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Victor Gorbenko

Publications and source records attributed to Victor Gorbenko.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Hydrodynamic tails in chaotic spin chains with quantum group symmetry

The interplay between symmetry and thermalization governs the late-time dynamics of local quantum and classical many-body systems at nonzero temperature. Recently, two parallel frontiers have emerged: the search for robust anomalous hydrodynamics -- such as superdiffusion -- in generic, non-integrable models, and the formal effort to generalize the fundamental concept of global symmetry. In this paper, we bridge these frontiers by demonstrating that quantum group symmetry provides a novel mechanism for anomalous hydrodynamics in chaotic systems. We study the dynamics of local operators carrying $U(1)$ charge in non-integrable lattice models that also have quantum group symmetry. One example is transverse spin in the XXZ model with integrability breaking deformations. While such excitations are expected to decay very quickly at high temperature because their charge forbids overlap with conventional hydrodynamic densities, we find that protection by the quantum group symmetry makes these modes long-lived, despite the absence of local quantum group charge density or current. Furthermore, the dynamics is superdiffusive across Hamiltonian, Floquet, and classical realizations, and exhibits unusual finite size effects at very late times. We also revisit transverse spin dynamics in the integrable XXZ model.

cond-mat.stat-mech

Yang-Mills Flux Tube in AdS II: Effective String Theory

We continue the study of flux tubes in confining gauge theories placed in a rigid AdS background, focusing on the three-dimensional case. Our analysis is performed in the large-radius regime, where effective string theory provides a good approximation of the dynamics. Using a combination of techniques, primarily the analytic transcendentality ansatz bootstrap, we compute observables up to two-loop order in the expansion in powers of the string length over the AdS radius, which constitutes the main result of this work. Finally, we employ Pad\'e resummations to explore the possible compatibility of our results with a smooth interpolation of observables between large-radius AdS and small-radius AdS, in which gauge theory is weakly coupled.

hep-th

Dressing and Screening in Anti-de Sitter

Motivated by a question of defining gauge-invariant observables in cosmology and by the close connection between perturbation theory in de Sitter (dS) and Anti-de Sitter (AdS), we study scalar electrodynamics in AdS in setups that are largely unexplored but relevant for dS physics. For photons with standard (Dirichlet) boundary conditions, we analyze charged scalars whose boundary conditions break the $U(1)$ symmetry. This leads to a nonstandard Higgs mechanism in which the gauge field acquires a one-loop mass without a classical vacuum expectation value. Using recent advances in perturbation theory in AdS, we compute this mass explicitly and evaluate charged-scalar four-point functions. We also provide an alternative derivation based on boundary Ward identities. For photons with alternate (Neumann) boundary conditions, where local charged operators are not gauge invariant, we construct physical observables by dressing charged fields with geodesic Wilson lines. These dressed operators have well-behaved conformal properties and unphysical photon modes decouple from their correlation functions. Explicit one-loop computations further reveal the decoupling of boundary field strengths, for which we provide a nonperturbative argument based on higher-form symmetry. Along the way, we explain the physical consequences of spontaneous breaking of higher-form symmetry in AdS, including the role of the tilt operator, the relation between one-form symmetry and endpoints of Wilson lines at the boundary, and a generalized-symmetry interpretation of conserved currents dual to bulk gauge fields.

hep-th

Chaos in Systems with Quantum Group Symmetry

Quantum groups have a long and fruitful history of applications in integrable systems. Can quantum group symmetries exist in the absence of integrability? We provide an explicit example of a system with quantum group global symmetry which is chaotic. The example is a spin chain with next-to-nearest interaction term. We show the chaotic behavior of the system by studying the Eigenvalue statistics. The spin chain is non-unitary but PT-symmetric and, in addition to chaos, exhibits an interesting transition after which the eigenvalues become complex.

hep-th

Yang-Mills Flux Tube in AdS

We initiate the study of flux tubes in confining gauge theories placed in a rigid AdS background, which serves as an infrared regulator. Varying the AdS radius from large to small allows us to interpolate between the flat space confining string, and a weakly coupled string-like object which is held together by the AdS gravitational potential. At any radius, the string preserves a subgroup of AdS isometries equivalent to the one-dimensional conformal group and hence, from the boundary point of view, can be thought of as a conformal defect. The defect hosts a protected operator, called displacement, which nonlinearly realizes the broken AdS isometries. At small radius the displacement corresponds to the gauge field strength inserted at the boundary, while at large radius it is mapped to the Goldstone mode living on the string worldsheet. This relates gauge field and worldsheet degrees of freedom. We propose a hypothesis according to which the large and small radius perturbative expansions can be smoothly matched with each other. As a test, we calculate the leading order corrections to the scaling dimensions and OPE coefficients of a set of defect operators at weak coupling in planar 3D Yang-Mills.

hep-th

Quantum Groups as Global Symmetries

We study quantum field theories which have quantum groups as global internal symmetries. We show that in such theories operators are generically non-local, and should be thought as living at the ends of topological lines. We describe the general constraints of the quantum group symmetry, given by Ward identities, that correlation functions of the theory should satisfy. We also show that generators of the symmetry can be represented by topological lines with some novel properties. We then discuss a particular example of $U_q(sl_2)$ symmetric CFT, which we solve using the bootstrap techniques and relying on the symmetry. We finally show strong evidence that for a special value of $q$ a subsector of this theory reproduces the fermionic formulation of the Ising model. This suggests that a quantum group can act on local operators as well, however, it generically transforms them into non-local ones.

hep-th

Quantum Groups as Global Symmetries II. Coulomb Gas Construction

We study a conformal field theory that arises in the infinite-volume limit of a spin chain with $U_q(sl_2)$ global symmetry. Most operators in the theory are defect-ending operators which allows $U_q(sl_2)$ symmetry transformations to act on them in a consistent way. We use Coulomb gas techniques to construct correlation functions and compute all OPE coefficients of the model, as well as to prove that the properties imposed by the quantum group symmetry are indeed satisfied by the correlation functions. In particular, we treat the non-chiral operators present in the theory. Free boson realization elucidates the origin of the defects attached to the operators. We also comment on the role of quantum group in generalized minimal models.

hep-th

De Sitter Bra-Ket Wormholes

We study a model for the initial state of the universe based on a gravitational path integral that includes connected geometries which simultaneously produce bra and ket of the wave function. We argue that a natural object to describe this state is the Wigner distribution, which is a function on a classical phase space obtained by a certain integral transform of the density matrix. We work with Lorentzian de Sitter Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity in which we find semiclassical saddle-points for pure gravity, as well as when we include matter components such as a CFT and a classical inflaton field. We also discuss different choices of fixing time reparametrizations. In the regime of large universes our connected geometry dominates over the Hartle-Hawking saddle and gives a distribution that has a meaningful probabilistic interpretation for local observables. It does not, however, give a normalizable probability measure on the entire phase space of the theory.

hep-th

Cosmological Correlators at Finite Coupling

We study finite-coupling effects of QFT on a rigid de Sitter (dS) background taking the $O(N)$ vector model at large $N$ as a solvable example. Extending standard large $N$ techniques to the dS background, we analyze the phase structure and late-time four-point functions. Explicit computations reveal that the spontaneous breaking of continuous symmetries is prohibited due to strong IR effects, akin to flat two-dimensional space. Resumming loop diagrams, we compute the late-time four-point functions of vector fields at large $N$, demonstrating that their spectral density is meromorphic in the spectral plane and positive along the principal series. These results offer highly nontrivial checks of unitarity and analyticity for cosmological correlators.

hep-th

QCD Worldsheet Axion from the Bootstrap

The worldsheet axion plays a crucial role in the dynamics of the Yang-Mills confining flux tubes. According to the lattice measurements, its mass is of order the string tension and its coupling is close to a certain critical value. Using the S-matrix Bootstrap, we construct non-perturbative $2 \to 2$ branon scattering amplitudes which also feature a weakly coupled axion resonance with these properties. We study the extremal bootstrap amplitudes in detail and show that the axion plays a dominant role in their UV completion in two distinct regimes, in one of which it cannot be considered a parametrically light particle. We conjecture that the actual flux tube amplitudes exhibit a similar behavior.

hep-th

Snowmass White Paper: Cosmology at the Theory Frontier

The precision cosmological model describing the origin and expansion history of the universe, with observed structure seeded at the inflationary cosmic horizon, demands completion in the ultraviolet and in the infrared. The dynamics of the cosmic horizon also suggests an associated entropy, again requiring a microphysical theory. Recent years have seen enormous progress in understanding the structure of de Sitter space and inflation in string theory, and of cosmological observables captured by quantum field theory and solvable deformations thereof. The resulting models admit ongoing observational tests through measurements of the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure, as well as through analyses of theoretical consistency by means of thought experiments. This paper, prepared for the TF01 and TF09 conveners of the Snowmass 2021 process, provides a synopsis of this important area, focusing on ongoing developments and opportunities.

hep-th

Two-dimensional O(n) models and logarithmic CFTs

We study O(n)-symmetric two-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) for a continuous range of n below two. These CFTs describe the fixed point behavior of self-avoiding loops. There is a pair of known fixed points connected by an RG flow. When n is equal to two, which corresponds to the Kosterlitz-Thouless critical theory, the fixed points collide. We find that for n generic these CFTs are logarithmic and contain negative norm states; in particular, the O(n) currents belong to a staggered logarithmic multiplet. Using a conformal bootstrap approach we trace how the negative norm states decouple at n = 2, restoring unitarity. The IR fixed point possesses a local relevant operator, singlet under all known global symmetries of the CFT, and, nevertheless, it can be reached by an RG flow without tuning. Besides, we observe logarithmic correlators in the closely related Potts model.

hep-th

Bra-ket wormholes in gravitationally prepared states

We consider two dimensional CFT states that are produced by a gravitational path integral. As a first case, we consider a state produced by Euclidean $AdS_2$ evolution followed by flat space evolution. We use the fine grained entropy formula to explore the nature of the state. We find that the naive hyperbolic space geometry leads to a paradox. This is solved if we include a geometry that connects the bra with the ket, a bra-ket wormhole. The semiclassical Lorentzian interpretation leads to CFT state entangled with an expanding and collapsing Friedmann cosmology. As a second case, we consider a state produced by Lorentzian $dS_2$ evolution, again followed by flat space evolution. The most naive geometry also leads to a similar paradox. We explore several possible bra-ket wormholes. The most obvious one leads to a badly divergent temperature. The most promising one also leads to a divergent temperature but by making a projection onto low energy states we find that it has features that look similar to the previous Euclidean case. In particular, the maximum entropy of an interval in the future is set by the de Sitter entropy.

hep-th

Asymptotic Fragility, Near $AdS_2$ Holography and $T\bar{T}$

We present the exact solution for the scattering problem in the flat space Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity coupled to an arbitrary quantum field theory. JT gravity results in a gravitational dressing of field theoretical scattering amplitudes. The exact expression for the dressed $S$-matrix was previously known as a solvable example of a novel UV asymptotic behavior, dubbed asymptotic fragility. This dressing is equivalent to the $T\bar{T}$ deformation of the initial quantum field theory. JT gravity coupled to a single massless boson provides a promising action formulation for an integrable approximation to the worldsheet theory of confining strings in 3D gluodynamics. We also derive the dressed $S$-matrix as a flat space limit of the near $AdS_2$ holography. We show that in order to preserve the flat space unitarity the conventional Schwarzian dressing of boundary correlators needs to be slightly extended. Finally, we propose a new simple expression for flat space amplitudes of massive particles in terms of correlators of holographic CFT's.

hep-th

Analyticity and Unitarity for Cosmological Correlators

We study the fundamentals of quantum field theory on a rigid de Sitter space. We show that the perturbative expansion of late-time correlation functions to all orders can be equivalently generated by a non-unitary Lagrangian on a Euclidean AdS geometry. This finding simplifies dramatically perturbative computations, as well as allows us to establish basic properties of these correlators, which comprise a Euclidean CFT. We use this to infer the analytic structure of the spectral density that captures the conformal partial wave expansion of a late-time four-point function, to derive an OPE expansion, and to constrain the operator spectrum. Generically, dimensions and OPE coefficients do not obey the usual CFT notion of unitarity. Instead, unitarity of the de Sitter theory manifests itself as the positivity of the spectral density. This statement does not rely on the use of Euclidean AdS Lagrangians and holds non-perturbatively. We illustrate and check these properties by explicit calculations in a scalar theory by computing first tree-level, and then full one-loop-resummed exchange diagrams. An exchanged particle appears as a resonant feature in the spectral density which can be potentially useful in experimental searches.

hep-th

Gravitational-Wave Constraints on an Effective Field-Theory Extension of General Relativity

Gravitational-wave observations of coalescing binary systems allow for novel tests of the strong-field regime of gravity. Using data from the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center (GWOSC) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors, we place the first constraints on an effective field-theory based extension of General Relativity in which only higher-order curvature terms are added to the Einstein-Hilbert action. We construct gravitational-wave templates describing the quasi-circular, adiabatic inspiral phase of binary black holes in this extended theory of gravity. Then, after explaining how to properly take into account the region of validity of the effective field theory when performing tests of General Relativity, we perform Bayesian model selection using the two lowest-mass binary black-hole events reported to date by LIGO and Virgo -- GW151226 and GW170608 -- and constrain this theory with respect to General Relativity. We find that these data disfavors the appearance of new physics on distance scales around $\sim 150$ km. Finally, we describe a general strategy for improving constraints as more observations will become available with future detectors on the ground and in space.

gr-qc

$λϕ^4$ in dS

We resolve the issue of infrared divergences present in theories of light scalar fields on de Sitter space.

hep-th