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Wang, Junpu

Publications and source records attributed to Wang, Junpu.

Universe without dark energy: Cosmic acceleration from dark matter-baryon interactions

Cosmic acceleration is widely believed to require either a source of negative pressure (i.e., dark energy), or a modification of gravity, which necessarily implies new degrees of freedom beyond those of Einstein gravity. Here in this paper we present a third possibility, using only dark matter (DM) and ordinary matter. The mechanism relies on the coupling between dark matter and ordinary matter through an effective metric. Dark matter couples to an Einstein-frame metric, and experiences a matter-dominated, decelerating cosmology up to the present time. Ordinary matter couples to an effective metric that depends also on the DM density, in such a way that it experiences late-time acceleration. Linear density perturbations are stable and propagate with arbitrarily small sound speed, at least in the case of “pressure” coupling. Assuming a simple parametrization of the effective metric, we show that our model can successfully match a set of basic cosmological observables, including luminosity distance, baryon acoustic oscillation measurements, angular-diameter distance to last scattering, etc. For the growth history of density perturbations, we find an intriguing connection between the growth factor and the Hubble constant. To get a growth history similar to the Λ CDM prediction, our model predicts a higher H 0 , closer to the value preferred by direct estimates. On the flip side, we tend to overpredict the growth of structures whenever H 0 is comparable to the Planck preferred value. The model also tends to predict larger redshift-space distortions at low redshift than Λ CDM.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Degenerate operators and the 1/c expansion: Lorentzian resummations, high order computations, and super-Virasoro blocks

Here, one can obtain exact information about Virasoro conformal blocks by analytically continuing the correlators of degenerate operators. We argued in recent work that this technique can be used to explicitly resolve information loss problems in AdS 3 /CFT 2 . In this paper we use the technique to perform calculations in the small 1/c ∝ GN expansion: (1) we prove the all-orders resummation of logarithmic factors ∝1/clog z in the Lorentzian regime, demonstrating that 1/c corrections directly shift Lyapunov exponents associated with chaos, as claimed in prior work, (2) we perform another all-orders resummation in the limit of large c with fixed cz, interpolating between the early onset of chaos and late time behavior, (3) we explicitly compute the Virasoro vacuum block to order 1/c 2 and 1/c 3 with external dimensions fixed, corresponding to 2 and 3 loop calculations in AdS 3 , and (4) we derive the heavy-light vacuum blocks in theories with N = 1, 2 superconformal symmetry.

1/N expansion↗

Li Intercalation into Graphite: Direct Optical Imaging and Cahn–Hilliard Reaction Dynamics

Lithium intercalation into graphite is a critical process in energy storage technology. Studies of Li intercalation kinetics have proved challenging due to structural and phase complexity, and sample heterogeneity. Here we report direct time- and space-resolved, all-optical measurement of Li intercalation. We use a single crystal graphite electrode with lithographically defined disc geometry. All-optical, Raman and reflectance measurements distinguish the intrinsic intercalation process from side reactions, and provide new insight into the microscopic intercalation process. The recently proposed Cahn–Hilliard reaction (CHR) theory quantitatively captures the observed phase front spatial patterns and dynamics, using a two-layer free-energy model with novel, generalized Butler–Volmer kinetics. This approach unites Cahn–Hilliard and electrochemical kinetics, using a thermodynamically consistent description of the Li injection reaction at the crystal edge that involves a cooperative opening of graphene planes. Here, the excellent agreement between experiment and theory presented here, with single-crystal resolution, provides strong support for the CHR theory of solid-state reactions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

On information loss in AdS 3 /CFT 2

We discuss information loss from black hole physics in AdS 3 , focusing on two sharp signatures infecting CFT 2 correlators at large central charge c: ‘forbidden singularities’ arising from Euclidean-time periodicity due to the effective Hawking temperature, and late-time exponential decay in the Lorentzian region. We study an infinite class of examples where forbidden singularities can be resolved by non-perturbative effects at finite c, and we show that the resolution has certain universal features that also apply in the general case. Analytically continuing to the Lorentzian regime, we find that the non-perturbative effects that resolve forbidden singularities qualitatively change the behavior of correlators at times t ~S BH , the black hole entropy. This may resolve the exponential decay of correlators at late times in black hole backgrounds. By Borel resumming the 1/c expansion of exact examples, we explicitly identify ‘information-restoring’ effects from heavy states that should correspond to classical solutions in AdS 3 . Lastly, our results suggest a line of inquiry towards a more precise formulation of the gravitational path integral in AdS 3 .

1/N expansion↗

Hawking from Catalan

The Virasoro algebra determines all ‘graviton’ matrix elements in AdS 3 /CFT 2 . We study the explicit exchange of any number of Virasoro gravitons between heavy and light CFT 2 operators at large central charge. These graviton exchanges can be written in terms of new on-shell tree diagrams, organized in a perturbative expansion in h H /c, the heavy operator dimension divided by the central charge. The Virasoro vacuum conformal block, which is the sum of all the tree diagrams, obeys a differential recursion relation generalizing that of the Catalan numbers. Here, we use this recursion relation to sum the on-shell diagrams to all orders, computing the Virasoro vacuum block. Extrapolating to large h H /c determines the Hawking temperature of a BTZ black hole in dual AdS 3 theories.

1/N expansion↗

Eikonalization of conformal blocks

Classical field configurations such as the Coulomb potential and Schwarzschild solution are built from the t-channel exchange of many light degrees of freedom. We study the CFT analog of this phenomenon, which we term the 'eikonalization' of conformal blocks. We show that when an operator T appears in the OPE Ο(x)Ο(0), then the large spin Fock space states [TT···T] ℓ also appear in this OPE with a computable coefficient. The sum over the exchange of these Fock space states in an correlator build the classical 'T field' in the dual AdS description. In some limits the sum of all Fock space exchanges can be represented as the exponential of a single T exchange in the 4-pt correlator of O. Our results should be useful for systematizing 1/ℓ perturbation theory in general CFTs and simplifying the computation of large spin OPE coefficients. As examples we obtain the leading log ℓ dependence of Fock space conformal block coefficients, and we directly compute the OPE coefficients of the simplest ‘triple-trace’ operators.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Non-trivial checks of novel consistency relations

Single-field perturbations satisfy an infinite number of consistency relations constraining the squeezed limit of correlation functions at each order in the soft momentum. These can be understood as Ward identities for an infinite set of residual global symmetries, or equivalently as Slavnov-Taylor identities for spatial diffeomorphisms. In this paper, we perform a number of novel, non-trivial checks of the identities in the context of single field inflationary models with arbitrary sound speed. We focus for concreteness on identities involving 3-point functions with a soft external mode, and consider all possible scalar and tensor combinations for the hard-momentum modes. In all these cases, we check the consistency relations up to and including cubic order in the soft momentum. For this purpose, we compute for the first time the 3-point functions involving 2 scalars and 1 tensor, as well as 2 tensors and 1 scalar, for arbitrary sound speed.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Solid inflation

We develop a cosmological model where primordial inflation is driven by a 'solid', defined as a system of three derivatively coupled scalar fields obeying certain symmetries and spontaneously breaking a certain subgroup of these. The symmetry breaking pattern differs drastically from that of standard inflationary models: time translations are unbroken. This prevents our model from fitting into the standard effective field theory description of adiabatic perturbations, with crucial consequences for the dynamics of cosmological perturbations. Most notably, non-gaussianities in the curvature perturbations are unusually large, with f{sub NL} ∼ 1/(εc{sub s}{sup 2}), and have a novel shape: peaked in the squeezed limit, with anisotropic dependence on how the limit is approached. Other unusual features include the absence of adiabatic fluctuation modes during inflation — which does not impair their presence and near scale-invariance after inflation — and a slightly blue tilt for the tensor modes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗