3,644 research outputs found
Rapid Tunneling and Percolation in the Landscape
Motivated by the possibility of a string landscape, we reexamine tunneling of
a scalar field across single/multiple barriers. Recent investigations have
suggested modifications to the usual picture of false vacuum decay that lead to
efficient and rapid tunneling in the landscape when certain conditions are met.
This can be due to stringy effects (e.g. tunneling via the DBI action), or by
effects arising due to the presence of multiple vacua (e.g. resonance
tunneling). In this paper we discuss both DBI tunneling and resonance
tunneling. We provide a QFT treatment of resonance tunneling using the
Schr\"odinger functional approach. We also show how DBI tunneling for
supercritical barriers can naturally lead to conditions suitable for resonance
tunneling. We argue using basic ideas from percolation theory that tunneling
can be rapid in a landscape where a typical vacuum has multiple decay channels
and discuss various cosmological implications. This rapidity vacuum decay can
happen even if there are no resonance/DBI tunneling enhancements, solely due to
the presence of a large number of decay channels. Finally, we consider various
ways of circumventing a recent no-go theorem for resonance tunneling in quantum
field theory.Comment: 47 pages, 16 figures. Acknowledgements adde
Top Quarks as a Window to String Resonances
We study the discovery potential of string resonances decaying to
final state at the LHC. We point out that top quark pair production is a
promising and an advantageous channel for studying such resonances, due to
their low Standard Model background and unique kinematics. We study the
invariant mass distribution and angular dependence of the top pair production
cross section via exchanges of string resonances. The mass ratios of these
resonances and the unusual angular distribution may help identify their
fundamental properties and distinguish them from other new physics. We find
that string resonances for a string scale below 4 TeV can be detected via the
channel, either from reconstructing the semi-leptonic
decay or recent techniques in identifying highly boosted tops.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure
Maximal Temperature in Flux Compactifications
Thermal corrections have an important effect on moduli stabilization leading
to the existence of a maximal temperature, beyond which the compact dimensions
decompactify. In this note, we discuss generality of our earlier analysis and
apply it to the case of flux compactifications. The maximal temperature is
again found to be controlled by the supersymmetry breaking scale, T_{crit} \sim
\sqrt{m_{3/2} M_P}.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures. v2:comment and references adde
No CPT Violation from Tilted Brane in Neutral Meson--Antimeson Systems
Tilted brane in theories with large compact extra dimensions leads to
spontaneous symmetry breaking of the Lorentz and rotational invariance in four
dimensions, as shown by Dvali and Shifman. In this brief report, we point out
that the mentioned Lorentz symmetry breaking, although leading to the
CPT--violating interaction terms, cannot lead to the CPT violation in the
experimentally interesting -- and analogous systems.Comment: 5 pages, RevTe
Oblique Parameter Constraints on Large Extra Dimensions
We consider the Kaluza-Klein scenario in which gravity propagates in the
dimensional bulk of spacetime and the Standard Model particles are
confined to a 3-brane. We calculate the gauge boson self-energy corrections
arising from the exchange of virtual gravitons and present our results in the
-formalism. We find that the new physics contributions to , and
decouple in the limit that the string scale goes to infinity. The oblique
parameters constrain the lower limit on . Taking the quantum gravity
cutoff to be ,
-parameter constraints impose TeV for at the 1
level. -parameter constraints impose TeV for .Comment: Version to appear in PR
Comparing Brane Inflation to WMAP
We compare the simplest realistic brane inflationary model to recent
cosmological data, including WMAP 3-year cosmic microwave background (CMB)
results, Sloan Digital Sky Survey luminous red galaxies (SDSS LRG) power
spectrum data and Supernovae Legacy Survey (SNLS) Type 1a supernovae distance
measures. Here, the inflaton is simply the position of a -brane which is
moving towards a -brane sitting at the bottom of a throat (a warped,
deformed conifold) in the flux compactified bulk in Type IIB string theory. The
analysis includes both the usual slow-roll scenario and the Dirac-Born-Infeld
scenario of slow but relativistic rolling. Requiring that the throat is inside
the bulk greatly restricts the allowed parameter space. We discuss possible
scenarios in which large tensor mode and/or non-Gaussianity may emerge. Here,
the properties of a large tensor mode deviate from that in the usual slow-roll
scenario, providing a possible stringy signature. Overall, within the brane
inflationary scenario, the cosmological data is providing information about the
properties of the compactification of the extra dimensions.Comment: 45 pages 11 figure
On High-Energy Behavior of Cross Sections in Theories with Large Extra Dimensions
We discuss the high-energy behavior of cross sections in theories with large
extra dimensions and low-scale quantum gravity, addressing two particular
issues: (i) the tension of the D-branes, and (ii) bounds on the cross section
and their relation to approximations in the mode sum over Kaluza-Klein-graviton
exchanges.Comment: 6 pages, late
Non-gaussianity from the inflationary trispectrum
We present an estimate for the non-linear parameter \tau_NL, which measures
the non-gaussianity imprinted in the trispectrum of the comoving curvature
perturbation, \zeta. Our estimate is valid throughout the inflationary era,
until the slow-roll approximation breaks down, and takes into account the
evolution of perturbations on superhorizon scales. We find that the
non-gaussianity is always small if the field values at the end of inflation are
negligible when compared to their values at horizon crossing. Under the same
assumption, we show that in Nflation-type scenarios, where the potential is a
sum of monomials, the non-gaussianity measured by \tau_NL is independent of the
couplings and initial conditions.Comment: 15 pages, uses iopart.sty. Replaced with version accepted by JCAP;
journal reference adde
On D3-brane Dynamics at Strong Warping
We study the dynamics of a D3 brane in generic IIB warped compactifications,
using the Hamiltonian formulation discussed in arXiv:0805.3700 [hep-th]. Taking
into account of both closed and open string fluctuations, we derive the warped
Kahler potential governing the motion of a probe D3 brane. By including the
backreaction of D3, we also comment on how the problem of defining a
holomorphic gauge coupling on wrapped D7 branes in warped background can be
resolved.Comment: 19 pages, No figure
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