Flowing with Eight Supersymmetries in M-Theory and F-theory

We consider holographic RG flow solutions with eight supersymmetries and study the geometry transverse to the brane. For both M2-branes and for D3-branes in F-theory this leads to an eight-manifold with only a four-form flux. In both settings there is a natural four-dimensional hyper-Kahler slice that appears on the Coulomb branch. In the IIB theory this hyper-Kahler manifold encodes the Seiberg-Witten coupling over the Coulomb branch of a U(1) probe theory. We focus primarily upon a new flow solution in M-theory. This solution is first obtained using gauged supergravity and then lifted to eleven dimensions. In this new solution, the brane probes have an Eguchi-Hanson moduli space with the M2-branes spread over the non-trivial 2-sphere. It is also shown that the new solution is valid for a class of orbifold theories. We discuss how the hyper-Kahler structure on the slice extends to some form of G-structure in the eight-manifold, and describe how this can be computed.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figure, harvma

Higher Dimensional Classical W-Algebras

Classical $W$-algebras in higher dimensions are constructed. This is achieved by generalizing the classical Gel'fand-Dickey brackets to the commutative limit of the ring of classical pseudodifferential operators in arbitrary dimension. These $W$-algebras are the Poisson structures associated with a higher dimensional version of the Khokhlov-Zabolotskaya hierarchy (dispersionless KP-hierarchy). The two dimensional case is worked out explicitly and it is shown that the role of Diff$S(1)$ is taken by the algebra of generators of local diffeomorphisms in two dimensions.Comment: 22 pages, Plain TeX, KUL-TF-92/19, US-FT/6-9

Dynamics of the self-interacting chameleon cosmology

In this article we study the properties of the flat FRW chameleon cosmology in which the cosmic expansion of the Universe is affected by the chameleon field and dark energy. In particular, we perform a detailed examination of the model in the light of numerical analysis. The results illustrate that the interacting chameleon filed plays an important role in late time universe acceleration and phantom crossing.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Sc

Geometric and thermodynamic properties in Gauss-Bonnet gravity

In this paper, the generalized second law (GSL) of thermodynamics and entropy is revisited in the context of cosmological models in Gauss-Bonnet gravity with the boundary of the universe is assumed to be enclosed by the dynamical apparent horizon. The model is best fitted with the observational data for distance modulus. The best fitted geometric and thermodynamic parameters such as equation of state parameter, deceleration parameter and entropy are derived. To link between thermodynamic and geometric parameters, the "entropy rate of change multiplied by the temperature" as a model independent thermodynamic state parameter is also derived. The results show that the model is in good agreement with the observational analysis.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, to be published in Astrophysics and Space Sc

Dynamics of Warped Flux Compactifications

We discuss the four dimensional effective action for type IIB flux compactifications, and obtain the quadratic terms taking warp effects into account. The analysis includes both the 4-d zero modes and their KK excitations, which become light at large warping. We identify an `axial' type gauge for the supergravity fluctuations, which makes the four dimensional degrees of freedom manifest. The other key ingredient is the existence of constraints coming from the ten dimensional equations of motion. Applying these conditions leads to considerable simplifications, enabling us to obtain the low energy lagrangian explicitly. In particular, the warped K\"ahler potential for metric moduli is computed and it is shown that there are no mixings with the KK fluctuations and the result differs from previous proposals. The four dimensional potential contains a generalization of the Gukov-Vafa-Witten term, plus usual mass terms for KK modes.Comment: 37 pages. v2. References added, typos corrected. v3. Matches JHEP versio

Observational constraint on generalized Chaplygin gas model

We investigate observational constraints on the generalized Chaplygin gas (GCG) model as the unification of dark matter and dark energy from the latest observational data: the Union SNe Ia data, the observational Hubble data, the SDSS baryon acoustic peak and the five-year WMAP shift parameter. It is obtained that the best fit values of the GCG model parameters with their confidence level are $A_{s}=0.73^{+0.06}_{-0.06}$ ($1\sigma$) $^{+0.09}_{-0.09}$ $(2\sigma)$, $\alpha=-0.09^{+0.15}_{-0.12}$ ($1\sigma$) $^{+0.26}_{-0.19}$ $(2\sigma)$. Furthermore in this model, we can see that the evolution of equation of state (EOS) for dark energy is similar to quiessence, and its current best-fit value is $w_{0de}=-0.96$ with the $1\sigma$ confidence level $-0.91\geq w_{0de}\geq-1.00$.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Intersection rules, dynamics and symmetries

We consider theories containing gravity, at most one dilaton and form field strengths. We show that the existence of particular BPS solutions of intersecting extremal closed branes select the theories, which upon dimensional reduction to three dimensions possess a simple simply laced Lie group symmetry G. Furthermore these theories can be fully reconstructed from the dynamics of such branes and of their openings. Amongst such theories are the effective actions of the bosonic sector of M-theory and of the bosonic string. The BPS intersecting brane solutions form representations of a subgroup of the group of Weyl reflections and outer automorphisms of the triple Kac-Moody extension G+++ of the G algebra, which cannot be embedded in the overextended Kac-Moody subalgebra G++ characterising the cosmological Kasner solutions.Comment: Latex 30 pages, 3 figure

Constraints on accelerating universe using ESSENCE and Gold supernovae data combined with other cosmological probes

We use recently observed data: the 192 ESSENCE type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), the 182 Gold SNe Ia, the 3-year WMAP, the SDSS baryon acoustic peak, the X-ray gas mass fraction in clusters and the observational $H(z)$ data to constrain models of the accelerating universe. Combining the 192 ESSENCE data with the observational $H(z)$ data to constrain a parameterized deceleration parameter, we obtain the best fit values of transition redshift and current deceleration parameter $z_{T}=0.632^{+0.256}_{-0.127}$, $q_{0}=-0.788^{+0.182}_{-0.182}$. Furthermore, using $\Lambda$CDM model and two model-independent equation of state of dark energy, we find that the combined constraint from the 192 ESSENCE data and other four cosmological observations gives smaller values of $\Omega_{0m}$ and $q_{0}$, but a larger value of $z_{T}$ than the combined constraint from the 182 Gold data with other four observations. Finally, according to the Akaike information criterion it is shown that the recently observed data equally supports three dark energy models: $\Lambda$CDM, $w_{de}(z)=w_{0}$ and $w_{de}(z)=w_{0}+w_{1}\ln(1+z)$.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure

Scintillation Counters for the D0 Muon Upgrade

We present the results of an upgrade to the D0 muon system. Scintillating counters have been added to the existing central D0 muon system to provide rejection for cosmic ray muons and out-of-time background, and to provide additional fast timing information for muons in an upgraded Tevatron. Performance and results from the 1994-1996 Tevatron run are presented.Comment: 30 pages, 25 postscript figure

Teleparallel Gravity and Dimensional Reductions of Noncommutative Gauge Theory

We study dimensional reductions of noncommutative electrodynamics on flat space which lead to gauge theories of gravitation. For a general class of such reductions, we show that the noncommutative gauge fields naturally yield a Weitzenbock geometry on spacetime and that the induced diffeomorphism invariant field theory can be made equivalent to a teleparallel formulation of gravity which macroscopically describes general relativity. The Planck length is determined in this setting by the Yang-Mills coupling constant and the noncommutativity scale. The effective field theory can also contain higher-curvature and non-local terms which are characteristic of string theory. Some applications to D-brane dynamics and generalizations to include the coupling of ordinary Yang-Mills theory to gravity are also described.Comment: 31 pages LaTeX; References adde