N=2 Liouville Theory with Boundary

We study N=2 Liouville theory with arbitrary central charge in the presence of boundaries. After reviewing the theory on the sphere and deriving some important structure constants, we investigate the boundary states of the theory from two approaches, one using the modular transformation property of annulus amplitudes and the other using the bootstrap of disc two-point functions containing degenerate bulk operators. The boundary interactions describing the boundary states are also proposed, based on which the precise correspondence between boundary states and boundary interactions is obtained. The open string spectrum between D-branes is studied from the modular bootstrap approach and also from the reflection relation of boundary operators, providing a consistency check for the proposal.Comment: 1+48 pages, no figure. typos corrected and references added. the version to appear in JHE

Cosmological particle production, causal thermodynamics, and inflationary expansion

Combining the equivalence between cosmological particle creation and an effective viscous fluid pressure with the fact that the latter represents a dynamical degree of freedom within the second-order Israel-Stewart theory for imperfect fluids, we reconsider the possibility of accelerated expansion in fluid cosmology. We find an inherent self-limitation for the magnitude of an effective bulk pressure which is due to adiabatic (isentropic) particle production. For a production rate which depends quadratically on the Hubble rate we confirm the existence of solutions which describe a smooth transition from inflationary to noninflationary behavior and discuss their interpretation within the model of a decaying vacuum energy density. An alternative formulation of the effective imperfect fluid dynamics in terms of a minimally coupled scalar field is given. The corresponding potential is discussed and an entropy equivalent for the scalar field is found.Comment: 16 pages, revtex file, submitted to Phys. Rev.

On Minimal N=4 Topological Strings And The (1,k) Minimal Bosonic String

In this paper we consider tree-level scattering in the minimal N=4 topological string and show that a large class of N-point functions can be recast in terms of corresponding amplitudes in the (1,k) minimal bosonic string. This suggests a non-trivial relation between the minimal N=4 topological strings, the (1,k) minimal bosonic strings and their corresponding ADE matrix models. This relation has interesting and far-reaching implications for the topological sector of six-dimensional Little String Theories.Comment: lanlmac, 30 pages; v3 minor revisions, version published in JHE

On the absence of ferromagnetism in typical 2D ferromagnets

We consider the Ising systems in $d$ dimensions with nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic interactions and long-range repulsive (antiferromagnetic) interactions which decay with a power, $s$, of the distance. The physical context of such models is discussed; primarily this is $d=2$ and $s=3$ where, at long distances, genuine magnetic interactions between genuine magnetic dipoles are of this form. We prove that when the power of decay lies above $d$ and does not exceed $d+1$, then for all temperatures, the spontaneous magnetization is zero. In contrast, we also show that for powers exceeding $d+1$ (with $d\ge2$) magnetic order can occur.Comment: 15 pages, CMP style fil

Spectral Flow in AdS(3)/CFT(2)

We study the spectral flowed sectors of the H3 WZW model in the context of the holographic duality between type IIB string theory in AdS(3)x S^3 x T^4 with NSNS flux and the symmetric product orbifold of T^4. We construct explicitly the physical vertex operators in the flowed sectors that belong to short representations of the superalgebra, thus completing the bulk-to-boundary dictionary for 1/2 BPS states. We perform a partial calculation of the string three-point functions of these operators. A complete calculation would require the three-point couplings of non-extremal flowed operators in the H3 WZW model, which are at present unavailable. In the unflowed sector, perfect agreement has recently been found between the bulk and boundary three-point functions of 1/2 BPS operators. Assuming that this agreement persists in the flowed sectors, we determine certain unknown three-point couplings in the H3 WZW model in terms of three-point couplings of affine descendants in the SU(2) WZW model.Comment: 50 pages, 2 figure

D-branes and SQCD in Non-Critical Superstring Theory

Using exact boundary conformal field theory methods we analyze the D-brane physics of a specific four-dimensional non-critical superstring theory which involves the N=2 SL(2)/U(1) Kazama-Suzuki model at level 1. Via the holographic duality of hep-th/9907178 our results are relevant for D-brane dynamics in the background of NS5-branes and D-brane dynamics near a conifold singularity. We pay special attention to a configuration of D3- and D5-branes that realizes N=1 supersymmetric QCD and discuss the massless spectrum and classical moduli of this setup in detail. We also comment briefly on the implications of this construction for the recently proposed generalization of the AdS/CFT correspondence by Klebanov and Maldacena within the setting of non-critical superstrings.Comment: harvmac, 47 pages, 6 figures; v4 same as v3 due to submission erro

A model of the Universe including Dark Energy accounted for by both a Quintessence Field and a (negative) Cosmological Constant

In this work we present a model of the universe in which dark energy is modelled explicitely with both a dynamical quintessence field and a cosmological constant. Our results confirm the possibility of a future collapsing universe (for a given region of the parameter space), which is necessary for a consistent formulation of string theory and quantum field theory. We have also reproduced the measurements of modulus distance from supernovae with good accuracy.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, only the results for the single exponential potential are preserved. One author added. Some changes in the reference section. Submitted to Physical Review

SL(2,R)/U(1) Supercoset and Elliptic Genera of Non-compact Calabi-Yau Manifolds

We first discuss the relationship between the SL(2;R)/U(1) supercoset and N=2 Liouville theory and make a precise correspondence between their representations. We shall show that the discrete unitary representations of SL(2;R)/U(1) theory correspond exactly to those massless representations of N=2 Liouville theory which are closed under modular transformations and studied in our previous work hep-th/0311141. It is known that toroidal partition functions of SL(2;R)/U(1) theory (2D Black Hole) contain two parts, continuous and discrete representations. The contribution of continuous representations is proportional to the space-time volume and is divergent in the infinite-volume limit while the part of discrete representations is volume-independent. In order to see clearly the contribution of discrete representations we consider elliptic genus which projects out the contributions of continuous representations: making use of the SL(2;R)/U(1), we compute elliptic genera for various non-compact space-times such as the conifold, ALE spaces, Calabi-Yau 3-folds with A_n singularities etc. We find that these elliptic genera in general have a complex modular property and are not Jacobi forms as opposed to the cases of compact Calabi-Yau manifolds.Comment: 39 pages, no figure; v2 references added, minor corrections; v3 typos corrected, to appear in JHEP; v4 typos corrected in eqs. (3.22) and (3.44

Vanishing of cosmological constant and fully localized gravity in a Brane World with extra time(s)

We construct an intersecting brane configuration in six-dimensional space with one extra space-like and one extra time-like dimensions. With a certain additional symmetry imposed on the extra space-time we have found that effective four-dimensional cosmological constant vanishes automatically, providing the static solution with gravity fully localized at the intersection region as there are no propagating massive modes of graviton. In this way, the same symmetry allows us to eliminate tachyonic states of graviton from the spectrum of the effective four-dimensional theory, thus avoiding phenomenological difficulties comming from the matter instability usually induced in theories with extra time-like dimensions.Comment: 15 pages, comments and references added, version accepted in Phys. Lett.