116 research outputs found
Non-Perturbative Effects on a Fractional D3-Brane
In this note we study the N=1 abelian gauge theory on the world volume of a
single fractional D3-brane. In the limit where gravitational interactions are
not completely decoupled we find that a superpotential and a fermionic bilinear
condensate are generated by a D-brane instanton effect. A related situation
arises for an isolated cycle invariant under an orientifold projection, even in
the absence of any gauge theory brane. Moreover, in presence of supersymmetry
breaking background fluxes, such instanton configurations induce new couplings
in the 4-dimensional effective action, including non-perturbative contributions
to the cosmological constant and non-supersymmetric mass terms.Comment: 18 pages, v3: refs adde
Four-modulus "Swiss Cheese" chiral models
We study the 'Large Volume Scenario' on explicit, new, compact, four-modulus
Calabi-Yau manifolds. We pay special attention to the chirality problem pointed
out by Blumenhagen, Moster and Plauschinn. Namely, we thoroughly analyze the
possibility of generating neutral, non-perturbative superpotentials from
Euclidean D3-branes in the presence of chirally intersecting D7-branes. We find
that taking proper account of the Freed-Witten anomaly on non-spin cycles and
of the Kaehler cone conditions imposes severe constraints on the models.
Nevertheless, we are able to create setups where the constraints are solved,
and up to three moduli are stabilized.Comment: 40 pages, 10 figures, clarifying comments added, minor mistakes
correcte
D-brane Instantons as Gauge Instantons in Orientifolds of Chiral Quiver Theories
Systems of D3-branes at orientifold singularities can receive
non-perturbative D-brane instanton corrections, inducing field theory operators
in the 4d effective theory. In certain non-chiral examples, these systems have
been realized as the infrared endpoint of a Seiberg duality cascade, in which
the D-brane instanton effects arise from strong gauge theory dynamics. We
present the first UV duality cascade completion of chiral D3-brane theories, in
which the D-brane instantons arise from gauge theory dynamics. Chiral examples
are interesting because the instanton fermion zero mode sector is topologically
protected, and therefore lead to more robust setups. As an application of our
results, we provide a UV completion of certain D-brane orientifold systems
recently claimed to produce conformal field theories with conformal invariance
broken only by D-brane instantons.Comment: 50 pages, 32 figures. v2: version published in JHEP with references
adde
Monolithic All-Solid-State High-Voltage Li-Metal Thin-Film Rechargeable Battery
The substitution of an organic liquid electrolyte with lithium-conducting solid materials is a promising approach to overcome the limitations associated with conventional lithium-ion batteries. These constraints include a reduced electrochemical stability window, high toxicity, flammability, and the formation of lithium dendrites. In this way, all-solid-state batteries present themselves as ideal candidates for improving energy density, environmental friendliness, and safety. In particular, all-solid-state configurations allow the introduction of compact, lightweight, high-energy-density batteries, suitable for low-power applications, known as thin-film batteries. Moreover, solid electrolytes typically offer wide electrochemical stability windows, enabling the integration of high-voltage cathodes and permitting the fabrication of higher-energy-density batteries. A high-voltage, all-solid-state lithium-ion thin-film battery composed of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 cathode, a LiPON solid electrolyte, and a lithium metal anode has been deposited layer by layer on low-cost stainless-steel current collector substrates. The structural and electrochemical properties of each electroactive component of the battery had been analyzed separately prior to the full cell implementation. In addition to a study of the internal solid–solid interface, comparing them was done with two similar cells assembled using conventional lithium foil, one with thin-film solid electrolyte and another one with thin-film solid electrolyte plus a droplet of LP30 liquid electrolyte. The thin-film all-solid state cell developed in this work delivered 80.5 mAh g–1 in the first cycle at C/20 and after a C-rate test of 25 cycles at C/10, C/5, C/2, and 1C and stabilized its capacity at around 70 mAh g–1 for another 12 cycles prior to the start of its degradation. This cell reached gravimetric and volumetric energy densities of 333 Wh kg–1 and 1,212 Wh l–1, respectively. Overall, this cell showed a better performance than its counterparts assembled with Li foil, highlighting the importance of the battery interface control
Toric AdS4/CFT3 duals and M-theory Crystals
We study the recently proposed crystal model for three dimensional
superconformal field theories arising from M2-branes probing toric Calabi-Yau
four-fold singularities. We explain the algorithms mapping a toric Calabi-Yau
to a crystal and vice versa, and show how the spectrum of BPS meson states fits
into the crystal model.Comment: 24 pages, 24 figure
D-brane instantons and the effective field theory of flux compactifications
We provide a description of the effects of fluxes on euclidean D-brane
instantons purely in terms of the 4d effective action. The effect corresponds
to the dressing of the effective non-perturbative 4d effective vertex with 4d
flux superpotential interactions, generated when the moduli fields made massive
by the flux are integrated out. The description in terms of effective field
theory allows a unified description of non-perturbative effects in all flux
compactifications of a given underlying fluxless model, globally in the moduli
space of the latter. It also allows us to describe explicitly the effects on
D-brane instantons of fluxes with no microscopic description, like
non-geometric fluxes. At the more formal level, the description has interesting
connections with the bulk-boundary map of open-closed two-dimensional
topological string theory, and with the \NN=1 special geometry.Comment: 33 page
SU(5) D-brane realizations, Yukawa couplings and proton stability
We discuss SU(5) Grand Unified Theories in the context of orientifold
compactifications. Specifically, we investigate two and three D-brane stack
realizations of the Georgi-Glashow and the flipped SU(5) model and analyze them
with respect to their Yukawa couplings. As pointed out in arXiv:0909.0271 the
most economical Georgi-Glashow realization based on two stacks generically
suffers from a disastrous large proton decay rate. We show that allowing for an
additional U(1) D-brane stack this as well as other phenomenological problems
can be resolved. We exemplify with globally consistent Georgi-Glashow models
based on RCFT that these D-brane quivers can be indeed embedded in a global
setting. These globally consistent realizations admit rigid O(1) instantons
inducing the perturbatively missing coupling 10105^H. Finally we show that
flipped SU(5) D-brane realizations even with multiple U(1) D-brane stacks are
plagued by severe phenomenological drawbacks which generically cannot be
overcome.Comment: 34 pages v2 minor correction
A Note on Dimer Models and D-brane Gauge Theories
The connection between quiver gauge theories and dimer models has been well
studied. It is known that the matter fields of the quiver gauge theories can be
represented using the perfect matchings of the corresponding dimer model.We
conjecture that a subset of perfect matchings associated with an internal point
in the toric diagram is sufficient to give information about the charge matrix
of the quiver gauge theory. Further, we perform explicit computations on some
aspects of partial resolutions of toric singularities using dimer models. We
analyse these with graph theory techniques, using the perfect matchings of
orbifolds of the form \BC^3/\Gamma, where the orbifolding group may
be noncyclic. Using these, we study the construction of the superpotential of
gauge theories living on D-branes which probe these singularities, including
the case where one or more adjoint fields are present upon partial resolution.
Applying a combination of open and closed string techniques to dimer models, we
also study some aspects of their symmetries.Comment: Discussions expanded, clarifications added, typos fixed. 1+49 page
Meta-Stable Supersymmetry Breaking in a Cooling Universe
We look at the recently proposed idea that susy breaking can be accomplished
in a meta-stable vacuum. In the context of one of the simplest models (the
Seiberg-dual of super-QCD), we address the following question: if we look at
this theory as it cools from high temperature, is it at all possible that we
can end up in a susy-breaking meta-stable vacuum? To get an idea about the
answer, we look at the free energy of the system at high temperature. We
conclude that the phase-structure of the free-energy as the temperature drops,
is indeed such that there is a second order phase transition in the direction
of the non-susy vacuum at a finite . On the other hand, the potential
barrier in the direction of the susy vacuum is there all the way till .Comment: writing full author name
Non-perturbative effective interactions from fluxes
Motivated by possible implications on the problem of moduli stabilization and
other phenomenological aspects, we study D-brane instanton effects in flux
compactifications. We focus on a local model and compute non-perturbative
interactions generated by gauge and stringy instantons in a N = 1 quiver theory
with gauge group U(N_0) x U(N_1) and matter in the bifundamentals. This model
is engineered with fractional D3-branes at a C^3/(Z_2 x Z_2) singularity, and
its non-perturbative sectors are described by introducing fractional
D-instantons. We find a rich variety of instanton-generated F- and D-term
interactions, ranging from superpotentials and Beasley-Witten like
multi-fermion terms to non-supersymmetric flux-induced instanton interactions.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures. Final version published on JHEP. Section 4
modified in several points regarding string corrections in absence of fluxes;
in particular, section 4.3 is removed. Some other minor changes and two
references adde
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