies to the "ring down" gravitational radiation emitted immediately after a black hole merger, a single measurement consistent with the predictions of classical general relativity would rule out most or all (depending on the spin of the hole) of the extant proposals in the literature for the value of $α$. A measurement of two such events for final black holes with substantially different spins would rule out the proposal for any $α$. If the modification of general relativity is confined to the near-horizon region within the hole's light ring and does not affect the initial ring down signal, a detection of "echoes" with characteristic properties could still confirm the proposal.

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

$T\bar{T}$ type deformation in the presence of a boundary

We continue the study of a recently proposed solvable irrelevant deformation of an AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$ correspondence that leads in the UV to a theory with Hagedorn spectrum. This can be thought of as a single trace analog of the $T\bar{T}$-deformation of the dual CFT$_2$. Here we focus on the deformed worldsheet theory in presence of a conformal boundary. First, we compute the expectation value of a bulk primary operator on the disc geometry. We give a closed expression for such observable, from which we obtain the anomalous conformal dimension induced by the deformation. We compare the result with that coming from the computation of the 2-point correlation function on the sphere, finding exact agreement. We perform the computation using different techniques and making a comparative analysis of different regularization schemes to solve the logarithmically divergent integrals. This enables us to perform further consistency checks of our result by computing other observables of the deformed theory: We compute both the bulk-boundary 2-point and the boundary-boundary 2-point functions and are able to reproduce the anomalous dimensions of both boundary and bulk operators.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Self-similar Evaporation and Collapse in the Quantum Portrait of Black Holes

We investigate Hawking evaporation in a recently suggested picture in which black holes are Bose condensates of gravitons at a quantum critical point. There, evaporation of a black hole is due to two intertwined effects. Coherent excitation of a tachyonic breathing mode is responsible for the collapse of the condensate, while incoherent scattering of gravitons leads to Hawking radiation. To explore this, we consider a toy model of a single bosonic degree of freedom with derivative self-interactions. We consider the real-time evolution of a condensate and derive evaporation laws for two possible decay mechanisms in the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. We show that semiclassical results can be reproduced if the decay is due to an effective two-body process, while the existence of a three-body channel would imply very short lifetimes for the condensate. In either case, we uncover the existence of scaling solutions in which the condensate is at a critical point throughout the collapse. In the case of a two-body decay we moreover discover solutions that exhibit the kind of instability that was recently conjectured to be responsible for fast scrambling.

hep-th↗