Solving the characteristic initial value problem for colliding plane gravitational and electromagnetic waves

A method is presented for solving the characteristic initial value problem for the collision and subsequent nonlinear interaction of plane gravitational or gravitational and electromagnetic waves in a Minkowski background. This method generalizes the monodromy transform approach to fields with nonanalytic behaviour on the characteristics inherent to waves with distinct wave fronts. The crux of the method is in a reformulation of the main nonlinear symmetry reduced field equations as linear integral equations whose solutions are determined by generalized (``dynamical'') monodromy data which evolve from data specified on the initial characteristics (the wavefronts).Comment: 4 pages, RevTe

Strong coupling constant to four loops in the analytic approach to QCD

The QCD analytic running coupling alpha_{an} which has no nonphysical singularities for all Q^2>0 is considered for the initial perturbation theory approximations up to four loop order. The finiteness of the analytic coupling at zero is shown to be a consequence of the asymptotic freedom property of the initial theory. The nonperturbative contributions to the analytic coupling are extracted explicitly. For all Q>Lambda they are represented in the form of an expansion in inverse powers of Euclidean momentum squared. The effective method for a precise calculation of the analytic running coupling is developed on the basis of the stated expansion. The energy scale evolution of the analytic running coupling for the one- to four-loop cases is studied and the higher loop stability and low dependence on the quark threshold matching conditions in comparison with the perturbative running coupling were found. Normalizing the analytic running coupling at the scale of the rest mass of the Z boson with the world average value of the strong coupling constant, alpha_{an}(M_Z^2)=0.1181^{+0.002}_{-0.002}, one obtains as a result of the energy scale evolution of the analytic running coupling alpha_{an}(M_tau^2)= 0.2943^{+0.0111}_{-0.0106} that is notably lower than the estimations of the coupling strength available at the scale of the mass of the tau lepton.Comment: 30 pages, LATEX, 4 tables, 8 figure

Second bound state of PsH

The existence of a second bound state of PsH that is electronically stable and also stable against positron annihilation by the normal 2gamma and 3gamma processes is demonstrated by explicit calculation. The state can be found in the 2,4So symmetries with the two electrons in a spin triplet state. The binding energy against dissociation into the H(2p) + Ps(2p) channel was 6.06x10-4 Hartree. The dominant decay mode of the states will be radiative decay into a configuration that autoionizes or undergoes positron annihilation. The NaPs system of the same symmetry is also electronically stable with a binding energy of 1.553x10-3 Hartree with respect to the Na(3p) + Ps(2p) channel.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTex styl

Collision of plane gravitational and electromagnetic waves in a Minkowski background: solution of the characteristic initial value problem

We consider the collisions of plane gravitational and electromagnetic waves with distinct wavefronts and of arbitrary polarizations in a Minkowski background. We first present a new, completely geometric formulation of the characteristic initial value problem for solutions in the wave interaction region for which initial data are those associated with the approaching waves. We present also a general approach to the solution of this problem which enables us in principle to construct solutions in terms of the specified initial data. This is achieved by re-formulating the nonlinear dynamical equations for waves in terms of an associated linear problem on the spectral plane. A system of linear integral ``evolution'' equations which solve this spectral problem for specified initial data is constructed. It is then demonstrated explicitly how various colliding plane wave space-times can be constructed from given characteristic initial data.Comment: 33 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX. Accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Integrability of generalized (matrix) Ernst equations in string theory

The integrability structures of the matrix generalizations of the Ernst equation for Hermitian or complex symmetric $d\times d$-matrix Ernst potentials are elucidated. These equations arise in the string theory as the equations of motion for a truncated bosonic parts of the low-energy effective action respectively for a dilaton and $d\times d$ - matrix of moduli fields or for a string gravity model with a scalar (dilaton) field, U(1) gauge vector field and an antisymmetric 3-form field, all depending on two space-time coordinates only. We construct the corresponding spectral problems based on the overdetermined $2d\times 2d$-linear systems with a spectral parameter and the universal (i.e. solution independent) structures of the canonical Jordan forms of their matrix coefficients. The additionally imposed conditions of existence for each of these systems of two matrix integrals with appropriate symmetries provide a specific (coset) structures of the related matrix variables. An equivalence of these spectral problems to the original field equations is proved and some approach for construction of multiparametric families of their solutions is envisaged.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, LaTeX; based on the talk given at the Workshop ``Nonlinear Physics: Theory and Experiment. III'', 24 June - 3 July 2004, Gallipoli (Lecce), Italy. Minor typos, language and references corrections. To be published in the proceedings in Theor. Math. Phy