Scientific Series

A number of ground based CMB surveys that will survey large fractions of the sky to high sensitivity are currently in the planning stages.  I will give an overview of what can be learned from these surveys about the Universe since recombination, focussing on gravitational lensing science.  I will also discuss some new CMB observables that would be accessible with even more futuristic surveys.

The physics proof of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem relates the Hamiltonian and Lagrangian approaches to quantization of N=1 supersymmetric mechanics. Similar ideas applied to the N=(0,1) supersymmetric sigma model construct two versions of elliptic cohomology: elliptic cohomology at the Tate curve over the integers and the universal elliptic cohomology theory over the complex numbers. Quantization procedures give analytic constructions of wrong-way maps in these cohomology theories. Relating these to the Ando-Hopkins-Strickland-Rezk string orientation of topological modular points to intricate torsion invariants associated with these sigma models. 

Quantum annealing with superconducting qubits: status and prospects
Adrian Lupascu, Institute for Quantum Computing

Quantum-enhanced Gibbs sampling in statistical relational learning
Peter Wittek, Institute of Photonic Sciences, University of Boras

In 1983, Nielsen and Ninomiya predicted that the Adler-Bell-Jakiw (or chiral) anomaly should be observable in a crystal that has protected Dirac states in the bulk (3+1 D). Following recent progress in the field of Topological Quantum Matter, the anomaly has now been observed, most clearly in the two semimetals Na3Bi and GdPtBi. I will discuss the general problem of realizing Weyl Fermions in semimetals, and explain what the chiral anomaly is in condensed matter. I will remark on its historical context, starting with pion decay. Several tests that support our conclusion will be described.

*Supported by the Moore Foundation, ARO and NSF.

Quantum triangles can work as interferometers. Depending on their geometric size and interactions between paths, “beats” and/or “steps”

patterns are observed. We show that when inter-level distances between level positions in quantum triangles periodically change with time, formation of beats and/or steps no longer depends only on the geometric size of the triangles but also on the characteristic frequency of the transverse signal. For large-size triangles, we observe the coexistence of beats and steps for moderated frequencies of the signal and for large frequencies a maximum of four steps instead of two as in the case with constant interactions are observed.

Small-size triangles also revealed counter-intuitive interesting dynamics for large frequencies of the field: unexpected two-step patterns are observed. When the frequency is large and tuned such that it matches the uniaxial anisotropy, three-step patterns are observed.

We have equally observed that when the transverse signal possesses a static part, steps maximize to six. These effects are semi-classically explained in terms of Fresnel integrals and quantum mechanically in terms of quantized fields with a photon-induced tunneling process. Our expressions for populations are in excellent agreement with the gross temporal profiles of exact numerical solutions. We compare the semi-classical and quantum dynamics in the triangle and establish the conditions for their equivalence.

I will introduce the spectral function method in the context of conformal bootstrap. I will discuss some applications of this method in two dimensions: (1) substantial evidence for the conjecture that the only unitary c>1 CFT with Virasoro primaries of bounded spin is Liouville theory, (2) detailed modular constraints on the spectrum of small c CFTs, (3) spectral density of large c CFTs with large gap, in connection to the (non-)universality of BTZ black hole entropy.

Sub-GeV dark matter is a theoretically motivated but largely unexplored paradigm of dark matter. In this talk, I will discuss recent work on the direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter through dark matter-electron scattering. I will present some motivated models that can be probed with these techniques as well as projections for current and near-term noble liquid, semiconductor, and scintillator experiments. Finally, I will discuss some new techniques that may allow us to more robustly discriminate between dark matter signatures and background.

I will discuss the chiral algebra W_infty which is obtained from the Virasoro algebra by adding fields of spin 3, 4, .... Via a non-local non-linear map one can show that it is equivalent to Tsymbaliuk's Yangian of affine u(1). In this way we find an infinite number of commuting conserved charges. Diagonalizing these, the representation theory reduces to combinatorial study of plane partitions, 3-dimensional generalization of the Young diagrams. Tsymbaliuk's presentation can be derived from RTT relations using Maulik-Okounkov's free boson R-matrix.

Population expansions are ubiquitous in nature. They control the speed of many important dynamical processes, including multicellular development, biological evolution and epidemic outbreaks. Yet, the theoretical description of spreading behaviors has been limited largely to mean-field models that ignore the randomness inherent to living systems. In this talk, I present theoretical arguments and experimental results that elucidate how noise influences spreading processes on many scales, ranging from cellular scales, where jamming cells impede their own expansion, to global scales, where epidemic spread relies on rare long-range jumps.  Our results underscore that carrying excellent genes does not guarantee success in evolution - the pure luck of being in the right place at the right time can be equally, or more, important.

Computational complexity theory is a branch of computer science dedicated to classifying computational problems in terms of their difficulty. While computability theory tells us what we can compute in principle, complexity theory informs us regarding what is feasible. In this chapter I argue that the science of quantum computing illuminates the foundations of complexity theory by emphasising that its fundamental concepts are not model-independent. However this does not, as some have suggested, force us to radically revise the foundations of the theory. For model-independence never has been essential to those foundations. The fundamental aim of complexity theory is to describe what is achievable in practice under various models of computation for our various practical purposes. Reflecting on quantum computing illuminates complexity theory by reminding us of this, too often under-emphasised, fact.

Recently a boundary energy-momentum tensor Tzz has been constructed from the soft graviton operator for any 4D quantum theory of gravity in asymptotically flat space. Up to an "anomaly" which is one-loop exact, Tzz generates a Virasoro action on the 2D celestial sphere at null infinity. Here we show by explicit construction that the effects of the IR divergent part of the anomaly can be eliminated by a one-loop renormalization that shifts Tzz.

Utilizing the Fermi measurement of the gamma-ray spectrum toward the Galactic Center, we derive some of the strongest constraints to date on the dark matter (DM) lifetime in the mass range from hundreds of MeV to above an EeV. Our profile-likelihood based analysis relies on 413 weeks of Fermi Pass 8 data from 200 MeV to 2 TeV, along with up-to-date models for diffuse gamma-ray emission within the Milky Way. We model Galactic and extragalactic DM decay and include contributions to the DM-induced gamma-ray flux resulting from both primary emission and inverse-Compton scattering of primary electrons and positrons. For the extragalactic flux, we also calculate the spectrum associated with cascades of high-energy gamma-rays scattering off of the cosmic background radiation. We argue that a decaying DM interpretation for the 10 TeV-1 PeV neutrino flux observed by IceCube is disfavored by our constraints. We interpret the results in terms of individual final states and in the context of simplified scenarios such as a hidden-sector glueball model.