The Coupling of Shape Dynamics to Matter

Shape Dynamics (SD) is a theory dynamically equivalent to vacuum General Relativity (GR), which has a different set of symmetries. It trades refoliation invariance, present in GR, for local 3-dimensional conformal invariance. This contribution to the Loops 11 conference addresses one of the more urgent questions regarding the equivalence: is it possible to incorporate normal matter in the new framework? The answer is yes, in certain regimes. We present general criteria for coupling and apply it to a few examples.The outcome presents bounds and conditions on scalar densities (such as the Higgs potential and the cosmological constant) not present in GR.Comment: 4 pages. Contribution to Loops '11 conference in Madrid, to appear in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS

The Research of Thomas P. Branson

The Midwest Geometry Conference 2007 was devoted to the substantial mathematical legacy of Thomas P. Branson who passed away unexpectedly the previous year. This contribution to the Proceedings briefly introduces this legacy. We also take the opportunity of recording his bibliography. Thomas Branson was on the Editorial Board of SIGMA and we are pleased that SIGMA is able to publish the Proceedings.Comment: This is a contribution to the Proceedings of the 2007 Midwest Geometry Conference in honor of Thomas P. Branson, published in SIGMA (Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications) at http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA

Superstring Phenomenology: An Overview

The different aspects of superstring phenomenology before and after 1995 are briefly reviewed. (Contribution to the conference SUSY97)Comment: 10 pages,latex,espcrc

Meson-baryon interaction in the meson exchange picture

This is the contribution to the proceedings of the MENU 2010 conference. The recent work of Ref. [7] is summarized. Elastic piN scattering and the reaction pi^+ p --> K^+ Sigma^+ are described simultaneously in a unitary coupled-channels approach which respects analyticity. SU(3) flavor symmetry is used to relate the t- and u- channel exchanges that drive the meson-baryon interaction in the different channels. Angular distributions, polarizations, and spin-rotation parameters are compared with available experimental data. The pole structure of the amplitudes is extracted from the analytic continuation.Comment: 4 pages, contribution to the proceedings of the MENU 2010 conference, May 31- June 4, 2010, Williamsburg VA, US

Exploring timelike exclusive processes in the light-front approach

We discuss a necessary nonvalence contribution in timelike exclusive processes. Utilizing a Schwinger-Dyson type of approach, we relate the nonvalence contribution to an ordinary light-front wave function that has been extensively tested in the spacelike exclusive processes. An application to $K_{\ell3}$ decays provides encouraging results.Comment: Contribution to the third international conference on ``Perspectives in Hadronic Physics", 7-11 May 2001, Miramare-Trieste, Italy; 4 pages including 2 figure

S-Duality in N=4 Yang-Mills Theories

Evidence in favor of $SL(2,Z)$ S-duality in $N=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories in four dimensions and with general compact, simple gauge groups is presented. (Contribution to the Proceedings of the Strings '95 conference, March 13-18, 1995, USC, and the Proceedings of the Trieste Conference on S-Duality and Mirror Symmetry, June 5-9, 1995.)Comment: 11 page