348 research outputs found
The Effective Potential, the Renormalisation Group and Vacuum Stability
We review the calculation of the the effective potential with particular
emphasis on cases when the tree potential or the
renormalisation-group-improved, radiatively corrected potential exhibits
non-convex behaviour. We illustrate this in a simple Yukawa model which
exhibits a novel kind of dimensional transmutation. We also review briefly
earlier work on the Standard Model. We conclude that, despite some recent
claims to the contrary, it can be possible to infer reliably that the tree
vacuum does not represent the true ground state of the theory.Comment: 23 pages; 5 figures; v2 includes minor changes in text and additional
reference
The case for the development and use of "ecologically valid" measures of executive function in experimental and clinical neuropsychology
This article considers the scientific process whereby new and better clinical tests of executive function might be developed, and what form they might take. We argue that many of the traditional tests of executive function most commonly in use (e.g., the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; Stroop) are adaptations of procedures that emerged almost coincidentally from conceptual and experimental frameworks far removed from those currently in favour, and that the prolongation of their use has been encouraged by a sustained period of concentration on “construct-driven” experimentation in neuropsychology. This resulted from the special theoretical demands made by the field of executive function, but was not a necessary consequence, and may not even have been a useful one. Whilst useful, these tests may not therefore be optimal for their purpose. We consider as an alternative approach a function-led development programme which in principle could yield tasks better suited to the concerns of the clinician because of the transparency afforded by increased “representativeness” and “generalisability.” We further argue that the requirement of such a programme to represent the interaction between the individual and situational context might also provide useful constraints for purely experimental investigations. We provide an example of such a programme with reference to the Multiple Errands and Six Element tests
TIME-SYMMETRIC INITIAL DATA SETS IN 4--D DILATON GRAVITY
I study the time--symmetric initial--data problem in theories with a massless
scalar field (dilaton), free or coupled to a Maxwell field in the stringy way,
finding different initial--data sets describing an arbitrary number of black
holes with arbitrary masses, charges and asymptotic value of the dilaton. The
presence of the scalar field gives rise to a number of interesting effects. The
mass and charges of a single black hole are different in its two asymptotically
flat regions across the Einstein--Rosen bridge. The same happens to the value
of the dilaton at infinity. This forbids the identification of these asymptotic
regions in order to build (Misner) wormholes in the most naive way. Using
different techniques, I find regular initial data for stringy wormholes. The
price payed is the existence singularities in the dilaton field. The presence
of a single--valued scalar seems to constrain strongly the allowed topologies
of the initial space--like surface. Other kinds of scalar fields (taking values
on a circle or being defined up to an additive constant) are also briefly
considered.Comment: latex file, 38 pages
Electron recombination with multicharged ions via chaotic many-electron states
We show that a dense spectrum of chaotic multiply-excited eigenstates can
play a major role in collision processes involving many-electron multicharged
ions. A statistical theory based on chaotic properties of the eigenstates
enables one to obtain relevant energy-averaged cross sections in terms of sums
over single-electron orbitals. Our calculation of the low-energy electron
recombination of Au shows that the resonant process is 200 times more
intense than direct radiative recombination, which explains the recent
experimental results of Hoffknecht {\em et al.} [J. Phys. B {\bf 31}, 2415
(1998)].Comment: 9 pages, including 1 figure, REVTe
From semiclassical transport to quantum Hall effect under low-field Landau quantization
The crossover from the semiclassical transport to quantum Hall effect is
studied by examining a two-dimensional electron system in an AlGaAs/GaAs
heterostructure. By probing the magneto-oscillations, it is shown that the
semiclassical Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) formulation can be valid even when the
minima of the longitudinal resistivity approach zero. The extension of the
applicable range of the SdH theory could be due to the damping effects
resulting from disorder and temperature. Moreover, we observed plateau-plateau
transition like behavior with such an extension. From our study, it is
important to include the positive magnetoresistance to refine the SdH theory.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Flux Compactifications on Calabi-Yau Threefolds
The presence of RR and NS three-form fluxes in type IIB string
compactification on a Calabi-Yau orientifold gives rise to a nontrivial
superpotential W for the dilaton and complex structure moduli. This
superpotential is computable in terms of the period integrals of the Calabi-Yau
manifold. In this paper, we present explicit examples of both supersymmetric
and nonsupersymmetric solutions to the resulting 4d N=1 supersymmetric no-scale
supergravity, including some nonsupersymmetric solutions with relatively small
values of W. Our examples arise on orientifolds of the hypersurfaces in
and . They serve as explicit
illustrations of several of the ingredients which have played a role in the
recent proposals for constructing de Sitter vacua of string theory.Comment: 30 pages, harvmac big; refs and minor comments adde
Holographic dual of the Standard Model on the throat
We apply recent techniques to construct geometries, based on local Calabi-Yau
manifolds, leading to warped throats with 3-form fluxes in string theory, with
interesting structure at their bottom. We provide their holographic dual
description in terms of RG flows for gauge theories with almost conformal
duality cascades and infrared confinement. We describe a model of a throat with
D-branes at its bottom, realizing a 3-family Standard Model like chiral sector.
We provide the explicit holographic dual gauge theory RG flow, and describe the
appearance of the SM degrees of freedom after confinement. As a second
application, we describe throats within throats, namely warped throats with
discontinuous warp factor in different regions of the radial coordinate, and
discuss possible model building applications.Comment: 46 pages, 21 figures, reference adde
Holographic Systematics of D-brane Inflation
We provide a systematic treatment of possible corrections to the inflaton
potential for D-brane inflation in the warped deformed conifold. We consider
the D3-brane potential in the presence of the most general possible corrections
to the throat geometry sourced by coupling to the bulk of a compact Calabi-Yau
space. This corresponds to the potential on the Coulomb branch of the dual
gauge theory, in the presence of arbitrary perturbations of the Lagrangian. The
leading contributions arise from perturbations by the most relevant operators
that do not destroy the throat geometry. We find a generic contribution from a
non-chiral operator of dimension associated with a global symmetry
current, resulting in a negative contribution to the inflaton mass-squared. If
the Calabi-Yau preserves certain discrete symmetries, this is the dominant
correction to the inflaton potential, and fine-tuning of the inflaton mass is
possible. In the absence of such discrete symmetries, the dominant contribution
comes from a chiral operator with , corresponding to a
term in the inflaton potential. The resulting inflationary models are
phenomenologically similar to the inflection point scenarios arising from
specific D7-brane embeddings, but occur under far more general circumstances.
Our strategy extends immediately to other warped geometries, given sufficient
knowledge of the Kaluza-Klein spectrum.Comment: 28 pages; v2: minor clarifications; v3: version to appear in JHE
Surface Terms as Counterterms in the AdS/CFT Correspondence
We examine the recently proposed technique of adding boundary counterterms to
the gravitational action for spacetimes which are locally asymptotic to anti-de
Sitter. In particular, we explicitly identify higher order counterterms, which
allow us to consider spacetimes of dimensions d<=7. As the counterterms
eliminate the need of ``background subtraction'' in calculating the action, we
apply this technique to study examples where the appropriate background was
ambiguous or unknown: topological black holes, Taub-NUT-AdS and Taub-Bolt-AdS.
We also identify certain cases where the covariant counterterms fail to render
the action finite, and we comment on the dual field theory interpretation of
this result. In some examples, the case of vanishing cosmological constant may
be recovered in a limit, which allows us to check results and resolve
ambiguities in certain asymptotically flat spacetime computations in the
literature.Comment: Revtex, 18 pages. References updated and few typo's fixed. Final
versio
Brane Inflation, Solitons and Cosmological Solutions: I
In this paper we study various cosmological solutions for a D3/D7 system
directly from M-theory with fluxes and M2-branes. In M-theory, these solutions
exist only if we incorporate higher derivative corrections from the curvatures
as well as G-fluxes. We take these corrections into account and study a number
of toy cosmologies, including one with a novel background for the D3/D7 system
whose supergravity solution can be completely determined. This new background
preserves all the good properties of the original model and opens up avenues to
investigate cosmological effects from wrapped branes and brane-antibrane
annihilation, to name a few. We also discuss in some detail semilocal defects
with higher global symmetries, for example exceptional ones, that could occur
in a slightly different regime of our D3/D7 model. We show that the D3/D7
system does have the required ingredients to realise these configurations as
non-topological solitons of the theory. These constructions also allow us to
give a physical meaning to the existence of certain underlying homogeneous
quaternionic Kahler manifolds.Comment: Harvmac, 115 pages, 9 .eps figures; v2: typos corrected, references
added and the last section expanded; v3: Few minor typos corrected and
references added. Final version to appear in JHE
- …