138 research outputs found
Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF) Project: Development of the TTF TPACK survey instrument
This paper presents a summary of the key findings of the TTF TPACK Survey developed and administered for the Teaching the Teachers for the Future (TTF) Project implemented in 2011. The TTF Project, funded by an Australian Government ICT Innovation Fund grant, involved all 39 Australian Higher Education Institutions which provide initial teacher education. TTF data collections were undertaken at the end of Semester 1 (T1) and at the end of Semester 2 (T2) in 2011. A total of 12881 participants completed the first survey (T1) and 5809 participants completed the second survey (T2). Groups of like-named items from the T1 survey were subject to a battery of complementary data analysis techniques. The psychometric properties of the four scales: Confidence - teacher items; Usefulness - teacher items; Confidence - student items; Usefulness- student items, were confirmed both at T1 and T2. Among the key findings summarised, at the national level, the scale: Confidence to use ICT as a teacher showed measurable growth across the whole scale from T1 to T2, and the scale: Confidence to facilitate student use of ICT also showed measurable growth across the whole scale from T1 to T2. Additional key TTF TPACK Survey findings are summarised
On the Matrix Description of Calabi-Yau Compactifications
We point out that the matrix description of M-theory compactified on
Calabi-Yau threefolds is in many respects simpler than the matrix description
of a compactification. This is largely because of the differences between
D6 branes wrapped on Calabi-Yau threefolds and D6 branes wrapped on six-tori.
In particular, if we define the matrix theory following the prescription of Sen
and Seiberg, we find that the remaining degrees of freedom are decoupled from
gravity.Comment: 12 pages, harvmac big; comment on 4d N=1 theories change
Bose-Fermi duality and entanglement entropies
Entanglement (Renyi) entropies of spatial regions are a useful tool for
characterizing the ground states of quantum field theories. In this paper we
investigate the extent to which these are universal quantities for a given
theory, and to which they distinguish different theories, by comparing the
entanglement spectra of the massless Dirac fermion and the compact free boson
in two dimensions. We show that the calculation of Renyi entropies via the
replica trick for any orbifold theory includes a sum over orbifold twists on
all cycles. In a modular-invariant theory of fermions, this amounts to a sum
over spin structures. The result is that the Renyi entropies respect the
standard Bose-Fermi duality. Next, we investigate the entanglement spectrum for
the Dirac fermion without a sum over spin structures, and for the compact boson
at the self-dual radius. These are not equivalent theories; nonetheless, we
find that (1) their second Renyi entropies agree for any number of intervals,
(2) their full entanglement spectra agree for two intervals, and (3) the
spectrum generically disagrees otherwise. These results follow from the
equality of the partition functions of the two theories on any Riemann surface
with imaginary period matrix. We also exhibit a map between the operators of
the theories that preserves scaling dimensions (but not spins), as well as OPEs
and correlators of operators placed on the real line. All of these coincidences
can be traced to the fact that the momentum lattice for the bosonized fermion
is related to that of the self-dual boson by a 45 degree rotation that mixes
left- and right-movers.Comment: 40 pages; v3: improvements to presentation, new section discussing
entanglement negativit
Black Hole Evaporation along Macroscopic Strings
We develop the quantization of a macroscopic string which extends radially
from a Schwarzschild black hole. The Hawking process excites a thermal bath of
string modes that causes the black hole to lose mass. The resulting typical
string configuration is a random walk in the angular coordinates. We show that
the energy flux in string excitations is approximately that of spacetime field
modes.Comment: 26pp, EFI 93-73. (Original claim that string Hawking flux exceeds
spacetime flux is WRONG. It is the same; revised version provides correct
argument and additional comments.
Advertising, product quality, and complex evolving marketing systems
The paper analyses the advertising as power vs. advertising as information controversy as well as its recent empirical testing. It is stressed that this distinction focuses too much on the interaction between consumer and manufacturer while ignoring the retailer as an important stake-holder. To compensate for this lack, a complex marketing system perspective is introduced in which consumer, retailer, and manufacturer interact. However, these complex marketing systems might drift towards market equilibria which are against the consumer interests: that is, firmsmight lock out brands from the market by means of trade and sales promotions and then use advertising to protect their position. Consequently brands of better quality and/or innovative brands are barred from trade shelves
The target space geometry of N=(2,1) string theory
We describe the constraints on the target space
geometry of the heterotic superstring due to the left-moving
supersymmetry and currents. In the fermionic description of the internal
sector supersymmetry is realized quantum mechanically, so that both tree-level
and one-loop effects contribute to the order
constraints. We also discuss the physical interpretation of the resulting
target space geometry in terms of configurations of a -dimensional object
propagating in a -dimensional spacetime with a null isometry, which has
recently been suggested as a unified description of string and M theory.Comment: 41 pages, 5 figures, standard LaTeX, uses epsf.tex. Some typos
corrected, discussion in footnote 1 correcte
Open string instantons and superpotentials
We study the F-terms in N=1 supersymmetric, d=4 gauge theories arising from
D(p+3)-branes wrapping supersymmetric p-cycles in a Calabi-Yau threefold. If p
is even the spectrum and superpotential for a single brane are determined by
purely classical () considerations. If p=3,
superpotentials for massless modes are forbidden to all orders in
and may only be generated by open string instantons. For this
latter case we find that such instanton effects are generically present. Mirror
symmetry relates even and odd p and thus perturbative and nonperturbative
superpotentials; we provide a preliminary discussion of a class of examples of
such mirror pairs.Comment: 22 pages, harvmac big; v2, corrected some typo
Bulk vs. Boundary Dynamics in Anti-de Sitter Spacetime
We investigate the details of the bulk-boundary correspondence in Lorentzian
signature anti-de Sitter space. Operators in the boundary theory couple to
sources identified with the boundary values of non-normalizable bulk modes.
Such modes do not fluctuate and provide classical backgrounds on which bulk
excitations propagate. Normalizable modes in the bulk arise as a set of
saddlepoints of the action for a fixed boundary condition. They fluctuate and
describe the Hilbert space of physical states. We provide an explicit, complete
set of both types of modes for free scalar fields in global and Poincar\'e
coordinates. For \ads{3}, the normalizable and non-normalizable modes
originate in the possible representations of the isometry group
\SL_L\times\SL_R for a field of given mass. We discuss the group properties
of mode solutions in both global and Poincar\'e coordinates and their relation
to different expansions of operators on the cylinder and on the plane. Finally,
we discuss the extent to which the boundary theory is a useful description of
the bulk spacetime.Comment: Standard LaTeX, 28 pages, 2 postscript figures. v2: References added.
Substantial revision in section 3 of treatment of global modes;
non-normalizable modes have arbitrary time dependence. Revised discussion of
low-mass modes and puzzle raised re: coupling of the dual boundary operators.
v3: unwanted paragraph removed. v4: Sec. 5.2 correcte
Signatures of Short Distance Physics in the Cosmic Microwave Background
We systematically investigate the effect of short distance physics on the
spectrum of temperature anistropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background produced
during inflation. We present a general argument-assuming only low energy
locality-that the size of such effects are of order H^2/M^2, where H is the
Hubble parameter during inflation, and M is the scale of the high energy
physics.
We evaluate the strength of such effects in a number of specific string and M
theory models. In weakly coupled field theory and string theory models, the
effects are far too small to be observed. In phenomenologically attractive
Horava-Witten compactifications, the effects are much larger but still
unobservable. In certain M theory models, for which the fundamental Planck
scale is several orders of magnitude below the conventional scale of grand
unification, the effects may be on the threshold of detectability.
However, observations of both the scalar and tensor fluctuation contributions
to the Cosmic Microwave Background power spectrum-with a precision near the
cosmic variance limit-are necessary in order to unambiguously demonstrate the
existence of these signatures of high energy physics. This is a formidable
experimental challenge.Comment: 49 pages, 2 figures. References added, minor typos correcte
Random walks and the Hagedorn transition
We study details of the approach to the Hagedorn temperature in string theory
in various static spacetime backgrounds. We show that the partition function
for a {\it single} string at finite temperature is the torus amplitude
restricted to unit winding around Euclidean time. We use the worldsheet path
integral to derive the statement that the the sum over random walks of the
thermal scalar near the Hagedorn transition is precisely the image under a
modular transformation of the sum over spatial configurations of a single
highly excited string. We compute the radius of gyration of thermally excited
strings in . We show that the winding mode indicates an
instability despite the AdS curvature at large radius, and that the negative
mass squared decreases with decreasing AdS radius, much like the type 0
tachyon. We add further arguments to statements by Barbon and Rabinovici, and
by Adams {\it et. al.}, that the Euclidean AdS black hole can thought of as a
condensate of the thermal scalar. We use this to provide circumstantial
evidence that the condensation of the thermal scalar decouples closed string
modes.Comment: 34 pages (7 of references), 5 figures. v2: Reference added, grant
acknowledgement added, typos correcte
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