"Background Field Integration-by-Parts" and the Connection Between One-Loop and Two-Loop Heisenberg-Euler Effective Actions

We develop integration-by-parts rules for Feynman diagrams involving massive scalar propagators in a constant background electromagnetic field, and use these to show that there is a simple diagrammatic interpretation of mass renormalization in the two-loop scalar QED Heisenberg-Euler effective action for a general constant background field. This explains why the square of a one-loop term appears in the renormalized two-loop Heisenberg-Euler effective action. No integrals need be evaluated, and the explicit form of the background field propagators is not needed. This dramatically simplifies the computation of the renormalized two-loop effective action for scalar QED, and generalizes a previous result obtained for self-dual background fields.Comment: 13 pages; uses axodraw.st

The Complexity of Repairing, Adjusting, and Aggregating of Extensions in Abstract Argumentation

We study the computational complexity of problems that arise in abstract argumentation in the context of dynamic argumentation, minimal change, and aggregation. In particular, we consider the following problems where always an argumentation framework F and a small positive integer k are given. - The Repair problem asks whether a given set of arguments can be modified into an extension by at most k elementary changes (i.e., the extension is of distance k from the given set). - The Adjust problem asks whether a given extension can be modified by at most k elementary changes into an extension that contains a specified argument. - The Center problem asks whether, given two extensions of distance k, whether there is a "center" extension that is a distance at most (k-1) from both given extensions. We study these problems in the framework of parameterized complexity, and take the distance k as the parameter. Our results covers several different semantics, including admissible, complete, preferred, semi-stable and stable semantics

Perturbative Analysis of Nonabelian Aharonov-Bohm Scattering

We perform a perturbative analysis of the nonabelian Aharonov-Bohm problem to one loop in a field theoretic framework, and show the necessity of contact interactions for renormalizability of perturbation theory. Moreover at critical values of the contact interaction strength the theory is finite and preserves classical conformal invariance.Comment: 12 pages in LaTeX, uses epsf.sty, 5 uuencoded Postscript figures sent separately. MIT-CTP-228

Zero modes, beta functions and IR/UV interplay in higher-loop QED

We analyze the relation between the short-distance behavior of quantum field theory and the strong-field limit of the background field formalism, for QED effective Lagrangians in self-dual backgrounds, at both one and two loop. The self-duality of the background leads to zero modes in the case of spinor QED, and these zero modes must be taken into account before comparing the perturbative beta function coefficients and the coefficients of the strong-field limit of the effective Lagrangian. At one-loop this is familiar from instanton physics, but we find that at two-loop the role of the zero modes, and the interplay between IR and UV effects in the renormalization, is quite different. Our analysis is motivated in part by the remarkable simplicity of the two-loop QED effective Lagrangians for a self-dual constant background, and we also present here a new independent derivation of these two-loop results.Comment: 15 pages, revtex

Two-Loop Diagrammatics in a Self-Dual Background

Diagrammatic rules are developed for simplifying two-loop QED diagrams with propagators in a constant self-dual background field. This diagrammatic analysis, using dimensional regularization, is used to explain how the fully renormalized two-loop Euler-Heisenberg effective Lagrangian for QED in a self-dual background field is naturally expressed in terms of one-loop diagrams. The connection between the two-loop and one-loop vacuum diagrams in a background field parallels a corresponding connection for free vacuum diagrams, without a background field, which can be derived by simple algebraic manipulations. It also mirrors similar behavior recently found for two-loop amplitudes in N=4 SUSY Yang-Mills theory.Comment: 16 pp, Latex, Axodra

Photoproduction in semiconductors by onset of magnetic field

The energy bands of a semiconductor are lowered by an external magnetic field. When a field is switched on, the straight-line trajectories near the top of the occupied valence band are curved into Landau orbits and Bremsstrahlung is emitted until the electrons have settled in their final Fermi distribution. We calculate the radiated energy, which should be experimentally detectable, and suggest that a semiconductor can be cooled by an oscillating magnetic field

Extended de Sitter Theory of Two Dimensional Gravitational Forces

We present a simple unifying gauge theoretical formulation of gravitational theories in two dimensional spacetime. This formulation includes the effects of a novel matter-gravity coupling which leads to an extended de Sitter symmetry algebra on which the gauge theory is based. Contractions of this theory encompass previously studied cases.Comment: 19pp, no figs., CTP 2228, UCONN-93-

Passage of Time in a Planck Scale Rooted Local Inertial Structure

It is argued that the `problem of time' in quantum gravity necessitates a refinement of the local inertial structure of the world, demanding a replacement of the usual Minkowski line element by a 4+2n dimensional pseudo-Euclidean line element, with the extra 2n being the number of internal phase space dimensions of the observed system. In the refined structure, the inverse of the Planck time takes over the role of observer-independent conversion factor usually played by the speed of light, which now emerges as an invariant but derivative quantity. In the relativistic theory based on the refined structure, energies and momenta turn out to be invariantly bounded from above, and lengths and durations similarly bounded from below, by their respective Planck scale values. Along the external timelike world-lines, the theory naturally captures the `flow of time' as a genuinely structural attribute of the world. The theory also predicts expected deviations--suppressed quadratically by the Planck energy--from the dispersion relations for free fields in the vacuum. The deviations from the special relativistic Doppler shifts predicted by the theory are also suppressed quadratically by the Planck energy. Nonetheless, in order to estimate the precision required to distinguish the theory from special relativity, an experiment with a binary pulsar emitting TeV range gamma-rays is considered in the context of the predicted deviations from the second-order shifts.Comment: 17 pages; Diagram depicting "the objective flow of time" is replaced with a much-improved diagra

Quantum Field Dynamics in a Uniform Magnetic Field: Description using Fields in Oblique Phase Space

We present a simple field transformation which changes the field arguments from the ordinary position-space coordinates to the oblique phase-space coordinates that are linear in position and momentum variables. This is useful in studying quantum field dynamics in the presence of external uniform magnetic field: here, the field transformation serves to separate the dynamics within the given Landau level from that between different Landau levels. We apply this formalism to both nonrelativistic and relativistic field theories. In the large external magnetic field our formalism provides an efficient method for constructing the relevant lower-dimensional effective field theories with the field degrees defined only on the lowest Landau level.Comment: 27 pages, no figure

Comparison of HIV-1 viral loads, CD4-Th2-lymphocytes and effects of praziquantel treatment among adults infected or uninfected with Schistosoma mansoni in fishing villages of north-western Tanzania

 Background: It is hypothesised that Th2 immunological environment associated with Schistosoma mansoni infection might favour replication of HIV-1 in co-infected individuals, results in increased viral loads. On the other hand, deworming using praziquantel might result in reduction of HIV-1 viral loads and increased CD4+ cell counts. This study was therefore, carried out to compare HIV -1 plasma loads, CD4-Th2-lymphocytes and the effects of praziquantel treatment on HIV-1 plasma loads and CD4+ cell counts among HIV-1 seropositive individuals infected or uninfected with S. mansoni.Methodology: A 9-month prospective longitudinal study was conducted among HIV-1 infected individuals aged 21-55 years with CD4+ cell counts ≥ 350cells/µL in fishing villages of North-Western Tanzania. Single stool samples were examined for S. mansoni eggs using Kato Katz technique at 6-month follow-up and 12 weeks after treatment. Venous blood samples were collected at baseline, at three and six-month follow-up and 12 weeks after praziquantel treatment for HIV-1 plasma viral loads and CD4+ cell quantification.Results: Of the 50 HIV-1 infected participants at baseline, 44% (22/50, 95%CI; 30.58-58.35) were found to be co-infected with S. mansoni at 6-month follow-up with a mean of 93.26GM-epg (95%CI: 60.42-143.95). The median CD4+ cell counts did not differ significantly between individuals infected with HIV-1 and those co-infected with HIV-1 and S. mansoni at baseline (P=0.62), 3-month (P=0.64) and 6-month (P=0.41) follow-up. Monthly decrease in CD4+ cells did not differ significantly between the two groups at all follow-up points (-30.39cell/µL versus -31.35cells/µL, P=0.89). Those infected with S. mansoni had a significantly higher mean log10 HIV-1 plasma viral load at baseline (5.98 ± 3.06 versus 9.21 ± 1.91copies/ml, P<0.0001) and 3-month follow-up (8.19 ± 2.17 versus 9.44 ± 1.99copies/ml, P<0.042) compared to those infected with HIV-1 only. This difference was not evident at the time of S. mansoni diagnosis at 6-month time point. Praziquantel treatment in co-infected individuals (n=12) did not result in any change in CD4+ cell counts and mean HIV-1 plasma viral loads (t=-0.9156, P=0.38), comparing baseline and 3-month follow-up after treatment. No correlation was observed between log S. mansoni egg counts and log10 HIV-1 RNA viral loads (r=-0.066, P=0.77) at six-month follow-up in co-infected individuals (n=22).Conclusion: HIV-1 plasma viral loads varied significantly among mono and co-infected individuals at baseline and 3-month follow-up. However, CD4+ cell counts did not vary between the two groups at all follow-up time points. Praziquantel treatment of co-infected individuals did not result in changes in CD4+ cell counts and HIV-1 plasma viral loads