Self-Tuning at Large (Distances): 4D Description of Runaway Dilaton Capture

We complete here a three-part study (see also arXiv:1506.08095 and 1508.00856) of how codimension-two objects back-react gravitationally with their environment, with particular interest in situations where the transverse `bulk' is stabilized by the interplay between gravity and flux-quantization in a dilaton-Maxwell-Einstein system such as commonly appears in higher-dimensional supergravity and is used in the Supersymmetric Large Extra Dimensions (SLED) program. Such systems enjoy a classical flat direction that can be lifted by interactions with the branes, giving a mass to the would-be modulus that is smaller than the KK scale. We construct the effective low-energy 4D description appropriate below the KK scale once the transverse extra dimensions are integrated out, and show that it reproduces the predictions of the full UV theory for how the vacuum energy and modulus mass depend on the properties of the branes and stabilizing fluxes. In particular we show how this 4D theory learns the news of flux quantization through the existence of a space-filling four-form potential that descends from the higher-dimensional Maxwell field. We find a scalar potential consistent with general constraints, like the runaway dictated by Weinberg's theorem. We show how scale-breaking brane interactions can give this potential minima for which the extra-dimensional size, $\ell$, is exponentially large relative to underlying physics scales, $r_B$, with $\ell^2 = r_B^2 e^{- \varphi}$ where $-\varphi \gg 1$ can be arranged with a small hierarchy between fundamental parameters. We identify circumstances where the potential at the minimum can (but need not) be parametrically suppressed relative to the tensions of the branes, provide a preliminary discussion of the robustness of these results to quantum corrections, and discuss the relation between what we find and earlier papers in the SLED program.Comment: 37 pages + appendice

The Gravity of Dark Vortices: Effective Field Theory for Branes and Strings Carrying Localized Flux

A Nielsen-Olesen vortex usually sits in an environment that expels the flux that is confined to the vortex, so flux is not present both inside and outside. We construct vortices for which this is not true, where the flux carried by the vortex also permeates the `bulk' far from the vortex. The idea is to mix the vortex's internal gauge flux with an external flux using off-diagonal kinetic mixing. Such `dark' vortices could play a phenomenological role in models with both cosmic strings and a dark gauge sector. When coupled to gravity they also provide explicit ultra-violet completions for codimension-two brane-localized flux, which arises in extra-dimensional models when the same flux that stabilizes extra-dimensional size is also localized on space-filling branes situated around the extra dimensions. We derive simple formulae for observables such as defect angle, tension, localized flux and on-vortex curvature when coupled to gravity, and show how all of these are insensitive to much of the microscopic details of the solutions, and are instead largely dictated by low-energy quantities. We derive the required effective description in terms of a world-sheet brane action, and derive the matching conditions for its couplings. We consider the case where the dimensions transverse to the bulk compactify, and determine how the on- and off-vortex curvatures and other bulk features depend on the vortex properties. We find that the brane-localized flux does not gravitate, but just renormalizes the tension in a magnetic-field independent way. The existence of an explicit UV completion puts the effective description of these models on a more precise footing, verifying that brane-localized flux can be consistent with sensible UV physics and resolving some apparent paradoxes that can arise with a naive (but commonly used) delta-function treatment of the brane's localization within the bulk.Comment: 36 pages + appendices, 7 figure

EFT for Vortices with Dilaton-dependent Localized Flux

We study how codimension-two objects like vortices back-react gravitationally with their environment in theories (such as 4D or higher-dimensional supergravity) where the bulk is described by a dilaton-Maxwell-Einstein system. We do so both in the full theory, for which the vortex is an explicit classical `fat brane' solution, and in the effective theory of `point branes' appropriate when the vortices are much smaller than the scales of interest for their back-reaction (such as the transverse Kaluza-Klein scale). We extend the standard Nambu-Goto description to include the physics of flux-localization wherein the ambient flux of the external Maxwell field becomes partially localized to the vortex, generalizing the results of a companion paper to include dilaton-dependence for the tension and localized flux. In the effective theory, such flux-localization is described by the next-to-leading effective interaction, and the boundary conditions to which it gives rise are known to play an important role in how (and whether) the vortex causes supersymmetry to break in the bulk. We track how both tension and localized flux determine the curvature of the space-filling dimensions. Our calculations provide the tools required for computing how scale-breaking vortex interactions can stabilize the extra-dimensional size by lifting the dilaton's flat direction. For small vortices we derive a simple relation between the near-vortex boundary conditions of bulk fields as a function of the tension and localized flux in the vortex action that provides the most efficient means for calculating how physical vortices mutually interact without requiring a complete construction of their internal structure. In passing we show why a common procedure for doing so using a $\delta$-function can lead to incorrect results. Our procedures generalize straightforwardly to general co-dimension objects.Comment: 45 pages + appendix, 6 figure

Sensing Subjective Well-being from Social Media

Subjective Well-being(SWB), which refers to how people experience the quality of their lives, is of great use to public policy-makers as well as economic, sociological research, etc. Traditionally, the measurement of SWB relies on time-consuming and costly self-report questionnaires. Nowadays, people are motivated to share their experiences and feelings on social media, so we propose to sense SWB from the vast user generated data on social media. By utilizing 1785 users' social media data with SWB labels, we train machine learning models that are able to "sense" individual SWB from users' social media. Our model, which attains the state-by-art prediction accuracy, can then be used to identify SWB of large population of social media users in time with very low cost.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figures, 2 tables, 10th International Conference, AMT 2014, Warsaw, Poland, August 11-14, 2014. Proceeding

Cryogenic Calibration Setup for Broadband Complex Impedance Measurements

Reflection measurements give access to the complex impedance of a material on a wide frequency range. This is of interest to study the dynamical properties of various materials, for instance disordered superconductors. However reflection measurements made at cryogenic temperature suffer from the difficulty to reliably subtract the circuit contribution. Here we report on the design and first tests of a setup able to precisely calibrate in situ the sample reflection, at 4.2 K and up to 2 GHz, by switching and measuring, during the same cool down, the sample and three calibration standards.Comment: (6 pages, 6 figures

LHC and dark matter signals of Z' bosons

We customize the simulation code FEWZ (Fully Exclusive W, Z Production) to study Z' production at the LHC for both \sqrt{s}=8 TeV and 14 TeV. Using the results of our simulation for several standard benchmark Z' models, we derive a semi-empirical expression for the differential cross section, that permits the determination of Z' couplings in a model-independent manner. We evaluate cross sections and other observables for large classes of models, including the common E_6, left-right and B-L models, as a function of model parameters. We also consider a hidden sector Z' that couples to standard model fermions via kinetic and mass mixing and serves as a mediator of isospin-violating interactions with dark matter. We combine the results of LHC Z' searches and dark matter direct detection experiments with global electroweak data to obtain mass-dependent constraints on the model parameters.Comment: 30 pages, 19 figures, 2 tables. Published versio

Local Current Distribution and "Hot Spots" in the Integer Quantum Hall Regime

In a recent experiment, the local current distribution of a two-dimensional electron gas in the quantum Hall regime was probed by measuring the variation of the conductance due to local gating. The main experimental finding was the existence of "hot spots", i.e. regions with high degree of sensitivity to local gating, whose density increases as one approaches the quantum Hall transition. However, the direct connection between these "hot spots" and regions of high current flow is not clear. Here, based on a recent model for the quantum Hall transition consisting of a mixture of perfect and quantum links, the relation between the "hot spots" and the current distribution in the sample has been investigated. The model reproduces the observed dependence of the number and sizes of "hot spots" on the filling factor. It is further demonstrated that these "hot spots" are not located in regions where most of the current flows, but rather, in places where the currents flow both when injected from the left or from the right. A quantitative measure, the harmonic mean of these currents is introduced and correlates very well with the "hot spots" positions

Dynamical mean-field equations for strongly interacting fermionic atoms in a potential trap

We derive a set of dynamical mean-field equations for strongly interacting fermionic atoms in a potential trap across a Feshbach resonance. Our derivation is based on a variational ansatz, which generalizes the crossover wavefunction to the inhomogeneous case, and the assumption that the order parameter is slowly varying over the size of the Cooper pairs. The equations reduce to a generalized time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation on the BEC side of the resonance. We discuss an iterative method to solve these mean-field equations, and present the solution for a harmonic trap as an illustrating example to self-consistently verify the approximations made in our derivation.Comment: replaced with the published versio