arXiv subjects

Yanyan Bu

Publications and source records attributed to Yanyan Bu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Effective Field Theory for Superconducting Phase Transitions

Employing the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, we formulate an effective field theory for s-wave superconducting phase transition, where the dynamical variables consist of electromagnetic gauge field and complex scalar order parameter. Symmetry-constrained effective action allows systematic handling of dissipations and fluctuations. In particular, we explore the physical implications of higher-order terms, including those involving additional dynamical fields as well as higher time derivatives, on the real-time dynamics near the superconducting critical point. When appropriately truncated, the effective field theory reproduces the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau equations. Upon crossing the critical temperature into the low-temperature phase, the electromagnetic gauge symmetry undergoes spontaneous breaking induced by the condensate of the order parameter. Collective excitation analysis reveals that the Higgs mode behaves as an overdamped diffusive mode near the critical point, while the phase fluctuation is absorbed into the gauge field via the Higgs mechanism. Via the holographic Schwinger-Keldysh technique, rigorous validation in a holographic superconductor confirms the structure of the effective action and quantifies the Wilsonian coefficients. Holographic results revaeal a complex relaxation parameter that indicates oscillatory dynamics characteristic of strongly coupled systems.

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arXiv2025

Simple holographic dual of the Maxwell-Cattaneo model & the fate of KMS symmetry for non-hydrodynamic modes

Diffusion, as described by Fick's laws, governs the spreading of particles, information, data, and even financial fluctuations. However, due to its parabolic structure, the diffusion equation leads to an unphysical prediction: any localized disturbance instantaneously affects the entire system. The Maxwell-Cattaneo (MC) model, originally introduced to address relativistic heat conduction, refines the standard diffusion framework by incorporating a finite relaxation time $τ$, associated with the onset of local equilibrium. This modification yields physically relevant consequences, including the emergence of propagating shear waves in liquids and second sound in solids. Holographic methods have historically provided powerful tools for describing the hydrodynamics of strongly correlated systems. However, they have so far failed to capture the dynamics governed by the MC model, limiting their ability to model intermediate time-scale phenomena. In this work, we construct a simple holographic dual of the Maxwell-Cattaneo model and rigorously establish its equivalence through a combination of analytical and numerical techniques. As an important byproduct of our analysis, and contrary to previous ad-hoc assumptions, we find that effective field theories featuring non-hydrodynamic modes exhibit a generalized form of Kubo-Martin-Schwinger (KMS) symmetry, which reduces to the canonical form only in the hydrodynamic limit.

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arXiv2025

Holographic derivation of effective action for a dissipative neutral fluid

Using a holographic prescription for the Schwinger-Keldysh closed time path, we derive the effective action for a dissipative neutral fluid holographically described by the Einstein gravity in an asymptotic AdS spacetime. In the saddle point approximation for the dual gravity, the goal is achieved by solving the double Dirichlet problem for the linearized gravitational field living in a complexified static AdS black brane background. We adopt a partially on-shell scheme for solving the bulk dynamics, which is equivalent to ``integrating out'' the gapped modes in the boundary field theory. The boundary effective action in the fluid spacetime, identified as the partially on-shell bulk action, is computed to first order in boundary derivative and to cubic order in AdS boundary data. The boundary effective action, rewritten in the physical spacetime, successfully reproduces various results known in the framework of classical hydrodynamics, confirming our holographic derivation.

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arXiv2025

Chiral phase transition: effective field theory and holography

We consider the chiral phase transition relevant for QCD matter at finite temperature but with vanishing baryon density. Presumably, the chiral phase transition is of second order for two-flavor QCD in the chiral limit. Near the transition temperature, we apply the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism and construct a low-energy effective field theory for the system, in which fluctuations and dissipations are systematically captured. The dynamical variables involve the chiral charge densities and order parameter (chiral condensate). Via the holographic Schwinger-Keldysh technique, the effective action is further confirmed within a modified AdS/QCD model. With higher-order terms suitably neglected, the stochastic equations derived from the effective field theory resemble those of model F in the Hohenberg-Halperin classification. Within the effective field theory, we briefly discuss the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry and Goldstone modes.

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arXiv2025

Chiral Anomalous Magnetohydrodynamics in action: effective field theory and holography

Chiral Anomalous Magnetohydrodynamics (CAMHD) provides a low-energy effective framework for describing chiral fluids in the presence of dynamical electromagnetic fields and axial anomaly. This theory finds applications across diverse physical systems, including heavy-ion collisions, the early universe, and Weyl/Dirac semimetals. Along with Schwinger-Keldysh (SK) effective theories, holographic models serve as a complementary tool to provide a systematic formulation of CAMHD that goes beyond the weak coupling regime. In this work, we explore holographic models with $U(1)_A \times U(1)$ symmetry, where the electromagnetic $U(1)$ field is rendered dynamical through mixed boundary conditions applied to the bulk gauge field and the axial anomaly is introduced via a Chern-Simons bulk term. Through a detailed holographic SK analysis, we demonstrate that the low-energy effective action derived from this model aligns precisely with the SK field theory proposed by Landry and Liu and, in fact, it generalizes it to scenarios with finite background axial field. This alignment not only validates the holographic model but also paves the way for its use in exploring unresolved aspects of CAMHD, such as the recently proposed chiral magnetic electric separation wave and nonlinear chiral instabilities.

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arXiv2024

Nearly critical superfluid: effective field theory and holography

We study a nearly critical superfluid system from two complementary approaches. Within the first approach, we formulate a Schwinger-Keldysh effective field theory (EFT) for the system when it is located slightly above the critical temperature. . The set of symmetries, particularly the dynamical Kubo-Martin-Schwinger (KMS) symmetry and chemical shift symmetry, strictly constrains the form of EFT action. Within the second approach, using the holographic Schwinger-Keldysh technique, we derive the effective action for a ``microscopic'' holographic superfluid, confirming the EFT construction. A systematic inclusion of non-Gaussianity is one highlight of present study.

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arXiv2024

Non-Gaussianity from Schwinger-Keldysh Effective Field Theory

We present a systematic treatment of non-Gaussianity in stochastic systems using the Schwinger-Keldysh effective field theory framework, in which the non-Gaussianity is realized as nonlinear terms in the fluctuation field. We establish two stochastic formulations of the Schwinger-Keldysh effective field theory, with those nonlinear terms manifested as multiple non-Gaussian noises in the Langevin equation and as higher order diffusive terms in the Fokker-Planck equation. The equivalence of the stochastic formulations with the original Schwinger-Keldysh effective field theory is demonstrated with non-trivial examples for arbitrary non-Gaussian parameters. The stochastic formulations will be more flexible and effective in studying non-equilibrium dynamics. We also reveal an ambiguity when coarse-graining time scale and non-Gaussian parameters vanish simultaneously, which may be responsible for the unphysical divergence found in perturbative analysis.

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arXiv2023

U(1) quasi-hydrodynamics: Schwinger-Keldysh effective field theory and holography

We study the quasi-hydrodynamics of a system with a softly broken $U(1)$ global symmetry using effective field theory (EFT) and holographic methods. In the gravity side, we consider a holographic Proca model in the limit of small bulk mass, which is responsible for a controllable explicit breaking of the $U(1)$ global symmetry in the boundary field theory. We perform a holographic Schwinger-Keldysh analysis, which allows us to derive the form of the boundary effective action in presence of dissipation. We compare our results with the previously proposed EFT and hydrodynamic theories, and we confirm their validity by computing the low-energy quasi-normal modes spectrum analytically and numerically. Additionally, we derive the broken holographic Ward identity for the $U(1)$ current, and discuss the recently proposed novel transport coefficients for systems with explicitly broken symmetries. The setup considered is expected to serve as a toy model for more realistic situations where quasi-hydrodynamics is at work, such as axial charge relaxation in QCD, spin relaxation in relativistic systems, electric field relaxation in magneto-hydrodynamics, or momentum relaxation in condensed matter systems.

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arXiv2022

Nonlinear effective dynamics of Brownian particle in magnetized plasma

An effective description is presented for a Brownian particle in a magnetized plasma. In order to systematically capture various corrections to linear Langevin equation, we construct effective action for the Brownian particle, to quartic order in its position. The effective action is first derived within non-equilibrium effective field theory formalism, and then confirmed via a microscopic holographic model consisting of an open string probing magnetic AdS$_5$ black brane. For practical usage, the non-Gaussian effective action is converted into Fokker-Planck type equation, which is an Euclidean analog of Schr$\ddot{\rm o}$dinger equation and describes time evolution of probability distribution for particle's position and velocity.

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arXiv2022

Holographic Schwinger-Keldysh field theory of SU(2) diffusion

We construct effective field theory for SU(2) isospin charge diffusion, based on holographic Schwinger-Keldysh contour arXiv:2008.01269. The holographic model consists of a probe SU(2) gauge field in a doubled Schwarzschild-AdS$_5$ geometry. Accurate to first order in derivative expansion, we analytically compute the effective action up to quartic order in hydrodynamical fields. The effective theory contains both non-Gaussianity for noises and nonlinear interactions between noises and dynamical variables. Moreover, the effective theory captures both thermal and quantum fluctuations, which perfectly satisfy dynamical Kubo-Martin-Schwinger (KMS) symmetry at quantum level. Interestingly, the dynamical KMS symmetry, which is crucial in formulating non-equilibrium effective field theory for a quantum many-body system, is found to have a nice holographic interpretation.

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arXiv2021

Ginzburg-Landau effective action for a fluctuating holographic superconductor

Under holographic prescription for Schwinger-Keldysh closed time contour for non-equilibrium system, we consider fluctuation effect of the order parameter in a holographic superconductor model. Near the critical point, we derive the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau effective action governing dynamics of the fluctuating order parameter. In a semi-analytical approach, the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau action is computed up to quartic order of the fluctuating order parameter, and first order in time derivative.

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arXiv2021

Schwinger-Keldysh effective action for relativistic Brownian particle in AdS-CFT

We compute Schwinger-Keldysh effective action for a relativistic heavy quark (with constant background velocity) in strongly coupled N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma. The holographic dual description involves a noisy trailing string moving in Schwarzschild-AdS5 black brane. The noise is caused by Hawking radiation emitted from string worldsheet horizon. Besides quadractic terms, the effective action contains cubic interactions, which are entirely induced by the constant background velocity. The nonlinear fluctuation-dissipation relations for three-point functions are discussed based on holographic results.

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arXiv2021

All order effective action for charge diffusion from Schwinger-Keldysh holography

An effective action for diffusion of a conserved $U(1)$ charge is derived to all orders in the derivative expansion within a holographic model dual to the Schwinger-Keldysh closed time path. A systematic approach to solution of the 5D Maxwell equations in a doubled Schwarzschild-AdS$_5$ black brane geometry is developed. Constitutive relation for the stochastic charge current is shown to have a term induced by thermal fluctuations (coloured noise). All transport coefficient functions parameterising the effective action and constitutive relations are computed analytically in the hydrodynamic expansion, and then numerically for finite momenta.

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arXiv2019

Magneto-vortical effect in strongly coupled plasma

Based on a holographic model incorporating both chiral anomaly and gravitational anomaly, we study the effect of magneto-vortical coupling on transport properties of a strongly coupled plasma. The focus of present work is on the generation of a vector charge density and an axial current, as response to vorticity in a magnetized plasma. The transport coefficients parameterising the vector charge density and axial current are calculated both analytically (in the weak magnetic field limit) and also numerically (for general values of the magnetic field). We find the generation of vector charge receives both non-anomalous and anomalous contributions, with the non-anomalous contribution dominating in the limit of strong magnetic field and the anomalous contribution sensitive to both chiral anomaly and gravitational anomaly. On the contrary, we find the axial current is induced entirely due to the gravitational anomaly, thus we interpret the axial current generation as chiral vortical effect. The corresponding chiral vortical conductivity is found to be suppressed by the magnetic field. By Onsager relation, these transport coefficients are responsible for the generation of a thermal current due to a transverse electric field or a transverse axial magnetic field, which we call thermal Hall effect and thermal axial magnetic effect, respectively.

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arXiv2019

Kibble-Zurek Scaling in a Holographic p-wave Superconductor

We study the Kibble-Zurek mechanism in a 2d holographic p-wave superconductor model with a homogeneous source quench on the critical point. We derive, on general grounds, the scaling of the Kibble-Zurek time, which marks breaking-down of adiabaticity. It is expressed in terms of four critical exponents, including three static and one dynamical exponents. Via explicit calculations within a holographic model, we confirm the scaling of the Kibble-Zurek time and obtain the scaling functions in the quench process. We find the results are formally similar to a homogeneous quench in a higher dimensional holographic s-wave superconductor. The similarity is due to the special type of quench we take. We expect differences in the quench dynamics if the condition of homogeneous source and dominance of critical mode are relaxed.

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arXiv2019

Chiral transport in strong fields from holography

Anomaly-induced transport phenomena in presence of strong external electromagnetic fields are explored within a 4D field theory defined holographically as $U(1)_V\times U(1)_A$ Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory in Schwarzschild-$AdS_5$. Two complementary studies are reported. In the first one, we present results on the Ohmic conductivity, diffusion constant, chiral magnetic conductivity, and additional anomaly-induced transport coefficients as functions of external e/m fields. Next, gradient resummation in a constant background magnetic field is performed. All-order resummed constitutive relations are parameterised by four momenta-dependent transport coefficient functions (TCFs). A highlight of this part is a thorough study of {\it non-dissipative} chiral magnetic waves (CMW) in strong magnetic fields.

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arXiv2019

Nonlinear chiral transport from holography

Nonlinear transport phenomena induced by the chiral anomaly are explored within a 4D field theory defined holographically as $U(1)_V\times U(1)_A$ Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory in Schwarzschild-$AdS_5$. First, in presence of external electromagnetic fields, a general form of vector and axial currents is derived. Then, within the gradient expansion up to third order, we analytically compute all (over 50) transport coefficients. A wealth of higher order (nonlinear) transport phenomena induced by chiral anomaly are found beyond the Chiral Magnetic and Chiral Separation Effects. Some of the higher order terms are relaxation time corrections to the lowest order nonlinear effects. The charge diffusion constant and dispersion relation of the Chiral Magnetic Wave are found to receive anomaly-induced non-linear corrections due to e/m background fields. Furthermore, there emerges a new gapless mode, which we refer to as {\it Chiral Hall Density Wave}, propagating along the background Poynting vector.

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arXiv2019

Gradient resummation for nonlinear chiral transport: an insight from holography

Nonlinear transport phenomena induced by chiral anomaly are explored within a 4D field theory defined holographically as $U(1)_V\times U(1)_A$ Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory in Schwarzschild-$AdS_5$. In presence of weak constant background electromagnetic fields, the constitutive relations for vector and axial currents, resummed to all orders in the gradients of charge densities, are encoded in nine momenta-dependent transport coefficient functions (TCFs). These TCFs are first calculated analytically up to third order in gradient expansion, and then evaluated numerically beyond the hydrodynamic limit. Fourier transformed, the TCFs become memory functions. The memory function of the chiral magnetic effect (CME) is found to differ dramatically from the instantaneous response form of the original CME. Beyond hydrodynamic limit and when external magnetic field is larger than some critical value, the chiral magnetic wave (CMW) is discovered to possess a discrete spectrum of non-dissipative modes.

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