181 research outputs found
de Sitter Supersymmetry Revisited
We present the basic superconformal field theories in
four-dimensional de Sitter space-time, namely the non-abelian super Yang-Mills
theory and the chiral multiplet theory with gauge interactions or cubic
superpotential. These theories have eight supercharges and are invariant under
the full group of conformal symmetries, which includes the de Sitter
isometry group as a subgroup. The theories are ghost-free and the
anti-commutator is positive. SUSY
Ward identities uniquely select the Bunch-Davies vacuum state. This vacuum
state is invariant under superconformal transformations, despite the fact that
de Sitter space has non-zero Hawking temperature. The theories
are classically invariant under the superconformal group, but this
symmetry is broken by radiative corrections. However, no such difficulty is
expected in the theory, which is presented in appendix B.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figure
The non-compact elliptic genus: mock or modular
We analyze various perspectives on the elliptic genus of non-compact
supersymmetric coset conformal field theories with central charge larger than
three. We calculate the holomorphic part of the elliptic genus via a free field
description of the model, and show that it agrees with algebraic expectations.
The holomorphic part of the elliptic genus is directly related to an
Appell-Lerch sum and behaves anomalously under modular transformation
properties. We analyze the origin of the anomaly by calculating the elliptic
genus through a path integral in a coset conformal field theory. The path
integral codes both the holomorphic part of the elliptic genus, and a
non-holomorphic remainder that finds its origin in the continuous spectrum of
the non-compact model. The remainder term can be shown to agree with a function
that mathematicians introduced to parameterize the difference between mock
theta functions and Jacobi forms. The holomorphic part of the elliptic genus
thus has a path integral completion which renders it non-holomorphic and
modular.Comment: 13 page
Cardiosphere-derived cells suppress allogeneic lymphocytes by production of PGE2 acting via the EP4 receptor
derived cells (CDCs) are a cardiac progenitor cell population, which have been shown to possess cardiac regenerative properties and can improve heart function in a variety of cardiac diseases. Studies in large animal models have predominantly focussed on using autologous cells for safety, however allogeneic cell banks would allow for a practical, cost-effective and efficient use in a clinical setting. The aim of this work was to determine the immunomodulatory status of these cells using CDCs and lymphocytes from 5 dogs. CDCs expressed MHC I but not MHC II molecules and in mixed lymphocyte reactions demonstrated a lack of lymphocyte proliferation in response to MHC-mismatched CDCs. Furthermore, MHC-mismatched CDCs suppressed lymphocyte proliferation and activation in response to Concanavalin A. Transwell experiments demonstrated that this was predominantly due
to direct cell-cell contact in addition to soluble mediators whereby CDCs produced high levels of PGE2
under inflammatory conditions. This led to down-regulation of CD25 expression on lymphocytes via the
EP4 receptor. Blocking prostaglandin synthesis restored both, proliferation and activation (measured via CD25 expression) of stimulated lymphocytes. We demonstrated for the first time in a large animal model that CDCs inhibit proliferation in allo-reactive lymphocytes and have potent immunosuppressive activity mediated via PGE2
On renormalization group flows and the a-theorem in 6d
We study the extension of the approach to the a-theorem of Komargodski and
Schwimmer to quantum field theories in d=6 spacetime dimensions. The dilaton
effective action is obtained up to 6th order in derivatives. The anomaly flow
a_UV - a_IR is the coefficient of the 6-derivative Euler anomaly term in this
action. It then appears at order p^6 in the low energy limit of n-point
scattering amplitudes of the dilaton for n > 3. The detailed structure with the
correct anomaly coefficient is confirmed by direct calculation in two examples:
(i) the case of explicitly broken conformal symmetry is illustrated by the free
massive scalar field, and (ii) the case of spontaneously broken conformal
symmetry is demonstrated by the (2,0) theory on the Coulomb branch. In the
latter example, the dilaton is a dynamical field so 4-derivative terms in the
action also affect n-point amplitudes at order p^6. The calculation in the
(2,0) theory is done by analyzing an M5-brane probe in AdS_7 x S^4.
Given the confirmation in two distinct models, we attempt to use dispersion
relations to prove that the anomaly flow is positive in general. Unfortunately
the 4-point matrix element of the Euler anomaly is proportional to stu and
vanishes for forward scattering. Thus the optical theorem cannot be applied to
show positivity. Instead the anomaly flow is given by a dispersion sum rule in
which the integrand does not have definite sign. It may be possible to base a
proof of the a-theorem on the analyticity and unitarity properties of the
6-point function, but our preliminary study reveals some difficulties.Comment: 41 pages, 5 figure
M1 muscarinic allosteric modulators slow prion neurodegeneration and restore memory loss
This is the final version of the article. Available from American Society for Clinical Investigation via the DOI in this record.The current frontline symptomatic treatment for Alzheimerâs disease (AD) is whole-body upregulation of cholinergic
transmission via inhibition of acetylcholinesterase. This approach leads to profound dose-related adverse effects. An
alternative strategy is to selectively target muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, particularly the M1 muscarinic acetylcholine
receptor (M1 mAChR), which was previously shown to have procognitive activity. However, developing M1 mAChRâselective orthosteric ligands has proven challenging. Here, we have shown that mouse prion disease shows many of the hallmarks
of human AD, including progressive terminal neurodegeneration and memory deficits due to a disruption of hippocampal
cholinergic innervation. The fact that we also show that muscarinic signaling is maintained in both AD and mouse prion
disease points to the latter as an excellent model for testing the efficacy of muscarinic pharmacological entities. The memory deficits we observed in mouse prion disease were completely restored by treatment with benzyl quinolone carboxylic acid (BQCA) and benzoquinazoline-12 (BQZ-12), two highly selective positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) of M1 mAChRs. Furthermore, prolonged exposure to BQCA markedly extended the lifespan of diseased mice. Thus, enhancing hippocampal muscarinic signaling using M1 mAChR PAMs restored memory loss and slowed the progression of mouse prion disease, indicating that this ligand type may have clinical benefit in diseases showing defective cholinergic transmission, such as AD.ABT, AC, and PMS received funding from a Wellcome Trust Collaborative
Award (201529/Z/16/Z). ABT, SJB, AJB, and TMH were
funded through a Medical Research Council programme leader
grant provided by the MRC Toxicology Unit. CCF, LMB, AJM, and
HES were funded by the Eli Lilly Company. JMB received funding
through a Lilly Research Award Program (LRAP) grant (Eli
Lilly). RP received funding from the Marie Curie grant âExtrabrainâ
(European Commission). AC is a senior principal research
fellow and PMS a principal research fellow of the National Health
and Medical Research Council of Australia. Tissue samples were
from Randy Woltjer at the Oregon Alzheimerâs Disease Center.
The Oregon Alzheimerâs Disease Center is supported by NIH grant P30AG008017
SUSY parameter determination at the LHC using cross sections and kinematic edges
We study the determination of supersymmetric parameters at the LHC from a
global fit including cross sections and edges of kinematic distributions. For
illustration, we focus on a minimal supergravity scenario and discuss how well
it can be constrained at the LHC operating at 7 and 14 TeV collision energy,
respectively. We find that the inclusion of cross sections greatly improves the
accuracy of the SUSY parameter determination, and allows to reliably extract
model parameters even in the initial phase of LHC data taking with 7 TeV
collision energy and 1/fb integrated luminosity. Moreover, cross section
information may be essential to study more general scenarios, such as those
with non-universal gaugino masses, and distinguish them from minimal,
universal, models.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure
Supersymmetric Higgs Yukawa Couplings to Bottom Quarks at next-to-next-to-leading Order
The effective bottom Yukawa couplings are analyzed for the minimal
supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model at two-loop accuracy within
SUSY-QCD. They include the resummation of the dominant corrections for large
values of tg(beta). In particular the two-loop SUSY-QCD corrections to the
leading SUSY-QCD and top-induced SUSY-electroweak contributions are addressed.
The residual theoretical uncertainties range at the per-cent level.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, added comments and references, typos corrected,
results unchanged, published versio
Thermal quenches in N=2* plasmas
We exploit gauge/gravity duality to study `thermal quenches' in a plasma of
the strongly coupled N=2* gauge theory. Specifically, we consider the response
of an initial thermal equilibrium state of the theory under variations of the
bosonic or fermionic mass, to leading order in m/T<<1. When the masses are made
to vary in time, novel new counterterms must be introduced to renormalize the
boundary theory. We consider transitions the conformal super-Yang-Mills theory
to the mass deformed gauge theory and also the reverse transitions. By
construction, these transitions are controlled by a characteristic time scale
\calt and we show how the response of the system depends on the ratio of this
time scale to the thermal time scale 1/T. The response shows interesting
scaling behaviour both in the limit of fast quenches with T\calt<<1 and slow
quenches with T\calt>>1. In the limit that T\calt\to\infty, we observe the
expected adiabatic response. For fast quenches, the relaxation to the final
equilibrium is controlled by the lowest quasinormal mode of the bulk scalar
dual to the quenched operator. For slow quenches, the system relaxes with a
(nearly) adiabatic response that is governed entirely by the late time profile
of the mass. We describe new renormalization scheme ambiguities in defining
gauge invariant observables for the theory with time dependant couplings.Comment: 78 pages, 17 figure
Spin and Chirality Effects in Antler-Topology Processes at High Energy Colliders
We perform a model-independent investigation of spin and chirality
correlation effects in the antler-topology processes
at high energy colliders with polarized
beams. Generally the production process
can occur not only through the -channel exchange of vector bosons,
, including the neutral Standard Model (SM) gauge bosons,
and , but also through the - and -channel exchanges of new
neutral states, and , and the -channel
exchange of new doubly-charged states, . The general set of
(non-chiral) three-point couplings of the new particles and leptons allowed in
a renormalizable quantum field theory is considered. The general spin and
chirality analysis is based on the threshold behavior of the excitation curves
for pair production in collisions with
longitudinal and transverse polarized beams, the angular distributions in the
production process and also the production-decay angular correlations. In the
first step, we present the observables in the helicity formalism. Subsequently,
we show how a set of observables can be designed for determining the spins and
chiral structures of the new particles without any model assumptions. Finally,
taking into account a typical set of approximately chiral invariant scenarios,
we demonstrate how the spin and chirality effects can be probed experimentally
at a high energy collider.Comment: 50 pages, 14 figures, 6 tables, matches version published in EPJ
Bounds on 4D Conformal and Superconformal Field Theories
We derive general bounds on operator dimensions, central charges, and OPE
coefficients in 4D conformal and N=1 superconformal field theories. In any CFT
containing a scalar primary phi of dimension d we show that crossing symmetry
of implies a completely general lower bound on the central
charge c >= f_c(d). Similarly, in CFTs containing a complex scalar charged
under global symmetries, we bound a combination of symmetry current two-point
function coefficients tau^{IJ} and flavor charges. We extend these bounds to
N=1 superconformal theories by deriving the superconformal block expansions for
four-point functions of a chiral superfield Phi and its conjugate. In this case
we derive bounds on the OPE coefficients of scalar operators appearing in the
Phi x Phi* OPE, and show that there is an upper bound on the dimension of Phi*
Phi when dim(Phi) is close to 1. We also present even more stringent bounds on
c and tau^{IJ}. In supersymmetric gauge theories believed to flow to
superconformal fixed points one can use anomaly matching to explicitly check
whether these bounds are satisfied.Comment: 47 pages, 9 figures; V2: small corrections and clarification
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