Scientific Series

The underlying holomorphic structure of a generalized Kahler manifold has been recently understood to be a square in the double category of holomorphic symplectic groupoids (or (1,1)-shifted symplectic stacks). I will explain what this means and how it allows us to describe the generalized Kahler metric in terms of a single real scalar function, resolving a conjecture made by physicists Gates, Hull, and Rocek in 1984. This is based on joint work with Yucong Jiang and Daniel Alvarez available at https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.00831.

Understanding quantum noise is an essential step towards building practical quantum information processing systems. Pauli noise is a useful model widely applied in quantum benchmarking, quantum error mitigation, and quantum error correction. Despite previous research, the problem of how to learn a Pauli noise model self-consistently, completely, and efficiently has remained open. In this talk, I will introduce a framework of gate-set Pauli noise learning that aims at addressing this problem. The framework treats initialization, measurement, and a set of quantum gates to suffer from unknown Pauli noise channels, which are allowed to have customized locality constraints. The goal is to learn all the Pauli noise channels using only those noisy operations. I will first introduce a theory on the “learnability” of Pauli noise model, i.e., what information is fundamentally identifiable within the model and what is not. This is established using tools from algebraic graph theory and ideas from gate set tomography; I will then discuss a sample-efficient procedure to learn all learnable information of a Paul noise model to any desired precision; Finally, I will demonstrate how to apply our theoretic framework for concrete practical gate set and noise assumptions, and discuss the potential impact on quantum error mitigation and other applications.

Many fundamental-physics experiments scatter high energy beams off of fixed targets composed of ordinary matter i.e., atoms. When considering the scattering off of atomic electrons we often make the approximation that the electron is free and at rest, however one can ask how good this approximation really is? This becomes especially important in the face of demanding precision goals of certain experiments. For example the planned MuonE experiment will attempt to measure the shape of  $\mu e \rightarrow \mu e$ scattering as a function of angle with a precision of 10 ppm. In this talk I will explain how to systematically include bound-state corrections arising from the difference between a free-and-at-rest electron and those bound in atomic orbitals. When the final state of the atom is not measured, a surprisingly simple and elegant formula can be obtained that reduces the leading order corrections to a single atomic matrix element. New developments related to Coulomb corrections for inelastic systems will also be discussed.  Based on (arXiv:2403.12184, 2407.21752). 

The study of symmetries at null infinity and their connection with soft theorems via Ward identities has been the subject of intense research over the past decade. The organization of the symmetries in a clear - geometric - structure that reflects the subleading infrared effects has led to numerous interesting results, in particular the emergence of the Lw_{1+\infty} algebra of symmetries for gravity. In this talk I will review recent results on an adaptation of Stueckelberg's procedure to extend phase spaces at null infinity, by which gauge symmetry generators are promoted to dynamical degrees of freedom, containing the so-called edge modes. This formalization allows us to obtain charges corresponding to the subleading soft theorems at all orders, and to construct a hierarchy of closed subalgebras that satisfy simple recursion relations. I will show the example of this construction in Yang-Mills theory, and comment on the charge algebra obtained. Finally, I will discuss the application of this construction to gravity, as well as some preliminary results and future directions.

The Effective Field Theory of Large Scale Structure (EFTofLSS) has found tremendous success as a perturbative framework for the evolution of large scale structure, and it is now routinely used to compare theoretical predictions against cosmological observations. The model for the total matter field includes one nuisance parameter at 1-loop order, the effective sound speed, which can be extracted by matching the EFT to full N-body simulations. In this talk we explore two different directions related to the effective sound speed. We first show that its emergence can be understood even without effective field theory ingredients, through a perturbative framework that solves the Vlasov-Poisson system of equations directly in phase space. However, we will argue that the EFT is necessary to ensure self-consistency. We then discuss how one can estimate the effective sound speed, via separate universe techniques, with analytic calculations. The estimate is in good agreement with simulation results, and we show it can be used to extract the cosmology dependence of the effective sound speed and to shed light on what cosmic structures shape its value.

Non-local operators, supported on submanifolds of spacetime, often encode fascinating physical insights about a theory and can serve as order parameters for phase transitions. In this talk, we will explore various aspects of 1/2​ BPS surface operators in N=4 super Yang-Mills. Specifically, I will show how supergravity computes exactly the planar limit of certain correlation functions of surface operators, even though they receive nontrivial quantum corrections. In particular, we will compute correlation functions with Chiral Primary Operators by localizing N = 4 super Yang-Mills on S^4 to a deformed version of 2d Yang-Mills on S^2. These correlation functions, which have a finite number of quantum corrections, can also be computed perturbatively in four dimensions. I will show the exact agreement between these approaches and the corresponding supergravity result. This talk is based on 2406.08541, work in collaboration with Changha Choi and Jaume Gomis.

Directional dark matter detectors using diamond as a target material offer a novel solution to overcome solar neutrino backgrounds. Sub-micron damage tracks from nuclear recoils can be read out via advanced quantum sensing techniques with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. I will discuss recent advancements in strain-sensitive quantum interferometry that enable precise strain imaging, paving the way for directional particle detection. These developments highlight the potential of diamond-based detectors for advancing dark matter and neutrino physics, as well as material science applications.

Emergent Modified Gravity (EMG) is a post-Einsteinian theory of canonical gravity. In this formulation, modified constraints are required to preserve an algebra of hypersurface deformation form and will in general imply modified structure functions. This procedure leads to the conclusion that spacetime is an emergent object with a nontrivial dependence on the gravitational phase space variables through the modified structure functions. Consistency conditions are imposed on the modified constraints and the emergent spacetime metric to ensure general covariance. The resulting modifications allowed by EMG go beyond those obtained from adding higher curvature terms and can result in nonpolynomial dependencies on extrinsic curvature components. In this talk, we discuss how a particular interpretation of such modifications as holonomy terms makes it possible to use EMG as a covariant framework for effective (loop) quantum gravity. We then focus on dynamical solutions of the spherically symmetric model which include nonsingular black holes, new effects to gravitational collapse, and MOND-like effects at intermediate scales.

The groundbreaking detection of gravitational waves from merging black holes has forever changed how we observe the Universe. Upcoming detectors, like the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), will unlock new opportunities by allowing us to detect mergers between stellar-mass black holes (tens of solar masses) and supermassive black holes (SMBHs, millions to billions of solar masses). These fascinating events, known as extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs), provide a wealth of information about the dynamics near SMBHs. A key formation channel for EMRIs involves weak gravitational interactions—two-body kicks—from surrounding stars and compact objects that gradually alter the small black hole's orbit, eventually driving it into the SMBH. However, the picture changes when we consider the presence of SMBH companions, which can induce high orbital eccentricities, further enhancing EMRI formation. In this talk, I will show that combining these two processes is crucial for understanding the progenitors of EMRIs. Moreover, I will demonstrate that SMBH binaries create EMRIs more efficiently than either process alone, making it truly rain black holes! This scenario results in a substantial stochastic gravitational wave background for future detectors like LISA. Finally, I will also discuss how this mechanism affects tidal disruption events and address the tantalizing question: Is it raining stars, too?

I'll discuss the representation theory of line operators in 3d holomorphic-topological theories, following recent work with Wenjun Niu and Victor Py. Examples of the line operators we have in mind include half-BPS lines in 3d N=2 supersymmetric theories (reinterpreted in a holomorphic twist). We compute the OPE of line operators, which endows the category with a meromorphic tensor product, and establish a perturbative nonrenormalization theorem for the OPE. Then, applying Koszul-duality methods of Costello and Costello-Paquette, we represent the category of lines as modules for a new sort of mathematical object, which we call a dg-shifted Yangian. This is an A-infinity algebra, with a chiral coproduct whose data includes a Maurer-Cartan element that behaves like an infinitesimal r-matrix. The structure is a cohomologically shifted version of the ordinary Yangians that represent lines in 4d holomorphic-topological theories.