Effective action of a five-dimensional domain wall

We calculate the four-dimensional low-energy effective action for the perturbations of a two-scalar domain wall model in five dimensions. Comparison of the effective action to the Nambu-Goto action reveals the presence of an additional coupling between the light scalar field and the massless translation mode (branon excitation), which can be written in terms of the curvature scalar of the induced metric. We comment on the impact of this interaction to branon physics.Comment: 24 page

Compact extra-dimensions as solution to the strong CP problem

We show that the strong CP problem can, in principle, be solved dynamically by adding extra-dimensions with compact topology. To this aim we consider a toy model for QCD, which contains a vacuum angle and a strong CP like problem. We further consider a higher dimensional theory, which has a trivial vacuum structure and which reproduces the perturbative properties of the toy model in the low-energy limit. In the weak coupling regime, where our computations are valid, we show that the vacuum structure of the low-energy action is still trivial and the strong CP problem is solved. No axion-like particle occur in this setup and therefore it is not ruled out by astrophysical bounds.Comment: Discussion adde

One-loop fermionic corrections to the instanton transition in two dimensional chiral Higgs model

The one-loop fermionic contribution to the probability of an instanton transition with fermion number violation is calculated in the chiral Abelian Higgs model in 1+1 dimensions, where the fermions have a Yukawa coupling to the scalar field. The dependence of the determinant on fermionic, scalar and vector mass is determined. We show in detail how to renormalize the fermionic determinant in partial wave analysis, which is convenient for computations.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figure

Towards flavour diffusion coefficient and electrical conductivity without ultraviolet contamination

By subtracting from a recent lattice measurement of the thermal vector-current correlator the known 5-loop vacuum contribution, we demonstrate that the remainder is small and shows no visible short-distance divergence. It can therefore in principle be subjected to model-independent analytic continuation. Testing a particular implementation, we obtain estimates for the flavour-diffusion coefficient (2 pi T D \gsim 0.8) and electrical conductivity which are significantly smaller than previous results. Although systematic errors remain beyond control at present, some aspects of our approach could be of a wider applicability.Comment: 7 pages. v2: clarifications added, published versio

Hemodialysis for cefepime intoxication: A case report

Introduction: We report a case of cefepime intoxication with acute severe neurologic symptoms, which was treated by temporary hemodialysis. Patients (or Materials) and Methods: Cefepime 2 g BID for endovascular prosthesis infection was prescribed to a frail, chronically ill 88-year-old woman with a serum creatinine of 199 μmol/L and an estimated creatinine clearance of 13 mL/min (Cockroft formula). Two days later, she was transferred to a neurocritical care unit because of acute aphasia, myoclonic jerks, and delirium with a Glasgow coma scale score of 12/15. The following day, in the absence of other causes, cefepime intoxication was hypothesized, and cefepime was withdrawn after a total of 7 doses = 14 g. Over the next 24 hours, two 3-hour hemodialysis (HD) sessions were performed under cefepime concentration monitoring. Results: Cefepime plasma levels were measured by liquid chromatography/ mass spectrometry. There is no validated reference range, but a study (Chapuis T et al, Critical Care, 2010) found a 50% risk of neurotoxicity with residual levels > 15 mg/L. In our patient, levels were 83.3 mg/L 10 hours after last dose, 24.1 mg/L immediately after the first HD session, 13.4 mg/L immediately before the second HD session, and 2.5 mg/L immediately after the second HD session. The patient made a full clinical recovery over the next 48 hours. The 70% to 80% fall in plasmatic levels observed during each HD session is in accordance with literature data (Schmaldienst S et al, Eur J Clin Pharmacol, 2000, and Manyor LM et al, Pharmacotherapy, 2008). According to kinetic simulation, cefepime dropped at a concentration < 15 mg/L 15 hours earlier with HD than it would have without. Conclusion: Neuropsychiatric adverse effects of beta-lactam antibiotics can be easily overlooked by clinicians. One should be especially cautious with their use in very old and frail patients in whom plasma creatinine poorly estimates renal function and cognitive impairment is highly prevalent. Temporary hemodialysis effectively clears cefepime, but its role in hastening clinical recovery may be limited

Colour-electric spectral function at next-to-leading order

The spectral function related to the correlator of two colour-electric fields along a Polyakov loop determines the momentum diffusion coefficient of a heavy quark near rest with respect to a heat bath. We compute this spectral function at next-to-leading order, O(alpha_s^2), in the weak-coupling expansion. The high-frequency part of our result (omega >> T), which is shown to be temperature-independent, is accurately determined thanks to asymptotic freedom; the low-frequency part of our result (omega << T), in which Hard Thermal Loop resummation is needed in order to cure infrared divergences, agrees with a previously determined expression. Our result may help to calibrate the overall normalization of a lattice-extracted spectral function in a perturbative frequency domain T << omega << 1/a, paving the way for a non-perturbative estimate of the momentum diffusion coefficient at omega -> 0. We also evaluate the colour-electric Euclidean correlator, which could be directly compared with lattice simulations. As an aside we determine the Euclidean correlator in the lattice strong-coupling expansion, showing that through a limiting procedure it can in principle be defined also in the confined phase of pure Yang-Mills theory, even if a practical measurement could be very noisy there.Comment: 38 page

Ultraviolet asymptotics of scalar and pseudoscalar correlators in hot Yang-Mills theory

Inspired by recent lattice measurements, we determine the short-distance (a > omega >> pi T) asymptotics of scalar (trace anomaly) and pseudoscalar (topological charge density) correlators at 2-loop order in hot Yang-Mills theory. The results are expressed in the form of an Operator Product Expansion. We confirm and refine the determination of a number of Wilson coefficients; however some discrepancies with recent literature are detected as well, and employing the correct values might help, on the qualitative level, to understand some of the features observed in the lattice measurements. On the other hand, the Wilson coefficients show slow convergence and it appears uncertain whether this approach can lead to quantitative comparisons with lattice data. Nevertheless, as we outline, our general results might serve as theoretical starting points for a number of perhaps phenomenologically more successful lines of investigation.Comment: 27 pages. v2: minor improvements, published versio

Intermediate distance correlators in hot Yang-Mills theory

Lattice measurements of spatial correlation functions of the operators FF and FF-dual in thermal SU(3) gauge theory have revealed a clear difference between the two channels at "intermediate" distances, x ~ 1/(pi T). This is at odds with the AdS/CFT limit which predicts the results to coincide. On the other hand, an OPE analysis at short distances (x << 1/(pi T)) as well as effective theory methods at long distances (x >> 1/(pi T)) suggest differences. Here we study the situation at intermediate distances by determining the time-averaged spatial correlators through a 2-loop computation. We do find unequal results, however the numerical disparity is small. Apart from theoretical issues, a future comparison of our results with time-averaged lattice measurements might also be of phenomenological interest in that understanding the convergence of the weak-coupling series at intermediate distances may bear on studies of the thermal broadening of heavy quarkonium resonances.Comment: 31 page

Heavy quark medium polarization at next-to-leading order

We compute the imaginary part of the heavy quark contribution to the photon polarization tensor, i.e. the quarkonium spectral function in the vector channel, at next-to-leading order in thermal QCD. Matching our result, which is valid sufficiently far away from the two-quark threshold, with a previously determined resummed expression, which is valid close to the threshold, we obtain a phenomenological estimate for the spectral function valid for all non-zero energies. In particular, the new expression allows to fix the overall normalization of the previous resummed one. Our result may be helpful for lattice reconstructions of the spectral function (near the continuum limit), which necessitate its high energy behaviour as input, and can in principle also be compared with the dilepton production rate measured in heavy ion collision experiments. In an appendix analogous results are given for the scalar channel.Comment: 43 pages. v2: a figure and other clarifications added, published versio