213 research outputs found
Differential Impacts of Willow and Mineral Fertilizer on Bacterial Communities and Biodegradation in Diesel Fuel Oil-Contaminated Soil.
Despite decades of research there is limited understanding of how vegetation impacts the ability of microbial communities to process organic contaminants in soil. Using a combination of traditional and molecular assays, we examined how phytoremediation with willow and/or fertilization affected the microbial community present and active in the transformation of diesel contaminants. In a pot study, willow had a significant role in structuring the total bacterial community and resulted in significant decreases in diesel range organics (DRO). However, stable isotope probing (SIP) indicated that fertilizer drove the differences seen in community structure and function. Finally, analysis of the total variance in both pot and SIP experiments indicated an interactive effect between willow and fertilizer on the bacterial communities. This study clearly demonstrates that a willow native to Alaska accelerates DRO degradation, and together with fertilizer, increases aromatic degradation by shifting microbial community structure and the identity of active naphthalene degraders
Deconstruction, Lattice Supersymmetry, Anomalies and Branes
We study the realization of anomalous Ward identities in deconstructed
(latticized) supersymmetric theories. In a deconstructed four-dimensional
theory with N=2 supersymmetry, we show that the chiral symmetries only appear
in the infrared and that the anomaly is reproduced in the usual framework of
lattice perturbation theory with Wilson fermions. We then realize the theory on
the world-volume of fractional D-branes on an orbifold. In this brane
realization, we show how deconstructed theory anomalies can be computed via
classical supergravity. Our methods and observations are more generally
applicable to deconstructed/latticized supersymmetric theories in various
dimensions.Comment: 1+27 pages, 2 figures, references adde
The non-abelian D-brane effective action through order
Requiring the existence of certain BPS solutions to the equations of motion,
we determine the bosonic part of the non-abelian D-brane effective action
through order . We also propose an economic organizational
principle for the effective action.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, JHEP styl
Expanded Strings in the Background of NS5-branes via a M2-brane, a D2-brane and D0-branes
Classical configurations of a M2-brane, a D2-brane and D0-branes are
investigated in the background of an infinite array of M5-branes or NS5-branes.
On the M2-brane, we discuss three kinds of configurations, such as a sphere, a
cylinder and a torus-like one. These are stabilized by virtue of the background
fluxes of M5-branes. The torus-like M2-brane configuration has winding and
momentum numbers of 11th direction, and in terms of the type IIA superstring
theory, this corresponds to a torus-like D2-brane with electric and magnetic
fluxes on it. We also reproduce the same configuration from a non-abelian
Born-Infeld action for D0-branes. It will be a construction of closed strings
from D0-branes. An electric flux quantization condition on the D2-brane is also
discussed in terms of D0-branes.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figures, references and footnote added, confusing
expressions and introduction are improved, version to appear in JHE
Decoupling in an expanding universe: boundary RG-flow affects initial conditions for inflation
We study decoupling in FRW spacetimes, emphasizing a Lagrangian description
throughout. To account for the vacuum choice ambiguity in cosmological
settings, we introduce an arbitrary boundary action representing the initial
conditions. RG flow in these spacetimes naturally affects the boundary
interactions. As a consequence the boundary conditions are sensitive to
high-energy physics through irrelevant terms in the boundary action. Using
scalar field theory as an example, we derive the leading dimension four
irrelevant boundary operators. We discuss how the known vacuum choices, e.g.
the Bunch-Davies vacuum, appear in the Lagrangian description and square with
decoupling. For all choices of boundary conditions encoded by relevant boundary
operators, of which the known ones are a subset, backreaction is under control.
All, moreover, will generically feel the influence of high-energy physics
through irrelevant (dimension four) boundary corrections. Having established a
coherent effective field theory framework including the vacuum choice
ambiguity, we derive an explicit expression for the power spectrum of
inflationary density perturbations including the leading high energy
corrections. In accordance with the dimensionality of the leading irrelevant
operators, the effect of high energy physics is linearly proportional to the
Hubble radius H and the scale of new physics L= 1/M.Comment: LaTeX plus axodraw figures. v2: minor corrections; refs added. JHEP
style: 34 pages + 18 pages appendi
The Taming of Closed Time-like Curves
We consider a orbifold, where acts by time and space
reversal, also known as the embedding space of the elliptic de Sitter space.
The background has two potentially dangerous problems: time-nonorientability
and the existence of closed time-like curves. We first show that closed causal
curves disappear after a proper definition of the time function. We then
consider the one-loop vacuum expectation value of the stress tensor. A naive
QFT analysis yields a divergent result. We then analyze the stress tensor in
bosonic string theory, and find the same result as if the target space would be
just the Minkowski space , suggesting a zero result for the
superstring. This leads us to propose a proper reformulation of QFT, and
recalculate the stress tensor. We find almost the same result as in Minkowski
space, except for a potential divergence at the initial time slice of the
orbifold, analogous to a spacelike Big Bang singularity. Finally, we argue that
it is possible to define local S-matrices, even if the spacetime is globally
time-nonorientable.Comment: 37 pages, LaTeX2e, uses amssymb, amsmath and epsf macros, 8 eps and 3
ps figures; (v2): Two additional comments + one reference added; (v3):
corrections in discussion of CTCs + some clarification
On the spectrum of AdS/CFT beyond supergravity
We test the spectrum of string theory on AdS_5 x S^5 derived in
hep-th/0305052 against that of single-trace gauge invariant operators in free
N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. Masses of string excitations at critical tension
are derived by extrapolating plane-wave frequencies at g_{YM}=0 down to finite
J. On the SYM side, we present a systematic description of the spectrum of
single-trace operators and its reduction to PSU(2,2|4) superconformal primaries
via a refined Eratostenes' supersieve. We perform the comparison of the
resulting SYM/string spectra of charges and multiplicities order by order in
the conformal dimension \Delta up to \Delta=10 and find perfect agreement.
Interestingly, the SYM/string massive spectrum exhibits a hidden symmetry
structure larger than expected, with bosonic subgroup SO(10,2) and thirty-two
supercharges.Comment: 28 pages, LaTeX2
Locally wrapped D-branes
We find examples in string theory of locally wrapped D-branes. These
excitations mimic skyrmions in that they correspond to topological excitations
of the scalar fields parametrizing the brane motion in the space transverse to
its world-volume. While these brane excitations appear to be point-like,
evidence is provided that curvature corrections to the probe action might allow
for a delocalization of the wrapping on a scale of the order of the string
length, therefore rendering the phenomena non-singular.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure
Superfield T-duality rules
A geometric treatment of T-duality as an operation which acts on differential
forms in superspace allows us to derive the complete set of T-duality
transformation rules which relate the superfield potentials of D=10 type IIA
supergravity with those of type IIB supergravity including Ramond-Ramond
superfield potentials and fermionic supervielbeins. We show that these rules
are consistent with the superspace supergravity constraints.Comment: 24 pages, latex, no figures. V2 misprints corrected. V3. One
reference ([30]) and a comment on it ('Notice added') on p. 19 adde
Supergravity Solutions for BI Dyons
We construct partially localized supergravity counterpart solutions to the
1/2 supersymmetric non-threshold and the 1/4 supersymmetric threshold bound
state BI dyons in the D3-brane Dirac-Born-Infeld theory. Such supergravity
solutions have all the parameters of the BI dyons. By applying the IIA/IIB
T-duality transformations to these supergravity solutions, we obtain the
supergravity counterpart solutions to 1/2 and 1/4 supersymmetric BIons carrying
electric and magnetic charges of the worldvolume U(1) gauge field in the
Dirac-Born-Infeld theory in other dimensions.Comment: 17 pages, REVTeX, revised version to appear in Phys. Rev.
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