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McMaster University and Perimeter InstitutePIRSA:24090192
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The g-function and defect changing operators from wavefunction overlap on a fuzzy sphere
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical PhysicsPIRSA:24090190 -
Causal inference yesterday, today and tomorrow (PI-IVADO-IC Special Webinar)
Johns Hopkins University -
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Lecture - Quantum Theory, PHYS 605
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics -
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Everything that can be learned about a causal structure with latent variables by observational and interventional probing schemes
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical PhysicsPIRSA:24090191
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Open Quantum On Lie Group: An Effective Field Theory Approach
McMaster University and Perimeter InstitutePIRSA:24090192In this work, we propose a systematic method to obtain the effective field theory of the quantum dissipative systems which nonlinearly realize symmetries. We focus on the high temperature or Brownian limit, in which the effective action of the dissipative dynamics is localized in time. We first introduce a microscopic model at the linear response level, which shows how the dissipative dynamics on Lie group emerges effectively through the reduced dynamics of a system interacting with a thermal bath. The model gives a systematic method to give the Langevin equation which is covariant with respect to the symmetries of the system. In addition, the model shows a systematic way to go beyond the Gaussian white noise and the interaction between the noise and dissipation. Then, using the dynamical KMS symmetry, without any reference to the microscopic structure of the bath, we obtain the most general effective action of the nonlinearly realized dissipative dynamics at high temperature. The universal dissipative coefficients are larger than the case of the linear response approximation. Then, we focus on the case of Ohmic friction where the corresponding dissipative coefficients are more restricted; we suggest an alternative model, the bulk model, to describe any Ohmic dissipative system at high temperature. The Bulk model provides a geometrical picture for the noise in the case of Ohmic friction. -
The g-function and defect changing operators from wavefunction overlap on a fuzzy sphere
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical PhysicsPIRSA:24090190This talk will be based on SciPost Phys. 17, 021 (2024). Defects are common in physical systems with boundaries, impurities or extensive measurements. The interaction between bulk and defect can lead to rich physical phenomena. Defects in gapless phases of matter with conformal symmetry usually flow to a defect conformal field theory (dCFT). Understanding the universal properties of dCFTs is a challenging task. In this talk, we propose a computational strategy applicable to a line defect in arbitrary dimensions. Our main assumption is that the defect has a UV description in terms of a local modification of the Hamiltonian so that we can compute the overlap between low-energy eigenstates of a system with or without the defect insertion. We argue that these overlaps contain a wealth of conformal data, including the $g$-function, which is an RG monotonic quantity that distinguishes different dCFTs, the scaling dimensions of defect creation operators $\Delta^{+0}_\alpha$ and changing operators $\Delta^{+-}_\alpha$ that live on the intersection of different types of line defects, and various OPE coefficients. We apply this method to the fuzzy sphere regularization of 3D CFTs and study the magnetic line defect of the 3D Ising CFT. Using exact diagonalization and DMRG, we report the non-perturbative results $g=0.602(2),\Delta^{+0}_0=0.108(5)$ and $\Delta^{+-}_0=0.84(5)$ for the first time. We also obtain other OPE coefficients and scaling dimensions. Our results have significant physical implications. For example, they constrain the possible occurrence of spontaneous symmetry breaking at line defects of the 3D Ising CFT. Our method can be potentially applied to various other dCFTs, such as plane defects and Wilson lines in gauge theories. -
Causal inference yesterday, today and tomorrow (PI-IVADO-IC Special Webinar)
Johns Hopkins UniversityAs part of a monthly webinar series jointly hosted by Perimeter, IVADO, and Institut Courtois, Ilya Shpitser will present an introduction to causal inference and its applications to problems in physics and computer science. This seminar will be fully on zoom and members of all three institutes are welcome.
Abstract: In this talk I will give some history of ideas of causal inference, describe the causal inference workflow, including formalizing the cause-effect question in terms of a parameter, defining (or learning) the causal model, checking if the data has information about the desired parameter via identification theory, and efficiently estimating the parameter if it is identified. I will briefly touch on connections of causal inference to other areas, discuss what machine learning and causal inference can teach each other, and describe some open problems. Zoom TBC -
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Celestial Holography from Euclidean AdS space.
We will explore the connection between Celestial and Euclidean Anti-de Sitter (EAdS) holography in the massive scalar case. Specifically, exploiting the so-called hyperbolic foliation of Minkowski space-time, we will show that each contribution to massive Celestial correlators can be reformulated as a linear combination of contributions to corresponding massive Witten correlators in EAdS. This result will be demonstrated explicitly both for contact diagrams and for the four-point particle exchange diagram, and it extends to all orders in perturbation theory by leveraging the bootstrapping properties of the Celestial CFT (CCFT). Within this framework, the Kantorovic-Lebedev transform plays a central role, which will be introduced at the end of the talk. This transform will allow us to make broader considerations regarding non-perturbative properties of a CCFT.
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Channel Expressivity Measures
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical PhysicsPIRSA:24090201The dynamics of closed quantum systems undergoing unitary processes has been well studied, leading to notions of measures for the expressive power of parameterized quantum circuits, relative to the unique, maximally expressive, average behaviour of ensembles of unitaries. Such unitary expressivity measures have further been linked to concentration phenomena known as barren plateaus. However, existing quantum hardware are not isolated from their noisy environment, and such non-unitary dynamics must therefore be described by more general trace-preserving operations. To account for hardware noise, we propose several, non-unique measures of expressivity for quantum channels and study their properties, highlighting how average non-unitary channels differ from average unitary channels. In the limit of large composite system and environments, average noisy quantum channels are shown to be maximally globally depolarizing, with next-leading-order non-unital perturbative behaviour. Furthermore, we rigorously prove that highly-expressive parameterized quantum channels will suffer from barren plateaus, thus generalizing explanations of noise-induced phenomena. This work is based on forthcoming work with Diego Martin, Zoe Holmes, and Marco Cerezo, in affiliation with Los Alamos National Laboratory. -
Categories of line defects and cohomological Hall algebras
BPS line defects in 4d N=2 supersymmetric QFT are described by a monoidal category with a list of desired properties. For example, the Grothendieck group of this category is supposed to coincide with quantization of functions on Coulomb branch of the theory compactified on a circle. Based on an observation, that at a given vacuum the spectrum of PBS particles can be quipped with an algebra structure – cohomological Hall algebra of the corresponding BPS quiver – we propose a category generated by certain bimodules over this algebra that possesses expected properties of the category of lines. Based on a joint work with Davide Gaiotto and Wei Li.
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Lecture - Quantum Theory, PHYS 605
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics -
Energy cost of maximal entanglement extraction in QFT
PIRSA:24090196We present a study of the relationship between energy and entanglement in finite regions of possibly arbitrary shape in QFT. We show how one can quantify the entanglement avoiding divergences by using techniques inspired by the formalism of particle detectors in relativistic quantum information. We also show how the energy cost of entanglement extraction varies with the shape and size of the regions, as well as analyze the energy density of the quantum field after this entanglement has been extracted. -
Partitions in quantum theory
Télécom ParisThe standard perspective on subsystems in quantum theory is a bottom-up, compositional one: one starts with individual "small" systems, viewed as primary, and composes them together to form larger systems. The top-down, decompositional perspective goes the other way, starting with a "large" system and asking what it means to partition it into smaller parts. In this talk, I will 1/ argue that the adoption of the top-down perspective is the key to progress in several current areas of foundational research; and 2/ present an integrated mathematical framework for partitions into three or more subsystems, using sub-C* algebras. Concerning the first item, I will explain how the top-down perspective becomes crucial whenever the way in which a quantum system is partitioned into smaller subsystems is not unique, but might depend on the physical situation at hand. I will display how that precise feature lies at the heart of a flurry of current hot foundational topics, such as quantum causal models, Wigner's friend scenarios, superselection rules, quantum reference frames, and debates over the implementability of the quantum switch. Concerning the second item, I will argue that partitions in (finite-dimensional) quantum theory can be naturally pinned down using sub-C* algebras. Building on simple illustrative examples, I will discuss the often-overlooked existence of non-factor C*-algebras, and how it leads to numerous subtleties -- in particular a generic failure of local tomography. I will introduce a sound framework for quantum partitions that overcomes these challenges; it is the first top-down framework that allows to consider three or more subsystems. Finally, as a display of this framework's technical power, I will briefly present how its application to quantum causal modelling unlocked the proof that all 1D quantum cellular automata admit causal decompositions.
(This is joint work with Octave Mestoudjian and Pablo Arrighi. This talk is complementary to my Causalworlds 2024 presentation, which will focus on the issue of causal decompositions.)
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Violation of Bell's inequality in continuous variable systems
PIRSA:24090195Violations of Bell’s inequality have been studied for spin-1/2 systems in much detail. Turns out that one can show Bell violation for systems that are expressed in terms of continuous variables such as position and momentum. The most ubiquitous examples of such systems are Gaussian states, notably the two-mode squeezed vacuum state. I will talk about how one can quantify violations of local realism in such states. I will discuss the dependence of Bell violation on temperature as well as the result that entanglement is not a monotonic function of Bell's inequality. -
Everything that can be learned about a causal structure with latent variables by observational and interventional probing schemes
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical PhysicsPIRSA:24090191What types of differences among causal structures with latent variables are impossible to distinguish by statistical data obtained by probing each visible variable? If the probing scheme is simply passive observation, then it is well-known that many different causal structures can realize the same joint probability distributions. Even for the simplest case of two visible variables, for instance, one cannot distinguish between causal influence of one variable on the other and the two variables sharing a latent common cause. However, it is possible to distinguish between these two causal structures if we have recourse to more powerful probing schemes, such as the possibility of intervening on one of the variables and observing the other. Herein, we address the question of which causal structures remain indistinguishable even given the most informative types of probing schemes on the visible variables. We find that two causal structures remain indistinguishable if and only if they are both associated with the same mDAG structure (as defined by Evans (2016)). We also consider the question of when one causal structure dominates another in the sense that it can realize all of the joint probability distributions that can be realized by the other using a given probing scheme. (Equivalence of causal structures is the special case of mutual dominance.) Finally, we investigate to what extent one can weaken the probing schemes implemented on the visible variables and still have the same discrimination power as a maximally informative probing scheme.