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A melonic quantum mechanical model without disorder

Speaker
Anna Biggs
Date
Mon April 6th 2026, 2:00 - 3:30pm
Affiliation
Princeton University
Event Sponsor
Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stanford
Location
Varian 355

I will describe a quantum mechanical model involving N interacting fermions without disorder that has a large N melonic expansion. In particular, it has the same Schwinger-Dyson equations and low energy physics as the \mathcal{N} = 2 supersymmetric SYK model. The model is SU(2) invariant, and the supercharge is constructed from the SU(2) 3j symbol. I will conceptually explain why the model has a melonic expansion, discuss various solvable corners, and describe results of exact diagonalization for small values of N. Expanded around states with maximal angular momentum, the model is approximated by a two dimensional CFT. The BPS states have a simple description in that regime. Based on arXiv:2601.08908.