The Ghost Condensate in N=1 Supergravity

We present the theory of a supersymmetric ghost condensate coupled to N=1 supergravity. This is accomplished using a general formalism for constructing locally supersymmetric higher-derivative chiral superfield actions. The theory admits a ghost condensate vacuum in de Sitter spacetime. Expanded around this vacuum, the scalar sector of the theory is shown to be ghost-free with no spatial gradient instabilities. By direct calculation, the fermion sector is found to consist of a massless chiral fermion and a massless gravitino. By analyzing the supersymmetry transformations, we find that the chiral fermion transforms inhomogeneously, indicating that the ghost condensate vacuum spontaneously breaks local supersymmetry with this field as the Goldstone fermion. Although potentially able to get a mass through the super-Higgs effect, the vanishing superpotential in the ghost condensate theory renders the gravitino massless. Thus local supersymmetry is broken without the super-Higgs effect taking place. This is in agreement with, and gives an explanation for, the direct calculation.Comment: 41 pages, v2: minor corrections to section IV.D, conclusions unchange

Two Higgs Pair Heterotic Vacua and Flavor-Changing Neutral Currents

We present a vacuum of heterotic M-theory whose observable sector has the MSSM spectrum with the addition of one extra pair of Higgs-Higgs conjugate superfields. The quarks/leptons have a realistic mass hierarchy with a naturally light first family. The double elliptic structure of the Calabi-Yau compactification threefold leads to two ``stringy'' selection rules. These classically disallow Yukawa couplings to the second Higgs pair and, hence, Higgs mediated flavor-changing neutral currents. Such currents are induced in higher-dimensional interactions, but are naturally suppressed. We show that our results fit comfortably below the observed upper bounds on neutral flavor-changing processes.Comment: 52 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, requires feynm

Non-Singular Bouncing Cosmology: Consistency of the Effective Description

We explicitly confirm that spatially flat non-singular bouncing cosmologies make sense as effective theories. The presence of a non-singular bounce in a spatially flat universe implies a temporary violation of the null energy condition, which can be achieved through a phase of ghost condensation. We calculate the scale of strong coupling and demonstrate that the ghost-condensate bounce remains trustworthy throughout, and that all perturbation modes within the regime of validity of the effective description remain under control. For this purpose we require the perturbed action up to third order in perturbations, which we calculate in both flat and co-moving gauge -- since these two gauges allow us to highlight different physical aspects. Our conclusion is that there exist healthy descriptions of non-singular bouncing cosmologies providing a viable resolution of the big-bang singularities in cosmological models. Our results also suggest a variant of ekpyrotic cosmology, in which entropy perturbations are generated during the contracting phase, but are only converted into curvature perturbations after the bounce.Comment: 43 pages, 18 figure

Supersymmetric Cubic Galileons Have Ghosts

Galileons are higher-derivative theories of a real scalar which nevertheless admit second order equations of motion. They have interesting applications as dark energy models and in early universe cosmology, and have been conjectured to arise as descriptions of brane dynamics in string theory. In the present paper, we study the bosonic sector of globally N=1 supersymmetric extensions of the cubic Galileon Lagrangian in detail. Supersymmetry requires that the Galileon scalar now becomes paired with a second real scalar field. We prove that the presence of this second scalar causes the equations of motion to become higher than second order, thus leading to the appearance of ghosts. We also analyze the energy scales up to which, in an effective field theory description, the ghosts can be tamed.Comment: 18 pages, v4: discussion updated in light of arXiv:1306.2961 by Farakos et a

A Cosmological Super-Bounce

We study a model for a non-singular cosmic bounce in N=1 supergravity, based on supergravity versions of the ghost condensate and cubic Galileon scalar field theories. The bounce is preceded by an ekpyrotic contracting phase which prevents the growth of anisotropies in the approach to the bounce, and allows for the generation of scale-invariant density perturbations that carry over into the expanding phase of the universe. We present the conditions required for the bounce to be free of ghost excitations, as well as the tunings that are necessary in order for the model to be in agreement with cosmological observations. All of these conditions can be met. Our model thus provides a proof-of-principle that non-singular bounces are viable in supergravity, despite the fact that during the bounce the null energy condition is violated.Comment: 38 pages, 13 figures, v3: typos correcte

The Influence of Teacher Curricular Knowledge and Orientations to the Teaching and Learning of Science on Secondary Chemistry Curricula

Efforts to understand changes in teacher curricula following the adoption of reform-based standards, such as the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) remain incomplete and prior scholarship has identified several topics in the standards (e.g., nuclear chemistry and kinetics) that remain infrequently addressed in teachers’ introductory chemistry classes. This study provides an initial insight into how teachers decide what to teach, how they teach it, and why it might be valuable to include in their curriculum. To accomplish this, two teachers’ units on nuclear chemistry and kinetics were explored as part of a case study methodology. The research questions sought answers to help understand why some topics found in the standards remain marginalized in many teachers’ curricula while other topics receive extensive attention and coverage. Similarly, the study attempted to understand how teachers\u27 curricular knowledge and orientations to the teaching and learning of science influence their curricular decision-making process around the topics of nuclear chemistry and kinetics. Findings suggest that subject-matter knowledge as well as curricular knowledge plays a significant role in shaping how teachers understand a particular topic and what type of knowledge students should be developing. Both participants independently sought learning opportunities (e.g., professional development) to augment their subject-matter knowledge and curricular knowledge around a unit on nuclear chemistry but did not do so for a unit on chemical kinetics. Similarly, individual teachers’ orientations to the teaching and learning of science were generally consistent across the topics studied but differed greatly between the two participants. Both teachers also reported a desire to bring chemistry as it relates to the “real world” into their classes, though their understandings of what “real world” means differed significantly as did their subject-matter knowledge about each topic. For the goals underlying standards such as NGSS to be realized, further work must be done to understand barriers to implementation and for targeted professional development to be designed and offered to support those needs

Cosmological Perturbations Through a Non-Singular Ghost-Condensate/Galileon Bounce

We study the propagation of super-horizon cosmological perturbations in a non-singular bounce spacetime. The model we consider combines a ghost condensate with a Galileon term in order to induce a ghost-free bounce. Our calculation is performed in harmonic gauge, which ensures that the linearized equations of motion remain well-defined and non-singular throughout. We find that, despite the fact that near the bounce the speed of sound becomes imaginary, super-horizon curvature perturbations remain essentially constant across the bounce. In fact, we show that there is a time close to the bounce where curvature perturbations of all wavelengths are required to be momentarily exactly constant. We relate our calculations to those performed in other gauges, and comment on the relation to previous results in the literature.Comment: 28 pages, 16 figures, v2: references adde

Does plant morphology influence fish fauna associated with seagrass meadows?

Three distinct seagrass habitats were sampled to determine whether fish assemblages differed between meadows comprising of different seagrass species with different morphological characteristics and whether plant morphology influences species assemblages. Three seagrass habitats consisting of Posidonia sinuosa, Posidonia coriacea and meadows of a mixture of P. coriacea and Heterozostera tasmanica in the Success Bank region, off the coast of Fremantle, Western Australia were selected. For each habitat, sampling was carried out using a 1m wide beam trawl over a distance of 50m at six replicated locations, on three occasions between June and September 2002. Seagrass samples were collected at each location. On each sampling, occasion a 0.025m2 quadrat was used to collect data on leaf area index (LAI), seagrass density and biomass, leaf width and length, and epiphytic algal biomass. MDS ordinations and ANOSIM showed that P. sinuosa habitats contain a significantly different composition of fish species to P. coriacea habitats (with or without H. tasmanica). Species composition was similar in P. coriacea on its own or mixed with H. tasmanica. SIMPER showed that the; differences between P. sinuosa and the P. coriacea habitats reflected the greater abundances of Stigmatopora argus, Siphonognathus radiatus and Scobinichthys granulatus, whereas Stigmatopora nigra was restricted to the P. coriacea habitats only. ANOVA demonstrated that total densities and biomass of fish and species richness were greatest in P. simwsa, while little difference occurred for those variables between the twn P. coriacea habitats. ANOVA indicated that densities of S. argus and Siphamia cephalotes did not differ between habitats, while densities of S. radiatus and S. nigra differed between P. sinuosa and the P. coriacea habitats. Densities of S. granulatus differed only between P. sinuosa and P. coriacea with H. tasmanica. Seagrass leaf density, leaf area index (LAI), leaf width, dry seagrass biomass and dry epiphytic biomass differed significantly among the three habitats, where as leaf length did not differ between these habitats. Regression analysis indicated that leaf area index influenced species richness, fish abundance and biomass, while leaf width influenced the abundance of S. argus and S. radiatus, and leaf density influenced the abundances of S. nigra and S. granulatus. BIOENV revealed that leaf width, leaf density and LAI influenced the fish composition in the seagrass meadows. Specific plant features appear to influence the fish assemblages associated with these habitats. Plant morphology also separated size-Classes of an abundant seagrass species supporting the nursery habitat theory. Artificial seagrass and live animals were used in laboratory experiments to evaluate habitat preference of the most abundant seagrass-associated fish species in the absence of predators and food, and to determine whether juvenile and/or adult-sized fish exhibit a preference for a particular seagrass morphology, corresponding to those of P. sinuosa, P. coriacea and H. tasmanica. Habitat preference experiments were conducted separately for each size class in three experimental aquaria containing artificial seagrass to simulate three different seagrass habitats. Each aquarium contained two different seagrass habitats and ten fish of the same size class. Habitat preference observations were made at hourly intervals over a 1 0-hour period. Three replicates were conducted for each experiment. The laboratory experiments showed that both juvenile and adult-sized S. argus had a strong preference towards the narrow leaves of P. coriacea and particularly H. tasmanica. However, the preference was more pronounced for the juvenile fish. Thus, seagrass morphology, specifically leaf width, appears to play a significant role in the habitat selection of S. argus. However, the ability to avoid predation is equally dependant on their body shape, size and ability to mimic their surroundings. The findings described in this study have shown that plant morphology appears to play a significant role in influencing fish faunal assemblages associated with seagrass meadows. The results of this study have clear implications for the environmental management of coastal marine ecosystems, highlighting the need to conserve seagrass meadows of different plant morphology to maintain the biodiversity of the fish assemblages in those regions