D-Branes on C^3_6 part I: prepotential and GW-invariants

This is the first of a set of papers having the aim to provide a detailed description of brane configurations on a family of noncompact threedimensional Calabi-Yau manifolds. The starting point is the singular manifold C^3/Z_6, which admits five distinct crepant resolutions. Here we apply local mirror symmetry to partially determine the prepotential encoding the GW-invariants of the resolved varieties. It results that such prepotential provides all numbers but the ones corresponding to curves having null intersection with the compact divisor. This is realized by means of a conjecture, due to S. Hosono, so that our results provide a check confirming at least in part the conjecture.Comment: 66 pages, 18 figures, 15 tables; added reference

Non canonical polarizations of Gravitational Waves

We hereby propose an alternative and additional angle on the nature of gravitational waves (GWs), postulating the theoretical and experimental possibility that GWs carry a deformation of the time component of spacetime, other than the spatial one. By explicitly working outside of the transverse-traceless gauge, we propose how events with welldefined time duration, when hit by a GW, would consequently be expected to show a difference in their characteristic time, as measured from the rest frame of an outside observer,whose clock is to remain unaffected by the GW. This constitutes a theoretically viable way in the sense of detecting the passing of the wave itself and may prove relevant as a standalone method for GWs detection other than laser interferometers, or as well be implemented as a complementary but independent system of signal triggering, improving the statistical significance of existing methods. A simple but physically realistic scenario in which the appropriate conditions for the generation and detection of GWs with time dilation are met is presented, along with the conceptual design of an experimental detector.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

A Chern-Simons transgression formula for supersymmetric path integrals on spin manifolds

Earlier results show that the N = 1/2 supersymmetric path integral on a closed even dimensional Riemannian spin manifold (X,g) can be constructed in a mathematically rigorous way via Chen differential forms and techniques from non-commutative geometry, if one considers it as a current on the smooth loop space of X. This construction admits a Duistermaat-Heckman localization formula. In this note, fixing a topologic spin structure on X, we prove that any smooth family of Riemannian metrics on X canonically induces a Chern-Simons current which fits into a transgression formula for the supersymmetric path integral. In particular, this result entails that the supersymmetric path integral induces a differential topologic invariant on X, which essentially stems from the A-hat-genus of X

Banana integrals in configuration space

We reconsider the computation of banana integrals at different loops, by working in the configuration space, in any dimension. We show how the 2-loop banana integral can be computed directly from the configuration space representation, without the need to resort to differential equations, and we include the analytic extension of the diagram in the space of complex masses. We also determine explicitly the $\varepsilon$ expansion of the two loop banana integrals, for $d=j-2\varepsilon$, $j=2,3,4$.Comment: 29 pages, several formulas improved, removed a mistak

Perturbative Approach to Analog Hawking Radiation in dielectric media in subcritical regime

We take into account the subcritical case for dielectric media by exploiting an approximation allowing us to perform perturbative analytical calculations and still not implying low dispersive effects. We show that in the background of a specific soliton-like solution, pair-creation occurs and can display a thermal behaviour governed by an effective temperature. The robustness of the approach is also corroborated by the analysis of the $\phi\psi$-model related to the standard Hopfield model, for which analogous results are obtained.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

One-Dimensional Super Calabi-Yau Manifolds and their Mirrors

We apply a definition of generalised super Calabi-Yau variety (SCY) to supermanifolds of complex dimension one. One of our results is that there are two SCY's having reduced manifold equal to $\mathbb{P}^1$, namely the projective super space $\mathbb{P}^{1|2}$ and the weighted projective super space $\mathbb{WP}^{1|1}_{(2)}$. Then we compute the corresponding sheaf cohomology of superforms, showing that the cohomology with picture number one is infinite dimensional, while the de Rham cohomology, which is what matters from a physical point of view, remains finite dimensional. Moreover, we provide the complete real and holomorphic de Rham cohomology for generic projective super spaces $\mathbb P^{n|m}$. We also determine the automorphism groups: these always match the dimension of the projective super group with the only exception of $\mathbb{P}^{1|2}$, whose automorphism group turns out to be larger than the projective general linear supergroup. By considering the cohomology of the super tangent sheaf, we compute the deformations of $\mathbb{P}^{1|m}$, discovering that the presence of a fermionic structure allows for deformations even if the reduced manifold is rigid. Finally, we show that $\mathbb{P}^{1|2}$ is self-mirror, whereas $\mathbb{WP} ^{1|1}_{(2)}$ has a zero dimensional mirror. Also, the mirror map for $\mathbb{P}^{1|2}$ naturally endows it with a structure of $N=2$ super Riemann surface.Comment: 50 pages. Accepted for publication in JHE

Genus four superstring measures

A main issue in superstring theory are the superstring measures. D'Hoker and Phong showed that for genus two these reduce to measures on the moduli space of curves which are determined by modular forms of weight eight and the bosonic measure. They also suggested a generalisation to higher genus. We showed that their approach works, with a minor modification, in genus three and we announced a positive result also in genus four. Here we give the modular form in genus four explicitly. Recently S. Grushevsky published this result as part of a more general approach.Comment: 7 pages. To appear in Letters in Mathematical Physic