Past Quantum Field Theory Seminar

We consider an analogue of Kontsevich's matrix Airy function where the cubic potential $\mathrm{Tr}(\Phi^3)$ is replaced by a quartic term $\mathrm{Tr}(\Phi^4)$. By methods from quantum field theory we show that also the quartic case is exactly solvable. All cumulants can be expressed as composition of elementary functions with the inverse of another elementary function. For infinite matrices the inversion gives rise to hyperlogarithms and zeta values as familiar from quantum field theory. For finite matrices the elementary functions are rational and should be viewed as branched covers of Riemann surfaces, in striking analogy with the topological recursion of the Kontsevich model. This rationality is strong support for the conjecture that the quartic analogue of the Kontsevich model is integrable.
 

Measurement outcomes in quantum theory are randomly distributed, and local measurements of the energy density of a QFT exhibit nontrivial fluctuations even in a vacuum state. This talk will present recent progress in determining the probability distribution for such measurements. In the specific case of 1+1 dimensional CFT, there are two methods (one based on Ward identities, the other on "conformal welding") which can lead to explicit closed-form results in some cases. The analogous problem for the free field in 1+3 dimensions will also be discussed.

In this talk I will explain (a) what observations speak for the
hypothesis of dark matter, (b) what observations speak for
the hypothesis of modified gravity, and (c) why it is a mistake
to insist that either hypothesis on its own must
explain all the available data. The right explanation, I will argue,
is instead a suitable combination of dark matter and modified
gravity, which can be realized by the idea that dark matter
has a superfluid phase.

 I will review some of the major research themes in Quantum Chaos over the past 50 years, and some of the questions currently attracting attention in the mathematics and physics literatures.

Magnetic skyrmions are topological solitons which occur in a large class
of ferromagnetic materials and which are currently attracting much
attention in the condensed matter community because of  their possible
use  in future magnetic information storage technology.  The talk is
about an integrable model for magnetic skyrmions, introduced in a recent
paper (arxiv 1812.07268) and generalised in (arxiv 1905.06285). The
model can be solved by interpreting it as a gauged nonlinear sigma
model. In the talk will explain the model and the geometry behind its
integrability, and discuss some of the solutions and their physical
interpretation.

The renormalized expectation value of the stress energy tensor (RSET) is an object of central importance in quantum field theory in curved space-time, but calculating this on black hole space-times is far from trivial.  The vacuum polarization (VP) of a quantum scalar field is computationally simpler and shares some features with the RSET.  In this talk we consider the properties of the VP for a massless, conformally coupled scalar field on asymptotically anti-de Sitter black holes with spherical, flat and hyperbolic horizons.  We focus on the effect of the different horizon curvature on the VP, and the role played by the boundary conditions far from the black hole.     

String compactifications are essential for connecting string theory to low energy particle physics and cosmology. Moduli stabilisation gives rise to effective Lagrangians that capture the low-energy degrees of freedom. Much recent interest has been on swampland consistency conditions on such effective
field theories - which low energy Lagrangians can arise from quantum gravity? Furthermore, given that moduli stabilisation scenarios often exist in AdS space, we can also ask: what do swampland conditions mean in the context of AdS/CFT? I describe work on developing a holographic understanding of moduli stabilisation and swampland consistency conditions. I focus in particular on the Large Volume Scenario, which is especially appealing from a holographic perspective as in the large volume limit all its interactions can be expressed solely in terms of the AdS radius, with no free dimensionless parameters.

Integrable models provide simplified examples of quantum field theories with self-interaction. As often in relativistic quantum theory, their local observables are difficult to control mathematically. One either tries to construct pointlike local quantum fields, leading to possibly divergent series expansions, or one defines the local observables indirectly via wedge-local quantities, losing control over their explicit form.

We propose a new, hybrid approach: We aim to describe local quantum fields; but rather than exhibiting their n-point functions and verifying the Wightman axioms, we establish them as closed operators affiliated with a net of von Neumann algebras. This is shown to work at least in the Ising model.

I will review the idea that entanglement must ultimately be understood in terms of modes, rather than in terms of particles. The most striking instance of mode entanglement is a single particle entangled state, which I will discuss both in the case of bosons as well as in the case of fermions. I then proceed to show that the Aharonov-Bohm effect can be understood by using a single electron entangled state. Finally, I will argue that this demonstrates beyond doubt that the Aharonov-Bohm effect is non non-local, contrary to what is frequently claimed in the literature.

A recent calculation of the multi-Higgs boson production in scalar theories
with spontaneous symmetry breaking has demonstrated the fast growth of the
cross section with the Higgs multiplicity at sufficiently large energies,
called “Higgsplosion”. It was argued that “Higgsplosion” solves the Higgs
hierarchy and fine-tuning problems. The phenomena looks quite exciting,
however in my talk I will present arguments that: a) the formula for
“Higgsplosion” has a limited applicability and inconsistent with unitarity
of the Standard Model; b) that the contribution from “Higgsplosion” to the
imaginary part of the Higgs boson propagator cannot be re-summed in order to
furnish a solution of the Higgs hierarchy and fine-tuning problems.

Based on our recent paper https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.05641 (A. Belyaev, F. Bezrukov, D. Ross)

Progress in developing a consistent theory that describes physical phenomena
at scales where quantum and general relativistic effects are large is
hindered by the lack of experiments. In this talk, we present a proposal
that would overcome this experimental obstacle by using a Bose-Einstein
condensate (BEC) to test for possible conflicts between quantum theory and
general relativity. Recent developments in large BEC systems allows us to
verify if gravitationally-induced wave function collapse occurs at the
timescales predicted by Roger Penrose. BECs with high particle numbers
(N>10^9) can also be used to demonstrate quantum field theory in curved
spacetime by observing how changes in the spacetime affect the phononic
quantum field of a BEC. These effects will enable the development of a new
generation of instruments that will be able to probe scales where new
physics might emerge, with applications including gravitational wave
detectors, gravimeters, gradiometers and dark energy probes.

We present a self-contained construction of the Euclidean $\Phi^4$ quantum
field theory on $\mathbb{R}^3$ based on PDE arguments. More precisely, we
consider an approximation of the stochastic quantization equation on
$\mathbb{R}^3$ defined on a periodic lattice of mesh size $\varepsilon$ and
side length $M$. We introduce an energy method and prove tightness of the
corresponding Gibbs measures as $\varepsilon \rightarrow 0$, $M \rightarrow
\infty$. We show that every limit point satisfies reflection positivity,
translation invariance and nontriviality (i.e. non-Gaussianity). Our
argument applies to arbitrary positive coupling constant and also to
multicomponent models with $O(N)$ symmetry. Joint work with Massimiliano
Gubinelli.

Quantum Yang-Mills theory is an important part of the Standard model built
by physicists to describe elementary particles and their interactions. One
approach to this theory consists in constructing a probability measure on an
infinite-dimensional space of connections on a principal bundle over
space-time. However, in the physically realistic 4-dimensional situation,
the construction of this measure is still an open mathematical problem. The
subject of this talk will be the physically less realistic 2-dimensional
situation, in which the construction of the measure is possible, and fairly
well understood.

In probabilistic terms, the 2-dimensional Yang-Mills measure is the
distribution of a stochastic process with values in a compact Lie group (for

example the unitary group U(N)) indexed by the set of continuous closed
curves with finite length on a compact surface (for example a disk, a sphere
or a torus) on which one can measure areas. It can be seen as a Brownian
motion (or a Brownian bridge) on the chosen compact Lie group indexed by
closed curves, the role of time being played in a sense by area.

In this talk, I will describe the physical context in which the Yang-Mills
measure is constructed, and describe it without assuming any prior
familiarity with the subject. I will then present a set of results obtained
in the last few years by Antoine Dahlqvist, Bruce Driver, Franck Gabriel,
Brian Hall, Todd Kemp, James Norris and myself concerning the limit as N
tends to infinity of the Yang-Mills measure constructed with the unitary
group U(N).

A dedicated search of the CMB sky, driven by implications of conformal
cyclic cosmology (CCC), has revealed a remarkably strong signal, previously
unobserved, of numerous small regions in the CMB sky that would appear to be
individual points on CCC's crossover 3-surface from the previous aeon, most
readily interpreted as the conformally compressed Hawking radiation from
supermassive black holes in the previous aeon, but difficult to explain in
terms of the conventional inflationary picture.

After outlining the principles of Algebraic Quantum Field Theory (AQFT) I will describe the generalization of Hochschild cohomology that is relevant to describing deformations in AQFT. An interaction is described by a cohomology class.

I will discuss a classical six-dimensional superconformal field theory containing a non-abelian tensor multiplet which we recently constructed in arXiv:1712.06623.

This theory satisfies many of the properties of the mysterious (2,0)-theory: non-abelian 2-form potentials, ADE-type gauge structure, reduction to Yang-Mills theory and reduction to M2-brane models. There are still some crucial differences to the (2,0)-theory, but our action seems to be a key stepping stone towards a potential classical formulation of the (2,0)-theory.

I will review in detail the underlying mathematics of categorified gauge algebras and categorified connections, which make our constructions possible.

Algebraic quantum field theories (AQFTs) are traditionally described as functors that assign algebras (of observables) to spacetime regions. These functors are required to satisfy a list of physically motivated axioms such as commutativity of the multiplication for spacelike separated regions. In this talk we will show that AQFTs can be described as algebras over a colored operad. This operad turns out to be interesting as it describes an interpolation between non-commutative and commutative algebraic structures. We analyze our operad from a homotopy theoretical perspective and determine a suitable resolution that describes the commutative behavior up to coherent homotopies. We present two concrete constructions of toy-models of algebras over the resolved operad in terms of (i) forming cochains on diagrams of simplicial sets (or stacks) and (ii) orbifoldization of equivariant AQFTs.

In this talk, I will present the construction of a family of solutions to
vacuum Einstein equations which consist of an arbitrary number of high
frequency waves travelling in different directions. In the high frequency
limit, our family of solutions converges to a solution of Einstein equations
coupled to null dusts. This construction is an illustration of the so called
backreaction, studied by physicists (Isaacson, Burnet, Green, Wald...) : the
small scale inhomogeneities have an effect on the large scale dynamics in
the form of an energy impulsion tensor in the right-hand side of Einstein
equations. This is a joint work with Jonathan Luk (Stanford).

Some of the most studied examples of conformal field theories
include
the Wess-Zumino-Witten models. These are conformal field theories exhibiting
affine Lie algebra symmetry at non-negative integers levels. In this talk I
will
discuss conformal field theories exhibiting affine Lie algebra symmetry at
certain rational (hence fractional) levels whose structure is arguably even
more intricate than the structure of the non-negative integer levels,
provided
one is prepared to look beyond highest weight modules.

Hardy's axiomatic approach to quantum theory revealed that just one axiom
distinguishes quantum theory from classical probability theory: there should
be continuous reversible transformations between any pair of pure states. It
is the single word `continuous' that gives rise to quantum theory. This
raises the question: Does there exist a finite theory of quantum physics
(FTQP) which can replicate the tested predictions of quantum theory to
experimental accuracy? Here we show that an FTQP based on complex Hilbert
vectors with rational squared amplitudes and rational phase angles is
possible providing the metric of state space is based on p-adic rather than
Euclidean distance. A key number-theoretic result that accounts for the
Uncertainty Principle in this FTQP is the general incommensurateness between
rational $\phi$ and rational $\cos \phi$. As such, what is often referred to
as quantum `weirdness' is simply a manifestation of such number-theoretic
incommensurateness. By contrast, we mostly perceive the world as classical
because such incommensurateness plays no role in day-to-day physics, and
hence we can treat $\phi$ (and hence $\cos \phi$) as if it were a continuum
variable. As such, in this FTQP there are two incommensurate Schr\"{o}dinger
equations based on the rational differential calculus: one for rational
$\phi$ and one for rational $\cos \phi$. Each of these individually has a

simple probabilistic interpretation - it is their merger into one equation
on the complex continuum that has led to such problems over the years. Based
on this splitting of the Schr\"{o}dinger equation, the measurement problem
is trivially solved in terms of a nonlinear clustering of states on $I_U$.
Overall these results suggest we should consider the universe as a causal
deterministic system evolving on a finite fractal-like invariant set $I_U$
in state space, and that the laws of physics in space-time derive from the
geometry of $I_U$. It is claimed that such a  deterministic causal FTQP will
be much easier to synthesise with general relativity theory than is quantum
theory.

I will review some classical results on geometric scattering
theory for linear hyperbolic evolution equations
on globally hyperbolic spacetimes and its relation to particle and charge
creation in QFT. I will then show that some index formulae for the
scattering matrix can be interpreted as a special case of the  Lorentzian
analog of the Atyiah-Patodi-Singer index theorem. I will also discuss a
local version of this theorem and its relation to anomalies in QFT.
(Joint work with C. Baer)

I will start with a quick reminder of what we have learned so far about
transplanckian-energy collisions of particles, strings and branes.
I will then address the (so-far unsolved) problem of gravitational
bremsstrahlung from massless particle collisions at leading order in the
gravitational deflection angle.
Two completely different calculations, one classical and one quantum, lead
to the same final, though somewhat puzzling, result.

In this talk I will present recent results obtained within the
framework of perturbative algebraic quantum field theory. This novel
approach to mathematical foundations of quantum field theory allows to
combine the axiomatic framework of algebraic QFT by Haag and Kastler with
perturbative methods. Recently also non-perturbative results have been
obtained within this approach. I will report on these results and present
new perspectives that they open for better understanding of foundations of
QFT.

How long does a uniformly accelerated observer need to interact with a
quantum field in order to record thermality in the Unruh temperature?
In the limit of large excitation energy, the answer turns out to be
sensitive to whether (i) the switch-on and switch-off periods are
stretched proportionally to the total interaction time T, or whether
(ii) T grows by stretching a plateau in which the interaction remains
at constant strength but keeping the switch-on and switch-off
intervals of fixed duration. For a pointlike Unruh-DeWitt detector,
coupled linearly to a massless scalar field in four spacetime
dimensions and treated within first order perturbation theory, we show
that letting T grow polynomially in the detector's energy gap E
suffices in case (i) but not in case (ii), under mild technical
conditions. These results limit the utility of the large E regime as a

probe of thermality in time-dependent versions of the Hawking and
Unruh effects, such as an observer falling into a radiating black
hole. They may also have implications on the design of prospective
experimental tests of the Unruh effect.

Based on arXiv:1605.01316 (published in CQG) with Christopher J
Fewster and Benito A Juarez-Aubry.

In the cosmological scheme of conformal cyclic cosmology (CCC), the equations governing the crossover form each aeon to the next demand the creation of a dominant new scalar material that is postulated to be dark matter. In order that this material does not build up from aeon to aeon, it is taken to decay away completely over the history of the aeon. The dark matter particles (erebons) would be expected to behave as essentially classical particles of around a Planck mass, interacting only gravitationally, and their decay would be mainly responsible for the (~scale invariant)

temperature fluctuations in the CMB of the succeeding aeon. In our own aeon, erebon decay ought to be detectable as impulsive events observable by gravitational wave detectors.

We find a new duality  for form factors of lightlike Wilson loops
in planar N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory. The duality maps a form factor
involving a lightlike polygonal super-Wilson loop together with external
on-shell states, to the same type of object  but with the edges of the
Wilson loop and the external states swapping roles.  This relation can
essentially be seen graphically in Lorentz harmonic chiral (LHC) superspace
where it is equivalent to planar graph duality.

In 1997, Maxim Kontsevich gave a universal formula for the
quantization of Poisson brackets.  It can be viewed as a perturbative
expansion in a certain two-dimensional topological field theory.  While the
formula is explicit, it is currently impossible to compute in all but the
simplest cases, not least because the values of the relevant Feynman
integrals are unknown.  In forthcoming joint work with Peter Banks and Erik
Panzer, we use Francis Brown's approach to the periods of the moduli space
of genus zero curves to give an algorithm for the computation of these
integrals in terms of multiple zeta values.  It allows us to calculate the
terms in the expansion on a computer for the first time, giving tantalizing
evidence for several open conjectures concerning the convergence and sum of
the series, and the action of the Grothendieck-Teichmuller group by gauge
transformations.

The "Weyl fermion" was discovered in a topological semimetal in
2015. Its mathematical characterisation turns out to involve deep and subtle
results in differential topology. I will outline this theory, and explain
some connections to Euler structures, torsion of manifolds,
and Seiberg-Witten invariants. I also propose interesting generalisations
with torsion topological charges arising from Kervaire semicharacteristics
and ``Quaternionic'' characteristic classes.

Quantization is the study of the interface between commutative and
noncommutative geometry. There are myriad approaches to it, mostly presented
as ad hoc recipes. I shall discuss the motivating ideas, and the relations
between some of the methods, especially the relation between 'deformation'
and 'geometric' quantization.

The talk will review the origins
of ambitwistor strings, and  recent progress in extending them to a
wider variety of theories and loop amplitudes.

In this talk, we discuss an ongoing calculation of the
four-loop form factors in massless QCD. We begin by discussing our
novel approach to the calculation in detail. Of particular interest
are a new polynomial-time integration by parts reduction algorithm and
a new method to algebraically resolve the IR and UV singularities of
dimensionally-regulated bare perturbative scattering amplitudes.
Although not all integral topologies are linearly reducible for the
more non-trivial color structures, it is nevertheless feasible to
obtain accurate numerical results for the finite parts of the complete
four-loop form factors using publicly available sector decomposition
programs and bases of finite integrals. Finally, we present first
results for the four-loop gluon form factor Feynman diagrams which
contain three closed fermion loops.

The $\phi^4$ model in statistical physics describes the
continous phase transition in the liquid-vapour system, transition to
the superfluid phase in helium, etc. Experimentally measured values in
this model are critical exponents and universal amplitude ratios.
These values can also be calculated in the framework of the
renormalization group approach. It turns out that the obtained series
are divergent asymptotic series, but it is possible to perform Borel
resummation of such a series. To make this procedure more accurate we
need as much terms of the expansion as possible.
The results of the recent six loop analitical calculations of the
anomalous dimensions, beta function and critical exponents of the
$O(N)$ symmetric $\phi^4$ model will be presented. Different technical
aspects of these calculations (IBP method, R* operation and parametric
integration in Feynman representation) will be discussed. The

numerical estimations of critical exponents obtained with Borel
resummation procedure are compared with experimental values and
results of Monte-Carlo simulations.

The big phase space is an infinite dimensional manifold which is the arena
for topological quantum field theories and quantum cohomology (or
equivalently, dispersive integrable systems). tt*-geometry was introduced by
Cecotti and Vafa and is a way to introduce an Hermitian structure on what
would be naturally complex objects, and the theory has many links with
singularity theory, variation of Hodge structures, Higgs bundles, integrable
systems etc.. In this talk the two ideas will be combined to give a
tt*-geometry on the big phase space.

(joint work with Liana David)

This talk will start with a brief historical review of the classification of solids by their symmetries, and the more recent K-theoretic periodic table of Kitaev. It will then consider some mathematical questions this raises, in particular about the behaviour of electrons on the boundary of materials and in the bulk. Two rather different models will be described, which turn out to be related by T-duality. Relevant ideas from noncommutative geometry will be explained where needed.

I'll explain the formalism of extended QFT, while
focusing on the cases of two dimensional conformal field theories,
and three dimensional topological field theories.

In this talk, I will review an inverse scattering construction of interacting integrable quantum field theories on two-dimensional Minkowski space and its ramifications. The construction starts from a given two-body S-matrix instead of a classical Lagrangean, and defines corresponding quantum field theories in a non-perturbative manner in two steps: First certain semi-local fields are constructed explicitly, and then the analysis of the local observable content is carried out with operator-algebraic methods (Tomita-Takesaki modular theory, split subfactor inclusions). I will explain how this construction solves the inverse scattering problem for a large family of interactions, and also discuss perspectives on extensions of this program to higher dimensions and/or non-integrable theories.