Wick Rotation and Fermion Doubling in Noncommutative Geometry

In this paper, we discuss two features of the noncommmutative geometry and spectral action approach to the Standard Model: the fact that the model is inherently Euclidean, and that it requires a quadrupling of the fermionic degrees of freedom. We show how the two issues are intimately related. We give a precise prescription for the Wick rotation from the Euclidean theory to the Lorentzian one, eliminating the extra degrees of freedom. This requires not only projecting out mirror fermions, as has been done so far, and which leads to the correct Pfaffian, but also the elimination of the remaining extra degrees of freedom. The remaining doubling has to be removed in order to recover the correct Fock space of the physical (Lorentzian) theory. In order to get a Spin(1,3) invariant Lorentzian theory from a Spin(4) invariant Euclidean theory such an elimination must be performed after the Wick rotation. Differences between the Euclidean and Lorentzian case are described in detail, in a pedagogical way.Comment: Minor changes. To appear in PRD. 25 page

The Gribov problem in Noncommutative QED

It is shown that in the noncommutative version of QED (NCQED) Gribov copies induced by the noncommutativity of space-time appear in the Landau gauge. This is a genuine effect of noncommutative geometry which disappears when the noncommutative parameter vanishes.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures. Published. The paper has been shortened and many references have been judged unnecessary or not suitable during the reviewing proces

Gravitational parity anomaly with and without boundaries

In this paper we consider gravitational parity anomaly in three and four dimensions. We start with a re-computation of this anomaly on a 3D manifold without boundaries and with a critical comparison of our results to the previous calculations. Then we compute the anomaly on 4D manifolds with boundaries with local bag boundary conditions. We find, that gravitational parity anomaly is localized on the boundary and contains a gravitational Chern-Simons terms together with a term depending of the extrinsic curvature. We also discuss the main properties of the anomaly, as the conformal invariance, relations between 3D and 4D anomalies, etc.Comment: 16 pages, final version, accepted for publication in JHE

How many surface modes does one see on the boundary of a Dirac material?

We present full expressions for the surface part of polarization tensor of a Dirac fermion confined in a half-space in $3+1$ dimensions. We compare this tensor to the polarization tensor of eventual surface mode (which is a $2+1$ dimensional Dirac fermion) and find essential differences in the conductivities in both Hall and normal sectors. Thus, the interaction with electromagnetic field near the boundary differs significantly in the full model and in the effective theory for the surface mode.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; slightly improved version, published in Physical Review Letter

The Gribov problem in Noncommutative gauge theory

After reviewing Gribov ambiguity of non-Abelian gauge theories, a phenomenon related to the topology of the bundle of gauge connections, we show that there is a similar feature for noncommutative QED over Moyal space, despite the structure group being Abelian, and we exhibit an infinite number of solutions for the equation of Gribov copies. This is a genuine effect of noncommutative geometry which disappears when the noncommutative parameter vanishes.Comment: 14 pages. Prepared for the XXV International Fall Workshop on Geometry and Physics, Instituto de Estructura de la Materia (CSIC) Madrid, Spain August 29 - September 02, 201

Clifford Structures in Noncommutative Geometry and the Extended Scalar Sector

We consider aspects of the noncommutative approach to the standard model based on the spectral action principle. We show that as a consequence of the incorporation of the Clifford structures in the formalism, the spectral action contains an extended scalar sector, with respect to the minimal Standard Model. This may have interesting phenomenological consequences. Some of these new scalar fields carry both weak isospin and colour indexes. We calculate the new terms in spectral action due to the presence of these fields. Our analysis demonstrates that the fermionic doubling in the noncommutative geometry is not just a presence of spurious degrees of freedom, but it is an interesting and peculiar property of the formalism, which leads to physically valuable conclusions. Some of the new fields do not contribute to the physical fermionic action, but they appear in the bosonic spectral action. Their contributions to the Dirac operator correspond to couplings with the spurious fermions, which are projected out.Comment: 24 pages, no figures, final version, accepted for publication in PRD, references adde

Noncommutative field theory from angular twist

We consider a noncommutative field theory with space-time $\star$-commutators based on an angular noncommutativity, namely a solvable Lie algebra: the Euclidean in two dimension. The $\star$-product can be derived from a twist operator and it is shown to be invariant under twisted Poincar\'e transformations. In momentum space the noncommutativity manifests itself as a noncommutative $\star$-deformed sum for the momenta, which allows for an equivalent definition of the $\star$-product in terms of twisted convolution of plane waves. As an application, we analyze the $\lambda \phi^4$ field theory at one-loop and discuss its UV/IR behaviour. We also analyze the kinematics of particle decay for two different situations: the first one corresponds to a splitting of space-time where only space is deformed, whereas the second one entails a non-trivial $\star$-multiplication for the time variable, while one of the three spatial coordinates stays commutative.Comment: 23 pages 1 figur

Universal Landau Pole at the Planck scale

The concept of quantum gravity entails that the usual geometry loses its meaning at very small distances and therefore the grand unification of all gauge interactions with the property of asymptotic freedom happens to be questionable. We propose an unification of all gauge interactions in the form of an "Universal Landau Pole" (ULP), at which all gauge couplings diverge (or, better to say, become very strong). We show that the Higgs quartic coupling also substantially increases whereas the Yukawa couplings tend to zero. Such a singular (or strong coupling) unification is obtained after adding to the Standard Model matter more fermions with vector gauge couplings and hypercharges identical to the SM fermions. The influence of new particles also may prevent the Higgs quartic coupling from crossing zero, thus avoiding the instability (or metastability) of the SM vacuum. As well this fermion pattern opens a way to partially solve the hierarchy problem between masses of quarks and leptons

Universal Landau Pole

Our understanding of quantum gravity suggests that at the Planck scale the usual geometry loses its meaning. If so, the quest for grand unification in a large non-Abelian group naturally endowed with the property of asymptotic freedom may also lose its motivation. Instead, we propose a unification of all fundamental interactions at the Planck scale in the form of a universal Landau pole, at which all gauge couplings diverge. The Higgs quartic coupling also diverges while the Yukawa couplings vanish. The unification is achieved with the addition of fermions with vector gauge couplings coming in multiplets and with hypercharges identical to those of the standard model. The presence of these particles also prevents the Higgs quartic coupling from becoming negative, thus avoiding the instability (or metastability) of the standard model vacuum