Scientific Series

In this talk I will review work on `decomposition,' a property of 2d theories with 1-form symmetries and, more generally, d-dim'l theories with (d-1)-form symmetries. Decomposition is the observation that such quantum field theories are equivalent to ('decompose into’)  disjoint unions of other QFTs, known in this context as "universes.” Examples include two-dimensional gauge theories and orbifolds with matter invariant under a subgroup of the gauge group. Decomposition explains and relates several physical properties of these theories -- for example, restrictions on allowed instantons arise as a "multiverse interference effect" between contributions from constituent universes. First worked out in 2006 as part of efforts to understand string propagation on stacks, decomposition has been the driver of a number of developments since. In the first half of this talk, I will review decomposition; in the second half, I will focus on the recent application to anomaly resolution of Wang-Wen-Witten in two-dimensional orbifolds.

Quantum metrology, which studies parameter estimation in quantum systems, has many important applications in science and technology, ranging from frequency spectroscopy to gravitational wave detection. Quantum mechanics imposes a fundamental limit on the estimation precision, called the Heisenberg limit, which is achievable in noiseless quantum systems, but is in general not achievable in noisy systems. This talk is a summary of some recent works by the speaker and collaborators on error-corrected quantum metrology. Specifically, we present a necessary and sufficient condition for achieving the Heisenberg limit in noisy quantum systems. When the condition is satisfied, the Heisenberg limit is recovered by a quantum error correction protocol which corrects all noises while maintaining the signal; when it is violated, we show the estimation limit still in general has a constant factor improvement over classical strategies, and is achievable using approximate quantum error correction. Both error correction protocols can be optimized using semidefinite programs. Examples in some typical noisy systems will be provided.

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/95698542740?pwd=OWJtcTViKzZqNDg1bWk4cDFtaTRxZz09

We expect certain universal results in classical gravity to come unaltered from a quantum theory of gravity. In this talk, I will firstly discuss new ideas on this topic, and the latest understanding we have on this, in an accessible way. After that, I will focus on local symmetries in gravity, and obtain the most general off-shell algebra of diffeomorphisms that acts non-trivially at corners, where gauge charges are supported. Noether charges in Einstein gravity are then shown to generate a faithful representation of this algebra. After pausing and reviewing the covariant phase space formulation, explaining the questions and issues our community faced in successfully applying it to gravity, I will show how a careful treatment of embeddings allows us to establish a field space where Noether charges act canonically via Poisson bracket. This solves a longstanding puzzle in this field, opening doors to new promising investigations. I will conclude by mentioning them and commenting on how new proposals might shed light on old unanswered questions in quantum gravity.

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/96552295909?pwd=cFZwcGxLdWlaWWhRS21RMExUd1RjQT09

In this talk I will give an overview of recent and ongoing work regarding rotating black holes in dynamical Chern-Simons (dCS) gravity. dCS gravity is a well motivated modified theory of gravity which has been extensively studied in gravitational and cosmological contexts. I will first discuss unique geometric structures, `the Chern-Simons caps,' which slowly rotating black holes in dCS gravity were recently found to possess. Motivated by the dCS caps, I will then discuss superradiance in the context of slowly rotating dCS black holes and show that there are corrections to the usual solution for a Kerr black hole. Lastly, I will comment on the observable implications for these corrections and point towards avenues for future work.

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/95228483630?pwd=dWk1c3p5dUU3RXJrNEhIT2M3Tk1Kdz09

I will review the history of anyons, particles that are neither bosons nor fermions, starting with their theoretical proposal all the way to their definitive experimental observation over 40 years later.  I will further discuss why the more general idea of non-abelian anyons is of intense interest for quantum computation.  If time permits I will give a status report on some of the current non-abelian anyon experiments.

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/98698779123?pwd=SWIyak9OZ0dud2ZGcWdoazdkVURHQT09

The coupled wire construction is a powerful method for studying exotic quantum phases of matter. In this talk I will discuss some recent work in which this technique was used to realize new types of 3D compressible quantum phases. These phases possess a U(1) charge conservation symmetry that is weakly broken by rigid string or membrane-like order parameters. No local order parameter is present and the emergent quasiparticles have restricted mobility. I will discuss the unusual symmetry breaking mechanism and its connection to the compressibility. For a particular class of models I will also describe an effective low energy theory given by coupled layers Maxwell-Chern-Simons theories.

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/95372524441?pwd=UTlVTTZlSmFRK0FmVE5pTHhDRThwdz09

The quantization of a non-linear sigma model in 1+1 dimensional space-time, whose target space is equipped with a non positive definite metric is an interesting open problem having potential applications to string theory and Condensed Matter Physics. Perhaps the simplest example where it can be studied is the 2D Lorentzian black hole sigma model that was introduced by Witten in '91. The purpose of this talk is to discuss the results of  the paper arXiv:2010.10613. There it was found that the scaling limit of a certain spin chain, that lies within the integrability class of an inhomogeneous six-vertex model, is closely related to the Lorentzian black hole sigma model and its Euclidean version.

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/91519988720?pwd=RTdrT1NWc3V0SXZVTGxETVBlTm5YUT09

The talk will present the status and plans of the search for low mass dark matter using electron counting semiconductor detectors. In this talk I will describe the skipper-CCD technology and the results of the SENSEI experiment using this technology for direct dark matter search. Finally, I will present the ongoing efforts to develop the next generation of experiments using this technology (Oscura).

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/91739887327?pwd=V2ZiajlENjlrY1pyNWN2OFBaTUduZz09

Patterns and complex textures are ubiquitous in astronomical data but challenging to quantify. I will present a new powerful statistic called the “scattering transform”. It borrows ideas from convolutional neural nets (CNNs) while retaining the advantages of traditional statistics. As an example, I will show its application to weak lensing cosmology, where it outperforms classic statistics and is on a par with CNNs. I will also show interesting visual interpretations of the scattering statistics and possible extensions of this “mathematical neural network” idea. I argue that the scattering transform provides a powerful new approach in cosmology and beyond.

Related papers:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.01288

https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.09247

https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.08561

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/91612161747?pwd=bnQrVmo4ZjBjaUdQMDBNZGhFS2NPQT09

In this talk, I will discuss a new duality that was recently discovered in joint work with David Ayala and Nick Rozenblyum, which we refer to as reflection.

In essence, reflection amounts to two dual methods for reconstructing objects, based on a stratification of the category that they live in. As a classical example, an abelian group can be reconstructed on the one hand in terms of its p-completions and its rationalization, or on the other (reflected) hand in terms of its p-torsion components and its corationalization; and these both come from a certain "closed-open decomposition" of the category of abelian groups.

Examples and applications of reflection are abundant, because stratifications are abundant. In algebra, reflection recovers the derived equivalences of quivers coming from BGP reflection functors (hence the terminology "reflection"). In topology, reflection is closely related to Verdier duality, a generalization of Poincaré duality that applies to singular spaces. Moreover, an explicit description of reflection leads to a categorification of the classical Möbius inversion formula, a Fourier inversion theorem for functions on posets.

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/92439401154?pwd=cGZsUGJGcmNXdFZuclREL3gyYnhQdz09