The structure of the graviton self-energy at finite temperature

We study the graviton self-energy function in a general gauge, using a hard thermal loop expansion which includes terms proportional to T^4, T^2 and log(T). We verify explicitly the gauge independence of the leading T^4 term and obtain a compact expression for the sub-leading T^2 contribution. It is shown that the logarithmic term has the same structure as the ultraviolet pole part of the T=0 self-energy function. We argue that the gauge-dependent part of the T^2 contribution is effectively canceled in the dispersion relations of the graviton plasma, and present the solutions of these equations.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figure

Hard Thermal Loops in the n-Dimensional phi3 Theory

We derive a closed-form result for the leading thermal contributions which appear in the n-dimensional phi3 theory at high temperature. These contributions become local only in the long wavelength and in the static limits, being given by different expressions in these two limits.Comment: 3 pages, one figure. To be published in the Brazilian Journal of Physic

Thermal instability in a gravity-like scalar theory

We study the question of stability of the ground state of a scalar theory which is a generalization of the phi^3 theory and has some similarity to gravity with a cosmological constant. We show that the ground state of the theory at zero temperature becomes unstable above a certain critical temperature, which is evaluated in closed form at high temperature.Comment: Four pages, two figures. Revised version published in the Physical Review

Dispersion relations for the self-energy in non-commutative field theories

We study the IR/UV connection in non-commutative $\phi^{3}$ theory as well as in non-commutative QED from the point of view of the dispersion relation for the self-energy. We show that, although the imaginary part of the self-energy is well behaved as the parameter of non-commutativity vanishes, the real part becomes divergent as a consequence of the high energy behavior of the dispersion integral. Some other interesting features that arise from this analysis are also briefly discussed.Comment: 10 page

Induced magnetic moment for a spinless charged particle in the thin-layer approach

We determine the effective dynamics for a spinless charged particle, in the presence of electromagnetic fields, constrained to a space curve. We employ the thin-layer procedure and a perturbative expansion for the Schr\"odinger equation is derived. We find that the first-order term in the perturbative expansion couples the dynamics of the normal and tangent degrees of freedom. However, there is always a gauge transformation that allows decouple the dynamics. We find that the effective Schr\"odinger equation in the curve contains an induced Zeeman coupling, independent of the curvature and torsion, which has not been previously reported. This coupling is characteristic of reducing the dimension by two and allows to identify an induced magnetic moment.Comment: 7 pages. To be published in Europhysics Letter

High temperature ln(T) contributions in thermal field theory

We calculate, to one-loop order, the ln (T) contributions of 3-point functions in the \phi^3 and Yang-Mills theory at high temperature. We find that these terms are Lorentz invariant and have the same structure as the ultraviolet divergent contributions which occur at zero temperature. A simple argument, valid for all N-point Green functions, is given for this behavior.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, TeX source include