Probing the Structure of the Pomeron

We suggest that the pseudo-rapidity cut dependence of diffractive deep-inelastic scattering events at HERA may provide a sensitive test of models of diffraction. A comparison with the experimental cross section shows that the Donnachie-Landshoff model and a simple two-gluon exchange model of the pomeron model are disfavoured. However a model with a direct coupling of the pomeron to quarks is viable for a harder quark--pomeron form factor, as is a model based on the leading-twist operator contribution. We also consider a direct-coupling scalar pomeron model. We comment on the implications of these results for the determination of the partonic structure of the pomeron.Comment: 33 pages, LaTeX2e, 14 figures, uses axodra

The Classification of the Simply Laced Berger Graphs from Calabi-Yau CY3CY_3 spaces

The algebraic approach to the construction of the reflexive polyhedra that yield Calabi-Yau spaces in three or more complex dimensions with K3 fibres reveals graphs that include and generalize the Dynkin diagrams associated with gauge symmetries. In this work we continue to study the structure of graphs obtained from $CY_3$ reflexive polyhedra. The objective is to describe the ``simply laced'' cases, those graphs obtained from three dimensional spaces with K3 fibers which lead to symmetric matrices. We study both the affine and, derived from them, non-affine cases. We present root and weight structurea for them. We study in particular those graphs leading to generalizations of the exceptional simply laced cases $E_{6,7,8}$ and $E_{6,7,8}^{(1)}$. We show how these integral matrices can be assigned: they may be obtained by relaxing the restrictions on the individual entries of the generalized Cartan matrices associated with the Dynkin diagrams that characterize Cartan-Lie and affine Kac-Moody algebras. These graphs keep, however, the affine structure present in Kac-Moody Dynkin diagrams. We conjecture that these generalized simply laced graphs and associated link matrices may characterize generalizations of Cartan-Lie and affine Kac-Moody algebras

Neutrino Oscillations Induced by Gravitational Recoil Effects

Quantum gravitational fluctuations of the space-time background, described by virtual D branes, may induce neutrino oscillations if a tiny violation of the Lorentz invariance (or a violation of the equivalence principle) is imposed. In this framework, the oscillation length of massless neutrinos turns out to be proportional to M/E^2, where E is the neutrino energy and M is the mass scale characterizing the topological fluctuations in the vacuum. Such a functional dependence on the energy is the same obtained in the framework of loop quantum gravity.Comment: 5 pages, LaTex fil

Implications of Anomalous U(1) Symmetry in Unified Models: the Flipped SU(5) x U(1) Paradigm

A generic feature of string-derived models is the appearance of an anomalous Abelian U(1)_A symmetry which, among other properties, constrains the Yukawa couplings and distinguishes the three families from each other. In this paper, we discuss in a model-independent way the general constraints imposed by such a U(1)_A symmetry on fermion masses, R-violating couplings and proton-decay operators in a generic flipped SU(5) x U(1)' model. We construct all possible viable fermion mass textures and give various examples of effective low-energy models which are distinguished from each other by their different predictions for B-, L- and R-violating effects. We pay particular attention to predictions for neutrino masses, in the light of the recent Super-Kamiokande data.Comment: 28 pages, reference adde

Measurement of Quantum Fluctuations in Geometry

A particular form for the quantum indeterminacy of relative spacetime position of events is derived from the limits of measurement possible with Planck wavelength radiation. The indeterminacy predicts fluctuations from a classically defined geometry in the form of ``holographic noise'' whose spatial character, absolute normalization, and spectrum are predicted with no parameters. The noise has a distinctive transverse spatial shear signature, and a flat power spectral density given by the Planck time. An interferometer signal displays noise due to the uncertainty of relative positions of reflection events. The noise corresponds to an accumulation of phase offset with time that mimics a random walk of those optical elements that change the orientation of a wavefront. It only appears in measurements that compare transverse positions, and does not appear at all in purely radial position measurements. A lower bound on holographic noise follows from a covariant upper bound on gravitational entropy. The predicted holographic noise spectrum is estimated to be comparable to measured noise in the currently operating interferometer GEO600. Because of its transverse character, holographic noise is reduced relative to gravitational wave effects in other interferometer designs, such as LIGO, where beam power is much less in the beamsplitter than in the arms.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX. Extensive rewrite of original version, including more detailed analysis. Main result is the same but the estimate of noise in strain units for GEO600, showing 1/f behavior at low f and flat at high f, is improved. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Integrability of irrotational silent cosmological models

We revisit the issue of integrability conditions for the irrotational silent cosmological models. We formulate the problem both in 1+3 covariant and 1+3 orthonormal frame notation, and show there exists a series of constraint equations that need to be satisfied. These conditions hold identically for FLRW-linearised silent models, but not in the general exact non-linear case. Thus there is a linearisation instability, and it is highly unlikely that there is a large class of silent models. We conjecture that there are no spatially inhomogeneous solutions with Weyl curvature of Petrov type I, and indicate further issues that await clarification.Comment: Minor corrections and improvements; 1 new reference; to appear Class. Quantum Grav.; 16 pages Ioplpp

Dynamical Formation of Horizons in Recoiling D Branes

A toy calculation of string/D-particle interactions within a world-sheet approach indicates that quantum recoil effects - reflecting the gravitational back-reaction on space-time foam due to the propagation of energetic particles - induces the appearance of a microscopic event horizon, or `bubble', inside which stable matter can exist. The scattering event causes this horizon to expand, but we expect quantum effects to cause it to contract again, in a `bounce' solution. Within such `bubbles', massless matter propagates with an effective velocity that is less than the velocity of light in vacuo, which may lead to observable violations of Lorentz symmetry that may be tested experimentally. The conformal invariance conditions in the interior geometry of the bubbles select preferentially three for the number of the spatial dimensions, corresponding to a consistent formulation of the interaction of D3 branes with recoiling D particles, which are allowed to fluctuate independently only on the D3-brane hypersurface.Comment: 25 pages LaTeX, 4 eps figures include