294 research outputs found
On the Initial Conditions for Brane Inflation
String theory gives rise to various mechanisms to generate primordial
inflation, of which ``brane inflation'' is one of the most widely considered.
In this scenario, inflation takes place while two branes are approaching each
other, and the modulus field representing the separation between the branes
plays the role of the inflaton field. We study the phase space of initial
conditions which can lead to a sufficiently long period of cosmological
inflation, and find that taking into account the possibility of nonvanishing
initial momentum can significantly change the degree of fine tuning of the
required initial conditions.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
Warped Supersymmetry Breaking
We address the size of supersymmetry-breaking effects within
higher-dimensional settings where the observable sector resides deep within a
strongly warped region, with supersymmetry breaking not necessarily localized
in that region. Our particular interest is in how the supersymmetry-breaking
scale seen by the observable sector depends on this warping. We obtain this
dependence in two ways: by computing within the microscopic (string) theory
supersymmetry-breaking masses in supermultiplets; and by investigating how
warping gets encoded into masses within the low-energy 4D effective theory. We
find that the lightest gravitino mode can have mass much less than the
straightforward estimate from the mass shift of the unwarped zero mode. This
lightest Kaluza-Klein excitation plays the role of the supersymmetric partner
of the graviton and has a warped mass m_{3/2} proportional to e^A, with e^A the
warp factor, and controls the size of the soft SUSY breaking terms. We
formulate the conditions required for the existence of a description in terms
of a 4D SUGRA formulation, or in terms of 4D SUGRA together with soft-breaking
terms, and describe in particular situations where neither exist for some
non-supersymmetric compactifications. We suggest that some effects of warping
are captured by a linear dependence in the Kahler potential. We outline
some implications of our results for the KKLT scenario of moduli stabilization
with broken SUSY.Comment: 34 pages, 1 figure. v2 Further discussion of dual interpretation and
gravitino mas
Evolutionary trait‐based approaches for predicting future global impacts of plant pathogens in the genus Phytophthora
Plant pathogens are introduced to new geographical regions ever more frequently as global connectivity increases. Predicting the threat they pose to plant health can be difficult without in‐depth knowledge of behaviour, distribution and spread. Here, we evaluate the potential for using biological traits and phylogeny to predict global threats from emerging pathogens.
We use a species‐level trait database and phylogeny for 179 Phytophthora species: oomycete pathogens impacting natural, agricultural, horticultural and forestry settings. We compile host and distribution reports for Phytophthora species across 178 countries and evaluate the power of traits, phylogeny and time since description (reflecting species‐level knowledge) to explain and predict their international transport, maximum latitude and host breadth using Bayesian phylogenetic generalised linear mixed models.
In the best‐performing models, traits, phylogeny and time since description together explained up to 90%, 97% and 87% of variance in number of countries reached, latitudinal limits and host range, respectively. Traits and phylogeny together explained up to 26%, 41% and 34% of variance in the number of countries reached, maximum latitude and host plant families affected, respectively, but time since description had the strongest effect.
Root‐attacking species were reported in more countries, and on more host plant families than foliar‐attacking species. Host generalist pathogens had thicker‐walled resting structures (stress‐tolerant oospores) and faster growth rates at their optima. Cold‐tolerant species are reported in more countries and at higher latitudes, though more accurate interspecific empirical data are needed to confirm this finding.
Policy implications. We evaluate the potential of an evolutionary trait‐based framework to support horizon‐scanning approaches for identifying pathogens with greater potential for global‐scale impacts. Potential future threats from Phytophthora include Phytophthora x heterohybrida, P. lactucae, P. glovera, P. x incrassata, P. amnicola and P. aquimorbida, which are recently described, possibly under‐reported species, with similar traits and/or phylogenetic proximity to other high‐impact species. Priority traits to measure for emerging species may be thermal minima, oospore wall index and growth rate at optimum temperature. Trait‐based horizon‐scanning approaches would benefit from the development of international and cross‐sectoral collaborations to deliver centralised databases incorporating pathogen distributions, traits and phylogeny
Low Energy Supersymmetry from Non-Geometry
We study a class of flux compactifications that have all the moduli
stabilised, a high (GUT) string scale and a low (TeV) gravitino mass that is
generated dynamically. These non-geometric compactifications correspond to type
II string theories on SU(3)xSU(3) structure orientifolds. The resulting
superpotentials admit, excluding non-perturbative effects, supersymmetric
Minkowski vacua with any number of moduli stabilised. We argue that
non-perturbative effects are present and introduce terms in the superpotential
that are exponentially suppressed by the same moduli that appear
perturbatively. These deform the supersymmetric Minkowski vacua to
supersymmetric AdS vacua with an exponentially small gravitino mass. The
resulting vacua allow for low scale supersymmetry breaking which can be
realised by a number of mechanisms.Comment: 36pp; v2 references added, minor clarifications, JHEP versio
CMB Imprints of a Pre-Inflationary Climbing Phase
We discuss the implications for cosmic microwave background (CMB)
observables, of a class of pre-inflationary dynamics suggested by string models
where SUSY is broken due to the presence of D-branes and orientifolds
preserving incompatible portions of it. In these models the would-be inflaton
is forced to emerge from the initial singularity climbing up a mild exponential
potential, until it bounces against a steep exponential potential of "brane
SUSY breaking" scenarios, and as a result the ensuing descent gives rise to an
inflationary epoch that begins when the system is still well off its eventual
attractor. If a pre-inflationary climbing phase of this type had occurred
within 6-7 e-folds of the horizon exit for the largest observable wavelengths,
displacement off the attractor and initial-state effects would conspire to
suppress power in the primordial scalar spectrum, enhancing it in the tensor
spectrum and typically superposing oscillations on both. We investigate these
imprints on CMB observables over a range of parameters, examine their
statistical significance, and provide a semi-analytic rationale for our
results. It is tempting to ascribe at least part of the large-angle anomalies
in the CMB to pre-inflationary dynamics of this type.Comment: 38 pages, LaTeX, 11 eps figures, references added, matches version to
appear in JCA
Game Theoretical Interactions of Moving Agents
Game theory has been one of the most successful quantitative concepts to
describe social interactions, their strategical aspects, and outcomes. Among
the payoff matrix quantifying the result of a social interaction, the
interaction conditions have been varied, such as the number of repeated
interactions, the number of interaction partners, the possibility to punish
defective behavior etc. While an extension to spatial interactions has been
considered early on such as in the "game of life", recent studies have focussed
on effects of the structure of social interaction networks.
However, the possibility of individuals to move and, thereby, evade areas
with a high level of defection, and to seek areas with a high level of
cooperation, has not been fully explored so far. This contribution presents a
model combining game theoretical interactions with success-driven motion in
space, and studies the consequences that this may have for the degree of
cooperation and the spatio-temporal dynamics in the population. It is
demonstrated that the combination of game theoretical interactions with motion
gives rise to many self-organized behavioral patterns on an aggregate level,
which can explain a variety of empirically observed social behaviors
Open string wavefunctions in flux compactifications
We consider compactifications of type I supergravity on manifolds with SU(3)
structure, in the presence of RR fluxes and magnetized D9-branes, and analyze
the generalized Dirac and Laplace-Beltrami operators associated to the D9-brane
worldvolume fields. These compactifications are T-dual to standard type IIB
toroidal orientifolds with NSNS and RR 3-form fluxes and D3/D7 branes. By using
techniques of representation theory and harmonic analysis, the spectrum of open
string wavefunctions can be computed for Lie groups and their quotients, as we
illustrate with explicit twisted tori examples. We find a correspondence
between irreducible unitary representations of the Kaloper-Myers algebra and
families of Kaluza-Klein excitations. We perform the computation of 2- and
3-point couplings for matter fields in the above flux compactifications, and
compare our results with those of 4d effective supergravity.Comment: 89 pages, 4 figures. v3: more typos corrected, version published in
JHE
Building a Better Racetrack
We find IIb compactifications on Calabi-Yau orientifolds in which all Kahler
moduli are stabilized, along lines suggested by Kachru, Kallosh, Linde and
Trivedi.Comment: 47 pages, 1 figure, harvmac (v2: added references, minor comments,
v3: improved discussion of metastability and explicit flux vacua
Type IIA Moduli Stabilization
We demonstrate that flux compactifications of type IIA string theory can
classically stabilize all geometric moduli. For a particular orientifold
background, we explicitly construct an infinite family of supersymmetric vacua
with all moduli stabilized at arbitrarily large volume, weak coupling, and
small negative cosmological constant. We obtain these solutions from both
ten-dimensional and four-dimensional perspectives. For more general
backgrounds, we study the equations for supersymmetric vacua coming from the
effective superpotential and show that all geometric moduli can be stabilized
by fluxes. We comment on the resulting picture of statistics on the landscape
of vacua.Comment: 48 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX. v2: references added. v3: minor comments
& references adde
Repeating the Errors of Our Parents? Family-of-Origin Spouse Violence and Observed Conflict Management in Engaged Couples
Based on a developmental social learning analysis, it was hypothesized that observing parental violence predisposes partners to difficulties in managing couple conflict. Seventy-one engaged couples were assessed on their observation of parental violence in their family of origin. All couples were videotaped discussing two areas of current relationship conflict, and their cognitions during the interactions were assessed using a video-mediated recall procedure. Couples in which the male partner reported observing parental violence (male-exposed couples) showed more negative affect and communication during conflict discussions than couples in which neither partner reported observing parental violence (unexposed couples). Couples in which only the female partner reported observing parental violence (female- exposed couples) did not differ from unexposed couples in their affect or behavior. Female-exposed couples reported more negative cognitions than unexposed couples, but male-exposed couples did not differ from unexposed couples in their reported cognitions
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