Thermal Field Theory in a wire: Applications of Thermal Field Theory methods to the propagation of photons in a one-dimensional plasma

We apply the Thermal Field Theory (TFT) methods to study the propagation of photons in a plasma wire, that is, a system in which the electrons are confined to a one-dimensional tube or wire, but are otherwise free. We find the appropriate expression for the photon \emph{free-field} propagator in such a medium, and write down the dispersion relation in terms of the free-field propagator and the photon self-energy. The self-energy is then calculated in the one-loop approximation and the corresponding dispersion relation is determined and studied in some detail. Our work differs from previous work on this subject in that we do not adopt any specific electronic wave functions in the coordinates that are transverse to the idealized wire, or rely on particular features of the electronic structure. We treat the electrons as a free gas of particles, constrained to move in one dimension, but otherwise in a model-independent way only following the rules of TFT adapted to the situation at hand. For the appropriate conditions of the plasma the \emph{static approximation} can be employed and the dispersion relation reduces to the results obtained in previous works, but the formula that we obtain is valid under more general conditions, including those in which the static approximation is not valid. In particular, the dispersion relation has several branches, which are not revealed if the static approximation is used. The dispersion relations obtained reproduce several unique features of these systems that have been observed in recent experiments.Comment: 17 pages Revised and extended discussion of the dispersion relation

Calculating two- and three-body decays with FeynArts and FormCalc

The Feynman diagram generator FeynArts and the computer algebra program FormCalc allow for an automatic computation of 2->2 and 2->3 scattering processes in High Energy Physics. We have extended this package by four new kinematical routines and adapted one existing routine in order to accomodate also two- and three-body decays of massive particles. This makes it possible to compute automatically two- and three-body particle decay widths and decay energy distributions as well as resonant particle production within the Standard Model and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model at the tree- and loop-level. The use of the program is illustrated with three standard examples: h->b\bar{b}, \mu->e\bar{\nu}_e\nu_\mu, and Z->\nu_e\bar{\nu}_e.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

The effect of early dark matter halos on reionization

The annihilation of dark matter particles releases energy, ionizing some of the gas in the Universe. We investigate the effect of dark matter halos on reionization. We show that the effect depends on the assumed density profile, the particle mass, and the assumed minimum halo mass. For NFW halos and typical WIMPs, we find the effect to be quite small. However, light dark matter candidates in the MeV range can contribute significantly to reionization and can make an important contribution to the measured optical depth. This effect may be used to constrain light dark matter models. We also study the effect of varying the halo density profile on reionization.Comment: Minor changes from v2. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

SU(3) Gauge Theory with Adjoint Fermions

We analyze the finite temperature phase diagram of QCD with fermions in the adjoint representation. The simulations performed with four dynamical Majorana fermions, which is equivalent to two Dirac fermions, show that the deconfinement and chiral phase transitions occur at two distinct temperatures, $T_{\rm chiral} \simeq 6.65 T_{\rm deconf}$. While the deconfinement transition is first order we find evidence for a continuous chiral transition. We also present potentials for $T<T_{\rm deconf}$ and $T_{\rm deconf}<T< T_{\rm chiral}$ both for fundamental and adjoint fermion-antifermion pairs.Comment: LATTICE98(hightemp), 3 pages LaTeX2e, espcrc2 style, 6 eps figure

Vacuum entanglement enhancement by a weak gravitational field

Separate regions in space are generally entangled, even in the vacuum state. It is known that this entanglement can be swapped to separated Unruh-DeWitt detectors, i.e., that the vacuum can serve as a source of entanglement. Here, we demonstrate that, in the presence of curvature, the amount of entanglement that Unruh-DeWitt detectors can extract from the vacuum can be increased.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Hydrogen Atom in Relativistic Motion

The Lorentz contraction of bound states in field theory is often appealed to in qualitative descriptions of high energy particle collisions. Surprisingly, the contraction has not been demonstrated explicitly even in simple cases such as the hydrogen atom. It requires a calculation of wave functions evaluated at equal (ordinary) time for bound states in motion. Such wave functions are not obtained by kinematic boosts from the rest frame. Starting from the exact Bethe-Salpeter equation we derive the equal-time wave function of a fermion-antifermion bound state in QED, i.e., positronium or the hydrogen atom, in any frame to leading order in alpha. We show explicitly that the bound state energy transforms as the fourth component of a vector and that the wave function of the fermion-antifermion Fock state contracts as expected. Transverse photon exchange contributes at leading order to the binding energy of the bound state in motion. We study the general features of the corresponding fermion-antifermion-photon Fock states, and show that they do not transform by simply contracting. We verify that the wave function reduces to the light-front one in the infinite momentum frame.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures; v2: some changes in discussion, accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.

Interactions of keV sterile neutrinos with matter

A sterile neutrino with mass of several keV is a well-motivated dark-matter candidate, and it can also explain the observed velocities of pulsars via anisotropic emission of sterile neutrinos from a cooling neutron star. We discuss the interactions of such relic particles with matter and comment on the prospects of future direct detection experiments. A relic sterile neutrino can interact, via sterile-active mixing, with matter fermions by means of electroweak currents, with the final state containing a relativistic active neutrino. The recoil momentum impacted onto a matter fermion is determined by the sterile neutrino mass and is enough to ionize atoms and flip the spins of nuclei. While this suggests a possibility of direct experimental detection, we calculate the rates and show that building a realistic detector of the required size would be a daunting challenge.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Renormalization group approach to 2D Coulomb interacting Dirac fermions with random gauge potential

We argue that massless Dirac particles in two spatial dimensions with $1/r$ Coulomb repulsion and quenched random gauge field are described by a manifold of fixed points which can be accessed perturbatively in disorder and interaction strength, thereby confirming and extending the results of arXiv:0707.4171. At small interaction and small randomness, there is an infra-red stable fixed curve which merges with the strongly interacting infra-red unstable line at a critical endpoint, along which the dynamical critical exponent $z=1$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

V,W and X in Technicolour Models

Light techni-fermions and pseudo Goldstone bosons that contribute to the electroweak radiative correction parameters V,W and X may relax the constraints on technicolour models from the experimental values of the parameters S and T. Order of magnitude estimates of the contributions to V,W and X from light techni-leptons are made when the the techni-neutrino has a small Dirac mass or a large Majorana mass. The contributions to V,W and X from pseudo Goldstone bosons are calculated in a gauged chiral Lagrangian. Estimates of V,W and X in one family technicolour models suggest that the upper bounds on S and T should be relaxed by between 0.1 and 1 depending upon the precise particle spectrum.Comment: 19 pages + 2 pages of ps figs, SWAT/1

Three-Flavor Partially Quenched Chiral Perturbation Theory at NNLO for Meson Masses and Decay Constants

We discuss Partially Quenched Chiral Perturbation Theory (PQ$\chi$PT) and possible fitting strategies to Lattice QCD data at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in the mesonic sector. We also present a complete calculation of the masses of the charged pseudoscalar mesons, in the supersymmetric formulation of PQ$\chi$PT. Explicit analytical results are given for up to three nondegenerate sea quark flavors, along with the previously unpublished expression for the pseudoscalar meson decay constant for three nondegenerate sea quark flavors. The numerical analysis in this paper demonstrates that the corrections at NNLO are sizable, as expected from earlier work.Comment: 31 pages, numerical discussion extended including convergence NLO to NNL