52,110 research outputs found
Massless Monopoles and Multipronged Strings
We investigate the role of massless magnetic monopoles in the N=4
supersymmetric Yang-Mills Higgs theories. They can appear naturally in the
1/4-BPS dyonic configurations associated with multi-pronged string
configurations. Massless magnetic monopoles can carry nonabelian electric
charge when their associated gauge symmetry is unbroken. Surprisingly, massless
monopoles can also appear even when the gauge symmetry is broken to abelian
subgroups.Comment: 10 pages, LaTex file, more comments added. (To appear in Phys. Lett.
B
Entropy Production during Asymptotically Safe Inflation
The Asymptotic Safety scenario predicts that the deep ultraviolet of Quantum
Einstein Gravity is governed by a nontrivial renormalization group fixed point.
Analyzing its implications for cosmology using renormalization group improved
Einstein equations we find that it can give rise to a phase of inflationary
expansion in the early Universe. Inflation is a pure quantum effect here and
requires no inflaton field. It is driven by the cosmological constant and ends
automatically when the renormalization group evolution has reduced the vacuum
energy to the level of the matter energy density. The quantum gravity effects
also provide a natural mechanism for the generation of entropy. It could easily
account for the entire entropy of the present Universe in the massless sector.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, Invited contribution to the special issue of
Entropy on "Entropy in Quantum Gravity
Review Of Workers And Intelligentsia In Late Imperial Russia: Realities, Representations, Reflections Edited By R.E. Zelnik
Six-dimensional Methods for Four-dimensional Conformal Field Theories
The calculation of both spinor and tensor Green's functions in
four-dimensional conformally invariant field theories can be greatly simplified
by six-dimensional methods. For this purpose, four-dimensional fields are
constructed as projections of fields on the hypercone in six-dimensional
projective space, satisfying certain transversality conditions. In this way
some Green's functions in conformal field theories are shown to have structures
more general than those commonly found by use of the inversion operator. These
methods fit in well with the assumption of AdS/CFT duality. In particular, it
is transparent that if fields on AdS approach finite limits on the boundary
of AdS, then in the conformal field theory on this boundary these limits
transform with conformal dimensionality zero if they are tensors (of any rank),
but with conformal dimension 1/2 if they are spinors or spinor-tensors.Comment: Version accepted for publication in Physical Review D. References to
earlier work added in footnote 2. Minor errors corrected. 24 page
Dark Energy and the Nature of the Graviton
Does the existence of dark energy suggest that there is more to the graviton
than we think we know?Comment: 4 page
The Endless Umbilical Cord: Parental Obligation to Grown Children
One might think that parental obligation to children ends with the end of childhood. I argue that if we consider why parents are obligated to their children, we will see that this view is false. Creating children exposes them to life’s risks. When we expose others to risks, we are often obligated to minimize damages and compensate for harms. Life’s risks last a lifetime, therefore parental obligation to one’s children does too. Grown children’s autonomy, and grown children’s independent responsibility for some of their own problems, can sometimes limit what parental responsibility demands of parents but it doesn’t do away with the responsibility. I argue that my conclusions are not as counterintuitive as they might initially seem. I also consider the implications that parental obligation to grown children might have on the oft assumed obligation that grown children have to care for their parents
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