Zero Modes for the D=11 Membrane and Five-Brane

There exist extremal p-brane solutions of $D\!=\!11$ supergravity for p=2~and~5. In this paper we investigate the zero modes of the membrane and the five-brane solutions as a first step toward understanding the full quantum theory of these objects. It is found that both solutions possess the correct number of normalizable zero modes dictated by supersymmetry.Comment: Minor typos corrected, one reference added, agrees with published version. 9 RevTeX pages, 1 figure include

Proximity-Coupled Ti/TiN Multilayers for use in Kinetic Inductance Detectors

We apply the superconducting proximity effect in TiN/Ti multi-layer films to tune the critical temperature, Tc, to within 10 mK with high uniformity (less than 15 mK spread) across a 75 mm wafer. Reproducible Tc's are obtained from 0.8 - 2.5 K. These films had high resistivities, > 100 uOhm-cm and internal quality factors for resonators in the GHz range on the order of 100k and higher. Both trilayers of TiN/Ti/TiN and thicker superlattice films were prepared, demonstrating a highly controlled process for films over a wide thickness range. Detectors were fabricated and showed single photon resolution at 1550 nm. The high uniformity and controllability coupled with the high quality factor, kinetic inductance, and inertness of TiN make these films ideal for use in frequency multiplexed kinetic inductance detectors and other potential applications such as nanowire detectors, transition edge sensors and associated quantum information applications

Book Reviews

PUBLIC PLANNING AND CONTROL OF URBAN AND LAND DEVELOPMENT. CASES AND MATERIALS. By Donald G. Hagman. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1973. Pp. 1208. $18.50. UNION POWER AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST. By Dr. Emerson P. Schmidt. Los Angeles: Nash Publishing, 1973. Pp. 204.$10.00. THE BENCHWARMERS: THE PRIVATE WORLD OF THE POWERFUL FEDERAL JUDGES. By Joseph C. Goulden. New York: Weybright and Talley, 1974. Pp. 375. $12.50

Twenty Years of the Weyl Anomaly

In 1973 two Salam prot\'{e}g\'{e}s (Derek Capper and the author) discovered that the conformal invariance under Weyl rescalings of the metric tensor $g_{\mu\nu}(x)\rightarrow\Omega^2(x)g_{\mu\nu}(x)$ displayed by classical massless field systems in interaction with gravity no longer survives in the quantum theory. Since then these Weyl anomalies have found a variety of applications in black hole physics, cosmology, string theory and statistical mechanics. We give a nostalgic review. (Talk given at the {\it Salamfest}, ICTP, Trieste, March 1993.)Comment: 43 page

Superstars and Giant Gravitons in M-theory

Following hep-th/0109127, we show that a certain class of BPS naked singularities (superstars) found in compactifications of M-theory can be interpreted as being composed of giant gravitons. More specifically, we study superstars which are asymptotically AdS_7 x S^4 and AdS_4 x S^7 and show that these field configurations can be interpreted as being sourced by continuous distributions of spherical M2- and M5-branes, respectively, which carry internal momenta and have expanded on the spherical component of the space-time.Comment: 13 page

Exact Absorption Probability in the Extremal Six-Dimensional Dyonic String Background

We show that the minimally coupled massless scalar wave equation in the background of an six-dimensional extremal dyonic string (or D1-D5 brane intersection) is exactly solvable, in terms of Mathieu functions. Using this fact, we calculate absorption probabilities for these scalar waves, and present the explicit results for the first few low energy corrections to the leading-order expressions. For a specific tuning of the dyonic charges one can reach a domain where the low energy absorption probability goes to zero with inverse powers of the logarithm of the energy. This is a dividing domain between the regime where the low energy absorption probability approaches zero with positive powers of energy and the regime where the probability is an oscillatory function of the logarithm of the energy. By the conjectured AdS/CFT correspondence, these results shed novel light on the strongly coupled two-dimensional field theory away from its infrared conformally invariant fixed point (the strongly coupled ``non-critical'' string).Comment: Latex (3 times), 23 page

Medical Services Premimum Task Force: Tax Reform Proposals for the Province of British Columbia

In the September 2017 B.C. Budget Update, the government announced that MSP premiums would be eliminated within four years, with advice from a task force of experts on how best to replace the foregone MSP premium revenue. The MSP Task Force was formed in November 2017 and asked to report by March 31, 2018. The Terms of Reference1 for the Task Force required us to apply the principles of fairness, efficiency, business competitiveness, simplicity, revenue stability, and progressivity in determining the best way to replace MSP premium revenues. On February 1, 2018 we provided the Minister with our Interim Report that described our process and what we had heard so far. We conducted a thorough review of the B.C. tax system and met with or received input from 70 individuals and 28 stakeholder groups. The most common theme in the input was that the revenue should be replaced by a combination of an increase to personal income tax and a payroll tax. Other suggestions included taxes on unhealthy activities, corporate tax changes, broadening the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) base, and changing the Home Owner Grant to an income-tested program. Our Interim Report provided the following initial advice to the Minister: }} Eliminate premiums and start collecting the replacement revenues all at once without phase-in; }} Provide reasonable notice to allow employees and employers to prepare for the change; and, }} Use a combination of measures to mitigate the negative impacts of each individual measure. In Budget 2018, delivered on February 20, 2018, the Minister announced that MSP premiums would be eliminated effective January 2020, with foregone revenue offset by the Employer Health Tax, a payroll tax. The budget document also indicated that the Task Force should continue its work and make recommendations to improve the progressivity, fairness, and competitiveness of the tax system. We have built upon some of the ideas we were working on to raise revenue and some observations we made while reviewing the tax system, but our proposals are now generally intended to be revenue-neutral rather than ways to raise revenues

Microscopic Entropy of N=2 Extremal Black Holes

String theory is used to compute the microscopic entropy for several examples of black holes in compactifications with $N=2$ supersymmetry. Agreement with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy and the moduli-independent $N=2$ area formula is found in all cases.Comment: 9 pages, no figures, uses harvma