108 research outputs found
Supersymmetry and Gravitational Duality
We study how the supersymmetry algebra copes with gravitational duality. As a
playground, we consider a charged Taub-NUT solution of D=4, N=2 supergravity.
We find explicitly its Killing spinors, and the projection they obey provides
evidence that the dual magnetic momenta necessarily have to appear in the
supersymmetry algebra. The existence of such a modification is further
supported using an approach based on the Nester form. In the process, we find
new expressions for the dual magnetic momenta, including the NUT charge. The
same expressions are then rederived using gravitational duality.Comment: 23 pages, no figures; v2: sign typos fixed in Section 6; v3: version
to appear in PRD. Improved discussion in section 5 (on the surface NUT
charges) and in section 6 (on the superalgebra
Monorail/Foxa2 regulates floorplate differentiation and specification of oligodendrocytes, serotonergic raphe neurones and cranial motoneurones
In this study, we elucidate the roles of the winged-helix transcription factor Foxa2 in ventral CNS development in zebrafish. Through cloning of monorail (mol), which we find encodes the transcription factor Foxa2, and phenotypic analysis of mol(-/-) embryos, we show that floorplate is induced in the absence of Foxa2 function but fails to further differentiate. In mol(-/-) mutants, expression of Foxa and Hh family genes is not maintained in floorplate cells and lateral expansion of the floorplate fails to occur. Our results suggest that this is due to defects both in the regulation of Hh activity in medial floorplate cells as well as cell-autonomous requirements for Foxa2 in the prospective laterally positioned floorplate cells themselves. Foxa2 is also required for induction and/or patterning of several distinct cell types in the ventral CNS. Serotonergic neurones of the raphe nucleus and the trochlear motor nucleus are absent in mol(-/-) embryos, and oculomotor and facial motoneurones ectopically occupy ventral CNS midline positions in the midbrain and hindbrain. There is also a severe reduction of prospective oligodendrocytes in the midbrain and hindbrain. Finally, in the absence of Foxa2, at least two likely Hh pathway target genes are ectopically expressed in more dorsal regions of the midbrain and hindbrain ventricular neuroepithelium, raising the possibility that Foxa2 activity may normally be required to limit the range of action of secreted Hh proteins
Counting supersymmetric branes
Maximal supergravity solutions are revisited and classified, with particular
emphasis on objects of co-dimension at most two. This class of solutions
includes branes whose tension scales with g_s^{-\sigma} for \sigma>2. We
present a group theory derivation of the counting of these objects based on the
corresponding tensor hierarchies derived from E11 and discrete T- and U-duality
transformations. This provides a rationale for the wrapping rules that were
recently discussed for \sigma<4 in the literature and extends them. Explicit
supergravity solutions that give rise to co-dimension two branes are
constructed and analysed.Comment: 1+33 pages. To the memory of Laurent Houart. v2: Published version
with added reference
Hidden Symmetries and Dirac Fermions
In this paper, two things are done. First, we analyze the compatibility of
Dirac fermions with the hidden duality symmetries which appear in the toroidal
compactification of gravitational theories down to three spacetime dimensions.
We show that the Pauli couplings to the p-forms can be adjusted, for all simple
(split) groups, so that the fermions transform in a representation of the
maximal compact subgroup of the duality group G in three dimensions. Second, we
investigate how the Dirac fermions fit in the conjectured hidden overextended
symmetry G++. We show compatibility with this symmetry up to the same level as
in the pure bosonic case. We also investigate the BKL behaviour of the
Einstein-Dirac-p-form systems and provide a group theoretical interpretation of
the Belinskii-Khalatnikov result that the Dirac field removes chaos.Comment: 30 page
G+++ Invariant Formulation of Gravity and M-Theories: Exact BPS Solutions
We present a tentative formulation of theories of gravity with suitable
matter content, including in particular pure gravity in D dimensions, the
bosonic effective actions of M-theory and of the bosonic string, in terms of
actions invariant under very-extended Kac-Moody algebras G+++. We conjecture
that they host additional degrees of freedom not contained in the conventional
theories. The actions are constructed in a recursive way from a level expansion
for all very-extended algebras G+++. They constitute non-linear realisations on
cosets, a priori unrelated to space-time, obtained from a modified Chevalley
involution. Exact solutions are found for all G+++. They describe the algebraic
properties of BPS extremal branes, Kaluza-Klein waves and Kaluza-Klein
monopoles. They illustrate the generalisation to all G+++ invariant theories of
the well-known duality properties of string theories by expressing duality as
Weyl invariance in G+++. Space-time is expected to be generated dynamically. In
the level decomposition of E8+++ = E11, one may indeed select an A10
representation of generators Pa which appears to engender space-time
translations by inducing infinite towers of fields interpretable as field
derivatives in space and time.Comment: Latex 45 pages, 1 figure. Discussion on pages 19 and 20 altered.
Appendix B amplified. 4 footnotes added. 2 references added. Acknowledgments
updated. Additional minor correction
A Remark on the Renormalization Group Equation for the Penner Model
It is possible to extract values for critical couplings and gamma_string in
matrix models by deriving a renormalization group equation for the variation of
the of the free energy as the size N of the matrices in the theory is varied.
In this paper we derive a ``renormalization group equation'' for the Penner
model by direct differentiation of the partition function and show that it
reproduces the correct values of the critical coupling and gamma_string and is
consistent with the logarithmic corrections present for g=0,1.Comment: LaTeX, 5 pages, LPTHE-Orsay-94-5
Intersection rules, dynamics and symmetries
We consider theories containing gravity, at most one dilaton and form field
strengths. We show that the existence of particular BPS solutions of
intersecting extremal closed branes select the theories, which upon dimensional
reduction to three dimensions possess a simple simply laced Lie group symmetry
G. Furthermore these theories can be fully reconstructed from the dynamics of
such branes and of their openings. Amongst such theories are the effective
actions of the bosonic sector of M-theory and of the bosonic string. The BPS
intersecting brane solutions form representations of a subgroup of the group of
Weyl reflections and outer automorphisms of the triple Kac-Moody extension G+++
of the G algebra, which cannot be embedded in the overextended Kac-Moody
subalgebra G++ characterising the cosmological Kasner solutions.Comment: Latex 30 pages, 3 figure
G2 Dualities in D=5 Supergravity and Black Strings
Five dimensional minimal supergravity dimensionally reduced on two commuting
Killing directions gives rise to a G2 coset model. The symmetry group of the
coset model can be used to generate new solutions by applying group
transformations on a seed solution. We show that on a general solution the
generators belonging to the Cartan and nilpotent subalgebras of G2 act as
scaling and gauge transformations, respectively. The remaining generators of G2
form a sl(2,R)+sl(2,R) subalgebra that can be used to generate non-trivial
charges. We use these generators to generalize the five dimensional Kerr string
in a number of ways. In particular, we construct the spinning electric and
spinning magnetic black strings of five dimensional minimal supergravity. We
analyze physical properties of these black strings and study their
thermodynamics. We also explore their relation to black rings.Comment: typos corrected (26 pages + appendices, 2 figures
Abrogation of Stem Loop Binding Protein (Slbp) function leads to a failure of cells to transition from proliferation to differentiation, retinal coloboma and midline axon guidance deficits
Through forward genetic screening for mutations affecting visual system development, we identified prominent coloboma and cell-autonomous retinal neuron differentiation, lamination and retinal axon projection defects in eisspalte (ele) mutant zebrafish. Additional axonal deficits were present, most notably at midline axon commissures. Genetic mapping and cloning of the ele mutation showed that the affected gene is slbp, which encodes a conserved RNA stem-loop binding protein involved in replication dependent histone mRNA metabolism. Cells throughout the central nervous system remained in the cell cycle in ele mutant embryos at stages when, and locations where, post-mitotic cells have differentiated in wild-type siblings. Indeed, RNAseq analysis showed down-regulation of many genes associated with neuronal differentiation. This was coincident with changes in the levels and spatial localisation of expression of various genes implicated, for instance, in axon guidance, that likely underlie specific ele phenotypes. These results suggest that many of the cell and tissue specific phenotypes in ele mutant embryos are secondary to altered expression of modules of developmental regulatory genes that characterise, or promote transitions in, cell state and require the correct function of Slbp-dependent histone and chromatin regulatory genes
Non-commutative Branes from M-theory
The analysis of the worldvolume effective actions of the M-theory
Kaluza-Klein monopole and 9-brane suggests that it should be possible to
describe non-abelian configurations of M2-branes or M5-branes if the M2-branes
are transverse to the eleventh direction and the M5-branes are wrapped on it.
This is determined by the fact that the Kaluza-Klein monopole and the M9-brane
are constrained to move in particular isometric spacetimes. We show that the
same kind of situation is implied by the analysis of the brane descent
relations in M-theory. We compute some of the non-commutative couplings of the
worldvolume effective actions of these non-abelian systems of M2 and M5 branes
and show that they indicate the existence of configurations corresponding to N
branes expanding into a higher dimensional M-brane. The reduction to Type II
brings up new descriptions of coincident D-branes at strong coupling. We show
that these systems have the right non-commutative charges to describe certain
expanded configurations playing a role in the framework of the AdS/CFT
correspondence. Finally, we discuss the realization of non-commutative brane
configurations as topological solitons in non-abelian brane-antibrane systems.Comment: 31 pages, latex file, references adde
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