Réussite scolaire des cégépiens offrant du tutorat aux élèves du primaire en milieux défavorisés multiethniques

Conférence présentée lors du colloque « Journée de la recherche sur la motivation au collégial » Acfas, Montréal, 10 mai 201

F-theory and M-theory perspectives on N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions

Deformations of the original F-theory background are proposed. These lead to multiple new dualities and physical phenomena. We concentrate on one model where we let seven-branes wrap a multi-centered Taub-NUT space instead of R4. This configuration provides a successful F-theory embedding of a class of recently proposed four-dimensional N = 2 superconformal (SCFT) \`a la Gaiotto. Aspects of Argyres- Seiberg duality, of the new Gaiotto duality, as well as of the branes network of Benini- Benvenuti and Tachikawa are captured by our construction. The supergravity theory for the conformal case is also briefly discussed. Extending our construction to the non-conformal case, we find interesting cascading behavior in four-dimensional gauge theories with N = 2 supersymmetry. Since the analysis of this unexpected phenomenon is quite difficult in the language of type IIB/F-theory, we turn to the type IIA/M-theory description where the origin of the N = 2 cascade is clarified. Using the T-dual type IIA brane language, we first start by studying the N = 1 supersymmetric cascading gauge theory found in type IIB string theory on p regular and M fractional D3-branes at the tip of the conifold. We reproduce the supersymmetric vacuum structure of this theory. We also show that the IIA analog of the non-supersymmetric state found by Kachru, Pearson and Verlinde in the IIB description is metastable in string theory, but the barrier for tunneling to the supersymmetric vacuum goes to infinity in the field theory limit. We then use the techniques we have developed to analyze the N = 2 supersymmetric gauge theory corresponding to regular and fractional D3-branes on a near-singular K3, and clarify the origin of the cascade in this theory.Comment: PhD Thesi

Quaterninic Kähler manifolds, constrained instantons, and the magic square

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Initial Conditions for Non-Canonical Inflation

We investigate the dynamics of homogeneous phase space for single-field models of inflation. Inflationary trajectories are formally attractors in phase space, but since in practice not all initial conditions lead to them, some degree of fine tuning is required for successful inflation. We explore how the dynamics of non-canonical inflation, which has additional kinetic terms that are powers of the kinetic energy, can play a role in ameliorating the initial conditions fine tuning problem. We present a qualitative analysis of inflationary phase space based on the dynamical behavior of the scalar field. This allows us to construct the flow of trajectories, finding that trajectories generically decay towards the inflationary solution at a steeper angle for non-canonical kinetic terms, in comparison to canonical kinetic terms, so that a larger fraction of the initial-conditions space leads to inflation. Thus, non-canonical kinetic terms can be important for removing the initial conditions fine-tuning problem of some small-field inflation models.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Attractive Lagrangians for Noncanonical Inflation

Treating inflation as an effective theory, we expect the effective Lagrangian to contain higher-dimensional kinetic operators suppressed by the scale of UV physics. When these operators are powers of the inflaton kinetic energy, the scalar field can support a period of noncanonical inflation which is smoothly connected to the usual slow-roll inflation. We show how to construct noncanonical inflationary solutions to the equations of motion for the first time, and demonstrate that noncanonical inflation is an attractor in phase space for all small- and large-field models. We identify some sufficient conditions on the functional form of the Lagrangian that lead to successful noncanonical inflation since not every Lagrangian with higher-dimensional kinetic operators can support noncanonical inflation. This extends the class of known viable Lagrangians and excludes many Lagrangians which do not work.Comment: 39 pages, 9 figures. v2. Fixed typos, added reference, small changes to examples; v3. Added discussion of field redefinitions, added references, matches published versio

Réussite scolaire des cégépiens offrant du tutorat aux élèves du primaire en milieux défavorisés

La présente recherche a été subventionnée par le ministère de l'Éducation et de l'Enseignement supérieur dans le cadre du Programme d'aide à la recherche sur l'enseignement et l'apprentissage (PAREA).Comprend des références bibliographiques

IIA Perspective On Cascading Gauge Theory

We study the N=1 supersymmetric cascading gauge theory found in type IIB string theory on p regular and M fractional D3-branes at the tip of the conifold, using the T-dual type IIA description. We reproduce the supersymmetric vacuum structure of this theory, and show that the IIA analog of the non-supersymmetric state found by Kachru, Pearson and Verlinde in the IIB description is metastable in string theory, but the barrier for tunneling to the supersymmetric vacuum goes to infinity in the field theory limit. We also comment on the N=2 supersymmetric gauge theory corresponding to regular and fractional D3-branes on a near-singular K3, and clarify the origin of the cascade in this theory.Comment: 43 pages, 18 figures, harvma

Réussite scolaire des cégépiens offrant du tutorat aux élèves du primaire en milieux défavorisés

La présente recherche a été subventionnée par le ministère de l'Éducation et de l'Enseignement supérieur dans le cadre du Programme d'aide à la recherche sur l'enseignement et l'apprentissage (PAREA).Comprend des références bibliographiques

Rendez-vous de l’engagement étudiant. Partie 1 : Les étudiants s’engagent dans leur communauté

Introduction sur l’engagement étudiant (motivation des étudiants, types d’activités), et présentation de projets illustrant des modes d’engagement des étudiants du collégial dans leur communauté