8,122 research outputs found
Desensitizing Inflation from the Planck Scale
A new mechanism to control Planck-scale corrections to the inflationary eta
parameter is proposed. A common approach to the eta problem is to impose a
shift symmetry on the inflaton field. However, this symmetry has to remain
unbroken by Planck-scale effects, which is a rather strong requirement on
possible ultraviolet completions of the theory. In this paper, we show that the
breaking of the shift symmetry by Planck-scale corrections can be
systematically suppressed if the inflaton field interacts with a conformal
sector. The inflaton then receives an anomalous dimension in the conformal
field theory, which leads to sequestering of all dangerous high-energy
corrections. We analyze a number of models where the mechanism can be seen in
action. In our most detailed example we compute the exact anomalous dimensions
via a-maximization and show that the eta problem can be solved using only
weakly-coupled physics.Comment: 34 pages, 3 figures
Solution of the two identical ion Penning trap final state
We have derived a closed form analytic expression for the asymptotic motion
of a pair of identical ions in a high precision Penning trap. The analytic
solution includes the effects of special relativity and the Coulomb interaction
between the ions. The existence and physical relevance of such a final state is
supported by a confluence of theoretical, experimental and numerical evidence.Comment: 5 pages and 2 figure
D3-brane Potentials from Fluxes in AdS/CFT
We give a comprehensive treatment of the scalar potential for a D3-brane in a
warped conifold region of a compactification with stabilized moduli. By
studying general ultraviolet perturbations in supergravity, we systematically
incorporate `compactification effects' sourced by supersymmetry breaking in the
compact space. Significant contributions to the D3-brane potential, including
the leading term in the infrared, arise from imaginary anti-self-dual (IASD)
fluxes. For an arbitrary Calabi-Yau cone, we determine the most general IASD
fluxes in terms of scalar harmonics, then compute the resulting D3-brane
potential. Specializing to the conifold, we identify the operator dual to each
mode of flux, and for chiral operators we confirm that the potential computed
in the gauge theory matches the gravity result. The effects of four-dimensional
curvature, including the leading D3-brane mass term, arise directly from the
ten-dimensional equations of motion. Furthermore, we show that gaugino
condensation on D7-branes provides a local source for IASD flux. This flux
precisely encodes the nonperturbative contributions to the D3-brane potential,
yielding a promising ten-dimensional representation of four-dimensional
nonperturbative effects. Our result encompasses all significant contributions
to the D3-brane potential discussed in the literature, and does so in the
single coherent framework of ten-dimensional supergravity. Moreover, we
identify new terms with irrational scaling dimensions that were inaccessible in
prior works. By decoupling gravity in a noncompact configuration, then
systematically reincorporating compactification effects as ultraviolet
perturbations, we have provided an approach in which Planck-suppressed
contributions to the D3-brane effective action can be computed.Comment: 70 page
Factors associated with the decision to investigate child protective services referrals: a systematic review
Background: Limited resources for child protection create challenging decision situations for child protective services (CPS) workers at the point of intake. A body of research has examined the factors associated with worker decisions and processes using a variety of methodological approaches to gain knowledge on decision-making. However, few attempts have been made to systematically review this literature.
Objective: As part of a larger project on decision-making at intake, this systematic review addressed the question of the factors associated with worker decisions to investigate alleged maltreatment referrals.
Methods: Quantitative studies that examined factors associated with screening decisions in CPS practice settings were included in the review. Database and other search methods were used to identify research published in English over a 35-year period (1980-2015).
Findings: Of 1,147 identified sources, 18 studies were selected for full data extraction. The studies were conducted in the U.S., Canada, and Sweden and varied in methodological quality. Most studies examined case factors with few studies examining other domains.
Conclusions: To inform CPS policy and practice, additional research is needed to examine the relationships between decision-making factors and case outcomes. Greater attention needs to be given to the organizational and external factors that influence decision-making
Non-supersymmetric Conifold
We find a new family of non-supersymmetric numerical solutions of IIB
supergravity which are dual to the N=1 cascading "conifold" theory perturbed by
certain combinations of relevant single trace and marginal double trace
operators with non infinitesimal couplings. The SUSY is broken but the
resulting ground states, and their gravity duals, remain stable, at least
perturbatively.Despite the complicated field theory dynamics the gravity
solutions have a simple structure. They feature the Ricci-flat non-Kahler
metric on the deformed conifold and the imaginary self-dual three-form flux
accompanied by a constant dilaton.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures; v2: minor corrections; v3: comments adde
Ageing, dynamical scaling and its extensions in many-particle systems without detailed balance
Recent studies on the phenomenology of ageing in certain many-particle
systems which are at a critical point of their non-equilibrium steady-states,
are reviewed. Examples include the contact process, the parity-conserving
branching-annihilating random walk, two exactly solvable particle-reaction
models and kinetic growth models. While the generic scaling descriptions known
from magnetic system can be taken over, some of the scaling relations between
the ageing exponents are no longer valid. In particular, there is no obvious
generalization of the universal limit fluctuation-dissipation ratio. The form
of the scaling function of the two-time response function is compared with the
prediction of the theory of local scale-invariance.Comment: Latex2e with IOP macros, 32 pages; extended discussion on contact
process and new section on kinetic growth processe
Revealing Cosmic Rotation
Cosmological Birefringence (CB), a rotation of the polarization plane of
radiation coming to us from distant astrophysical sources, may reveal parity
violation in either the electromagnetic or gravitational sectors of the
fundamental interactions in nature. Until only recently this phenomenon could
be probed with only radio observations or observations at UV wavelengths.
Recently, there is a substantial effort to constrain such non-standard models
using observations of the rotation of the polarization plane of cosmic
microwave background (CMB) radiation. This can be done via measurements of the
-modes of the CMB or by measuring its TB and EB correlations which vanish in
the standard model. In this paper we show that correlations-based
estimator is the best for upcoming polarization experiments. The based
estimator surpasses other estimators because it has the smallest noise and of
all the estimators is least affected by systematics. Current polarimeters are
optimized for the detection of -mode polarization from either primordial
gravitational waves or by large scale structure via gravitational lensing. In
the paper we also study optimization of CMB experiments for the detection of
cosmological birefringence, in the presence of instrumental systematics, which
by themselves are capable of producing correlations; potentially mimicking
CB.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 2 table
Warped Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter
Warped compactifications of type IIB string theory contain natural dark
matter candidates: Kaluza-Klein modes along approximate isometry directions of
long warped throats. These isometries are broken by the full compactification,
including moduli stabilization; we present a thorough survey of Kaluza-Klein
mode decay rates into light supergravity modes and Standard Model particles. We
find that these dark matter candidates typically have lifetimes longer than the
age of the universe. Interestingly, some choices for embedding the Standard
Model in the compactification lead to decay rates large enough to be observed,
so this dark matter sector may provide constraints on the parameter space of
the compactification.Comment: 37pp; v2. references, minor clarificatio
Anomalous Dimensions and Non-Gaussianity
We analyze the signatures of inflationary models that are coupled to strongly
interacting field theories, a basic class of multifield models also motivated
by their role in providing dynamically small scales. Near the squeezed limit of
the bispectrum, we find a simple scaling behavior determined by operator
dimensions, which are constrained by the appropriate unitarity bounds.
Specifically, we analyze two simple and calculable classes of examples:
conformal field theories (CFTs), and large-N CFTs deformed by relevant
time-dependent double-trace operators. Together these two classes of examples
exhibit a wide range of scalings and shapes of the bispectrum, including nearly
equilateral, orthogonal and local non-Gaussianity in different regimes. Along
the way, we compare and contrast the shape and amplitude with previous results
on weakly coupled fields coupled to inflation. This signature provides a
precision test for strongly coupled sectors coupled to inflation via irrelevant
operators suppressed by a high mass scale up to 1000 times the inflationary
Hubble scale.Comment: 40 pages, 10 figure
Dynamical Fine Tuning in Brane Inflation
We investigate a novel mechanism of dynamical tuning of a flat potential in
the open string landscape within the context of warped brane-antibrane
inflation in type IIB string theory. Because of competing effects between
interactions with the moduli stabilizing D7-branes in the warped throat and
anti-D3-branes at the tip, a stack of branes gives rise to a local minimum of
the potential, holding the branes high up in the throat. As branes successively
tunnel out of the local minimum to the bottom of the throat the potential
barrier becomes lower and is eventually replaced by a flat inflection point,
around which the remaining branes easily inflate. This dynamical flattening of
the inflaton potential reduces the need to fine tune the potential by hand, and
also leads to successful inflation for a larger range of inflaton initial
conditions, due to trapping in the local minimum.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures. v2: Updated D3-dependence in potential, small
changes to numerical result
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