352 research outputs found
Magnetic monopoles from gauge theory phase transitions
Thermal fluctuations of the gauge field lead to monopole formation at the
grand unified phase transition in the early Universe, even if the transition is
merely a smooth crossover. The dependence of the produced monopole density on
various parameters is qualitatively different from theories with global
symmetries, and the monopoles have a positive correlation at short distances.
The number density of monopoles may be suppressed if the grand unified symmetry
is only restored for a short time by, for instance, nonthermal symmetry
restoration after preheating.Comment: 5 pages, updated to match the version published in PRD
(http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v68/e021301) on 11 July 200
Vortex-Antivortex Pair Production in a First Order Phase Transition
We carry out numerical simulation of a first order phase transition in 2+1
dimensions by randomly nucleating bubbles, and study the formation of global
U(1) vortices. Bubbles grow and coalesce and vortices are formed at junctions
of bubbles via standard Kibble mechanism as well as due to a new mechanism,
recently proposed by us, where defect-antidefect pairs are produced due to
field oscillations. We make a comparative study of the contribution of both of
these mechanisms for vortex production. We find that, for high nucleation rate
of bubbles, vortex-antivortex pairs produced via the new mechanism have
overlapping configurations, and annihilate quickly; so only those vortices
survive till late which are produced via the Kibble mechanism. However, for low
nucleation rates, bubble collisions are energetic enough to lead to many well
separated vortex-antivortex pairs being produced via the new mechanism. For
example, in a simulation involving nucleation of 20 bubbles, a total of 14
non-overlapping vortices and antivortices formed via this new mechanism of pair
creation (6 of them being very well separated), as compared to 6 vortices and
antivortices produced via the Kibble mechanism. Our results show the
possibility that in extremely energetic bubble collisions, such as those in the
inflationary models of the early Universe, this new mechanism may drastically
affect the defect production scenario.Comment: 8 pages, Revtex, 14 figures. Figs.1a,b and 5a,d are included, rest
are availaible on reques
Gauged Lifshitz scalar field theories in two dimensions
We present two-dimensional gauged Lifshitz scalar field theories by
considering the duality relation between the source current and the Noether
current. Requiring the duality partially, we obtain a gauged model which
recovers the bosonized Schwinger model for the IR limit. For the exact duality,
however, the source current is not conserved, which means that the resulting
theory is anomalous, so that the number of degrees of freedom is increased. The
second model is consistently formulated by adding the Wess-Zumino type action
to maintain the gauge invariance.Comment: 11 page
Lagrangian evolution of global strings
We establish a method to trace the Lagrangian evolution of extended objects
consisting of a multicomponent scalar field in terms of a numerical calculation
of field equations in three dimensional Eulerian meshes. We apply our method to
the cosmological evolution of global strings and evaluate the energy density,
peculiar velocity, Lorentz factor, formation rate of loops, and emission rate
of Nambu-Goldstone (NG) bosons. We confirm the scaling behavior with a number
of long strings per horizon volume smaller than the case of local strings by a
factor of 10. The strategy and the method established here are
applicable to a variety of fields in physics.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Topological Defect Densities in Type-I Superconducting Phase Transitions
We examine the consequences of a cubic term addition to the mean-field
potential of Ginzburg-Landau theory to describe first order superconductive
phase transitions. Constraints on its existence are obtained from experiment,
which are used to assess its impact on topological defect creation. We find no
fundamental changes in either the Kibble-Zurek or Hindmarsh-Rajantie
predictions.Comment: Revtex4, 1 eps figure, 6 pages. Change in title and in sections II
and III so to broaden the scope of the paper. Additional author is include
Detection Limits for Super-Hubble Suppression of Causal Fluctuations
We investigate to what extent future microwave background experiments might
be able to detect a suppression of fluctuation power on large scales in flat
and open universe models. Such suppression would arise if fluctuations are
generated by causal processes, and a measurement of a small suppression scale
would be problematic for inflation models, but consistent with many defect
models. More speculatively, a measurement of a suppression scale of the order
of the present Hubble radius could provide independent evidence for a
fine-tuned inflation model leading to a low-density universe. We find that,
depending on the primordial power spectrum, a suppression scale modestly larger
than the visible Horizon can be detected, but that the detectability drops very
rapidly with increasing scale. For models with two periods of inflation, there
is essentially no possibility of detecting a causal suppression scale.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, revtex, In Press Physical Review D 200
Severe Paediatric Asthma Collaborative in Europe (SPACE):protocol for a European registry
The development of new asthma biologics and receptor blockers for the treatment of paediatric severe asthma raises challenges. It is unclear whether there are sufficient children in Europe to recruit into randomised placebo-controlled trials to establish efficacy and safety in this age group. In February 2016, the European Respiratory Society funded a clinical research collaboration entitled âSevere Paediatric Asthma Collaborative in Europeâ (SPACE). We now report the SPACE protocol for a prospective pan-European observational study of paediatric severe asthma. Inclusion criteria are: 1) age 6â17â
years, 2) severe asthma managed at a specialised centre for â„6â
months, 3)clinical and spirometry evidence of asthma, and 4) reaching a pre-defined treatment threshold. The exclusion criterion is the presence of conditions which mimic asthma symptoms. Eligible children will be prospectively recruited into a registry, recording demographics, comorbidities, quality of life, family history, neonatal history, smoking history, asthma background, investigations, and treatment. Follow-up will provide longitudinal data on asthma control and treatment changes. The SPACE registry, by identifying well-phenotyped children eligible for clinical trials, and the amount of overlap in eligibility criteria, will inform the design of European trials in paediatric severe asthma, and facilitate observational research where data from single centres are limited
Maximal Neutrino Mixing from a Minimal Flavor Symmetry
We study a number of models, based on a non-Abelian discrete group, that
successfully reproduce the simple and predictive Yukawa textures usually
associated with U(2) theories of flavor. These models allow for solutions to
the solar and atmospheric neutrino problems that do not require altering
successful predictions for the charged fermions or introducing sterile
neutrinos. Although Yukawa matrices are hierarchical in the models we consider,
the mixing between second- and third-generation neutrinos is naturally large.
We first present a quantitative analysis of a minimal model proposed in earlier
work, consisting of a global fit to fermion masses and mixing angles, including
the most important renormalization group effects. We then propose two new
variant models: The first reproduces all important features of the SU(5)xU(2)
unified theory with neither SU(5) nor U(2). The second demonstrates that
discrete subgroups of SU(2) can be used in constructing viable supersymmetric
theories of flavor without scalar universality even though SU(2) by itself
cannot.Comment: 34 pages LaTeX, 1 eps figure, minor revisions and references adde
Jorge A. Swieca's contributions to quantum field theory in the 60s and 70s and their relevance in present research
After revisiting some high points of particle physics and QFT of the two
decades from 1960 to 1980, I comment on the work by Jorge Andre Swieca. I
explain how it fits into the quantum field theory during these two decades and
draw attention to its relevance to the ongoing particle physics research. A
particular aim of this article is to direct thr readers mindfulness to the
relevance of what at the time of Swieca was called "the Schwinger Higgs
screening mechanism". which, together with recent ideas which generalize the
concept of gauge theories, has all the ingredients to revolutionize the issue
of gauge theories and the standard model.Comment: 49 pages, expansion and actualization of text, improvement of
formulations and addition of many references to be published in EPJH -
Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Physic
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