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1. Averaging over Narain moduli space

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10(2020)187  

   Maloney, Alexander ; Witten, Edward ( October 2020 , Journal of High Energy Physics)

   null (Ed.)

   A bstract Recent developments involving JT gravity in two dimensions indicate that under some conditions, a gravitational path integral is dual to an average over an ensemble of boundary theories, rather than to a specific boundary theory. For an example in one dimension more, one would like to compare a random ensemble of two-dimensional CFT’s to Einstein gravity in three dimensions. But this is difficult. For a simpler problem, here we average over Narain’s family of two-dimensional CFT’s obtained by toroidal compactification. These theories are believed to be the most general ones with their central charges and abelian current algebra symmetries, so averaging over them means picking a random CFT with those properties. The average can be computed using the Siegel-Weil formula of number theory and has some properties suggestive of a bulk dual theory that would be an exotic theory of gravity in three dimensions. The bulk dual theory would be more like U(1) 2 D Chern-Simons theory than like Einstein gravity. 

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2. Exploring the strong-coupling region of SU(N) Seiberg-Witten theory

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2022)102  

   D’Hoker, Eric ; Dumitrescu, Thomas T. ; Nardoni, Emily ( November 2022 , Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A bstract We consider the Seiberg-Witten solution of pure $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 gauge theory in four dimensions, with gauge group SU( N ). A simple exact series expansion for the dependence of the 2( N − 1) Seiberg-Witten periods a I ( u ) , a DI ( u ) on the N − 1 Coulomb-branch moduli u n is obtained around the ℤ 2 N -symmetric point of the Coulomb branch, where all u n vanish. This generalizes earlier results for N = 2 in terms of hypergeometric functions, and for N = 3 in terms of Appell functions. Using these and other analytical results, combined with numerical computations, we explore the global structure of the Kähler potential K = $$ \frac{1}{2}{\sum}_I $$ 1 2 ∑ I Im( $$ \overline{a} $$ a ¯ I a DI ), which is single valued on the Coulomb branch. Evidence is presented that K is a convex function, with a unique minimum at the ℤ 2 N -symmetric point. Finally, we explore candidate walls of marginal stability in the vicinity of this point, and their relation to the surface of vanishing Kähler potential. 

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3. Sharpening the Distance Conjecture in diverse dimensions

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2022)114  

   Etheredge, Muldrow ; Heidenreich, Ben ; Kaya, Sami ; Qiu, Yue ; Rudelius, Tom ( December 2022 , Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A bstract The Distance Conjecture holds that any infinite-distance limit in the scalar field moduli space of a consistent theory of quantum gravity must be accompanied by a tower of light particles whose masses scale exponentially with proper field distance ‖ ϕ ‖ as m ~ exp(− λ ‖ ϕ ‖), where λ is order-one in Planck units. While the evidence for this conjecture is formidable, there is at present no consensus on which values of λ are allowed. In this paper, we propose a sharp lower bound for the lightest tower in a given infinite-distance limit in d dimensions: λ ≥ $$ 1/\sqrt{d-2} $$ 1 / d − 2 . In support of this proposal, we show that (1) it is exactly preserved under dimensional reduction, (2) it is saturated in many examples of string/M-theory compactifications, including maximal supergravity in d = 4 – 10 dimensions, and (3) it is saturated in many examples of minimal supergravity in d = 4 – 10 dimensions, assuming appropriate versions of the Weak Gravity Conjecture. We argue that towers with λ < $$ 1/\sqrt{d-2} $$ 1 / d − 2 discussed previously in the literature are always accompanied by even lighter towers with λ ≥ $$ 1/\sqrt{d-2} $$ 1 / d − 2 , thereby satisfying our proposed bound. We discuss connections with and implications for the Emergent String Conjecture, the Scalar Weak Gravity Conjecture, the Repulsive Force Conjecture, large-field inflation, and scalar field potentials in quantum gravity. In particular, we argue that if our proposed bound applies beyond massless moduli spaces to scalar fields with potentials, then accelerated cosmological expansion cannot occur in asymptotic regimes of scalar field space in quantum gravity. 

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4. Two-loop superstring five-point amplitudes. Part II. Low energy expansion and S-duality

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2021)139  

   D’Hoker, Eric ; Mafra, Carlos R. ; Pioline, Boris ; Schlotterer, Oliver ( February 2021 , Journal of High Energy Physics)

   null (Ed.)

   A bstract In an earlier paper, we constructed the genus-two amplitudes for five external massless states in Type II and Heterotic string theory, and showed that the α ′ expansion of the Type II amplitude reproduces the corresponding supergravity amplitude to leading order. In this paper, we analyze the effective interactions induced by Type IIB superstrings beyond supergravity, both for U(1) R -preserving amplitudes such as for five gravitons, and for U(1) R -violating amplitudes such as for one dilaton and four gravitons. At each order in α ′, the coefficients of the effective interactions are given by integrals over moduli space of genus-two modular graph functions, generalizing those already encountered for four external massless states. To leading and sub-leading orders, the coefficients of the effective interactions D 2 ℛ 5 and D 4 ℛ 5 are found to match those of D 4 ℛ 4 and D 6 ℛ 4 , respectively, as required by non-linear supersymmetry. To the next order, a D 6 ℛ 5 effective interaction arises, which is independent of the supersymmetric completion of D 8 ℛ 4 , and already arose at genus one. A novel identity on genus-two modular graph functions, which we prove, ensures that up to order D 6 ℛ 5 , the five-point amplitudes require only a single new modular graph function in addition to those needed for the four-point amplitude. We check that the supergravity limit of U(1) R -violating amplitudes is free of UV divergences to this order, consistently with the known structure of divergences in Type IIB supergravity. Our results give strong consistency tests on the full five-point amplitude, and pave the way for understanding S-duality beyond the BPS-protected sector. 

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5. Multidimensional WENO-AO Reconstructions Using a Simplified Smoothness Indicator and Applications to Conservation Laws

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10915-023-02319-x  

   Huang, Chieh-Sen ; Arbogast, Todd ; Tian, Chenyu ( August 2023 , Journal of Scientific Computing)

   Finite volume, weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) schemes require the computation of a smoothness indicator. This can be expensive, especially in multiple space dimensions. We consider the use of the simple smoothness indicator$$\sigma ^{\textrm{S}}= \frac{1}{N_{\textrm{S}}-1}\sum _{j} ({\bar{u}}_{j} - {\bar{u}}_{m})^2$$${\sigma }^{\text{S}}=\frac{1}{N_{\text{S}}-1}{\sum }_j{({\overline{u}}_j-{\overline{u}}_m)}^2$, where$$N_{\textrm{S}}$$$N_{\text{S}}$is the number of mesh elements in the stencil,$${\bar{u}}_j$$${\overline{u}}_j$is the local function average over mesh elementj, and indexmgives the target element. Reconstructions utilizing standard WENO weighting fail with this smoothness indicator. We develop a modification of WENO-Z weighting that gives a reliable and accurate reconstruction of adaptive order, which we denote as SWENOZ-AO. We prove that it attains the order of accuracy of the large stencil polynomial approximation when the solution is smooth, and drops to the order of the small stencil polynomial approximations when there is a jump discontinuity in the solution. Numerical examples in one and two space dimensions on general meshes verify the approximation properties of the reconstruction. They also show it to be about 10 times faster in two space dimensions than reconstructions using the classic smoothness indicator. The new reconstruction is applied to define finite volume schemes to approximate the solution of hyperbolic conservation laws. Numerical tests show results of the same quality as standard WENO schemes using the classic smoothness indicator, but with an overall speedup in the computation time of about 3.5–5 times in 2D tests. Moreover, the computational efficiency (CPU time versus error) is noticeably improved.

    

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