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Xavier Kervyn

Publications and source records attributed to Xavier Kervyn.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Resurgence of high-energy string amplitudes

We analyze the fixed-angle high-energy ($\alpha' \to \infty$) structure of $n$-point tree-level string amplitudes from complementary perspectives: locally via saddle-point expansions, algebraically via difference equations and their asymptotic structure, analytically via Aomoto-Gauss-Manin connection and Mellin-Barnes representation, and geometrically via twisted intersection theory and Lefschetz thimbles. Using, in turn, saddle-point analysis and finite-difference equations in the kinematic variables, we show that the perturbative coefficients in the resulting asymptotic series in $1/\alpha'$ are organized by Bernoulli-number data, rather than by the multiple zeta values characteristic of the low-energy $\alpha' \to 0$ regime. Resurgence theory allows upgrading these divergent series to transseries whose Stokes data capture the analytic continuation between unphysical and physical kinematic regions in the form of non-perturbative monodromy contributions. We derive the transseries for four-point open string amplitudes explicitly. We also construct a differential and Mellin formulation which place their low- and high-energy expansions in a common analytic framework and unifies them as asymptotic sectors of the same underlying object. We extend the difference-equation analysis to $n \geq 5$, where it yields perturbative high-energy asymptotic expansions and leads naturally to a higher-rank connection problem. Finally, translating our asymptotic analysis into the language of twisted de Rham theory, we derive an alternative double-copy representation of the high-energy limit of closed-string amplitudes in terms of Lefschetz thimbles for any $n$.

hep-th

High Energy String Theory and the Celestial Sphere

We elaborate on a string world-sheet connection to flat space-time holography. More specifically, in the high energy (zero tension) limit of tree-level string scattering in flat backgrounds the underlying string world-sheets can be related to the celestial sphere, with the saddle points of the high energy string description representing points on the celestial sphere. We show that this picture continues to hold at all subleading orders in the quantum fluctuations around this classical configuration. As a consequence there is a dual description of the high energy limit of string theory as the large energy expansion on the celestial sphere organized by (light) higher spin modes. This approach points to an intrinsic construction of celestial conformal field theory (CFT) by relating it to a (free) world-sheet CFT of string theory. We also elaborate on the high energy representations of tree-level open and closed string amplitudes and work out their subleading corrections. Their number theoretic properties and relevance as amplitudes of tensionless strings are discussed.

hep-th

Thermodynamics of integrable N=2 theories, squared

In arXiv:2306.17553 a new supersymmetric integrable QFT was constructed from the relativistic limit of the worlsdheet theory of AdS$_3 \times$ S$^3\times $T$^4$ superstrings with mixed Ramond-Ramond and Neveu-Schwarz-Neveu-Schwarz flux. The model is closely reminiscent of one previously considered by Fendley and Intriligator, though it enjoys twice as many supersymmetries. In this paper we study its finite-volume and finite-temperature properties. We formulate the string hypothesis for the Bethe--Yang equations, write down the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations, and simplify them in the form of a Y-system. We obtain three decoupled sectors associated with massive, massless-chiral and massless-antichiral particles, for which we compute the UV central charge. We illustrate the similarities and differences between this model and the one of Fendley and Intriligator.

hep-th

BMS Symmetries of Gravitational Scattering

After motivating the relevance of the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) group over the last decades, we review how concepts such as Penrose diagrams and the covariant phase space formalism can be used to understand the asymptotic structure of asymptotically flat spacetimes (AFS). We then explicitly construct the asymptotic symmetry group of AFS in $3+1$ dimensions, the BMS group. Next, we apply this knowledge to the usual far-field scattering problem in general relativity, which leads to the unravelling of the intrinsic features of gravity in the infrared. In particular, we work out the connections between asymptotic symmetries, soft theorems in quantum field theories and gravitational memory effects. We restrict to the study of this infrared triangle through the lens of supertranslations here, but the analogous features that can be found in the case of superrotations or for other gauge theories are also motivated at the end of our discussion. We conclude with an overview of the implications of the infrared triangle of gravity for the formulation of an approach to quantum gravity through holography, as well as a brief discussion of its potential in tackling the black hole information paradox.

gr-qc