2,377 research outputs found
Scattering and Sequestering of Blow-Up Moduli in Local String Models
We study the scattering and sequestering of blow-up fields - either local to
or distant from a visible matter sector - through a CFT computation of the
dependence of physical Yukawa couplings on the blow-up moduli. For a visible
sector of D3-branes on orbifold singularities we compute the disk correlator <
\tau_s^{(1)} \tau_s^{(2)} ... \tau_s^{(n)} \psi \psi \phi > between orbifold
blow-up moduli and matter Yukawa couplings. For n = 1 we determine the full
quantum and classical correlator. This result has the correct factorisation
onto lower 3-point functions and also passes numerous other consistency checks.
For n > 1 we show that the structure of picture-changing applied to the twist
operators establishes the sequestering of distant blow-up moduli at disk level
to all orders in \alpha'. We explain how these results are relevant to
suppressing soft terms to scales parametrically below the gravitino mass. By
giving vevs to the blow-up fields we can move into the smooth limit and thereby
derive CFT results for the smooth Swiss-cheese Calabi-Yaus that appear in the
Large Volume Scenario.Comment: 51 pages, 7 figures; v2: references adde
"Big" Divisor D3/D7 Swiss Cheese Phenomenology
We review progress made over the past couple of years in the field of Swiss
Cheese Phenomenology involving a mobile space-time filling D3-brane and
stack(s) of fluxed D7-branes wrapping the "big" (as opposed to the "small")
divisor in (the orientifold of a) Swiss-Cheese Calabi-Yau. The topics reviewed
include reconciliation of large volume cosmology and phenomenology, evaluation
of soft supersymmetry breaking parameters, one-loop RG-flow equations'
solutions for scalar masses, obtaining fermionic (possibly first two
generations' quarks/leptons) mass scales in the O(MeV-GeV)-regime as well as
(first two generations') neutrino masses (and their one-loop RG flow) of around
an eV. The heavy sparticles and the light fermions indicate the possibility of
"split SUSY" large volume scenario.Comment: Invited review for MPLA, 14 pages, LaTe
Gaugino and Scalar Masses in the Landscape
In this letter we demonstrate the genericity of suppressed gaugino masses M_a
\sim m_{3/2}/ln(M_P/m_{3/2}) in the IIB string landscape, by showing that this
relation holds for D7-brane gauginos whenever the associated modulus is
stabilised by nonperturbative effects. Although m_{3/2} and M_a take many
different values across the landscape, the above small mass hierarchy is
maintained. We show that it is valid for models with an arbitrary number of
moduli and applies to both the KKLT and exponentially large volume approaches
to Kahler moduli stabilisation. In the latter case we explicitly calculate
gaugino and moduli masses for compactifications on the two-modulus Calabi-Yau
P^4_[1,1,1,6,9]. In the large-volume scenario we also show that soft scalar
masses are approximately universal with m_i^2 \sim m_{3/2}^2 (1 + \epsilon_i),
with the non-universality parametrised by \epsilon_i \sim 1/ln (M_P/m_{3/2})^2
\sim 1/1000. We briefly discuss possible phenomenological implications of our
results.Comment: 15 pages, JHEP style; v2. reference adde
Soft X-ray Excess in the Coma Cluster from a Cosmic Axion Background
We show that the soft X-ray excess in the Coma cluster can be explained by a
cosmic background of relativistic axions converting into photons in the cluster
magnetic field. We provide a detailed self-contained review of the cluster soft
X-ray excess, the proposed astrophysical explanations and the problems they
face, and explain how a 0.1-1 keV axion background naturally arises at
reheating in many string theory models of the early universe. We study the
morphology of the soft excess by numerically propagating axions through
stochastic, multi-scale magnetic field models that are consistent with
observations of Faraday rotation measures from Coma. By comparing to ROSAT
observations of the 0.2-0.4 keV soft excess, we find that the overall excess
luminosity is easily reproduced for
GeV. The resulting morphology is highly sensitive to the magnetic field
power spectrum. For Gaussian magnetic field models, the observed soft excess
morphology prefers magnetic field spectra with most power in coherence lengths
on scales over those with most power on scales. Within this scenario, we bound the mean energy of the
axion background to , the axion mass to , and derive a
lower bound on the axion-photon coupling GeV.Comment: 43 pages, 11 figure
Sparticle Spectra and LHC Signatures for Large Volume String Compactifications
We study the supersymmetric particle spectra and LHC collider observables for
the large-volume string models with a fundamental scale of 10^{11} GeV that
arise in moduli-fixed string compactifications with branes and fluxes. The
presence of magnetic fluxes on the brane world volume, required for chirality,
perturb the soft terms away from those previously computed in the dilute-flux
limit. We use the difference in high-scale gauge couplings to estimate the
magnitude of this perturbation and study the potential effects of the magnetic
fluxes by generating many random spectra with the soft terms perturbed around
the dilute flux limit. Even with a 40% variation in the high-scale soft terms
the low-energy spectra take a clear and predictive form. The resulting spectra
are broadly similar to those arising on the SPS1a slope, but more degenerate.
In their minimal version the models predict the ratios of gaugino masses to be
M_1 : M_2 : M_3=(1.5 - 2) : 2 : 6, different to both mSUGRA and mirage
mediation. Among the scalars, the squarks tend to be lighter and the sleptons
heavier than for comparable mSUGRA models. We generate 10 fb^{-1} of sample LHC
data for the random spectra in order to study the range of collider
phenomenology that can occur. We perform a detailed mass reconstruction on one
example large-volume string model spectrum. 100 fb^{-1} of integrated
luminosity is sufficient to discriminate the model from mSUGRA and aspects of
the sparticle spectrum can be accurately reconstructed.Comment: 42 pages, 21 figures. Added references and discussion for section 3.
Slight changes in the tex
Gauge Threshold Corrections for Local String Models
We study gauge threshold corrections for local brane models embedded in a
large compact space. A large bulk volume gives important contributions to the
Konishi and super-Weyl anomalies and the effective field theory analysis
implies the unification scale should be enhanced in a model-independent way
from M_s to R M_s. For local D3/D3 models this result is supported by the
explicit string computations. In this case the scale R M_s comes from the
necessity of global cancellation of RR tadpoles sourced by the local model. We
also study D3/D7 models and discuss discrepancies with the effective field
theory analysis. We comment on phenomenological implications for gauge coupling
unification and for the GUT scale.Comment: 30 pages; v2: references added, minor typos correcte
Seizure characterisation using frequency-dependent multivariate dynamics
The characterisation of epileptic seizures assists in the design of targeted pharmaceutical seizure prevention techniques
and pre-surgical evaluations. In this paper, we expand on recent use of multivariate techniques to study the crosscorrelation
dynamics between electroencephalographic (EEG) channels. The Maximum Overlap Discrete Wavelet
Transform (MODWT) is applied in order to separate the EEG channels into their underlying frequencies. The
dynamics of the cross-correlation matrix between channels, at each frequency, are then analysed in terms of the
eigenspectrum. By examination of the eigenspectrum, we show that it is possible to identify frequency dependent
changes in the correlation structure between channels which may be indicative of seizure activity.
The technique is applied to EEG epileptiform data and the results indicate that the correlation dynamics vary over
time and frequency, with larger correlations between channels at high frequencies. Additionally, a redistribution of wavelet energy is found, with increased fractional energy demonstrating the relative importance of high frequencies
during seizures. Dynamical changes also occur in both correlation and energy at lower frequencies during seizures,
suggesting that monitoring frequency dependent correlation structure can characterise changes in EEG signals during
these. Future work will involve the study of other large eigenvalues and inter-frequency correlations to determine
additional seizure characteristics
On the Effective Description of Large Volume Compactifications
We study the reliability of the Two-Step moduli stabilization in the type-IIB
Large Volume Scenarios with matter and gauge interactions. The general analysis
is based on a family of N=1 Supergravity models with a factorizable Kaehler
invariant function, where the decoupling between two sets of fields without a
mass hierarchy is easily understood. For the Large Volume Scenario particular
analyses are performed for explicit models, one of such developed for the first
time here, finding that the simplified version, where the Dilaton and Complex
structure moduli are regarded as frozen by a previous stabilization, is a
reliable supersymmetric description whenever the neglected fields stand at
their leading F-flatness conditions and be neutral. The terms missed by the
simplified approach are either suppressed by powers of the Calabi-Yau volume,
or are higher order operators in the matter fields, and then irrelevant for the
moduli stabilization rocedure. Although the power of the volume suppressing
such corrections depends on the particular model, up to the mass level it is
independent of the modular weight for the matter fields. This at least for the
models studied here but we give arguments to expect the same in general. These
claims are checked through numerical examples. We discuss how the factorizable
models present a context where despite the lack of a hierarchy with the
supersymmetry breaking scale, the effective theory still has a supersymmetric
description. This can be understood from the fact that it is possible to find
vanishing solution for the auxiliary components of the fields being integrated
out, independently of the remaining dynamics. Our results settle down the
question on the reliability of the way the Dilaton and Complex structure are
treated in type-IIB compactifications with large compact manifold volumina.Comment: 23 pages + 2 appendices (38 pages total). v2: minor improvements,
typos fixed. Version published in JHE
Spin Dynamics in Pyrochlore Heisenberg Antiferromagnets
We study the low temperature dynamics of the classical Heisenberg
antiferromagnet with nearest neighbour interactions on the pyrochlore lattice.
We present extensive results for the wavevector and frequency dependence of the
dynamical structure factor, obtained from simulations of the precessional
dynamics. We also construct a solvable stochastic model for dynamics with
conserved magnetisation, which accurately reproduces most features of the
precessional results. Spin correlations relax at a rate independent of
wavevector and proportional to temperature.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
Sequestered Dark Matter
We show that hidden-sector dark matter is a generic feature of the type IIB
string theory landscape and that its lifetime may allow for a discovery through
the observation of very energetic gamma-rays produced in the decay. Throats or,
equivalently, conformally sequestered hidden sectors are common in flux
compactifications and the energy deposited in these sectors can be calculated
if the reheating temperature of the standard model sector is known. Assuming
that throats with various warp factors are available in the compact manifold,
we determine which throats maximize the late-time abundance of sequestered dark
matter. For such throats, this abundance agrees with cosmological data if the
standard model reheating temperature was 10^10 - 10^11 GeV. In two distinct
scenarios, the mass of dark matter particles, i.e. the IR scale of the throat,
is either around 10^5 GeV or around 10^10 GeV. The lifetime and the decay
channels of our dark matter candidates depend crucially on the fact that the
Klebanov-Strassler throat is supersymmetric. Furthermore, the details of
supersymmetry breaking both in the throat and in the visible sector play an
essential role. We identify a number of scenarios where this type of dark
matter can be discovered via gamma-ray observations.Comment: 36 pages, 3 figures; v2: references added, v3: introduction extended
and typos correcte
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