Phonon-assisted tunneling in interacting suspended single wall carbon nanotubes

Transport in suspended metallic single wall carbon nanotubes in the presence of strong electron-electron interaction is investigated. We consider a tube of finite length and discuss the effects of the coupling of the electrons to the deformation potential associated to the acoustic stretching and breathing modes. Treating the interacting electrons within the framework of the Luttinger liquid model, the low-energy spectrum of the coupled electron-phonon system is evaluated. The discreteness of the spectrum is reflected in the differential conductance which, as a function of the applied bias voltage, exhibits three distinct families of peaks. The height of the phonon-assisted peaks is very sensitive to the parameters. The phonon peaks are best observed when the system is close to the Wentzel-Bardeen singularity.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

The stochastic gravitational wave background from turbulence and magnetic fields generated by a first-order phase transition

We analytically derive the spectrum of gravitational waves due to magneto-hydrodynamical turbulence generated by bubble collisions in a first-order phase transition. In contrast to previous studies, we take into account the fact that turbulence and magnetic fields act as sources of gravitational waves for many Hubble times after the phase transition is completed. This modifies the gravitational wave spectrum at large scales. We also model the initial stirring phase preceding the Kolmogorov cascade, while earlier works assume that the Kolmogorov spectrum sets in instantaneously. The continuity in time of the source is relevant for a correct determination of the peak position of the gravitational wave spectrum. We discuss how the results depend on assumptions about the unequal-time correlation of the source and motivate a realistic choice for it. Our treatment gives a similar peak frequency as previous analyses but the amplitude of the signal is reduced due to the use of a more realistic power spectrum for the magneto-hydrodynamical turbulence. For a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition, the signal is observable with the space interferometer LISA.Comment: 46 pages, 17 figures. Replaced with revised version accepted for publication in JCA

Finite-temperature Screening and the Specific Heat of Doped Graphene Sheets

At low energies, electrons in doped graphene sheets are described by a massless Dirac fermion Hamiltonian. In this work we present a semi-analytical expression for the dynamical density-density linear-response function of noninteracting massless Dirac fermions (the so-called "Lindhard" function) at finite temperature. This result is crucial to describe finite-temperature screening of interacting massless Dirac fermions within the Random Phase Approximation. In particular, we use it to make quantitative predictions for the specific heat and the compressibility of doped graphene sheets. We find that, at low temperatures, the specific heat has the usual normal-Fermi-liquid linear-in-temperature behavior, with a slope that is solely controlled by the renormalized quasiparticle velocity.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to J. Phys.

Symmetric coupling of four spin-1/2 systems

We address the non-binary coupling of identical angular momenta based upon the representation theory for the symmetric group. A correspondence is pointed out between the complete set of commuting operators and the reference-frame-free subsystems. We provide a detailed analysis of the coupling of three and four spin-1/2 systems and discuss a symmetric coupling of four spin-1/2 systems.Comment: 20 pages, no figure

Polymer quantization of the free scalar field and its classical limit

Building on prior work, a generally covariant reformulation of free scalar field theory on the flat Lorentzian cylinder is quantized using Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) type `polymer' representations. This quantization of the {\em continuum} classical theory yields a quantum theory which lives on a discrete spacetime lattice. We explicitly construct a state in the polymer Hilbert space which reproduces the standard Fock vacuum- two point functions for long wavelength modes of the scalar field. Our construction indicates that the continuum classical theory emerges under coarse graining. All our considerations are free of the "triangulation" ambiguities which plague attempts to define quantum dynamics in LQG. Our work constitutes the first complete LQG type quantization of a generally covariant field theory together with a semi-classical analysis of the true degrees of freedom and thus provides a perfect infinite dimensional toy model to study open issues in LQG, particularly those pertaining to the definition of quantum dynamics.Comment: 58 page

Supersymmetric Axion-Neutrino Merger

The recently proposed supersymmetric $A_4$ model of the neutrino mass matrix is modified to merge with a previously proposed axionic solution of the strong CP problem. The resulting model has only one input scale, i.e. that of $A_4$ symmetry breaking, which determines both the seesaw neutrino mass scale and the axion decay constant. It also solves the $\mu$ problem and conserves R parity automatically.Comment: 7 pages, no figur

AdS and pp-wave D-particle superalgebras

We derive anticommutators of supercharges with a brane charge for a D-particle in AdS(2) x S(2) and pp-wave backgrounds. A coset GL(2|2)/(GL(1))^4 and its Penrose limit are used with the supermatrix-valued coordinates for the AdS and the pp-wave spaces respectively. The brane charges have position dependence, and can be absorbed into bosonic generators by shift of momenta which results in closure of the superalgebras.Comment: 15 page

Antiproton constraints on dark matter annihilations from internal electroweak bremsstrahlung

If the dark matter particle is a Majorana fermion, annihilations into two fermions and one gauge boson could have, for some choices of the parameters of the model, a non-negligible cross-section. Using a toy model of leptophilic dark matter, we calculate the constraints on the annihilation cross-section into two electrons and one weak gauge boson from the PAMELA measurements of the cosmic antiproton-to-proton flux ratio. Furthermore, we calculate the maximal astrophysical boost factor allowed in the Milky Way under the assumption that the leptophilic dark matter particle is the dominant component of dark matter in our Universe. These constraints constitute very conservative estimates on the boost factor for more realistic models where the dark matter particle also couples to quarks and weak gauge bosons, such as the lightest neutralino which we also analyze for some concrete benchmark points. The limits on the astrophysical boost factors presented here could be used to evaluate the prospects to detect a gamma-ray signal from dark matter annihilations at currently operating IACTs as well as in the projected CTA.Comment: 32 pages; 13 figure

SUSY Resonances from UHE neutralinos in Neutrino Telescopes and in the Sky

In the Top-down scenarios, the decay of super-heavy particles (m~10^{12-16}GeV), situated in dark-matter halos not very far from our Galaxy, can explain the ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic-ray spectrum beyond the Griesen-Zatasepin-Kuzmin cut-off. In the MSSM, a major component of the UHE cosmic-ray flux at PeV-EeV energies could be given by the lightest neutralino \chi, that is the lightest stable supersymmetric particle. Then, the signal of UHE \chi's on earth might emerge over the interactions of a comparable neutrino component. We compute the event rates for the resonant production of "right" selectrons and "right" squarks in mSUGRA, when UHE neutralinos of energy larger than 10^5 GeV scatter off electrons and quarks in an earth-based detector like IceCube. When the resonant channel dominates in the total \chi-e,\chi-q scattering cross section, the only model parameters affecting the corresponding visible signal rates turn out to be the physical masses of the resonant right-scalar and of the lightest neutralino. We compare the expected number of supersymmetric events with the rates corresponding to the expected Glashow W resonance and to the continuum UHE \nu-N scattering for realistic power-law spectra. We find that the event rate in the leptonic selectron channel is particularly promising, and can reach a few tens for a one-year exposure in IceCube. Finally, we note that UHE neutralinos at much higher energies (up to hundreds ZeV) may produce sneutrino resonances by scattering off relic neutrinos in the Local Group hot dark halo. The consequent \tilde{\nu}-burst into hadronic final states could mimic Z-burst events, although with quite smaller conversion efficiency.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures; one reference adde

Order in glassy systems

A directly measurable correlation length may be defined for systems having a two-step relaxation, based on the geometric properties of density profile that remains after averaging out the fast motion. We argue that the length diverges if and when the slow timescale diverges, whatever the microscopic mechanism at the origin of the slowing down. Measuring the length amounts to determining explicitly the complexity from the observed particle configurations. One may compute in the same way the Renyi complexities K_q, their relative behavior for different q characterizes the mechanism underlying the transition. In particular, the 'Random First Order' scenario predicts that in the glass phase K_q=0 for q>x, and K_q>0 for q<x, with x the Parisi parameter. The hypothesis of a nonequilibrium effective temperature may also be directly tested directly from configurations.Comment: Typos corrected, clarifications adde