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 $N_c$ 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 $\Lambda$ and the large values suggested by particle physics models. The second problem is the "time coincidence" between the epoch of galaxy formation $t_G$ and the epoch of $\Lambda$-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-$\Lambda$ models in which $\Lambda$ 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 $\Lambda$ is fixed, but the primordial density contrast $Q=\delta\rho/\rho$ 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