Tuesdays 10:30 - 11:30 | Fridays 11:30 - 12:30
Showing votes from 2024-01-02 11:30 to 2024-01-05 12:30 | Next meeting is Tuesday Oct 29th, 10:30 am.
We explore the potential of enhancing LLM performance in astronomy-focused question-answering through targeted, continual pre-training. By employing a compact 7B-parameter LLaMA-2 model and focusing exclusively on a curated set of astronomy corpus -- comprising abstracts, introductions, and conclusions -- we achieve notable improvements in specialized topic comprehension. While general LLMs like GPT-4 outperform in broader question-answering scenarios due to superior reasoning capabilities, our findings suggest that continual pre-training with limited resources can still enhance model performance on specialized topics. Additionally, we present an extension of AstroLLaMA: the fine-tuning of the 7B LLaMA model on a domain-specific conversational dataset, culminating in the release of the chat-enabled AstroLLaMA for community use. Comprehensive quantitative benchmarking is currently in progress and will be detailed in an upcoming full paper. The model, AstroLLaMA-Chat, is now available at https://huggingface.co/universeTBD, providing the first open-source conversational AI tool tailored for the astronomy community.
Detection of redshifted \ion{H}{i} 21cm emission is a potential probe for investigating the Universe's first billion years. However, given the significantly brighter foreground, detecting 21cm is observationally difficult. The Earth's ionosphere considerably distorts the signal at low frequencies by introducing directional-dependent effects. Here, for the first time, we report the use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to extract the global 21cm signal characteristics from the composite all-sky averaged signal, including foreground and ionospheric effects such as refraction, absorption, and thermal emission from the ionosphere's F and D-layers. We assume a 'perfect' instrument and neglect instrumental calibration and beam effects. To model the ionospheric effect, we considered the static and time-varying ionospheric conditions for the mid-latitude region where LOFAR is situated. In this work, we trained the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model for various situations using a synthetic set of the global 21cm signals created by altering its parameter space based on the "$\rm \tanh$" parameterized model and the Accelerated Reionization Era Simulations (ARES) algorithm. The obtained result shows that the ANN model can extract the global signal parameters with an accuracy of $\ge 96 \% $ in the final study when we include foreground and ionospheric effects. On the other hand, a similar ANN model can extract the signal parameters from the final prediction dataset with an accuracy ranging from $97 \%$ to $98 \%$ when considering more realistic sets of the global 21cm signals based on physical models.
In this research, we investigate the structural evolution of the cosmic web, employing advanced methodologies from Topological Data Analysis. Our approach involves leveraging $Persistence$ $Signals$, an innovative method from recent literature that facilitates the embedding of persistence diagrams into vector spaces by re-conceptualizing them as signals in $\mathbb R^2_+$. Utilizing this methodology, we analyze three quintessential cosmic structures: clusters, filaments, and voids. A central discovery is the correlation between $Persistence$ $Energy$ and redshift values, linking persistent homology with cosmic evolution and providing insights into the dynamics of cosmic structures.
We present cosmological constraints from the abundance of galaxy clusters selected via the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect in South Pole Telescope (SPT) data with a simultaneous mass calibration using weak gravitational lensing data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The cluster sample is constructed from the combined SPT-SZ, SPTpol ECS, and SPTpol 500d surveys, and comprises 1,005 confirmed clusters in the redshift range $0.25-1.78$ over a total sky area of 5,200 deg$^2$. We use DES Year 3 weak-lensing data for 688 clusters with redshifts $z<0.95$ and HST weak-lensing data for 39 clusters with $0.6<z<1.7$. The weak-lensing measurements enable robust mass measurements of sample clusters and allow us to empirically constrain the SZ observable--mass relation. For a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, and marginalizing over the sum of massive neutrinos, we measure $\Omega_\mathrm{m}=0.286\pm0.032$, $\sigma_8=0.817\pm0.026$, and the parameter combination $\sigma_8\,(\Omega_\mathrm{m}/0.3)^{0.25}=0.805\pm0.016$. Our measurement of $S_8\equiv\sigma_8\,\sqrt{\Omega_\mathrm{m}/0.3}=0.795\pm0.029$ and the constraint from Planck CMB anisotropies (2018 TT,TE,EE+lowE) differ by $1.1\sigma$. In combination with that Planck dataset, we place a 95% upper limit on the sum of neutrino masses $\sum m_\nu<0.18$ eV. When additionally allowing the dark energy equation of state parameter $w$ to vary, we obtain $w=-1.45\pm0.31$ from our cluster-based analysis. In combination with Planck data, we measure $w=-1.34^{+0.22}_{-0.15}$, or a $2.2\sigma$ difference with a cosmological constant. We use the cluster abundance to measure $\sigma_8$ in five redshift bins between 0.25 and 1.8, and we find the results to be consistent with structure growth as predicted by the $\Lambda$CDM model fit to Planck primary CMB data.
In this study, we investigate the potential existence of a non-minimal coupling between dark matter and gravity using a compilation of galaxy clusters. We focus on the disformal scenario of a non-minimal model with an associated coupling length $L$. Within the Newtonian approximation, this model introduces a modification to the Poisson equation, characterized by a term proportional to $L^2 \nabla^2 \rho$, where $\rho$ represents the density of the DM field. We have tested the model by examining strong and weak gravitational lensing data available for a selection of 19 high-mass galaxy clusters observed by the CLASH survey. We have employed a Markov Chain Monte Carlo code to explore the parameter space, and two different statistical approaches to analyse our results: a standard marginalisation and a profile distribution method. Notably, the profile distribution analysis helps out to bypass some volume-effects in the posterior distribution, and reveals lower Navarro--Frenk--White concentrations and masses in the non-minimal coupling model compared to general relativity case. We also found a nearly perfect correlation between the coupling constant $L$ and the standard Navarro--Frenk--White scale parameter $r_s$, hinting at a compelling link between these two lengths.
The search for subsolar mass primordial black holes (PBHs) poses a challenging problem due to the low signal-to-noise ratio, extended signal duration, and computational cost demands, compared to solar mass binary black hole events. In this paper, we explore the possibility of investigating the mass range between subsolar and planetary masses, which is not accessible using standard matched filtering and continuous wave searches. We propose a systematic approach employing the Viterbi algorithm, a dynamic programming algorithm that identifies the most likely sequence of hidden Markov states given a sequence of observations, to detect signals from small mass PBH binaries. We formulate the methodology, provide the optimal length for short-time Fourier transforms, and estimate sensitivity. Subsequently, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the Viterbi algorithm in identifying signals within mock data containing Gaussian noise. Our approach offers the primary advantage of being agnostic and computationally efficient.
For most of cosmic history, the evolution of our Universe has been governed by the physics of a 'dark sector', consisting of dark matter and dark energy, whose properties are only understood in a schematic way. The influence of these constituents is mediated exclusively by the force of gravity, meaning that insight into their nature must be gleaned from gravitational phenomena. The advent of gravitational-wave astronomy has revolutionised the field of black hole astrophysics, and opens a new window of discovery for cosmological sources. Relevant examples include topological defects, such as domain walls or cosmic strings, which are remnants of a phase transition. Here we present the first simulations of cosmic structure formation in which the dynamics of the dark sector introduces domain walls as a source of stochastic gravitational waves in the late Universe. We study in detail how the spectrum of gravitational waves is affected by the properties of the model, and extrapolate the results to scales relevant to the recent evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave background. Our relativistic implementation of the field dynamics paves the way for optimal use of the next generation of gravitational experiments to unravel the dark sector.
The symmetron is a dark energy and dark matter candidate that forms topological defects in the late-time universe and holds promise to resolve some of the cosmological tensions. We perform high resolution simulations of the dynamical and non-linear (a)symmetron using the recently developed relativistic N-body code asevolution. By extensively testing the temporal and spatial convergence of domain decompositioning and domain wall stability, we find criteria and physical intuition for the convergence. We apply the resolution criteria to run five high resolution, $1280^3$ grids and 500 Mpc/h boxsize, simulations of the (a)symmetron and consider the behaviour of the scalar field and the domain walls in each scenario. We find the effect on the matter power spectra, the halo mass function and observables computed over the past lightcone of an observer such as the integrated Sachs-Wolfe and non-linear Rees-Sciama effect (ISW-RS) and the lensing, compared to LCDM. We show local oscillations of the fifth force strength and the formation of planar structures in the density field. The dynamics of the field is visualised in animations with high resolution in time. The simulation code is made publicly available.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs), millisecond-duration bursts prevailing in the radio sky, are the latest big puzzle in the universe and have been a subject of intense observational and theoretical investigations in recent years. The rapid accumulation of the observational data has painted the following sketch about the physical origin of FRBs: They predominantly originate from cosmological distances so that their sources produce the most extreme coherent radio emission in the universe; at least some, probably most, FRBs are repeating sources that do not invoke cataclysmic events; and at least some FRBs are produced by magnetars, neutron stars with the strongest magnetic fields in the universe. Many open questions regarding the physical origin(s) and mechanism(s) of FRBs remain. This article reviews the phenomenology and possible underlying physics of FRBs. Topics include: a summary of the observational data, basic plasma physics, general constraints on FRB models from the data, radiation mechanisms, source and environment models, propagation effects, as well as FRBs as cosmological probes. Current pressing problems and future prospects are also discussed.
Ultracold atomic gases can undergo phase transitions that mimic relativistic vacuum decay, allowing us to empirically test early-Universe physics in tabletop experiments. We investigate the physics of these analog systems, going beyond previous analyses of the classical equations of motion to study quantum fluctuations in the cold-atom false vacuum. We show that the fluctuation spectrum of this vacuum state agrees with the usual relativistic result in the regime where the classical analogy holds, providing further evidence for the suitability of these systems for studying vacuum decay. Using a suite of semiclassical lattice simulations, we simulate bubble nucleation from this analog vacuum state in a 1D homonuclear potassium-41 mixture, finding qualitative agreement with instanton predictions. We identify realistic parameters for this system that will allow us to study vacuum decay with current experimental capabilities, including a prescription for efficiently scanning over decay rates, and show that this setup will probe the quantum (rather than thermal) decay regime at temperatures $T\lesssim10\,\mathrm{nK}$. Our results help lay the groundwork for using upcoming cold-atom experiments as a new probe of nonperturbative early-Universe physics.
This paper studies the quantum corrections to the Higgs inflation model in the context of the Einstein-Cartan (E-C) gravity in the large-$ N $ limit with $N$ being the number of real scalar components in Higgs. Recently, it is realized that the Higgs inflation in the E-C formalism smoothly connects those in the metric and the Palatini formalisms in the presence of a non-minimal coupling between the Higgs fields and the Nieh-Yan term. This motivates us to investigate the quantum corrections to the E-C Higgs inflation and to clarify how the Ricci curvature squared $ R^2 $ induced by the quantum corrections succeeds in Ultraviolet (UV)-extending the Higgs inflation in metric formalism while it fails in the Palatini case. We show that a generalized $ R^2 $-term required for the renormalization in the E-C formalism induces a new scalar degree of freedom (DoF), the scalaron, which gradually decouples with the system due to its increasing mass as approaching the Palatini limit. The presence of the scalaron extends the UV cutoff at vacuum of the original model except for the parameter space close to the Palatini limit. This UV-extension is expected to solve the strong coupling problem that may exist during (p)reheating in the absence of the scalaron.
We study the Hartle-Hawking no-boundary proposal in the framework of Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity. The former is a prominent hypothesis that describes the quantum creation of the universe, while the latter is a potential theory of quantum gravity that ensures renormalizability and unitarity, at least in the so-called projectable version. For simplicity, we focus on a global universe composed of a set of local universes each of which is closed, homogeneous and isotropic. Although applying the no-boundary proposal to Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity is not straightforward, we demonstrate that the proposal can be formulated within the Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity utilizing the Lorentzian path integral formulation of quantum gravity. In projectable Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity, the no-boundary wave function of the global universe inevitably contains entanglement between different local universes induced by ``dark matter as integration constant''. On the other hand, in the non-projectable version, the no-boundary wave function of the global universe is simply the direct product of wave functions of each local universe. We then discuss how the no-boundary wave function is formulated under Dirichlet and Robin boundary conditions. For the Dirichlet boundary condition, we point out that its on-shell action diverges due to higher-dimensional operators, but this problem can in principle be ameliorated by taking into account the renormalization group flow. However, utilizing the Picard-Lefschetz theory to identify the relevant critical points and performing the complex lapse integration, we find that only the tunneling wave function can be obtained, as in the case of general relativity. On the other hand, for the Robin boundary condition with a particular imaginary Hubble expansion rate at the initial hypersurface, the no-boundary wave function can be achieved in the Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity.
The even light QCD axion called the $Z_{\mathcal N}$ axion can both solve the strong CP problem and account for the dark matter (DM). We point out that the single and double level crossings can naturally take place in the mass mixing between the $Z_{\mathcal N}$ axion and axionlike particle (ALP). The first level crossing occurs much earlier than the QCD phase transition, while the second level crossing occurs exactly during the QCD phase transition if it exists. We also find that the single level crossing can transform into the double level crossings, depending on the ALP mass $m_A$ versus the zero-temperature $Z_{\mathcal N}$ axion mass $m_{a,0}$. Compared with the no level crossing case, the $Z_{\mathcal N}$ axion relic density can be suppressed in the single level crossing, and enhanced or suppressed in the double level crossings.
One of the promising new proposals to search for axions in astrophysical environments is to look for narrow radio lines produced from the resonant conversion of axion dark matter falling through the magnetospheres of neutron stars. For sufficiently strong magnetic fields, axion masses in the $\mathcal{O}(10\mu{\rm eV)}$ range, and axion-photon couplings $g_{a\gamma} \gtrsim 10^{-12} \, {\rm GeV^{-1}}$, the conversion can become hyper-efficient, allowing axion-photon and photon-axion transitions to occur with $\mathcal{O}(1)$ probabilities. Despite the strong mixing between these particles, the observable radio flux emanating from the magnetosphere is expected to be heavily suppressed -- this is a consequence of the fact that photons sourced by infalling axions have a high probability of converting back into axions before escaping the magnetosphere. In this work, we study the evolution of the axion and photon phase space near the surface of highly magnetized neutron stars in the adiabatic regime, quantifying for the first time the properties of the radio flux that arise at high axion-photon couplings. We show that previous attempts to mimic the scaling in this regime have been overly conservative in their treatment, and that the suppression can be largely circumvented for radio observations targeting neutron star populations.
It is commonplace in cosmology to analyze fields projected onto the celestial sphere, and in particular density fields that are defined by a set of points e.g. galaxies. When performing an harmonic-space analysis of such data (e.g. an angular power spectrum) using a pixelized map one has to deal with aliasing of small-scale power and pixel window functions. We compare and contrast the approaches to this problem taken in the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure communities, and advocate for a direct approach that avoids pixelization. We describe a method for performing a pseudo-spectrum analysis of a galaxy data set and show that it can be implemented efficiently using well-known algorithms for special functions that are suited to acceleration by graphics processing units (GPUs). The method returns the same spectra as the more traditional map-based approach if in the latter the number of pixels is taken to be sufficiently large and the mask is well sampled. The method is readily generalizable to cross-spectra and higher-order functions. It also provides a convenient route for distributing the information in a galaxy catalog directly in harmonic space, as a complement to releasing the configuration-space positions and weights. We make public a code enabling the application of our method to existing and upcoming datasets.
Recent detections of a low-frequency gravitational wave background (GWB) from various pulsar-timing-array (PTA) observations have renewed the interest in the inspiraling supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs), whose population is believed to be the most promising candidate of but disfavored by the observed GWB spectrum naively fitted with purely GW-driven circular binaries. Including either orbital eccentricity or dark matter (DM) spike can improve the fit to the current data, but the inclusion of both can further display distinctive features detectable in future PTA observations. With a typical initial eccentricity $e_0\sim\mathcal{O}(0.1)$ for the inspiraling SMBHBs, the DM spike can easily drive the orbital eccentricity close to unity, leaving behind a large turnover eccentricity when GWs begin to dominate the orbital circularization. In particular, the DM spike index $\gamma_\mathrm{sp}$ universally flattens the characteristic strain $h_c\sim f^{7/6-\gamma_\mathrm{sp}/3}$ in the infrared and produces a novel structure with an oscillating turnover followed by a flat dip and a bump-like peak at low, intermediate, and high frequencies, respectively. Future PTA detection of such characteristics would necessarily provide the smoking gun for the DM spike and even reveal the nature of DM.
"Changing-look" Active Galactic Nuclei (CL-AGNs) are challenging our basic ideas about the physics of accretion flows and of circumnuclear gas around supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Using first year Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V) repeated spectroscopy of nearly 29,000 previously-known AGNs, combined with dedicated follow-up spectroscopic observations, and publicly available optical light curves, we have identified 116 CL-AGNs where (at least) one broad emission line has essentially (dis-)appeared, as well as 88 other extremely variable systems. Our CL-AGN sample, with 107 newly identified cases, is among the largest reported to date, and includes $\sim$0.4% of the AGNs re-observed in the first year of SDSS-V operations. Among our CL-AGNs, 67% exhibit dimming while 33% exhibit brightening. Our data and sample probe extreme AGN spectral variability on timescales of months to decades, including some cases of recurring transitions on surprisingly short timescales ($\lesssim$ 2 months in the rest frame). We find that CL events are preferentially found in lower Eddington ratio ($f_{Edd}$) systems: Our CL-AGNs have a $f_{Edd}$ distribution that significantly differs from that of a redshift- and a carefully constructed, luminosity-matched control sample ($p_{KS}$ $\lesssim$ 2 $\times$ $10^{-4}$ ; median $f_{Edd}$ $\approx$ 0.025 vs. 0.043). This preference for low $f_{Edd}$ strengthens previous findings of higher CL-AGN incidence at lower Eddington ratios, found in much smaller samples of spectroscopically confirmed CL-AGNs. Finally, we show that the broad MgII emission line in our CL-AGN sample tends to vary significantly less than the broad H$\beta$ emission line. Our large CL-AGN sample demonstrates the advantages and challenges in using multi-epoch spectroscopy from large surveys to study extreme AGN variability, SMBH fueling, and AGN physics.
In dense neutrino gases, the neutrino-neutrino coherent forward scattering gives rise to a complex flavor oscillation phenomenon not fully incorporated in simulations of neutron star mergers (NSM) and core collapse supernovae (CCSNe). Moreover, it has been proposed to be chaotic, potentially limiting our ability to predict neutrino flavor transformations in simulations. To address this issue, we explore how small flavor perturbations evolve within a narrow centimeter-scale region inside a NSM and a toy neutrino distribution. Our findings reveal that paths in the flavor state space of solutions with similar initial conditions diverge exponentially, exhibiting chaos. This inherent chaos makes the microscopic scales of neutrino flavor transformations unpredictable. However, the domain-averaged neutrino density matrix remains relatively stable, with chaos minimally affecting it. This particular property suggests that domain-averaged quantities remain reliable despite the exponential amplification of errors.
The AO327 drift survey for radio pulsars and transients used the Arecibo telescope from 2010 until its collapse in 2020. AO327 collected ~3100 hours of data at 327 MHz with a time resolution of 82 us and frequency resolution of 24 kHz. While the main motivation for such surveys is the discovery of new pulsars and new, even unforeseen, types of radio transients, they also serendipitously collect a wealth of data on known pulsars. We present an electronic catalog of data and data products on 206 pulsars whose periodic emission was detected by AO327 and are listed in the ATNF catalog of all published pulsars. The AO327 data products include dedispersed time series at full time resolution, average ("folded") pulse profiles, Gaussian pulse profile templates, and an absolute phase reference that allows phase-aligning the AO327 pulse profiles in a physically meaningful manner with profiles from data taken with other instruments. We also provide machine-readable tables with uncalibrated flux measurements at 327 MHz and pulse widths at 50% and 10% of the pulse peak determined from the fitted Gaussian profile templates. The AO327 catalog data set can be used in applications like population analysis of radio pulsars, pulse profile evolution studies in time and frequency, cone and core emission of the pulsar beam, scintillation, pulse intensity distributions, and others. It also constitutes a ready-made resource for teaching signal processing and pulsar astronomy techniques.
As a potential candidate for the late-time accelerating expansion of the Universe, the Chaplygin gas and its generalized models have significant implications to modern cosmology. In this work we investigate the effects of dark energy on the internal structure of a neutron star composed of two phases, which leads us to wonder: Do stable neutron stars have a dark-energy core? To address this question, we focus on the radial stability of stellar configurations composed by a dark-energy core -- described by a Chaplygin-type equation of state (EoS) -- and an ordinary-matter external layer which is described by a polytropic EoS. We examine the impact of the rate of energy densities at the phase-splitting surface, defined as $\alpha= \rho_{\rm dis}^-/\rho_{\rm dis}^+$, on the radius, total gravitational mass and oscillation spectrum. The resulting mass-radius diagrams are notably different from dark energy stars without a common-matter crust. Specifically, it is found that both the mass and the radius of the maximum-mass configuration decrease as $\alpha$ becomes smaller. Furthermore, our theoretical predictions for mass-radius relations consistently describe the observational measurements of different massive millisecond pulsars as well as the central compact object within the supernova remnant HESS J1731-347. The analysis of the normal oscillation modes reveals that there are two regions of instability on the $M(\rho_c)$ curve when $\alpha$ is small enough indicating that the usual stability criterion $dM/d\rho_c>0$ still holds for rapid phase transitions. However, this is no longer true for the case of slow transitions.
Decaying magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is important in various astrophysical contexts, including early universe magnetic fields, star formation, turbulence in galaxy clusters, magnetospheres and solar corona. Previously known in the nonhelical case of magnetically dominated decaying turbulence, we show that magnetic reconnection is important also in the fully helical case and is likely the agent responsible for the inverse transfer of energy. Again, in the fully helical case, we find that there is a similarity in power law decay exponents in both 2.5D and 3D simulations. To understand this intriguing similarity, we investigate the possible quasi-two-dimensionalization of the 3D system. We perform Minkowski functional analysis and find that the characteristic length scales of a typical magnetic structure in the system are widely different, suggesting the existence of local anisotropies. Finally, we provide a quasi-two-dimensional hierarchical merger model which recovers the relevant power law scalings. In the nonhelical case, we show that a helicity-based invariant cannot constrain the system, and the best candidate is still anastrophy or vector potential squared, which is consistent with the quasi-two-dimensionalization of the system.
We present a 368 ks deep Chandra observation of Abell~1240, a binary merging galaxy cluster at a redshift of 0.195 with two Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) may have passed each other 0.3 Gyr ago. Building upon previous investigations involving GMRT, VLA, and LOFAR data, our study focuses on two prominent extended radio relics at the north-west (NW) and south-east (SE) of the cluster core. By leveraging the high-resolution Chandra imaging, we have identified two distinct surface brightness edges at $\sim$ 1 Mpc and 1.2 Mpc NW and SE of the cluster center, respectively, coinciding with the outer edges of both relics. Our temperature measurements hint the edges to be shock front edges. The Mach numbers, derived from the gas density jumps, yield $\cal{M}_{\rm SE}$ = 1.49$^{+0.22}_{-0.24}$ for the South Eastern shock and $\cal{M}_{\rm NW}$ = 1.41$^{+0.17}_{-0.19}$ for the North Western shock. Our estimated Mach numbers are remarkably smaller compared to those derived from radio observations ($\cal{M}_{\rm SE}$ = 2.3 and $\cal{M}_{\rm NW}$ = 2.4), highlighting the prevalence of a re-acceleration scenario over direct acceleration of electrons from the thermal pool. Furthermore, we compare the observed temperature profiles across both shocks with that of predictions from collisional vs. collisionless models. Both shocks favor the Coulomb collisional model, but we could not rule out a purely collisionless model due to pre-shock temperature uncertainties.
In this White Paper, we present recommendations for the scientific community and funding agencies to foster the infrastructure for a collaborative multi-messenger and time-domain astronomy (MMA/TDA) ecosystem. MMA/TDA is poised for breakthrough discoveries in the coming decade. In much the same way that expanding beyond the optical bandpass revealed entirely new and unexpected discoveries, cosmic messengers beyond light (i.e., gravitational waves, neutrinos, and cosmic rays) open entirely new windows to answer some of the most fundamental questions in (astro)physics: heavy element synthesis, equation of state of dense matter, particle acceleration, etc. This field was prioritized as a frontier scientific pursuit in the 2020 Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics via its "New Windows on the Dynamic Universe" theme. MMA/TDA science presents technical challenges distinct from those experienced in other disciplines. Successful observations require coordination across myriad boundaries -- different cosmic messengers, ground vs. space, international borders, etc. -- all for sources that may not be well localized, and whose brightness may be changing rapidly with time. Add that all of this work is undertaken by real human beings, with distinct backgrounds, experiences, cultures, and expectations, that often conflict. To address these challenges and help MMA/TDA realize its full scientific potential in the coming decade (and beyond), the second in a series of community workshops sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA titled "Windows on the Universe: Establishing the Infrastructure for a Collaborative Multi-Messenger Ecosystem" was held on October 16-18, 2023 in Tucson, AZ. Here we present the primary recommendations from this workshop focused on three key topics -- hardware, software, and people and policy. [abridged]
We present a study of the X-ray source NGC 2403 XMM4 (4XMM J073702.2+653934) based on 20 years of archival observations with XMM-Newton, Chandra, Swift and NuSTAR. Although it has previously been classified as an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX), we show that its luminosity rarely, if ever, passes the $10^{39} \rm ~erg~s^{-1}$ threshold luminosity for a ULX. It does, however, behave very similarly to ULXs, with its 0.3-10 keV spectra well described by two thermal components, the softer of which behaves consistently with the expectations for an advection-dominated disc ($L\propto T^{1.49\pm0.85}$), and we find tentative evidence for an extra spectral component above 10 keV. We also find moderately significant evidence for an absorption feature in one spectrum that could originate in an outflowing wind, although a cyclotron resonance scattering feature is also a possibility. Most intriguingly, we find a possible transient pulsation at $\sim 3.32$ Hz in a short segment of one observation using an accelerated pulsation search. This evidence suggests that NGC 2403 XMM4 is displaying many of the hallmarks of super-Eddington accretion at luminosities between $5 - 10 \times 10^{38} \rm ~erg~s^{-1}$ which, when considered alongside the putative pulsation, points to the presence of a neutron star as the accreting object this system.
The formulation of quarkyonic matter consists of treating both quarks and nucleons as quasi-particles, where a cross-over transition occurs between the two phases. This work is based upon some of the early ideas of quark matter. It can satisfy the different observational constraints on the neutron star (NS), such as its maximum mass and the canonical radius. In addition, we put an extra component inside the NS known as Dark Matter (DM) because it is trapped due to its immense gravitational potential. In this work, we explore the impact of fermionic DM on the structure of the NS. The equation of state (EOS) is derived for the NS with the quarkyonic matter by assuming that nucleons and quarks are in equilibrium, followed by the relativistic mean-field (RMF) formalism. The recently modeled two parameterizations, such as G3 and IOPB-I, are taken to calculate the various macroscopic properties of the NS. The three unknown parameters such as the transition density ($n_t$), the QCD confinement scale ($\Lambda_{\rm sc}$), and the DM Fermi momentum ($k_f^{\rm DM}$) are varied to obtain the NS properties. The quarkyonic matter stiffens the EOS while DM softens it. The mutual combination provides us with good theoretical predictions for the magnitude of macroscopic properties consistent with the different observational results. Also, one can estimate the parameters of the DM admixed quarkyonic star with different statistical analyses, which can be further used to explore the other properties of the quarkyonic star.
Recent astrophysical mass inferences of compact stars (CSs) HESS J1731-347 and PSR J0952-0607, with extremely small and large masses respectively, as well as the measurement of the neutron skin of Ca in the CREX experiment challenge and constrain the models of dense matter. In this work, we examine the concept of hybrid stars - objects containing quark cores surrounded by nucleonic envelopes - as models that account for these new data along with other (multimessenger) inferences. We employ a family of 81 nucleonic equations of state (EoSs) based on covariant density functional with variable skewness and slope of symmetry energy at saturation density and a constant speed-of-sound EoS for quark matter. For each nucleonic EoS, a family of hybrid star EoS is generated by varying the transition density from nucleonic to quark matter, the density jump at the transition, and the speed-of-sound. These models are tested against the data from GW170817 and J1731-347, which favor low-density soft EoS and PSR J0592-0607 and J0740+6620, which require high-density stiff EoS. We then examine the occurrence of twin configurations and quantify the ranges of masses and radii that they can possess. It is shown that including J1731-347 data favors EoS models which predict low-mass twin stars with masses $M \lesssim 1.3\,M_{\odot}$ that can be realized if the deconfinement transition density is low. If combined with a large speed-of-sound in quark matter such models allow for maximum masses of hybrid stars in the range $2.0$-$2.6\,M_{\odot}$.
Recent X-ray studies of starburst galaxies have found that Charge eXchange (CX) commonly occurs between the outflowing hot plasma and cold gas, possibly from swept-up clouds. However, the total CX flux and the regions where CX occurs have been poorly understood. We present an analysis of the {\it XMM-Newton} observations of M82, a prototype starburst galaxy, aiming to investigate these key properties of the CX emisssion. We have used a blind source separation method in the image analysis with the CCD data which identified a component with the enhanced O-K lines expected from the CX process. Analyzing the RGS spectra from the region identified by the image analysis, we have detected a high forbidden-to-resonance ratio in the \ion{O}{7} He$\alpha$ triplet as well as several emission lines from K-shell transitions of C, N, and O enhanced in the CX process. The CX is less responsible for the emission line of Ne and Mg and the accurate estimation of the CX contribution is confirmed to be crucial in measuring chemical abundances. The temperature of the plasma as electron receiver in the CX process is significantly lower compared to that of the plasma components responsible for most of the X-rays. From the low temperature and an estimation of the CX emitting volume, we find that the CX primarily occurs in a limited region at the interface of the plasma and gas whose temperature rapidly decreases due to thermal conduction.
We report on studies of Classical Nova (CN) explosions where we follow the evolution of thermonuclear runaways (TNRs) on oxygen-neon (ONe) white dwarfs (WDs). Using NOVA, a one-dimensional hydrodynamic computer code, we accrete Solar matter until the TNR is ongoing and then switch to a mixed composition. This approach is guided by the results of multi-dimensional studies of TNRs in WDs which find that sufficient mixing with WD core material occurs after the TNR is well underway, and levels of enrichment of the CNONeMg elements are reached that agree with observations of CN ejecta abundances. Because the amount of accreted material is inversely proportional to the oxygen abundance, by first accreting Solar matter, the amount of accreted material is larger than in those simulations with an initially enriched composition. We vary the mass of the WD (from 0.6 Msun to 1.35 Msun) and the composition of the mixed materials. Our results show large enrichments of 7Be in the ejected gases implying that ONe CNe and CO CNe (Starrfield et al. 2020) may be responsible for a significant fraction (about 100 Msun) of the galactic 7Li ( about 1000 Msun). The production of 22Na and 26Al in CN explosions and the gamma-ray emission predicted by our simulations is discussed. The WDs in all our simulations eject less material than they accrete and we predict that the WD is growing in mass as a consequence of the CN outburst. ONe CNe, therefore, may be an important channel for accretion induced collapse (AIC) events.
X-ray-emitting symbiotic stars exhibit a variety of spectral shapes classified as $\alpha$, $\beta$, $\gamma$, $\delta$ and $\beta$/$\delta$ types, which have been attributed to different phenomena such as thermonuclear burning on the surface of the white dwarf (WD) component, shocks between winds and jets with the red giant companion's extended atmosphere, the presence of heavily extinguished hot plasma from the inner region from an accretion disk and/or a combination of these. However, there is observational evidence that this classification scheme is not definite and, for example, some sources change from one type to another within months or years. In this work, it is proposed that a simple disk-like model can be used to explain the X-ray properties observed from reflection dominated symbiotic stars. For this purpose we use the Stellar Kinematics Including Radiative Transfer (SKIRT) code, which has been recently upgraded to include radiative transfer from X-ray photons. It is found that thee properties of the accretion disk (geometry and density) in combination with the viewing angle can be invoke to explain the spectral properties of $\beta$, $\delta$ and $\beta/\delta$ X-ray-emitting symbiotic stars. Spectral variations and type swaps observed for some X-ray-emitting sources can also be explained by variations in the disk properties.
A fraction of core-collapse supernovae (SNe) with signs of interaction with a dense circumstellar matter are preceded by bright precursor emission. While the precursors are likely caused by a mass ejection before core-collapse, their mechanism to power energetic bursts, sometimes reaching $10^{48}$--$10^{49}\ {\rm erg}$ that are larger than the binding energies of red supergiant envelopes, is still under debate. Remarkably, such a huge energy-deposition should result in an almost complete envelope ejection and hence a strong sign of interaction, but the observed SNe with precursors show in fact typical properties among the interacting SNe. More generally, the observed luminosity of $10^{40-42}\,\rm erg\,s^{-1}$ is shown to be challenging for a single SN progenitor. To resolve these tensions, we propose a scenario where the progenitor is in a binary system with a compact object (CO), and an outburst from the star leads to a super-Eddington accretion onto the CO. We show that for sufficiently short separations, outbursts with moderate initial kinetic energies of $10^{46}$--$10^{47}$ erg can be energized by the accreting CO so that their radiative output can be consistent with the observed precursors. We discuss the implications of our model in relation to CO binaries detectable with Gaia and gravitational wave detectors.
We study a relativistic collisionless electron-positron shock propagating into an unmagnetized ambient medium using 2D particle-in-cell simulations of unprecedented duration and size. The shock generates intermittent magnetic structures of increasingly larger size as the simulation progresses. Toward the end of our simulation, at around 26,000 plasma times, the magnetic coherence scale approaches $\lambda\sim 100$ plasma skin depths, both ahead and behind the shock front. We anticipate a continued growth of $\lambda$ beyond the time span of our simulation, as long as the shock accelerates particles to increasingly higher energies. The post-shock field is concentrated in localized patches, which maintain a local magnetic energy fraction $\varepsilon_B\sim 0.1$. Particles randomly sampling the downstream fields spend most of their time in low field regions ($\varepsilon_B\ll 0.1$), but emit a large fraction of the synchrotron power in the localized patches with strong fields ($\varepsilon_B\sim 0.1$). Our results have important implications for models of gamma-ray burst afterglows.
We carefully develop the framework required to model the dynamical tidal response of a spinning neutron star in an inspiralling binary system, in the context of Newtonian gravity, making sure to include all relevant details and connections to the existing literature. The tidal perturbation is decomposed in terms of the normal oscillation modes, used to derive an expression for the effective Love number which is valid for any rotation rate. In contrast to previous work on the problem, our analysis highlights subtle issues relating to the orthogonality condition required for the mode-sum representation of the dynamical tide and shows how the prograde and retrograde modes combine to provide the overall tidal response. Utilising a slow-rotation expansion, we show that the dynamical tide (the effective Love number) is corrected at first order in rotation, whereas in the case of the static tide (the static Love number) the rotational corrections do not enter until second order.
We perform 3D hydrodynamical simulations to study recombination and ionization during the common envelope (CE) phase of binary evolution, and develop techniques to track the ionic transitions in time and space. We simulate the interaction of a $2\,M_\odot$ red giant branch primary and a $1\,M_\odot$ companion modeled as a particle. We compare a run employing a tabulated equation of state (EOS) that accounts for ionization and recombination, with a run employing an ideal gas EOS. During the first half of the simulations, $\sim15$ per cent more mass is unbound in the tabulated EOS run due to the release of recombination energy, but by simulation end the difference has become negligible. We explain this as being a consequence of (i) the tabulated EOS run experiences a shallower inspiral and hence smaller orbital energy release at late times because recombination energy release expands the envelope and reduces drag, and (ii) collision and mixing between expanding envelope gas, ejecta and circumstellar ambient gas assists in unbinding the envelope, but does so less efficiently in the tabulated EOS run where some of the energy transferred to bound envelope gas is used for ionization. The rate of mass unbinding is approximately constant in the last half of the simulations and the orbital separation steadily decreases at late times. A simple linear extrapolation predicts a CE phase duration of $\sim2\,\mathrm{yr}$, after which the envelope would be unbound.
Machine learning has emerged as a powerful tool in the field of gamma-ray astrophysics. The algorithms can distinguish between different source types, such as blazars and pulsars, and help uncover new insights into the high-energy universe. The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on-board the Fermi Gamma-ray telescope has significantly advanced our understanding of the Universe. The instrument has detected a large number of gamma-ray emitting sources, among which a significant number of objects have been identified as active galactic nuclei (AGN). The sample is primarily composed of blazars; however, more than one-third of these sources are either of an unknown class or lack a definite association with a low-energy counterpart. In this work, we employ multiple machine learning algorithms to classify the sources based on their other physical properties. In particular, we utilized smart initialisation techniques and self-supervised learning for classifying blazars into BL Lacertae objects (BL Lac) and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQ). The core advantage of the algorithm is its simplicity, usage of minimum number of features and easy deployment due to lesser number of parameters without compromising on the performance. The model predicts that out of the 1115 sources of uncertain type in the 4FGL-DR3 catalog, 820 can be classified as BL Lacs, and 295 can be classified as FSRQs.
We argue that the broad-band observations of the brightest-of-all-time (BOAT) GRB 221009A reveal a physical picture involving two jet components: a narrow ($\sim 0.6$ degree half opening angle) pencil-beam jet that has a Poynting-flux-dominated jet composition, and a broader matter-dominated jet with an angular structure. We discuss various observational evidence that supports such a picture. To treat the problem, we develop an analytical structured jet model for both forward and reverse shock emission from the matter dominated structured jet wing during the deceleration phase. We discuss the physical implications of such a two-component jet configuration for this particular burst and for GRBs in general. We argue that some bright X-ray flares could be similar narrow jets viewed slightly outside the narrow jet cone and that narrow jets may exist in many more GRBs without being detected.
Iron K$\alpha$ (Fe K$\alpha$) emission is observed ubiquitously in AGN, and it is a powerful probe of their circumnuclear environment. Examinations of the emission line play a pivotal role in understanding the disk geometry surrounding the black hole. It has been suggested that the torus and the broad line region (BLR) are the origins of emission. However, there is no universal location for the emitting region relative to the BLR. Here, we present an analysis of the narrow component of the Fe K$\alpha$ line in the Seyfert AGN MCG-5-23-16, one of the brightest AGN in X-rays and in Fe K$\alpha$ emission, to localize the emitting region. Spectra derived from Chandra/HETGS observations show asymmetry in the narrow Fe K$\alpha$ line, which has only been confirmed before in the AGN NGC 4151. Models including relativistic Doppler broadening and gravitational redshifts are preferred over simple Gaussians and measure radii consistent with $R \simeq$ 200-650 r$_g$. These results are consistent with those of NGC 4151 and indicate that the narrow Fe K$\alpha$ line in MCG-5-23-16 is primarily excited in the innermost part of the optical broad line region (BLR), or X-ray BLR. Characterizing the properties of the narrow Fe K$\alpha$ line is essential for studying the disk geometries of the AGN population and mapping their innermost regions.
We present new follow-up observations of two ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs), part of a total sample of five chosen for their distorted morphologies, suggestive of tidal influence. Using Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys F555W and F814W imaging, we identify 8+/-2 globular clusters (GCs) in KUG 0203-Dw1 and 6+/-2 in KDG 013, abundances that are fairly typical for normal dwarf galaxies of similar stellar mass. Jansky Very Large Array data reveal a clear HI detection of KUG 0203-Dw1 with a gas mass estimate of log(MHI/Msun) < 7.4 and evidence of active stripping by the host. HI gas is found near the location of KDG~013 but is likely unrelated to the UDG itself due to the morphology and the numerous gas tails within the host group. Given that these UDGs have GC abundances typical for galaxies at their luminosity, these findings suggest that they likely originated as normal dwarf galaxies that have been subjected to significant stripping and tidal heating, causing them to become more diffuse. These two UDGs complete a sample of five exhibiting tidal features in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey area (CFHTLS; ~150 sq deg), including UDGs with and without UV emission, indicative of recent star formation. Four UDGs in this sample, consistent with dwarfs `puffed-up' by tidal interactions, contrast with an outlier, suggesting a dwarf merger origin. These findings indicate that tidal heating of dwarfs is a viable formation pathway for UDGs.
The growth of active galactic nuclei (AGN) occurs under some form of obscuration in a large fraction of the population. The difficulty in constraining this population leads to high uncertainties in cosmic X-ray background and galaxy evolution models. Using an SDSS-WISE cross-match, we target infrared luminous AGN ($W1-W2$ > 0.8, and monochromatic rest-frame luminosity above $\lambda L_{\lambda}$(12$\mu$m) $\approx$ 3 $\times$ 10$^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$), but with passive galaxy-like optical spectra (Optically Quiescent Quasars; OQQs). We find 47 objects that show no significant [O III]$\lambda$5007 emission, a typically strong AGN optical emission line. As a comparison sample, we examine SDSS-selected Type 2 quasars (QSO2s), which show a significant [O III]$\lambda$5007 line by definition. We find a 1:16 ratio of OQQs compared to QSO2s, suggesting that the OQQ duty cycle is likely much shorter than that of QSO2s (though selection biases are not fully quantified). We consider observed properties in comparison with other galaxy types, and examine them for consistency with theories on their intrinsic nature: chiefly (a) a high covering factor for surrounding obscuring matter, preventing the detection of high-ionisation emission lines - `cocooned AGN'; or (b) ionised gas being absent on the kpc scales of the Narrow Line Region (NLR), perhaps due to a `switching on' or `young' AGN. OQQs do not obviously fit the standard paradigm for merger-driven AGN and host galaxy evolution, implying we may be missing part of the flow of AGN evolution.
We present a methodology for modeling and removing light from cluster galaxies and intracluster light (ICL) from $James\ Webb\ Space\ Telescope$ ($JWST$) images of gravitational lensing clusters. We apply our method to Webb's First Deep Field the SMACS 0723 Early Release Observations and use the ICL subtracted images to select a sample of globular clusters (GCs) and dwarf galaxies within the cluster. We compare the spatial distributions of these two samples with our models of the galaxy and ICL light, finding significant similarity. Specifically we find that GCs trace the diffuse ICL, while dwarf galaxies are centrally concentrated near the cluster center We quantify the relationship between the surface density of compact sources and total cluster light, demonstrating a significant, tight correlation. We repeat our methodology and compare distributions of GCs with dark matter surface density and find a comparable result. Our findings suggest a common origin for GCs and diffuse ICL, with stripping from massive galaxies as they merge with the cluster being a plausible scenario.
We present the detection of a magnetized dust ring (M0.8-0.2) in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Galactic Center. The results presented in this paper utilize the first data release (DR1) of the Far-Infrared Polarimetric Large Area CMZ Exploration (FIREPLACE) survey (i.e., FIREPLACE I; Butterfield et al. 2023). The FIREPLACE survey is a 214 $\mu$m polarimetic survey of the Galactic Center using the SOFIA/HAWC+ telescope. The M0.8-0.2 ring is a region of gas and dust that has a circular morphology with a central depression. The dust polarization in the M0.8-0.2 ring implies a curved magnetic field that traces the ring-like structure of the cloud. We posit an interpretation in which an expanding shell compresses and concentrates the ambient gas and magnetic field. We argue that this compression results in the strengthening of the magnetic field, as we infer from the observations toward the interior of the ring.
We present our sixth set of results from our mid-infrared imaging survey of Milky Way Giant HII regions with our detailed analysis of NGC 3603, the most luminous GHII region in the Galaxy. We used imaging data from the FORCAST instrument on the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) at 20 and 37 microns which mapped the central ~8.5'x8.5' infrared-emitting area of NGC 3603 at a spatial resolution of <~3". Utilizing these SOFIA data in conjunction with multi-wavelength observations from the near-infrared to radio, including Spitzer-IRAC and Herschel-PACS archival data, we investigate the physical nature of individual infrared sources and sub-components within NGC 3603. For individual compact sources we used the multi-wavelength photometry data to construct spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and fit them with massive young stellar object (MYSO) SED models, and find 14 sources that are likely to be MYSOs. We also detect dust emission from the 3 massive proplyd candidates, as well as from the disk and outflow of the evolved blue supergiant, Sher 25. Utilizing multi-wavelength data, we derived luminosity-to-mass ratio and virial parameters for the star-forming clumps within NGC 3603, estimating their relative ages and finding that NGC 3603 is an older GHII region overall, compared to our previously studied GHII regions. We discuss how NGC 3603, which we categorize as a 'cavity-type' GHII region, exhibits a more modest number of MYSOs and molecular clumps when compared to the 'distributed-type' GHII regions that share similar Lyman continuum photon rates.
Utilizing astrometric parameters sourced from \textit{Gaia} Data Release 3 and radial velocities obtained from various spectroscopic surveys, we identify 519 high-velocity stars (HiVels) with a total velocity in the Galactocentric restframe greater than 70\% of their local escape velocity under the {\tt\string Gala} {\tt\string MilkyWayPotential}. Our analysis reveals that the majority of these HiVels are metal-poor late-type giants, and we show 9 HiVels that are unbound candidates to the Galaxy with escape probabilities of 50\%. To investigate the origins of these HiVels, we classify them into four categories and consider the impact of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) potential on their backward-integration trajectories. Specifically, we find that one of the HiVels can track back to the Galactic Center, and three HiVels may originate from the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr dSph). Furthermore, some HiVels appear to be ejected from the Galactic disk, while others formed within the Milky Way or have an extragalactic origin. Given that the LMC has a significant impact on the orbits of Sgr dSph, we examine the reported HiVels that originate from the Sgr dSph, with a few of them passing within the half-light radius of the Sgr dSph.
Ring galaxies are rare in the Universe. A head-on or off-centre collision between an intruder galaxy and a disc galaxy leads to a collisional ring galaxy (CRG) when the intruder-to-target mass ratio (ITMR) is over 0.1 in Newtonian dynamics. Within the framework of Milgromian dynamics, the strong equivalence principle is violated due to the presence of an external field. When two galaxies collide towards each other, the dynamical mass of the phantom dark halo in a galaxy is suppressed by the external field induced by the other galaxy. As a consequence of such suppression, the gravitational perturbation for the target galaxy introduced by a collision is weakened. In this case, a minor collision may not be capable of generating a CRG. In this work, we address this issue and perform a series of numerical simulations of collisions by tuning the values of ITMR. We find that the critical ITMR is 0.5 in MOND, which is much larger than that in Newtonian dynamics. The observed massive ring galaxies, such as Arp 147, can be effectively interpreted by CRGs in MOND. This interpretation does not necessitate the presence of dark matter halos for either the target or intruder galaxies. Moreover, for a larger inclination angle or a larger impact parameter, the off-centred ring structure is fainter. The larger critical ITMR indicates that it is harder to form a CRG in Milgrom's Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND). To account for the observed ring structures of the NGC 922-like galaxies in MOND, it is necessary to invoke other scenarios than a dry minor collision.
A spectral analysis of the vertical positions and velocities of 374 open star clusters (OSCs) was carried out. We took these OSCs from the Hunt, Reffert catalog; they have an average age of about 10 million years, and are located on the galactic plane XY in a narrow zone inclined by 25 degrees to the galactic axis Y. The following estimates of the parameters of the Radcliffe wave were obtained: a) the maximum value in periodic perturbations of vertical coordinates $Z_{max}=92\pm10$ pc with the wavelength of these perturbations $\lambda_z=4.82\pm0.09$ kpc; b)~maximum value of the velocity of vertical disturbances $W_{max}=4.36\pm0.12$ km s$^{-1}$ with disturbance wavelength $\lambda_W=1.78\pm0.02$ kpc. Note that the results of the vertical velocity analysis are first-class in accuracy and completely new.
We present a numerical study of the evolution of power-law tails (PLTs) in the (column-)density distributions ($N$-PDF, $\rho$-PDF) in contracting star-forming clumps in primordial gas, without and with some initial rotational and/or turbulent support. In all considered runs multiple PLTs emerge shortly after the formation of the first protostar. The first PLT (PLT 1) in the $\rho$-PDF is a stable feature with slope $q_1\simeq -1.3$ which corresponds -- under the condition of preserved spherical symmetry -- to the outer envelope of the protostellar object with density profile $\rho\propto l^{-2}$ in the classical Larson-Penston collapse model, where $l$ is the radius. The second PLT (PLT 2) in the $\rho$-PDF is stable in the pure-infall runs but fluctuates significantly in the runs with initial support against gravity as dozens of protostars form and their mutual tidal forces change the density structure. Its mean slope, $\langle q_2\rangle\simeq -2$, corresponds to a density profile of $\rho\propto l^{-3/2}$ which describes a core in free fall in the classical Larson-Penston collapse model or an attractor solution at scales with dominating protostellar gravity. PLT 1 and PLT 2 in the $N$-PDFs are generally consistent with the observational data of Galactic low-mass star-forming regions from {\it Herschel} data. In the runs with initial support against gravity a third PLT (PLT~3) in the $\rho$-PDFs appears simultaneously with or after the emergence of PLT 2. It is very shallow, with mean slope of $\langle q_3\rangle\simeq -1$, and is associated with the formation of thin protostellar accretion disks.
We present the deepest 850 $\mu$m map of the SSA22 field to date, utilizing a combination of new and archival observations taken with SCUBA-2, mounted at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). The mapped area covers an effective region of approximately 0.34 deg$^2$, achieving a boundary sensitivity of 2 mJy beam$^{-1}$, with the deepest central coverage reaching a depth of $\sigma_\text{rms}$ $\sim$ 0.79 mJy beam$^{-1}$, the confusion noise is estimated to be $\sim$ 0.43 mJy beam$^{-1}$. A catalogue of 850 $\mu$m sources in the SSA22 field is generated, identifying 390 sources with single-to-noise ratios above 3.5, out of which 92 sources exceed 5$\sigma$. The derived intrinsic number counts at 850 $\mu$m are found to be in excellent agreement with published surveys. Interestingly, the SSA22 number counts also exhibit an upturn in the brighter flux region, likely attributed to local emitters or lensing objects within the field. On the scale of $\sim$ 0.3 deg$^2$, the 850 $\mu$m number counts are unaffected by cosmic variance and align with the blank field. In the deep region ($\sigma_\text{rms}$ $\leqslant$ 1 mJy), the counts for fluxes below 8 mJy are consistent with the blank field, and the excess in the brighter regime is not significant. Due to the limited number of very bright sources and the insubstantial cosmic variance in our field, we attribute the fluctuations in the number counts primarily to Poisson noise. The SCUBA-2 850 $\mu$m detection in the SSA22 field does not exhibit indications of overdensity.
Aims. We explore galaxies with ringed structures inhabiting poor and rich groups with the aim of assessing the effects of local density environments on ringed galaxy properties. Methods. We identified galaxies with inner, outer, nuclear, inner+outer (inner and outer rings combined), and partial rings that reside in groups by cross-correlating a sample of ringed galaxies with a group catalog obtained from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The resulting sample was divided based on group richness. To quantify the effects of rings and the role of local density environment on galaxy properties, we constructed a suitable control sample for each catalog of ringed galaxies, consisting of non-ringed galaxies with similar values for the z, magnitude, morphology, group masses, and environmental density distributions as those of ringed ones. We explored the occurrence of ringed galaxies in poor and rich groups and analyzed several galaxy properties, such as SFR, stellar populations, and colors. Results. We obtained a sample of 637 ringed galaxies residing in groups. With 76% of these galaxies inhabiting poor groups and 24% rich groups. In addition, ringed galaxies in groups display a reduction in their star formation activity and aged stellar populations, compared to non-ringed ones in the control samples. However, the SFR is higher for nuclear rings in poor groups than for other types. This disparity may stem from the environmental influence on the internal processes of galaxies, either enhancing or diminishing star formation. Ringed galaxies also show an excess of red colors and tend to populate the green valley and the red sequence of color-magnitude and color-color diagrams, with a surplus of galaxies in the red sequence, while non-ringed galaxies are found in the green valley and the blue region. These trends are more significant in galaxies with ringed structures residing in rich groups.
The 4D Eigenvector 1 sequence has proven to be a highly effective tool for organizing observational and physical properties of type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGN). In this paper, we present multiple measurements of metallicity for the broad line region gas, from new or previously published data. We demonstrate a consistent trend along the optical plane of the E1 (also known as the quasar main sequence), defined by the line width of H$\beta$ and by a parameter measuring the prominence of singly-ionized iron emission. The trend involves an increase from sub-solar metallicity in correspondence with extreme Population B (weak FeII emission, large H$\beta$ FWHM) to metallicity several tens the solar value in correspondence with extreme Population A (very strong FeII optical emission, narrower H$\beta$ profiles). The data establish the metallicity as a correlate of the 4D E1/main sequence. If the very high metallicity gas ($Z \gtrsim 10 Z_\odot$) is expelled from the sphere of influence of the central black hole, as indicated by the widespread evidence of nuclear outflows and disk wind in the case of sources radiating at high Eddington ratio, then it is possible that the outflows from quasars played a role in chemically enriching the host galaxy.
We successfully measured the trigonometric parallax of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) to be $117\pm17$ micro-arcseconds ($\mu$as) using the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) with the newly developed broad-band signal-processing system named OCTAVE-DAS. The measured parallax corresponds to a Galactocentric distance at the Sun of $R_0 = 8.5^{+1.5}_{-1.1}$ kpc. By combining the astrometric results with VERA and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) over a monitoring period of 25 years, the proper motion of Sgr A* is obtained to be $(\mu_\alpha, \mu_\delta) = (-3.133\pm0.003, -5.575\pm0.005)$ mas yr$^{-1}$ in equatorial coordinates, corresponding to $(\mu_l, \mu_b) = (-6.391\pm0.005, -0.230\pm0.004)$ mas yr$^{-1}$ in Galactic coordinates. This gives an angular orbital velocity of the Sun of $\Omega_\odot = 30.30 \pm 0.02$ km s$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-1}$. We find upper limits to the core wander, $\Delta \theta < 0.20$ mas (1.6 AU), peculiar motion, $\Delta \mu < 0.10$ mas yr$^{-1}$ (3.7 km s$^{-1}$), and acceleration, $a < 2.6$ $\mu$as yr$^{-2}$ (0.10 km s$^{-1}$ yr$^{-1}$) for Sgr A*. Thus, we obtained upper mass limits of $\approx$ 3 $\times$ 10$^{4}$$M_{\odot}$ and $\approx$ 3 $\times$ 10$^{3}$$M_{\odot}$ for the supposed intermediate-mass black holes at 0.1 and 0.01 pc from the Galactic center, respectively.
We investigate the properties of voids and void galaxies in the \texttt{TNG300} simulation. Using a luminous galaxy catalog and a spherical void finding algorithm, we identify 5,078 voids at redshift $z = 0$. Within the voids, mass does not directly trace light. Instead, the mean radial underdensity profile as defined by the locations of void galaxies is systematically lower than the mean radial underdensity profile as defined by the dark matter (i.e., the voids are more ``devoid'' of galaxies than they are of mass). Within the voids, the integrated underdensity profiles of the dark matter and the galaxies are independent of the local background density (i.e., voids-in-voids vs.\ voids-in-clouds). Beyond the void radii, however, the integrated underdensity profiles of both the dark matter and the galaxies exhibit strong dependencies on the local background density. Compared to non-void galaxies, void galaxies are on average younger, less massive, bluer in color, less metal enriched, and have smaller radii. In addition, the specific star formation rates of void galaxies are $\sim 20$\% higher than non-void galaxies and, in the case of galaxies with central supermassive black holes with $M_{\rm BH} \gtrsim 3\times 10^6 h^{-1} M_\odot$, the fraction of active void galaxies is $\sim 25$\% higher than active non-void galaxies.
Given the massive spectroscopic surveys and the Gaia mission, the Milky Way has turned into a unique laboratory to be explored using abundance ratios that show a strong dependency with time. Within this framework, the data provided through asteroseismology serve as a valuable complement. Yet, it has been demonstrated that chemical traits can not be used as universal relations across the Galaxy. To complete this picture, it is important to investigate the dependence on metallicity of the chemical ratios employed for inferring stellar ages. We aim to explore different combinations of neutron-capture, odd-Z and $\alpha$ elements as a function of age, particularly focusing on their metallicity dependence for a sample of 74 giant field stars. Using UVES observations, we derive atmospheric parameters and high-precision line by line chemical abundances (<0.04 dex) for the entire set of spectra. Stellar ages are inferred from astereoseismic information. By fitting chemical-age trends for three different metallicity groups, we estimated their dependence on metallicity. We found that the stronger chemical-age relations ([Zr/$\alpha$]) are not necessarily the ratios with the smaller dependence on metallicity ([Ce/$\alpha$] and [Ce/Eu]). We confirm the [n-capture/$\alpha$]-age trends for evolved stars, wherein the most significant correlation is evident in stars with solar-metallicity, gradually diminishing in stars with lower iron content. The lack of homogeneity within the metallicity range highlights the intricate nature of our Galaxy's star formation history and yield production. Metallicity dependence in s-process element yields and the impact of radial stellar migration challenge the reliability of using chemical abundances alone to date stars. These discoveries raise doubts about universally valid chemical clocks applicable across the entire Galaxy and its diverse metallicity ranges.
Single-pointing observations of NH$_3$ (1,1) and (2,2) were conducted towards 672 Planck Early Release Cold Cores (ECCs) using the Nanshan 26-m radio telescope. Out of these sources, a detection rate of 37% (249 cores) was achieved, with NH$_3$(1,1) hyperfine structure detected in 187 and NH$_3$(2,2) emission lines detected in 76 cores. The detection rate of NH3 is positively correlated with the continuum emission fluxes at a frequency of 857 GHz. Among the observed 672 cores, ~22% have associated stellar and IR objects within the beam size (~2$\arcmin$). This suggests that most of the cores in our sample may be starless. The kinetic temperatures of the cores range from 8.9 to 20.7 K, with an average of 12.3 K, indicating a coupling between gas and dust temperatures. The ammonia column densities range from 0.36 to 6.07$\times10^{15}$ cm$^{-2}$, with a median value of 2.04$\times10^{15}$ cm$^{-2}$. The fractional abundances of ammonia range from 0.3 to 9.7$\times10^{-7}$, with an average of 2.7 $\times10^{-7}$, which is one order of magnitude larger than that of Massive Star-Forming (MSF) regions and Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs). The correlation between thermal and non-thermal velocity dispersion of the NH$_3$(1,1) inversion transition indicates the dominance of supersonic non-thermal motions in the dense gas traced by NH$_3$, and the relationship between these two parameters in Planck cold cores is weaker, with lower values observed for both parameters relative to other samples under our examination. The cumulative distribution shapes of line widths in the Planck cold cores closely resemble those of the dense cores found in regions of Cepheus, and Orion L1630 and L1641, with higher values compared to Ophiuchus. A comparison of NH3 line-center velocities with those of $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O shows small differences (0.13 and 0.12 km s$^{-1}$ ), suggesting quiescence on small scales.
We investigate the ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG) UGC 9050-Dw1, which was selected because of its disturbed morphology as part of a larger sample of UDGs that display evidence for significant interactions. We use the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys to identify globular clusters (GCs) associated with UGC 9050-Dw1, and the Jansky Very Large Array to measure its $\mathrm{H}\mathrm{I}$ content. UGC 9050-Dw1, a neighbor to the low surface brightness spiral UGC 9050, exhibits a unique UV bright central ``clump'' with clearly associated $\mathrm{H}{\mathrm{I}}$ gas and an extended stellar tidal plume to the north. We identify $52^{+4}_{-6}$ GCs, implying a specific frequency $S_\mathrm{N} = 122_{-24}^{+30}$, one of the highest reported for a UDG of this luminosity. Additionally, $\sim 20\%$ of the total light of the galaxy is contributed by GCs. Nearly uniform GC colors suggest they were formed during a single intense episode of star formation. We propose that UGC 9050-Dw1 formed via a rare dwarf merger event where induced, clumpy star formation led to its current observed properties.
This paper presents a morphology classification catalog of spiral and ring features of 59,854 magnitude-limited galaxies ($r<17.8$ mag, and additional 628,005 subsamples down to $r=20$ mag) at $z=0.01-0.3$ based on the Third Public Data Release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program. We employ two deep learning classifiers to determine the spiral and ring structures separately based on GALAXY CRUISE Data Release 1, which is dedicated to Hyper Suprime-Cam data. The number of spiral and ring galaxies contain 31,864 and 8,808 sources, respectively, which constitute 53\% and 15\% of the sample. A notable result of this study is the construction of a large sample of ring galaxies utilizing high-quality imaging data delivered by the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam. However, the accurate identification of ring galaxies remains difficult at a limited seeing resolution. Additionally, we confirm that most spiral galaxies are located on the star-forming main sequence, whereas ring galaxies preferentially reside in the green valley at stellar mass of $10^{10.5}-10^{11}$ solar mass. Furthermore, decreasing fractions of spiral and ring galaxies are observed toward the centers of the galaxy clusters. The obtained morphology catalog is publicly available on the GALAXY CRUISE website.
A wealth of observations have long suggested that the vast majority of isolated classical dwarf galaxies ($M_*=10^7$-$10^9$ M$_\odot$) are currently star-forming. However, recent observations of the large abundance of "Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies" beyond the reach of previous large spectroscopic surveys suggest that our understanding of the dwarf galaxy population may be incomplete. Here we report the serendipitous discovery of an isolated quiescent dwarf galaxy in the nearby Universe, which was imaged as part of the PEARLS GTO program. Remarkably, individual red-giant branch stars are visible in this near-IR imaging, suggesting a distance of $30\pm4$ Mpc, and a wealth of archival photometry point to an sSFR of $2\times10^{-11}$ yr$^{-1}$ and SFR of $4\times10^{-4}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. Spectra obtained with the Lowell Discovery Telescope find a recessional velocity consistent with the Hubble Flow and ${>}1500$ km/s separated from the nearest massive galaxy in SDSS, suggesting that this galaxy was either quenched from internal mechanisms or had a very high-velocity ($>1000$ km/s) interaction with a nearby massive galaxy in the past. This analysis highlights the possibility that many nearby quiescent dwarf galaxies are waiting to be discovered and that JWST has the potential to resolve them.
Studies of the dynamics of globular clusters assume different values of bar parameters (mass, velocity, size) and analyse the results of orbit classifications over the range of the chosen values. It is also a usual thing that a spherical bulge component is converted into the bar to obtain a non-axisymmetric potential from an axisymmetric one. The choice of bar parameters and the way the bar is converted from the bulge introduce systematics into the orbit classifications that we explore in the present study. We integrate orbits of 30 bulge globular clusters residing in the inner area of the Galaxy ($R \lesssim 5$ kpc) backwards in time for three different potentials, two of which are obtained by fitting the rotation curve, and one is taken from the surrogate $N$-body model representing our Galaxy. We analyse each orbit in terms of dominant frequencies obtained from its coordinate spectra. We find that the bar pattern speed is a key factor in orbital classification. With an increase of it, frequencies deviate more and more from the ``bar'' frequency ratio 2:1. The bar-to-bulge mass ratio (assuming the total mass of the bar plus the bulge is fixed) and size of the bar play a smaller role. We also find that, in the $N$-body potential, the fraction of orbits that follow the bar is higher than in those obtained from fitting the rotation curve.
All very massive early-type galaxies contain supermassive blackholes but are these blackholes all sufficiently active to produce detectable radio continuum sources? We have used the 887.5~MHz Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey DR1 to measure the radio emission from morphological early-type galaxies brighter than $K_S=9.5$ selected from the 2MASS Redshift Survey, HyperLEDA and RC3. In line with previous studies, we find median radio power increases with infrared luminosity, with $P_{1.4} \propto L_K^{2.2}$, although the scatter about this relation spans several orders of magnitude. All 40 of the $M_K<-25.7$ early-type galaxies in our sample have measured radio flux densities that are more than $2\sigma$ above the background noise, with $1.4~{\rm GHz}$ radio powers spanning $\sim 3 \times 10^{20}$ to $\sim 3\times 10^{25}~{\rm W~Hz^{-1}}$. Cross matching our sample with integral field spectroscopy of early-type galaxies reveals that the most powerful radio sources preferentially reside in galaxies with relatively low angular momentum (i.e. slow rotators). While the infrared colours of most galaxies in our early-type sample are consistent with passive galaxies with negligible star formation and the radio emission produced by active galactic nuclei or AGN remnants, very low levels of star formation could power the weakest radio sources with little effect on many other star formation rate tracers.
We present a comprehensive overview of a volume-complete sample of white dwarfs located within 40 pc of the Sun, a significant proportion of which were detected in Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3). Our DR3 sample contains 1076 spectroscopically confirmed white dwarfs, with just five candidates within the volume remaining unconfirmed (more than 99 per cent spectroscopic completeness). Additionally, 28 white dwarfs were not in our initial selection from Gaia DR3, most of which are in unresolved binaries. We use Gaia DR3 photometry and astrometry to determine a uniform set of white dwarf parameters, including mass, effective temperature, and cooling age. We assess the demographics of the 40 pc sample, specifically magnetic fields, binarity, space density and mass distributions.
We use numerical simulations to model Gaia DR3 data with the aim of constraining the Milky Way bar and spiral structure parameters. We show that both the morphology and the velocity field in Milky Way-like galactic disc models are strong functions of time, changing dramatically over a few tens of Myr. This suggests that by finding a good match to the observed radial velocity field, v_R(x,y), we can constrain the bar-spiral orientation. Incorporating uncertainties into our models is necessary to match the data; most importantly, a heliocentric distance uncertainty above 10-15% distorts the bar's shape and v_R quadrupole pattern morphology, and decreases its apparent angle with respect to the Sun-Galactocentric line. An excellent match to the Gaia DR3 v_R(x,y) field is found for a simulation with a bar length R_b\approx3.6 kpc. We argue that the data are consistent with a MW bar as short as ~3 kpc, for moderate strength inner disc spiral structure (A_2/A_0\approx0.25) or, alternatively, with a bar length up to ~5.2 kpc, provided that spiral arms are quite weak (A_2/A_0\approx0.1), and is most likely in the process of disconnecting from a spiral arm. We demonstrate that the bar angle and distance uncertainty can similarly affect the match between our models and the data - a smaller bar angle (20 deg instead of 30 deg) requires smaller distance uncertainty (20% instead of 30%) to explain the observations. Fourier components of the face-on density distribution of our models suggest that the MW does not have strong m=1 and/or m=3 spirals near the solar radius.
The Gaia DR3 parallax approach was used to estimate the absolute parameters of 2375 Delta Scuti stars from the ASAS catalog. The selected stars have a variety of observational characteristics, with a higher than 80% probability of being Delta Scuti stars. We have displayed all the stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram along with the Delta Scuti instability strip, the Zero Age Main Sequence (ZAMS), and the Terminal-Age Main Sequence (TAMS). Then, we determined which fundamental and overtone modes each star belongs to using pulsation constant (Q) calculations. In addition, we evaluated the parameters in the Q calculation equation using three machine learning methods, which showed that surface gravity and temperature have the greatest effect on its calculation. The Period-Luminosity (P-L) relationship of the Delta Scuti stars was also revisited. Eventually, using least squares linear regression, we made four linear fits for fundamental and overtone modes and updated their relationships.
The US National Gemini Office (US NGO), part of the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC) at NSF's NOIRLab, has completed a project to upgrade the IRAF-based Gemini reduction software to provide a fully supported system capable of running natively on modern hardware. This work includes 64-bit platform ports of the GEMINI package and dependency tasks (e.g. from the STSDAS external package), upgrades to the core IRAF system and all other external packages to fix any platform and licensing problems, and the establishment of fully supported Help Desk and distribution systems for the user community. Early results show a 10-20X speedup of execution times using the native 64-bit software compared to the virtualized 32-bit solutions now in use. Results are even better on new Apple M1/M2 platforms where the additional overhead of Intel CPU emulation can be eliminated. Timing comparisons, science verification testing, and release plans are discussed.
This paper presents a solution for efficiently and accurately solving separable least squares problems with multiple datasets. These problems involve determining linear parameters that are specific to each dataset while ensuring that the nonlinear parameters remain consistent across all datasets. A well-established approach for solving such problems is the variable projection algorithm introduced by Golub and LeVeque, which effectively reduces a separable problem to its nonlinear component. However, this algorithm assumes that the datasets have equal sizes and identical auxiliary model parameters. This article is motivated by a real-world remote sensing application where these assumptions do not apply. Consequently, we propose a generalized algorithm that extends the original theory to overcome these limitations. The new algorithm has been implemented and tested using both synthetic and real satellite data for atmospheric carbon dioxide retrievals. It has also been compared to conventional state-of-the-art solvers, and its advantages are thoroughly discussed. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms all other methods in terms of computation time, while maintaining comparable accuracy and stability. Hence, this novel method can have a positive impact on future applications in remote sensing and could be valuable for other scientific fitting problems with similar properties.
We report the observations of two self-lensing pulses from KIC 12254688 in Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) light curves. This system, containing a F2V star and white-dwarf companion, was amongst the first self-lensing binary systems discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope over the past decade. Each observed pulse occurs when the white dwarf transits in front of its companion star, gravitationally lensing the star's surface, thus making it appear brighter to a distant observer. These two pulses are the very first self-lensing events discovered in TESS observations. We describe the methods by which the data were acquired and detrended, as well as the best-fit binary parameters deduced from our self-lensing+radial velocity model. We highlight the difficulties of finding new self-lensing systems with TESS, and we discuss the types of self-lensing systems that TESS may be more likely to discover in the future.
The study investigates the gravitational scattering amplitude between two Schwarzschild black holes in a two to two interaction, focusing on the Second Post-Minkowskian correction (2 PM). Analyzing contributions from box and cross-box diagrams, the research interprets Feynman integrals as pairings between twisted co-cycles and cycles. The concept of twisted (co)-homology groups is introduced, leading to a master integral decomposition formula. The study successfully applies intersection theory to compute coefficients of the master integral basis, marking the first application of intersection theory in the quantum field theoretic description of gravity. The results align with existing literature on the 2PM correction.
With non-perturbative de Sitter gravity and holography in mind, we deduce the genus expansion of de Sitter Jackiw-Teitelboim (dS JT) gravity. We find that this simple model of quantum cosmology has an effective string coupling which is pure imaginary. This imaginary coupling gives rise to alternating signs in the genus expansion of the dS JT S-matrix, which as a result appears to be Borel-Le Roy resummable. We explain how dS JT gravity is dual to a formal matrix integral with, in a sense, a negative number of degrees of freedom.
In this manuscript, we show that three fundamental building blocks are supporting the Cosmological Principle. The first of them states that there is a special frame in the universe where the spatial geometry is intrinsically homogeneous and isotropic. The second demands the existence of a fiducial observer to whom the Hubble parameter is isotropic. The last piece states that matter and radiation behave as a perfect fluid. We show that these three hypotheses give us the Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) spacetimes, the central pillar of the standard model of Cosmology. We keep with the first of them and start to investigate the so-called intrinsically homogeneous and isotropic spacetimes. They emerge after the decoupling of the CMB with the geometric frame of reference. Furthermore, a ``$\Lambda$CDM-like" effective theory arises naturally in those backgrounds, together with some new density parameters relating to the local inhomogeneities, the internal energy density, and the local and global magnitudes of the Hubble anisotropy. All those properties make this class of inhomogeneous models, which roughly speaking, keeps "1/3" of the Cosmological Principle, worth investigating in applications to Cosmology, for it can accommodate the same ingredients of the standard model, as a geometric frame and a free-falling isotropic cosmic background radiation, and reduce to the latter when some observable parameters vanish.
Employing the Einstein-scalar field system, we demonstrate an approach for proving high co-dimensional nonlinear instability of naked-singularity solutions as constructed by Christodoulou in [18]. We further investigate the censorship of Christodoulou's naked singularity and show that a tiny anisotropic perturbation arising from the outgoing characteristic initial data would lead to the emergence of an anisotropic apparent horizon, which covers and censors the naked singularity. Our approach advances the hyperbolic short-pulse method by not requiring the aid of additional large parameters, by permitting the use of initial perturbations for the shear tensor and the derivative of scalar field to be with finite $BV$ and $C^0$ norms, and by allowing the initial perturbation to be arbitrarily small in scale-critical norms. New elliptic arguments based on non-perturbative methods are also developed.
In the present work, considering critical gravity as a gravity model, an electrically charged topological Anti-de Sitter black hole with a matter source characterized by a nonlinear electrodynamics framework is obtained. This configuration is defined by an integration constant, three key structural constants, and a constant that represents the topology of the event horizon. Additionally, based on the Wald formalism, we probe that this configuration enjoys non-trivial thermodynamic quantities, establishing the corresponding first law of black hole thermodynamics, as well as local stability under thermal and electrical fluctuations. Moreover, the quasinormal modes and the greybody factor are also calculated by considering the spherical situation. We found that the quasinormal modes exhibit a straightforward change for variations of one of the structural constants.
We study the evolution of scalar and tensor cosmological perturbations in the framework of the Einstein-Cartan theory of gravity. The value of the gravitational slip parameter which is defined as the ratio of the two scalar potentials in the Newtonian gauge, can be used to determine whether or not the gravity is modified. We calculate the value of slip parameter in the Einstein-Cartan cosmology and show that it falls within the observed range. We also discuss the evolution of the cosmic gravitational waves as another measure of the modification of gravity.
This study revisits supersymmetric (SUSY) hybrid inflation in light of CMB experiments and swampland conjectures. We first show that if one adds radiative, soft mass, and SUGRA corrections to the scalar potential, supersymmetric hybrid inflation is still consistent with Planck 2018 and LiteBIRD 2023 despite an impression that it does not. Usually, in SUSY hybrid inflation with minimal K\"ahler potential, the gauge symmetry breaking scale $M$ turns out to be ${\cal O}(10^{15})$ GeV, which causes proton decay rate problem. In this study, we present a new parameter space where the proton decay rate problem can be avoided by achieving $M$ of the order of $10^{16}$ GeV with $M_{S}^{2}<$0 and $am_{3/2}>$0. In this scenario, one requires a soft SUSY breaking scale $|M_{S}| \gtrsim 10^{6}$ GeV. Moreover, the tensor to scalar ratio $r$ is in the range $10^{-16}$ to $10^{-6}$, which is quite small. In this case, modified swampland hold, but it difficult to satisfied trans-Planckian censorship conjecture. For this reason, we also consider non-minimal K\"ahler potential. We fixed spectral index $n_{S}=$0.9665 (central value) of Planck 2018 data and $M=2\times 10^{16}$ GeV and present our calculations. We show the canonical measure of primordial gravity waves $r$ for $M_{S}=$ 1 TeV, $m_{3/2}=$ 1 TeV, $\kappa_{S}<0$ for $\cal{N}=$1 and $\cal{N}=$2, ranges from $10^{-5}$ to $0.01$ which can be observed in Planck, LiteBIRD and next-generation PRISM, PIXIE,CORE, CMB-S4 and CMB-HD experiments that are gearing up to measure it. In addition to it, we present the parametric space and benchmark points in a non-minimal case which is consistent with modified swampland and trans-Planckian censorship conjectures.
In this research, we delve into the localization patterns of fermionic fields within a braneworld setting, employing a modified gravity model denoted as $f(Q)$. Our investigation revolves around two specific models, $f_1(Q)=Q+kQ^n$ and $f_2(Q)=Q+k_1Q^2+k_2Q^3$, where we systematically vary the parameters $n$ and $k_{1,2}$. Through an in-depth analysis encompassing the effective potential, massless, and massive modes, we elucidate how deviations from the conventional symmetric teleparallel equivalent of general relativity (STEGR) gravity impact the localization of fermionic fields. To ensure greater precision, our methodology integrates probabilistic measures such as Shannon entropy and relative probability. Moreover, we gauge the stability of these models employing differential configurational entropy (DCE), revealing a compelling correlation between the most stable configurations and the emergence of novel structures within the background scalar field. This work significantly contributes to our understanding of the gravitational modifications' intricate influence on fermionic field localization within braneworld scenarios. By shedding light on these dynamics, it advances the broader comprehension of the interplay between gravity modifications and fermionic field behaviors in these theoretical frameworks.
We employ the approach of path integral in the phase space to study the kinetics of state switching associated with black hole phase transitions. Under the assumption that the state switching process of the black hole is described by the stochastic Langevin equation based on the free energy landscape, we derived the Martin-Siggia-Rose-Janssen-de Dominicis (MSRJD) functional and obtained the path integral expression of the transition probability. The MSRJD functional inherently represents the path integral in the phase space, allowing us to extract the effective Hamiltonian for the dynamics of state switching process. By solving the Hamiltonian equations of motion, we obtain the kinetic path in the phase space using an example of the RNAdS black hole. Furthermore, the dominant kinetic path within the configuration space is calculated. We also discuss the kinetic rate by using the functional formalism. Finally, we examine two further examples: Hawking-Page phase transition and Gauss-Bonnet black hole phase transition at the triple point. Our analysis demonstrates that, concerning the Hawking-Page phase transition, while a dominant kinetic path in the phase space from the large SAdS black hole to the thermal AdS space is present, there is no kinetic path for the inverse process. For the Gauss-Bonnet black hole phase transition at the triple point, the state switching processes between the small, the intermediate and the large Gauss-Bonnet black holes constitute a chemical reaction cycle.
In this paper, we construct the slowly rotating case of an asymptotically flat supermassive black hole embedded in dark matter using Newman-Janis procedure. Our analysis is carried with respect to the involved parameters including the halo total mass $M$ and the galaxy's lengthscale $a_0$. Concretly, we investigate the dark matter impact on the effective potential and the photon sphere. In particular, we find that the lengthscale $a_0$ controles such potential values. Indeed, for low $a_0$ values, we find that the halo total mass $M$ decreases the potential values significantly while for high $a_0$ values such impact is diluted. Regarding the shadow aspects, we show that the shadow size is much smaller for high values of $a_0$ while the opposite effect is observed when the halo total mass $M$ is increased. By comparing our case to the slowly rotating case, we notice that the former exhibits a shadow shifted from its center to the left side. Finally, we compute the deflection angle in the weak-limit approximation and inspect the dark matter parameters influence. By ploting such quantity, we observe that one should expect lower bending angle values for black holes in galactic nuclei.
Continuity as appears to us immediately by intuition (in the flow of time and in motion) differs from its current formalization, the arithmetical continuum or equivalently the set of real numbers used in modern mathematical analysis. Motivated by the known mathematical and physical problems arising from this formalization of the continuum, our aim in this paper is twofold. Firstly, by interpreting Chaitin's variant of G\"odel's first incompleteness theorem as an inherent uncertainty or fuzziness of the arithmetical continuum, a formal set-theoretic entropy is assigned to the arithmetical continuum. Secondly, by analyzing Noether's theorem on symmetries and conserved quantities, we argue that whenever the four dimensional space-time continuum containing a single, stationary, asymptotically flat black hole is modeled by the arithmetical continuum in the mathematical formulation of general relativity, the hidden set-theoretic entropy of this latter structure reveals itself as the entropy of the black hole (proportional to the area of its "instantaneous" event horizon), indicating that this apparently physical quantity might have a pure set-theoretic origin, too.
We present a semi-rigorous justification of Bekenstein's Generalized Second Law of Thermodynamics applicable to a universe with black holes present, based on a generic quantum gravity formulation of a black hole spacetime, where the bulk Hamiltonian constraint plays a central role. Specializing to Loop Quantum Gravity, and considering the inspiral and post-ringdown stages of binary black hole merger into a remnant black hole, we show that the Generalized Second Law implies a lower bound on the non-perturbative LQG correction to the Bekenstein-Hawking area law for black hole entropy. This lower bound itself is expressed as a function of the Bekenstein-Hawking area formula for entropy. Results of the analyses of LIGO-VIRGO-KAGRA data recently performed to verify the Hawking Area Theorem for binary black hole merger, are shown to be entirely consistent with this Loop Quantum Gravity-induced inequality. However, the consistency is independent of the magnitude of the Loop Quantum Gravity corrections to black hole entropy, depending only on the negative algebraic sign of the quantum correction. We argue that results of alternative quantum gravity computations of quantum black hole entropy, where the quantum entropy exceeds the Bekenstein-Hawking value, may not share this consistency.
We study two-point functions of symmetric traceless local operators in the bulk of de Sitter spacetime. We derive the K\"all\'en-Lehmann spectral decomposition for any spin and show that unitarity implies its spectral densities are nonnegative. In addition, we recover the K\"all\'en-Lehmann decomposition in Minkowski space by taking the flat space limit. Using harmonic analysis and the Wick rotation to Euclidean Anti de Sitter, we derive an inversion formula to compute the spectral densities. Using the inversion formula, we relate the analytic structure of the spectral densities to the late-time boundary operator content. We apply our technical tools to study two-point functions of composite operators in free and weakly coupled theories. In the weakly coupled case, we show how the K\"all\'en-Lehmann decomposition is useful to find the anomalous dimensions of the late-time boundary operators. We also derive the K\"all\'en-Lehmann representation of two-point functions of spinning primary operators of a Conformal Field Theory on de Sitter.
The non-isometric holographic model of the black hole interior stands out as a potential resolution of the long-standing black hole information puzzle since it remedies the friction between the effective calculation and the microscopic description. In this study, combining the final-state projection model, the non-isometric model of black hole interior and Hayden-Preskill thought experiment, we investigate the information recovery from decoding Hawking radiation and demonstrate the emergence of the Page time in this setup. We incorporate the effective modes into the scrambling inside the horizon, which are usually disregarded in Hayden-Preskill protocols, and show that the Page time can be identified as the transition of information transmission channels from the EPR projection to the local projections. This offers a new perspective on the Page time. We compute the decoupling condition under which retrieving information is feasible and show that this model computes the black hole entropy consistent with the quantum extremal surface calculation. Assuming the full knowledge of the dynamics of the black hole interior, we show how Yoshida-Kitaev decoding strategy can be employed in the modified Hayden-Preskill protocol. Furthermore, we perform experimental tests of both probabilistic and Grover's search decoding strategies on the 7-qubit IBM quantum processors to validate our analytical findings and confirm the feasibility of retrieving information in the non-isometric model. This study would stimulate more interests to explore black hole information problem on the quantum processors.
Applying a family of mass-capacity related inequalities proved in \cite{M22}, we obtain sufficient conditions that imply the nonnegativity as well as positive lower bounds of the mass, on a class of manifolds with nonnegative scalar curvature with or without a singularity.
The Teleparallel Theory is equivalent to General Relativity, but whereas in the latter gravity has to do with curvature, in the former gravity is described by torsion. As is well known, there is in the literature a host of alternative theories of gravity, among them the so called extended theories, in which additional terms are added to the action, such as for example in the $f(R)$ and $f(T)$ gravities, where $R$ is the Ricci scalar and $T$ is the scalar torsion, respectively. One of the ways to probe alternative gravity is via compact objects. In fact, there is in the literature a series of papers on compact objects in $f(R)$ and $f(T)$ gravity. In particular, there are several papers that consider $f(T) = T + \xi T^2$, where $\xi$ is a real constant. In this paper, we generalise such extension considering compact stars in $f (T ) = T + \xi T^\beta$ gravity, where $\xi$ and $\beta$ are real constants and looking out for the implications in their maximum masses and compactness in comparison to the General Relativity. Also, we are led to constrain the $\beta$ parameter to positive integers which is a restriction not imposed by cosmology.
We consider a 4D spherically-symmetric static finite spacetime region as a collection of quanta in the semi-classical Einstein equation and study the entropy including the self-gravity. For sufficiently excited states, we estimate the entropy in a WKB-like method considering local consistency with thermodynamics and find its upper bound. The saturation condition uniquely determines the entropy-maximized spacetime as a radially uniform dense configuration with near-Planckian curvatures and a surface just outside the Schwarzschild radius. The interior metric is a non-perturbative solution in $\hbar$, leading to the species bound. The maximum entropy then saturates the Bousso bound and coincides with the Bekenstein-Hawking formula. Thus, the Bousso bound in this class of spacetime is verified by constructing the saturating configuration that has no horizon and stores information inside.
We consider the $d$-wave holographic superconductor model with full backreaction on the metric, addressing a missing part in the literature. We have identified the corrected order parameter by comparing the fermionic spectral function with the momentum-dependent order parameter. By numerical investigations of the fermionic spectral function in the presence of a tensor condensate, we find the Fermi arc and the gapped behavior, which closely resemble ARPES data. Moreover, we have examined the influence of the coupling constant, chemical potential, and temperature on the spectral function. We find that $d$-wave fermionic spectral function can be obtained through $p_x$ and $p_y$ condensates combined with two fermion flavors. Similarly, combining $d_{x^2-y^2}$ and $d_{xy}$ orbitals symmetry with two fermion flavors leads to a $g$-wave spectral function.
In this paper, we study the gravitational memory effect in pp-wave spacetimes due to the passage of a pulse having the form of a ramp profile through this spacetime. We have analyzed the effect of this pulse on the evolution of nearby geodesics, and have determined analytical solutions of the geodesic equations in the Brinkmann coordinates. We have also examined the changes in the separation between a pair of geodesics and their velocity profiles. The separation (along $ x $ or $ y $-direction) increases monotonically from an initial constant value. In contrast, the relative velocity grows from zero and settles to a final non-zero constant value. These resulting changes are retained as memory after the pulse dies out. The nature of this memory is similar to that determined by earlier workers using Gaussian, square, and other pulse profiles, thereby validating the universality of gravitational wave memory.
The electromagnetic radiation emitted by an accelerated charged particle can be described theoretically as the interaction of the charge with the so-called Fulling-Davies-Unruh thermal bath in the coordinate frame co-accelerated with the charge. We present a similar analysis on the gravitational radiation from a classical point mass uniformly accelerated, being pulled by a string satisfying the weak energy condition. In particular, we derive the interaction rate (with fixed transverse momentum) of this system of the point mass and string in the Fulling-Davies-Unruh thermal bath in the co-accelerated frame and show that it equals the graviton emission rate calculated in the standard method in Minkowski spacetime.
In the present paper, we consider a rotating black hole moving in a homogeneous massless scalar field. We assume that the field is weak and neglect its backreaction, so that the metric at far distance from the black hole is practically flat. In this domain one can introduce two reference frames, $K$ and $\tilde{K}$. The frame $\tilde{K}$ is associated with the homogeneous scalar field, in which its constant gradient has only time component. The other frame, $K$, is the frame in which the black hole is at rest. To describe the Kerr metric of the black hole we use its Kerr-Schild form $g_{\mu\nu}=\eta_{\mu\nu}+\Phi l_{\mu}l_{\mu}$, where $\eta_{\mu\nu}$ is the (asymptotic) flat metric in $K$ frame. We find an explicit solution of the scalar field equation which is regular at the horizon and properly reproduce the asymptotic form of the scalar field at the infinity. Using this solution we calculate the fluxes of the energy, momentum and the angular momentum of the scalar field into the black hole. This allows us to derive the equation of motion of the rotating black hole. We discuss main general properties of solutions of these equations and obtain explicit solutions for special type of the motion of the black hole.
It has been reported that the photon ring structure in black hole images produces strong and universal interferometric signatures on long interferometric baselines, holding promise for measuring black hole parameters and testing general relativity. This paper investigates the interferometric signatures of black holes with one or two photon spheres, specifically within the framework of Einstein-Maxwell-Scalar models. Notably, for black holes possessing two photon spheres, interference between light rays orbiting the inner and outer photon spheres manifests as beat signals in the visibility amplitude, deviating from the universal signatures observed in the single-photon sphere case.
In this paper, we investigate the quasinormal mode (QNM) spectra for scalar perturbation over a quantum-corrected black hole (BH). The fundamental modes of this quantum-corrected BH exhibit two key properties. Firstly, there is a non-monotonic behavior concerning the quantum-corrected parameter for zero multipole number. Secondly, the quantum gravity effects result in slower decay modes. For higher overtones, a significant deviation becomes evident between the quasinormal frequencies (QNFs) of the quantum-corrected and Schwarzschild BHs. The intervention of quantum gravity corrections induces a significant outburst of overtones. This outburst of these overtones can be attributed to the distinctions near the event horizons between the Schwarzschild and quantum-corrected BHs. Therefore, overtones can serve as a means to probe physical phenomena or disparities in the vicinity of the event horizon.
We revisit the construction of the Hilbert space of non-relativistic particles moving in three spatial dimensions. This is given by the space of sections of a line bundle that can in general be topologically non-trivial. Such bundles are classified by a set of integers--one for each pair of particles--and arise physically when we describe the interactions of dyons, particles which carry both electric and magnetic charges. The choice of bundle fixes the representation of the Euclidean group carried by the Hilbert space. These representations are shown to recover the 'pairwise helicity' formalism recently discussed in the literature.
Within the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) effective field theory, we derive the next-to-leading order (NLO) cross-section for the single-jet semi-inclusive cross-section in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) at small $x$, for both longitudinally and transversely polarized virtual photons. We provide analytic expressions, valid at finite $N_c$ and suitable for numerical evaluation, for both the cross-section differential in rapidity and transverse momentum and the cross-section differential in rapidity only. Our NLO formulae demonstrate that the very forward rapidity regime is plagued by large double logarithmic corrections coming from phase space constraints on soft gluons close to the kinematic threshold for jet production. A joint resummation of small-$x$ and threshold logarithms at single logarithmic accuracy is proposed to remedy the instability of the cross-section in this regime. By integrating over the single-jet phase space, we recover known results for the NLO DIS structure functions at small $x$, previously obtained using the optical theorem.
Amidst all candidates of physics beyond the Standard Model, string theory provides a unique proposal for incorporating gauge and gravitational interactions. In string theory, a four-dimensional theory that unifies quantum mechanics and gravity is obtained automatically if one posits that the additional dimensions predicted by the theory are small and curled up, a concept known as compactification. The gauge sector of the theory is specified by the topology and geometry of the extra dimensions, and the challenge is to reproduce all the features of the Standard Model of Particle Physics from them. We review the state-of-the-art in reproducing the Standard Model from string compactifications, together with the lessons drawn from this fascinating quest. We describe novel scenarios and mechanisms that string theory provides to address some of the Standard Model puzzles, as well as the most frequent signatures of new physics that could be detected in future experiments. We finally comment on recent developments that connect, in a rather unexpected way, the Standard Model with Quantum Gravity, and that may change our field theory notion of naturalness.
We present results for the $\tau_1$ and $\tau_{1a}$ 1-Jettiness global event shape distributions, for Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS), at the N$^3$LL + ${\cal O}(\alpha_s^2)$ level of accuracy. These event-shape distributions quantify and characterize the pattern of final state radiation in electron-nucleus collisions. They can be used as a probe of nuclear structure functions, nuclear medium effects in jet production, and for a precision extraction of the QCD strong coupling. The results presented here, along with the corresponding numerical codes, can be used for analyses with HERA data, in EIC simulation studies, and for eventual comparison with real EIC data.
In the quasistatic regimes of nonlinear Breit-Wheeler and trident pair creation, the rates can exhibit a non-analytic dependency on the fundamental coupling of quantum electrodynamics (QED), in a form similar to Schwinger vacuum pair creation. To reach this tunneling regime requires satisfying competing requirements: high intensity but low strong-field parameter with sufficient pair creation to be observed. Using a locally monochromatic approach, we identify the parameter regime where tunneling pair-creation could be measured for the first time in experiment. Studying several scenarios of collisions with focussed Gaussian pulses, including a bremsstrahlung and an inverse Compton source for nonlinear Breit-Wheeler and a Gaussian electron beam for nonlinear trident, we find the position of the tunneling parameter regime to be well-defined and robust.
We calculated the production of the Higgs boson (H) by two-photon interaction with the equivalent photon approximation in nucleus-nucleus collision, proton-nucleus collision, and proton-proton collision. The numerical results show that the experimental study of the Higgs boson in ultra-peripheral collisions is feasible at the energies of the relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC) and the large hadron collider (LHC).
In last few years the experimental evidence of charmed mesons is increasing remarkably. In the present work we systematically studied the $D$ meson by employing Regge phenomenology. By assuming the existence of the quasilinear Regge trajectories, several relations between Regge slope, intercept, and meson masses have been extracted. With the aid of these derived relations, Regge parameters are evaluated in both the ($J,M^{2}$) and ($n,M^{2}$) planes to obtain the mass spectra of $D$ meson. In the forthcoming years, we believe that more candidates will be reported and our predictions could provide useful information for future experimental evidences.
We investigate the effect on neutrino oscillations generated by beyond-the-standard-model interactions between neutrinos and matter. Specifically, we focus on scalar-mediated non-standard interactions (NSI) whose impact fundamentally differs from that of vector-mediated NSI. Scalar NSI contribute as corrections to the neutrino mass matrix rather than the matter potential and thereby predict distinct phenomenology from the vector-mediated ones. Similar to vector-type NSI, the presence of scalar-mediated neutrino NSI can influence measurements of oscillation parameters in long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, with a notable impact on CP measurement in the case of DUNE. Our study focuses on the effect of scalar NSI on neutrino oscillations, using DUNE as an example. We introduce a model-independent parameterization procedure that enables the examination of the impact of all non-zero scalar NSI parameters simultaneously. Subsequently, we convert DUNE's sensitivity to the NSI parameters into projected sensitivity concerning the parameters of a light scalar model. We compare these results with existing non-oscillation probes. Our findings reveal that the region of the light scalar parameter space sensitive to DUNE is predominantly excluded by non-oscillation probes, except for scenarios with very light mediator mass.
Motivated by the recent discovery of single heavy tetraquark structures, $T_{c\bar{s}0}^a (2900)^{++}$ and $T_{c\bar{s}0}^a(2900)^0$ by the LHCb collaboration, masses and magnetic moments of singly heavy pentaquark states are estimated in this work. To classify the singly heavy pentaquark structures, we employ the special unitary representation. By using the SU(3) flavor representation, we placed singly heavy pentaquark states into the allowed flavor multiples. Also, by using the extension of the Gursey-Radicati mass formula and the effective mass scheme, we estimated the masses of singly heavy pentaquark states. Further, magnetic moments of these states have been calculated using the effective mass and the screened charge techniques. A thorough comparison of our results shows reasonable agreement with the available theoretical data and may be helpful for future experimental studies.
In this work, we revisit pseudo Nambu Goldstone boson (pNGB) DM model where global $U(1)$ dark symmetry is spontaneously broken as well as explicitly with broken by with linear symmetry breaking, focusing on the dark matter mass range in $500 {\rm GeV} \lesssim m_{\rm DM} \lesssim O(10)$ TeV. This model is interesting not only in its own in the context of pNGB DM, but also in the context of cosmological collider signatures from heavy particle mass regime without Boltzmann suppressions, $H \lesssim m_{\rm heavy} \lesssim 60 H$, through the chemical potential type interaction. After imposing perturbative unitarity, perturbativity, correct thermal relic density and constraints from colliders and (in)direct detection experiments, we find that pNGB DM mass is allowed up to $\sim 1 (10)$ TeV for the dark Higgs mass $m_{H_2} = 1 (100)$ TeV for the Higgs-dark Higgs mixing $\sin \theta = 0.1$. We also consider the case where global $U(1)$ dark symmetry is not spontaneously broken, where DM is no longer pNGB. In this case, DM and dark Higgs masses are nearly degenerate in the range of a few TeV $\lesssim m_{{\rm DM}, H_2} \lesssim \sim 70$ TeV. Low mass region for pNGB DM and $H_2$ could be directly probed in colliders or indirect DM detections, whereas the heavy mass regime could be probed through the non-Gaussianity at the level of $f_{\rm NL} \sim O(0.01-10)$ if $H$ is as low as $O(1-10)$ TeV.
At present, experimental studies of the semileptonic $B-$ meson decays at BaBar, Belle and LHCb, especially for the observables associated with the $b \rightarrow c$ transitions, show the deviation from the Standard Model (SM) predictions, consequently, providing a handy tool to probe the possible new physics (NP). In this context, we have first revisited the impact of recently measurements of $R({D^{(*)}})$ and $R(\Lambda_c)$ on the parametric space of the NP scenarios. In addition, we have included the $R(J/\psi)$ and the $R(X_c)$ data in the analysis and found that their influence on the best-fit point and the parametric space is mild. Using the recent HFLAV data, after validating the well established sum rule of $R(\Lambda_c)$, we derived the similar sum rule for $R(J/\psi)$. Furthermore, we have modified the correlation among the different observables, giving us their interesting interdependence. Finally, to discriminate the various NP scenarios, we have plotted the different angular observables and their ratios for $B \to D^* \tau\nu_\tau$ against the transfer momentum square $\left(q^2\right)$, using the $1\sigma$ and $2\sigma$ parametric space of considered NP scenarios. To see the clear influence of NP on the amplitude of the angular observables, we have also calculated their numerical values in different $q^2$ bins and shown them through the bar plots. We hope their precise measurements will help to discriminate various NP scenarios.
We revisit the analysis of transverse single-spin asymmetries $A_N$ in lepton-nucleon scattering where only a single pion is detected in the final state, $\ell\,N^\uparrow\to h\, X$. This observable is the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) analogue to $A_N$ in proton-proton collisions, $p^\uparrow p\to h\,X$, that has been studied intensely for decades, especially at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We incorporate new theoretical developments in the collinear twist-3 framework and utilize recent extractions of (Sivers-like and Collins-like) quark-gluon-quark correlators in the numerical computations. We compare our calculations to HERMES measurements as well as make predictions for Jefferson Lab, COMPASS, and EIC kinematics. We further explore the role of next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections to the (twist-2) unpolarized cross section (denominator of $A_N$) and consider what can be deduced empirically about the potential numerical significance of the full NLO calculation of $A_N$ in this process. We consider sources of theoretical uncertainty in our predictions, which present potential opportunities then for future measurements to improve our understanding of $A_N$ and multi-parton correlations in hadrons.
Pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone (pNG) dark matter (DM) is a promising DM candidate and able to explain the measured DM abundance by the thermal freeze-out mechanism evading the stringent bound from DM direct detection experiments. We propose a new model providing a pNG DM by introducing two Standard-Model-singlet complex scalars with the same charges of a dark $U(1)$ gauge symmetry. They are also charged under a $U(1)$ global symmetry corresponding to their relative phase rotations, which is explicitly broken by a soft-breaking term in the scalar potential. The both $U(1)$ symmetries are spontaneously broken by their vacuum expectation values, giving rise to one real pNG boson. We also introduce a discrete $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry exchanging the two scalars to stabilize the pNG boson as DM. It is shown that this model reproduces the DM abundance consistently with the current bound from the direct detection experiments. The model has a gauge kinetic mixing between the dark and $U(1)_Y$ gauge fields, which allows the dark gauge boson to decay even with a relatively light mass and prevents it from being an additional DM component. The Landau pole is avoided thanks to the small gauge coupling constant. In addition, a DM pair dominantly annihilates into a pair of the dark gauge bosons if the gauge boson mass is lighter than the DM mass, and thus its cross section has significantly different parameter dependence from other pNG DM models. We also calculate the DM-nucleon scattering cross section at the loop level. It turns out that it is necessary to probe region covered by the neutrino fog in order to test this model.
In this study, we investigate the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon $(g_\mu-2)$ as reported by Fermilab (FNAL), along with the recent measurement of the $W$-boson mass by the CDF-II collaboration. Both findings show significant deviations from the predictions of the Standard Model (SM), hinting at the possibility of new physics. Our focus is on the Type III two-Higgs-doublet model (2HDM), wherein both Higgs doublets couple with all fermions, leading to the induction of flavour-changing neutral currents (FCNCs) at the tree level. Within this framework, we investigate a lepton-flavour-violating (LFV) scenario, aiming to explain both observed anomalies, while satisfying the up-to-date theoretical and experimental constraints.
The Standard Model (SM) does not contain by definition any new physics (NP) contributions to any observable but contains four CKM parameters which are not predicted by this model. We point out that if these four parameters are determined in a global fit that includes processes which are infected by NP, the resulting SM contributions to rare decay branching ratios cannot be considered as true SM contributions to the latter. On the other hand true SM predictions, that are free from the CKM dependence, can be obtained for suitable ratios of the $K$ and $B$ rare decay branching ratios to $\Delta M_s$, $\Delta M_d$ and $|\varepsilon_K|$, all calculated within the SM. These three observables contain by now only small hadronic uncertainties and are already well measured so that rather precise true SM predictions for the ratios in question can be obtained. In this context the rapid test of NP infection in the $\Delta F=2$ sector is provided by a $|V_{cb}|-\gamma$ plot that involves $\Delta M_s$, $\Delta M_d$, $|\varepsilon_K|$, and the mixing induced CP-asymmetry $S_{\psi K_S}$. As with the present hadronic matrix elements this test turns out to be negative, assuming negligible NP infection in the $\Delta F=2$ sector and setting the values of these four observables to the experimental ones, allows to obtain SM predictions for all $K$ and $B$ rare decay branching ratios that are most accurate to date and as a byproduct to obtain the full CKM matrix on the basis of $\Delta F=2$ transitions alone. Using this strategy we obtain SM predictions for 26 branching ratios for rare semileptonic and leptonic $K$ and $B$ decays with the $\mu^+\mu^-$ pair or the $\nu\bar\nu$ pair in the final state. Most interesting turn out to be the anomalies in the low $q^2$ bin in $B^+\to K^+\mu^+\mu^-$ ($4.4\sigma$) and $B_s\to \phi\mu^+\mu^-$ ($4.8\sigma$).
Results for $\beta$-functions and anomalous dimensions in general scalar fermion theories are presented to three loops. Various constraints on the individual coefficients for each diagram following from supersymmetry are analysed. The results are used to discuss potential fixed points in the $\varepsilon$-expansion for scalar fermion theories, with arbitrary numbers of scalar fields, and where there are just two scalar couplings and one Yukawa coupling. For different examples the fixed points follow a similar pattern as the numbers of fermions is varied. For diagrams with subdivergences there are extensive consistency constraints arising from the existence of a perturbative $a$-function and these are analysed in detail. Further arbitrary scheme variations which preserve the form of $\beta$ functions and anomalous dimensions in terms of 1PI diagrams are also discussed. The existence of linear and quadratic scheme invariants is demonstrated and the consistency condition are shown to be expressible in terms of these invariants.
Off-central heavy-ion collisions are known to feature magnetic fields with magnitudes and characteristic gradients corresponding to the scale of the strong interactions. In this work, we employ equilibrium lattice simulations of the underlying theory, QCD, involving similar inhomogeneous magnetic field profiles to achieve a better understanding of this system. We simulate three flavors of dynamical staggered quarks with physical masses at a range of magnetic fields and temperatures, and extrapolate the results to the continuum limit. Analyzing the impact of the field on the quark condensate and the Polyakov loop, we find non-trivial spatial features that render the QCD medium qualitatively different as in the homogeneous setup, especially at temperatures around the transition. In addition, we construct leading-order chiral perturbation theory for the inhomogeneous background and compare its prediction to our lattice results at low temperature. Our findings will be useful to benchmark effective theories and low-energy models of QCD for a better description of peripheral heavy-ion collisions.
We explore hypothetical vector particles, dark photons $\gamma'$, which mix with the Standard Model photons and thus mediate interactions with charged particles into the hidden sector. We study the elastic proton bremsstrahlung of dark photons with masses 0.4-1.8 GeV, relevant for direct searches with proton accelerators. A key feature of our calculation is that it explicitly considers the non-zero momentum transfer between protons in the process $pp\rightarrow pp\gamma'$. We compare the obtained differential and full bremsstrahlung cross sections with the results of other authors. Our calculation agrees well (up to 3-9 % corrections) with the Weizsacker-Williams approximation that confirms its applicability for proton beams. Then we refine predictions for the dark photon production with proton beams of energy 30 GeV, 70 GeV, 120 GeV and 400 GeV relevant for past, present and future experiments considered in literature.
Understanding the dynamics of bound state formation is one of the fundamental questions in confining quantum field theories such as Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). One hadronization mechanism that has garnered significant attention is the breaking of a string initially connecting a fermion and an anti-fermion. Deepening our understanding of real-time string-breaking dynamics with simpler, lower dimensional models like the Schwinger model can improve our understanding of the hadronization process in QCD and other confining systems found in condensed matter and statistical systems. In this paper, we consider the string-breaking dynamics within the Schwinger model and investigate its modification inside a thermal medium, treating the Schwinger model as an open quantum system coupled to a thermal environment. Within the regime of weak coupling between the system and environment, the real-time evolution of the system can be described by a Lindblad evolution equation. We analyze the Liouvillian gaps of this Lindblad equation and the time dependence of the system's von Neumann entropy. We observe that the late-time relaxation rate decreases as the environment correlation length increases. Moreover, when the environment correlation length is infinite, the system exhibits two steady states, one in each of the sectors with definite charge-conjugation-parity (CP) quantum numbers. For parameter regimes where an initial string breaks in vacuum, we observe a delay of the string breaking in the medium, due to kinetic dissipation effects. Conversely, in regimes where an initial string remains intact in vacuum time evolution, we observe string breaking (melting) in the thermal medium. We further discuss how the Liouvillian dynamics of the open Schwinger model can be simulated on quantum computers and provide an estimate of the associated Trotter errors.
Under flavor $SU(3)$ symmetry (SU(3)$_F$), the final-state particles in $B\to PPP$ decays ($P$ is a pseudoscalar meson) are treated as identical, and the $PPP$ must be in a fully-symmetric (FS) state, a fully-antisymmetric (FA) state, or in one of four mixed states. In this paper, we present the formalism for the FA states. We write the amplitudes for the 22 $B\to PPP$ decays that can be in an FA state in terms of both SU(3)$_F$ reduced matrix elements and diagrams. This shows the equivalence of diagrams and SU(3)$_F$. We also give 15 relations among the amplitudes in the SU(3)$_F$ limit, as well as the additional four that appear when the diagrams $E$/$A$/$PA$ are neglected. We present sets of $B \to PPP$ decays that can be used to extract $\gamma$ using the FA amplitudes. The value(s) of $\gamma$ found in this way can be compared with the value(s) found using the FS states.
The longitudinal asymmetry in relativistic heavy ion collisions arises from the fluctuation in the number of nucleons involved. This asymmetry causes a rapidity shift in the center of mass of the participating zone. Both the rapidity shift and the longitudinal asymmetry have been found to be significant at the top CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) energy for collisions of identical nuclei, and the longitudinal asymmetry is important for reconstructing the colliding vertex and correcting the rapidity shift. However, much discussion of the longitudinal asymmetry has treated the initial condition as a nonzero momentum contributed only by the number of participants, i.e., the asymmetry depends only on the number of participating nucleons. So we naturally raise a physical problem, can other initial conditions, such as two typical initial conditions for nuclei, geometric configuration, and momentum distribution, provide effects on the longitudinal asymmetry? Therefore, in this work we consider other effects on the longitudinal asymmetry other than the fluctuation in the number of participants, e.g., the {\alpha} clustering structure as well as the intrinsic momentum distribution in the target and projectile nuclei for the collisions in the framework of a multiphase transport (AMPT) model. By introducing systems with different {\alpha}-clustering structure and intrinsic momentum distribution, we calculated the ratio of the rapidity distributions of different systems and extracted expansion coefficients to analyze the difference contributed by these factors. ...
A new method based on the maximum entropy principle for reconstructing the parton distribution function (PDF) from moments is proposed. Unlike traditional methods, the new method no longer needs to introduce any artificial assumptions. For the case of moments with errors, we introduce Gaussian functions to soften the constraints of moments. Through a series of tests, the effectiveness and reconstruction efficiency of this new method are evaluated comprehensively. And these tests indicate that this method is reasonable and can achieve high-quality reconstruction with at least the first six moments as input. Finally, we select a set of lattice QCD results regarding moments as input and provide reasonable reconstruction results for the pion.
In November 2022, the HEP Software Foundation and the Institute for Research and Innovation for Software in High-Energy Physics organized a workshop on the topic of Software Citation and Recognition in HEP. The goal of the workshop was to bring together different types of stakeholders whose roles relate to software citation, and the associated credit it provides, in order to engage the community in a discussion on: the ways HEP experiments handle citation of software, recognition for software efforts that enable physics results disseminated to the public, and how the scholarly publishing ecosystem supports these activities. Reports were given from the publication board leadership of the ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb experiments and HEP open source software community organizations (ROOT, Scikit-HEP, MCnet), and perspectives were given from publishers (Elsevier, JOSS) and related tool providers (INSPIRE, Zenodo). This paper summarizes key findings and recommendations from the workshop as presented at the 26th International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP 2023).
A definition of partonic jet flavor that is both theoretically well-defined and experimentally robust would have profound implications for measurements and predictions especially for heavy flavor applications. Recently, a definition of jet flavor was introduced as the net flavor flowing along the direction of the Winner-Take-All axis of a jet which is soft safe to all orders, but not collinear safe. Here, we exploit the lack of collinear safety and propose a factorization theorem of perturbative flavor fragmentation functions that resum collinear divergences and describe the evolution of flavor from the short distance of jet production to the long distance at which hadronization occurs. Collinear flavor evolution is governed by a small modification of the DGLAP equations. We present a detailed all-orders analysis and identify exact relations that must hold amongst the various anomalous dimensions by probability conservation and the existence of fixed points of the renormalization group flow. We explicitly validate the factorization theorem at one-loop order, and demonstrate its consistency at two loops in particular flavor channels. Starting at two-loops, constraints on phase space imposed by flavor measurements potentially allow for non-trivial soft contributions, but we demonstrate that they are scaleless and so explicitly vanish, ensuring that soft particles are summed inclusively and all divergences are exclusively collinear in nature. This factorization theorem opens the door to precision calculations with identified flavor in the infrared.
In recent years, machine learning (ML) techniques have emerged as powerful tools for studying many-body complex systems, and encompassing phase transitions in various domains of physics. This mini review provides a concise yet comprehensive examination of the advancements achieved in applying ML to investigate phase transitions, with a primary focus on those involved in nuclear matter studies.
We introduce a method to reconstruct full rapidity distributions of charged particle multiplicity and net proton yields, crucial for constraining the longitudinal dynamics of nuclear matter created in the beam energy scan program. Employing rapidity distributions within a multistage hydrodynamic model calibrated for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}=7.7-200\,$GeV, we estimate the total energy and baryon number deposited into the collision fireball, offering insights into initial dynamics and the identification of nuclear remnants. We explore the potential of rapidity-dependent measurements in probing equations of state at finite chemical potentials. Furthermore, we compare the freeze-out parameters derived from both hydrodynamics and thermal models, highlighting that the parameters extracted via thermal models represent averaged properties across rapidities.
We present a simplification of the recursive algorithm for the evaluation of intersection numbers for differential $n$-forms, by combining the advantages emerging from the choice of delta-forms as generators of relative twisted cohomology groups and the polynomial division technique, recently proposed in the literature. We show that delta-forms capture the leading behaviour of the intersection numbers in presence of evanescent analytic regulators, whose use is, therefore, bypassed. This simplified algorithm is applied to derive the complete decomposition of two-loop planar and non-planar Feynman integrals in terms of a master integral basis. More generally, it can be applied to derive relations among twisted period integrals, relevant for physics and mathematical studies.
We develop a transfer operator approach for the calculation of Renyi entanglement entropies in arbitrary (i.e. Abelian and non-Abelian) pure lattice gauge theory projected entangled pair states in 2+1 dimensions. It is explicitly shown how the long-range behavior of these quantities gives rise to an entanglement area law in both the thermodynamic limit and in the continuum. We numerically demonstrate the applicability of our method to the Z2 lattice gauge theory and relate some entanglement properties to the confinement-deconfinement transition therein. It is argued on general grounds that Renyi entanglement entropies do not qualify as a complete probe of confinement or deconfinement properties in comparison to other genuine (nonlocal) observables.
The spinor-helicity representations of massive and (partially-)massless particles in four dimensional (Anti-) de Sitter spacetime are studied within the framework of the dual pair correspondence. We show that the dual groups (aka "little groups") of the AdS and dS groups are respectively $O(2N)$ and $O^*(2N)$. For $N=1$, the generator of the dual algebra $\mathfrak{so}(2)\cong \mathfrak{so}^*(2) \cong \mathfrak{u}(1)$ corresponds to the helicity operator, and the spinor-helicity representation describes massless particles in (A)dS$_4$. For $N=2$, the dual algebra is composed of two ideals, $\mathfrak{s}$ and $\mathfrak{m}_\Lambda$. The former ideal $\mathfrak{s}\cong \mathfrak{so}(3)$ fixes the spin of the particle, while the mass is determined by the latter ideal $\mathfrak{m}_\Lambda$, which is isomorphic to $\mathfrak{so}(2,1)$, $\mathfrak{iso}(2)$ or $\mathfrak{so}(3)$ depending on the cosmological constant being positive, zero or negative. In the case of a positive cosmological constant, namely dS$_4$, the spinor-helicity representation contains all massive particles corresponding to the principal series representations and the partially-massless particles corresponding to the discrete series representations leaving out only the light massive particles corresponding to the complementary series representations. The zero and negative cosmological constant cases, which had been addressed in earlier references, are also discussed briefly. Finally, we consider the multilinear form of helicity spinors invariant under (A)dS group, which can be served for the (A)dS counterpart of the scattering amplitude, and discuss technical differences and difficulties of the (A)dS cases compared to the flat spacetime case.
We show that one can use some renormalized coupling constants to compute the free energy and correlation functions at all critical points of the two-dimensional topological gravity in a uniform way. In particular, one can derive the critical exponents of the free energy and correlation functions at all critical points in a uniform way. Some concrete results for the case of $(3,2)$-model (pure gravity) and the $(5,2)$-model (Yang-Lee edge singularity coupled with gravity) are also presented.
We investigate chaotic dynamics in tree-level S-matrices describing the scattering of tachyons and photons on highly excited open and closed bosonic strings, motivated by the string/black hole complementarity. The eigenphase spacing distribution and other indicators of quantum chaotic scattering suggest that the dynamics is only weakly chaotic, consisting of both regular/Poisson and chaotic/Wigner-Dyson processes. Only for special values of momenta and (for photon scattering) scattering angles do we find strong chaos of random matrix type. These special values correspond to a crossover between two regimes of scattering, dominated by short versus long partitions of the total occupation number of the highly excited string; they also maximize the information entropy of the S-matrix. The lack of strong chaos suggests that perturbative dynamics of highly excited strings can never describe the universal properties and maximal chaos of black hole horizons.
Let $H$ be a local net of real Hilbert subspaces of a complex Hilbert space on the family of double cones of the spacetime $\mathbb{R}^{d+1}$, covariant with respect to a positive energy, unitary representation $U$ of the Poincar\'e group, with the Bisognano-Wichmann property for the wedge modular group. We set an upper bound on the local entropy $S_H(\phi|\! | C)$ of a vector in a region $C$ that depends only on $U$ and the PCT anti-unitary canonically associated with $H$. A similar result holds for local, M\"obius covariant nets of standard subspaces on the circle. We compute the entropy increase and illustrate this bound for the nets associated with the $U(1)$-current derivatives.
Time dependent gravitational background is well known as a theoretical laboratory for quantum mechanical particle production. In this submission, we explore such production in a time dependent analog system. This is the follow up of our earlier study on the Sonoluminescence phenomenon which is modelled in terms of analog geometry coupled with the electromagnetic field exhibiting quantum production. In the same analog geometry, we studied neutrino production. Like the photons, we showed that such a system can also produce a repeated flux of neutrinos via the parametric resonance from a quantum vacuum. Our analysis seems to suggest that in the laboratory setup time dependent analog systems could be an interesting playground where phenomena of quantum mechanical particle production can be observed.
We demonstrate the equivalence of two different conjectures in the literature for the holographic entanglement negativity in AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$, modulo certain constants. These proposals involve certain algebraic sums of bulk geodesics homologous to specific combinations of subsystems, and the entanglement wedge cross section (EWCS) backreacted by a cosmic brane for the conical defect geometry in the bulk gravitational path integral. It is observed that the former conjectures reproduce the field theory replica technique results in the large central charge limit whereas the latter involves constants related to the Markov gap. In this context we establish an alternative construction for the EWCS of a single interval in a CFT$_2$ at a finite temperature to resolve an issue for the latter proposal involving the thermal entropy elimination for the holographic entanglement negativity. Our construction for the EWCS correctly reproduces the corresponding field theory results modulo the Markov gap constant in the large central charge limit.
There is a folkloric belief that a depth-$\Theta(m)$ quantum circuit is needed to estimate the trace of the product of $m$ density matrices (i.e., a multivariate trace), a subroutine crucial to applications in condensed matter and quantum information science. We prove that this belief is overly conservative by constructing a constant quantum-depth circuit for the task, inspired by the method of Shor error correction. Furthermore, our circuit demands only local gates in a two dimensional circuit -- we show how to implement it in a highly parallelized way on an architecture similar to that of Google's Sycamore processor. With these features, our algorithm brings the central task of multivariate trace estimation closer to the capabilities of near-term quantum processors. We instantiate the latter application with a theorem on estimating nonlinear functions of quantum states with "well-behaved" polynomial approximations.
Integrability methods give us access to a number of observables in the planar N=4 SYM. Among them, the Quantum Spectral Curve (QSC) governs the spectrum of anomalous dimensions. Low lying states were successfully studied in the past using the QSC. However, with the increased demand for a systematic study of a large number of states for various applications, there is a clear need for a fast QSC solver which can easily access a large number of excited states. Here, we fill this gap by developing a new algorithm and applied it to study all 219 states with the bare dimension $\Delta_0 \leq 6$ in a wide range of couplings. The new algorithm has an improved performance at weak coupling and allows to glue numerics smoothly the available perturbative data, resolving the previous obstruction. Further ~ 8-fold efficiency gain comes from C++ implementation over the best available Mathematica implementation. We have made the code and the data to be available via a GitHub repository. The method is generalisable for non-local observables as well as for other theories such as deformations of N=4 SYM and ABJM. It may find applications in the separation of variables and bootstrability approaches to the correlation functions. Some applications to correlators at strong coupling are also presented.
We compare and contrast the two approaches of holography in asymptotically flat spacetimes, viz. the co-dimension two Celestial approach based on the Mellin transformation and the co-dimension one Carrollian approach based on the modified Mellin and elucidate how some of the problems of the Celestial approach can be rectified by the Carrollian one. Considering flat holography as a limit from AdS/CFT makes a co-dimension one dual more plausible, and our previous construction of Carrollian correlations from AdS Witten diagrams is testimony to this. In this paper, we show how to generalize our earlier analysis for operators with spin. We work out a large number of explicit non-trivial examples (twelve) and show matching between the limit of AdS$_4$ Witten diagrams and 3d boundary symmetry considerations, thus making the case for the Carrollian dual even stronger.
Quantum non-Markovianity in tripartite quantum states $\rho_{ABC}$ represents a correlation between systems $A$ and $C$ when conditioned on the system $B$ and is known to have both classical and quantum contributions. However, a systematic characterization of the latter is missing. To address this, we propose a faithful measure for non-Markovianity of genuine quantum origin called squashed quantum non-Markovianity (sQNM). It is based on the quantum conditional mutual information and is defined by the left-over non-Markovianity after squashing out all non-quantum contributions. It is lower bounded by the squashed entanglement between non-conditioning systems in the reduced state and is delimited by the extendibility of either of the non-conditioning systems. We show that the sQNM is monogamous, asymptotically continuous, convex, additive on tensor-product states, and generally super-additive. We characterize genuine quantum non-Markovianity as a resource via a convex resource theory after identifying free states with vanishing sQNM and free operations that do not increase sQNM in states. We use our resource-theoretic framework to bound the rate of state transformations under free operations and to study state transformation under non-free operations; in particular, we find the quantum communication cost from Bob ($B$) to Alice ($A$) or Charlie ($C$) is lower bounded by the change in sQNM in the states. The sQNM finds operational meaning; in particular, the optimal rate of private communication in a variant of conditional one-time pad protocol is twice the sQNM. Also, the minimum deconstruction cost for a variant of quantum deconstruction protocol is given by twice the sQNM of the state.
N=2 conformal supergravity in five dimensions is constructed via a systematic off-shell reduction scheme from maximal conformal supergravity in six dimensions which is (2,0). The dimensional reduction of the (2,0) Weyl multiplet in six dimensions gives us the Weyl multiplet in five dimensions which is a dilaton Weyl multiplet as it has a dilaton scalar. The dimensional reduction of the (2,0) tensor multiplet in six dimensions gives us the N=2 vector multiplet in five dimensions coupled to conformal supergravity. We also comment on Nahm's classification regarding the non-existence of an N=2 superconformal algebra in five dimensions and why it does not contradict the existence of N=2 conformal supergravity in five dimensions that is constructed in this paper.
We study geometries for the NS5-, the KK5- and the $5^2_2$-branes of codimension two in type II and heterotic string theories. The geometries are classified by monodromies that each brane has. They are the $B$-, the general coordinate and the $\beta$-transformations of the spacetime metric, the $B$-field and the dilaton (and the gauge fields). We show that the monodromy nature appears also in the geometric quantities such as the curvature and the complex structures of spacetime. They are linearly realized in the doubled (generalized) structures in the doubled space.
We model backreaction in AdS$_2$ JT gravity via a proposed boundary dual Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev quantum dot coupled to Dirac fermion matter and study it from the perspective of quantum entanglement and chaos. The boundary effective action accounts for the backreaction through a linear coupling of the Dirac fermions to the Gaussian-random two-body Majorana interaction term in the low-energy limit. We calculate the time evolution of the entanglement entropy between graviton and Dirac fermion fields for a separable initial state and find that it initially increases and then saturates to a finite value. Moreover, in the limit of a large number of fermions, we find a maximally entangled state between the Majorana and Dirac fields in the saturation region, implying a transition of the von Neumann algebra of observables from type I to type II. This transition in turn indicates a loss of information in the holographically dual emergent spacetime. We corroborate these observations with a detailed numerical computation of the averaged nearest-neighbor gap ratio of the boundary spectrum and provide a useful complement to quantum entanglement studies of holography.
Two dimensional gauge theories with charged matter fields are useful toy models for studying gauge theory dynamics, and in particular for studying the duality of large $N$ gauge theories to perturbative string theories. A useful starting point for such studies is the pure Yang-Mills theory, which is exactly solvable. Its $1/N$ expansion was interpreted as a string theory by Gross and Taylor 30 years ago, but they did not provide a worldsheet action for this string theory, and such an action is useful for coupling it to matter fields. The chiral sector of the Yang-Mills theory can be written as a sum over holomorphic maps and has useful worldsheet descriptions, but the full theory includes more general extremal-area maps; a formal worldsheet action including all these maps in a ''topological rigid string theory'' was written by Ho\v{r}ava many years ago, but various subtleties arise when trying to use it for computations. In this paper we suggest a Polyakov-like generalization of Ho\v{r}ava's worldsheet action which is well-defined, and we show how it reproduces the free limit of the Yang-Mills theory, both by formal arguments and by explicitly computing its partition function in several cases. In the future we plan to generalize this string theory to the finite-coupling gauge theory, and to analyze it with boundaries, corresponding either to Wilson loops or to dynamical matter fields in the fundamental representation.
This article focuses on pioneering work on the performance of the three-dimensional (3D) magnetic field map in the entire volume of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. In the CMS heterogeneous magnetic system, the magnetic flux is created by a superconducting solenoid coil enclosed in a steel flux-return yoke. To describe the CMS magnetic flux distribution, a system of the primitive 3D volumes containing the values of the magnetic flux density measured inside the superconducting coil inner volume and modelled outside the coil across a special mesh of reference nodes was developed. This system, called the CMS magnetic field map, follows the geometric features of the yoke and allows the interpolation of the magnetic flux density between the nodes to obtain the magnetic field values at any spatial point inside a cylinder of 18 m in diameter and 48 m in length, where all the CMS sub-detectors are located. The geometry of the volumes is described inside one 30{\deg} azimuthal sector of the CMS magnet. To obtain the values of the magnetic flux density components across the entire azimuth angle of the CMS detector, rotational symmetry is applied.
In this study, a novel approach is demonstrated for converting calorimeter images from fast simulations to those akin to comprehensive full simulations, utilizing conditional Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). The concept of pix2pix is tailored for CALPAGAN, where images from fast simulations serve as the basis(condition) for generating outputs that closely resemble those from detailed simulations. The findings indicate a strong correlation between the generated images and those from full simulations, especially in terms of key observables like jet transverse momentum distribution, jet mass, jet subjettiness, and jet girth. Additionally, the paper explores the efficacy of this method and its intrinsic limitations. This research marks a significant step towards exploring more efficient simulation methodologies in High Energy Particle Physics.
We propose a method to extract high-energy hadronic interaction properties from the distributions of two of the main observables of proton extensive air showers: the depth of maximum shower development, $X_\mathrm{max}$, and the number of muons at the ground, $N_\mu$. We determine relevant parameters of the first and subsequent interactions of the cascade and analyse how they impact on these observables. By training a universal neural network, we demonstrate that we can recover the most relevant parameters (fraction of energy going to the hadronic channel in the first interaction, first interaction multiplicity and effective inelasticity) for different hadronic interaction models using only the observables $X_\mathrm{max}$ and $N_\mu$.
Semi-visible jets, with a significant contribution to the event's missing transverse momentum, can arise in strongly interacting dark sectors. This results in an event topology where one of the jets can be aligned with the direction of the missing transverse momentum. The first search for semi-visible jets produced via a $t$-channel mediator exchange is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collisions with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ and a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the ATLAS detector during the Run 2 of the LHC. No excess over Standard Model predictions is observed. Assuming a coupling strength of unity between the mediator, a Standard Model quark and a dark quark, mediator masses up to 2.7 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level. Upper limits on the coupling strength are also derived.
This paper delves into the history and integration of quantum theory into areas such as opinion dynamics, decision theory, and game theory, offering a novel framework for social simulations. It introduces a quantum perspective for analyzing information transfer and decision-making complexity within social systems, employing a toric code-based method for error discrimination.Central to this research is the use of toric codes, originally for quantum error correction, to detect and correct errors in social simulations, representing uncertainty in opinion formation and decision-making processes. Operator and error syndrome measurement, vital in quantum computation, help identify and analyze errors and uncertainty in social simulations. The paper also discusses fault-tolerant computation employing transversal gates, which protect against errors during quantum computation. In social simulations, transversal gates model protection from external interference and misinformation, enhancing the fidelity of decision-making and strategy formation processes.
The second law lies at the heart of thermodynamics, characterizing the convertibility of thermodynamic states by a single quantity, the entropy. A fundamental question in quantum information theory is whether one can formulate an analogous second law characterizing the convertibility of resources for quantum information processing. In 2008, a promising formulation was proposed, where quantum-resource convertibility is characterized by the optimal performance of a variant of another fundamental task in quantum information processing, quantum hypothesis testing. The core of this formulation was to prove a lemma that identifies a quantity indicating the optimal performance of this task -- the generalized quantum Stein's lemma -- to seek out a counterpart of the thermodynamic entropy in quantum information processing. However, in 2023, a logical gap was found in the existing proof of the generalized quantum Stein's lemma, throwing into question once again whether such a formulation is possible at all. In this work, we construct a proof of the generalized quantum Stein's lemma by developing alternative techniques to circumvent the logical gap of the existing analysis. With our proof, we redeem the formulation of quantum resource theories equipped with the second law as desired. These results affirmatively settle the fundamental question about the possibility of bridging the analogy between thermodynamics and quantum information theory.
We propose a formalism which defines chaos in both quantum and classical systems in an equivalent manner by means of adiabatic transformations. The complexity of adiabatic transformations which preserve classical time-averaged trajectories (quantum eigenstates) in response to Hamiltonian deformations serves as a measure of chaos. This complexity is quantified by the (properly regularized) fidelity susceptibility. Our exposition clearly showcases the common structures underlying quantum and classical chaos and allows us to distinguish integrable, chaotic but non-thermalizing, and ergodic regimes. We apply the fidelity susceptibility to a model of two coupled spins and demonstrate that it successfully predicts the universal onset of chaos, both for finite spin $S$ and in the classical limit $S\to\infty$. Interestingly, we find that finite $S$ effects are anomalously large close to integrability.
In systems with a real Bloch Hamiltonian band nodes can be characterised by a non-Abelian frame-rotation charge. The ability of these band nodes to annihilate pairwise is path dependent, since by braiding nodes in adjacent gaps the sign of their charges can be changed. Here, we theoretically construct and numerically confirm two concrete methods to experimentally probe these non-Abelian braiding processes and charges in ultracold atomic systems. We consider a coherent superposition of two bands that can be created by moving atoms through the band singularities at some angle in momentum space. Analyzing the dependency on the frame charges, we demonstrate an interferometry scheme passing through two band nodes, which reveals the relative frame charges and allows for measuring the multi-gap topological invariant. The second method relies on a single wavepacket probing two nodes sequentially, where the frame charges can be determined from the band populations. Our results present a feasible avenue for measuring non-Abelian charges of band nodes and the experimental verification of braiding procedures directly, which can be applied in a variety of settings including the recently discovered anomalous non-Abelian phases arising under periodic driving.
We study the effect of ferromagnetic metals (FM) on the circularly polarized modes of an electromagnetic cavity and show that broken time-reversal symmetry leads to a dichroic response of the cavity modes. With one spin-split band, the Zeeman coupling between the FM electrons and cavity modes leads to an anticrossing for mode frequencies comparable to the spin splitting. However, this is only the case for one of the circularly polarized modes, while the other is unaffected by the FM, allowing for the determination of the spin-splitting of the FM using polarization-dependent transmission experiments. Moreover, we show that for two spin-split bands, also the lifetimes of the cavity modes display a polarization-dependent response. The reduced lifetime of modes of only one polarization could potentially be used to engineer and control circularly polarized cavities.
Lattice gauge theories (LGT) play a central role in modern physics, providing insights into high-energy physics, condensed matter physics, and quantum computation. Due to the nontrivial structure of the Hilbert space of LGT systems, entanglement in such systems is tricky to define. However, when one limits themselves to superselection-resolved entanglement, that is, entanglement corresponding to specific gauge symmetry sectors (commonly denoted as superselection sectors), this problem disappears, and the entanglement becomes well-defined. The study of superselection-resolved entanglement is interesting in LGT for an additional reason: when the gauge symmetry is strictly obeyed, superselection-resolved entanglement becomes the only distillable contribution to the entanglement. In our work, we study the behavior of superselection-resolved entanglement in LGT systems. We employ a tensor network construction for gauge-invariant systems as defined by Zohar and Burrello (2016) and find that, in a vast range of cases, the leading term in superselection-resolved entanglement depends on the number of corners in the partition, that is, corner-law entanglement. To our knowledge, this is the first case of such a corner-law being observed in any lattice system.
In this study, we investigate Trotter evolution in the Gross-Neveu and hyperbolic Ising models in two spacetime dimensions, using quantum computers. We identify different sources of errors prevalent in various quantum processing units and discuss challenges to scale up the size of the computation. We present benchmark results obtained on a variety of platforms and employ a range of error mitigation techniques to address coherent and incoherent noise. By comparing these mitigated outcomes with exact diagonalization results and density matrix renormalization group calculations, we assess the effectiveness of our approaches. Moreover, we demonstrate the implementation of an out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) protocol using IBM's quantum computers.
Graph states possess significant practical value in measurement-based quantum computation, with complete graph states that exhibit exceptional performance in quantum metrology. In this work, we introduce a method for generating multiparticle complete graph states using a spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg $XX$ chain subjected to a time-varying magnetic field, which applies to a wide range of systems. Our scheme relies exclusively on nearest-neighbor interactions between atoms, with real-time magnetic field formation facilitated by quantum optimal control theory. We focus specifically on neutral-atom systems, finding that multiparticle complete graph states with $N=3\sim6$ can be achieved in less than $0.25~\mu{\rm s}$, utilizing a hopping amplitude of ${J}/{(2\pi)} = -2.443~{\rm MHz}$. This assumes an initial state provided by an equal-weight superposition of all spin states that are encoded by the dipolar interacting Rydberg states. Additionally, we thoroughly address various experimental imperfections and showcase the robustness of our approach against atomic vibrations, fluctuations in pulse amplitude, and spontaneous emission of Rydberg states. Considering the common occurrence of disturbances in experimental setups of neutral-atom systems, our one-step strategy for achieving such graph states emerges as a more empirically viable alternative to techniques based on controlled-Z gates.
Coherent superposition of electronic states, created by ionizing a molecule, can initiate ultrafast dynamics of the electron density. Correlation between nuclear and electron motions, however, typically dissipates the electronic coherence in only a few femtoseconds, especially in larger and more flexible molecules. We, therefore, use ab initio semiclassical dynamics to study decoherence in a sequence of organic molecules of increasing size and find, surprisingly, that extending the carbon skeleton in propynal analogs slows down decoherence and extends the duration of charge migration. To elucidate this observation, we decompose the overall decoherence into contributions from individual vibrational modes and show that: (1) The initial decay of electronic coherence is caused by high- and intermediate-frequency vibrations via momentum separation of nuclear wavepackets evolving on different electronic surfaces. (2) At later times, the coherence disappears completely due to the increasing position separation in the low-frequency modes. (3) In agreement with another study, we observe that only normal modes preserving the molecule's symmetry induce decoherence. All together, we justify the enhanced charge migration by a combination of increased hole-mixing and the disappearance of decoherence contributions from specific vibrational modes CO stretching in butynal and various H rockings in pentynal.
The Knill-Laflamme (KL) conditions distinguish perfect quantum error correction codes, and it has played a critical role in the discovery of state-of-the-art codes. However, the family of perfect codes is a very restrictive one and does not necessarily contain the best-performing codes. Therefore, it is desirable to develop a generalized and quantitative performance metric. In this Letter, we derive the near-optimal channel fidelity, a concise and optimization-free metric for arbitrary codes and noise. The metric provides a narrow two-sided bound to the optimal code performance, and it can be evaluated with exactly the same input required by the KL conditions. We demonstrate the numerical advantage of the near-optimal channel fidelity through multiple qubit code and oscillator code examples. Compared to conventional optimization-based approaches, the reduced computational cost enables us to simulate systems with previously inaccessible sizes, such as oscillators encoding hundreds of average excitations. Moreover, we analytically derive the near-optimal performance for the thermodynamic code and the Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) code. In particular, the GKP code's performance under excitation loss improves monotonically with its energy and converges to an asymptotic limit at infinite energy, which is distinct from other oscillator codes.
In a recent work [Ge {\it et al.}, arXiv: 2312. 17496 (2023)], we have derived the polygon relation of bipartite entanglement measures that is useful to reveal the entanglement properties of discrete, continuous, and even hybrid multipartite quantum systems. In this work, with the information-theoretical measures of R\'enyi and Tsallis entropies, we study the relationship between the polygon relation and the subadditivity of entropy. In particular, the entropy-polygon relations are derived for pure multi-qubit states and generalized to multi-mode Gaussian states, by utilizing the known results from the quantum marginal problem. Moreover, the equivalence between the polygon relation and subadditivity is established, in the sense that for all discrete or continuous multipartite states, the polygon relation holds if and only if the underlying entropy is subadditive. As byproduct, the subadditivity of R\'enyi and Tsallis entropies is proven for all bipartite Gaussian states. Finally, the difference between polygon relations and monogamy relations is clarified, and generalizations of our results are discussed. Our work provides a better understanding of the rich structure of multipartite states, and hence is expected to be helpful for the study of multipartite entanglement.
A new cryogenic packaging methodology that is widely applicable to packaging any integrated photonics circuit for operation at both room temperature and cryogenic temperature is reported. The method requires only equipment and techniques available in any integrated optics lab and works on standard integrated photonic chips. Our methodology is then used to enable the measurement of a single photon pair sourced based on a silicon ring resonator at cryogenic temperatures. When operating at 5.9 K, this source is measured to have a peak pair generation rate 183 times greater then at room temperature in the CL-band.
We investigate the single photon scattering and bound states in a coupled resonator waveguide (CRW) which couples to a topological giant atom (TGA) via two distant sites. Here, the TGA is constructed by a one dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chain with finite length. By modulating the topological phase of the TGA, the incident photon in the CRW can be completely reflected or transmitted, and is therefore beneficial to design the coherent photonic device. Meanwhile, we also achieve two pairs of bound states locating respectively above and blow the continuum. Whether the gap is open or closed depends on the boundary condition of the TGA. Therefore, the combination of the topology and the interference provides us an exciting opportunity to manipulate the photonic state in the context of waveguide QED.
The spectral form factor (SFF) plays a crucial role in revealing the statistical properties of energy level distributions in complex systems. It is one of the tools to diagnose quantum chaos and unravel the universal dynamics therein. The definition of SFF in most literature only encapsulates the two-level correlation. In this manuscript, we extend the definition of SSF to include the high-order correlation. Specifically, we introduce the standard deviation of energy levels to define correlation functions, from which the generalized spectral form factor (GSFF) can be obtained by Fourier transforms. GSFF provides a more comprehensive knowledge of the dynamics of chaotic systems. Using random matrices as examples, we demonstrate new dynamics features that are encoded in GSFF. Remarkably, the GSFF is complex, and both the real and imaginary parts exhibit universal dynamics. For instance, in the two-level correlated case, the real part of GSFF shows a dip-ramp-plateau structure akin to the conventional counterpart, and the imaginary part for different system sizes converges in the long time limit. For the two-level GSFF, the closed analytical forms of the real part are obtained and consistent with numerical results. The results of the imaginary part are obtained by numerical calculation. Similar analyses are extended to three-level GSFF.
High power measurement-induced cavity response is investigated in the |g>, |e>, and |f> states of a transmon. All the states exhibit photon blockades above a certain critical value, a phenomenon that has previously been understood based on the bistability of semiclassical Duffing oscillators. The measurement-induced state transition (MIST) to high-level transmon states is expected to be one contributor to the bistability; however, the critical values measured in the |e> and |f> states are not coincident with the MIST. To understand this discrepancy, we utilize the recently developed semiclassical dynamics model of a cavity photon state. The appearance of dim and bright cavity states obtained from the model's steady-state solution leads to the photon blockades at lower critical photon numbers, and this can explain the response of the bistable region in the |e> and |f> states.
Developing superior quantum sensing strategies ranging from ultra-high precision measurement to complex structural analysis is at the heart of quantum technologies. While strategies using quantum resources, such as entanglement among sensors, to enhance the sensing precision have been abundantly demonstrated, the signal correlation among quantum sensors is rarely exploited. Here we develop a novel sensing paradigm exploiting the signal correlation among multiple quantum sensors to resolve overlapping signals from multiple targets that individual sensors can't resolve and complex structural construction struggles with. With three nitrogen-vacancy centers as a quantum electrometer system, we demonstrate this multi-sensor paradigm by resolving individual defects' fluctuating electric fields from ensemble signals. We image the three-dimensional distribution of 16 dark electronic point-defects in diamond with accuracy approaching 1.7 nm via a GPS-like localization method. Furthermore, we obtain the real-time charge dynamics of individual point defects and visualize how the dynamics induce the well-known optical spectral diffusion. The multi-sensor paradigm extends the quantum sensing toolbox and offers new possibilities for structural analysis.
The relativistic Doppler effect comes from the fact that observers in different inertial reference frames experience space and time differently, while the speed of light remains always the same. Consequently, a wave packet of light exhibits different frequencies, wavelengths, and amplitudes. In this paper, we present a local approach to the relativistic Doppler effect based on relativity, spatial and time translational symmetries, and energy conservation. Afterward, we investigate the implications of the relativistic Doppler effect for the quantum state transformations of wave packets of light and show that a local photon is a local photon at the same point in the spacetime diagram in all inertial frames.
It is generally considered that the signal output by a quantum circuit is attenuated exponentially fast in the number of gates. This letter explores how algorithms using mid-circuit measurements and classical conditioning as computational tools (and not as error mitigation or correction subroutines) can be naturally resilient to complete decoherence, and maintain quantum states with useful properties even for infinitely deep noisy circuits. Specifically, we introduce a quantum channel built out of mid-circuit measurements and feed-forward, that can be used to compute dynamical correlations at infinite temperature and canonical ensemble expectation values for any Hamiltonian. The unusual property of this algorithm is that in the presence of a depolarizing channel it still displays a meaningful, non-zero signal in the large depth limit. We showcase the noise resilience of this quantum channel on Quantinuum's H1-1 ion-trap quantum computer.
Due to its significant application in reducing algorithm depth, fSim gates have attracted a lot of attention, while one-step implementation of fSim gates remains an unresolved issue. In this manuscript, we propose a one-step implementation of holonomic fSim gates in a tunable superconducting circuit based on the three lowest energy levels. Numerical simulations demonstrate the feasibility of our scheme. This scheme may provide a promising path toward quantum computation and simulation.
Nonreciprocal devices, allowing to manipulate one-way signals, are crucial to quantum information processing and quantum network. Here we propose a nonlinear cavity-magnon system, consisting of a microwave cavity coupled to one or two yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG) spheres supporting magnons with Kerr nonlinearity, to investigate nonreciprocal photon blockade. The nonreciprocity originates from the direction-dependent Kerr effect, distinctly different from previous proposals with spinning cavities and dissipative couplings. For a single sphere case, nonreciprocal photon blockade can be realized by manipulating the nonreciprocal destructive interference between two active paths, via vary the Kerr coefficient from positive to negative, or vice versa. By optimizing the system parameters, the perfect and well tuned nonreciprocal photon blockade can be predicted. For the case of two spheres with opposite Kerr effects, only reciprocal photon blockade can be observed when two cavity-magnon coupling strengths Kerr strengths are symmetric. However, when coupling strengths or Kerr strengths become asymmetric, nonreciprocal photon blockade appears. This implies that two-sphere nonlinear cavity-magnon systems can be used to switch the transition between reciprocal and nonreciprocal photon blockades. Our study offers a potential platform for investigating nonreciprocal photon blockade effect in nonlinear cavity magnonics.
Bennett et al. proposed a family of protocols for entanglement distillation, namely, hashing, recurrence and breeding protocols. The last one was considered inefficient and has been investigated little, because it was considered inferior to the hashing protocol. In this paper, we propose a general framework of converting a stabilizer quantum error-correcting code to a breeding protocol. Then, we show an example of a stabilizer that gives a breeding protocol better than hashing protocols.
We show how to achieve nonreciprocal quantum entanglement in a cavity magnomechanical system by exploiting the chiral cavity-magnon coupling. The system consists of a magnon mode, a mechanical vibration mode, and two degenerate counter-propagating microwave cavity modes in a torus-shaped cavity. We show that nonreciprocal stationary microwave-magnon and -phonon bipartite entanglements and photon-magnon-phonon tripartite entanglement can be achieved by respectively driving different circulating cavity modes that hold a chiral coupling to the magnon mode. The nonreciprocal entanglements are shown to be robust against various experimental imperfections. The work may find promising applications of the cavity magnomechanical systems in nonreciprocal electromechanical quantum teleportation and chiral magnonic quantum networks.
This article delves into an analysis of the intrinsic entanglement and separability feature in quantum states as depicted by graph Laplacian. We show that the presence or absence of edges in the graph plays a pivotal role in defining the entanglement or separability of these states. We propose a set of criteria for ascertaining the separability of quantum states comprising $n$-qubit within a composite Hilbert space, indicated as $H=H_1 \otimes H_2 \otimes \dots \otimes H_n$. This determination is achieved through a combination of unitary operators, neighbourhood sets, and equivalence relations.
Satellite-based quantum communications including quantum key distribution (QKD) represent one of the most promising approaches toward global-scale quantum communications. To determine the viability of transmitting quantum signals through the atmosphere, it is essential to conduct atmospheric simulations for both uplink and downlink quantum communications. In the case of the uplink scenario, the initial phase of the beam's propagation involves interaction with the atmosphere, making simulation particularly critical. To analyze the atmosphere over the Indian subcontinent, we begin by validating our approach by utilizing atmospheric data obtained from the experiments carried out in the Canary Islands within the framework of Quantum Communication (QC). We also verify our simulation methodology by reproducing simulation outcomes from diverse Canadian locations, taking into account both uplink and downlink scenarios in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). In this manuscript, we explore the practicality of utilizing three different ground station locations in India for uplink-based QC, while also considering beacon signals for both uplink and downlink scenarios. The atmospheric conditions of various geographical regions in India are simulated, and a dedicated link budget analysis is performed for each location, specifically focusing on three renowned observatories: IAO Hanle, Aries Nainital, and Mount Abu. The analysis involves computing the overall losses of the signal and beacon beams. The findings indicate that the IAO Hanle site is a more suitable choice for uplink-based QC when compared to the other two sites.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) could help to share secure key between two distant peers. In recent years, twin-field (TF) QKD has been widely investigated because of its long transmission distance. One of the popular variants of TF QKD is sending-or-not-sending (SNS) QKD, which has been experimentally verified to realize 1000-km level fibre key distribution. In this article, the authors introduce phase postselection into the SNS protocol. With this modification, the probability of selecting "sending" can be substantially improved. The numerical simulation shows that the transmission distance can be improved both with and without the actively odd-parity pairing method. With discrete phase randomization, the variant can have both a larger key rate and a longer distance.
We present an analysis of interspecies interactions between Rydberg $d$-states of rubidium and cesium. We identify the F\"orster resonance channels offering the strongest interspecies couplings, demonstrating the viability for performing high-fidelity two- and multi-qubit $C_kZ$ gates up to $k=4$, including accounting for blockade errors evaluated via numerical diagonalization of the pair-potentials. Our results show $d$-state orbitals offer enhanced suppression of intraspecies couplings compared to $s$-states, making them well suited for use in large-scale neutral atom quantum processors.
Spontaneous parametric down-conversion is a common source of quantum photonic states that is a key enabling quantum technology. We show that the source characteristics can be optimized by adjusting the beam waists of the pump mode and the signal and idler collection modes. It is possible to obtain simultaneously near unity heralding efficiency and single-photon purity using a bulk crystal with both metrics approaching $\approx0.98$ under appropriate conditions. Importantly, our approach can be applied over a wide range of pump, signal, and idler wavelengths without requiring special crystal dispersion characteristics. As an example, we obtain a heralding efficiency of 0.98, a single-photon purity of 0.98, and a pair production rate of 10.9 pairs/(s$\textrm{ }$mW) using a 450-$\mu$m-long $\beta$-barium borate crystal pumped by a 405-nm-wavelength laser and nearly degenerate signal and idler wavelengths around 810 nm. Here, the pump mode has a waist of 310 $\mu$m and the signal and idler collection modes have a waist of 145.4 $\mu$m, which can be produced straightforwardly using standard laboratory components. Our work paves the way for realizing a simple approach to producing quantum photonic states with high purity and heralding efficiency.
The interference of single photons going through a double slit is a compelling demonstration of the wave and particle nature of light in the same experiment. Single photons produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion can be used for this purpose. However, it is particularly challenging to implement due to coherency and resolution challenges. In this article, we present a tabletop laboratory arrangement suitable for the undergraduate instruction laboratory that overcomes these challenges. The apparatus scans a single detector to produce a plot showing the interference patterns of single photons. We include experimental data obtained using this setup demonstrating double-slit and single-slit interference as well as quantum erasing through the use of sheet polarizers.
The Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) algorithm, as applied to finding the ground state of a Hamiltonian, is particularly well-suited for deployment on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. Here we utilize the VQE algorithm with a quantum circuit ansatz inspired by the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) algorithm. To ameliorate the impact of realistic noise on the performance of the method we employ zero-noise extrapolation. We find that, with realistic error rates, our DMRG-VQE hybrid algorithm delivers good results for strongly correlated systems. We illustrate our approach with the Heisenberg model on a Kagome lattice patch and demonstrate that DMRG-VQE hybrid methods can locate, and faithfully represent the physics of, the ground state of such systems. Moreover, the parameterized ansatz circuit used in this work is low-depth and requires a reasonably small number of parameters, so is efficient for NISQ devices.
Despite the fundamental role the Quantum Satisfiability (QSAT) problem has played in quantum complexity theory, a central question remains open: At which local dimension does the complexity of QSAT transition from "easy" to "hard"? Here, we study QSAT with each constraint acting on a $k$-dimensional and $l$-dimensional qudit pair, denoted $(k,l)$-QSAT. Our first main result shows that, surprisingly, QSAT on qubits can remain $\mathsf{QMA}_1$-hard, in that $(2,5)$-QSAT is $\mathsf{QMA}_1$-complete. In contrast, $2$-SAT on qubits is well-known to be poly-time solvable [Bravyi, 2006]. Our second main result proves that $(3,d)$-QSAT on the 1D line with $d\in O(1)$ is also $\mathsf{QMA}_1$-hard. Finally, we initiate the study of 1D $(2,d)$-QSAT by giving a frustration-free 1D Hamiltonian with a unique, entangled ground state. Our first result uses a direct embedding, combining a novel clock construction with the 2D circuit-to-Hamiltonian construction of [Gosset, Nagaj, 2013]. Of note is a new simplified and analytic proof for the latter (as opposed to a partially numeric proof in [GN13]). This exploits Unitary Labelled Graphs [Bausch, Cubitt, Ozols, 2017] together with a new "Nullspace Connection Lemma", allowing us to break low energy analyses into small patches of projectors, and to improve the soundness analysis of [GN13] from $\Omega(1/T^6)$ to $\Omega(1/T^2)$, for $T$ the number of gates. Our second result goes via black-box reduction: Given an arbitrary 1D Hamiltonian $H$ on $d'$-dimensional qudits, we show how to embed it into an effective null-space of a 1D $(3,d)$-QSAT instance, for $d\in O(1)$. Our approach may be viewed as a weaker notion of "simulation" (\`a la [Bravyi, Hastings 2017], [Cubitt, Montanaro, Piddock 2018]). As far as we are aware, this gives the first "black-box simulation"-based $\mathsf{QMA}_1$-hardness result, i.e. for frustration-free Hamiltonians.
A generalization of the quantum Rabi model is obtained by replacing the linear (dipole) coupling between the two-level system and the radiation mode by a non-linear expression in the creation and annihilation operators, corresponding to multi-photon excitations. If each spin flip involves $k$ photons, it is called the "$k$-photon" quantum Rabi model. While the formally symmetric Hamilton operator is self-adjoint in the case $k=2$, it is demonstrated here that the Hamiltonian is not self-adjoint for $k\ge 3$. Therefore it does not generate a unitary time evolution and is unphysical. This result cannot be obtained by numerical calculations in finite-dimensional spaces which attempt to approximate an unbounded operator by a finite-rank operator.
Special approximation technique for analysis of different characteristics of states of multipartite infinite-dimensional quantum systems is proposed and applied to the study of the relative entropy of $\pi$-entanglement and its regularisation. In particular, by using this technique we obtain simple sufficient conditions for local continuity (convergence) of the regularized relative entropy of $\pi$-entanglement. We establish a finite-dimensional approximation property for the relative entropy of entanglement and its regularization that allows us to generalize to the infinite-dimensional case the results proved in the finite-dimensional settings. We also show that for any multipartite state with finite energy the infimum in the definition of the relative entropy of $\pi$-entanglement can be taken over the set of finitely-decomposable $\pi$-separable states with finite energy.
Most physical systems, whether classical or quantum mechanical, exhibit spherical symmetry. Angular momentum, denoted as $\ell$, is a conserved quantity that appears in the centrifugal potential when a particle moves under the influence of a central force. This study introduces a formalism in which $\ell$ plays a unifying role, consolidating solvable central potentials into a superpotential. This framework illustrates that the Coulomb potential emerges as a direct consequence of a homogenous ($r$-independent) isotropic superpotential. Conversely, a $\ell$-independent central superpotential results in the 3-Dimensional Harmonic Oscillator (3-DHO) potential. Moreover, a local $\ell$-dependent central superpotential generates potentials applicable to finite-range interactions such as molecular or nucleonic systems. Additionally, we discuss generalizations to arbitrary $D$ dimensions and investigate the properties of the superpotential to determine when supersymmetry is broken or unbroken. This scheme also explains that the free particle wave function in three dimensions is obtained from spontaneous breakdown of supersymmetry and clarifies how a positive 3-DHO potential, as an upside-down potential, can have a negative energy spectrum. We also present complex isospectral deformations of the central superpotential and superpartners, which can have interesting applications for open systems in dynamic equilibrium. Finally, as a practical application, we apply this formalism to specify a new effective potential for the deuteron.
The required precision to perform quantum simulations beyond the capabilities of classical computers imposes major experimental and theoretical challenges. The key to solving these issues are highly precise ways of characterizing analog quantum sim ulators. Here, we robustly estimate the free Hamiltonian parameters of bosonic excitations in a superconducting-qubit analog quantum simulator from measured time-series of single-mode canonical coordinates. We achieve the required levels of precision in estimating the Hamiltonian parameters by maximally exploiting the model structure, making it robust against noise and state-preparation and measurement (SPAM) errors. Importantly, we are also able to obtain tomographic information about those SPAM errors from the same data, crucial for the experimental applicability of Hamiltonian learning in dynamical quantum-quench experiments. Our learning algorithm is highly scalable both in terms of the required amounts of data and post-processing. To achieve this, we develop a new super-resolution technique coined tensorESPRIT for frequency extraction from matrix time-series. The algorithm then combines tensorESPRIT with constrained manifold optimization for the eigenspace reconstruction with pre- and post-processing stages. For up to 14 coupled superconducting qubits on two Sycamore processors, we identify the Hamiltonian parameters - verifying the implementation on one of them up to sub-MHz precision - and construct a spatial implementation error map for a grid of 27 qubits. Our results constitute a fully characterized, highly accurate implementation of an analog dynamical quantum simulation and introduce a diagnostic toolkit for understanding, calibrating, and improving analog quantum processors.
The Quantum Singular Value Transformation (QSVT) is a recent technique that gives a unified framework to describe most quantum algorithms discovered so far, and may lead to the development of novel quantum algorithms. In this paper we investigate the hardness of classically simulating the QSVT. A recent result by Chia, Gily\'en, Li, Lin, Tang and Wang (STOC 2020) showed that the QSVT can be efficiently "dequantized" for low-rank matrices, and discussed its implication to quantum machine learning. In this work, motivated by establishing the superiority of quantum algorithms for quantum chemistry and making progress on the quantum PCP conjecture, we focus on the other main class of matrices considered in applications of the QSVT, sparse matrices. We first show how to efficiently "dequantize", with arbitrarily small constant precision, the QSVT associated with a low-degree polynomial. We apply this technique to design classical algorithms that estimate, with constant precision, the singular values of a sparse matrix. We show in particular that a central computational problem considered by quantum algorithms for quantum chemistry (estimating the ground state energy of a local Hamiltonian when given, as an additional input, a state sufficiently close to the ground state) can be solved efficiently with constant precision on a classical computer. As a complementary result, we prove that with inverse-polynomial precision, the same problem becomes BQP-complete. This gives theoretical evidence for the superiority of quantum algorithms for chemistry, and strongly suggests that said superiority stems from the improved precision achievable in the quantum setting. We also discuss how this dequantization technique may help make progress on the central quantum PCP conjecture.
In this article, we analyse the Bistritzer--MacDonald (BM) model (also known as the continuum model) of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) with an additional external magnetic field. We provide an explicit semiclassical asymptotic expansion of the density of states (DOS) in the limit of strong magnetic fields. The explicit expansion of the DOS enables us to study magnetic response properties such as magnetic oscillations which includes Shubnikov-de Haas and de Haas-van Alphen oscillations as well as the integer quantum Hall effect. In particular, we elucidate the role played by different types of interlayer tunnelings ($AA^{\prime}$/$BB^{\prime}$ vs. $AB^{\prime}$/$BA^{\prime}$) in the study of the DOS, and magnetic properties.
Ground states of local Hamiltonians are of key interest in many-body physics and also in quantum information processing. Efficient verification of these states are crucial to many applications, but very challenging. Here we propose a simple, but powerful recipe for verifying the ground states of general frustration-free Hamiltonians based on local measurements. Moreover, we derive rigorous bounds on the sample complexity by virtue of the quantum detectability lemma (with improvement) and quantum union bound. Notably, the number of samples required does not increase with the system size when the underlying Hamiltonian is local and gapped, which is the case of most interest. As an application, we propose a general approach for verifying Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) states on arbitrary graphs based on local spin measurements, which requires only a constant number of samples for AKLT states defined on various lattices. Our work is of interest not only to many tasks in quantum information processing, but also to the study of many-body physics.
The Li-Haldane correspondence [PRL 101, 010504 (2008)] is often used to help identify wave functions of (2+1)-D chiral topological phases (i.e., with non-zero chiral central charge) by studying low-lying entanglement spectra (ES) on long cylinders of finite circumference. Here we consider such ES of states [in fact, certain Projected Entangled Pair States (PEPS)] that are not chiral (i.e., having zero chiral central charge), but which strongly break time-reversal as well as reflection symmetry, while preserving their product, the same symmetry as a chiral state. This leads to ES with branches of both right- and left-moving chiralities, but with vastly different velocities. For circumferences much smaller than the inverse entanglement gap scale, the low-lying ES appear chiral in some topological sectors, and precisely follow the Li-Haldane state counting of a truly chiral phase. This could lead one to misidentify the phase as chiral. However, considering the ES in all sectors, one can observe distinct differences from a chiral phase. We explore this in an $SU(3)$ spin liquid PEPS studied by Kure\v{c}i\'c, et al. [PRB 99, 045116 (2019)], where the topologically trivial sector has the state counting of a chiral $SU(3)$-level-one [$SU(3)_1$] Conformal Field Theory (CFT). In fact, the PEPS has $D(\mathbb{Z}_3)$ topological order, with 9 sectors. We compute the ES in minimally entangled states corresponding to these sectors, which map to the 9 anyon types of doubled $SU(3)_1$ Chern-Simons Topological Field Theory. The state countings of the ES coincide with our expectation: the ES contain irreps of global $SU(3)$ symmetry from the tensor products of the (lowest-lying) irrep of primary states of a "high-velocity" chiral $SU(3)_1$ CFT with the full content of a "low-velocity" chiral $SU(3)_1$ CFT sector, a non-chiral structure beyond that observable in the topologically trivial sector of the ES.
In this work, we derive Robertson-Heisenberg like uncertainty relation for two incompatible observables in a pre- and post-selected (PPS) system. The newly defined standard deviation and the uncertainty relation in the PPS system have physical meanings which we present here. We demonstrate two unusual properties in the PPS system using our uncertainty relation. First, for commuting observables, the lower bound of the uncertainty relation in the PPS system does not become zero even if the initially prepared state i.e., pre-selection is the eigenstate of both the observables when specific post-selections are considered. This implies that for such case, two commuting observables can disturb each other's measurement results which is in fully contrast with the Robertson-Heisenberg uncertainty relation. Secondly, unlike the standard quantum system, the PPS system makes it feasible to prepare sharply a quantum state (pre-selection) for non-commuting observables {(to be detailed in the main text)}. Some applications of uncertainty and uncertainty relation in the PPS system are provided: $(i)$ detection of mixedness of an unknown state, $(ii)$ stronger uncertainty relation in the standard quantum system, ($iii$) ``purely quantum uncertainty relation" that is, the uncertainty relation which is not affected (i.e., neither increasing nor decreasing) under the classical mixing of quantum states, $(iv)$ state dependent tighter uncertainty relation in the standard quantum system, and $(v)$ tighter upper bound for the out-of-time-order correlation function.
We present a quantum compilation algorithm that maps Clifford encoders, encoding maps for stabilizer quantum codes, to a unique graphical representation in the ZX calculus. Specifically, we develop a canonical form in the ZX calculus and prove canonicity as well as efficient reducibility of any Clifford encoder into the canonical form. The diagrams produced by our compiler visualize information propagation and entanglement structure of the encoder, revealing properties that may be obscured in the circuit or stabilizer-tableau representation. Consequently, our canonical representation may be an informative technique for the design of new stabilizer quantum codes via graph theory analysis.
Variational quantum algorithms, which consist of optimal parameterized quantum circuits, are promising for demonstrating quantum advantages in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era. Apart from classical computational resources, different kinds of quantum resources have their contributions to the process of computing, such as information scrambling and entanglement. Characterizing the relation between the complexity of specific problems and quantum resources consumed by solving these problems is helpful for us to understand the structure of VQAs in the context of quantum information processing. In this work, we focus on the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA), which aims to solve combinatorial optimization problems. We study information scrambling and entanglement in QAOA circuits, respectively, and discover that for a harder problem, more quantum resource is required for the QAOA circuit to obtain the solution in most cases. We note that in the future, our results can be used to benchmark the complexity of quantum many-body problems by information scrambling or entanglement accumulation in the computing process.
In this paper we aim to push the analogy between thermodynamics and quantum resource theories one step further. Previous inspirations were based predominantly on thermodynamic considerations concerning scenarios with a single heat bath, neglecting an important part of thermodynamics that studies heat engines operating between two baths at different temperatures. Here, we investigate the performance of resource engines, which replace the access to two heat baths at different temperatures with two arbitrary constraints on state transformations. The idea is to imitate the action of a two--stroke heat engine, where the system is sent to two agents (Alice and Bob) in turns, and they can transform it using their constrained sets of free operations. We raise and address several questions, including whether or not a resource engine can generate a full set of quantum operations or all possible state transformations, and how many strokes are needed for that. We also explain how the resource engine picture provides a natural way to fuse two or more resource theories, and we discuss in detail the fusion of two resource theories of thermodynamics with two different temperatures, and two resource theories of coherence with respect to two different bases.
Quantum mechanics does not provide any ready recipe for defining energy density in space, since the energy and coordinate do not commute. To find a well-motivated energy density, we start from a possibly fundamental, relativistic description for a spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ particle: Dirac's equation. Employing its energy-momentum tensor and going to the non-relativistic limit we find a locally conserved non-relativistic energy density that is defined via the Terletsky-Margenau-Hill quasiprobability (which is hence selected among other options). It coincides with the weak value of energy, and also with the hydrodynamic energy in the Madelung representation of quantum dynamics, which includes the quantum potential. Moreover, we find a new form of spin-related energy that is finite in the non-relativistic limit, emerges from the rest energy, and is (separately) locally conserved, though it does not contribute to the global energy budget. This form of energy has a holographic character, i.e., its value for a given volume is expressed via the surface of this volume. Our results apply to situations where local energy representation is essential; e.g. we show that the energy transfer velocity for a large class of free wave-packets (including Gaussian and Airy wave-packets) is larger than its group (i.e. coordinate-transfer) velocity.
In image processing, image segmentation is the process of partitioning a digital image into multiple image segment. Among state-of-the-art methods, Markov Random Fields (MRF) can be used to model dependencies between pixels, and achieve a segmentation by minimizing an associated cost function. Currently, finding the optimal set of segments for a given image modeled as a MRF appears to be NP-hard. In this paper, we aim to take advantage of the exponential scalability of quantum computing to speed up the segmentation of Synthetic Aperture Radar images. For that purpose, we propose an hybrid quantum annealing classical optimization Expectation Maximization algorithm to obtain optimal sets of segments. After proposing suitable formulations, we discuss the performances and the scalability of our approach on the D-Wave quantum computer. We also propose a short study of optimal computation parameters to enlighten the limits and potential of the adiabatic quantum computation to solve large instances of combinatorial optimization problems.
Measurements are able to fundamentally affect quantum dynamics. We here show that a continuously measured quantum many-body system can undergo a spontaneous transition from asynchronous stochastic dynamics to noise-free stable synchronization at the level of single trajectories. We formulate general criteria for this quantum phenomenon to occur, and demonstrate that the number of synchronized realizations can be controlled from none to all. We additionally find that ergodicity is typically broken, since time and ensemble averages may exhibit radically different synchronization behavior. We further introduce a quantum type of multiplexing that involves individual trajectories with distinct synchronization frequencies. Measurement-induced synchronization appears as a genuine nonclassical form of synchrony that exploits quantum superpositions.
Spin defects in van der Waals materials offer a promising platform for advancing quantum technologies. Here, we propose and demonstrate a powerful technique based on isotope engineering of host materials to significantly enhance the coherence properties of embedded spin defects. Focusing on the recently-discovered negatively charged boron vacancy center ($\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{B}}^-$) in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), we grow isotopically purified $\mathrm{h}{}^{10}\mathrm{B}{}^{15}\mathrm{N}$ crystals. Compared to $\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{B}}^-$ in hBN with the natural distribution of isotopes, we observe substantially narrower and less crowded $\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{B}}^-$ spin transitions as well as extended coherence time $T_2$ and relaxation time $T_1$. For quantum sensing, $\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{B}}^-$ centers in our $\mathrm{h}{}^{10}\mathrm{B}{}^{15}\mathrm{N}$ samples exhibit a factor of $4$ ($2$) enhancement in DC (AC) magnetic field sensitivity. For additional quantum resources, the individual addressability of the $\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{B}}^-$ hyperfine levels enables the dynamical polarization and coherent control of the three nearest-neighbor ${}^{15}\mathrm{N}$ nuclear spins. Our results demonstrate the power of isotope engineering for enhancing the properties of quantum spin defects in hBN, and can be readily extended to improving spin qubits in a broad family of van der Waals materials.
Hamiltonian approach in quantum theory provides a new thinking for option pricing with stochastic interest rates. For barrier options, the option price changing process is similar to the infinite high barrier scattering problem in quantum mechanics; for double barrier options, the option price changing process is analogous to a particle moving in a infinite square potential well. Using Hamiltonian approach, the expressions of pricing kernels and option prices under Vasicek stochastic interest rate model could be derived. Numerical results of options price as functions of underlying prices are also shown.
We study a one-dimensional spin-$1/2$ model with three-spin interactions and a transverse magnetic field $h$. The model has a $Z_2 \times Z_2$ symmetry, and a duality between $h$ and $1/h$. The self-dual point at $h=1$ is a quantum critical point with a continuous phase transition. We compute the critical exponents $z$, $\beta$, $\gamma$ and $\nu$, and the central charge $c$ numerically using exact diagonalization (ED) for systems with periodic boundary conditions. We find that both $z$ and $c$ are equal to $1$, implying that the critical point is governed by a conformal field theory. The values obtained for $\beta/\nu$, $\gamma/\nu$, and $\nu$ from ED suggest that the model exhibits Ashkin-Teller criticality with an effective coupling that is intermediate between the four-state Potts model and two decoupled transverse field Ising models. An analysis on larger systems but with open boundaries using density-matrix renormalization group calculations, however, shows that the self-dual point may be in the same universality class as the four-state Potts model. An energy level spacing analysis shows that the model is not integrable. For a system with periodic boundary conditions, there are an exponentially large number of exact mid-spectrum zero-energy eigenstates. A subset of these eigenstates have wave functions which are independent of $h$ and have unusual entanglement structure, suggesting that they are quantum many-body scars. The number of such states scales at least linearly with system size. Finally, we study the infinite-temperature autocorrelation functions close to one end of an open system. We find that some of the autocorrelators relax anomalously in time, with pronounced oscillations and very small decay rates if $h \gg 1$ or $h \ll 1$. If $h$ is close to the critical point, the autocorrelators decay quickly to zero except for an autocorrelator at the end site.
We study experimentally and numerically the noisy evolution of multipartite entangled states, focusing on superconducting-qubit devices accessible via the cloud. We find that a valid modeling of the dynamics requires one to properly account for coherent frequency shifts, caused by stochastic charge-parity fluctuations. We introduce an approach modeling the charge-parity splitting using an extended Markovian environment. This approach is numerically scalable to tens of qubits, allowing us to simulate efficiently the dissipative dynamics of some large multiqubit states. Probing the continuous-time dynamics of increasingly larger and more complex initial states with up to 12 coupled qubits in a ring-graph state, we obtain a good agreement of the experiments and simulations. We show that the underlying many-body dynamics generate decays and revivals of stabilizers, which are used extensively in the context of quantum error correction. Furthermore, we demonstrate the mitigation of two-qubit coherent interactions (crosstalk) using tailored dynamical decoupling sequences. Our noise model and the numerical approach can be valuable to advance the understanding of error correction and mitigation and invite further investigations of their dynamics.
Ordering identities in the Weyl-Heisenberg algebra generated by single-mode boson operators are investigated. A boson string composed of creation and annihilation operators can be expanded as a linear combination of other such strings, the simplest example being a normal ordering. The case when each string contains only one annihilation operator is already combinatorially nontrivial. Two kinds of expansion are derived: (i) that of a power of a string $\Omega$ in lower powers of another string $\Omega'$, and (ii) that of a power of $\Omega$ in twisted versions of the same power of $\Omega'$. The expansion coefficients are shown to be, respectively, generalized Stirling numbers of Hsu and Shiue, and certain generalized Eulerian numbers. Many examples are given. These combinatorial numbers are binomial transforms of each other, and their theory is developed, emphasizing schemes for computing them: summation formulas, Graham-Knuth-Patashnik (GKP) triangular recurrences, terminating hypergeometric series, and closed-form expressions. The results on the first type of expansion subsume a number of previous results on the normal ordering of boson strings.
The random sampling task performed by Google's Sycamore processor gave us a glimpse of the "Quantum Supremacy era". This has definitely shed some spotlight on the power of random quantum circuits in this abstract task of sampling outputs from the (pseudo-) random circuits. In this manuscript, we explore a practical near-term use of local random quantum circuits in dimensional reduction of large low-rank data sets. We make use of the well-studied dimensionality reduction technique called the random projection method. This method has been extensively used in various applications such as image processing, logistic regression, entropy computation of low-rank matrices, etc. We prove that the matrix representations of local random quantum circuits with sufficiently shorter depths ($\sim O(n)$) serve as good candidates for random projection. We demonstrate numerically that their projection abilities are not far off from the computationally expensive classical principal components analysis on MNIST and CIFAR-100 image data sets. We also benchmark the performance of quantum random projection against the commonly used classical random projection in the tasks of dimensionality reduction of image datasets and computing Von Neumann entropies of large low-rank density matrices. And finally using variational quantum singular value decomposition, we demonstrate a near-term implementation of extracting the singular vectors with dominant singular values after quantum random projecting a large low-rank matrix to lower dimensions. All such numerical experiments unequivocally demonstrate the ability of local random circuits to randomize a large Hilbert space at sufficiently shorter depths with robust retention of properties of large datasets in reduced dimensions.
We present a quantum computing algorithm based on Carleman-linearization of the Lattice Boltzmann (LB) method. First, we demonstrate the convergence of the classical Carleman procedure at moderate Reynolds numbers, namely for Kolmogorov-like flows. Then, we proceed to formulate the corresponding quantum algorithm, including the quantum circuit layout, and analyse its computational viability. The main conclusion is twofold, on the one side, at least for mild Reynolds numbers between 10 and 100, the Carleman-LB procedure can be successfully truncated at second order, which is an encouraging result. On the other hand, the associated quantum circuit, in its actual form, is far too deep to be computationally viable on any foreseeable quantum hardware. Possible improvements and potential ways out are briefly discussed and commented on.
Quantum Computing allows, in principle, the encoding of the exponentially scaling many-electron wave function onto a linearly scaling qubit register, offering a promising solution to overcome the limitations of traditional quantum chemistry methods. An essential requirement for ground state quantum algorithms to be practical is the initialisation of the qubits to a high-quality approximation of the sought-after ground state. Quantum State Preparation (QSP) allows the preparation of approximate eigenstates obtained from classical calculations, but it is frequently treated as an oracle in quantum information. In this study, we conduct QSP on the ground state of prototypical strongly correlated systems, up to 28 qubits, using the Hyperion GPU-accelerated state-vector emulator. Various variational and non-variational methods are compared in terms of their circuit depth and classical complexity. Our results indicate that the recently developed Overlap-ADAPT-VQE algorithm offers the most advantageous performance for near-term applications.
We present optimized distillation schemes for preparing Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states. Our approach relies on training variational quantum circuits with white noise affected GHZ states as inputs. Optimizing for a single iteration of the scheme, we find that it is possible to achieve an increased fidelity to the GHZ state, although further iterations decrease the fidelity. The same scheme, acting on coherently distorted pure-state inputs, is effective only in certain special cases. We show that radically different results can be achieved, however, when one optimizes for the output after two iterations of the protocol. In this case, the obtained schemes are more effective in distilling GHZ states from inputs affected by white noise. Moreover, they can also correct several types of coherent pure-state errors.
As quantum computing develops, the problem of implementing entangling and disentangling quantum gates in a controllable manner reemerges in multiple contexts. One of the newest applications of such disentangling channels are quantum convolutional neural networks, where the core idea lies in the systematic decrease of qudit numbers without loss of information encoded in entangled states. In this work, we focus on quantum analogues of convolution and pooling - basic building block for convolutional networks - and construct and characterize parametrizable ``quantum convolution'' channels as coherifications of permutation tensors. Operations constructed in this manner generically provide high (dis)entangling power. In particular, we identify conditions necessary for the convolution channels constructed using our method to possess maximal entangling power. Based on this, we establish new, continuous classes of bipartite 2-unitary matrices of dimension $d^2$ for $d = 7$ and $d = 9$, with $2$ and $4$ free nonlocal parameters, corresponding to perfect tensors of rank $4$ or $4$-partite absolutely maximally entangled states. The newly established families may serve as the prototype for trainable convolution/pooling layers in quantum convolutional neural networks.
Metastability in open system dynamics describes the phenomena of initial relaxation to longlived metastable states before decaying to the asymptotic stable states. It has been predicted in continuous-time stochastic dynamics of both classical and quantum systems. Here we present a general theory of metastability in discrete-time open quantum dynamics, described by sequential quantum channels. We focus on a general class of quantum channels on a target system, induced by an ancilla system with a pure-dephasing coupling to the target system and under Ramsey sequences. Interesting metastable behaviors are predicted and numerically demonstrated by decomposing the average dynamics into stochastic trajectories. Examples and applications are also discussed.
In this paper, we investigate $k$-nonseparable $(2\leq k\leq n)$ entanglement measures based on geometric mean of all entanglement values of $k$-partitions in $n$-partite quantum systems. We define a class of entanglement measures called $k$-GM concurrence which explicitly detect all $k$-nonseparable states in multipartite systems. It is rigorously shown that the $k$-GM concurrence complies with all the conditions of an entanglement measure. Compared to $k$-ME concurrence [\href{https://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.86.062323} {Phys. Rev. A \textbf{86}, 062323 (2012)}], the measures proposed by us emerge several different aspects, embodying that (i) $k$-GM concurrence can reflect the differences in entanglement but $k$-ME concurrence fails at times, (ii) $k$-GM concurrence does not arise sharp peaks when the pure state being measured varies continuously, while $k$-ME concurrence appears discontinuity points, (iii) the entanglement order is sometimes distinct. In addition, we establish the relation between $k$-ME concurrence and $k$-GM concurrence, and further derive a strong lower bound on the $k$-GM concurrence by exploiting the permutationally invariant part of a quantum state. Furthermore, we parameterize $k$-GM concurrence to obtain two categories of more generalized entanglement measures, $q$-$k$-GM concurrence $(q>1, 2\leq k\leq n)$ and $\alpha$-$k$-GM concurrence $(0\leq\alpha<1, 2\leq k\leq n)$, which fulfill the properties possessed by $k$-GM concurrence as well. Moreover, $\alpha$-$2$-GM concurrence $(0<\alpha<1)$, as a type of genuine multipartite entanglement measures, is proven in detail satisfying the requirement that the GHZ state is more entangled than the $W$ state in multiqubit systems.
It was proposed that the tensor product structure of the Hilbert space is uniquely determined by the Hamiltonian's spectrum, for most finite-dimensional cases satisfying certain conditions. I show that any such method would lead to infinitely many tensor product structures. The dimension of the space of solutions grows exponentially with the number of qudits. In addition, even if the result were unique, such a Hamiltonian would not entangle subsystems. These results affect some proposals to recover the 3d space from the Hamiltonian.
The Polynomial-Time Hierarchy ($\mathsf{PH}$) is a staple of classical complexity theory, with applications spanning randomized computation to circuit lower bounds to ''quantum advantage'' analyses for near-term quantum computers. Quantumly, however, despite the fact that at least \emph{four} definitions of quantum $\mathsf{PH}$ exist, it has been challenging to prove analogues for these of even basic facts from $\mathsf{PH}$. This work studies three quantum-verifier based generalizations of $\mathsf{PH}$, two of which are from [Gharibian, Santha, Sikora, Sundaram, Yirka, 2022] and use classical strings ($\mathsf{QCPH}$) and quantum mixed states ($\mathsf{QPH}$) as proofs, and one of which is new to this work, utilizing quantum pure states ($\mathsf{pureQPH}$) as proofs. We first resolve several open problems from [GSSSY22], including a collapse theorem and a Karp-Lipton theorem for $\mathsf{QCPH}$. Then, for our new class $\mathsf{pureQPH}$, we show one-sided error reduction for $\mathsf{pureQPH}$, as well as the first bounds relating these quantum variants of $\mathsf{PH}$, namely $\mathsf{QCPH}\subseteq \mathsf{pureQPH} \subseteq \mathsf{EXP}^{\mathsf{PP}}$.