arXiv subjects

Kevin T. Grosvenor

Publications and source records attributed to Kevin T. Grosvenor.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

On the Renormalization Group Flow of Active Flocks

We study the statistical field-theoretic renormalization of active flocks via the Martin-Siggia-Rose-De Dominicis-Janssen (MSRDJ) formulation of stochastic dynamics, focusing on the Toner-Tu theory of Malthusian flocks, or polar-ordered, momentum non-conserving active fluids in which density fluctuations relax sufficiently rapidly to be eliminated as hydrodynamic degrees of freedom. Working in the limit of isotropic diffusion in two spatial dimensions, we perform an all orders analysis of the perturbative renormalization of propagators and interaction vertices. We show that a nonlinearly realized diagonal rotation/shift symmetry gives rise to Ward identities that protect the trigonometric structure of the convective derivative, ensuring that the sine and cosine interaction potentials retain their functional form under renormalization up to a rescaling of their overall couplings. We demonstrate that the freedom to renormalize the dynamical critical exponent in this boost non-invariant theory prevents the determination of the precise values of the critical exponents and anomalous dimensions in the theory, highlighting parallels and crucial differences with sine-Gordon and XY models. We express all anomalous dimensions as functions of the dynamical critical exponent, which remains undetermined due to the absence of a relation ordinarily forced upon boost invariant systems. We revisit and contextualize several claims and counterclaims in the recent literature in light of these results.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2026

Exact Solution of the Non-minimally Coupled Klein-Gordon Equation in the Schwarzschild Star

We present for the first time the exact solution of the massive Klein-Gordon equation in the Schwarzschild star (perfect-fluid, uniform-density, spherically-symmetric star), including the non-minimal curvature-scalar coupling. The solution is expressed in terms of the general Heun function. A geometry-induced algebraic coordinate transformation reveals a hidden Fuchsian structure that underlies the exact solvability. Known leading- and next-to-leading-order results are recovered in the low-compactness limit. In the Buchdahl limit, we derive a regularity condition for static modes and describe analytically the divergence in amplitude and oscillation wave vector of dynamic modes as they approach the pressure singularity at the center of the star.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Exact Regions of Superradiant Instability of Kerr-Newman Black Holes and Massive Scalar Fields

We investigate the superradiant instability of Kerr-Newman black holes in the presence of a massive, charged scalar field using the Vieira-Bezerra-Kokkotas (VBK) method. We study the solutions of the exact polynomial condition for quasibound state frequencies and determine the domain of superradiant instability in parameter space without relying on the hydrogenic approximation or numerics. We derive the minimum scalar mass needed for quasibound states to exist, and identify the precise overlap region between the quasibound and superradiant conditions where instability can occur. We obtain perturbative and exact analytic expressions for the instability boundaries and growth rates, and clarify their relation to previous numerical results. Our analysis reveals how the instability region shifts from nearly neutral Kerr black holes for light fields to highly charged near-extremal Kerr-Newman black holes for heavier fields, while remaining absent in the Reissner-Nordstrom limit.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Plasticity from Symmetry: A Gauge-Theoretic Framework

Plastic deformation is widely regarded as an intrinsically dissipative phenomenon and its theoretical description is largely phenomenological. We argue instead that plasticity possesses a non-dissipative, symmetry determined backbone: defect kinematics are fixed by symmetry prior to dissipation and separate from constitutive assumptions. Starting from the spontaneous breaking of spacetime symmetries in a crystalline phase, we construct an effective field theory in which elasticity and geometry reorganize into a coupled higher-rank tensor vector gauge structure. The gauge fields are not postulated, rather they emerge naturally from stress and defect conservation laws. Dislocations, disclinations, and torsional defects appear as gauge charges of non-integrable geometry whose continuity equations and mobility constraints follow directly from Gauss laws. This clarifies the long-standing ambiguity over which variables are fundamental in the gauge theory of defects and shows that plasticity admits an ideal gauge-theoretic formulation, with dissipative flow arising as a controlled deformation of this conservative theory.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Heterotic String Sigma Models: Discrete Light Cone Quantization and Its Current-Current Deformation

We propose a two-dimensional superstring sigma model that defines a self-contained corner of heterotic string theory, whose second quantization is heterotic matrix string theory. This worldsheet theory arises from a BPS decoupling limit that zooms in on the heterotic string, under which the target space geometry becomes non-Lorentzian. This construction generalizes the Gomis-Ooguri formulation of non-relativistic string theory to the heterotic case. We show how such a worldsheet theory provides a first-principles definition of the heterotic string in the discrete light cone quantization via T-duality. By turning on a current-current deformation akin to a $T\bar{T}$ deformation, the conventional heterotic string theory with a Lorentzian target space is recovered. We analyze the gauge and gravitational anomalies with respect to the lowest-order quantum corrections in the sigma model and show how the worldsheet theory is consistent with non-Lorentzian supergravity in the target space.

hep-th↗

arXiv2025

Hydrodynamics without Boost-Invariance from Kinetic Theory: From Perfect Fluids to Active Flocks

We derive the hydrodynamic equations of perfect fluids without boost invariance [1] from kinetic theory. Our approach is to follow the standard derivation of the Vlasov hierarchy based on an a-priori unknown collision functional satisfying certain axiomatic properties consistent with the absence of boost invariance. The kinetic theory treatment allows us to identify various transport coefficients in the hydrodynamic regime. We identify a drift term that effects a relaxation to an equilibrium where detailed balance with the environment with respect to momentum transfer is obtained. We then show how the derivative expansion of the hydrodynamics of flocks can be recovered from boost non-invariant kinetic theory and hydrodynamics. We identify how various coefficients of the former relate to a parameterization of the so-called equation of kinetic state that yields relations between different coefficients, arriving at a symmetry-based understanding as to why certain coefficients in hydrodynamic descriptions of active flocks are naturally of order one, and others, naturally small. When inter-particle forces are expressed in terms of a kinetic theory influence kernel, a coarse-graining scale and resulting derivative expansion emerge in the hydrodynamic limit, allowing us to derive diffusion terms as infrared-relevant operators distilling different parameterizations of microscopic interactions. We conclude by highlighting possible applications.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

Non-Lorentzian IIB Supergravity from a Polynomial Realization of SL(2,R)

We derive the action and symmetries of the bosonic sector of non-Lorentzian IIB supergravity by taking the non-relativistic string limit. We find that the bosonic field content is extended by a Lagrange multiplier that implements a restriction on the Ramond-Ramond fluxes. We show that the SL(2,R) transformation rules of non-Lorentzian IIB supergravity form a novel, nonlinear polynomial realization. Using classical invariant theory of polynomial equations and binary forms, we will develop a general formalism describing the polynomial realization of SL(2,R) and apply it to the special case of non-Lorentzian IIB supergravity. Using the same formalism, we classify all the relevant SL(2,R) invariants. Invoking other bosonic symmetries, such as the local boost and dilatation symmetry, we show how the bosonic part of the non-Lorentzian IIB supergravity action is formed uniquely from these SL(2,R) invariants. This work also points towards the concept of a non-Lorentzian bootstrap, where bosonic symmetries in non-Lorentzian supergravity are used to bootstrap the bosonic dynamics in Lorentzian supergravity, without considering the fermions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

Criticality versus uniformity in deep neural networks

Deep feedforward networks initialized along the edge of chaos exhibit exponentially superior training ability as quantified by maximum trainable depth. In this work, we explore the effect of saturation of the tanh activation function along the edge of chaos. In particular, we determine the line of uniformity in phase space along which the post-activation distribution has maximum entropy. This line intersects the edge of chaos, and indicates the regime beyond which saturation of the activation function begins to impede training efficiency. Our results suggest that initialization along the edge of chaos is a necessary but not sufficient condition for optimal trainability.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2023

Fractonic Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition from a renormalization group perspective

Proliferation of defects is a mechanism that allows for topological phase transitions. Such a phase transition is found in two dimensions for the XY-model, which lies in the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) universality class. The transition point can be found using renormalization group analysis. We apply renormalization group arguments to determine the nature of BKT transitions for the three-dimensional plaquette-dimer model, which is a model that exhibits fractonic mobility constraints. We show that an important part of this analysis demands a modified dimensional analysis that changes the interpretation of scaling dimensions upon coarse-graining. Using this modified dimensional analysis we compute the beta functions of the model and predict a finite critical value above which the fractonic phase melts, proliferating dipoles. Importantly, the transition point is found through a renormalization group analysis that accounts for the phenomenon of UV/IR mixing, characteristic of fractonic models.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2022

Branched SL(2,Z) Duality

We investigate how SL(2,Z) duality is realized in nonrelativistic type IIB superstring theory, which is a self-contained corner of relativistic string theory. Within this corner, we realize manifestly SL(2,Z)-invariant (p,q)-string actions. The construction of these actions imposes a branching between strings of opposite charges associated with the two-form fields. The branch point is determined by these charges and the axion background field. Both branches must be incorporated in order to realize the full SL(2,Z) group. Besides these string actions, we also construct D-instanton and D3-brane actions that manifestly realize the branched SL(2,Z) symmetry.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

The edge of chaos: quantum field theory and deep neural networks

We explicitly construct the quantum field theory corresponding to a general class of deep neural networks encompassing both recurrent and feedforward architectures. We first consider the mean-field theory (MFT) obtained as the leading saddlepoint in the action, and derive the condition for criticality via the largest Lyapunov exponent. We then compute the loop corrections to the correlation function in a perturbative expansion in the ratio of depth $T$ to width $N$, and find a precise analogy with the well-studied $O(N)$ vector model, in which the variance of the weight initializations plays the role of the 't Hooft coupling. In particular, we compute both the $\mathcal{O}(1)$ corrections quantifying fluctuations from typicality in the ensemble of networks, and the subleading $\mathcal{O}(T/N)$ corrections due to finite-width effects. These provide corrections to the correlation length that controls the depth to which information can propagate through the network, and thereby sets the scale at which such networks are trainable by gradient descent. Our analysis provides a first-principles approach to the rapidly emerging NN-QFT correspondence, and opens several interesting avenues to the study of criticality in deep neural networks.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Hydrodynamics of ideal fracton fluids

Low-energy dynamics of many-body fracton excitations necessary to describe topological defects should be governed by a novel type of hydrodynamic theory. We use a Poisson bracket approach to systematically derive hydrodynamic equations from conservation laws of scalar theories with fracton excitations. We study three classes of theories. In the first class we introduce a general action for a scalar with a shift symmetry linear in the spatial coordinates, whereas the second one correspond with a complex scalar, while the third class serves as a toy model for disclinations and dislocations propagating along the Burgers vector. We apply our construction to study hydrodynamic fluctuations around equilibrium states and derive the dispersion relations of hydrodynamic modes.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Space-dependent symmetries and fractons

There has been a surge of interest in effective non-Lorentzian theories of excitations with restricted mobility, known as fractons. Examples include defects in elastic materials, vortex lattices or spin liquids. In the effective theory novel coordinate-dependent symmetries emerge that shape the properties of fractons. In this review we will discuss these symmetries, cover the effective description of gapless fractons via elastic duality, and discuss their hydrodynamics.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

Towards quantifying information flows: relative entropy in deep neural networks and the renormalization group

We investigate the analogy between the renormalization group (RG) and deep neural networks, wherein subsequent layers of neurons are analogous to successive steps along the RG. In particular, we quantify the flow of information by explicitly computing the relative entropy or Kullback-Leibler divergence in both the one- and two-dimensional Ising models under decimation RG, as well as in a feedforward neural network as a function of depth. We observe qualitatively identical behavior characterized by the monotonic increase to a parameter-dependent asymptotic value. On the quantum field theory side, the monotonic increase confirms the connection between the relative entropy and the c-theorem. For the neural networks, the asymptotic behavior may have implications for various information maximization methods in machine learning, as well as for disentangling compactness and generalizability. Furthermore, while both the two-dimensional Ising model and the random neural networks we consider exhibit non-trivial critical points, the relative entropy appears insensitive to the phase structure of either system. In this sense, more refined probes are required in order to fully elucidate the flow of information in these models.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

New Heat Kernel Method in Lifshitz Theories

We develop a new heat kernel method that is suited for a systematic study of the renormalization group flow in Horava gravity (and in Lifshitz field theories in general). This method maintains covariance at all stages of the calculation, which is achieved by introducing a generalized Fourier transform covariant with respect to the nonrelativistic background spacetime. As a first test, we apply this method to compute the anisotropic Weyl anomaly for a (2+1)-dimensional scalar field theory around a z=2 Lifshitz point and corroborate the previously found result. We then proceed to general scalar operators and evaluate their one-loop effective action. The covariant heat kernel method that we develop also directly applies to operators with spin structures in arbitrary dimensions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

Renormalization of Galilean Electrodynamics

We study the quantum properties of a Galilean-invariant abelian gauge theory coupled to a Schrödinger scalar in 2+1 dimensions. At the classical level, the theory with minimal coupling is obtained from a null-reduction of relativistic Maxwell theory coupled to a complex scalar field in 3+1 dimensions and is closely related to the Galilean electromagnetism of Le-Bellac and Lévy-Leblond. Due to the presence of a dimensionless, gauge-invariant scalar field in the Galilean multiplet of the gauge-field, we find that at the quantum level an infinite number of couplings is generated. We explain how to handle the quantum corrections systematically using the background field method. Due to a non-renormalization theorem, the beta function of the gauge coupling is found to vanish to all orders in perturbation theory, leading to a continuous family of fixed points where the non-relativistic conformal symmetry is preserved.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Information geometry in quantum field theory: lessons from simple examples

Motivated by the increasing connections between information theory and high-energy physics, particularly in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, we explore the information geometry associated to a variety of simple systems. By studying their Fisher metrics, we derive some general lessons that may have important implications for the application of information geometry in holography. We begin by demonstrating that the symmetries of the physical theory under study play a strong role in the resulting geometry, and that the appearance of an AdS metric is a relatively general feature. We then investigate what information the Fisher metric retains about the physics of the underlying theory by studying the geometry for both the classical 2d Ising model and the corresponding 1d free fermion theory, and find that the curvature diverges precisely at the phase transition on both sides. We discuss the differences that result from placing a metric on the space of theories vs. states, using the example of coherent free fermion states. We compare the latter to the metric on the space of coherent free boson states and show that in both cases the metric is determined by the symmetries of the corresponding density matrix. We also clarify some misconceptions in the literature pertaining to different notions of flatness associated to metric and non-metric connections, with implications for how one interprets the curvature of the geometry. Our results indicate that in general, caution is needed when connecting the AdS geometry arising from certain models with the AdS/CFT correspondence, and seek to provide a useful collection of guidelines for future progress in this exciting area.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Entanglement Entropy and Subregion Complexity in Thermal Perturbations around Pure-AdS Spacetime

We compute the holographic entanglement entropy and subregion complexity of spherical boundary subregions in the uncharged and charged AdS black hole backgrounds, with the \textbf{change} in these quantities being defined with respect to the pure AdS result. This calculation is done perturbatively in the parameter $\frac{R}{z_{\rm h}}$, where $z_{\rm h}$ is the black hole horizon and $R$ is the radius of the entangling region. We provide analytic formulae for these quantities as functions of the boundary spacetime dimension $d$ including several orders higher than previously computed. We observe that the change in entanglement entropy has definite sign at each order and subregion complexity has a negative sign relative to entanglement entropy at each of those orders (except at first order or in three spacetime dimensions, where it vanishes identically). We combine pre-existing work on the "complexity equals volume" conjecture and the conjectured relationship between Fisher information and bulk entanglement to suggest a refinement of the so-called first law of entanglement thermodynamics by introducing a work term associated with complexity. This extends the previously proposed first law, which held to first order, to one which holds to second order. We note that the proposed relation does not hold to third order and speculate on the existence of additional information-theoretic quantities that may also play a role.

hep-th↗