Papers

Matter-wave interferometers (MWIs) offer a uniquely quantum route to dark matter (DM) detection: DM can reveal itself through phase and decoherence between spatially separated wavepackets, even when negligible energy deposition or resolvable recoil occurs. We formulate these effects in an open effective field theory for MWIs using the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, which highlights a structural asymmetry between the two detection channels. For elastic spin-independent DM scattering, decoherence inherits novel Bose enhancement or Pauli blocking factors, while the phase is at most linear in the DM occupation number. By retaining the DM's coherence time, this framework spans Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics across a wide range of DM masses, and systematically organizes corrections beyond the heavy-probe limit.

We investigate the dynamical Sauter-Schwinger pair creation process from the vacuum by an electromagnetic background field using two alternative approaches. The first one is based on the Feynman interpretation of positrons and the space-time description of Quantum Electrodynamics, which leads to the spin and momentum probability amplitudes expressed as the infinite Born series with respect to the background field. We demonstrate that in order to sum up this series exactly, the problem can be reduced to solving the Dirac equation with uniquely defined Feynman or anti-Feynman boundary conditions. The use of these boundary conditions leads to the results that are equivalent to the scattering matrix theory and consistent with the worldline formalism. Alternative way of investigating the dynamical Sauter-Schwinger process consists in solving the Dirac equation with normalized initial (final) conditions. It is shown that this method follows from the suitably modified Feynman space-time approach, in which the Feynman propagators are replaced by the retarded (advanced) propagators. By doing so it is implicitly assumed that negative energy solutions describe electrons filling the Dirac sea (i.e., representing the Dirac vacuum) and the process of pair creation consists in the excitation of these electrons to the positive energy states. For both the boundary- and initial-value approaches the helicity-entangled momentum distributions are discussed and compared. Predictions of the two approaches are illustrated numerically for the homogeneous electric field pulse and for parameters such that for the spin summed up distributions both methods lead to nearly the same, although not identical, results. It is shown that even in such cases the spin- or helicity-resolved momentum distributions exhibit significant differences.

We show that the conformal anomaly of a $(1+1)$-dimensional conformal field theory can be extracted directly from a ground-state wave-function overlap associated with a spatial conformal deformation. Focusing on the $q$-Möbius deformation, we derive an exact overlap formula between the deformed and undeformed ground states, whose exponent directly encodes the central charge. Motivated by this result, we construct a lattice estimator based solely on ground-state overlaps and apply it to representative critical quantum chains and the gapless edge modes of a two-dimensional Chern insulator. Numerical results demonstrate that the resulting overlaps provide a simple and robust probe of the central charge in microscopic models. We further demonstrate that the deformed ground states retain universal geometric structures in their entanglement spectra and entanglement entropies. These results provide a simple wave-function-based route to probing conformal data in critical systems and topological edge modes.

We show that in pure time-reflection-symmetric holographic states several known four-party entanglement signals vanish unless the triple information $I_3$ is non-zero. In this sense, our results show that $I_3$ is the strongest known signal of the presence of quadripartite entanglement. Additionally, $I_3$ quantitatively bounds all four-party entanglement signals built from the multi-entropy. However, the residual entropy $Q_4$, also a measure of four-party entanglement, is not bounded by $I_3$, although $I_3=0$ does imply $Q_4=0$ for holographic states (except on a set of measure zero for which $Q_4$ is ill-defined).

Stochastic inflation is a powerful technique for calculating the probability distribution function (PDF) of large inflationary perturbations, which may collapse to form Primordial Black Holes. The PDF, $P({\cal N})$, of the stochastic number of e-folds, ${\cal N}$, satisfies an adjoint Fokker-Planck Equation. We develop a new self-contained eigenvalue technique which can be used to determine $P({\cal N})$. First we apply this method to the simple case of quantum diffusion along a flat potential without any classical drift. We recover the expression for the PDF that has previously been found using characteristic functions, with an exponential tail, and a power-law behaviour, $P({\cal N}) \propto {\cal N}^{-3/2}$, in the intermediate regime between the peak and the tail of the PDF. Finally we apply the method to constant drift inflation, in the narrow- and broad-well limits. In the narrow-well limit, there is an analytic solution and the PDF is similar to the drift-free case, with a mildly suppressed tail. In the broad-well limit, determining the full set of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions requires a piecewise construction of the spectrum, and the broad-well PDF is qualitatively different, with an enhanced peak and a strongly suppressed tail.

We study the interaction between spontaneous symmetry breaking and phase separation dynamics in holography. Using a double-quench protocol, the system first rapidly crosses the critical point and generates topological defects, while a second quench drives the system into a nonlinear unstable regime with spinodal decomposition. We investigate both $\mathbb{Z}_2$ and $U(1)$ symmetric systems, where different types of topological defects emerge during symmetry breaking. We show that topological defects dynamically determine the nucleation sites of phase separation. As the instability grows, the defect cores expand into macroscopic phase-separated domains. Despite the distinct symmetries and topological properties of these defects, both systems exhibit the same universal dynamical behavior, indicating that topological defects can universally serve as dynamical seeds for subsequent phase separation.

Condensable algebras in 2+1d non-chiral topological orders characterize gapped boundary conditions and interfaces. Applied to the Symmetry Topological Field Theory, they allow classification of symmetric gapped phases and impose sharp constraints on possible phase transitions. A condensable algebra is specified not only by its underlying set of anyons, which end on the boundary or interface, but also by its algebra structure. We introduce the concept of twin condensable algebras, which have the same anyon decomposition, but inequivalent algebra structure. We revisit the classification of condensable algebras in $\mathcal{Z}(\text{Vec}_G^\omega)$, i.e. in group-theoretical topological orders for finite groups $G$ with anomaly $\omega$. In this context we are able to identify twin algebras that arise from different mechanisms, such as subgroup data, SPT cocycles, and symmetry actions. In particular, we construct infinite families of examples of twins from so-called Gassmann triples, and exhibit cases in which the reduced topological orders are inequivalent despite having identical anyon content. Physically, twin algebras describe distinct symmetric phases that have isomorphic spaces of ground states, but inequivalent order parameters. Such twin phases never exhibit relative spontaneous symmetry breaking, and can be used to construct phase transitions without hidden symmetry breaking, which are intrinsically beyond Landau transitions.

We introduce the concept of twin phases for a symmetry $\mathcal{S}$, defined as inequivalent phases, whose order parameters are part of the same generalized charge under $\mathcal{S}$. Stable, direct transitions between such twin phases are never spontaneous-symmetry-breaking transitions, even after (partially) gauging the initial symmetry $\mathcal{S}$: they are phase transitions without hidden symmetry breaking. We illustrate this with an (anomalous) finite group symmetry in 1+1d, which exhibits such intrinsically beyond Landau transition, i.e. an intrinsically Deconfined Quantum Critical Point (DQCP).

We present a novel possibility that a network of domain walls bounded by cosmic strings generates a stochastic gravitational wave background (SWGB) signal originating from the spontaneous breaking of a gauged $U(1)_F$ flavor symmetry and the subsequent breaking of discrete $Z_2$ symmetry that accommodates dark matter. The gravitational wave (GW) spectrum produced by the string-bounded-wall network can be detected for high $U(1)_F$ breaking scales in forthcoming GW detectors including LISA, ET and SKA. The GW signal exhibits a distinctive frequency slope, in the infrared, compared to the standard cosmic-string case, in the frequency range between micro-hertz and hertz. We develop a possible strategy to distinguish and characterize GW spectrum of the hybrid defect from from other defects, such as stable cosmic strings, via employing the exact calculation with a machine-learning surrogate, based on a multilayer perceptron (MLP), trained on spectra obtained from the full numerical treatment. This is then used for rapid inference in the detector-specific signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) computation which also makes the process fast and efficient. We also discuss some possible complementarity between GW searches and Flavor observables in the laboratory.

The crucial feature of resurgence theory is the ambiguity of non-perturbative behavior, reflected either in the different choices of integration contours or in the existence of several solutions to Ward identities. This is well illustrated by considering exactly solvable models, of which the prominent example is Chern-Simons theory. Its important chapter, which should have a direct generalization to arbitrary Yang-Mills, is the consideration of Wilson averages in the double-scaling limit of large representation and small coupling. For historical reasons, we call it a Kashaev limit. It possesses a natural interpretation in terms of quasiclassical/WKB approximation, which is, however, somewhat peculiar and thus sheds new light on the old story. The crucial point is the appearance of Alexander polynomials $\Delta$ in two seemingly opposite roles: the classical $A$-polynomials have common roots with $\Delta$, while Jones polynomials tend to $\Delta^{-1}$ in the perturbative expansion. The consistency is provided by the peculiar form of the quantum $A$-polynomial, and the resolution of the puzzle is the co-existence of two different branches (phases) in the quasiclassical limit – with non-trivial and with vanishing classical actions. The first leads to classical $A$-polynomials and hyperbolic volumes, the second – to inverse Alexanders.

This note addresses a number of subtle issues pertaining to the long-standing problem of strong phonon-like fermion-boson coupling. Among the central topics are the customary Migdal-Eliashberg approximation in the pertinent Schwinger-Dyson gap equation and its solutions. The previously gained insight is assessed by contrasting it against the various (non-)supersymmetric variants of the Yukawa-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. Also, some previously discussed (pseudo-)holographic aspects of fermion pairing in such models are commented upon.

We study the space of conformally covariant $n$-point functions of spinning operators using methods from invariant theory, commutative algebra, and combinatorics. We show that the rational part of any such function can be expressed in terms of the basic building blocks introduced by Costa, Penedones, Poland, Rychkov, thereby providing a rigorous proof of a result that is widely used in the physics literature. We reformulate the problem of enumeration of $n$-point structures in terms of counting lattice points in fractional matching polytopes, and compute these counts using vector partition functions, Hilbert functions, and Kostka numbers. We show that all algebraic relations between the building blocks follow from Gram constraints and compute the number of algebraically independent building blocks. For three-point functions, we derive closed counting formulas for arbitrary integer spins, both with and without Bose symmetry, and discuss a necessary and sufficient condition for the partial conservation operator to lift to a differential operator written in terms of the building blocks. We provide code that generates a basis of three-point structures satisfying these constraints for given values of spins and scaling dimensions.

In this paper we derived the corrections to the Reissner-Nordström black hole when higher-derivative $RF^2$ terms (contractions of the Riemann tensor with the Maxwell field strength squared) are added to the Einstein-Maxwell action. Such terms arise naturally in the context of effective field theories. We used wordline QFT methods to obtain the leading order post-Minkowskian corrections. We verified these results by solving the modified Einstein-Maxwell field equations in closed form, to all orders in Newton's constant $G$. We discussed the first law and computed the entropy of the perturbed black holes. When fixing the mass to that of the extremal Reissner-Nordström black hole, the entropy shift is positive if the weak gravity conjecture holds. In fact, this condition is nothing but the requirement that the spacetime with the extremal Reissner-Nordström mass possesses an outer horizon in higher-derivative gravity. This condition also rules out Drummond-Hathrell theory.

Time-reversed stochastic inflation solves the stochastic evolution of the inflationary universe backward in time, by counting the number of e-folds from the end of quantum diffusion towards some initial state. The point of view of observers attached to the end-of-inflation hypersurface is thus enforced. In this work, we exactly solve time-reversed stochastic inflation in a flat and bounded potential, the so-called quantum well. At given lifetime, the field behaviour is found to be either indistinguishable from the one obtained in a semi-infinite flat potential, or, subject to enhanced stochasticity where any memory of the initial state is erased. The derived distribution of curvature perturbations reduces to the semi-infinite result for small fluctuations while it develops exponential tails for the large ones. Such tails arise for both positive and negative values, and decay twice as fast as the one obtained in the standard forward stochastic inflation. These differences may have important consequences for tail-sensitive phenomena, such as primordial black hole formation.

We study the thermal behavior of the $\rho$ meson using the isospectral family of the softwall AdS/QCD model. By computing spectral functions at finite temperature and chemical potential for different members of this family, we isolate the effect of the ground-state electromagnetic decay constant $f_1$ on the melting temperature $T_m$ of the $\rho(770)$ meson. A clear monotonic increase of $T_m$ with $f_1$ is found, supporting the interpretation of $f_1$ as a key scale controlling quarkonium dissociation. For excited states, the same qualitative trend appears but is strongly suppressed as the radial quantum number increases. Using the isospectral parameter to fix $f_1$ to its experimental value ($226$ MeV) yields a holographic model whose spectral function gives a melting temperature $T_m = 157$ MeV and a smooth crossover from confinement to deconfinement. The thermal mass shows a mild decrease near the critical point, while the width grows monotonically. Our results demonstrate that the isospectral transformation provides a controlled way to adjust ground-state decay constants without altering the mass spectrum, enabling precise studies of medium effects on vector mesons.

We give an update on the status of NNLOCAL, a parton-level Monte Carlo program implementing the extension of the completely local subtraction scheme CoLoRFulNNLO to color-singlet production in hadron-hadron collisions. The construction of the counterterms in our scheme is generic, being based on the standard IR factorization formulae of QCD. Furthermore, the integration of the counterterms over the phase space of unresolved emissions is performed fully analytically, allowing for good control of the numerical stability of our predictions. We validate our method by computing NNLO corrections to fully differential cross sections for the LHC.

Based on effective D-brane actions, we present a generalisation of the Ricci flow that includes the flow of a theory with a $n$-form field strength for $n\geq 0$. This is a generalisation of both the Ricci flows and the generalised Ricci flows. Following Perelman, we show that flows that keep a suitable field-dependent volume fixed are monotonic. We also show that all steady brane flow solitons are gradient solitons and use this to demonstrate that on some occasions this implies the existence of a Killing vector field that leaves all the other fields invariant. Particular cases of gradient solitons are NS5 and D5 branes, and the volume which is kept fixed in these cases is the T-duality invariant volume (NS5 brane) or its S-dual (D5 brane). We also generalise the above analysis to gravitational actions coupled to form gauge potentials that also exhibit a Chern-Simons type term. We find an alteration is required in the adaptation of Perelman's modification to this case, which yields a new functional that also exhibits a Chern-Simons term. Under suitable assumptions, we proceed to prove the monotonicity of the flow and that all steady flow solitons are gradient solitons. We also explore the consequences of the last statement on the geometry of solitons.

Chord diagrams encode boundary correlators in the double-scaled holographic Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, but currently capture only a limited class of bulk interactions that yield pure power-law correlators. In this article, we investigate a general construction based on Fock-space flux models with arbitrary periodic lattice size, clarifies how lattice dimensions control probe configurations and bulk contact vertices. Developing a systematic matching scheme and using the chord path integral formalism, we compute three- to six-point contact correlators and reproduce a broad class of AdS$_2$ scalar contact Witten diagrams, including those with logarithmic singularities. The results demonstrate that chord diagrams, in full generality, provide a microscopic description of bulk contact interactions and thereby establish a principled framework for reconstructing bulk locality from boundary data.

The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) posits that energy eigenstates encode local properties of the microcanonical ensemble. Motivated by recent interest in the physics of non-commuting conserved charges and the non-Abelian ETH, we study chaotic eigenstates in the presence of symmetries described by general compact Lie groups, such as SU(2). By applying non-Abelian symmetry resolution, we develop a non-Abelian microcanonical entropy and relate this entropy to the entanglement entropy of chaotic eigenstates. We find that microcanonical entropy is closely related to the symmetry-resolved entanglement entropy, which differs from conventional entanglement entropy by a universal logarithmic correction. Our results depend on the global Casimir charge, e.g. total spin. At finite charge density, we find a logarithmic enhancement to conventional entanglement entropy. At zero density, we find no such correction to entanglement entropy, but a logarithmic reduction to microcanonical entropy and symmetry-resolved entanglement entropy. We discuss the implications of our approach for non-Abelian eigenstate thermalization.

We prove, at arbitrary loop order and including arbitrary tadpole decorations, the shifted-tree decomposition of two-site cosmological wavefunction coefficients proposed in our previous work, and uncover the combinatorial and geometric structure underlying it. For conformally coupled scalars with polynomial interactions, this decomposition expresses each loop coefficient as a finite signed sum of tree coefficients evaluated at shifted energies. For bubble-like graphs, the alternating sum over a Boolean lattice can be written in terms of finite differences or maximal chains. We prove the maximal-chain identity algebraically by induction on loop order and geometrically by decomposing a cubical Laplace integral into simplices. The maximal chains correspond to permutohedron vertices, whose incident facets encode the chain-dependent divisors. For tadpole-decorated graphs, the finite-difference Leibniz rule gives an explicit expansion indexed by ordered partitions and local maximal chains, which glue into global maximal chains and organize the coefficient as a combinatorial "path integral". A natural ordering of the divisors yields a term-by-term match with graph tubings and completes the all-loop proof, while other orderings give alternative tubing representations of the same coefficient. These identities hold before spatial loop-momentum integration and extend to power-law FRW backgrounds by linearity of the twisted integral. Two-site loop coefficients can therefore be obtained directly from known tree coefficients without solving new loop-level differential systems.

We develop a geometric formulation of vertex operators in superstring theory based on integral forms on super Riemann surfaces. Starting from the integrated NS-NS vertex operator, we derive descent equations that relate operators with different ghost and picture numbers. A key result is a correspondence between supergeometric objects and ghost superfields, in which the one-form $dz-\theta d\theta$ and the even differential $d\theta$ are identified with the ghost superfield and its superderivative. This provides a geometric realization of the superghost structure. We further extend the construction by incorporating inverse picture-changing operators, which generate new descent sequences across different picture sectors. We also introduce a superfield construction of higher-ghost-number operators, for which additional terms are required compared to the bosonic case. All operators are organized into a universal descent structure and are well-defined in BRST cohomology.

Given a BV theory on a space of fields split into two subspaces ("infrared" and "ultraviolet"), one has the BV pushforward map $P_*$, sending observables to observables of the effective theory on the infrared space. This note proves that $P_*$ is a quasi-isomorphism of BV complexes, by realizing it as a part of a strong deformation retraction constructed using the homological perturbation lemma. Two proofs are given: (i) comparing Feynman diagrams for $P_*$ with "cable diagrams" arising from homological perturbation theory and (ii) using topological quantum mechanics. This construction gives a formula for the quasi-inverse $i_\mathrm{int}$ of $P_*$ - the map lifting observables of the effective theory to the full theory. The topological quantum mechanics perspective - and its realization as an AKSZ theory - allows one to write $i_\mathrm{int}$ as a path integral (realizing cable diagrams for $i_\mathrm{int}$ as Feynman diagrams) and to study its classical limit.

By varying the symmetry energy slope ($L$), I investigate how the exotic content within the interiors of neutron stars changes and how it affects both macroscopic and microscopic quantities. Using two different parametrizations (L3$\omega\rho$ and BigApple), and three different possibilities about the neutron star core (nucleons+hyperons, nucleons+deltas, nucleons+hyperons+deltas), I show that, for the models analyzed in this work, changing the slope barely changes the amount of hyperons, but it can strongly suppress the $\Delta$ resonances for large values of $L$. I also show that, in general, the presence of exotic content will be more evident for lower values of $L$ than for large ones. Differences and similarities between the two parametrizations are also analyzed.

The bootstrap method for quantum mechanics is a powerful tool for computing the energy eigenvalues of a Hamiltonian. However, we point out that this method suffers from an ambiguity problem: it fails to yield the correct spectrum when the potential contains different types of functions, such as polynomial and exponential terms. Similarly, the bootstrap method may break down when evaluating the expectation values of operators of different types. This issue can arise in a wide range of systems, including statistical models and matrix models. We propose three possible resolutions to this problem.

We construct matrices that shift the scaling dimension of scalar fields for arbitrary de Sitter Feynman diagrams. Acting on a set of master integrals, these weight-shifting matrices shift the scaling dimensions of individual edges of a given diagram by an integer. They can thus be applied to a broader range of problems and are simpler to implement than earlier derivative-based approaches. By introducing a Kronecker product representation of our matrix formulation, we generalise weight-shifting operators beyond four-point functions to arbitrary tree-level diagrams. As an application, we obtain explicit expressions for several massless wavefunction coefficients in four-dimensional de Sitter space, starting from conformally coupled seed functions. Our construction provides a systematic and graph-local approach to generating cosmologically relevant correlators from simpler master integrals.

We use effective field theory to factorize production matrix elements that appear in quarkonium cross sections in NRQCD. By applying a Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation we show that the soft and ultrasoft sectors of NRQCD can be decoupled from the heavy quark and antiquark fields in a hybrid vNRQCD/pNRQCD Lagrangian at leading order in the velocity power counting. This enables us to separate quarkonium production matrix elements in terms of matrix elements of color-singlet composite fields, which we can write as the wavefunction at the origin, and state independent vacuum correlators of chromo-electric and chromo-magnetic gluon fields. This approach verifies powerful connections between the LDMEs of different S-wave vector quarkonium states, originally derived using pNRQCD. Additionally, we find new operator contributions for the color-octet P-wave mechanism, which satisfy a similar set of relationships. Finally, this approach allows us to factorize the production matrix elements that appear in the transverse momentum dependent factorization framework, known as TMD soft transition functions, in terms of state independent gluon correlators. This work restores some universality for TMD production operators and dramatically improves the predictive power of NRQCD in the TMD framework.

The Euclidean de Sitter path integral contains the familiar phase associated with conformal negative modes. Maldacena's construction shows that a suitably included real observer can reorganize the refined state-counting problem. This paper does not rederive that cancellation. It addresses the prior semiclassical admissibility question: which observer sectors couple to the de Sitter saddle as genuine metric observers without becoming spectators or producing infrared-singular backreaction? On $S^D$, after gauge fixing and zero-mode projection, the observer's quadratic influence is governed by a Schur complement. We formulate a form-domain criterion: if the observer kernel is positive and the mixed metric-observer source is bounded after applying $\Delta_{\Phi\Phi}^{-1/2}$, the induced metric correction is a bounded quadratic-form perturbation on the chosen channel. In the gapped case, $\Delta_{\Phi\Phi}\geq m_*^2\mathbf{1}$ gives $\|K^\dagger \Delta_{\Phi\Phi}^{-1} K\|_{\rm op} \leq \|K\|_{\rm op}^2/m_*^2$; metric-coupled soft modes produce corrections growing as $1/\varepsilon$. We prove a sufficiency theorem: on any stable channel with coercive form $Q_{gg}^P \geq \delta_P \|h\|^2$, the Gaussian saddle remains controlled whenever $\|\Delta_{\Phi\Phi}^{-1/2} \mathfrak{j}_P\|_{\rm op}^2 < \delta_P$. We construct a localized gapped clock-detector with internal oscillators on a smeared worldline that satisfies the criterion with a computable bound and gives explicit $S^4$ benchmark versus the round-sphere TT scale. The conformal channel is treated only as an indefinite or contour-defined sector; boundedness does not imply positivity. The criterion identifies the semiclassically admissible observer class. Phase cancellation follows only when this class overlaps the relevant conformal or negative-mode sector and is combined with an independent contour or state-counting prescription.

We present a new class of topological phenomena in inhomogeneous systems arising from the adiabatic spatial embedding of parametrized families of quantum states such as charge pumps and their generalizations. We demonstrate that each topologically distinct class of these “diabolical textures" gives rise to distinct gapped states that are separated by “trap-scaling" critical points, defect transitions, or intervening phases. Their phase diagrams exhibit versions of “unnecessary criticality” and “multiversality,” within a noninteracting setting. We demonstrate this in a one-dimensional Thouless pump texture trapping a charge and a two-dimensional class D texture trapping a Kitaev chain, including an analysis of their stability under weak symmetry-preserving perturbations and interactions. For systems in arbitrary spatial dimensions and global symmetries, we present a framework to systematically classify diabolical textures using Kitaev's $\Omega$ spectrum conjecture.

In this work, we broach a quantum information-theoretic treatment of axion–photon mixing. Motivated by an emerging class of quantum-enhanced axion searches, we analyse the two-level single-excitation sector of axion–photon oscillations, demonstrating how the coupled dynamics naturally generate bipartite axion–photon mode entanglement. We study in detail the ensuing aspects of entanglement entropy, concurrence, negativity, quantum mutual information and discord, and capacity of entanglement, and the corresponding neutrino analogues wherever novel and previously unaddressed. In particular, we highlight the characteristic features that connect maximal axion–photon entanglement to resonant or strong-mixing conversion, and the distinct thresholds for the extremal values attained by the quantum information measures. We study aspects of the Mandelstam–Tamm and Margolus–Levitin quantum speed limits for both the axion–photon and neutrino systems. While orthogonalisation occurs only at axion–photon resonance, or at maximal neutrino mixing, where the two bounds coincide, away from these limits, the Margolus–Levitin bound is saturated at maximal conversion, while the Mandelstam–Tamm bound is generally weaker. We also study an entanglement quantum speed limit for axion–photon conversion, that separates into detuning-dominated and magnetic-mixing-dominated regimes, and find that it is saturated for a period and then the bound becomes weak. The results in this work identify the quantum resources and limiting timescales intrinsic to axion–photon conversion, and connect axion phenomenology, neutrino oscillations and quantum information theory.

We propose a sigma-model analogue of Hodge loci in the moduli space of geometric Calabi-Yau compactifications, characterized by the emergence of non-trivial rational Hodge endomorphisms, using generalized symmetries. In the CFT description, the complex cohomology is spanned by Ramond-Ramond ground states, the Hodge decomposition is determined by the $U(1)\times U(1)$ R-charges, and the rational structure is provided by BPS boundary states, with polarization induced by the open string Witten index. Hodge loci are identified by the existence of a non-trivial category $TDL$ of topological defects preserving the $N=(2,2)$ superconformal algebra and acting invertibly on the spectral-flow generators. At special points on these loci, the category $TDL$ exhibits additional arithmetic structure and admits embeddings of finite products of number fields with Complex Multiplication, leading to stronger constraints on the boundary states of the theory. Although the construction is general, we analyze in detail the cases of elliptic curves and $K3$ surfaces.