Quantization of Space and Time in 3 and in 4 Space-time Dimensions

The fact that in Minkowski space, space and time are both quantized does not have to be introduced as a new postulate in physics, but can actually be derived by combining certain features of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. This is demonstrated first in a model where particles behave as point defects in 2 space dimensions and 1 time, and then in the real world having 3+1 dimensions. The mechanisms in these two cases are quite different, but the outcomes are similar: space and time form a (non-cummutative) lattice. These notes are short since most of the material discussed in these lectures is based on two earlier papers by the same author (gr-qc/9601014 and gr-qc/9607022), but the exposition given in the end is new.Comment: Lectures held at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on ``Quantum Fields and Quantum Space Time", Carg\`ese, July 22 -- August 3, 1996. 16 pages Plain TeX, 6 Figure

Performance of the ATLAS Tau and Missing Energy triggers with 7 TeV proton proton collisions at the LHC

A study of the performance of the ATLAS tau and missing energy triggers with data collected in spring 2010 at {\surd}s = 7 TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is presented. A comparison was performed between data and Monte Carlo simulations for the tau and missing transverse energy triggers. As well as a comparison between missing transverse energy trigger quantities and their offline reconstructed counterparts. Tau trigger results compare well with predictions from Monte Carlo simulations. Slight deviations are observed for tau shower shape quantities. Possible sources contributing to the discrepancy such as the simulation of the underlying event are currently being studied. The missing transverse energy reconstructed by the Event Filter is well correlated with the offline result. In addition, there is good agreement between the results obtained with collision data and Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 3 pages, Proceedings for the Hadron Collider Physics Symposium 201

Quantum Gravity as a Dissipative Deterministic System

It is argued that the so-called holographic principle will obstruct attempts to produce physically realistic models for the unification of general relativity with quantum mechanics, unless determinism in the latter is restored. The notion of time in GR is so different from the usual one in elementary particle physics that we believe that certain versions of hidden variable theories can -- and must -- be revived. A completely natural procedure is proposed, in which the dissipation of information plays an essential role. Unlike earlier attempts, it allows us to use strictly continuous and differentiable classical field theories as a starting point (although discrete variables, leading to fermionic degrees of freedom, are also welcome), and we show how an effective Hilbert space of quantum states naturally emerges when one attempts to describe the solutions statistically. Our theory removes some of the mysteries of the holographic principle; apparently non-local features are to be expected when the quantum degrees of freedom of the world are projected onto a lower-dimensional black hole horizon. Various examples and models illustrate the points we wish to make, notably a model showing that massless, non interacting neutrinos are deterministic.Comment: 20 pages plain TeX, 2 figures PostScript. Added some further explanations, and the definitions of `beable' and `changeable'. A minor error correcte

Gedanken Experiments involving Black Holes

Analysis of several gedanken experiments indicates that black hole complementarity cannot be ruled out on the basis of known physical principles. Experiments designed by outside observers to disprove the existence of a quantum-mechanical stretched horizon require knowledge of Planck-scale effects for their analysis. Observers who fall through the event horizon after sampling the Hawking radiation cannot discover duplicate information inside the black hole before hitting the singularity. Experiments by outside observers to detect baryon number violation will yield significant effects well outside the stretched horizon.Comment: 22 pages (including 7 figures), SU-ITP-93-1

Discrete Time from Quantum Physics

't Hooft has recently developed a discretisation of (2+1) gravity which has a multiple-valued Hamiltonian and which therefore admits quantum time evolution only in discrete steps. In this paper, we describe several models in the continuum with single-valued equations of motion in classical physics, but with multiple-valued Hamiltonians. Their time displacements in quantum theory are therefore obliged to be discrete. Classical models on smooth spatial manifolds are also constructed with the property that spatial displacements can be implemented only in discrete steps in quantum theory. All these models show that quantization can profoundly affect classical topology.Comment: 21 pages with 2 figures, SU-4240-579 (figures corrected in this version

Colour confinement as dual Meissner effect: SU(2)SU(2) gauge theory

We demonstrate that confinement in $SU(2)$ gauge theory is produced by dual superconductivity of the vacuum. We show that for $T < T_c$ (temperature of deconfining phase transition) the $U(1)$ symmetry related to monopole charge conservation is spontaneously broken; for $T > T_c$ the symmetry is restored.Comment: 10 pages + 4 figures, uuencoded shell archiv

Vortices versus monopoles in color confinement

We construct the creation operator of a vortex for SU(2) pure gauge theory using the methods developed for monopoles. We interpret its vacuum expectation value as a disorder parameter for the deconfinement phase transition and find that it behaves in the vacuum in a similar way to monopoles. Results are extrapolated to the thermodynamical limit using finite-size scaling.Comment: Talk presented at Lattice2000 (Topology and Vacuum), 4 page

Black Hole Horizons and Complementarity

We investigate the effect of gravitational back-reaction on the black hole evaporation process. The standard derivation of Hawking radiation is re-examined and extended by including gravitational interactions between the infalling matter and the outgoing radiation. We find that these interactions lead to substantial effects. In particular, as seen by an outside observer, they lead to a fast growing uncertainty in the position of the infalling matter as it approaches the horizon. We argue that this result supports the idea of black hole complementarity, which states that, in the description of the black hole system appropriate to outside observers, the region behind the horizon does not establish itself as a classical region of space-time. We also give a new formulation of this complementarity principle, which does not make any specific reference to the location of the black hole horizon.Comment: Some minor modifications in text and the title chang

A semiclassical realization of infrared renormalons

Perturbation series in quantum field theory are generally divergent asymptotic series which are also typically not Borel resummable in the sense that the resummed series is ambiguous. The ambiguity is associated with singularities in the Borel plane on the positive real axis. In quantum mechanics there are cases in which the ambiguity that arises in perturbation theory cancels against a similarly ambiguous contribution from instanton--anti-instanton events. In asymptotically free gauge theories this mechanism does not suffice because perturbation theory develops ambiguities associated with singularities in the Borel plane which are closer to the origin by a factor of about N (the rank of the gauge group) compared to the singularities realized by instanton events. These are called IR renormalon poles, and on R**4 they do not possess any known semiclassical realization. By using continuity on R**3 x S**1, and by generalizing the works of Bogomolny and Zinn-Justin to QFT, we identify saddle point field configurations, e.g., bion--anti-bion events, corresponding to singularities in the Borel plane which are of order N times closer to the origin than the 4d BPST instanton--anti-instanton singularity. We conjecture that these are the leading singularities in the Borel plane and that they are the incarnation of the elusive renormalons in the weak coupling regime.Comment: 4 page

London Penetration Length and String Tension in SU(2) Lattice Gauge Theory

We study the distribution of the color fields due to a static quark-antiquark pair in SU(2) lattice gauge theory. We find evidence of dual Meissner effect. We put out a simple relation between the penetration length and the string tension.Comment: uuencoded compressed Postscript file (text+figures