276 research outputs found
Simple holographic duals to boundary CFTs
By relaxing the regularity conditions imposed in arXiv:1107.1722 on half-BPS
solutions to six-dimensional Type~4b supergravity, we enlarge the space of
solutions to include two new half-BPS configurations, which we refer to as the
\kap\ and the \funnel. We give evidence that the \kap\ and \funnel\ can be
interpreted as fully back-reacted brane solutions with respectively and
world volumes. \kap\ and \funnel\ solutions with a single
asymptotic region are constructed analytically. We argue
that \kap\ solutions provide simple examples of holographic duals to boundary
CFTs in two dimensions and present calculations of their holographic boundary
entropy to support the BCFT dual picture.Comment: 37 pages, pdflatex, 5 figure
Adaptive and non-adaptive divergence in a common landscape
Species in a common landscape often face similar selective environments. The capacity of organisms to adapt to these environments may be largely species specific. Quantifying shared and unique adaptive responses across species within landscapes may thus improve our understanding of landscape-moderated biodiversity patterns. Here we test to what extent populations of two coexisting and phylogenetically related fishes—three-spined and nine-spined stickleback—differ in the strength and nature of neutral and adaptive divergence along a salinity gradient. Phenotypic differentiation, neutral genetic differentiation and genomic signatures of adaptation are stronger in the three-spined stickleback. Yet, both species show substantial phenotypic parallelism. In contrast, genomic signatures of adaptation involve different genomic regions, and are thus non-parallel. The relative contribution of spatial and environmental drivers of population divergence in each species reflects different strategies for persistence in the same landscape. These results provide insight in the mechanisms underlying variation in evolutionary versatility and ecological success among species within landscapes
Open String Attractors
We present a simple example of a supersymmetric attractor mechanism in the
purely open string context of D-branes embedded in curved space-time. Our
example involves a class of D3-branes embedded in the 2-charge D1-D5 background
of type IIB whose worldvolume contains a 2-sphere. Turning on worldvolume
fluxes, these branes carry induced (p,q) string charges. Supersymmetric
configurations display a flow of the open string moduli towards an attractor
solution independent of their asymptotics. The equations governing this
mechanism closely resemble the attractor flow equations for supersymmetric
black holes in closed string theory. The BPS equations take the form of a
gradient flow and describe worldvolume solitons interpolating between an AdS_2
geometry where the two-sphere has collapsed, and an attractor solution with
AdS_2 x S^2 geometry. In these limiting solutions, the preserved supersymmetry
is enhanced from 4 to 8 supercharges. We also discuss the interpretation of our
solutions as intersecting brane configurations placed in the D1-D5 background,
as well as the S-duality transformation to the F1-NS5 background.Comment: 37 pages, 6 figures. v2: small corrections, figure and references
adde
Quantizing higher-spin gravity in free-field variables
We study the formulation of massless higher-spin gravity on AdS in a
gauge in which the fundamental variables satisfy free field Poisson brackets.
This gauge choice leaves a small portion of the gauge freedom unfixed, which
should be further quotiented out. We show that doing so leads to a bulk version
of the Coulomb gas formalism for CFT's: the generators of the residual
gauge symmetries are the classical limits of screening charges, while the
gauge-invariant observables are classical charges. Quantization in these
variables can be carried out using standard techniques and makes manifest a
remnant of the triality symmetry of . This symmetry can be
used to argue that the theory should be supplemented with additional matter
content which is precisely that of the Prokushkin-Vasiliev theory. As a further
application, we use our formulation to quantize a class of conical surplus
solutions and confirm the conjecture that these are dual to specific degenerate
primaries, to all orders in the large central charge expansion.Comment: 31 pages + appendices. V2: typos corrected, reference adde
Vanishing Cosmological Constant in Modified Gauss-Bonnet Gravity with Conformal Anomaly
We consider dark energy cosmology in a de Sitter universe filled with quantum
conformal matter. Our model represents a Gauss-Bonnet model of gravity with
contributions from quantum effects. To the General Relativity action an
arbitrary function of the GB invariant, f(G), is added, and taking into account
quantum effects from matter the cosmological constant is studied. For the
considered model the conditions for a vanishing cosmological constant are
considered. Creation of a de Sitter universe by quantum effects in a GB
modified gravity is discussed.Comment: 8 pages latex, 1 figure. To appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys.
Black Hole Meiosis
The enumeration of BPS bound states in string theory needs refinement.
Studying partition functions of particles made from D-branes wrapped on
algebraic Calabi-Yau 3-folds, and classifying states using split attractor flow
trees, we extend the method for computing a refined BPS index, arXiv:0810.4301.
For certain D-particles, a finite number of microstates, namely polar states,
exclusively realized as bound states, determine an entire partition function
(elliptic genus). This underlines their crucial importance: one might call them
the `chromosomes' of a D-particle or a black hole. As polar states also can be
affected by our refinement, previous predictions on elliptic genera are
modified. This can be metaphorically interpreted as `crossing-over in the
meiosis of a D-particle'. Our results improve on hep-th/0702012, provide
non-trivial evidence for a strong split attractor flow tree conjecture, and
thus suggest that we indeed exhaust the BPS spectrum. In the D-brane
description of a bound state, the necessity for refinement results from the
fact that tachyonic strings split up constituent states into `generic' and
`special' states. These are enumerated separately by topological invariants,
which turn out to be partitions of Donaldson-Thomas invariants. As modular
predictions provide a check on many of our results, we have compelling evidence
that our computations are correct.Comment: 46 pages, 8 figures. v2: minor changes. v3: minor changes and
reference adde
Harmonic Analysis of Boolean Networks: Determinative Power and Perturbations
Consider a large Boolean network with a feed forward structure. Given a
probability distribution on the inputs, can one find, possibly small,
collections of input nodes that determine the states of most other nodes in the
network? To answer this question, a notion that quantifies the determinative
power of an input over the states of the nodes in the network is needed. We
argue that the mutual information (MI) between a given subset of the inputs X =
{X_1, ..., X_n} of some node i and its associated function f_i(X) quantifies
the determinative power of this set of inputs over node i. We compare the
determinative power of a set of inputs to the sensitivity to perturbations to
these inputs, and find that, maybe surprisingly, an input that has large
sensitivity to perturbations does not necessarily have large determinative
power. However, for unate functions, which play an important role in genetic
regulatory networks, we find a direct relation between MI and sensitivity to
perturbations. As an application of our results, we analyze the large-scale
regulatory network of Escherichia coli. We identify the most determinative
nodes and show that a small subset of those reduces the overall uncertainty of
the network state significantly. Furthermore, the network is found to be
tolerant to perturbations of its inputs
Entropy Function for Non-extremal D1D5 and D2D6NS5-branes
We apply the entropy function formalism to non-extremal D1D5 and
D2D6NS5-branes whose throat approximation is given by the Schwarzschild black
hole in AdS_3\times S^3\times T^4 and AdS_3\times S^2\times S^1\times T^4,
respectively. We find the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy and the (alpha')^3R^4
corrections from the value of the entropy function at its saddle point. While
the higher derivative terms have no effect on the temperature, they decrease
the value of the entropy.Comment: 17 Pages, Latex file; Minor additions, version published in JHE
String theory duals of Lifshitz-Chern-Simons gauge theories
We propose candidate gravity duals for a class of non-Abelian z=2 Lifshitz
Chern-Simons (LCS) gauge theories studied by Mulligan, Kachru and Nayak. These
are nonrelativistic gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions in which parity and
time-reversal symmetries are explicitly broken by the presence of a
Chern-Simons term. We show that these field theories can be realized as
deformations of DLCQ N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. Using the holographic
dictionary, we identify the bulk fields that are dual to these deformations.
The geometries describing the groundstates of the non-Abelian LCS gauge
theories realized here exhibit a mass gap.Comment: 25+14 pages, 3 figures; v2: significant corrections regarding IR
geometry, resulting in new section 5; journal versio
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