Parametrised moduli spaces of surfaces as infinite loop spaces

We study the $E_2$-algebra $\Lambda\mathfrak{M}_{*,1}=\coprod_{g\geqslant 0}\Lambda\mathfrak{M}_{g,1}$ consisting of free loop spaces of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces with one parametrised boundary component, and compute the homotopy type of the group completion $\Omega B\Lambda\mathfrak{M}_{*,1}$: it is the product of $\Omega^\infty\mathbf{MTSO}(2)$ with a certain free $\Omega^\infty$-space depending on the family of all boundary-irreducible mapping classes in all mapping class groups $\Gamma_{g,n}$ with $g\geqslant 0$ and $n\geqslant 1$

A finiteness bound for the EPRL/FK spin foam model

We show that the EPRL/FK spin foam model of quantum gravity has an absolutely convergent partition function if the vertex amplitude is divided by an appropriate power $p$ of the product of dimensions of the vertex spins. This power is independent of the spin foam 2-complex and we find that $p>2$ insures the convergence of the state sum. Determining the convergence of the state sum for the values $0 \le p \le 2$ requires the knowledge of the large-spin asymptotics of the vertex amplitude in the cases when some of the vertex spins are large and other are small.Comment: v6: published versio

Parents' involvement in child care: do parental and work identities matter?

The current study draws on identity theory to explore mothers' and fathers' involvement in childcare. It examined the relationships between the salience and centrality of individuals’ parental and work-related identities and the extent to which they are involved in various forms of childcare. A sample of 148 couples with at least one child aged 6 years or younger completed extensive questionnaires. As hypothesized, the salience and centrality of parental identities were positively related to mothers' and fathers' involvement in childcare. Moreover, maternal identity salience was negatively related to fathers' hours of childcare and share of childcare tasks. Finally, work hours mediated the negative relationships between the centrality of work identities and time invested in childcare, and gender moderated this mediation effect. That is, the more central a mother's work identity, the more hours she worked for pay and the fewer hours she invested in childcare. These findings shed light on the role of parental identities in guiding behavioral choices, and attest to the importance of distinguishing between identity salience and centrality as two components of self-structure

Massive higher spins and holography

We review recent progress towards the understanding of higher spin gauge symmetry breaking in AdS space from a holographic vantage point. According to the AdS/CFT correspondence, N=4 SYM theory at vanishing coupling constant should be dual to a theory in AdS which exhibits higher spin gauge symmetry enhancement. When the SYM coupling is non-zero, all but a handful of HS currents are violated by anomalies, and correspondingly local higher spin symmetry in the bulk gets spontaneously broken. In agreement with previous results and holographic expectations, we find that, barring one notable exception (spin 1 eating spin 0), the Goldstone modes responsible for HS symmetry breaking in AdS have non-vanishing mass even in the limit in which the gauge symmetry is restored. We show that spontaneous breaking a' la Stueckelberg implies that the mass of the relevant spin s'=s-1 Goldstone field is exactly the one predicted by the correspondence.Comment: 8 pages, talk presented by M.B. at the "Fourth Meeting on Constrained Dynamics and Quantum gravity" held in Cala Gonone (Sardinia, Italy), September 12-16, 200

Plasduino: an inexpensive, general purpose data acquisition framework for educational experiments

Based on the Arduino development platform, Plasduino is an open-source data acquisition framework specifically designed for educational physics experiments. The source code, schematics and documentation are in the public domain under a GPL license and the system, streamlined for low cost and ease of use, can be replicated on the scale of a typical didactic lab with minimal effort. We describe the basic architecture of the system and illustrate its potential with some real-life examples.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, presented at the XCIX conference of the Societ\`a Italiana di Fisic

Asymptotics of LQG fusion coefficients

The fusion coefficients from SO(3) to SO(4) play a key role in the definition of spin foam models for the dynamics in Loop Quantum Gravity. In this paper we give a simple analytic formula of the EPRL fusion coefficients. We study the large spin asymptotics and show that they map SO(3) semiclassical intertwiners into $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R$ semiclassical intertwiners. This non-trivial property opens the possibility for an analysis of the semiclassical behavior of the model.Comment: 14 pages, minor change