Constructible motivic functions and motivic integration

We introduce a direct image formalism for constructible motivic functions. One deduces a very general version of motivic integration for which a change of variables theorem is proved. These constructions are generalized to the relative framework, in which we develop a relative version of motivic integration. These results have been announced in math.AG/0403349 and math.AG/0403350. Main results and statements unchanged. Many minor slips corrected and some details added.Comment: Final versio

Rare Decay Modes of Quarter BPS Dyons

The degeneracy of quarter BPS dyons in N=4 supersymmetric string theories is known to jump across walls of marginal stability on which a quarter BPS dyon can decay into a pair of half BPS dyons. We show that as long as the electric and magnetic charges of the original dyon are primitive elements of the charge lattice, the subspaces of the moduli space on which a quarter BPS dyon becomes marginally unstable against decay into a pair of quarter BPS dyons or a half BPS dyon and a quarter BPS dyon are of codimension two or more. As a result any pair of generic points in the moduli space can be connected by a path avoiding these subspaces and there is no jump in the spectrum associated with these subspaces.Comment: LaTeX file, 9 pages; v2: a minor logical error corrected with no change in the result

Two Centered Black Holes and N=4 Dyon Spectrum

The exact spectrum of dyons in a class of N=4 supersymmetric string theories is known to change discontinuously across walls of marginal stability. We show that the change in the degeneracy across the walls of marginal stability can be accounted for precisely by the entropy of two centered small black holes which disappear as we cross the walls of marginal stability.Comment: LaTeX file, 12 pages; v3: added footnote 2 regarding overall sign of the index, expanded footnote 3, added reference

Integration over a space of non-parametrized arcs, and motivic analogues of the monodromy zeta function

Notions of integration of motivic type over the space of arcs factorized by the natural C*-action and over the space of nonparametrized arcs (branches) are developed. As an application, two motivic versions of the zeta function of the classical monodromy transformation of a germ of an analytic function on ℂd are given that correspond to these notions. Another key ingredient in the construction of these motivic versions of the zeta function is the use of the so-called power structure over the Grothendieck ring of varieties introduced by the authors

Cooper pairing near charged black holes

We show that a quartic contact interaction between charged fermions can lead to Cooper pairing and a superconducting instability in the background of a charged asymptotically Anti-de Sitter black hole. For a massless fermion we obtain the zero mode analytically and compute the dependence of the critical temperature T_c on the charge of the fermion. The instability we find occurs at charges above a critical value, where the fermion dispersion relation near the Fermi surface is linear. The critical temperature goes to zero as the marginal Fermi liquid is approached, together with the density of states at the Fermi surface. Besides the charge, the critical temperature is controlled by a four point function of a fermionic operator in the dual strongly coupled field theory.Comment: 1+33 pages, 4 figure

Wall-Crossing from Boltzmann Black Hole Halos

A key question in the study of N=2 supersymmetric string or field theories is to understand the decay of BPS bound states across walls of marginal stability in the space of parameters or vacua. By representing the potentially unstable bound states as multi-centered black hole solutions in N=2 supergravity, we provide two fully general and explicit formulae for the change in the (refined) index across the wall. The first, "Higgs branch" formula relies on Reineke's results for invariants of quivers without oriented loops, specialized to the Abelian case. The second, "Coulomb branch" formula results from evaluating the symplectic volume of the classical phase space of multi-centered solutions by localization. We provide extensive evidence that these new formulae agree with each other and with the mathematical results of Kontsevich and Soibelman (KS) and Joyce and Song (JS). The main physical insight behind our results is that the Bose-Fermi statistics of individual black holes participating in the bound state can be traded for Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics, provided the (integer) index \Omega(\gamma) of the internal degrees of freedom carried by each black hole is replaced by an effective (rational) index \bar\Omega(\gamma)= \sum_{m|\gamma} \Omega(\gamma/m)/m^2. A similar map also exists for the refined index. This observation provides a physical rationale for the appearance of the rational Donaldson-Thomas invariant \bar\Omega(\gamma) in the works of KS and JS. The simplicity of the wall crossing formula for rational invariants allows us to generalize the "semi-primitive wall-crossing formula" to arbitrary decays of the type \gamma\to M\gamma_1+N\gamma_2 with M=2,3.Comment: 71 pages, 1 figure; v3: changed normalisation of symplectic form 3.22, corrected 3.35, other cosmetic change

Motivic Serre invariants, ramification, and the analytic Milnor fiber

We show how formal and rigid geometry can be used in the theory of complex singularities, and in particular in the study of the Milnor fibration and the motivic zeta function. We introduce the so-called analytic Milnor fiber associated to the germ of a morphism f from a smooth complex algebraic variety X to the affine line. This analytic Milnor fiber is a smooth rigid variety over the field of Laurent series C((t)). Its etale cohomology coincides with the singular cohomology of the classical topological Milnor fiber of f; the monodromy transformation is given by the Galois action. Moreover, the points on the analytic Milnor fiber are closely related to the motivic zeta function of f, and the arc space of X. We show how the motivic zeta function can be recovered as some kind of Weil zeta function of the formal completion of X along the special fiber of f, and we establish a corresponding Grothendieck trace formula, which relates, in particular, the rational points on the analytic Milnor fiber over finite extensions of C((t)), to the Galois action on its etale cohomology. The general observation is that the arithmetic properties of the analytic Milnor fiber reflect the structure of the singularity of the germ f.Comment: Some minor errors corrected. The original publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co

The No-Scale Multiverse at the LHC

We present a contemporary perspective on the String Landscape and the Multiverse of plausible string, M- and F-theory vacua, seeking to demonstrate a non-zero probability for the existence of a universe matching our own observed physics within the solution ensemble, arguing for the importance of No-Scale Supergravity as an essential common underpinning. Our context is a highly detailed phenomenological probe of No-Scale F-SU(5), a model representing the intersection of the F-lipped SU(5) X U(1)_X Grand Unified Theory (GUT) with extra TeV-Scale vector-like multiplets derived out of F-theory, and the dynamics of No-Scale Supergravity. We present a highly constrained "Golden" region with tan(beta) \sim 15, m_t = 173.0 - 174.4 GeV, M_1/2 = 455 - 481 GeV, and M_V = 691 - 1020 GeV, which simultaneously satisfies all known experimental constraints. We supplement this bottom-up phenomenological perspective with a top-down theoretical analysis of the one-loop effective Higgs potential, achieving a striking consonance via the dynamic determination of tan(beta) and M_1/2 at the local secondary minimization of the spontaneously broken electroweak Higgs vacuum V_min. We present the distinctive signatures of No-Scale F-SU(5) at the LHC, where a light stop and gluino are expected to generate a surplus of ultra-high multiplicity (>= 9) hadronic jet events. We propose modest alterations to the canonical background selection cut strategy which would enhance resolution of these events, while readily suppressing the contribution of all Standard Model processes, and allowing a clear differentiation from competing models of new physics. Detection by the LHC of the ultra-high jet signal would constitute a suggestive evocation of the intimately linked stringy origins of F-SU(5), and could provide a glimpse into the fundamental string moduli, and possibly even the workings of the No-Scale Multiverse.Comment: A review of recent work, submitted to the DICE 2010 Workshop proceedings, based on the invited talk by D.V.N. (20 Pages, 5 Tables, 18 Figures

BPS dyons and Hesse flow

We revisit BPS solutions to classical N=2 low energy effective gauge theories. It is shown that the BPS equations can be solved in full generality by the introduction of a Hesse potential, a symplectic analog of the holomorphic prepotential. We explain how for non-spherically symmetric, non-mutually local solutions, the notion of attractor flow generalizes to gradient flow with respect to the Hesse potential. Furthermore we show that in general there is a non-trivial magnetic complement to this flow equation that is sourced by the momentum current in the solution.Comment: 25 pages, references adde

Dirac Action on M5 and M2 Branes with Bulk Fluxes

We derive an explicit form of the quadratic in fermions Dirac action on the M5 brane for an arbitrary on-shell background of 11D supergravity with non-vanishing fluxes and in presence of a chiral 2-form on M5. This action may be used to generalize the conditions for which the non-perturbative superpotential can be generated in M/string theory. We also derive the Dirac action with bulk fluxes on the M2 brane.Comment: 12 pages References adde