2,523 research outputs found
Baryon Density and the Dilated Chiral Quark Model
We calculate perturbatively the effect of density on hadronic properties
using the chiral quark model implemented by the QCD trace anomaly to see the
possibility of constructing Lorentz invariant Lagrangian at finite density. We
calculate the density dependent masses of the constituent quark, the scalar
field and the pion in one-loop order using the technique of thermo field
dynamics. In the chiral limit, the pion remains massless at finite density. It
is found that the tadpole type corrections lead to the decreasing masses with
increasing baryon density, while the radiative corrections induce
Lorentz-symmetry-breaking terms. We found in the large limit with large
scalar mass that the tadpoles dominate and the mean-field approximation is
reliable, giving rise a Lorentz-invariant Lagrangian with masses decreasing as
the baryon density increases.Comment: Late
Flux Discharge Cascades in Various Dimensions
We study the dynamics of electric flux discharge by charged particle pair or
spherical string or membrane production in various dimensions. When electric
flux wraps at least one compact cycle, we find that a single "pair" production
event can initiate a cascading decay in real time that "shorts out" the flux
and discharges many units of it. This process arises from local dynamics in the
compact space, and so is invisible in the dimensionally-reduced truncation. It
occurs in theories as simple as the Schwinger model on a circle, and has
implications for any theory with compact dimensions and electric flux,
including string theories and the string landscape.Comment: 19+8 pages, 3 figures, 3 appendice
Open inflation from non-singular instantons: Wrapping the universe with a membrane
The four-form field recently considered by Hawking and Turok couples
naturally to a charged membrane, across which the effective cosmological
constant has a discontinuity. We present instantons for the creation of an open
inflationary universe surrounded by a membrane. They can also be used to
describe the nucleation of a membrane on a pre-existing inflationary
background. This process typically decreases the value of the effective
cosmological constant and may lead to a novel scenario of eternal inflation.
Moreover, by coupling the inflaton field to the membrane, the troublesome
singularities which arise in the Hawking-Turok model can be eliminated.Comment: 23 pages, LaTeX2e, 4 figure
Solutions to the cosmological constant problems
We critically review several recent approaches to solving the two
cosmological constant problems. The "old" problem is the discrepancy between
the observed value of and the large values suggested by particle
physics models. The second problem is the "time coincidence" between the epoch
of galaxy formation and the epoch of -domination t_\L. It is
conceivable that the "old" problem can be resolved by fundamental physics
alone, but we argue that in order to explain the "time coincidence" we must
account for anthropic selection effects. Our main focus here is on the
discrete- models in which can change through nucleation of
branes. We consider the cosmology of this type of models in the context of
inflation and discuss the observational constraints on the model parameters.
The issue of multiple brane nucleation raised by Feng {\it et. al.} is
discussed in some detail. We also review continuous-\L models in which the
role of the cosmological constant is played by a slowly varying potential of a
scalar field. We find that both continuous and discrete models can in principle
solve both cosmological constant problems, although the required values of the
parameters do not appear very natural. M-theory-motivated brane models, in
which the brane tension is determined by the brane coupling to the four-form
field, do not seem to be viable, except perhaps in a very tight corner of the
parameter space. Finally, we point out that the time coincidence can also be
explained in models where is fixed, but the primordial density
contrast is treated as a random variable.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures, two notes adde
Role of the cerebellum in visuomotor coordination
The initiation of coupled eye and arm movements was studied in six patients with mild cerebellar dysfunction and in six age-matched control subjects. The experimental paradigm consisted of 40 deg step-tracking elbow movements made under different feedback conditions. During tracking with the eyes only, saccadic latencies in patients were within normal limits. When patients were required to make coordinated eye and arm movements, however, eye movement onset was significantly delayed. In addition, removal of visual information about arm versus target position had a pronounced differential effect on movement latencies. When the target was extinguished for 3 s immediately following a step change in target position, both eye and arm onset times were further prolonged compared to movements made to continuously visible targets. When visual information concerning arm position was removed, onset times were reduced. Eye and arm latencies in control subjects were unaffected by changes in visual feedback. The results of this study clearly demonstrate that, in contrast to earlier reports of normal saccadic latencies associated with cerebellar dysfunction, initiation of both eye and arm movements is prolonged during coordinated visuomotor tracking thus supporting a coordinative role for the cerebellum during oculo-manual tracking tasks.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46565/1/221_2004_Article_BF00230206.pd
Thermal Decay of the Cosmological Constant into Black Holes
We show that the cosmological constant may be reduced by thermal production
of membranes by the cosmological horizon, analogous to a particle ``going over
the top of the potential barrier", rather than tunneling through it. The
membranes are endowed with charge associated with the gauge invariance of an
antisymmetric gauge potential. In this new process, the membrane collapses into
a black hole, thus the net effect is to produce black holes out of the vacuum
energy associated with the cosmological constant. We study here the
corresponding Euclidean configurations ("thermalons"), and calculate the
probability for the process in the leading semiclassical approximation.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. Minor correction
Higher Dimensional Gravity, Propagating Torsion and AdS Gauge Invariance
The most general theory of gravity in d-dimensions which leads to second
order field equations for the metric has [(d-1)/2] free parameters. It is shown
that requiring the theory to have the maximum possible number of degrees of
freedom, fixes these parameters in terms of the gravitational and the
cosmological constants. In odd dimensions, the Lagrangian is a Chern-Simons
form for the (A)dS or Poincare groups. In even dimensions, the action has a
Born-Infeld-like form. Torsion may occur explicitly in the Lagrangian in the
parity-odd sector and the torsional pieces respect local (A)dS symmetry for
d=4k-1 only. These torsional Lagrangians are related to the Chern-Pontryagin
characters for the (A)dS group. The additional coefficients in front of these
new terms in the Lagrangian are shown to be quantized.Comment: 10 pages, two columns, no figures, title changed in journal, final
version to appear in Class. Quant. Gra
Absolute Objects and Counterexamples: Jones-Geroch Dust, Torretti Constant Curvature, Tetrad-Spinor, and Scalar Density
James L. Anderson analyzed the novelty of Einstein's theory of gravity as its
lack of "absolute objects." Michael Friedman's related work has been criticized
by Roger Jones and Robert Geroch for implausibly admitting as absolute the
timelike 4-velocity field of dust in cosmological models in Einstein's theory.
Using the Rosen-Sorkin Lagrange multiplier trick, I complete Anna Maidens's
argument that the problem is not solved by prohibiting variation of absolute
objects in an action principle. Recalling Anderson's proscription of
"irrelevant" variables, I generalize that proscription to locally irrelevant
variables that do no work in some places in some models. This move vindicates
Friedman's intuitions and removes the Jones-Geroch counterexample: some regions
of some models of gravity with dust are dust-free and so naturally lack a
timelike 4-velocity, so diffeomorphic equivalence to (1,0,0,0) is spoiled.
Torretti's example involving constant curvature spaces is shown to have an
absolute object on Anderson's analysis, viz., the conformal spatial metric
density. The previously neglected threat of an absolute object from an
orthonormal tetrad used for coupling spinors to gravity appears resolvable by
eliminating irrelevant fields. However, given Anderson's definition, GTR itself
has an absolute object (as Robert Geroch has observed recently): a change of
variables to a conformal metric density and a scalar density shows that the
latter is absolute.Comment: Minor editing, small content additions, added references. Forthcoming
in_Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics_, June 200
AdS Branes Corresponding to Superconformal Defects
We investigate an AdS_4 x L_2 D5-brane in AdS_5 x X_5 space-time, in the
context of AdS/dCFT correspondence. Here, X_5 is a Sasaki-Einstein manifold and
L_2 is a submanifold of X_5. This brane has the same supersymmetry as the
3-dimensional N=1 superconformal symmetry if L_2 is a special Legendrian
submanifold in X_5. In this case, this brane is supposed to correspond to a
superconformal wall defect in 4-dimensional N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. We
construct these new string backgrounds and show they have the correct
supersymmetry, also in the case with non-trivial gauge flux on L_2. The
simplest new example is AdS_4 x T^2 brane in AdS_5 x S^5. We construct the
brane solution expressing the RG flow between two different defects. We also
perform similar analysis for an AdS_3 x L_3 M5-brane in AdS_4 x X_7, for a weak
G_2 manifold X_7 and its submanifold L_3. This system has the same
supersymmetry as 2-dimensional N=(1,0) global superconformal symmetry, if L_3
is an associative submanifold.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX, 3 figures. v2: typos corrected, references added.
v3: typos correcte
Dynamical measure and field theory models free of the cosmological constant problem
Summary of abstract Field theory models including gauge theories with SSB are
presented where the energy density of the true vacuum state (TVS) is zero
without fine tuning. The above models are constructed in the gravitational
theory where a measure of integration \Phi in the action is not necessarily
\sqrt{-g} but it is determined dynamically through additional degrees of
freedom. The ratio \Phi/\sqrt{-g} is a scalar field which can be solved in
terms of the matter degrees of freedom due to the existence of a constraint. We
study a few explicit field theory models where it is possible to combine the
solution of the cosmological constant problem with: 1) possibility for
inflationary scenario for the early universe; 2) spontaneously broken gauge
unified theories (including fermions). The models are free from the well known
problem of the usual scalar-tensor theories in what is concerned with the
classical GR tests. The only difference of the field equations in the Einstein
frame from the canonical equations of the selfconsistent system of Einstein's
gravity and matter fields, is the appearance of the effective scalar field
potential which vanishes in TVS without fine tuning.Comment: Extended version of the contribution to the fourth Alexander
Friedmann International Seminar on Gravitation and Cosmology; accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev. D; 31 page
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