Point Correlation Function Research Articles

Measures of non-Gaussianity in axion-string-induced CMB birefringence

The presence of axion strings in the Universe after recombination can leave an imprint on the polarization pattern of the cosmic microwave background radiation through the phenomenon of axion-string-induced birefringence via the hyperlight axion-like particle's coupling to electromagnetism. Across the sky, the polarization rotation angle is expected to display a patchwork of uniform regions with sharp boundaries that arise as the `shadow' of axion string loops. The statistics of such a birefringence sky map are therefore necessarily non-Gaussian. In this article we quantify the non-Gaussianity in axion-string-induced birefringence using two techniques, kurtosis and bispectrum, which correspond to 4- and 3-point correlation functions. If anisotropic birefringence were detected in the future, a measurement of its non-Gaussian properties would facilitate a discrimination across different new physics sources generally, and in the context of axion strings specifically, it would help to break degeneracies between the axion-photon coupling and properties of the string network.

Modelling the next-to-leading order matter three-point correlation function using FFTLog

The study of higher-order statistics, particularly 3-point statistics, of the Large Scale Structure (LSS) of the Universe provides us with unique information on the biasing relation between luminous and dark matter and on deviations from primordial Gaussianity. As a result, much effort has been put into improving measurement techniques as well as theoretical modelling, especially in Fourier space. Comparatively, little progress has been made, instead, in configuration space analyses. This work represents a first step towards filling this gap by proposing a new strategy for modelling 3-point statistics at higher perturbative orders in configuration space. Starting from the next-to-leading order model for the matter bispectrum, we use 2D-FFTLog to generate its counterpart in configuration space. We calibrate the procedure using the leading order predictions for which an analytic model for the 3-point correlation function (3PCF) already exists. Then we assess the goodness of the 3PCF model by comparing its predictions with measurements performed on the matter distribution in collisionless cosmological N-body simulation (DEMNUni). We focus on two redshifts (z = 0.49 and z = 1.05) in the range spanned by current and future galaxy redshift surveys. The χ 2 analysis reveals that the next-to-leading order 3PCF models significantly improve over the leading order one for all triangle configurations in both redshifts, increasing the number of matched configurations at redshift z = 1.05 and z = 0.49, respectively. In particular, a significant improvement is also seen on the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) scale for triangle configurations whose smallest side length is well into the nonlinear regime. The computational cost of the model proposed here is high but not prohibitively large — order of five hours in a 48-core computation — and represents the first step towards a complete 3PC model for the galaxies.

Stochastic quantization and holographic Wilsonian renormalization group of scalar theory with generic mass, self-interaction and multiple trace deformation

We explore the mathematical relationship between holographic Wilsonian renormalization group (HWRG) and stochastic quantization (SQ) of scalar field theory with its generic mass, self-interaction and [Formula: see text]-multiple-trace deformation on the [Formula: see text]-dimensional conformal boundary defined in AdS[Formula: see text] space–time. We understand that once we define our Euclidean action, [Formula: see text] as [Formula: see text], then the stochastic process will reconstruct the HWRG data via solving Langevin equation and computing stochastic correlation functions. The [Formula: see text] is given by [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the boundary counter term and [Formula: see text] is the boundary deformation which gives a boundary condition. In our study, we choose the boundary condition adding (marginal)[Formula: see text]-multiple-trace deformation to the holographic dual field theory. In this theory, we establish maps between fictitious time, [Formula: see text] evolution of stochastic [Formula: see text]-point, ([Formula: see text])-point correlation functions and the (AdS)radial, [Formula: see text] evolution of [Formula: see text]-multiple-trace and ([Formula: see text])-multiple-trace deformations, respectively, once we take identifications of [Formula: see text] and between some of the constants appearing in both sides.

Asymptotic expansion of the expected Minkowski functional for isotropic central limit random fields

AbstractThe Minkowski functionals, including the Euler characteristic statistics, are standard tools for morphological analysis in cosmology. Motivated by cosmic research, we examine the Minkowski functional of the excursion set for an isotropic central limit random field, whose k-point correlation functions (kth-order cumulants) have the same structure as that assumed in cosmic research. Using 3- and 4-point correlation functions, we derive the asymptotic expansions of the Euler characteristic density, which is the building block of the Minkowski functional. The resulting formula reveals the types of non-Gaussianity that cannot be captured by the Minkowski functionals. As an example, we consider an isotropic chi-squared random field and confirm that the asymptotic expansion accurately approximates the true Euler characteristic density.

Cosmology from the integrated shear 3-point correlation function: simulated likelihood analyses with machine-learning emulators

The integrated shear 3-point correlation function ζ ± measures the correlation between the local shear 2-point function ξ ± and the 1-point shear aperture mass in patches of the sky. Unlike other higher-order statistics, ζ ± can be efficiently measured from cosmic shear data, and it admits accurate theory predictions on a wide range of scales as a function of cosmological and baryonic feedback parameters. Here, we develop and test a likelihood analysis pipeline for cosmological constraints using ζ ±. We incorporate treatment of systematic effects from photometric redshift uncertainties, shear calibration bias and galaxy intrinsic alignments. We also develop an accurate neural-network emulator for fast theory predictions in MCMC parameter inference analyses. We test our pipeline using realistic cosmic shear maps based on N-body simulations with a DES Y3-like footprint, mask and source tomographic bins, finding unbiased parameter constraints. Relative to ξ ±-only, adding ζ ± can lead to ≈ 10-25% improvements on the constraints of parameters like As (or σ 8) and w 0. We find no evidence in ξ ± + ζ ± constraints of a significant mitigation of the impact of systematics. We also investigate the impact of the size of the apertures where ζ ± is measured, and of the strategy to estimate the covariance matrix (N-body vs. lognormal). Our analysis solidifies the strong potential of the ζ ± statistic and puts forward a pipeline that can be readily used to improve cosmological constraints using real cosmic shear data.

Planting a Lyman alpha forest on AbacusSummit

ABSTRACT The full-shape correlations of the Lyman alpha (Ly α) forest contain a wealth of cosmological information through the Alcock–Paczyński effect. However, these measurements are challenging to model without robustly testing and verifying the theoretical framework used for analysing them. Here, we leverage the accuracy and volume of the N-body simulation suite AbacusSummit to generate high-resolution Ly α skewers and quasi-stellar object (QSO) catalogues. One of the main goals of our mocks is to aid in the full-shape Ly α analysis planned by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) team. We provide optical depth skewers for six of the fiducial cosmology base-resolution simulations ($L_{\rm box} = 2\, h^{-1}\, {\rm Gpc}$, N = 69123) at z = 2.5. We adopt a simple recipe based on the Fluctuating Gunn–Peterson Approximation (FGPA) for constructing these skewers from the matter density in an N-body simulation and calibrate it against the 1D and 3D Ly α power spectra extracted from the hydrodynamical simulation IllustrisTNG (TNG; $L_{\rm box} = 205\, h^{-1}\, {\rm Mpc}$, N = 25003). As an important application, we study the non-linear broadening of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) peak and show the cross-correlation between DESI-like QSOs and our Ly α forest skewers. We find differences on small scales between the Kaiser approximation prediction and our mock measurements of the Ly α × QSO cross-correlation, which would be important to account for in upcoming analyses. The AbacusSummit Ly α forest mocks open up the possibility for improved modelling of cross-correlations between Ly α and cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing and Ly α and QSOs, and for forecasts of the 3-point Ly α correlation function. Our catalogues and skewers are publicly available on Globus via the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) (full link under the section ‘Data Availability’).

Scaling limits of fluctuations of extended-source internal DLA

In a previous work, we showed that the 2D, extended-source internal DLA (IDLA) of Levine and Peres is δ3/5-close to its scaling limit, if δ is the lattice size. In this paper, we investigate the scaling limits of the fluctuations themselves. Namely, we show that two naturally defined error functions, which measure the “lateness” of lattice points at one time and at all times, respectively, converge to geometry-dependent Gaussian random fields. We use these results to calculate point-correlation functions associated with the fluctuations of the flow. Along the way, we demonstrate similar δ3/5 bounds on the fluctuations of the related divisible sandpile model of Levine and Peres, and we generalize the results of our previous work to a larger class of extended sources.

Ladder and zig-zag Feynman diagrams, operator formalism and conformal triangles

We develop an operator approach to the evaluation of multiple integrals for multiloop Feynman massless diagrams. A commutative family of graph building operators Hα for ladder diagrams is constructed and investigated. The complete set of eigenfunctions and the corresponding eigenvalues for the operators Hα are found. This enables us to explicitly express a wide class of four-point ladder diagrams and a general two-loop propagator-type master diagram (with arbitrary indices on the lines) as Mellin-Barnes-type integrals. Special cases of these integrals are explicitly evaluated. A certain class of zig-zag four-point and two-point planar Feynman diagrams (relevant to the bi-scalar D-dimensional “fishnet” field theory and to the calculation of the β-function in ϕ4-theory) is considered. The graph building operators and convenient integral representations for these Feynman diagrams are obtained. The explicit form of the eigenfunctions for the graph building operators of the zig-zag diagrams is fixed by conformal symmetry and these eigenfunctions coincide with the 3-point correlation functions in D-dimensional conformal field theories. By means of this approach, we exactly evaluate the diagrams of the zig-zag series in special cases. In particular, we find a fairly simple derivation of the values for the zig-zag multi-loop two-point diagrams for D = 4. The role of conformal symmetry in this approach, especially a connection of the considered graph building operators with conformal invariant solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation is investigated in detail.

Bivariate moments of the two-point correlation function for embedded Gaussian unitary ensemble with k-body interactions.

Embedded random matrix ensembles with k-body interactions are well established to be appropriate for many quantum systems. For these ensembles the two point correlation function is not yet derived, though these ensembles are introduced 50 years back. Two-point correlation function in eigenvalues of a random matrix ensemble is the ensemble average of the product of the density of eigenvalues at two eigenvalues, say E and E^{'}. Fluctuation measures such as the number variance and Dyson-Mehta Δ_{3} statistic are defined by the two-point function and so also the variance of the level motion in the ensemble. Recently, it is recognized that for the embedded ensembles with k-body interactions the one-point function (ensemble averaged density of eigenvalues) follows the so called q-normal distribution. With this, the eigenvalue density can be expanded by starting with the q-normal form and using the associated q-Hermite polynomials He_{ζ}(x|q). Covariances S_{ζ}S_{ζ^{'}}[over ¯] (overline representing ensemble average) of the expansion coefficients S_{ζ} with ζ≥1 here determine the two-point function as they are a linear combination of the bivariate moments Σ_{PQ} of the two-point function. Besides describing all these, in this paper formulas are derived for the bivariate moments Σ_{PQ} with P+Q≤8, of the two-point correlation function, for the embedded Gaussian unitary ensembles with k-body interactions [EGUE(k)] as appropriate for systems with m fermions in N single particle states. Used for obtaining the formulas is the SU(N) Wigner-Racah algebra. These formulas with finite N corrections are used to derive formulas for the covariances S_{ζ}S_{ζ^{'}}[over ¯] in the asymptotic limit. These show that the present work extends to all k values, the results known in the past in the two extreme limits with k/m→0 (same as q→1) and k=m (same as q=0).

Measurement of parity-odd modes in the large-scale 4-point correlation function of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey twelfth data release CMASS and LOWZ galaxies

ABSTRACT A tetrahedron is the simplest shape that cannot be rotated into its mirror image in three-dimension (3D). The 4-point correlation function (4PCF), which quantifies excess clustering of quartets of galaxies over random, is the lowest order statistic sensitive to parity violation. Each galaxy defines one vertex of the tetrahedron. Parity-odd modes of the 4PCF probe an imbalance between tetrahedra and their mirror images. We measure these modes from the largest currently available spectroscopic samples, the 280 067 luminous red galaxies (LRGs) of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) twelfth data release (DR12) LOWZ ($\bar{z} = 0.32$ ) and the 803 112 LRGs of BOSS DR12 CMASS ($\bar{z} = 0.57$ ). In LOWZ, we find 3.1σ evidence for a non-zero parity-odd 4PCF, and in CMASS we detect a parity-odd 4PCF at 7.1σ. Gravitational evolution alone does not produce this effect; parity-breaking in LSS, if cosmological in origin, must stem from the epoch of inflation. We have explored many sources of systematic error and found none that can produce a spurious parity-odd signal sufficient to explain our result. Underestimation of the noise could also lead to a spurious detection. Our reported significances presume that the mock catalogues used to calculate the covariance sufficiently capture the covariance of the true data. We have performed numerous tests to explore this issue. The odd-parity 4PCF opens a new avenue for probing new forces during the epoch of inflation with 3D large-scale structure; such exploration is timely given large upcoming spectroscopic samples such as Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument and Euclid.

Quantization of Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity with a massless scalar

We study canonical quantization of Jackiw-Teibelboim (JT) gravity coupled to a massless scalar field. We provide concrete expressions of matter SL(2, R) charges and the boundary matter operators in terms of the creation and annihilation operators in the scalar field. The matter charges are represented in the form of an oscillator (Jordon-Schwinger) realization of the SL(2, R) algebra. We also show how the gauge constraints are implemented classically, by matching explicitly classical solutions of Schwarzian dynamics with bulk solutions. We introduce n-point transition functions defined by insertions of boundary matter operators along the two-sided Lorentzian evolution, which may fully spell out the quantum dynamics in the presence of matter. For the Euclidean case, we proceed with a two-sided picture of the disk geometry and consider the two-sided 2-point correlation function where initial and final states are arranged by inserting matter operators in a specific way. For some simple initial states, we evaluate the correlation function perturbatively. We also discuss some basic features of the two-sided correlation functions with additional insertions of boundary matter operators along the two-sided evolution.

Positivity, low twist dominance and CSDR for CFTs

We consider a crossing symmetric dispersion relation (CSDR) for CFT four point correlation with identical scalar operators, which is manifestly symmetric under the cross-ratios u,vu,v interchange. This representation has several features in common with the CSDR for quantum field theories. It enables a study of the expansion of the correlation function around u=v=1/4u=v=1/4, which is used in the numerical conformal bootstrap program. We elucidate several remarkable features of the dispersive representation using the four point correlation function of \Phi_{1,2}Φ1,2 operators in 2d minimal models as a test-bed. When the dimension of the external scalar operator (\Delta_\sigmaΔσ) is less than \frac{1}{2}12, the CSDR gets contribution from only a single tower of global primary operators with the second tower being projected out. We find that there is a notion of low twist dominance (LTD) which, as a function of \Delta_\sigmaΔσ, is maximized near the 2d Ising model as well as the non-unitary Yang-Lee model. The CSDR and LTD further explain positivity of the Taylor expansion coefficients of the correlation function around the crossing symmetric point and lead to universal predictions for specific ratios of these coefficients. These results carry over to the epsilon expansion in 4-\epsilon4−ϵ dimensions. We also conduct a preliminary investigation of geometric function theory ideas, namely the Bieberbach-Rogosinski bounds.

4D flat-space scattering amplitude/CFT3 correlator correspondence revisited

In this paper, we make connection between CFT3 three point correlation function of conserved currents and 4D three point amplitude of general spin massless gauge field explicit. We do so by taking flat space limit of momentum space CFT correlation function and show how they reproduce flat space amplitudes. We then point out a mismatch between number of independent structures in 3D CFT correlator of conserved currents and 4D flat space covariant vertex of massless higher spin fields. This is in contrast with general expectation that counting of 3d CFT correlator and 4d flat space amplitude should match. This mismatch is even more pronounced in spinor helicity variables.We also point out an interesting relation between parity even and parity odd flat space amplitude in momentum space. This observation helps us to construct a new momentum space CFT structure which accounts for the mismatch. However we should mention that this extra CFT structure can't be constructed out of conserved currents and hence counting mismatch between CFT correlation of conserved currents and flat space amplitude of massless gauge field persists. Story in spinor helicity variable is more complicated and is discussed in detail. We further comment on the connection of CFT correlation function in spinor helicity variables to AdS amplitudes in spinor helicity variables and light cone variables.

Analyticity of replica correlators and modular ETH

We study the two point correlation function of a local operator on an n-sheeted replica manifold corresponding to the half-space in the vacuum state of a conformal field theory. In analogy with the inverse Laplace transform, we define the Renyi transform of this correlation function, which is a function of one complex variable w, dual to the Renyi parameter n. Inspired by the inversion formula of Caron-Huot, we argue that if the Renyi transform f (w) has bounded behavior at infinity in the complex w plane, the discontinuity of the Renyi transform disc f (w) provides the unique analytic continuation in n of the original replica correlation function. We check our formula by explicitly calculating the Renyi transform of a particular replica correlator in a large N holographic CFTd in dimensions d > 2.We also discover that the discontinuity of the Renyi transform is related to the matrix element of local operators between two distinct eigenstates of the modular Hamiltonian. We calculate the Renyi transform in 2d conformal field theories, and use it to extract the off-diagonal elements of (modular) ETH. We argue that in 2d, this is equivalent to the off-diagonal OPE coefficients of a CFT and show that our technique exactly reproduces recent results in the literature.

Full forward model of galaxy clustering statistics with AbacusSummit light cones

ABSTRACT Novel summary statistics beyond the standard 2-point correlation function (2PCF) are necessary to capture the full astrophysical and cosmological information from the small-scale (r < 30h−1Mpc) galaxy clustering. However, the analysis of beyond-2PCF statistics on small scales is challenging because we lack the appropriate treatment of observational systematics for arbitrary summary statistics of the galaxy field. In this paper, we develop a full forward modelling pipeline for a wide range of summary statistics using the large high-fidelity AbacusSummit light cones that account for many systematic effects as well as remain flexible and computationally efficient to enable posterior sampling. We apply our forward model approach to a fully realistic mock galaxy catalog and demonstrate that we can recover unbiased constraints on the underlying galaxy–halo connection model using two separate summary statistics: the standard 2PCF and the novel k-th nearest neighbour (kNN) statistics, which are sensitive to correlation functions of all orders. We will demonstrate its strong constraining power on extended galaxy–halo connection models and cosmology in follow up papers. We expect this to become a powerful approach when applying to upcoming surveys such as DESI where we can leverage a multitude of summary statistics across a wide redshift range to maximally extract information from the non-linear scales.

Interpolating boundary conditions on AdS2

We consider two instances of boundary conditions for massless scalars on AdS2 that interpolate between the Dirichlet and Neumann cases while preserving scale invariance. Assessing invariance under the full SL(2; ℝ) conformal group is not immediate given their non-local nature. To further clarify this issue, we compute holographically 2- and 4-point correlation functions using the aforementioned boundary conditions and study their transformation properties. Concretely, motivated by the dual description of some multi-parametric families of Wilson loops in ABJM theory, we look at the excitations of an open string around an AdS2 ⊂ AdS4 × ℂℙ3 worldsheet, thus obtaining correlators of operators inserted along a 1-dimensional defect in mathcal{N} = 6 super Chern-Simons-matter theory at strong coupling. Of the two types of boundary conditions analyzed, only one leads to the expected functional structure for conformal primaries; the other exhibits covariance under translations and rescalings but not under special conformal transformations.

Sarabande: 3/4 point correlation functions with fast Fourier transforms

AbstractWe present a new python package sarabande for measuring 3- and 4-point correlation functions (3/4 PCFs) in $\mathcal {O} (N_{\mathrm{g}}\log N_{\mathrm{g}})$ time using fast Fourier transforms (FFTs), with Ng being the number of grid points used for the FFT. sarabande can measure both projected and full 3-point correlation function and 4-point correlation function on gridded two- and three-dimensional data sets. The general technique is to generate suitable angular basis functions on an underlying grid, radially bin these to create kernels, and convolve these kernels with the original gridded data to obtain expansion coefficients about every point simultaneously. These coefficients are then combined to give us the 3/4 PCF as expanded in our basis. We apply sarabande to simulations of the interstellar medium to show the results and scaling of calculating both the full and projected 3/4 PCFs.

Toward matter dynamics in spin foam quantum gravity

Any approach to pure quantum gravity must eventually face the question of coupling quantum matter to the theory. In the past, several ways of coupling matter to spin foam quantum gravity have been proposed, but the dynamics of the coupled matter-gravity system is challenging to explore. To take first steps towards uncovering the influence quantum matter has on spin foam models, we couple free, massive scalar lattice field theory to a restricted, semi-classical 4d spin foam model, called quantum cuboids. This model can be understood as a superposition of hypercuboidal (and thus irregular) lattices. Both theories are coupled by defining scalar lattice field theory on irregular lattices via discrete exterior calculus and then superimposing these theories by summing over spin foam configurations. We compute expectation values of geometric and matter observables using Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques. From the observables, we identify a regime in parameter space, in which the spin foam possesses a finite total volume and looks on average like a regular lattice with an emergent lattice spacing dependent on the mass of the scalar field. We also measure the 2-point correlation function and correlation length of the scalar field in relation to the geodesic distance encoded in the spin foam. Our results are consistent with the correlation function of ordinary scalar lattice field theory defined on a fixed regular lattice with the emergent lattice spacing and the same mass. We conclude that in this regime of the model, the scalar field is not sensitive to the fluctuations of the spin foam and effectively behaves as if it is defined on a fixed regular lattice.

Stochastic hydrodynamics and hydro-kinetics: Similarities and differences

The hydro-kinetic formalism has been used as a complementary approach to solving the Stochastic Differential Equations (SDE) corresponding to noisy hydrodynamics. The hydro-kinetic formalism consists of a deterministic set of relaxation type equations that tracks the evolution of 2-point correlation functions of stochastic hydrodynamic quantities. Hence they are comparatively easier to solve than the SDEs, which are computationally intensive and need to deal with arbitrarily large gradients. This work compares the two approaches for the propagation and diffusion of conserved charge fluctuations in the Bjorken hydrodynamic model. For white noise, the two approaches agree. For colored Catteneo noise, which is causal, the two approaches diverge. This is because white noise only induces two-point correlations, while Catteneo noise also induces higher-order correlations. This difference is quantified from the effects of causal evolution and influence from higher-order correlations induced by the Catteneo noise.

Classical and quantum dynamics of gyroscopic systems and dark energy

Gyroscopic systems in classical and quantum field theory are characterized by the presence of at least two scalar degrees offreedom and by terms that mix fields andtheir time derivatives in the quadratic Lagrangian.In Minkowski spacetime, they naturally appear in the presence of a coupling among fields withtime-dependent vacuum expectation values and fields withspace-dependent vacuum expectation values, breaking spontaneouslyLorentz symmetry; this is the case for a supersolid. In a cosmological backgrounda gyroscopic system can also arise from the time dependence ofnon-diagonal kinetic and mass matrices.We study the classical and quantum dynamics computing the correlationfunctions on the vacuum state that minimizes the energy.Tworegions of stability in parameter space are found: in one region, dubbed normal, theHamiltonian is positive defined, while in the second region, dubbed anomalous, it has no definite sign. Interestingly, in the anomalousregion the 2-point correlation function exhibits a resonant behaviourin a certain region of parameter space. We show that as dynamical a dark energy (with an exact equation of state w = -1)arises naturally as a gyroscopic system.