Topological Physics of Little Higgs Bosons

Topological interactions will generally occur in composite Higgs or Little Higgs theories, extra-dimensional gauge theories in which A_5 plays the role of a Higgs boson, and amongst the pNGB's of technicolor. This phenomena arises from the chiral and anomaly structure of the underlying UV completion theory, and/or through chiral delocalization in higher dimensions. These effects are described by a full Wess-Zumino-Witten term involving gauge fields and pNGB's. We give a general discussion of these interactions, some of which may have novel signatures at future colliders, such as the LHC and ILC.Comment: 22 page

T-Parity Violation by Anomalies

Little Higgs theories often rely on an internal parity ("T-parity'') to suppress non-standard electroweak effects or to provide a dark matter candidate. We show that such a symmetry is generally broken by anomalies, as described by the Wess-Zumino-Witten term. We study a simple SU(3) x SU(3)/SU(3) Little Higgs scheme where we obtain a minimal form for the topological interactions of a single Higgs field. The results apply to more general models, including [SU(3) x SU(3)/SU(3)]^4, SU(5)/SO(5), and SU(6)/Sp(6).Comment: 17 page

Anomalies, Chern-Simons Terms and Chiral Delocalization in Extra Dimensions

Gauge invariant topological interactions, such as the D=5 Chern-Simons terms, are required in models in extra dimensions that split anomaly free representations. The Chern-Simons term is necessary to maintain the overall anomaly cancellations of the theory, but it can have significant, observable, physical effects. The CS-term locks the KK-mode parity to the parity of space-time, leaving a single parity symmetry. It leads to new processes amongst KK-modes, eg, the decay of a KK-mode to a 2-body final state of KK-modes. A formalism for the effective interaction amongst KK-modes is constructed, and the decay of a KK-mode to KK-mode plus zero mode is analyzed as an example. We elaborate the general KK-mode current and anomaly structure of these theories. This includes a detailed study of the triangle diagrams and the associated ``consistent anomalies'' for Weyl spinors on the boundary branes. We also develop the non-abelian formalism. We illustrate this by showing in a simple way how a D=5 Yang-Mills ``quark flavor'' symmetry leads to the D=4 chiral lagrangian of mesons and the quantized Wess-Zumino-Witten term.Comment: 51 pages, 3 figures; Corrected typos, amplified discussio

Exact Equivalence of the D=4 Gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten Term and the D=5 Yang-Mills Chern-Simons Term

We derive the full Wess-Zumino-Witten term of a gauged chiral lagrangian in D=4 by starting from a pure Yang-Mills theory of gauged quark flavor in a flat, compactified D=5. The theory is compactified such that there exists a B_5 zero mode, and supplemented with quarks that are ``chirally delocalized'' with q_L (q_R) on the left (right) boundary (brane). The theory then necessarily contains a Chern-Simons term (anomaly flux) to cancel the fermionic anomalies on the boundaries. The constituent quark mass represents chiral symmetry breaking and is a bilocal operator in D=5 of the form: \bar{q}_LWq_R+h.c, where W is the Wilson line spanning the bulk, 0\leq x^5 \leq R and is interpreted as a chiral meson field, W=\exp(2i\tilde{\pi}/f_\pi), where f_\pi \sim 1/R. The quarks are integrated out, yielding a Dirac determinant which takes the form of a ``boundary term'' (anomaly flux return), and is equivalent to Bardeen's counterterm that connects consistent and covariant anomalies. The Wess-Zumino-Witten term then emerges straightforwardly, from the Yang-Mills Chern-Simons term, plus boundary term. The method is systematic and allows generalization of the Wess-Zumino-Witten term to theories of extra dimensions, and to express it in alternative and more compact forms. We give a novel form appropriate to the case of (unintegrated) massless fermions.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure; minor errors fixe

Methods for evaluating the performance of volume phase holographic gratings for the VIRUS spectrograph array

The Visible Integral Field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS) is an array of at least 150 copies of a simple, fiber-fed integral field spectrograph that will be deployed on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) to carry out the HET Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). Each spectrograph contains a volume phase holographic grating as its dispersing element that is used in first order for 350 nm to 550 nm. We discuss the test methods used to evaluate the performance of the prototype gratings, which have aided in modifying the fabrication prescription for achieving the specified batch diffraction efficiency required for HETDEX. In particular, we discuss tests in which we measure the diffraction efficiency at the nominal grating angle of incidence in VIRUS for all orders accessible to our test bench that are allowed by the grating equation. For select gratings, these tests have allowed us to account for > 90% of the incident light for wavelengths within the spectral coverage of VIRUS. The remaining light that is unaccounted for is likely being diffracted into reflective orders or being absorbed or scattered within the grating layer (for bluer wavelengths especially, the latter term may dominate the others). Finally, we discuss an apparatus that will be used to quickly verify the first order diffraction efficiency specification for the batch of at least 150 VIRUS production gratings.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures. To be published in Proc. SPIE, 2012, "Ground-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IV", 8446-20

Ecological and physical characteristics of the Te Awa O Katapaki Stream, Flagstaff, Waikato

1. The fish, macroinvertebrates, aquatic vegetation, and water quality indicate that the Te Awa O Katapaki Stream is an unpolluted, pastureland stream that is typical of the Waikato region. 2. The stream has very high nutrient concentrations that probably result from the dairy farming upstream. 3. The fish fauna is dominated by the native shortfinned eels. The presence of the migratory common smelt indicates that swimming fish species also have free access to the stream from the Waikato River. 4. Fish of high conservation value, such as giant or banded kokopu (Galaxias argenteus or G. fasciatus) were absent, which is predictable given the warm, unshaded nature of the stream. 5. Fish and invertebrates would soon recolonise the restored stream following any work in the streambed

Cosmological structure formation from soft topological defects

Some models have extremely low-mass pseudo-Goldstone bosons that can lead to vacuum phase transitions at late times, after the decoupling of the microwave background.. This can generate structure formation at redshifts z greater than or approx 10 on mass scales as large as M approx 10 to the 18th solar masses. Such low energy transitions can lead to large but phenomenologically acceptable density inhomogeneities in soft topological defects (e.g., domain walls) with minimal variations in the microwave anisotropy, as small as delta Y/T less than or approx 10 to the minus 6 power. This mechanism is independent of the existence of hot, cold, or baryonic dark matter. It is a novel alternative to both cosmic string and to inflationary quantum fluctuations as the origin of structure in the Universe

Anomaly mediated neutrino-photon interactions at finite baryon density

We propose new physical processes based on the axial vector anomaly and described by the Wess-Zumino-Witten term that couples the photon, Z-boson, and the omega-meson. The interaction takes the form of a pseudo-Chern-Simons term, $\sim \epsilon_{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}\omega^\mu Z^\nu F^{\rho\sigma}$. This term induces neutrino-photon interactions at finite baryon density via the coupling of the Z-boson to neutrinos. These interactions may be detectable in various laboratory and astrophysical arenas. The new interactions may account for the MiniBooNE excess. They also produce a competitive contribution to neutron star cooling at temperatures >10^9 K. These processes and related axion--photon interactions at finite baryon density appear to be relevant in many astrophysical regimes.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; references adde