Massless scalar fields and infrared divergences in the inflationary brane world

We study the quantum effects induced by bulk scalar fields in a model with a de Sitter (dS) brane in a flat bulk (the Vilenkin-Ipser-Sikivie model) in more than four dimensions. In ordinary dS space, it is well known that the stress tensor in the dS invariant vacuum for an effectively massless scalar (m_\eff^2=m^2+\xi {\cal R}=0 with ${\cal R}$ the Ricci scalar) is infrared divergent except for the minimally coupled case. The usual procedure to tame this divergence is to replace the dS invariant vacuum by the Allen Follaci (AF) vacuum. The resulting stress tensor breaks dS symmetry but is regular. Similarly, in the brane world context, we find that the dS invariant vacuum generates \tmn divergent everywhere when the lowest lying mode becomes massless except for massless minimal coupling case. A simple extension of the AF vacuum to the present case avoids this global divergence, but \tmn remains to be divergent along a timelike axis in the bulk. In this case, singularities also appear along the light cone emanating from the origin in the bulk, although they are so mild that \tmn stays finite except for non-minimal coupling cases in four or six dimensions. We discuss implications of these results for bulk inflaton models. We also study the evolution of the field perturbations in dS brane world. We find that perturbations grow linearly with time on the brane, as in the case of ordinary dS space. In the bulk, they are asymptotically bounded.Comment: 20 pages. References adde

Experimental library screening demonstrates the successful application of computational protein design to large structural ensembles

The stability, activity, and solubility of a protein sequence are determined by a delicate balance of molecular interactions in a variety of conformational states. Even so, most computational protein design methods model sequences in the context of a single native conformation. Simulations that model the native state as an ensemble have been mostly neglected due to the lack of sufficiently powerful optimization algorithms for multistate design. Here, we have applied our multistate design algorithm to study the potential utility of various forms of input structural data for design. To facilitate a more thorough analysis, we developed new methods for the design and high-throughput stability determination of combinatorial mutation libraries based on protein design calculations. The application of these methods to the core design of a small model system produced many variants with improved thermodynamic stability and showed that multistate design methods can be readily applied to large structural ensembles. We found that exhaustive screening of our designed libraries helped to clarify several sources of simulation error that would have otherwise been difficult to ascertain. Interestingly, the lack of correlation between our simulated and experimentally measured stability values shows clearly that a design procedure need not reproduce experimental data exactly to achieve success. This surprising result suggests potentially fruitful directions for the improvement of computational protein design technology

Onset of experimental severe cardiac fibrosis is mediated by overexpression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) 2 is a recently identified homologue of ACE. There is great interest in the therapeutic benefit for ACE2 overexpression in the heart. However, the role of ACE2 in the regulation of cardiac structure and function, as well as maintenance of systemic blood pressure, remains poorly understood. In cell culture, ACE2 overexpression led to markedly increased myocyte volume, assessed in primary rabbit myocytes. To assess ACE2 function in vivo, we used a recombinant adeno-associated virus 6 delivery system to provide 11-week overexpression of ACE2 in the myocardium of stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats. ACE2, as well as the ACE inhibitor enalapril, significantly reduced systolic blood pressure. However, in the heart, ACE2 overexpression resulted in cardiac fibrosis, as assessed by histological analysis with concomitant deficits in ejection fraction and fractional shortening measured by echocardiography. Furthermore, global gene expression profiling demonstrated the activation of profibrotic pathways in the heart mediated by ACE2 gene delivery. This study demonstrates that sustained overexpression of ACE2 in the heart in vivo leads to the onset of severe fibrosis

Massless Minimally Coupled Fields in De Sitter Space: O(4)-Symmetric States Versus De Sitter Invariant Vacuum

The issue of de Sitter invariance for a massless minimally coupled scalar field is revisited. Formally, it is possible to construct a de Sitter invariant state for this case provided that the zero mode of the field is quantized properly. Here we take the point of view that this state is physically acceptable, in the sense that physical observables can be computed and have a reasonable interpretation. In particular, we use this vacuum to derive a new result: that the squared difference between the field at two points along a geodesic observer's space-time path grows linearly with the observer's proper time for a quantum state that does not break de Sitter invariance. Also, we use the Hadamard formalism to compute the renormalized expectation value of the energy momentum tensor, both in the O(4) invariant states introduced by Allen and Follaci, and in the de Sitter invariant vacuum. We find that the vacuum energy density in the O(4) invariant case is larger than in the de Sitter invariant case.Comment: TUTP-92-1, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Unruh response functions for scalar fields in de Sitter space

We calculate the response functions of a freely falling Unruh detector in de Sitter space coupled to scalar fields of different coupling to the curvature, including the minimally coupled massless case. Although the responses differ strongly in the infrared as a consequence of the amplification of superhorizon modes, the energy levels of the detector are thermally populated.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication by Classical and Quantum Gravit

A discrete nonetheless remarkable brick in de Sitter: the "massless minimally coupled field"

Over the last ten years interest in the physics of de Sitter spacetime has been growing very fast. Besides the supposed existence of a "de sitterian period" in inflation theories, the observational evidence of an acceleration of the universe expansion (interpreted as a positive cosmological constant or a "dark energy" or some form of "quintessence") has triggered a lot of attention in the physics community. A specific de sitterian field called "massless minimally coupled field" (mmc) plays a fundamental role in inflation models and in the construction of the de sitterian gravitational field. A covariant quantization of the mmc field, `a la Krein-Gupta-Bleuler was proposed in [1]. In this talk, we will review this construction and explain the relevance of such a field in the construction of a massless spin 2 field in de Sitter space-time.Comment: Proceedings of the XXVII Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics, Yerevan, August 200

One-Loop Effective Action for Euclidean Maxwell Theory on Manifolds with Boundary

This paper studies the one-loop effective action for Euclidean Maxwell theory about flat four-space bounded by one three-sphere, or two concentric three-spheres. The analysis relies on Faddeev-Popov formalism and $\zeta$-function regularization, and the Lorentz gauge-averaging term is used with magnetic boundary conditions. The contributions of transverse, longitudinal and normal modes of the electromagnetic potential, jointly with ghost modes, are derived in detail. The most difficult part of the analysis consists in the eigenvalue condition given by the determinant of a $2 \times 2$ or $4 \times 4$ matrix for longitudinal and normal modes. It is shown that the former splits into a sum of Dirichlet and Robin contributions, plus a simpler term. This is the quantum cosmological case. In the latter case, however, when magnetic boundary conditions are imposed on two bounding three-spheres, the determinant is more involved. Nevertheless, it is evaluated explicitly as well. The whole analysis provides the building block for studying the one-loop effective action in covariant gauges, on manifolds with boundary. The final result differs from the value obtained when only transverse modes are quantized, or when noncovariant gauges are used.Comment: 25 pages, Revte

Attractor states and infrared scaling in de Sitter space

The renormalized expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor for a scalar field with any mass m and curvature coupling xi is studied for an arbitrary homogeneous and isotropic physical initial state in de Sitter spacetime. We prove quite generally that has a fixed point attractor behavior at late times, which depends only on m and xi, for any fourth order adiabatic state that is infrared finite. Specifically, when m^2 + xi R > 0, approaches the Bunch-Davies de Sitter invariant value at late times, independently of the initial state. When m = xi = 0, it approaches instead the de Sitter invariant Allen-Folacci value. When m = 0 and xi \ge 0 we show that this state independent asymptotic value of the energy-momentum tensor is proportional to the conserved geometrical tensor (3)H_{ab}, which is related to the behavior of the quantum effective action of the scalar field under global Weyl rescaling. This relationship serves to generalize the definition of the trace anomaly in the infrared for massless, non-conformal fields. In the case m^2 + xi R = 0, but m and xi separately different from zero, grows linearly with cosmic time at late times. For most values of m and xi in the tachyonic cases, m^2 + xi R grows exponentially at late cosmic times for all physically admissable initial states.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures, 46 kB tar.gz fil