Effective gravity and OSp(N,4) invariant matter

We re-examine the OSp(N,4) invariant interacting model of massless chiral and gauge superfields, whose superconformal invariance was instrumental, both in proving the all-order no-renormalization of the mass and chiral self-interaction lagrangians, and in determining the linear superfield renormalization needed. We show that the renormalization of the gravitational action modifies only the cosmological term, without affecting higher-order tensors. This could explain why the effect of the cosmological constant is shadowed by the effects of newtonian gravity.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures, PACS: 04.65.+e, substantial revisions, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Supersymmetric Extension of Hopf Maps: N=4 sigma-models and the S^3 -> S^2 Fibration

We discuss four off-shell N=4 D=1 supersymmetry transformations, their associated one-dimensional sigma-models and their mutual relations. They are given by I) the (4,4)_{lin} linear supermultiplet (supersymmetric extension of R^4), II) the (3,4,1)_{lin} linear supermultiplet (supersymmetric extension of R^3), III) the (3,4,1)_{nl} non-linear supermultiplet living on S^3 and IV) the (2,4,2)_{nl} non-linear supermultiplet living on S^2. The I -> II map is the supersymmetric extension of the R^4 -> R^3 bilinear map, while the II -> IV map is the supersymmetric extension of the S^3 -> S^2 first Hopf fibration. The restrictions on the S^3, S^2 spheres are expressed in terms of the stereographic projections. The non-linear supermultiplets, whose supertransformations are local differential polynomials, are not equivalent to the linear supermultiplets with the same field content. The sigma-models are determined in terms of an unconstrained prepotential of the target coordinates. The Uniformization Problem requires solving an inverse problem for the prepotential. The basic features of the supersymmetric extension of the second and third Hopf maps are briefly sketched. Finally, the Schur's lemma (i.e. the real, complex or quaternionic property) is extended to all minimal linear supermultiplets up to N<=8.Comment: 24 page

Gauging N=4 Supersymmetric Mechanics

We argue that off-shell dualities between d=1 supermultiplets with different sets of physical bosonic components and the same number of fermionic ones are related to gauging some symmetries in the actions of the supermultiplets with maximal sets of physical bosons. Our gauging procedure uses off-shell superfields and so is manifestly supersymmetric. We focus on N=4 supersymmetric mechanics and show that various actions of the multiplet (3,4,1) amount to some gauge choices in the gauged superfield actions of the linear or nonlinear (4,4,0) multiplets. In particular, the conformally invariant (3,4,1) superpotential is generated by the Fayet-Iliopoulos term of the gauge superfield. We find a new nonlinear variant of the multiplet (4,4,0), such that its simplest superfield action produces the most general 4-dim hyper-K\"ahler metric with one triholomorphic isometry as the bosonic target metric. We also elaborate on some other instructive examples of N=4 superfield gaugings, including a non-abelian gauging which relates the free linear (4,4,0) multiplet to a self-interacting (1,4,3) multiplet.Comment: 32 pages, minor amendments in Sect. 2, version to appear in Nucl. Phys.

The Common Origin of Linear and Nonlinear Chiral Multiplets in N=4 Mechanics

Elaborating on previous work (hep-th/0605211, hep-th/0611247), we show how the linear and nonlinear chiral multiplets of N=4 supersymmetric mechanics with the off-shell content (2,4,2) can be obtained by gauging three distinct two-parameter isometries of the ``root'' (4,4,0) multiplet actions. In particular, two different gauge groups, one abelian and one non-abelian, lead, albeit in a disguised form in the second case, to the same (unique) nonlinear chiral multiplet. This provides an evidence that no other nonlinear chiral N=4 multiplets exist. General sigma model type actions are discussed, together with the restricted potential terms coming from the Fayet-Iliopoulos terms associated with abelian gauge superfields. As in our previous work, we use the manifestly supersymmetric language of N=4, d=1 harmonic superspace. A novel point is the necessity to use in parallel the \lambda and \tau gauge frames, with the ``bridges'' between these two frames playing a crucial role. It is the N=4 harmonic analyticity which, though being non-manifest in the \tau frame, gives rise to both linear and nonlinear chirality constraints.Comment: 22 pages, Latex, minor corrections, to appear in Nucl. Phys.

The Gelasian (Late Villanyan-MN17) diversified micromammal assemblage with Mimomys pliocaenicus from Coste San Giacomo (Anagni basin, central Italy), taxonomy and comparison with selected european sites

The Gelasian site of Coste San Giacomo (CSG) (central Italy) provides a unique opportunity to investigate the faunal and environmental changes occurred in Mediterranean Europe during the Early Pleistocene. The finding of both large and small mammal fauna has a great biochronological and palaeoenvironmental value. In this work the description of the small mammal assemblage is presented and discussed in detail for the first time. Twelve taxa, belonging to three orders, have been in fact identified and described (six Rodentia, one Lagomorpha and five Eulipotyphla). In particular, the CSG small mammal assemblage has provided the largest collection in Europe of Mimomys pliocaenicus and, for this reason, it can be considered as a reference. Finally, the occurrence of the Desmaninae subfamily is reported for the first time in Italy. © 2015 Associazione Teriologica Italiana

Intersecting Attractors

We apply the entropy formalism to the study of the near-horizon geometry of extremal black p-brane intersections in D>5 dimensional supergravities. The scalar flow towards the horizon is described in terms an effective potential given by the superposition of the kinetic energies of all the forms under which the brane is charged. At the horizon active scalars get fixed to the minima of the effective potential and the entropy function is given in terms of U-duality invariants built entirely out of the black p-brane charges. The resulting entropy function reproduces the central charges of the dual boundary CFT and gives rise to a Bekenstein-Hawking like area law. The results are illustrated in the case of black holes and black string intersections in D=6, 7, 8 supergravities where the effective potentials, attractor equations, moduli spaces and entropy/central charges are worked out in full detail.Comment: 1+41 pages, 2 Table

On the uniqueness of the unitary representations of the non commutative Heisenberg-Weyl algebra

In this paper we discuss the uniqueness of the unitary representations of the non commutative Heisenberg-Weyl algebra. We show that, apart from a critical line for the non commutative position and momentum parameters, the Stone-von Neumann theorem still holds, which implies uniqueness of the unitary representation of the Heisenberg-Weyl algebra.Comment: 4 page

Consistent Batalin--Fradkin quantization of Infinitely Reducible First Class Constraints

We reconsider the problem of BRST quantization of a mechanics with infinitely reducible first class constraints. Following an earlier recipe [Phys. Lett. B 381, 105, (1996)], the original phase space is extended by purely auxiliary variables, the constraint set in the enlarged space being first stage of reducibility. The BRST charge involving only a finite number of ghost variables is explicitly constructed.Comment: 5 pages, LaTex. Minor corrections including the title. The version to appear in Phys. Rev.