An overview of new supersymmetric gauge theories with 2-form gauge potentials

An overview of new 4d supersymmetric gauge theories with 2-form gauge potentials constructed by various authors during the past five years is given. The key role of three particular types of interaction vertices is emphasized. These vertices are used to develop a connecting perspective on the new models and to distinguish between them. One example is presented in detail to illustrate characteristic features of the models. A new result on couplings of 2-form gauge potentials to Chern-Simons forms is presented.Comment: 11 pages; to appear in the proceedings of NATO ARW "Noncommutative structures in mathematics and physics" (Kiev 09/00); table in section 3 correcte

Quantum Spacetime Phenomenology

I review the current status of phenomenological programs inspired by quantum-spacetime research. I stress in particular the significance of results establishing that certain data analyses provide sensitivity to effects introduced genuinely at the Planck scale. And my main focus is on phenomenological programs that managed to affect the directions taken by studies of quantum-spacetime theories.Comment: 125 pages, LaTex. This V2 is updated and more detailed than the V1, particularly for quantum-spacetime phenomenology. The main text of this V2 is about 25% more than the main text of the V1. Reference list roughly double

Supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on conformal supergravity backgrounds in ten dimensions

We consider bosonic supersymmetric backgrounds of ten-dimensional conformal supergravity. Up to local conformal isometry, we classify the maximally supersymmetric backgrounds, determine their conformal symmetry superalgebras and show how they arise as near-horizon geometries of certain half-BPS backgrounds or as a plane-wave limit thereof. We then show how to define Yang-Mills theory with rigid supersymmetry on any supersymmetric conformal supergravity background and, in particular, on the maximally supersymmetric backgrounds. We conclude by commenting on a striking resemblance between the supersymmetric backgrounds of ten-dimensional conformal supergravity and those of eleven-dimensional Poincar\'e supergravity.Comment: 30 page

Large baryon densities attainable in high energy nuclear collisions

Nuclear densities at least four and as much as 10 times normal should be achieved in U+U collisions with centre-of-mass kinetic energies between 1 and 4 GeV per nucleon, which would be much higher than previous discussions have indicated. Such collisions would give the best opportunity of making a stable or long-lived phase of high baryon density. It is suggested that the accelerators at CERN would be well suited to explore the energy range of interest, both with fixed targets and with colliding beams. (12 refs)