Noncommutative deformation of four dimensional Einstein gravity

We construct a model for noncommutative gravity in four dimensions, which reduces to the Einstein-Hilbert action in the commutative limit. Our proposal is based on a gauge formulation of gravity with constraints. While the action is metric independent, the constraints insure that it is not topological. We find that the choice of the gauge group and of the constraints are crucial to recover a correct deformation of standard gravity. Using the Seiberg-Witten map the whole theory is described in terms of the vierbeins and of the Lorentz transformations of its commutative counterpart. We solve explicitly the constraints and exhibit the first order noncommutative corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action.Comment: LaTex, 11 pages, comments added, to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Vertex Operators for Closed Superstrings

We construct an iterative procedure to compute the vertex operators of the closed superstring in the covariant formalism given a solution of IIA/IIB supergravity. The manifest supersymmetry allows us to construct vertex operators for any generic background in presence of Ramond-Ramond (RR) fields. We extend the procedure to all massive states of open and closed superstrings and we identify two new nilpotent charges which are used to impose the gauge fixing on the physical states. We solve iteratively the equations of the vertex for linear x-dependent RR field strengths. This vertex plays a role in studying non-constant C-deformations of superspace. Finally, we construct an action for the free massless sector of closed strings, and we propose a form for the kinetic term for closed string field theory in the pure spinor formalism.Comment: TeX, harvmac, amssym.tex, 41 pp; references adde

Particle density fluctuations

Event-by-event fluctuations in the multiplicities of charged particles and photons at SPS energies are discussed. Fluctuations are studied by controlling the centrality of the reaction and rapidity acceptance of the detectors. Results are also presented on the event-by-event study of correlations between the multiplicity of charged particles and photons to search for DCC-like signals.Comment: Talk presented at Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, Franc

Construction of an SO(10) x U(1)_F Model of the Yukawa Interactions

We construct a supersymmetric $SO(10) \times U(1)_F$ model of the Yukawa interactions at the grand unification scale from knowledge of a phenomenological set of mass matrices obtained by a previous bottom-up approach. The $U(1)_F$ family symmetry determines the textures for the Majorana and generic Dirac mass matrices, while the $SO(10)$ symmetry relates each particular element of the up, down, neutrino and charged lepton Dirac matrices. The dominant second and third family contributions in the Dirac sector are renormalizable, while the remaining contributions to the Dirac mass matrices are of higher order, restricted by the $U(1)_F$ family symmetry to a small set of tree diagrams, and mainly complex-symmetric. The tree diagrams for the Majorana mass matrix are all non-renormalizable and of progressively higher-order, leading to a nearly geometrical structure. Pairs of ${\bf 1, 45, 10}$ and ${\bf 126}$ Higgs representations enter with those having large vacuum expectation values breaking the symmetry down to $SU(3)_c \times SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y$ near the grand unification scale. In terms of 12 parameters expressed as the Yukawa couplings times vacuum expectation values for the Higgs representations employed, a realistic set of 15 quark and lepton masses (including those for the 3 heavy righthanded Majorana neutrinos) and 8 mixing parameters emerges for the neutrino scenario involving the non-adiabatic conversion of solar neutrinos and the depletion of atmospheric muon-neutrinos through oscillations into tau-neutrinos.Comment: 32 pages, latex with style files attached, 1 figure in uuencoded postscript fil