Trapping of Spin-0 fields on tube-like topological defects

We have considered the localization of resonant bosonic states described by a scalar field $\Phi$ trapped in tube-like topological defects. The tubes are formed by radial symmetric defects in $(2,1)$ dimensions, constructed with two scalar fields $\phi$ and $\chi$, and embedded in the $(3,1)-$dimensional Minkowski spacetime. The general coupling between the topological defect and the scalar field $\Phi$ is given by the potential $\eta F(\phi,\chi)\Phi^2$. After a convenient decomposition of the field $\Phi$, we find that the amplitudes of the radial modes satisfy Schr\"odinger-like equations whose eigenvalues are the masses of the bosonic resonances. Specifically, we have analyzed two simple couplings: the first one is $F(\phi,\chi)=\chi^2$ for a fourth-order potential and, the second one is a sixth-order interaction characterized by $F(\phi,\chi)=(\phi\chi)^2$% . In both cases the Schr\"odinger-like equations are numerically solved with appropriated boundary conditions. Several resonance peaks for both models are obtained and the numerical analysis showed that the fourth-order potential generates more resonances than the sixth-order one.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, matches version published in Physics Letters

Varying Alpha Monopoles

We study static magnetic monopoles in the context of varying alpha theories and show that there is a group of models for which the t'Hooft-Polyakov solution is still valid. Nevertheless, in general static magnetic monopole solutions in varying alpha theories depart from the classical t'Hooft-Polyakov solution with the electromagnetic energy concentrated inside the core seeding spatial variations of the fine structure constant. We show that Equivalence Principle constraints impose tight limits on the allowed variations of alpha induced by magnetic monopoles which confirms the difficulty to generate significant large-scale spatial variation of the fine structure constant found in previous works. This is true even in the most favorable case where magnetic monopoles are the source for these variations.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures; Version to be published in Phys. Rev.

First-order transition in small-world networks

The small-world transition is a first-order transition at zero density $p$ of shortcuts, whereby the normalized shortest-path distance undergoes a discontinuity in the thermodynamic limit. On finite systems the apparent transition is shifted by $\Delta p \sim L^{-d}$. Equivalently a ``persistence size'' $L^* \sim p^{-1/d}$ can be defined in connection with finite-size effects. Assuming $L^* \sim p^{-\tau}$, simple rescaling arguments imply that $\tau=1/d$. We confirm this result by extensive numerical simulation in one to four dimensions, and argue that $\tau=1/d$ implies that this transition is first-order.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, To appear in Europhysics Letter