Showing papers by "International School for Advanced Studies published in 2017"

Advanced capabilities for materials modelling with Quantum ESPRESSO.

Abstract: Quantum ESPRESSO is an integrated suite of open-source computer codes for quantum simulations of materials using state-of-the-art electronic-structure techniques, based on density-functional theory, density-functional perturbation theory, and many-body perturbation theory, within the plane-wave pseudopotential and projector-augmented-wave approaches Quantum ESPRESSO owes its popularity to the wide variety of properties and processes it allows to simulate, to its performance on an increasingly broad array of hardware architectures, and to a community of researchers that rely on its capabilities as a core open-source development platform to implement their ideas In this paper we describe recent extensions and improvements, covering new methodologies and property calculators, improved parallelization, code modularization, and extended interoperability both within the distribution and with external software

Advanced capabilities for materials modelling with Quantum ESPRESSO

Abstract: Quantum ESPRESSO is an integrated suite of open-source computer codes for quantum simulations of materials using state-of-the art electronic-structure techniques, based on density-functional theory, density-functional perturbation theory, and many-body perturbation theory, within the plane-wave pseudo-potential and projector-augmented-wave approaches. Quantum ESPRESSO owes its popularity to the wide variety of properties and processes it allows to simulate, to its performance on an increasingly broad array of hardware architectures, and to a community of researchers that rely on its capabilities as a core open-source development platform to implement theirs ideas. In this paper we describe recent extensions and improvements, covering new methodologies and property calculators, improved parallelization, code modularization, and extended interoperability both within the distribution and with external software.

Diverse Applications of Nanomedicine

Abstract: The design and use of materials in the nanoscale size range for addressing medical and health-related issues continues to receive increasing interest. Research in nanomedicine spans a multitude of areas, including drug delivery, vaccine development, antibacterial, diagnosis and imaging tools, wearable devices, implants, high-throughput screening platforms, etc. using biological, nonbiological, biomimetic, or hybrid materials. Many of these developments are starting to be translated into viable clinical products. Here, we provide an overview of recent developments in nanomedicine and highlight the current challenges and upcoming opportunities for the field and translation to the clinic.

A New Generation of PARSEC-COLIBRI Stellar Isochrones Including the TP-AGB Phase

Abstract: We acknowledge the support from the ERC Consolidator Grant funding scheme (project STARKEY, G.A. n. 615604). L.G. and T.S.R. acknowledge partial support from PRIN INAF 2014—CRA 1.05.01.94.05.

New constraints on the free-streaming of warm dark matter from intermediate and small scale Lyman-α forest data

Abstract: We present new measurements of the free-streaming of warm dark matter (WDM) from Lyman-α flux-power spectra. We use data from the medium resolution, intermediate redshift XQ-100 sample observed with the X-shooter spectrograph (z = 3 – 4.2) and the high-resolution, high-redshift sample used in Viel et al. (2013) obtained with the HIRES/MIKE spectrographs (z = 4.2 - 5.4). Based on further improved modelling of the dependence of the Lyman-α flux-power spectrum on the free-streaming of dark matter, cosmological parameters, as well as the thermal history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) with hydrodynamical simulations, we obtain the following limits, expressed as the equivalent mass of thermal relic WDM particles. The XQ-100 flux power spectrum alone gives a lower limit of 1.4 keV, the re-analysis of the HIRES/MIKE sample gives 4.1 keV while the combined analysis gives our best and significantly strengthened lower limit of 5.3 keV (all 2σ C.L.). The further improvement in the joint analysis is partly due to the fact that the two data sets have different degeneracies between astrophysical and cosmological parameters that are broken when the data sets are combined, and more importantly on chosen priors on the thermal evolution. These results all assume that the temperature evolution of the IGM can be modelled as a power law in redshift. Allowing for a non-smooth evolution of the temperature of the IGM with sudden temperature changes of up to 5000K reduces the lower limit for the combined analysis to 3.5 keV. A WDM with smaller thermal relic masses would require, however, a sudden temperature jump of 5000K or more in the narrow redshift interval z = 4.6 - 4.8, in disagreement with observations of the thermal history based on high-resolution resolution Lyman-α forest data and expectations for photo-heating and cooling in the low density IGM at these redshifts.

Pavlovian conditioning-induced hallucinations result from overweighting of perceptual priors

Abstract: Some people hear voices that others do not, but only some of those people seek treatment. Using a Pavlovian learning task, we induced conditioned hallucinations in four groups of people who differed orthogonally in their voice-hearing and treatment-seeking statuses. People who hear voices were significantly more susceptible to the effect. Using functional neuroimaging and computational modeling of perception, we identified processes that differentiated voice-hearers from non–voice-hearers and treatment-seekers from non–treatment-seekers and characterized a brain circuit that mediated the conditioned hallucinations. These data demonstrate the profound and sometimes pathological impact of top-down cognitive processes on perception and may represent an objective means to discern people with a need for treatment from those without.

First Constraints on Fuzzy Dark Matter from Lyman-α Forest Data and Hydrodynamical Simulations

Abstract: We present constraints on the masses of extremely light bosons dubbed fuzzy dark matter from Lyman- α forest data. Extremely light bosons with a De Broglie wavelength of ~ 1 kpc have been suggested as dark matter candidates that may resolve some of the current small scale problems of the cold dark matter model. For the first time we use hydrodynamical simulations to model the Lyman- α flux power spectrum in these models and compare with the observed flux power spectrum from two different data sets: the XQ-100 and HIRES/MIKE quasar spectra samples. After marginalization over nuisance and physical parameters and with conservative assumptions for the thermal history of the IGM that allow for jumps in the temperature of up to 5000 K, XQ-100 provides a lower limit of 7.1 x 10 -22 eV, HIRES/MIKE returns a stronger limit of 14.3 x 10 -22 eV, while the combination of both data sets results in a limit of 20 x 10 -22 eV (2σ C.L.). The limits for the analysis of the combined data sets increases to 37.5 x 10 -22 eV (2σ C.L.) when a smoother thermal history is assumed where the temperature of the IGM evolves as a power-law in redshift. Light boson masses in the range 1 - 10 x 10 -22 eV are ruled out at high significance by our analysis, casting strong doubts on suggestions of significant strophysical implications of FDM, in particular for solving the "small scale crisis" of cold dark matter models

Localization techniques in quantum field theories

Abstract: This is the foreword to the special issue on localization techniques in quantum field theory. The summary of individual chapters is given and their interrelation is discussed.

Real-time confinement following a quantum quench to a non-integrable model

Abstract: Confinement plays an important role in many-body physics from high energy to condensed matter. New results show that it strongly affects the non-equilibrium dynamics after a quantum quench with possible implications from ultracold atoms to QCD. Quarks cannot be observed as free particles in nature because they are confined into baryons and mesons, as a result of the fact that the strong interaction between them increases with their separation. However, it is less known that this phenomenon also occurs in condensed matter and statistical physics as experimentally proved in several quasi-1D compounds1,2. Most of the theoretical and experimental studies so far concentrated on understanding the consequences of confinement for the equilibrium physics of both high-energy and condensed matter systems. Here, instead we show that confinement has dramatic consequences for the non-equilibrium dynamics following a quantum quench and that these effects could be exploited as a quantitative probe of confinement.

In situ observation of reactive oxygen species forming on oxygen-evolving iridium surfaces

Abstract: Water splitting performed in acidic media relies on the exceptional performance of iridium-based materials to catalyze the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In the present work, we use in situ X-ray photoemission and absorption spectroscopy to resolve the long-standing debate about surface species present in iridium-based catalysts during the OER. We find that the surface of an initially metallic iridium model electrode converts into a mixed-valent, conductive iridium oxide matrix during the OER, which contains OII− and electrophilic OI− species. We observe a positive correlation between the OI− concentration and the evolved oxygen, suggesting that these electrophilic oxygen sites may be involved in catalyzing the OER. We can understand this observation by analogy with photosystem II; their electrophilicity renders the OI− species active in O–O bond formation, i.e. the likely potential- and rate-determining step of the OER. The ability of amorphous iridium oxyhydroxides to easily host such reactive, electrophilic species can explain their superior performance when compared to plain iridium metal or crystalline rutile-type IrO2.

Local integrals of motion in many‐body localized systems

Abstract: We review the current (as of Fall 2016) status of the studies on the emergent integrability in many-body localized models. We start by explaining how the phenomenology of fully many-body localized systems can be recovered if one assumes the existence of a complete set of (quasi)local operators which commute with the Hamiltonian (local integrals of motions, or LIOMs). We describe the evolution of this idea from the initial conjecture, to the perturbative constructions, to the mathematical proof given for a disordered spin chain. We discuss the proposed numerical algorithms for the construction of LIOMs and the status of the debate on the existence and nature of such operators in systems with a many-body mobility edge, and in dimensions larger than one.

Nonsmooth Differential Geometry: An Approach Tailored for Spaces With Ricci Curvature Bounded from Below

Abstract: We discuss in which sense general metric measure spaces possess a first order differential structure. Building on this, we then see that on spaces with Ricci curvature bounded from below a second order calculus can be developed, permitting to define Hessian, covariant/exterior derivatives and Ricci curvature.

Conformal field theory for inhomogeneous one-dimensional quantum systems: the example of non-interacting Fermi gases

Abstract: Conformal field theory (CFT) has been extremely successful in describing large-scale universal effects in one-dimensional (1D) systems at quantum critical points. Unfortunately, its applicability in condensed matter physics has been limited to situations in which the bulk is uniform because CFT describes low-energy excitations around some energy scale, taken to be constant throughout the system. However, in many experimental contexts, such as quantum gases in trapping potentials and in several out-of-equilibrium situations, systems are strongly inhomogeneous. We show here that the powerful CFT methods can be extended to deal with such 1D situations, providing a few concrete examples for non-interacting Fermi gases. The system's inhomogeneity enters the field theory action through parameters that vary with position; in particular, the metric itself varies, resulting in a CFT in curved space. This approach allows us to derive exact formulas for entanglement entropies which were not known by other means.

Planck intermediate results: LI. features in the cosmic microwave background temperature power spectrum and shifts in cosmological parameters

Abstract: The six parameters of the standard ΛCDM model have best-fit values derived from the Planck temperature power spectrum that are shifted somewhat from the best-fit values derived from WMAP data. These shifts are driven by features in the Planck temperature power spectrum at angular scales that had never before been measured to cosmic-variance level precision. We have investigated these shifts to determine whether they are within the range of expectation and to understand their origin in the data. Taking our parameter set to be the optical depth of the reionized intergalactic medium τ, the baryon density ωb, the matter density ωm, the angular size of the sound horizon θ∗, the spectral index of the primordial power spectrum, ns, and Ase− 2τ (where As is the amplitude of the primordial power spectrum), we have examined the change in best-fit values between a WMAP-like large angular-scale data set (with multipole moment l 800, or splitting at a different multipole, yields similar results. We examined the l 800 power spectrum data and find that the features there that drive these shifts are a set of oscillations across a broad range of angular scales. Although they partly appear similar to the effects of enhanced gravitational lensing, the shifts in ΛCDM parameters that arise in response to these features correspond to model spectrum changes that are predominantly due to non-lensing effects; the only exception is τ, which, at fixed Ase− 2τ, affects the l> 800 temperature power spectrum solely through the associated change in As and the impact of that on the lensing potential power spectrum. We also ask, “what is it about the power spectrum at l < 800 that leads to somewhat different best-fit parameters than come from the full l range?” We find that if we discard the data at l < 30, where there is a roughly 2σ downward fluctuation in power relative to the model that best fits the full l range, the l < 800 best-fit parameters shift significantly towards the l < 2500 best-fit parameters. In contrast, including l < 30, this previously noted “low-l deficit” drives ns up and impacts parameters correlated with ns, such as ωm and H0. As expected, the l < 30 data have a much greater impact on the l < 800 best fit than on the l < 2500 best fit. So although the shifts are not very significant, we find that they can be understood through the combined effects of an oscillatory-like set of high-l residuals and the deficit in low-l power, excursions consistent with sample variance that happen to map onto changes in cosmological parameters. Finally, we examine agreement between PlanckTT data and two other CMB data sets, namely the Planck lensing reconstruction and the TT power spectrum measured by the South Pole Telescope, again finding a lack of convincing evidence of any significant deviations in parameters, suggesting that current CMB data sets give an internally consistent picture of the ΛCDM model.Key words: cosmology: observations / cosmic background radiation / cosmological parameters / cosmology: theory

Comments on global symmetries, anomalies, and duality in (2 + 1)d

Abstract: We analyze in detail the global symmetries of various (2 + 1)d quantum field theories and couple them to classical background gauge fields. A proper identification of the global symmetries allows us to consider all non-trivial bundles of those background fields, thus finding more subtle observables. The global symmetries exhibit interesting ’t Hooft anomalies. These allow us to constrain the IR behavior of the theories and provide powerful constraints on conjectured dualities.

FANTOM5 CAGE profiles of human and mouse samples

Abstract: In the FANTOM5 project, transcription initiation events across the human and mouse genomes were mapped at a single base-pair resolution and their frequencies were monitored by CAGE (Cap Analysis of Gene Expression) coupled with single-molecule sequencing. Approximately three thousands of samples, consisting of a variety of primary cells, tissues, cell lines, and time series samples during cell activation and development, were subjected to a uniform pipeline of CAGE data production. The analysis pipeline started by measuring RNA extracts to assess their quality, and continued to CAGE library production by using a robotic or a manual workflow, single molecule sequencing, and computational processing to generate frequencies of transcription initiation. Resulting data represents the consequence of transcriptional regulation in each analyzed state of mammalian cells. Non-overlapping peaks over the CAGE profiles, approximately 200,000 and 150,000 peaks for the human and mouse genomes, were identified and annotated to provide precise location of known promoters as well as novel ones, and to quantify their activities.

A new generation of PARSEC-COLIBRI stellar isochrones including the TP-AGB phase

Abstract: We introduce a new generation of PARSEC-COLIBRI stellar isochrones that include a detailed treatment of the thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase, and covering a wide range of initial metallicities (0.0001

Gaia Data Release 1. Open cluster astrometry: performance, limitations, and future prospects

Abstract: Context. The first Gaia Data Release contains the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS). This is a subset of about 2 million stars for which, besides the position and photometry, the proper motion and parallax are calculated using Hipparcos and Tycho-2 positions in 1991.25 as prior information. Aims. We investigate the scientific potential and limitations of the TGAS component by means of the astrometric data for open clusters. Methods. Mean cluster parallax and proper motion values are derived taking into account the error correlations within the astrometric solutions for individual stars, an estimate of the internal velocity dispersion in the cluster, and, where relevant, the effects of the depth of the cluster along the line of sight. Internal consistency of the TGAS data is assessed. Results. Values given for standard uncertainties are still inaccurate and may lead to unrealistic unit-weight standard deviations of least squares solutions for cluster parameters. Reconstructed mean cluster parallax and proper motion values are generally in very good agreement with earlier Hipparcos-based determination, although the Gaia mean parallax for the Pleiades is a significant exception. We have no current explanation for that discrepancy. Most clusters are observed to extend to nearly 15 pc from the cluster centre, and it will be up to future Gaia releases to establish whether those potential cluster-member stars are still dynamically bound to the clusters. Conclusions. The Gaia DR1 provides the means to examine open clusters far beyond their more easily visible cores, and can provide membership assessments based on proper motions and parallaxes. A combined HR diagram shows the same features as observed before using the Hipparcos data, with clearly increased luminosities for older A and F dwarfs.

“Non-cold” dark matter at small scales: a general approach

Abstract: Structure formation at small cosmological scales provides an important frontier for dark matter (DM) research. Scenarios with small DM particle masses, large momenta or hidden interactions tend to suppress the gravitational clustering at small scales. The details of this suppression depend on the DM particle nature, allowing for a direct link between DM models and astrophysical observations. However, most of the astrophysical constraints obtained so far refer to a very specific shape of the power suppression, corresponding to thermal warm dark matter (WDM), i.e., candidates with a Fermi-Dirac or Bose-Einstein momentum distribution. In this work we introduce a new analytical fitting formula for the power spectrum, which is simple yet flexible enough to reproduce the clustering signal of large classes of non-thermal DM models, which are not at all adequately described by the oversimplified notion of WDM. We show that the formula is able to fully cover the parameter space of sterile neutrinos (whether resonantly produced or from particle decay), mixed cold and warm models, fuzzy dark matter, as well as other models suggested by effective theory of structure formation (ETHOS). Based on this fitting formula, we perform a large suite of N-body simulations and we extract important nonlinear statistics, such as the matter power spectrum and the halo mass function. Finally, we present first preliminary astrophysical constraints, based on linear theory, from both the number of Milky Way satellites and the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest. This paper is a first step towards a general and comprehensive modeling of small-scale departures from the standard cold DM model.

Transport in out-of-equilibrium XXZ chains: Nonballistic behavior and correlation functions

Abstract: We consider the nonequilibrium protocol where two semi-infinite gapped XXZ chains, initially prepared in different equilibrium states, are suddenly joined together At large times, a generalized hydrodynamic description applies, according to which the system can locally be represented by space- and time-dependent stationary states The magnetization displays an unusual behavior: depending on the initial state, its profile may exhibit abrupt jumps that can not be predicted directly from the standard hydrodynamic equations and which signal nonballistic spin transport We ascribe this phenomenon to the structure of the local conservation laws and make a prediction for the exact location of the jumps We find that the jumps propagate at the velocities of the heaviest quasiparticles By means of time-dependent density matrix renormalization group simulations we show that our theory yields a complete description of the long-time steady profiles of conserved charges, currents, and local correlations

The impact of clustering and angular resolution on far-infrared and millimeter continuum observations

Abstract: Follow-up observations at high-angular resolution of bright submillimeter galaxies selected from deep extragalactic surveys have shown that the single-dish sources are comprised of a blend of several galaxies. Consequently, number counts derived from low- and high-angular-resolution observations are in tension. This demonstrates the importance of resolution effects at these wavelengths and the need for realistic simulations to explore them. We built a new 2 deg^2 simulation of the extragalactic sky from the far-infrared to the submillimeter. It is based on an updated version of the 2SFM (two star-formation modes) galaxy evolution model. Using global galaxy properties generated by this model, we used an abundance-matching technique to populate a dark-matter lightcone and thus simulate the clustering. We produced maps from this simulation and extracted the sources, and we show that the limited angular resolution of single-dish instruments has a strong impact on (sub)millimeter continuum observations. Taking into account these resolution effects, we are reproducing a large set of observables, as number counts and their evolution with redshift and cosmic infrared background power spectra. Our simulation consistently describes the number counts from single-dish telescopes and interferometers. In particular, at 350 and 500 μm, we find that the number counts measured by Herschel between 5 and 50 mJy are biased towards high values by a factor ~2, and that the redshift distributions are biased towards low redshifts. We also show that the clustering has an important impact on the Herschel pixel histogram used to derive number counts from P(D) analysis. We find that the brightest galaxy in the beam of a 500 μm Herschel source contributes on average to only ~60% of the Herschel flux density, but that this number will rise to ~95% for future millimeter surveys on 30 m-class telescopes (e.g., NIKA2 at IRAM). Finally, we show that the large number density of red Herschel sources found in observations but not in models might be an observational artifact caused by the combination of noise, resolution effects, and the steepness of color- and flux density distributions. Our simulation, called Simulated Infrared Dusty Extragalactic Sky (SIDES), is publicly available.

Chern-Simons-matter dualities with SO and USp gauge groups

Abstract: In the last few years several dualities were found between the low-energy behaviors of Chern-Simons-matter theories with unitary gauge groups coupled to scalars, and similar theories coupled to fermions. In this paper we generalize those dualities to orthogonal and symplectic gauge groups. In particular, we conjecture dualities between SO(N) k Chern-Simons theories coupled to N f real scalars in the fundamental representation, and SO(k)–N + N f / 2 theories coupled to N f real (Majorana) fermions in the fundamental. For N f = 0 these are just level-rank dualities of pure Chern-Simons theories, whose precise form we clarify. They lead us to propose new gapped boundary states of topological insulators and superconductors. For k = 1 we get an interesting low-energy duality between N f free Majorana fermions and an SO(N)1 Chern-Simons theory coupled to N f scalar fields (with N f ≤ N − 2).

Feasibility and coexistence of large ecological communities.

Abstract: A central question in theoretical ecology is how diverse species can coexist in communities, and how that coexistence depends on network properties. Here, Grilli et al. quantify the extent of feasible coexistence of empirical networks, showing that it is smaller for trophic than mutualism networks.

Estimating the intrinsic dimension of datasets by a minimal neighborhood information.

Abstract: Analyzing large volumes of high-dimensional data is an issue of fundamental importance in data science, molecular simulations and beyond. Several approaches work on the assumption that the important content of a dataset belongs to a manifold whose Intrinsic Dimension (ID) is much lower than the crude large number of coordinates. Such manifold is generally twisted and curved; in addition points on it will be non-uniformly distributed: two factors that make the identification of the ID and its exploitation really hard. Here we propose a new ID estimator using only the distance of the first and the second nearest neighbor of each point in the sample. This extreme minimality enables us to reduce the effects of curvature, of density variation, and the resulting computational cost. The ID estimator is theoretically exact in uniformly distributed datasets, and provides consistent measures in general. When used in combination with block analysis, it allows discriminating the relevant dimensions as a function of the block size. This allows estimating the ID even when the data lie on a manifold perturbed by a high-dimensional noise, a situation often encountered in real world data sets. We demonstrate the usefulness of the approach on molecular simulations and image analysis.

Lagrangians for generalized Argyres-Douglas theories

Abstract: We continue the study of Lagrangian descriptions of $$ \mathcal{N}=2 $$ Argyres-Douglas theories. We use our recent interpretation in terms of sequential confinement to guess the Lagrangians of all the Argyres-Douglas models with Abelian three dimensional mirror. We find classes of four dimensional $$ \mathcal{N}=1 $$ quivers that flow in the infrared to generalized Argyres-Douglas theories, such as the (A k , A kN +N −1) models. We study in detail how the $$ \mathcal{N}=1 $$ chiral rings map to the Coulomb and Higgs Branches of the $$ \mathcal{N}=2 $$ CFT’s. The three dimensional mirror RG flows are shown to land on the $$ \mathcal{N}=4 $$ complete graph quivers. We also compactify to three dimensions the gauge theory dual to (A 1, D 4), and find the expected Abelianization duality with $$ \mathcal{N}=4 $$ SQED with 3 flavors.

Universality of the Peregrine Soliton in the Focusing Dynamics of the Cubic Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation.

Abstract: We report experimental confirmation of the universal emergence of the Peregrine soliton predicted to occur during pulse propagation in the semiclassical limit of the focusing nonlinear Schrodinger equation. Using an optical fiber based system, measurements of temporal focusing of high power pulses reveal both intensity and phase signatures of the Peregrine soliton during the initial nonlinear evolution stage. Experimental and numerical results are in very good agreement, and show that the universal mechanism that yields the Peregrine soliton structure is highly robust and can be observed over a broad range of parameters.

Supersymmetric Gauge Theories with Decoupled Operators and Chiral Ring Stability.

Abstract: We propose a general way to complete supersymmetric theories with operators below the unitarity bound, adding gauge-singlet fields that enforce the decoupling of such operators. This makes it possible to perform all usual computations, and to compactify on a circle. We concentrate on a duality between an N=1 SU(2) gauge theory and the N=2 A_{3} Argyres-Douglas theory, mapping the moduli space and chiral ring of the completed N=1 theory to those of the A_{3} model. We reduce the completed gauge theory to 3D, finding a 3D duality with N=4 supersymmetric QED (SQED) with two flavors. The naive dimensional reduction is instead N=2 SQED. Crucial is a concept of chiral ring stability, which modifies the superpotential and allows for a 3D emergent global symmetry.