Papers

We construct complete solutions of the massless S-matrix bootstrap equations describing a new infinite family of integrable RG flows from the higher-fusion-level minimal models M(3,2n+3;n) to the non-unitary Virasoro minimal models M(2,2n+3), including a flow from M(3,5) to the Yang–Lee CFT M(2,5) when n=1. We provide strong evidence for this identification by matching conformal perturbation theory around the UV fixed points with the small-volume expansion of the corresponding thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations. We further show that a family of non-invertible Verlinde defect lines is preserved along the flows.

These notes provides an introduction to a wide variety of notions of connection that appear in the contemporary mathematical literature. Besides the familiar Ehresmann connections on principal bundles and Koszul connections on vector bundles, there is a large zoo of perhaps less familiar notions, most notably Cartan connections on principal bundles and their avatars on tractor bundles, which may deserve more attention for further elucidating higher-spin interactions and symmetries. This review is motivated both by the previous (explicit or implicit) use of these notions of connection in higher-spin gravity and by their potential future applications in this context. Much of the material covered here is also relevant to advanced mathematical topics in gravity, such as the rigorous treatment of conformal geometry (which is of interest for holography) and may help fill gaps left by standard textbooks (most of which typically do not address Cartan connections, tractor calculus, and related topics).

The starting point of the present work is the observation that the tangent group of a curved manifold need not have the same dimension as the manifold itself. We use this fact to construct Conformal Gravity and its noncommutative (Fuzzy) counterpart as gauge theories, and then to unify both with internal gauge interactions. Specifically, we present a scheme in which conformal gravity, based on gauging the SO(2,4) group, and fuzzy gravity, based on gauging the SO(1,5)$\times$U(1), are unified with SO(10) internal interactions through the parent group SO(2,16), and we work through the resulting spontaneous symmetry breakings and fermion content in detail. We also discuss the low-energy phenomenology of the scheme, including cosmic-string gravitational-wave signals, and close with a brief outlook: a candidate minimal unification group, a dark-matter candidate suggested by the construction, and the ghost problem common to higher-derivative gravity theories of this type.

Previous work has shown that first-order Palatini gravity may be cast as a non-conservative Herglotz Lagrangian field theory, which excludes the conformal mode from its space of dynamical variables. In the present work, we analyse the role of the $SO(1,3)$ gauge connection in the construction of this action-dependent theory. The connection may be algebraically decomposed into complementary sectors which we interpret as `shape' and `scale' components. Only the former is retained within the Herglotz theory, while the latter is incorporated into the action-dependent sector. It is shown that the choice of connection decomposition is a space that can be smoothly parameterised. Such an observation leads to the finding that there exists a `moduli space of frictional field theories', in which each point corresponds to a distinct algebraic splitting of the connection into shape and scale pieces. Movement within the moduli space transitions between Herglotz Lagrangians whose on-shell dynamics all reproduce first-order Palatini gravity. The distinction lies in how the reproduction of the scale dynamics of the original theory is partitioned between action dependence and dynamical torsion.

We study modular transformation formulas from the viewpoint of Mellin space. The basic observation is that the functional relation between the Hurwitz zeta function and the polylogarithm can be used to organize modular transformations as reflection identities of Mellin kernels, while the accompanying polynomial anomalies arise from contour deformations. We first illustrate this mechanism for the $q$-$\theta$ function and then extend it to the elliptic Gamma function. In the latter case, independently Mellin transforming the two elliptic directions leads to a trilinear reflection identity relating the three elliptic Gamma functions appearing in the SL$(3,\mathbb{Z})$ modular formula, while the associated contour deformation reproduces the cubic Bernoulli polynomial. Further reflection formulas lead to a weighted $q$-Pochhammer type function with a modular transformation analogous to that of the $q$-$\theta$ function, as well as a transposed trilinear reflection identity analogous to the Mellin space structure underlying the SL$(3,\mathbb{Z})$ transformation. Our results suggest that Mellin space reflection identities provide a useful organizing principle for constructing and studying modular special functions beyond the standard multiple elliptic Gamma hierarchy.

In the matrix model of two-flavor adjoint QC$_2$D, we study the low-lying states and their properties in the intermediate-to-strong (Yang-Mills) coupling regime. The model has a classical $SU(2)_R$ chiral symmetry and the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian can be organized in its irreps. We construct the energy eigenstates in presence of a chiral chemical potential $c$ using the variational techniques. We find that when $c=0$, the ground state is always a $SU(2)_R$ singlet, irrespective of the coupling strength $g$. However, as $g$ is tuned from intermediate to strong coupling, the system under goes a crossover from a unique to a doubly degenerate ground state. The degeneracy in the strong coupling regime spontaneously breaks the axial $\mathbb{Z}_8$, while preserving the chiral symmetry. When $c \neq 0$, we find that there can be level crossings which correspond to quantum phase transitions (QPTs). Depending on the ground state, there are three possible phases. The $SU(2)_R$ symmetry is spontaneously broken in only one of these phases, and this phase can only emerge for intermediate $g$ with moderate values of $c$. In the $g-c$ plane this phase corresponds to a narrow window, outside which $SU(2)_R$ is always preserved.

We study modulus stabilization by background fluxes. Within the truncated complex-structure sector, the F-term conditions of the complex structure moduli are described by a holomorphic quadratic equation. As concrete examples, we consider the $T^6/(\mathbb{Z}_2\times\mathbb{Z}_2')$ orientifold model and a simple Calabi-Yau compactification. The modulus values show specific patterns. For example, they exhibit a structure related to the Farey sequence. The void structure appears around modulus vacua with high degeneracies. We find a correlation between the degeneracy and the void area. The modulus vacua are related by discrete Abelian symmetries generated by the Gauss composition law, which includes the CP symmetry. Spontaneous CP violation is also discussed.

The usual WKB analysis for quantum tunneling applies when the tunneling action is large, as it is for tall, wide potential barriers. In contrast we analyze tunneling when the action is small, as it is for tunneling across a tall, thin barrier. We develop a perturbative analysis where the control parameter is the inverse of the area under the potential barrier and apply our technique to several examples in $1+1$ dimensions. In resonant situations for bound particles we find that the tunneling probability grows with time as $\propto t^2$, while in non-resonant situations it grows linearly with time. We evaluate not only the tunneling probability but also the time-dependent tunneling wavefunction for a particle that escapes to infinity, i.e. from a quasi-bound state to the continuum.

We investigate gravitational-wave birefringence from pulsar glitches in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity, a parity-violating extension of general relativity motivated by string theory and quantum gravity. Using the Hartle-Thorne slow-rotation formalism to model the neutron star background and a perturbative treatment of the Chern-Simons coupling $\alpha$, we derive the modified Regge-Wheeler equation governing axial gravitational perturbations and compute the resulting polarization-dependent phase shift. The parity-violating interaction produces a fractional asymmetry between the right- and left-handed circular polarizations that scales as $\alpha^2$, grows linearly with frequency and rotation rate, and falls as the fourth power of the stellar radius. For a constant-density interior model we obtain an analytic matching solution for the background scalar field, and show that the interior curvature factor vanishes identically–the interior solution being conformally flat–so that the scalar dipole is sourced entirely in the vacuum exterior; a centrally condensed equation of state can only increase the predicted signal. We further extend the analysis to a two-fluid model incorporating differential rotation between the neutron superfluid and the charged component; the resulting correction is bounded by the fractional glitch amplitude itself, independently of the equation of state, and is negligible for typical pulsar parameters. Expressed through the dimensionless quantity $\zeta \propto \alpha M/R_\star^{3}$, the fractional polarization asymmetry for millisecond pulsars reaches $\sim 10^{-3}$ at kilohertz frequencies at the boundary of perturbative validity–four orders of magnitude above the sensitivity of current ground-based detectors to strain asymmetries. However, realistic bounds are limited by the signal-to-noise ratio required to resolve a ratio of gravitational wave strains.

We study eight-point amplitudes in the planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super Yang-Mills theory in multi-Regge kinematics in the Mandelstam region that receives contributions from both two- and three-Reggeon exchange. We use an effective field theory approach to compute the leading contribution from three-Reggeon exchange, and we explicitly evaluate the relevant diagrams up to four loops. We also propose a compact Fourier-Mellin representation for the contribution from two-Reggeon exchange in this region which involves the same ingredients as in other Mandelstam regions and can in principle be evaluated to any desired order in perturbation theory. To validate our proposal, we show that we can reproduce the multi-Regge limit of the known results for octagons up to three loops. We then combine the contributions from two- and three-Reggeon exchange to obtain novel results for octagons in MRK up to next-to-leading-logarithmic accuracy at four loops for the maximally helicity violating (MHV) configuration, and up to three loops for non-MHV contributions. We also discuss how our result can be extended to more particles, and we present the contribution from three-Reggeon exchange for three-loop MHV amplitudes with an arbitrary number of legs.

Scalar-induced gravitational waves (SIGWs) provide a direct probe of the enhanced primordial curvature perturbations that may also produce primordial black holes (PBHs). We forecast the capability of the space-based gravitational-wave observatory Taiji to search for an SIGW background generated by a broken-power-law curvature spectrum. A signal-injection study is used to validate the analysis pipeline, after which a pure-noise realization is employed to derive projected upper limits on the curvature-spectrum parameters. We translate these limits into constraints on the PBH abundance using the nonlinear compaction function, critical collapse, and the joint Gaussian distribution of the compaction amplitude and curvature at its peak. The resulting projected $95\%$ upper limits on the PBH dark-matter fraction satisfy $f_{\mathrm{PBH}}^{95\%}<1$ over PBH masses from approximately $6.2\times10^{-18}\,M_\odot$ to $1.7\times10^{-8}\,M_\odot$. We compare the forecast with representative Hawking-evaporation and microlensing bounds. In part of the asteroid-mass interval, the projected Taiji limit is more restrictive than the current Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) microlensing constraint.

Starting from the cyclic duality tensors introduced by Vernier, Miao, and Yamazaki (VMY), whose endpoint-traced matrix-product operators obey $\mathbb Z_N$ Tambara–Yamagami fusion and realize topological defect lines of the compactified-boson conformal field theory, we retain the virtual endpoint as an $N$-state dynamical degree of freedom and construct an exactly movable seam in the spin-$\tfrac12$ XXZ chain at $q=\mathrm e^{\mathrm i\pi M/N}$ with $\gcd(M,N)=1$. The local movement identity holds for any unitary $q$-Weyl pair; in the finite cyclic realization, all output phases are locally gauge equivalent and share the same four seam eigenvalues. On a ring, the output gauge becomes a directed twist on a single bond, while endpoint conjugacy reduces the $2N$ labels to two relative $\mathbb Z_2$ flux classes. An explicit antiunitary symmetry protects the class $\eta\equiv M-1\pmod 2$: for even $N$ it pairs distinct charge sectors isospectrally, whereas for odd $N$ it fixes one sector and squares to $-I$ there. Hence every many-body energy eigenspace in the protected class has even multiplicity. The source value $\eta_{\rm VMY}=1-M$ satisfies this condition for every coprime root, whereas the ungauged value $\eta=0$ does so only for odd $M$. Exact finite-size controls show that the opposite class can contain simple levels, so a global flux invisible to local gauge equivalence distinguishes the two classes spectrally.

We examine particle creation, evaporation, scalar wave absorption and scattering, and geodesic motion in the asymptotically flat regular black hole supported by a phantom Dirac-Born-Infeld field. For massless bosonic and fermionic fields, the Bogoliubov transformations yield thermal spectra whose Hawking temperature decreases as the regular core becomes more prominent. Energy-conserving tunneling recovers the same temperature in the low-energy limit, whereas recoil and the DBI contribution introduce nonthermal corrections and suppress particle emission. In the high-frequency regime, the enlargement of the cross section does not compensate for the reduction in temperature, resulting in a lower luminosity and a longer evaporation time. A numerical partial wave analysis shows that the total scalar absorption increases with the regular core scale, approaches the horizon area at low frequencies, and oscillates around an enlarged geometric capture limit at high frequencies. The scattering phase shifts modify the multipolar amplitudes nonuniformly and displace the interference fringes toward larger angles. Furthermore, both null and timelike trajectories experience stronger deflection as the regular core contribution increases.

We propose a new approach to the systematic computation of the heat-kernel expansion and, in particular, of conformal anomalies, based on Fedosov deformation quantization. The approach is fully covariant, applies to differential operators of arbitrary order, is amenable to efficient implementation, and yields closed-form expressions. As applications, we compute conformal anomalies in four, six, and eight dimensions, the last being a new result.

We develop a general procedure for constructing time-dependent integrable chiral field theories from autonomous unitary difference-form $S$-matrices satisfying the Yang-Baxter equation. Spectral parameters are transported along the free right- and left-moving characteristics, defining a map from physical spacetime to spectral space on which the two-body scattering data are evaluated. Requiring spatially homogeneous right-left scattering forces the characteristic map to be affine. The inverse Cayley transform then determines the local contact interaction, while evaluation along the affine spectral trajectory fixes its time dependence. Thus, the nonautonomous interaction is determined by the autonomous scattering data together with chiral kinematics and spatial homogeneity, rather than being introduced independently. The Yang–Baxter equation supplies the factorized many-body transport, and on a spatial circle periodicity leads to quantum Knizhnik–Zamolodchikov (qKZ) equations whose compatibility defines a flat discrete transport in spectral space. Pulling the corresponding spectral-space amplitudes back to physical coordinates gives the time-dependent many-body wavefunctions. Rational $SU(N)$, trigonometric $U_q(\widehat{\mathfrak{sl}}_2)$, and rational $O(N)$ scattering illustrate how the same mechanism generates distinct nonautonomous interactions. The resulting framework gives a geometric route from autonomous factorized scattering data to time-dependent integrable field theories.

We investigate Bell-CHSH correlations for a chiral massless Majorana field localized in a double cone. The conformal modular flow of the associated light-ray interval is converted into translations by a rapidity-like coordinate, and the one-particle scalar product is derived in modular momentum space. Particular attention is paid to the fact that this scalar product carries a Fermi-Dirac weight. Requiring the modular conjugation to be antiunitary with respect to that weighted scalar product fixes the Fourier-space realization of the modular objects. The resulting Tomita-Takesaki operator and its adjoint generate Alice and twisted-dual Bob directions for which all four crossed CAR orthogonality relations follow automatically from modular localization. The Bell problem then reduces to a simple one-function functional. For a Gaussian modular-momentum profile $h_\sigma(k)=\exp[-k^2/(2\sigma^2)]$ the Bell parameter is larger than the classical bound for a broad range of widths and approaches the Tsirelson value analytically, \[ \lim_{\sigma\to 0^+}{\it B}(\sigma)=2\sqrt2 \] Thus near-maximal Bell violation is obtained from an explicit sequence of smooth rapidly decreasing profiles concentrated around zero modular momentum, corresponding to the modular spectral value $\lambda=1$.

We formulate split Galois descent for fusion categories through framed equivalences, reducing the existence of a split form to a group-theoretic splitting problem. The associated degree-two obstruction combines categorical coherence with stable descent of the simple objects, while fusion spaces impose index and parity restrictions. For quantum groups at roots of unity, we use the quasi-$R$-matrix to make the bar involution tensor-compatible and prove that the underlying fusion category $\mathcal C(\mathfrak g,k)$, associated with the simply connected root datum, has a split form over the maximal totally real subfield of the cyclotomic field generated by the quantum parameter. The same holds for all its cyclotomic Galois conjugates; in particular, every $\mathcal C(\mathfrak g,k)$ has a split real form. By contrast, no split real form exists for the standard braiding except on $\mathcal C(E_8,1)$ and $\mathcal C(D_{4m},1)$, $m \geq 1$. We further show that associative zesting can destroy real descent of $\mathcal C(\mathfrak g,k)$, while every braided zesting of $\mathcal C(\mathfrak g,k)$ still admits a split real form as an underlying fusion category. Applications to pointed and finite-group representation categories give criteria for real descent in terms of cohomology and Frobenius–Schur indicators.

In this work, we search for explicit regulators that do not spuriously break scale invariance starting from conditions established by implicit regularization. There is a family of regulator functions that obeys the conditions and leads to soft breaking terms of the dilatation current. This family of functions is shown to be related to the Laguerre polynomials. We apply this approach by revisiting quadratic divergences in the context of the naturalness problem of the Standard Model and show that the quadratic dependence of the Higgs mass on the cutoff is not required by consistency of scale-symmetry breaking and can be removed within this class of regulators.

Holographic spread (Krylov) complexity relates the growth of a boundary state's complexity to the proper radial momentum of a probe falling into the bulk. Unitary evolution makes spread complexity an even function of time. We show that this requirement fails whenever a probe carries a conserved Noether charge and is described by its unreduced Lagrangian. The cure is simple and universal: passing to the Routhian of the fixed-charge sector restores the correct short-time behaviour of the complexity. We establish this prescription from first principles and test it across an extensive family of probes: charged particles, non-BPS D-branes with detuned tension and charge, branes excited along internal isometries, worldvolume gauge fields, a fluctuating D0-brane in AdS$_4\times \mathbb{CP}^3$ and fundamental strings combining winding with rotation in AdS$_5\times \mathrm{S}^5$ complemented by further examples in AdS$_3\times \mathrm{S}^3\times T^4$, ABJM, and the charged Anabalón-Ross background. We then translate these results into Krylov-chain data, extracting Lanczos coefficients and Krylov-number correlators, and propose that complexity for charged, extended probes organises naturally into collective, fluctuation, charge and mixed contributions. This decomposition opens a concrete path toward a genuinely field-theoretic, multi-seed construction of holographic complexity.

We compute the deuterium-production reaction $n+p \to d+\gamma$ in an effective field theory whose degrees of freedom are the nuclear states themselves: the amplitude is assembled from on-shell three-point vertices, glued across its factorization channels, and completed by the contact terms consistent with the symmetries. The deuteron enters through the $d$-$n$-$p$ vertex, normalized to the measured asymptotic normalization coefficient. Rescattering of the nucleon pair is resummed dispersively, leaving two short-distance constants, an isovector magnetic and an electric dipole contact interaction. A joint Bayesian fit to the thermal capture measurements and the SLEGS photodisintegration data finds both of natural size and determines the thermonuclear rate to 0.22-0.24% across the nucleosynthesis window, including systematics spanning the defensible treatments of the SLEGS data and of the $P$-wave rescattering. Truncating the expansion is bounded separately at 0.12%, of which the next order of contact terms – degenerate with the two fitted constants – supplies 0.03%, for a total theory uncertainty of 0.25-0.27%. Propagated through a BBN network, the rate shifts the predicted primordial deuterium by -0.06% and cuts this reaction's contribution to the D/H uncertainty from 0.089% to 0.050%, retiring it from the primordial D/H error budget for practical purposes.

We study quantum field theory on the AdS$_2$ worldsheet of the fundamental string dual to the half-BPS Wilson line of $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills. We consider a recently proposed gauge-fixed string fluctuation Lagrangian around the AdS$_2$ minimal surface, and focus on the nonlinearly realized $SO(6)/SO(5)$ symmetry. The boundary two-point function of the associated tilt operators, whose normalization coefficient is proportional the Bremsstrahlung function, can be related to the bulk two-point function of the broken-symmetry Noether current through the boundary operator expansion. We evaluate the one-loop diagrams contributing to the current correlator, discussing the role of dimensional regularization and recovering the known strong-coupling correction to the Bremsstrahlung function directly from AdS$_2$ worldsheet quantum field theory.

The $F$-symbols of an anyon theory encode the associativity of fusion and constitute some of the theory's most fundamental and, simultaneously, subtle data. Much of the subtlety lies in the gauge-dependence of the $F$-symbols. Despite their generic complexity, many braided anyon theories admit gauges in which all $F$-symbols are real, a phenomenon for which no general organising principle has been known. We identify a physical mechanism underlying this reality. For a unitary ribbon fusion category admitting an appropriate braided charge-conjugation symmetry, we show that the complex-conjugated $F$-symbols are related to the original ones by a gauge transformation. Finding a real gauge is thereby reduced to a condition on these transformations. When the charge-conjugation symmetry is suitably "flat,” or equivalently when the associated "twisted” Frobenius-Schur (or "generalized” Kawanaka-Matsuyama) data respects a grading, these local transformations can be trivialised and a real gauge exists. This framework unifies a broad range of previously disparate examples, including families of Chern-Simons theories whose $F$-symbols are difficult to directly compute. Finally, we exhibit a unitary ribbon category that realizes a novel obstruction to the existence of a real gauge and therefore has inherently complex $F$-symbols.

We obtain an exact expression for the Rényi mutual information (RMI) between two spherical regions for a free, massless Dirac field in $d$ spacetime dimensions and for a massless Rarita-Schwinger field in $d=4$. We identify each angular momentum mode in the spherical dimensional reduction of the parent theory with a massive Dirac fermion in two dimensional anti-de Sitter space (AdS). The RMI for each mode can be computed analytically for any Rényi index $n$ in terms of solutions of a Painlevé differential equation. We explore the long and short distance asymptotics of the result, where the sum over modes can be computed explicitly. As a result we are able to find subleading contributions to the long distance expansion in $d$ dimensions for arbitrary $n$, as well as to extract the area and logarithmic coefficients for the case $n=1$ in the short distance regime.

We study the one-sided time evolution of thermofield double (TFD) states in random matrix theory, where the Hamiltonian is taken to be a $D\times D$ random matrix drawn from a unitarily invariant emsemble of Hermitian matrices. We argue that the Krylov basis with the maximally entangled state taken as the initial vector gives a semiclassical Hilbert space description of these TFD states in random matrix theory at any $O(1)$ temperature and time in the $D\to \infty$ limit, very analogous to the “chord Hilbert space” construction in the double-scaled SYK (DSSYK) model. We study this semiclassical description in detail for ensembles where the spectral density in the $D\to \infty$ limit is even, compactly supported on an interval and has square root edges. With a few more conditions on the analytic structure of the spectral density, we observe that the semiclassical Hamiltonian has the same asymptotic behavior at large Krylov depth as that of DSSYK, with the corresponding parameter $\mathfrak{q}=e^{-\lambda}$ being related to the location of the nearest zero of the spectral density away from the spectral cut. Furthermore, in a large class of models corresponding to ultraviolet deformations of the DSSYK spectral density, i.e., where the spectrum in the UV is modified while leaving the near-edge behavior unchanged, we show that the semiclassical effective Hamiltonian in the Krylov basis reduces to the Liouville Hamiltonian of JT gravity in a low-energy, continuum limit. This suggests that our semiclassical Hilbert space should be interpreted as the bulk Hilbert space of a dual gravity description.

The double copy relates gravitational data to gauge-theory data, most sharply through color-kinematics duality for flat-space scattering amplitudes. This review surveys the extent to which this idea can be formulated beyond asymptotically flat backgrounds. After recalling the flat-space ingredients needed for comparison, we describe curved-space constructions for boundary correlators and scattering observables in AdS, dS, and other non-trivial backgrounds. We then review classical and field-level maps, including Kerr–Schild, Weyl, Cotton, twistor, and convolutional double copies. A separate part is devoted to self-dual sectors. Throughout, we emphasize both the common structures that survive from flat space and the obstructions introduced by curvature.

Many approaches to quantum gravity predict logarithmic corrections to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Within the spacetime-thermodynamic description of gravity, such corrections lead to modified gravitational field equations. We study their effect on primordial perturbations during standard single-field slow-roll inflation. We derive the evolution equation for the comoving curvature perturbation and show that it retains the standard Mukhanov–Sasaki form, with the quantum-gravity correction entering through the time-dependent effective frequency. We compute the scalar and tensor primordial spectra at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order ($\mathrm{N}^3\mathrm{LO}$) in the Hubble-flow parameters, keeping the leading contribution from the logarithmic correction. The scalar spectrum remains nearly scale invariant, but the quantum-gravity correction shifts its tilt and runnings. Free tensor modes still propagate as in general relativity, although on the quantum-gravity-corrected background. This different response of the two sectors shifts both the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the single-field consistency relation, which provide the starting point for tracing the model's signatures through the post-inflationary evolution and into the CMB.

We develop a (Wilsonian) functional-renormalisation-group framework for scalar cosmology in which quantum fluctuations of a scalar field are coarse-grained on cosmological spacelike hypersurfaces. Integrating out quantum fluctuations with wavelengths smaller than the Hubble radius $H(t)^{-1}$, we obtain an effective scalar potential $U(\phi(t),H(t))$ that evolves in time. We derive a non-perturbative flow equation for this potential, together with the coupled set of (modified) Friedmann equations. We then apply this formalism to the simplest possible case of a de Sitter vacuum when the scalar field is at rest, in two situations which satisfy exactly our flow equation: $(i)$ A flat potential, for which we find that the only pure de Sitter solution is unstable and corresponds to a saddle point. $(ii)$ A quadratic potential with curvature $m^2>0$, for which we find that the presence of the mass term stabilises the system. The latter case leads to a de Sitter attractor either at the Hubble scale when the mass is larger than the Hubble scale at initial time, or by introducing a new attractor located at $H=m$ in the case the mass is smaller, which may be particularly relevant to the phenomenological study of dark energy and inflation theories.

Dynamical symmetry breaking plays a crucial role in mass and scale generation. In QCD-like theories, its dependence on the number of fermion flavours determines the phase structure and the transition to the conformal regime. In this work, we compute non-perturbative corrections relevant to this phenomenom, including momentum dependencies and field invariants essential for an adequate realisation of the global symmetries, by means of the functional renormalisation group and the generalised flow equation. We find that the critical gauge coupling required for dynamical chiral symmetry breaking acquires a strong dependence on the number of flavours and increases sharply at $N_f^\textrm{crit}\simeq 7.30$ for $N_c=3$. This establishes a new picture of the phase transition to the conformal window that disfavours Miransky/BKT scaling and walking regimes but supports a first-order quantum phase transition and a critical region with exotic dynamics and symmetric fermion mass gaps.

This comment gives dimension-independent analytic proofs of the local inequalities arising in the odd- and even-dimensional constructions of higher-dimensional partition charge functions. The prior works established these inequalities by exhaustive computation in low dimensions and tested them numerically in selected higher dimensions.

The Euler product of the Riemann zeta function is the partition function of a free bosonic gas whose mode energies are the logarithms of the primes. We show that this arithmetic gas, combined with the assumption that the entropy–geometry correspondence holds, leads to a quantum-corrected black-hole metric. The prime gas is a Hagedorn system. Its entropy is linear in the energy, which is exactly what an entropy linear in the horizon area requires, and the simple pole of the zeta function at $\beta=1$ fixes the coefficient of the logarithmic correction to the area law. The nontrivial zeros cannot play this role: their level density grows only logarithmically, and far too slowly to be extensive. Demanding that the reconstructed geometry reduce to Schwarzschild at large radius then fixes the map from arithmetic energy to horizon area and yields the closed-form metric $f(r)=1-2GMr/(r^{2}+\lz^{2})$ with $\lz^{2}=\alpha G/\pi$. This describes a two-horizon black hole with Reissner–Nordström horizon structure but no Coulombic hair, a positive-energy anisotropic source obeying the null energy condition, a softened central singularity, a bounded Hawking temperature, and a cold extremal remnant that ends the evaporation. The same length scale follows independently from requiring that the first law hold exactly with the corrected entropy. The nontrivial zeros survive only as exponentially suppressed log-periodic ripples in the area, which suggests a physical interpretation of the Riemann hypothesis as the statement that arithmetic corrections to black-hole thermodynamics are as small as they can be.