1,249 research outputs found
A universal flow invariant in quantum field theory
A flow invariant is a quantity depending only on the UV and IR conformal
fixed points and not on the flow connecting them. Typically, its value is
related to the central charges a and c. In classically-conformal field
theories, scale invariance is broken by quantum effects and the flow invariant
a_{UV}-a_{IR} is measured by the area of the graph of the beta function between
the fixed points. There exists a theoretical explanation of this fact. On the
other hand, when scale invariance is broken at the classical level, it is
empirically known that the flow invariant equals c_{UV}-c_{IR} in massive
free-field theories, but a theoretical argument explaining why it is so is
still missing. A number of related open questions are answered here. A general
formula of the flow invariant is found, which holds also when the stress tensor
has improvement terms. The conditions under which the flow invariant equals
c_{UV}-c_{IR} are identified. Several non-unitary theories are used as a
laboratory, but the conclusions are general and an application to the Standard
Model is addressed. The analysis of the results suggests some new minimum
principles, which might point towards a better understanding of quantum field
theory.Comment: 28 pages, 3 figures; proof-corrected version for CQ
A note on the improvement ambiguity of the stress tensor and the critical limits of correlation functions
I study various properties of the critical limits of correlators containing
insertions of conserved and anomalous currents. In particular, I show that the
improvement term of the stress tensor can be fixed unambiguously, studying the
RG interpolation between the UV and IR limits. The removal of the improvement
ambiguity is encoded in a variational principle, which makes use of sum rules
for the trace anomalies a and a'. Compatible results follow from the analysis
of the RG equations. I perform a number of self-consistency checks and discuss
the issues in a large set of theories.Comment: 15 page
Inequalities for trace anomalies, length of the RG flow, distance between the fixed points and irreversibility
I discuss several issues about the irreversibility of the RG flow and the
trace anomalies c, a and a'. First I argue that in quantum field theory: i) the
scheme-invariant area Delta(a') of the graph of the effective beta function
between the fixed points defines the length of the RG flow; ii) the minimum of
Delta(a') in the space of flows connecting the same UV and IR fixed points
defines the (oriented) distance between the fixed points; iii) in even
dimensions, the distance between the fixed points is equal to
Delta(a)=a_UV-a_IR. In even dimensions, these statements imply the inequalities
0 =< Delta(a)=< Delta(a') and therefore the irreversibility of the RG flow.
Another consequence is the inequality a =< c for free scalars and fermions (but
not vectors), which can be checked explicitly. Secondly, I elaborate a more
general axiomatic set-up where irreversibility is defined as the statement that
there exist no pairs of non-trivial flows connecting interchanged UV and IR
fixed points. The axioms, based on the notions of length of the flow, oriented
distance between the fixed points and certain "oriented-triangle inequalities",
imply the irreversibility of the RG flow without a global a function. I
conjecture that the RG flow is irreversible also in odd dimensions (without a
global a function). In support of this, I check the axioms of irreversibility
in a class of d=3 theories where the RG flow is integrable at each order of the
large N expansion.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figures; expanded intro, improved presentation,
references added - CQ
Deformed dimensional regularization for odd (and even) dimensional theories
I formulate a deformation of the dimensional-regularization technique that is
useful for theories where the common dimensional regularization does not apply.
The Dirac algebra is not dimensionally continued, to avoid inconsistencies with
the trace of an odd product of gamma matrices in odd dimensions. The
regularization is completed with an evanescent higher-derivative deformation,
which proves to be efficient in practical computations. This technique is
particularly convenient in three dimensions for Chern-Simons gauge fields,
two-component fermions and four-fermion models in the large N limit, eventually
coupled with quantum gravity. Differently from even dimensions, in odd
dimensions it is not always possible to have propagators with fully Lorentz
invariant denominators. The main features of the deformed technique are
illustrated in a set of sample calculations. The regularization is universal,
local, manifestly gauge-invariant and Lorentz invariant in the physical sector
of spacetime. In flat space power-like divergences are set to zero by default.
Infinitely many evanescent operators are automatically dropped.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures; v2: expanded presentation of some arguments,
IJMP
UREA/ammonium ion removal system for the orbiting frog otolith experiment
The feasibility of using free urease enzyme and ANGC-101 ion exchange resin to remove urea and ammonium ion for space system waste water applications was studied. Specifically examined is the prevention of urea and ammonia toxicity in a 30-day Orbiting Frog Otolith (OFO) flight experiment. It is shown that free urease enzyme used in conjunction with ANGC-101 ion-exchange resin and pH control can control urea and amonium ion concentration in unbuffered recirculating water. In addition, the resin does not adversely effect the bullfrogs by lowering the concentration of cations below critical minimum levels. Further investigations on bioburden control, frog waste excretion on an OFO diet, a trade-off analysis of methods of automating the urea/ammonium ion removal system and fabrication and test of a semiautomated breadboard were recommended as continuing efforts. Photographs of test equipment and test animals are shown
Holomorphic Currents and Duality in N=1 Supersymmetric Theories
Twisted supersymmetric theories on a product of two Riemann surfaces possess
non-local holomorphic currents in a BRST cohomology. The holomorphic currents
act as vector fields on the chiral ring. The OPE's of these currents are
invariant under the renormalization group flow up to BRST-exact terms. In the
context of electric-magnetic duality, the algebra generated by the holomorphic
currents in the electric theory is isomorphic to the one on the magnetic side.
For the currents corresponding to global symmetries this isomorphism follows
from 't Hooft anomaly matching conditions. The isomorphism between OPE's of the
currents corresponding to non-linear transformations of fields of matter
imposes non-trivial conditions on the duality map of chiral ring. We consider
in detail the SQCD with matter in fundamental and adjoint
representations, and find agreement with the duality map proposed by Kutasov,
Schwimmer and Seiberg.Comment: 19 pages, JHEP3 LaTex, typos correcte
Search for flow invariants in even and odd dimensions
A flow invariant in quantum field theory is a quantity that does not depend
on the flow connecting the UV and IR conformal fixed points. We study the flow
invariance of the most general sum rule with correlators of the trace Theta of
the stress tensor. In even (four and six) dimensions we recover the results
known from the gravitational embedding. We derive the sum rules for the trace
anomalies a and a' in six dimensions. In three dimensions, where the
gravitational embedding is more difficult to use, we find a non-trivial
vanishing relation for the flow integrals of the three- and four-point
functions of Theta. Within a class of sum rules containing finitely many terms,
we do not find a non-vanishing flow invariant of type a in odd dimensions. We
comment on the implications of our results.Comment: 21 pages, v2: expanded introduction, published in NJ
Renormalizable acausal theories of classical gravity coupled with interacting quantum fields
We prove the renormalizability of various theories of classical gravity
coupled with interacting quantum fields. The models contain vertices with
dimensionality greater than four, a finite number of matter operators and a
finite or reduced number of independent couplings. An interesting class of
models is obtained from ordinary power-counting renormalizable theories,
letting the couplings depend on the scalar curvature R of spacetime. The
divergences are removed without introducing higher-derivative kinetic terms in
the gravitational sector. The metric tensor has a non-trivial running, even if
it is not quantized. The results are proved applying a certain map that
converts classical instabilities, due to higher derivatives, into classical
violations of causality, whose effects become observable at sufficiently high
energies. We study acausal Einstein-Yang-Mills theory with an R-dependent gauge
coupling in detail. We derive all-order formulas for the beta functions of the
dimensionality-six gravitational vertices induced by renormalization. Such beta
functions are related to the trace-anomaly coefficients of the matter
subsector.Comment: 36 pages; v2: CQG proof-corrected versio
Lorentz violating kinematics: Threshold theorems
Recent tentative experimental indications, and the subsequent theoretical
speculations, regarding possible violations of Lorentz invariance have
attracted a vast amount of attention. An important technical issue that
considerably complicates detailed calculations in any such scenario, is that
once one violates Lorentz invariance the analysis of thresholds in both
scattering and decay processes becomes extremely subtle, with many new and
naively unexpected effects. In the current article we develop several extremely
general threshold theorems that depend only on the existence of some energy
momentum relation E(p), eschewing even assumptions of isotropy or monotonicity.
We shall argue that there are physically interesting situations where such a
level of generality is called for, and that existing (partial) results in the
literature make unnecessary technical assumptions. Even in this most general of
settings, we show that at threshold all final state particles move with the
same 3-velocity, while initial state particles must have 3-velocities
parallel/anti-parallel to the final state particles. In contrast the various
3-momenta can behave in a complicated and counter-intuitive manner.Comment: V1: 32 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables. V2: 5 references adde
HyperK\"ahler quotients and N=4 gauge theories in D=2
We consider certain N=4 supersymmetric gauge theories in D=2 coupled to
quaternionic matter multiplets in a minimal way. These theories admit as
effective theories sigma-models on non-trivial HyperK\"ahler manifolds obtained
as HyperK\"ahler quotients. The example of ALE manifolds is discussed. (Based
on a talk given by P. Fr\'e at the F. Gursey Memorial Conference, Istanbul,
June 1994).Comment: 22 pages, Latex, no figure
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