Intersecting hypersurfaces, topological densities and Lovelock Gravity

Intersecting hypersurfaces in classical Lovelock gravity are studied exploiting the description of the Lovelock Lagrangian as a sum of dimensionally continued Euler densities. We wish to present an interesting geometrical approach to the problem. The analysis allows us to deal most efficiently with the division of space-time into a honeycomb network of cells produced by an arbitrary arrangement of membranes of matter. We write the gravitational action as bulk terms plus integrals over each lower dimensional intersection. The spin connection is discontinuous at the shared boundaries of the cells, which are spaces of various dimensionalities. That means that at each intersection there are more than one spin connections. We introduce a multi-parameter family of connections which interpolate between the different connections at each intersection. The parameters live naturally on a simplex. We can then write the action including all the intersection terms in a simple way. The Lagrangian of Lovelock gravity is generalized so as to live on the simplices as well. Each intersection term of the action is then obtained as an integral over an appropriate simplex. Lovelock gravity and the associated topological (Euler) density are used as an example of a more general formulation. In this example one finds that singular sources up to a certain co-dimensionality naturally carry matter without introducing conical or other singularities in spacetime geometry.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, version 4: lengthened introduction, section on explicit junction conditions for intersections added. Accepted in Journal of Geometry and Physic

Colliding Interfaces in Old and New Diffuse-interface Approximations of Willmore-flow

This paper is concerned with diffuse-interface approximations of the Willmore flow. We first present numerical results of standard diffuse-interface models for colliding one dimensional interfaces. In such a scenario evolutions towards interfaces with corners can occur that do not necessarily describe the adequate sharp-interface dynamics. We therefore propose and investigate alternative diffuse-interface approximations that lead to a different and more regular behavior if interfaces collide. These dynamics are derived from approximate energies that converge to the $L^1$-lower-semicontinuous envelope of the Willmore energy, which is in general not true for the more standard Willmore approximation

Mirror Symmetry, Mirror Map and Applications to Calabi-Yau Hypersurfaces

Mirror Symmetry, Picard-Fuchs equations and instanton corrected Yukawa couplings are discussed within the framework of toric geometry. It allows to establish mirror symmetry of Calabi-Yau spaces for which the mirror manifold had been unavailable in previous constructions. Mirror maps and Yukawa couplings are explicitly given for several examples with two and three moduli.Comment: 59 pages. Some changes in the references, a few minor points have been clarifie

Inflation and topological phase transition driven by exotic smoothness

In this paper we will discuss a model which describes the cause of inflation by a topological transition. The guiding principle is the choice of an exotic smoothness structure for the space-time. Here we consider a space-time with topology $S^{3}\times\mathbb{R}$. In case of an exotic $S^{3}\times\mathbb{R}$, there is a change in the spatial topology from a 3-sphere to a homology 3-sphere which can carry a hyperbolic structure. From the physical point of view, we will discuss the path integral for the Einstein-Hilbert action with respect to a decomposition of the space-time. The inclusion of the boundary terms produces fermionic contributions to the partition function. The expectation value of an area (with respect to some surface) shows an exponential increase, i.e. we obtain inflationary behavior. We will calculate the amount of this increase to be a topological invariant. Then we will describe this transition by an effective model, the Starobinski or $R^{2}$ model which is consistent with the current measurement of the Planck satellite. The spectral index and other observables are also calculated. Finally we obtain a realistic cosmological constant.Comment: 21 pages, no figures, iopart styla, accepted in Advances in High Energy Physics, special issue "Experimental Tests of Quantum Gravity and Exotic Quantum Field Theory Effects (QGEQ)