Notes from the bulk

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1. Verfasser: Bertolini, Erica
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Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Bertolini, Erica
author_facet Bertolini, Erica
contents The scope of this Ph.D thesis is to study the effects of the presence of a boundary from a Quantum Field Theoretical perspective, searching for new physics and explanations of observed phenomena. In particular, thanks to the formal QFT setting, the issue of the existence of local, accelerated, edge modes in Hall systems is analyzed and understood in terms of the bulk-to-boundary approach as related to a curved background in topological QFTs with boundary. Within this formalism the induced metric on the boundary can be associated to the ad hoc potential introduced in the phenomenological models in order to obtain such non-constant edge velocities. This also leads to the prediction of local modes for Topological Insulators, and Quantum Spin Hall systems in general. The paradigm for which only topological QFTs have a physical content on the boundary is broken, and also non-Topological Quantum Field Theories such as fracton models and Linearized Gravity are shown to have non-trivial boundary dynamics. Indeed due to the breaking of their defining symmetry both models have a current algebra of the Kac-Moody type on the boundary. In the case of fractons this algebra is in a generalized form, which also appears in some kinds of higher order Topological Insulators, a sign of a possible relation between these materials and edge states of fracton quasiparticles. Concerning the theory of Linearized Gravity, instead, the algebra is a standard Kac-Moody one, whose presence was suspected, but never proved before. Physical results on the boundary range between condensed matter, elasticity and (massive) gravity models. A collateral result, which enrich this Thesis, is the building of a new covariant QFT for fractons with a peculiar gauge structure. This new model better highlight the properties of these quasiparticles.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_16744
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Notes from the bulk
Bertolini, Erica
High Energy Physics - Theory
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Strongly Correlated Electrons
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
The scope of this Ph.D thesis is to study the effects of the presence of a boundary from a Quantum Field Theoretical perspective, searching for new physics and explanations of observed phenomena. In particular, thanks to the formal QFT setting, the issue of the existence of local, accelerated, edge modes in Hall systems is analyzed and understood in terms of the bulk-to-boundary approach as related to a curved background in topological QFTs with boundary. Within this formalism the induced metric on the boundary can be associated to the ad hoc potential introduced in the phenomenological models in order to obtain such non-constant edge velocities. This also leads to the prediction of local modes for Topological Insulators, and Quantum Spin Hall systems in general. The paradigm for which only topological QFTs have a physical content on the boundary is broken, and also non-Topological Quantum Field Theories such as fracton models and Linearized Gravity are shown to have non-trivial boundary dynamics. Indeed due to the breaking of their defining symmetry both models have a current algebra of the Kac-Moody type on the boundary. In the case of fractons this algebra is in a generalized form, which also appears in some kinds of higher order Topological Insulators, a sign of a possible relation between these materials and edge states of fracton quasiparticles. Concerning the theory of Linearized Gravity, instead, the algebra is a standard Kac-Moody one, whose presence was suspected, but never proved before. Physical results on the boundary range between condensed matter, elasticity and (massive) gravity models. A collateral result, which enrich this Thesis, is the building of a new covariant QFT for fractons with a peculiar gauge structure. This new model better highlight the properties of these quasiparticles.
title Notes from the bulk
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Strongly Correlated Electrons
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.16744