Unequal Intra-layer Coupling in a Bilayer Driven Lattice Gas

The system under study is a twin-layered square lattice gas at half-filling, being driven to non-equilibrium steady states by a large, finite `electric' field. By making intra-layer couplings unequal we were able to extend the phase diagram obtained by Hill, Zia and Schmittmann (1996) and found that the tri-critical point, which separates the phase regions of the stripped (S) phase (stable at positive interlayer interactions J_3), the filled-empty (FE) phase (stable at negative J_3) and disorder (D), is shifted even further into the negative J_3 region as the coupling traverse to the driving field increases. Many transient phases to the S phase at the S-FE boundary were found to be long-lived. We also attempted to test whether the universality class of D-FE transitions under a drive is still Ising. Simulation results suggest a value of 1.75 for the exponent gamma but a value close to 2.0 for the ratio gamma/nu. We speculate that the D-FE second order transition is different from Ising near criticality, where observed first-order-like transitions between FE and its "local minimum" cousin occur during each simulation run.Comment: 29 pages, 19 figure

S=1 kagom\'e Ising model with triquadratic interactions, single-ion anisotropy and magnetic field: exact phase diagrams

We consider a S=1 kagom\'e Ising model with triquadratic interactions around each triangular face of the kagom\'e lattice, single-ion anisotropy and an applied magnetic field. A mapping establishes an equivalence between the magnetic canonical partition function of the model and the grand canonical partition function of a kagom\'e lattice-gas model with localized three-particle interactions. Since exact phase diagrams are known for condensation in the one-parameter lattice-gas model, the mapping directly provides the corresponding exact phase diagrams of the three-parameter S=1 Ising model. As anisotropy competes with interactions, results include the appearance of confluent singularities effecting changes in the topology of the phase diagrams, phase boundary curves (magnetic field vs temperature) with purely positive or negative slopes as well as intermediate cases showing nonmonotonicity, and coexistence curves (magnetization vs temperature) with varying shapes and orientations, in some instances entrapping a homogeneous phase.Comment: 14 pages plus 11 figures; to be published in Physica

Toward the minimal realization of a light composite Higgs

Work in progress is reported on a particularly interesting gauge theory with a fermion doublet in the two-index symmetric (sextet) representation of the SU(3) color gauge group. Extending previous studies we outline our strategy as we investigate Goldstone dynamics and Electroweak scale setting from chiral symmetry breaking ($\chi$ SB), test the GMOR relation from the spectrum of the Dirac operator and the related chiral condensate, begin to develop and test mixed action based improved analysis of $\chi$ SB with new run plans at fixed topology to cross over from the p-regime to the epsilon-regime of $\chi$ SB, continue to pursue the light $0^{++}$ scalar and its relation to the dilaton, and probe the scale-dependent running coupling from the perturbative UV scale to the scale of chiral symmetry breaking. Our observations suggest that the model is very close to the conformal window and a light composite scalar, perhaps the Higgs impostor with or without dilaton-like interpretation, appears to emerge with $0^{++}$ quantum numbers. The lightest baryon of the model on the 3 TeV scale has intriguing implications.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, The 32nd International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory,23-28 June, 2014 Columbia University, New York, NY, US

Updated analysis of meson-nucleon sigma terms in the perturbative chiral quark model

We present an updated analysis of meson-baryon sigma terms in the perturbative chiral quark model, which is based on effective chiral Lagrangian. The new feature concerns the inclusion of excited states in the quark propagator. Its influence on meson loops is shown to lead in particular for the pion-nucleon sigma term to an enhancement relevant for the current evaluation of this quantity. We also determine various flavor combinations of the scalar nucleon form factors and their respective low-momentum transfer limits.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, to be published in Phys Rev

Chiral loop corrections to weak decays of B mesons to positive and negative parity charmed mesons

We determine chiral loop corrections to the B meson decay amplitudes to positive and negative parity charmed mesons within a framework which combines heavy quark and chiral symmetries. Then we investigate the impact of the lowest-lying positive parity heavy mesons on the determination of the Isgur-Wise functions. The corrections due to these states are competitive with the contributions arising from K and eta meson loops. Since lattice studies rely on the chiral behavior of the amplitudes we discuss the chiral limit of our results. We find that the determination of the slope at zero recoil of the Isgur-Wise function xi for the B transition to negative parity charm mesons is moderately affected by the inclusion of new states, while the slope of tau_{1/2} is affected significantly more.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

First lattice calculation of the QED corrections to leptonic decay rates

The leading-order electromagnetic and strong isospin-breaking corrections to the ratio of $K_{\mu 2}$ and $\pi_{\mu 2}$ decay rates are evaluated for the first time on the lattice, following a method recently proposed. The lattice results are obtained using the gauge ensembles produced by the European Twisted Mass Collaboration with $N_f = 2 + 1 + 1$ dynamical quarks. Systematics effects are evaluated and the impact of the quenched QED approximation is estimated. Our result for the correction to the tree-level $K_{\mu 2} / \pi_{\mu 2}$ decay ratio is $-1.22\,(16) \%$ to be compared to the estimate $-1.12\,(21) \%$ based on Chiral Perturbation Theory and adopted by the Particle Data Group.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures; extended supplemental material with 1 table and 1 figure, results unchange

Hadron Spectrum in a Two-Colour Baryon-Rich Medium

The hadron spectrum of SU(2) lattice gauge theory with two flavours of Wilson quark is studied on an 8^3x16 lattice using all-to-all propagators, with particular emphasis on the dependence on quark chemical potential mu. As mu is increased from zero the diquark states with non-zero baryon number B respond as expected, while states with B=0 remain unaffected until the onset of non-zero baryon density at mu=m_pi/2. Post onset the pi-meson mass increases in accordance with chiral perturbation theory while the rho becomes lighter. In the diquark sector a Goldstone state associated with a superfluid ground state can be identified. A further consequence of superfluidity is an approximate degeneracy between mesons and baryons with the same spacetime and isospin quantum numbers. Finally we find tentative evidence for the binding of states with kaon quantum numbers within the baryonic medium.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure