441 research outputs found
Holographic Symmetry-Breaking Phases in AdS/CFT
In this note we study the symmetry-breaking phases of 3D gravity coupled to
matter. In particular, we consider black holes with scalar hair as a model of
symmetry-breaking phases of a strongly coupled 1+1 dimensional CFT. In the case
of a discrete symmetry, we show that these theories admit metastable phases of
broken symmetry and study the thermodynamics of these phases. We also
demonstrate that the 3D Einstein-Maxwell theory shows continuous symmetry
breaking at low temperature. The apparent contradiction with the
Coleman-Mermin-Wagner theorem is discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figur
Quantum theory's last challenge
Quantum mechanics is now 100 years old and still going strong. Combining
general relativity with quantum mechanics is the last hurdle to be overcome in
the "quantum revolution".Comment: (9 pages, LaTex) This is the preprint version of an article that
appeared in the issue 6813 (volume 408) of Nature, as part of a 3-article
celebration of the 100th anniversary of Planck's solution of the
black-body-radiation proble
Modifying the Sum Over Topological Sectors and Constraints on Supergravity
The standard lore about the sum over topological sectors in quantum field
theory is that locality and cluster decomposition uniquely determine the sum
over such sectors, thus leading to the usual theta-vacua. We show that without
changing the local degrees of freedom, a theory can be modified such that the
sum over instantons should be restricted; e.g. one should include only
instanton numbers which are divisible by some integer p. This conclusion about
the configuration space of quantum field theory allows us to carefully
reconsider the quantization of parameters in supergravity. In particular, we
show that FI-terms and nontrivial Kahler forms are quantized. This analysis
also leads to a new derivation of recent results about linearized supergravity.Comment: 17 pages, minor change
Black Hole Thermodynamics and Heavy Fermion Metals
Heavy fermion alloys at critical doping typically exhibit non-Fermi-liquid
behavior at low temperatures, including a logarithmic or power law rise in the
ratio of specific heat to temperature as the temperature is lowered. Anomalous
specific heat of this type is also observed in a simple class of gravitational
dual models that exhibit anisotropic scaling with dynamical critical exponent z
> 1.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures; v2: added references; v3: matches published
versio
GRBs Neutrinos as a Tool to Explore Quantum Gravity induced Lorentz Violation
Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) arises in various quantum-gravity
theories. As the typical energy for quantum gravity is the Planck mass,
, LIV will, most likely, be manifested at very high energies that are
not accessible on Earth in the foreseeable future. One has to turn to
astronomical observations. Time of flight measurement from different
astronomical sources set current limits on the energy scale of possible LIV to
(for n=1 models) and (for n=2). According to
current models Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are accompanied by bursts of high energy
(\gsim 100TeV) neutrinos. At this energy range the background level of
currently constructed neutrino detectors is so low that a detection of a single
neutrino from the direction of a GRB months or even years after the burst would
imply an association of the neutrino with the burst and will establish a
measurement of a time of flight delay. Such time of flight measurements provide
the best way to observe (or set limits) on LIV. Detection of a single GRB
neutrino would open a new window on LIV and would improve current limits by
many orders of magnitude
On The Stability Of Non-Supersymmetric AdS Vacua
We consider two infinite families of Non-Supersymmetric vacua, called
Type 2) and Type 3) vacua, that arise in massive IIA supergravity with flux. We
show that both families are perturbatively stable. We then examine
non-perturbative decays of these vacua to other supersymmetric and
non-supersymmetric vacua mediated by instantons in the thin wall
approximation. We find that many decays are ruled out since the tension of the
interpolating domain wall is too big compared to the energy difference in AdS
units. In fact, within our approximations no decays of Type 2) vacua are
allowed, although some decays are only marginally forbidden. This can be
understood in terms of a "pairing symmetry" in the landscape which relate Type
2) vacua with supersymmetric ones of the same energy.Comment: 50 pages, Minor changes in section 2.2.
On Glauber modes in Soft-Collinear Effective Theory
Gluon interactions involving spectator partons in collisions at hadronic
machines are investigated. We find a class of examples in which a mode, called
Glauber gluons, must be introduced to the effective theory for consistency.Comment: 19 pages, three figures. Uses JHEP3.cl
Dynamical Cobordisms in General Relativity and String Theory
We describe a class of time-dependent solutions in string- or M-theory that
are exact with respect to alpha-prime and curvature corrections and interpolate
in physical space between regions in which the low energy physics is
well-approximated by different string theories and string compactifications.
The regions are connected by expanding "domain walls" but are not separated by
causal horizons, and physical excitations can propagate between them. As
specific examples we construct solutions that interpolate between oriented and
unoriented string theories, and also between type II and heterotic theories.
Our solutions can be weakly curved and under perturbative control everywhere
and can asymptote to supersymmetric at late times.Comment: 35 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX v2: reference adde
Large Nc QCD and Harmonic Sums
In the Large-Nc limit of QCD, two--point functions of local operators become
Harmonic Sums. I review some properties which follow from this fact and which
are relevant for phenomenological applications. This has led us to consider a
class of Analytic Number Theory Functions as toy models of Large-Nc QCD which I
also discuss.Comment: Based on my talk at "Raymond Stora's 80th Birthday Party", LAPP, July
11th 201
Holography of AdS vacuum bubbles
We consider the fate of AdS vacua connected by tunneling events. A precise
holographic dual of thin-walled Coleman--de Luccia bounces is proposed in terms
of Fubini instantons in an unstable CFT. This proposal is backed by several
qualitative and quantitative checks, including the precise calculation of the
instanton action appearing in evaluating the decay rate. Big crunches manifest
themselves as time dependent processes which reach the boundary of field space
in a finite time. The infinite energy difference involved is identified on the
boundary and highlights the ill-defined nature of the bulk setup. We propose a
qualitative scenario in which the crunch is resolved by stabilizing the CFT, so
that all attempts at crunching always end up shielded from the boundary by the
formation of black hole horizons. In all these well defined bulk processes the
configurations have the same asymptotics and are finite energy excitations.Comment: version submitted to journal. Note added referring to previous work
on holographic instantons
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