419 research outputs found
SUSY Breaking and Moduli Stabilization from Fluxes in Gauged 6D Supergravity
We construct the 4D N=1 supergravity which describes the low-energy limit of
6D supergravity compactified on a sphere with a monopole background a la Salam
and Sezgin. This provides a simple setting sharing the main properties of
realistic string compactifications such as flat 4D spacetime, chiral fermions
and N=1 supersymmetry as well as Fayet-Iliopoulos terms induced by the
Green-Schwarz mechanism. The matter content of the resulting theory is a
supersymmetric SO(3)xU(1) gauge model with two chiral multiplets, S and T. The
expectation value of T is fixed by the classical potential, and S describes a
flat direction to all orders in perturbation theory. We consider possible
perturbative corrections to the Kahler potential in inverse powers of
and , and find that under certain circumstances, and when taken together
with low-energy gaugino condensation, these can lift the degeneracy of the flat
direction for . The resulting vacuum breaks supersymmetry at moderately
low energies in comparison with the compactification scale, with positive
cosmological constant. It is argued that the 6D model might itself be obtained
from string compactifications, giving rise to realistic string
compactifications on non Ricci flat manifolds. Possible phenomenological and
cosmological applications are briefly discussed.Comment: 32 pages, 2 figures. Uses JHEP3.cls. References fixed and updated,
some minor typos fixed. Corrected minor error concerning Kaluza-Klein scales.
Results remain unchange
Finite temperature behaviour of the ISS-uplifted KKLT model
We study the static phase structure of the ISS-KKLT model for moduli
stabilisation and uplifting to a zero cosmological constant. Since the
supersymmetry breaking sector and the moduli sector are only gravitationally
coupled, we expect negligible quantum effects of the modulus upon the ISS
sector, and the other way around. Under this assumption, we show that the ISS
fields end up in the metastable vacua. The reason is not only that it is
thermally favoured (second order phase transition) compared to the phase
transition towards the supersymmetric vacua, but rather that the metastable
vacua form before the supersymmetric ones. This nice feature is exclusively due
to the presence of the KKLT sector. We also show that supergravity effects are
negligible around the origin of the field space. Finally, we turn to the
modulus sector and show that there is no destabilisation effect coming from the
ISS sector.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures, mistake corrected, one plot updated, physical
conclusions unchange
BF models, Duality and Bosonization on higher genus surfaces
The generating functional of two dimensional field theories coupled to
fermionic fields and conserved currents is computed in the general case when
the base manifold is a genus g compact Riemann surface. The lagrangian density
is written in terms of a globally defined 1-form and a
multi-valued scalar field . Consistency conditions on the periods of
have to be imposed. It is shown that there exist a non-trivial dependence of
the generating functional on the topological restrictions imposed to . In
particular if the periods of the field are constrained to take values , with any integer, then the partition function is independent of the
chosen spin structure and may be written as a sum over all the spin structures
associated to the fermions even when one started with a fixed spin structure.
These results are then applied to the functional bosonization of fermionic
fields on higher genus surfaces. A bosonized form of the partition function
which takes care of the chosen spin structure is obtainedComment: 17 page
Brane-Antibrane Systems at Finite Temperature and Phase Transition near the Hagedorn Temperature
In order to study the thermodynamic properties of brane-antibrane systems, we
compute the finite temperature effective potential of tachyon T in this system
on the basis of boundary string field theory. At low temperature, the minimum
of the potential shifts towards T=0 as the temperature increases. In the
D9-antiD9 case, the sign of the coefficient of |T|^2 term of the potential
changes slightly below the Hagedorn temperature. This means that a phase
transition occurs near the Hagedorn temperature. On the other hand, the
coefficient is kept negative in the Dp-antiDp case with p <= 8, and thus a
phase transition does not occur. This leads us to the conclusion that only a
D9-antiD9 pair and no other (lower dimensional) brane-antibrane pairs are
created near the Hagedorn temperature. We also discuss a phase transition in
NS9B-antiNS9B case as a model of the Hagedorn transition of closed strings.Comment: 28 pages, 3 figures, minor errors correcte
LARGE Volume String Compactifications at Finite Temperature
We present a detailed study of the finite-temperature behaviour of the LARGE
Volume type IIB flux compactifications. We show that certain moduli can
thermalise at high temperatures. Despite that, their contribution to the
finite-temperature effective potential is always negligible and the latter has
a runaway behaviour. We compute the maximal temperature , above which
the internal space decompactifies, as well as the temperature , that is
reached after the decay of the heaviest moduli. The natural constraint
implies a lower bound on the allowed values of the internal
volume . We find that this restriction rules out a significant
range of values corresponding to smaller volumes of the order , which lead to standard GUT theories. Instead, the bound favours
values of the order , which lead to TeV scale
SUSY desirable for solving the hierarchy problem. Moreover, our result favours
low-energy inflationary scenarios with density perturbations generated by a
field, which is not the inflaton. In such a scenario, one could achieve both
inflation and TeV-scale SUSY, although gravity waves would not be observable.
Finally, we pose a two-fold challenge for the solution of the cosmological
moduli problem. First, we show that the heavy moduli decay before they can
begin to dominate the energy density of the Universe. Hence they are not able
to dilute any unwanted relics. And second, we argue that, in order to obtain
thermal inflation in the closed string moduli sector, one needs to go beyond
the present EFT description.Comment: 54 pages + appendix, 5 figures; v2: minor corrections, references and
footnotes added, version published on JCA
The absence of ABCA1 decreases soluble ApoE levels but does not diminish amyloid deposition in two murine models of Alzheimer disease.
J Biol Chem. 2005 Dec 30;280(52):43243-56. Epub 2005 Oct 5.
The absence of ABCA1 decreases soluble ApoE levels but does not diminish amyloid deposition in two murine models of Alzheimer disease.
Hirsch-Reinshagen V, Maia LF, Burgess BL, Blain JF, Naus KE, McIsaac SA, Parkinson PF, Chan JY, Tansley GH, Hayden MR, Poirier J, Van Nostrand W, Wellington CL.
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V4Z 5H5, Canada.
Abstract
ABCA1, a cholesterol transporter expressed in the brain, has been shown recently to be required to maintain normal apoE levels and lipidation in the central nervous system. In addition, ABCA1 has been reported to modulate beta-amyloid (Abeta) production in vitro. These observations raise the possibility that ABCA1 may play a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease. Here we report that the deficiency of ABCA1 does not affect soluble or guanidine-extractable Abeta levels in Tg-SwDI/B or amyloid precursor protein/presenilin 1 (APP/PS1) mice, but rather is associated with a dramatic reduction in soluble apoE levels in brain. Although this reduction in apoE was expected to reduce the amyloid burden in vivo, we observed that the parenchymal and vascular amyloid load was increased in Tg-SwDI/B animals and was not diminished in APP/PS1 mice. Furthermore, we observed an increase in the proportion of apoE retained in the insoluble fraction, particularly in the APP/PS1 model. These data suggested that ABCA1-mediated effects on apoE levels and lipidation influenced amyloidogenesis in vivo.
PMID: 16207707 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE
Cosmological Creation of D-branes and anti-D-branes
We argue that the early universe may be described by an initial state of
space-filling branes and anti-branes. At high temperature this system is
stable. At low temperature tachyons appear and lead to a phase transition,
dynamics, and the creation of D-branes. These branes are cosmologically
produced in a generic fashion by the Kibble mechanism. From an entropic point
of view, the formation of lower dimensional branes is preferred and
brane-worlds are exponentially more likely to form than higher dimensional
branes. Virtually any brane configuration can be created from such phase
transitions by adjusting the tachyon profile. A lower bound on the number
defects produced is: one D-brane per Hubble volume.Comment: 30 pages, 5 eps figures; v2 more references added; v3 section 4
slightly improve
Te covered Si(001): a variable surface reconstruction
At a given temperature, clean and adatom covered silicon surfaces usually
exhibit well-defined reconstruction patterns. Our finite temperature ab-initio
molecular dynamics calculations show that the tellurium covered Si(001) surface
is an exception. Soft longitudinal modes of surface phonons due to the strongly
anharmonic potential of the bridged tellurium atoms prevent the reconstruction
structure from attaining any permanent, two dimensional periodic geometry. This
explains why experiments attempting to find a definite model for the
reconstruction have reached conflicting conclusions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 gif figure
Modeling of Photoionized Plasmas
In this paper I review the motivation and current status of modeling of
plasmas exposed to strong radiation fields, as it applies to the study of
cosmic X-ray sources. This includes some of the astrophysical issues which can
be addressed, the ingredients for the models, the current computational tools,
the limitations imposed by currently available atomic data, and the validity of
some of the standard assumptions. I will also discuss ideas for the future:
challenges associated with future missions, opportunities presented by improved
computers, and goals for atomic data collection.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, to appear in the proceedings of Xray2010,
Utrecht, the Netherlands, March 15-17 201
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