Related papers: The Effect of Boundaries in One-Loop Quantum Cosmo…
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…
We use the numerical conformal bootstrap to study boundary quantum electrodynamics, the theory of a four dimensional photon in a half space coupled to charged conformal matter on the boundary. This system is believed to be a boundary…
What does it mean for a boundary condition to be symmetric with respect to a non-invertible global symmetry? We discuss two possible definitions in 1+1d. On the one hand, we call a boundary weakly symmetric if the symmetry defects can…
We extend to the fermionic spin-1/2 case earlier work on quantum amplitudes arising from gravitational collapse to a black hole. Boundary data are specified on initial and final asymptotically-flat space-like hypersurfaces $\Sigma_{I,F}$,…
We consider the quantum-mechanical decay of a Schwarzschild-like black hole formed by gravitational collapse into almost-flat space-time and weak radiation at a late time. We evaluate quantum amplitudes (not just probabilities) for…
We study properties of boundary conditions (BCs) in theories with categorical (or non-invertible) symmetries. We describe how the transformation properties, or (generalized) charges, of BCs are captured by topological BCs of Symmetry…
This work is dedicated to the study of a supersymmetric quantum spherical spin system with short-range interactions. We examine the critical properties both a zero and finite temperature. The model undergoes a quantum phase transition at…
The Chern-Simons theory defined on a 3-dimensional manifold with boundary is written as a two-dimensional field theory defined only on the boundary of the three-manifold. The resulting theory is, essentially, the pullback to the boundary of…
We study spontaneous symmetry breaking in one dimensional quantum mechanical problems in terms of two-point boundary problems which lead to singular potentials containing Dirac delta functions and its derivatives. We search for…
We find the spectrum of boundary bound states for the sine-Gordon model with Dirichlet boundary conditions, closing the bootstrap and providing a complete description of all the poles in the boundary reflection factors. The boundary…
We analyze the basic cosmological effects of a population of timelike boundaries -- a form of nontrivial spacetime topology -- containing a boundary layer of quantum stress energy. This accumulation of vacuum fluctuations of quantum fields…
We consider quantum field theories with boundary on a codimension one hyperplane. Using 1+1 dimensional examples, we clarify the relation between three parameters characterising one-point functions, finite size corrections to the ground…
The energy density of the universe today may be dominated by the vacuum energy of a slowly rolling scalar field. Making a quantum expansion around such a time dependent solution is found to break fundamental symmetries of quantum field…
Wheeler-DeWitt equation is applied to $k > 0$ Friedmann Robertson Walker metric with various types of matter. It is shown that if the Universe ends in the matter dominated era (e.g., radiation or pressureless gas) with zero cosmological…
We study the conformal field theory of a free massless scalar field living on the half line with interactions introduced via a periodic potential at the boundary. An SU(2) current algebra underlies this system and the interacting boundary…
A complete model of the universe needs at least three parts: (1) a complete set of physical variables and dynamical laws for them, (2) the correct solution of the dynamical laws, and (3) the connection with conscious experience. In quantum…
We show that ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity with a cosmological constant can be expressed as constrained topological field theory based on the supergroup $Osp(1|4)$. The theory is then extended to include timelike boundaries with finite spatial…
We revisit the subject of one-loop determinants in AdS$_3$ gravity via the quasinormal mode method. Our goal is to evaluate a one-loop determinant with chiral boundary conditions for the metric field; chirality is achieved by imposing…
We study the behaviour of quantum field theories defined on a surface $S$ as it tends to a null surface $S_n$. In the case of a real, free scalar field theory the above limiting procedure reduces the system to one with a finite number of…
In this thesis we present three results about the ferromagnetic quantum XXZ model: 1) Existence of a spectral gap above all infinite-volume ground states in one dimension for any choice of spin S>1/2 (for S=1/2 this was already known); 2)…