Papers

Can quantum entanglement continue to grow even after the entanglement entropies of subsystems have saturated? We address this question using genuine multi-entropy, which probes multi-partite entanglement structure beyond bipartite entanglement. In a two-sided BTZ black hole, this quantity grows linearly with time after every subsystem entropy of a fixed tripartition has saturated, extending the interval in which entanglement detects Einstein-Rosen bridge growth. The result refines the ER=EPR relation by identifying multi-partite structure invisible to ordinary entanglement entropies. Some spin-chain models and the spatially partitioned Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model exhibit distinct transients, while the late-time plateau values in holography, the SYK model, and Haar-random states share a universal behaviour.

In this paper, we investigate the chaos bound through the local radial instability of charged spinning test particles on unstable circular orbits in the black-bounce–Kerr–Newman spacetime. Our results show that violation of the bound is governed by the competition between the local orbital-instability scale and the surface gravity scale, with variations of the black hole background and the particle dynamics providing two complementary routes to the same threshold crossing. Background variations affect both scales and can drive the system into the bound-violating regime when the surface gravity is suppressed more strongly than the orbital instability. At fixed background, by contrast, the surface gravity remains unchanged, and the transition across the threshold is driven by changes in the unstable orbit dynamics induced by the particle parameters. The background-controlled and probe-dynamics-controlled routes therefore represent two realizations of a unified horizon–orbit scale competition rather than independent mechanisms.

We establish a general relation between symmetries of gravitational theories and black hole (BH) quasinormal mode (QNM) spectra. We show that a symmetry implies isospectrality when it induces a bijection between the corresponding QNM boundary value problems. However, conformally related BHs have been reported to exhibit both conformal factor dependent and independent QNM spectra. To resolve this issue, we develop a reduction scheme for higher order perturbation equations. Applied to pure Weyl gravity, it yields the complete axial spectrum of Schwarzschild, including Regge-Wheeler and spin-1 branches. Our results show that these seemingly contradictory conclusions result from differences in the perturbation dynamics or in the boundary conditions.

We study the vacuum structure of maximally supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory in two dimensions. At low energies, the theory decomposes into superselection sectors consisting of orbifold conformal field theories and massive vacua. The sectors are indexed by the cuspidal data appearing in Lusztig's generalized Springer correspondence. This suggests an enhancement of the correspondence to holomorphic factorization algebras.

The Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, proportional to one quarter of the horizon area, is fundamental in black hole thermodynamics and can also be understood via the AdS/CFT correspondence, such as the 3D BTZ black hole and 2D CFT. In this work, we adopt the Kerr/CFT approach to analyze the central charge and black hole entropy for regular extremal black-bounce spacetimes, including the counterparts of the Kerr, Kerr-Newman, and Reissner-Nordström black holes. These spacetimes are free of curvature singularities at $r=0$. We derive the near horizon geometries of these spacetimes and find that they exhibit enhanced symmetry, namely SL$(2,\mathbb{R})\times \mathrm{U}(1)$ or SL$(2,\mathbb{R}) \times \mathrm{SO}(3)$. By imposing appropriate boundary conditions, we analyze their asymptotic symmetry groups, which contain diffeomorphisms as well as the $\mathrm{U}(1)_{\rm gauge}$ symmetry arising from the electromagnetic field. We then extract the central charge from the charge algebra and evaluate the left-moving temperature of the Frolov-Thorne vacuum. It is worth emphasizing that in the black-bounce Kerr-Newman case, the central charge from the electromagnetic contribution vanishes. Furthermore, in the black-bounce Reissner-Nordström case, we uplift the 4D geometry to a 5D configuration by incorporating a $\mathrm{U}(1)$ gauge fiber. Our results show that the microscopic entropy calculated from the Cardy formula is consistent with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. This agreement suggests that the Kerr/CFT approach remains valid for certain regular spacetimes without curvature singularities, thereby providing a microscopic statistical understanding of black hole entropy.

In this paper, we study Renyi and Tsallis information entropies for a Hamiltonian system with position-dependent mass confined in harmonic oscillator potential. Gegenbauer polynomials are used to obtain the position eigenfunction of such a system, and the modified Bessel function of the second kind is used to determine the equivalent momentum eigenfunction. By means of probability densities of both representations, we analytically and numerically evaluate the Heisenberg-like uncertainty of this system. Because the Renyi and Tsallis information entropies in position representation are described by integral functionals of the Gegenbauer polynomials, these quantities are much more difficult to calculate. To get around this problem, we evaluate these information entropies at the system s asymptotical limit, which corresponds to the behavior of an undeformed harmonic oscillator. Nevertheless, no approximation method is used to obtain the Tsallis and Renyi information entropies in momentum representation. In both representations, we find that these information entropies approach the Shannon entropy when the entropic parameter alpha-> 1 and are closed to the results of similar models of the literature. Finally, we evaluate the related entropic uncertainty relations numerically to validate the latter obersevations.

In this work, benefiting from the increased sample of neutron stars with measured masses and radii as well as the incorporation of the chiral effective field theory and perturbative QCD constraints, the tidal parameter $\kappa_2^T$ is constrained to be $78^{+17}_{-11}$ (68.3% credible interval, mainly adopted in this work unless mentioned specifically) for the binary neutron stars involved in GW170817. Such a $\kappa_2^T$ is in favor of strong gravitational wave radiation in the post-merger phase and the corresponding energy is estimated to be $E_{\rm GW,p} \simeq 0.051^{+0.022}_{-0.017}\,M_\odot c^2$. Assuming the remnant from binary neutron star merger is a supramassive neutron star, as suggested by the modeling of the electromagnetic counterparts of GW170817, we examine the maximum mass of nonrotating neutron stars ($M_{\rm TOV}$) while accounting for the uncertainty in the remnant's lifetime ($t_{\rm c}$). Our results show that $M_{\rm TOV}$ varies from $2.09^{+0.11}_{-0.09}\,M_\odot$ for $t_{\rm c}=0.1$ s to $2.18^{+0.10}_{-0.09}\,M_\odot$ for $t_{\rm c}=1$ s. This result is consistent with that independently inferred from the re-construction of the equation of state of neutron star matter, i.e., $M_{\rm TOV,exc}=2.16^{+0.10}_{-0.07}M_\odot$, particularly if the very massive neutron stars with masses measured indirectly have been removed in constructing the prior distribution of $M_{\rm TOV}$. The consistency of the maximum mass of nonrotating neutron stars found in different approaches suggests a reasonable understanding of this key parameter for dense-matter physics.

Divergent series arising in the computation of Casimir energies admit two seemingly different treatments: a physically motivated regularization and subtraction procedure, and formal analytic continuation methods that assign finite values directly to divergent expressions. The agreement between these approaches for the Casimir energy between parallel plates is well known, but its origin is often left implicit. In this work, we provide a unified framework that makes this equivalence transparent. Building on Tao's theory of smoothed sums, we show that the introduction of a smooth cutoff leads to an asymptotic expansion whose finite, regulator-independent part is universally determined by the analytic continuation of the associated Dirichlet series. This identification follows from a Mellin-transform representation, in which divergences and finite contributions are encoded in the pole structure of the integrand. We extend this approach to a class of series relevant to Casimir problems. In this setting, we show that logarithmic divergences arise from pole coincidences, and we obtain a natural decomposition of the result into universal and cutoff-dependent terms, mirroring the structure of renormalization in quantum field theory.

We develop an effective stochastic and semiclassical framework for dynamical thin-shell wormholes connecting two asymptotic spacetime regions. The Israel junction geometry is separated from the phenomenological open-system description: stochastic dynamics is formulated in the radial phase space $(a,\dot a)$, whereas $\sigma$, $P$, and the effective temperature scales are induced observables. A one-dimensional Langevin–Fokker–Planck model is obtained only after an explicit overdamped/adiabatic approximation. Local acceleration scales are interpreted as reservoir temperatures only under additional KMS and detailed-balance assumptions. For a symmetric Schwarzschild–Schwarzschild wormhole, the transparent conservative shell defines the reference potential and restoring frequency, while dissipation and noise are introduced as open-system corrections. The stable linear response is closed by the constitutive slope $\beta_0^2=(dP/d\sigma)_0$. For $2M<a_0<3M$, stability requires a lower bound on $\beta_0^2$ that diverges as $a_0\to2M^+$. Moreover, the derivative along the family of static configurations equals the marginal-stability slope and must not be identified with the constitutive derivative of a stable stochastic shell. The reduced model determines stationary distributions, fluctuations, correlations, Markovian and non-Markovian spectra, and entropy production. Near the horizon, the junction conditions yield $T_{\rm stress}=T_{\rm acc}+O(\hbar\gamma/a)$, with equality at leading order under a specified dominance condition. A peeling temperature participates only if the ray-tracing map satisfies generalized Unruh/peeling and adiabaticity conditions. Thus, the three-temperature correspondence is conditional, while the stochastic coefficients remain phenomenological pending a microscopic shell–reservoir model.

The systematic generalisation of the well-established $S$-matrix positivity and bootstrap bounds from $2 \to 2$ scattering processes to higher-point amplitudes has, to date, remained elusive. To address this, we consider a large class of tree-level UV-completions of a single-scalar EFT. Specifically, we consider the most general renormalisable $N$-scalar theory in $D=4$. By explicitly computing tree-level amplitudes for four-, five- and six-point scattering and expanding at low energies, we can search for positivity relations among the expansion coefficients. We find that quite generally positivity bounds are unavailable due to contamination from a specific class of Feynman diagrams that are linear in sign-indefinite cubic couplings. However, by isolating a sector of the full crossing-symmetric low-energy amplitude that is unaffected by these sign-indefinite cubic couplings, we find that selected six-, five- and four-point Wilson coefficients organise into positive semi-definite matrices. While a violation of these positivity statements only implies that a given EFT is inconsistent with our class of UV completions, the result helps to guide towards what more general positivity bounds for higher-point interactions could, and could not, look like.

Effective infrared two-sheeted descriptions of fermion mixing between braneworlds have emerged in several distinct realizations and lead to testable matter-swapping effects, motivating low-energy searches and cosmological applications. The recurrence of the same low-energy fermion operator motivates asking whether this structure can also arise from a D-brane mechanism. We construct a local Type IIB D3$_+$-D7-D3$_-$/E3 realization in which direct interbrane mixing is perturbatively forbidden but generated non-perturbatively by a suitable E3 instanton sector. The resulting low-energy interaction reproduces the characteristic pseudoscalar structure of the two-sheeted fermion operator, together with its scalar companion, while D7 Wilson transport provides the required gauge-invariant relative connection. The construction therefore provides a local string realization of the same operator structure, subject to the stated instanton and zero-mode conditions. The analysis further provides a concrete model-building roadmap toward a compact phenomenological realization: the compactification must achieve electromagnetic sequestering of the two fermion sectors and support a sufficiently light non-uniform D7 gauge mode capable of mediating a long-range relative interaction. In such a complete compactification, the mixing parameter $g$ would in principle become computable from microscopic string data and directly testable against low-energy constraints.

Motivated by the Planckian thermalization rate $\Gamma \sim T$ observed in the two-body interacting SYK model, we study thermalization in the $q/2$-body case. Previous studies of such systems have established the notion of instantaneous thermalization to leading order in $1/q$. It was conjectured that the thermalization may still be Planckian but with a divergent rate $\Gamma \sim T q$, explaining the “instantaneous” part. For an analytically and numerically tractable system, we calculate the effective temperatures after a quench at time $t = 0$ and indeed find a Planckian rate, albeit with the unexpected decaying behavior $\Gamma \sim T q^{-1} $. This is contrasted with the behavior of the causal Green's function $\mathcal{G}(t_1, t_2)$, which instantly acquires a thermal form in the two-time plane block $t_1, t_2 > 0$. The resulting picture is that instant thermalization is a meaningful concept only for this block, while the off-diagonal blocks $t_1 \cdot t_2 < 0$ are inherently non-thermal at any $q$. Since the effective temperature is obtained from correlations spanning all blocks, it inherits a finite rate set by the off-diagonal. We illustrate this directly by studying the non-thermal correlations' time dependence.

We study the quasinormal-mode and quasibound-state spectra of a massless scalar field in weakly magnetized Ernst–Schwarzschild spacetime. In the separated $O(B_0^2)$ regime, the Klein–Gordon equation reduces to a radial confluent-Heun equation. We construct an endpoint-selected spectral Wronskian directly from the canonical confluent-Heun recurrence and its regular-to-irregular connection limit. Quasinormal modes and quasibound states are then obtained as zeros of the same analytic spectral function on the radiative and bound sheets, respectively, providing a unified treatment of the two spectral sectors within the separated weak-field problem. The resulting QNM and QBS frequencies agree with independent weak-field Ernst and massive-Schwarzschild benchmarks available in the literature. We further show, for representative cases, that the frequencies selected by the local Heun-series termination relation examined here do not satisfy the endpoint-selected quasibound-state condition. The construction therefore provides a direct horizon-to-infinity spectral condition for both radiative and bound states within the weak-field Ernst problem.

We investigate the dynamics of entanglement asymmetry in periodically driven two-dimensional conformal field theories with a global U$(1)$ symmetry, using a dynamical-system description based on iterated conformal maps, in particular Möbius maps. Starting from a symmetry-breaking excited state prepared by a local operator insertion, we show that a broad range of nonequilibrium phenomena, including local symmetry restoration, the quantum Mpemba effect, and its inverse, admit a simple geometric description in terms of the invariant data of the conformal map. We explicitly demonstrate this using Möbius maps, for which the invariant structure is described by the conjugacy classes. In particular, the dynamics of entanglement asymmetry is determined by the relative positions of the state-preparing operator insertion, the subsystem, and the fixed points, yielding distinct patterns of growth, decay, oscillation, and saturation. We further argue that this geometric picture extends to general holomorphic maps, establishing the conformal-map dynamics as a natural framework for organizing the phenomenology of entanglement asymmetry in periodically driven two-dimensional conformal field theories.

In this paper, we study logarithmic Donaldson-Thomas invariants for local log Calabi-Yau $4$-folds with simple normal crossing divisors. Using the family version of shifted Lagrangian classes announced by Khan-Kinjo-Park-Safronov, we construct relative and family logarithmic $\mathsf{DT}_4$-theories for logarithmic Hilbert schemes of curves, and prove a degeneration formula. For logarithmic Hilbert schemes of points, we construct virtual classes and prove a degeneration formula in Chow groups; in particular, it is independent of shifted Lagrangian classes. Finally, combining our degeneration formula with logarithmic cobordism, we explicitly compute the zero-dimensional logarithmic $\mathsf{DT}_4$-invariants for local surface snc pairs.

Using thermal analyticity, we derive directional large-frequency bounds on the smooth functions entering full eigenstate thermalization in continuum quantum field theory. The strongest directions reproduce the scales previously identified for lattice systems, while the complete analyticity domain reveals a broader asymmetric multifrequency structure. In thermal two-dimensional conformal field theory, exact two- and three-point functions saturate the corresponding bounds. At fourth order, where genuine dynamical information first appears, we show that the holographic CFTs studied here saturate the strongest full-ETH bounds. These results establish a direct connection between full ETH, free cumulants, and gravitational scrambling, and are consistent with the emergence of asymptotic freeness realized by the gravitational scrambling algebra.

We study the representation theory of the three-dimensional extended corner symmetry group associated with a circular corner. Using induced representation techniques, we construct families of representations of the infinite-dimensional corner symmetry group and analyze their unitarity and irreducibility. We also determine the maximal central extension of the symmetry group and construct the corresponding projective representations. The analysis is motivated by the role that corner symmetries play in quantum gravity, where boundary degrees of freedom — acted upon by the corner transformations — are expected to encode aspects of the quantum structure of spacetime. In three dimensions, the representation-theoretic structures that emerge are closely related to symmetry groups and quantum theories that already appeared as central to the study of gravity. This work provides a first step toward a systematic description of quantum gravitational corner degrees of freedom in three dimensions.

Detector observables pose a fundamental challenge for nonperturbative lattice methods due to their intrinsically real-time and asymptotic nature. We propose quantum simulation platforms as an ideal setting for studying these observables. Using quantum spin systems as a demonstration, we construct lattice detector operators and establish their connection to continuum energy-flow observables. We demonstrate this framework in the $1+1$-dimensional quantum Ising model, where finite lattice calculations show quantitative agreement with conformal field theory expectations at criticality. These results support the interpretation of the lattice flow operators as regulated counterparts of continuum detectors in the scaling and asymptotic limits, providing a concrete route toward realizing high-energy collider physics on table-top quantum platforms.

Using thermal analyticity, we derive directional large-frequency bounds on the smooth functions entering full eigenstate thermalization in continuum quantum field theory. The strongest directions reproduce the scales previously identified for lattice systems, while the complete analyticity domain reveals an asymmetric multifrequency structure. Thermal conformal correlators saturate the second- and third-order bounds, and the leading gravitational Regge contribution saturates the strongest fourth-order direction.

We develop a method for numerically computing higher genus CFT correlators and string amplitudes based on Kontsevich's ribbon graph parametrization of the moduli space $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$ of punctured Riemann surfaces. Using this method, we compute the compact boson partition function up to genus 6 as well as the moduli space integrand for bosonic string vacuum amplitudes up to genus 3. Our results pass a number of nontrivial numerical checks. In particular, the moduli space integrand of bosonic string amplitudes reproduce the Igusa cusp forms at genera 2 and 3.

Starting from a general Hamiltonian describing the quantum dynamics of probe particles interacting with a set of environment degrees of freedom, we derive the quantum master equation with which the reduced density matrix of a probe particle evolves, the general equilibration condition that they satisfy when the environment is prepared in a thermal state – encoded in a KMS property for line operators extended in real time – and the Langevin description that emerges. The novelty of our results resides in their generality: We do not assume a specific form of the environment self-coupling, of the environment operator that couples the particle to it, of the statistics of its correlation functions, whether the statistics of the momentum transfer is Gaussian or not, or whether the probe particles move relativistically. Our results only require that spacetime translations, parity and time reversal be symmetries of the Hamiltonian, and that there exists a separation of scales between those characterizing the dispersion relation of the probe particle and those of the environment. We also discuss the limiting case in which Gaussian Brownian motion emerges. Overall, our results constitute a first-principles derivation of what properties of the underlying quantum field theory govern the energy loss and momentum fluctuations of probe particles.

Noether charges in gravity are always defined with respect to a reference metric, but the near-horizon extremal Kerr (NHEK) solution does not come with an obvious choice of reference metric (it is not asymptotically flat, for example). We discuss a one parameter generalization of the NHEK solution due to Kinnersley and Kelley which interpolates between NHEK and an analytically continued version of Minkowski spacetime. We use this interpolating family of solutions to compute the conformal energy of NHEK above the Minkowski reference metric. We find an interesting order of limits issue when computing the conformal energy of the Minkowski vacuum and we discuss a few natural prescriptions for fixing it, including one motivated by the Kerr/CFT correspondence.

We obtain two families of neutral planar black branes in a potential-free dilaton-coupled Lovelock–Horndeski theory. Heterotic compactification relates higher-dimensional curvature to scalar dynamics and motivates the interaction structure. At fixed scalar zero mode, the horizon radius and temperature vary while the complete stationary Wald entropy remains constant and positive. The exponential scalar factor at the horizon exactly compensates the area growth, giving this behavior a direct geometric explanation. An exact coefficient analysis determines the two four-dimensional branches and their continuation to every higher dimension through closed coupling relations. The linear family is conformally flat and leaves the AdS scale free at fixed couplings; the fractional family is Weyl curved and fixes that scale. The common kinetic relation also excludes their realization through a real one-scalar flat-torus reduction of a metric–dilaton parent.

A BV structure is constructed on the space of zero modes of a quadratic elliptic higher abelian gauge theory. The associated BV integral is shown to be independent of the choice of zero-mode Lagrangian under mild hypotheses. The construction yields explicit zero-mode partition functions for several $p$-form abelian gauge theories.

We study the numerical geography and tangent geometry of very amply polarized Calabi–Yau threefolds $(X,H)$ through the positivity of the first jet bundle $J^1(H)$. Writing $d=\int_X H^3$, $c=\int_Xc_2(X) H$, and $e=\int_X c_3(X)$, we exploit two different positivity properties of this single bundle. Mixed intersections on $\mathbb{P}(J^1(H)^*)$ give $e\ge-5d-c-c^2/(4d)$, while a volume estimate for a perturbed tautological class gives $e\ge40d\left[(1-\frac{c}{10d})^{3/2}-1\right]$; in particular $e+6c\ge0$, improving Sun's inequality $e+10c\ge0$. As consequences, we obtain the uniform Hodge bounds $-4d-80\le h^{1,1}(X)-h^{2,1}(X)\le173d/66$, the lower bound $\mathrm{deg}X^\vee\ge78$ for the dual hypersurface, and, in the critical case $X\subset\mathbb{P}^6$, the upper bound $d\le34$. We also prove that, for every $m\ge2$, the tangent-incidence morphism associated with $|mH|$ is the normalization of the tangent variety, conjecture tangent birationality for complete embeddings $X\subset\mathbb{P}^N$ with $N\ge7$, and verify it for several families.

We study quasinormal modes governed by the Teukolsky equation in Kerr-Newman-de Sitter spacetime, formally treating the spin weight and field charge as arbitrary parameters. We use exact Heun connection formulae expressed through classical conformal blocks. We analytically derive the quasinormal mode spectra in the small cosmological constant, near-extremal, and near-Nariai limits. In the small cosmological constant limit, we obtain the leading charged de Sitter spectrum together with its subleading corrections. In both the small cosmological constant and near-extremal limits, solving the full connection condition beyond the leading pole approximation gives rise to generically noninteger-power corrections to the quasinormal mode frequencies, whereas no analogous correction appears in the near-Nariai limit. We also analyze the angular eigenvalue problem as an illustration of the same connection-formula method.

We investigate the relaxation of an approximately conserved charge in interacting quantum systems close to local equilibrium. To this end, we provide a pedagogical review of Zubarev's non-equilibrium statistical operator approach in the minimal setting of a single non-conserved charge and apply it to the problem at hand. We explicitly highlight the physical assumptions that lead to a local relaxation law: weak charge violation, a separation between the short timescale of microscopic correlations and the much longer timescale of charge relaxation, and the resulting loss of microscopic memory. Under these conditions, the leading relaxation rate is determined by an equilibrium correlation function of the charge-violating operator. We show that the same result follows from a simpler local-equilibrium construction based on the system's evolution over an intermediate timescale, providing a direct alternative for practical calculations and making the common physical ingredients of the two approaches explicit. Beyond the decay law itself, we relate the relaxation rate to the equilibrium diffusion of the same charge. We then allow the charge density to vary in space, which leads to a diffusion-relaxation equation. Finally, we illustrate the formalism through electroweak $\mathrm{B+L}$ washout and a perturbative scalar model, where agreement with the linearized Boltzmann equation establishes a direct connection between equilibrium-correlator and kinetic descriptions.

The high-overtone quasinormal-mode spectrum encodes the near-singularity Kasner scaling of black-hole interiors. We show that distinct structures in this spectrum independently determine the temporal and spatial Kasner grades, allowing the corresponding metric exponents to be reconstructed without imposing Kasner constraints or invoking holography. We demonstrate this independent reconstruction at the fixed Kasner point of five-dimensional asymptotically flat Schwarzschild and planar Schwarzschild–AdS$_5$, and then extend it to a continuously varying Gibbons–Maeda black-hole family. The reconstructed exponents satisfy the Kasner relation a posteriori, providing a nontrivial geometric consistency check. More generally, the high-overtone spectrum separates into global spectral data and local algebraic corrections whose fractional powers are fixed by the near-singularity Kasner geometry. These fractional corrections therefore provide a direct spectral probe of the local geometry behind the horizon.

We identify a topological constraint on extremal $\mathcal{N}=1$ AdS$_3$ spectra that is not implied by genus-one modular covariance of the three even spin structure partition functions. Assuming the expected topological modular forms divisibility of the Ramond Witten index, we show that for infinitely many odd $n$ at central charge $c=12n$, an extremal holomorphic $\mathcal{N}=1$ superconformal field theory requires an odd number of Neveu–Schwarz primaries at the BTZ threshold. Thus the strict ansatz with no threshold primaries is excluded for this infinite family.

We study the decoupling of branes sourcing AdS flux vacua from the asymptotic bulk using scalar-wave absorption probabilities. In a one-modulus truncation, the result depends only on the dimension of the AdS vacuum and on the asymptotic steepness of the scalar potential. We find that for any steepness and for any dimension greater than two the absorption probability vanishes in the low-energy limit, showing that the branes decouple from the bulk. We illustrate the general analysis in several scale-separated AdS vacua. For DGKT we find $P_{\rm abs}\sim\omega^{27/7}$ and an effective transverse dimension $d_{\rm eff}=20/7$. Interestingly, the scalar potential along the brane-induced moduli trajectory agrees with that obtained by compactifying a hypothetical $(4+13/7)$-dimensional gravity theory on a $13/7$-dimensional sphere threaded by flux. We also apply the analysis to scale-separated $\mathrm{AdS}_3$ examples and to the simplest one-modulus KKLT model.