253 research outputs found
Inequality and regressivity in Italian waste taxation. Is there an alternative route?
The Italian financing system for waste collection and disposal services, still far from a price-based system at the national level, is similar to a real property tax system. Among other concerns, this raises equity issues. The aim of this paper is threefold. First, the structure of the waste tax in its components (i.e., fixed and variable) is analysed at the provincial level. This allows to investigate the magnitude of the two tax components in Italian provinces, while showing the differences among macro-areas in the financing system for waste collection and disposal services. Second, the regressivity (progressivity) of the tax system adopted is investigated, so as to highlight the differences among geographical areas. Third, an alternative base for the waste tax is proposed, in order to avoid regressivity and achieve higher equality. For these purposes, official data referring to 2017 are used and a Geographically Weighted Regression is implemented. The results highlight the importance of an alternative base of the waste tax to design an equal and non-regressive tax, more similar to a Pay-As-You-Throw scheme
RR photons
Journal of High Energy Physics 2011.9 (2011): 110 reproduced by permission of Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA)Type II string compactifications to 4d generically contain massless Ramond-Ramond U(1) gauge symmetries. However there is no massless matter charged under these U(1)’s, which makes a priori difficult to measure any physical consequences of their existence. There is however a window of opportunity if these RR U(1)’s mix with the hypercharge U(1)Y (hence with the photon). In this paper we study in detail different avenues by which U(1)RR bosons may mix with D-brane U(1)’s. We concentrate on Type IIA orientifolds and their M-theory lift, and provide geometric criteria for the existence of such mixing, which may occur either via standard kinetic mixing or via the mass terms induced by Stückelberg couplings. The latter case is particularly interesting, and appears whenever D-branes wrap torsional p-cycles in the compactification manifold. We also show that in the presence of torsional cycles discrete gauge symmetries and Aharanov-Bohm strings and particles appear in the 4d effective action, and that type IIA Stückelberg couplings can be understood in terms of torsional (co)homology in M-theory. We provide examples of Type IIA Calabi-Yau orientifolds in which the required torsional cycles exist and kinetic mixing induced by mass mixing is present. We discuss some henomenological consequences of our findings. In particular, we find that mass mixing may induce corrections relevant for hypercharge gauge coupling unification in F-theory SU(5) GUT’
Intersecting D-Branes on Shift Z2 x Z2 Orientifolds
We investigate Z2 x Z2 orientifolds with group actions involving shifts. A
complete classification of possible geometries is presented where also previous
work by other authors is included in a unified framework from an intersecting
D-brane perspective. In particular, we show that the additional shifts not only
determine the topology of the orbifold but also independently the presence of
orientifold planes. In the second part, we work out in detail a basis of
homological three cycles on shift Z2 x Z2 orientifolds and construct all
possible fractional D-branes including rigid ones. A Pati-Salam type model with
no open-string moduli in the visible sector is presented.Comment: 36 pages, 4 figures, refs. adde
Diversity in the Tail of the Intersecting Brane Landscape
Techniques are developed for exploring the complete space of intersecting
brane models on an orientifold. The classification of all solutions for the
widely-studied T^6/Z_2 x Z_2 orientifold is made possible by computing all
combinations of branes with negative tadpole contributions. This provides the
necessary information to systematically and efficiently identify all models in
this class with specific characteristics. In particular, all ways in which a
desired group G can be realized by a system of intersecting branes can be
enumerated in polynomial time. We identify all distinct brane realizations of
the gauge groups SU(3) x SU(2) and SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) which can be embedded
in any model which is compatible with the tadpole and SUSY constraints. We
compute the distribution of the number of generations of "quarks" and find that
3 is neither suppressed nor particularly enhanced compared to other odd
generation numbers. The overall distribution of models is found to have a long
tail. Despite disproportionate suppression of models in the tail by K-theory
constraints, the tail in the distribution contains much of the diversity of
low-energy physics structure.Comment: 48 pages, 8 figure
Yukawa hierarchies at the point of in F-theory
We analyse the structure of Yukawa couplings in local SU(5) F-theory models
with enhancement. In this setting the symmetry is broken down to
SU(5) by a 7-brane configuration described by T-branes, all the Yukawa
couplings are generated in the vicinity of a point and only one family of
quarks and leptons is massive at tree-level. The other two families obtain
their masses when non-perturbative effects are taken into account, being
hierarchically lighter than the third family. However, and contrary to previous
results, we find that this hierarchy of fermion masses is not always
appropriate to reproduce measured data. We find instead that different T-brane
configurations breaking to SU(5) give rise to distinct hierarchical
patterns for the holomorphic Yukawa couplings. Only some of these patterns
allow to fit the observed fermion masses with reasonable local model parameter
values, adding further constraints to the construction of F-theory GUTs. We
consider an model where such appropriate hierarchy is realised and
compute its physical Yukawas, showing that realistic charged fermions masses
can indeed be obtained in this case.Comment: 46 pages + appendices, 5 figures. v2, added references and typos
corrected, version accepted on JHEP. v3, typos correcte
Open string wavefunctions in flux compactifications
We consider compactifications of type I supergravity on manifolds with SU(3)
structure, in the presence of RR fluxes and magnetized D9-branes, and analyze
the generalized Dirac and Laplace-Beltrami operators associated to the D9-brane
worldvolume fields. These compactifications are T-dual to standard type IIB
toroidal orientifolds with NSNS and RR 3-form fluxes and D3/D7 branes. By using
techniques of representation theory and harmonic analysis, the spectrum of open
string wavefunctions can be computed for Lie groups and their quotients, as we
illustrate with explicit twisted tori examples. We find a correspondence
between irreducible unitary representations of the Kaloper-Myers algebra and
families of Kaluza-Klein excitations. We perform the computation of 2- and
3-point couplings for matter fields in the above flux compactifications, and
compare our results with those of 4d effective supergravity.Comment: 89 pages, 4 figures. v3: more typos corrected, version published in
JHE
Flux and Instanton Effects in Local F-theory Models and Hierarchical Fermion Masses
We study the deformation induced by fluxes and instanton effects on Yukawa
couplings involving 7-brane intersections in local F-theory constructions. In
the absence of non-perturbative effects, holomorphic Yukawa couplings do not
depend on open string fluxes. On the other hand instanton effects (or gaugino
condensation on distant 7-branes) do induce corrections to the Yukawas. The
leading order effect may also be captured by the presence of closed string
(1,2) IASD fluxes, which give rise to a non-commutative structure. We check
that even in the presence of these non-perturbative effects the holomorphic
Yukawas remain independent of magnetic fluxes. Although fermion mass
hierarchies may be obtained from these non-perturbative effects, they would
give identical Yukawa couplings for D-quark and Lepton masses in SU(5) F-theory
GUT's, in contradiction with experiment. We point out that this problem may be
solved by appropriately normalizing the wavefunctions. We show in a simple toy
model how the presence of hypercharge flux may then be responsible for the
difference between D-quarks and Lepton masses in local SU(5) GUT's.Comment: 84 pages, 1 figure. v2: minor corrections and references adde
Coisotropic D8-branes and Model-building
Up to now chiral type IIA vacua have been mostly based on intersecting
D6-branes wrapping special Lagrangian 3-cycles on a CY three-fold. We argue
that there are additional BPS D-branes which have so far been neglected, and
which seem to have interesting model-building features. They are coisotropic
D8-branes, in the sense of Kapustin and Orlov. The D8-branes wrap 5-dimensional
submanifolds of the CY which are trivial in homology, but contain a worldvolume
flux that induces D6-brane charge on them. This induced D6-brane charge not
only renders the D8-brane BPS, but also creates D=4 chirality when two
D8-branes intersect. We discuss in detail the case of a type IIA Z2 x Z2
orientifold, where we provide explicit examples of coisotropic D8-branes. We
study the chiral spectrum, SUSY conditions, and effective field theory of
different systems of D8-branes in this orientifold, and show how the magnetic
fluxes generate a superpotential for untwisted Kahler moduli. Finally, using
both D6-branes and coisotropic D8-branes we construct new examples of MSSM-like
type IIA vacua.Comment: 63 pages, 11 figures. Typos corrected and comments adde
Non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetries in 4d string models
We study the realization of non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetries in 4d field
theory and string theory compactifications. The underlying structure
generalizes the Abelian case, and follows from the interplay between gaugings
of non-Abelian isometries of the scalar manifold and field identifications
making axion-like fields periodic. We present several classes of string
constructions realizing non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetries. In particular,
compactifications with torsion homology classes, where non-Abelianity arises
microscopically from the Hanany-Witten effect, or compactifications with
non-Abelian discrete isometry groups, like twisted tori. We finally focus on
the more interesting case of magnetized branes in toroidal compactifications
and quotients thereof (and their heterotic and intersecting duals), in which
the non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetries imply powerful selection rules for
Yukawa couplings of charged matter fields. In particular, in MSSM-like models
they correspond to discrete flavour symmetries constraining the quark and
lepton mass matrices, as we show in specific examples.Comment: 58 pages; minor typos corrected and references adde
Maximal Temperature in Flux Compactifications
Thermal corrections have an important effect on moduli stabilization leading
to the existence of a maximal temperature, beyond which the compact dimensions
decompactify. In this note, we discuss generality of our earlier analysis and
apply it to the case of flux compactifications. The maximal temperature is
again found to be controlled by the supersymmetry breaking scale, T_{crit} \sim
\sqrt{m_{3/2} M_P}.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures. v2:comment and references adde
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