831 research outputs found
Infinitely Large New Dimensions
We construct intersecting brane configurations in Anti-de-Sitter space
localizing gravity to the intersection region, with any number of extra
dimensions. This allows us to construct two kinds of theories with infinitely
large new dimensions, TeV scale quantum gravity and sub-millimeter deviations
from Newton's Law. The effective 4D Planck scale is determined in
terms of the fundamental Planck scale and the radius of curvature
via the familiar relation ; acts as an
effective radius of compactification for gravity on the intersection. Taking
TeV and sub-mm reproduces the phenomenology of theories
with large extra dimensions. Alternately, taking ,
and placing our 3-brane a distance away from the
intersection gives us a theory with an exponential determination of the
Weak/Planck hierarchy.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, no figure
Black Holes at the LHC
If the scale of quantum gravity is near a TeV, the LHC will be producing one
black hole (BH) about every second. The BH decays into prompt, hard photons and
charged leptons is a clean signature with low background. The absence of
significant missing energy allows the reconstruction of the mass of the
decaying BH. The correlation between the BH mass and its temperature, deduced
from the energy spectrum of the decay products, can test experimentally the
higher dimensional Hawking evaporation law. It can also determine the number of
large new dimensions and the scale of quantum gravity.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PRL. Results presented at the Les
Houches Workshop "Physics at the TeV Colliders" (May 30, 2001) and the
"Avatars of M-Theory" conference, ITP at Santa Barbara (June 7, 2001),
http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/mtheory_c01/dimopoulo
Low velocity quantum reflection of Bose-Einstein condensates
We studied quantum reflection of Bose-Einstein condensates at normal
incidence on a square array of silicon pillars. For incident velocities of
2.5-26 mm/s observations agreed with theoretical predictions that the
Casimir-Polder potential of a reduced density surface would reflect slow atoms
with much higher probability. At low velocities (0.5-2.5 mm/s), we observed
that the reflection probability saturated around 60% rather than increasing
towards unity. We present a simple model which explains this reduced
reflectivity as resulting from the combined effects of the Casimir-Polder plus
mean field potential and predicts the observed saturation. Furthermore, at low
incident velocities, the reflected condensates show collective excitations.Comment: 4 figure
Revealing Sub-Surface Vibrational Modes by Atom-Resolved Damping Force Spectroscopy
We propose to use the damping signal of an oscillating cantilever in dynamic
atomic force microscopy as a noninvasive tool to study the vibrational
structure of the substrate. We present atomically resolved maps of damping in
carbon nanotube peapods, capable of identifying the location and packing of
enclosed Dy@C82 molecules as well as local excitations of vibrational modes
inside nanotubes of different diameter. We elucidate the physical origin of
damping in a microscopic model and provide quantitative interpretation of the
observations by calculating the vibrational spectrum and damping of Dy@C82
inside nanotubes with different diameters using ab initio total energy and
molecular dynamics calculations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett
Proteomic analyses reveal misregulation of LIN28 expression and delayed timing of glial differentiation in human iPS cells with MECP2 loss-of-function.
Rett syndrome (RTT) is a pervasive developmental disorder caused by mutations in MECP2. Complete loss of MECP2 function in males causes congenital encephalopathy, neurodevelopmental arrest, and early lethality. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from male patients harboring mutations in MECP2, along with control lines from their unaffected fathers, give us an opportunity to identify some of the earliest cellular and molecular changes associated with MECP2 loss-of-function (LOF). We differentiated iPSC-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) using retinoic acid (RA) and found that astrocyte differentiation is perturbed in iPSC lines derived from two different patients. Using highly stringent quantitative proteomic analyses, we found that LIN28, a gene important for cell fate regulation and developmental timing, is upregulated in mutant NPCs compared to WT controls. Overexpression of LIN28 protein in control NPCs suppressed astrocyte differentiation and reduced neuronal synapse density, whereas downregulation of LIN28 expression in mutant NPCs partially rescued this synaptic deficiency. These results indicate that the pathophysiology of RTT may be caused in part by misregulation of developmental timing in neural progenitors, and the subsequent consequences of this disruption on neuronal and glial differentiation
Stabilization of Sub-Millimeter Dimensions: The New Guise of the Hierarchy Problem
A new framework for solving the hierarchy problem was recently proposed which
does not rely on low energy supersymmetry or technicolor. The fundamental
Planck mass is at a \tev and the observed weakness of gravity at long
distances is due the existence of new sub-millimeter spatial dimensions. In
this picture the standard model fields are localized to a -dimensional
wall or ``3-brane''. The hierarchy problem becomes isomorphic to the problem of
the largeness of the extra dimensions. This is in turn inextricably linked to
the cosmological constant problem, suggesting the possibility of a common
solution. The radii of the extra dimensions must be prevented from both
expanding to too great a size, and collapsing to the fundamental Planck length
\tev^{-1}. In this paper we propose a number of mechanisms addressing this
question. We argue that a positive bulk cosmological constant can
stabilize the internal manifold against expansion, and that the value of
is not unstable to radiative corrections provided that the
supersymmetries of string theory are broken by dynamics on our 3-brane. We
further argue that the extra dimensions can be stabilized against collapse in a
phenomenologically successful way by either of two methods: 1) Large,
topologically conserved quantum numbers associated with higher-form bulk U(1)
gauge fields, such as the naturally occurring Ramond-Ramond gauge fields, or
the winding number of bulk scalar fields. 2) The brane-lattice-crystallization
of a large number of 3-branes in the bulk. These mechanisms are consistent with
theoretical, laboratory, and cosmological considerations such as the absence of
large time variations in Newton's constant during and after primordial
nucleosynthesis, and millimeter-scale tests of gravity.Comment: Corrected referencing to important earlier work by Sundrum, errors
fixed, additional discussion on radion phenomenology, conclusions unchanged,
23 pages, LaTe
Neutrino Masses from Large Extra Dimensions
Recently it was proposed that the standard model (SM) degrees of freedom
reside on a -dimensional wall or ``3-brane'' embedded in a
higher-dimensional spacetime. Furthermore, in this picture it is possible for
the fundamental Planck mass \mst to be as small as the weak scale \mst\simeq
O(\tev) and the observed weakness of gravity at long distances is due the
existence of new sub-millimeter spatial dimensions. We show that in this
picture it is natural to expect neutrino masses to occur in the 10^{-1} -
10^{-4}\ev range, despite the lack of any fundamental scale higher than
\mst. Such suppressed neutrino masses are not the result of a see-saw, but
have intrinsically higher-dimensional explanations. We explore two
possibilities. The first mechanism identifies any massless bulk fermions as
right-handed neutrinos. These give naturally small Dirac masses for the same
reason that gravity is weak at long distances in this framework. The second
mechanism takes advantage of the large {\it infrared} desert: the space in the
extra dimensions. Here, small Majorana neutrino masses are generated by
breaking lepton number on distant branes.Comment: 17 pages, late
Supersymmetric Unification Without Low Energy Supersymmetry And Signatures for Fine-Tuning at the LHC
The cosmological constant problem is a failure of naturalness and suggests
that a fine-tuning mechanism is at work, which may also address the hierarchy
problem. An example -- supported by Weinberg's successful prediction of the
cosmological constant -- is the potentially vast landscape of vacua in string
theory, where the existence of galaxies and atoms is promoted to a vacuum
selection criterion. Then, low energy SUSY becomes unnecessary, and
supersymmetry -- if present in the fundamental theory -- can be broken near the
unification scale. All the scalars of the supersymmetric standard model become
ultraheavy, except for a single finely tuned Higgs. Yet, the fermions of the
supersymmetric standard model can remain light, protected by chiral symmetry,
and account for the successful unification of gauge couplings. This framework
removes all the difficulties of the SSM: the absence of a light Higgs and
sparticles, dimension five proton decay, SUSY flavor and CP problems, and the
cosmological gravitino and moduli problems. High-scale SUSY breaking raises the
mass of the light Higgs to about 120-150 GeV. The gluino is strikingly long
lived, and a measurement of its lifetime can determine the ultraheavy scalar
mass scale. Measuring the four Yukawa couplings of the Higgs to the gauginos
and higgsinos precisely tests for high-scale SUSY. These ideas, if confirmed,
will demonstrate that supersymmetry is present but irrelevant for the hierarchy
problem -- just as it has been irrelevant for the cosmological constant problem
-- strongly suggesting the existence of a fine-tuning mechanism in nature.Comment: Typos and equations fixed, references adde
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