Molecular Hydrogen Emission from Protoplanetary Disks

We have modeled self-consistently the density and temperature profiles of gas and dust in protoplanetary disks, taking into account irradiation from a central star. Making use of this physical structure, we have calculated the level populations of molecular hydrogen and the line emission from the disks. As a result, we can reproduce the observed strong line spectra of molecular hydrogen from protoplanetary disks, both in the ultraviolet (UV) and the near-infrared, but only if the central star has a strong UV excess radiation.Comment: 19 pages, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Localization-delocalization transition in one-dimensional electron systems with long-range correlated disorder

We investigate localization properties of electron eigenstates in one-dimensional (1d) systems with long-range correlated diagonal disorder. Numerical studies on the localization length $\xi$ of eigenstates demonstrate the existence of the localization-delocalization transition in 1d systems and elucidate non-trivial behavior of $\xi$ as a function of the disorder strength. The critical exponent $\nu$ for localization length is extracted for various values of parameters characterizing the disorder, revealing that every $\nu$ disobeys the Harris criterion $\nu > 2/d$.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figuers, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Quantum Hall Ferromagnetism in Graphene

Graphene is a two-dimensional carbon material with a honeycomb lattice and Dirac-like low-energy excitations. When Zeeman and spin-orbit interactions are neglected its Landau levels are four-fold degenerate, explaining the $4 e^2/h$ separation between quantized Hall conductivity values seen in recent experiments. In this paper we derive a criterion for the occurrence of interaction-driven quantum Hall effects near intermediate integer values of $e^2/h$ due to charge gaps in broken symmetry states.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Inflationary paradigm after Planck 2013

Models of cosmic inflation posit an early phase of accelerated expansion of the universe, driven by the dynamics of one or more scalar fields in curved spacetime. Though detailed assumptions about fields and couplings vary across models, inflation makes specific, quantitative predictions for several observable quantities, such as the flatness parameter ($\Omega_k = 1 - \Omega$) and the spectral tilt of primordial curvature perturbations ($n_s - 1 = d \ln {\cal P}_{\cal R} / d \ln k$), among others---predictions that match the latest observations from the {\it Planck} satellite to very good precision. In the light of data from {\it Planck} as well as recent theoretical developments in the study of eternal inflation and the multiverse, we address recent criticisms of inflation by Ijjas, Steinhardt, and Loeb. We argue that their conclusions rest on several problematic assumptions, and we conclude that cosmic inflation is on a stronger footing than ever before.Comment: 11 pages, no figures; added references, and brief additions to Footnote 1, Section VI, and the Acknowledgment

Renormalized Landau Levels and Particle-Hole Symmetry in Graphene

In this proceedings paper we report on a calculation of graphene's Landau levels in a magnetic field. Our calculations are based on a self-consistent Hartree-Fock approximation for graphene's massless-Dirac continuum model. We find that because of graphene's chiral band structure interactions not only shift Landau-level energies, as in a non-relativistic electron gas, but also alter Landau level wavefunctions. We comment on the subtle continuum model regularization procedure necessary to correctly maintain the lattice-model's particle hole symmetry properties

Stable skyrmions from extra dimensions

We show that skyrmions arising from compact five dimensional models have stable sizes. We numerically obtain the skyrmion configurations and calculate their size and energy. Although their size strongly depends on the magnitude of localized kinetic-terms, their energy is quite model-independent ranging between 50-65 times F_pi^2/m_rho, where F_pi is the Goldstone decay constant and m_rho the lowest Kaluza-Klein mass. These skyrmion configurations interpolate between small 4D YM instantons and 4D skyrmions made of Goldstones and a massive vector boson. Contrary to the original 4D skyrmion and previous 5D extensions, these configurations have sizes larger than the inverse of the cut-off scale and therefore they are trustable within our effective 5D approach. Such solitonic particles can have interesting phenomenological consequences as they carry a conserved topological charge analogous to baryon number.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure