QCD axion and quintessential axion

The axion solution of the strong CP problem is reviewed together with the other strong CP solutions. We also point out the quintessential axion(quintaxion) whose potential can be extremely flat due to the tiny ratio of the hidden sector quark mass and the intermediate hidden sector scale. The quintaxion candidates are supposed to be the string theory axions, the model independent or the model dependent axions.Comment: 15 pages. Talk presented at Castle Ringberg, June 9-14, 200

Getting “Just Deserts” or Seeing the “Silver Lining”: The Relation between Judgments of Immanent and Ultimate Justice

People can perceive misfortunes as caused by previous bad deeds (immanent justice reasoning) or resulting in ultimate compensation (ultimate justice reasoning). Across two studies, we investigated the relation between these types of justice reasoning and identified the processes (perceptions of deservingness) that underlie them for both others (Study 1) and the self (Study 2). Study 1 demonstrated that observers engaged in more ultimate (vs. immanent) justice reasoning for a "good" victim and greater immanent (vs. ultimate) justice reasoning for a "bad" victim. In Study 2, participants' construals of their bad breaks varied as a function of their self-worth, with greater ultimate (immanent) justice reasoning for participants with higher (lower) self-esteem. Across both studies, perceived deservingness of bad breaks or perceived deservingness of ultimate compensation mediated immanent and ultimate justice reasoning respectively. © 2014 Harvey and Callan

How Much Does Effortful Thinking Underlie Observers’ Reactions to Victimization?

From blaming to helping innocent victims, just-world research has revealed that observers react to victimization in a variety of ways. Recent research suggests that such responses to victimization require effortful thought, whereas other research has shown that people can react to these situations intuitively. Along with manipulating just-world threat, across seven experiments, we manipulated or measured participants’ level of mental processing before assessing judgments of victim derogation, blame, willingness to help, and ultimate justice reasoning. The effect of just-world threat on these responses held constant over a range of manipulations/measures, suggesting that the processes involved in maintaining a belief in a just world are not restricted to the rational, deliberative level of mental processing but also occur intuitively

Ripple modulated electronic structure of a 3D topological insulator

3D topological insulators, similar to the Dirac material graphene, host linearly dispersing states with unique properties and a strong potential for applications. A key, missing element in realizing some of the more exotic states in topological insulators is the ability to manipulate local electronic properties. Analogy with graphene suggests a possible avenue via a topographic route by the formation of superlattice structures such as a moir\'e patterns or ripples, which can induce controlled potential variations. However, while the charge and lattice degrees of freedom are intimately coupled in graphene, it is not clear a priori how a physical buckling or ripples might influence the electronic structure of topological insulators. Here we use Fourier transform scanning tunneling spectroscopy to determine the effects of a one-dimensional periodic buckling on the electronic properties of Bi2Te3. By tracking the spatial variations of the scattering vector of the interference patterns as well as features associated with bulk density of states, we show that the buckling creates a periodic potential modulation, which in turn modulates the surface and the bulk states. The strong correlation between the topographic ripples and electronic structure indicates that while doping alone is insufficient to create predetermined potential landscapes, creating ripples provides a path to controlling the potential seen by the Dirac electrons on a local scale. Such rippled features may be engineered by strain in thin films and may find use in future applications of topological insulators.Comment: Nature Communications (accepted

State-space Manifold and Rotating Black Holes

We study a class of fluctuating higher dimensional black hole configurations obtained in string theory/ $M$-theory compactifications. We explore the intrinsic Riemannian geometric nature of Gaussian fluctuations arising from the Hessian of the coarse graining entropy, defined over an ensemble of brane microstates. It has been shown that the state-space geometry spanned by the set of invariant parameters is non-degenerate, regular and has a negative scalar curvature for the rotating Myers-Perry black holes, Kaluza-Klein black holes, supersymmetric $AdS_5$ black holes, $D_1$-$D_5$ configurations and the associated BMPV black holes. Interestingly, these solutions demonstrate that the principal components of the state-space metric tensor admit a positive definite form, while the off diagonal components do not. Furthermore, the ratio of diagonal components weakens relatively faster than the off diagonal components, and thus they swiftly come into an equilibrium statistical configuration. Novel aspects of the scaling property suggest that the brane-brane statistical pair correlation functions divulge an asymmetric nature, in comparison with the others. This approach indicates that all above configurations are effectively attractive and stable, on an arbitrary hyper-surface of the state-space manifolds. It is nevertheless noticed that there exists an intriguing relationship between non-ideal inter-brane statistical interactions and phase transitions. The ramifications thus described are consistent with the existing picture of the microscopic CFTs. We conclude with an extended discussion of the implications of this work for the physics of black holes in string theory.Comment: 44 pages, Keywords: Rotating Black Holes; State-space Geometry; Statistical Configurations, String Theory, M-Theory. PACS numbers: 04.70.-s Physics of black holes; 04.70.Bw Classical black holes; 04.70.Dy Quantum aspects of black holes, evaporation, thermodynamics; 04.50.Gh Higher-dimensional black holes, black strings, and related objects. Edited the bibliograph

Neutron Majorana mass from exotic instantons

We show how a Majorana mass for the Neutron could result from non-perturbative quantum gravity effects peculiar to string theory. In particular, "exotic instantons" in un-oriented string compactifications with D-branes extending the (supersymmetric) standard model could indirectly produce an effective operator delta{m} n^t n+h.c. In a specific model with an extra vector-like pair of `quarks', acquiring a large mass proportional to the string mass scale (exponentially suppressed by a function of the string moduli fields), delta{m} can turn out to be as low as 10^{-24}-10^{-25} eV. The induced neutron-antineutron oscillations could take place with a time scale tau_{n\bar{n}} > 10^8 s, that could be tested by the next generation of experiments. On the other hand, proton decay and FCNC's are automatically strongly suppressed and are compatible with the current experimental limits. Depending on the number of brane intersections, the model may also lead to the generation of Majorana masses for R-handed neutrini. Our proposal could also suggest neutron-neutralino or neutron-axino oscillations, with implications in UCN, Dark Matter Direct Detection, UHECR and Neutron-Antineutron oscillations. This suggests to improve the limits on neutron-antineutron oscillations, as a possible test of string theory and quantum gravity.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures. More comments on neutron-neutralino mixin

Goldstone inflation

Identifying the inflaton with a pseudo-Goldstone boson explains the flatness of its potential. Successful Goldstone Inflation should also be robust against UV corrections, such as from quantum gravity: in the language of the effective field theory this implies that all scales are sub-Planckian. In this paper we present scenarios which realise both requirements by examining the structure of Goldstone potentials arising from Coleman-Weinberg contributions. We focus on single-field models, for which we notice that both bosonic and fermionic contributions are required and that spinorial fermion representations can generate the right potential shape. We then evaluate the constraints on non-Gaussianity from higher-derivative interactions, finding that axiomatic constraints on Goldstone boson scattering prevail over the current CMB measurements. The fit to CMB data can be connected to the UV completions for Goldstone Inflation, finding relations in the spectrum of new resonances. Finally, we show how hybrid inflation can be realised in the same context, where both the inflaton and the waterfall fields share a common origin as Goldstones

Time Course of the Involvement of the Right Anterior Superior Temporal Gyrus and the Right Fronto-Parietal Operculum in Emotional Prosody Perception

In verbal communication, not only the meaning of the words convey information, but also the tone of voice (prosody) conveys crucial information about the emotional state and intentions of others. In various studies right frontal and right temporal regions have been found to play a role in emotional prosody perception. Here, we used triple-pulse repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to shed light on the precise time course of involvement of the right anterior superior temporal gyrus and the right fronto-parietal operculum. We hypothesized that information would be processed in the right anterior superior temporal gyrus before being processed in the right fronto-parietal operculum. Right-handed healthy subjects performed an emotional prosody task. During listening to each sentence a triplet of TMS pulses was applied to one of the regions at one of six time points (400–1900 ms). Results showed a significant main effect of Time for right anterior superior temporal gyrus and right fronto-parietal operculum. The largest interference was observed half-way through the sentence. This effect was stronger for withdrawal emotions than for the approach emotion. A further experiment with the inclusion of an active control condition, TMS over the EEG site POz (midline parietal-occipital junction), revealed stronger effects at the fronto-parietal operculum and anterior superior temporal gyrus relative to the active control condition. No evidence was found for sequential processing of emotional prosodic information from right anterior superior temporal gyrus to the right fronto-parietal operculum, but the results revealed more parallel processing. Our results suggest that both right fronto-parietal operculum and right anterior superior temporal gyrus are critical for emotional prosody perception at a relatively late time period after sentence onset. This may reflect that emotional cues can still be ambiguous at the beginning of sentences, but become more apparent half-way through the sentence