Of Higgs, Unitarity and other Questions

On the verge of conclusive checks on the Standard Model by the LHC, we discuss some of the basic assumptions. The reason for this analysis stems from a recent proposal of an Electroweak Model based on a nonlinearly realized gauge group SU(2) X U(1), where, in the perturbative approximation, there is no Higgs boson. The model enjoys the Slavnov-Taylor identities and therefore the perturbative unitarity. On the other hand, it is commonly believed that the existence of the Higgs boson is entangled with the property of unitarity, when high energy processes are considered. The argument is based mostly on the Froissart bound and on the Equivalence Theorem. In this talk we briefly review some of our objections on the validity of such arguments. Some open questions are pointed out, in particular on the limit of zero mass for the vector mesons and on the fate of the longitudinal polarizations.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure, presented by Ruggero Ferrari at the International Conference "Gauge Fields. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" in honor of A.A. Slavnov. Moscow, January 19-24 201

Hadronic interactions of primary cosmic rays with the FLUKA code

The measured fluxes of secondary particles produced by the interactions of cosmic rays with the astronomical environment represent a powerful tool to infer some properties of primary cosmic rays. In this work we investigate the production of secondary particles in inelastic hadronic interactions between several cosmic rays species of projectiles and different target nuclei of the interstellar medium. The yields of secondary particles have been calculated with the FLUKA simulation package, that provides with very good accuracy the energy distributions of secondary products in a large energy range. An application to the propagation and production of secondaries in the Galaxy is presented.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; Contribution to the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, July 30 to August 6, The Hague, Netherlands; fixing a typo in the y-axis label of Fig.

Atlantic Ocean Heat Transport Enabled by Indo-Pacific Heat Uptake and Mixing

The ocean transports vast amounts of heat around the planet, helping to regulate regional climate. One important component of this heat transport is the movement of warm water from equatorial regions toward the poles, with colder water flowing in return. Here, we introduce a framework relating meridional heat transport to the diabatic processes of surface forcing and turbulent mixing that move heat across temperature classes. Applied to a (1/4)° global ocean model the framework highlights the role of the tropical Indo‐Pacific in the global ocean heat transport. A large fraction of the northward heat transport in the Atlantic is ultimately sourced from heat uptake in the eastern tropical Pacific. Turbulent mixing moves heat from the warm, shallow Indo‐Pacific circulation to the cold deeper‐reaching Atlantic circulation. Our results underscore a renewed focus on the tropical oceans and their role in global circulation pathways

Microscopic quantum superpotential in N=1 gauge theories

We consider the N=1 super Yang-Mills theory with gauge group U(N), adjoint chiral multiplet X and tree-level superpotential Tr W(X). We compute the quantum effective superpotential W_mic as a function of arbitrary off-shell boundary conditions at infinity for the scalar field X. This effective superpotential has a remarkable property: its critical points are in one-to-one correspondence with the full set of quantum vacua of the theory, providing in particular a unified picture of solutions with different ranks for the low energy gauge group. In this sense, W_mic is a good microscopic effective quantum superpotential for the theory. This property is not shared by other quantum effective superpotentials commonly used in the literature, like in the strong coupling approach or the glueball superpotentials. The result of this paper is a first step in extending Nekrasov's microscopic derivation of the Seiberg-Witten solution of N=2 super Yang-Mills theories to the realm of N=1 gauge theories.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure; typos corrected, version to appear in JHE

The Hierarchy Principle and the Large Mass Limit of the Linear Sigma Model

In perturbation theory we study the matching in four dimensions between the linear sigma model in the large mass limit and the renormalized nonlinear sigma model in the recently proposed flat connection formalism. We consider both the chiral limit and the strong coupling limit of the linear sigma model. Our formalism extends to Green functions with an arbitrary number of pion legs,at one loop level,on the basis of the hierarchy as an efficient unifying principle that governs both limits. While the chiral limit is straightforward, the matching in the strong coupling limit requires careful use of the normalization conditions of the linear theory, in order to exploit the functional equation and the complete set of local solutions of its linearized form.Comment: Latex, 41 pages, corrected typos, final version accepted by IJT

Chern-Simons Field Theories with Non-semisimple Gauge Group of Symmetry

Subject of this work is a class of Chern-Simons field theories with non-semisimple gauge group, which may well be considered as the most straightforward generalization of an Abelian Chern-Simons field theory. As a matter of fact these theories, which are characterized by a non-semisimple group of gauge symmetry, have cubic interactions like those of non-abelian Chern-Simons field theories, but are free from radiative corrections. Moreover, at the tree level in the perturbative expansion,there are only two connected tree diagrams, corresponding to the propagator and to the three vertex originating from the cubic interaction terms. For such theories it is derived here a set of BRST invariant observables, which lead to metric independent amplitudes. The vacuum expectation values of these observables can be computed exactly. From their expressions it is possible to isolate the Gauss linking number and an invariant of the Milnor type, which describes the topological relations among three or more closed curves.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, plain LaTeX + psfig.st

Poisson approximations for the Ising model

A $d$-dimensional Ising model on a lattice torus is considered. As the size $n$ of the lattice tends to infinity, a Poisson approximation is given for the distribution of the number of copies in the lattice of any given local configuration, provided the magnetic field $a=a(n)$ tends to $-\infty$ and the pair potential $b$ remains fixed. Using the Stein-Chen method, a bound is given for the total variation error in the ferromagnetic case.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figur

Glueball operators and the microscopic approach to N=1 gauge theories

We explain how to generalize Nekrasov's microscopic approach to N=2 gauge theories to the N=1 case, focusing on the typical example of the U(N) theory with one adjoint chiral multiplet X and an arbitrary polynomial tree-level superpotential Tr W(X). We provide a detailed analysis of the generalized glueball operators and a non-perturbative discussion of the Dijkgraaf-Vafa matrix model and of the generalized Konishi anomaly equations. We compute in particular the non-trivial quantum corrections to the Virasoro operators and algebra that generate these equations. We have performed explicit calculations up to two instantons, that involve the next-to-leading order corrections in Nekrasov's Omega-background.Comment: 38 pages, 1 figure and 1 appendix included; v2: typos and the list of references corrected, version to appear in JHE

Shock Profiles for the Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process in One Dimension

The asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) on a one-dimensional lattice is a system of particles which jump at rates $p$ and $1-p$ (here $p>1/2$) to adjacent empty sites on their right and left respectively. The system is described on suitable macroscopic spatial and temporal scales by the inviscid Burgers' equation; the latter has shock solutions with a discontinuous jump from left density $\rho_-$ to right density $\rho_+$, $\rho_-<\rho_+$, which travel with velocity $(2p-1)(1-\rho_+-\rho_-)$. In the microscopic system we may track the shock position by introducing a second class particle, which is attracted to and travels with the shock. In this paper we obtain the time invariant measure for this shock solution in the ASEP, as seen from such a particle. The mean density at lattice site $n$, measured from this particle, approaches $\rho_{\pm}$ at an exponential rate as $n\to\pm\infty$, with a characteristic length which becomes independent of $p$ when $p/(1-p)>\sqrt{\rho_+(1-\rho_-)/\rho_-(1-\rho_+)}$. For a special value of the asymmetry, given by $p/(1-p)=\rho_+(1-\rho_-)/\rho_-(1-\rho_+)$, the measure is Bernoulli, with density $\rho_-$ on the left and $\rho_+$ on the right. In the weakly asymmetric limit, $2p-1\to0$, the microscopic width of the shock diverges as $(2p-1)^{-1}$. The stationary measure is then essentially a superposition of Bernoulli measures, corresponding to a convolution of a density profile described by the viscous Burgers equation with a well-defined distribution for the location of the second class particle.Comment: 34 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures are included in the LaTeX file. Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]