138 research outputs found
Plasduino: an inexpensive, general purpose data acquisition framework for educational experiments
Based on the Arduino development platform, Plasduino is an open-source data
acquisition framework specifically designed for educational physics
experiments. The source code, schematics and documentation are in the public
domain under a GPL license and the system, streamlined for low cost and ease of
use, can be replicated on the scale of a typical didactic lab with minimal
effort. We describe the basic architecture of the system and illustrate its
potential with some real-life examples.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, presented at the XCIX conference of the
Societ\`a Italiana di Fisic
Decoupling limits of N=4 super Yang-Mills on R x S^3
We find new decoupling limits of N=4 super Yang-Mills (SYM) on R x S^3 with
gauge group SU(N). These decoupling limits lead to decoupled theories that are
much simpler than the full N=4 SYM but still contain many of its interesting
features. The decoupling limits correspond to being in a near-critical region,
near a point with zero temperature and critical chemical potentials. The new
decoupling limits are found by generalizing the limits of hep-th/0605234 to
include not only the chemical potentials for the SU(4) R-symmetry of N=4 SYM
but also the chemical potentials corresponding to the SO(4) symmetry. In the
decoupled theories it is possible to take a strong coupling limit in a
controllable manner since the full effective Hamiltonian is known. For planar
N=4 SYM on R x S^3 all the decoupled theories correspond to fully integrable
spin chains. We study the thermodynamics of the decoupled theories and find the
Hagedorn temperature for small and large values of the effective coupling. We
find an alternative formulation of the decoupling limits in the microcanonical
ensemble. This leads to a characterization of certain regimes of weakly coupled
N=4 SYM in which there are string-like states. Finally, we find a similar
decoupling limit for pure Yang-Mills theory, which for the planar limit leads
to a fully integrable decoupled theory.Comment: 48 pages, 1 figure; added references, published versio
DLCQ String Spectrum from SYM Theory
We study non planar corrections to the spectrum of operators in the
supersymmetric Yang Mills theory which are dual to string
states in the maximally supersymmetric pp-wave background with a {\em compact}
light-cone direction. The existence of a positive definite discrete light-cone
momentum greatly simplifies the operator mixing problem. We give some examples
where the contribution of all orders in non-planar diagrams can be found
analytically. On the string theory side this corresponds to finding the
spectrum of a string state to all orders in string loop corrections.Comment: 35 pages, no figure
Divergence Cancellation and Loop Corrections in String Field Theory on a Plane Wave Background
We investigate the one-loop energy shift E to certain two-impurity string
states in light-cone string field theory on a plane wave background. We find
that there exist logarithmic divergences in the sums over intermediate mode
numbers which cancel between the cubic Hamiltonian and quartic ``contact
term''. Analyzing the impurity non-conserving channel we find that the
non-perturbative, order g_2^2 sqrt(lambda') contribution to E/mu predicted in
hep-th/0211220 is in fact an artifact of these logarithmic divergences and
vanishes with them, leaving an order g_2^2 lambda' contribution. Exploiting the
supersymmetry algebra, we present a form for the energy shift which appears to
be manifestly convergent and free of non-perturbative terms. We use this form
to argue that E/mu receives order g_2^2 lambda' contributions at every order in
intermediate state impurities.Comment: 27 pages; added references, acknowledgments, missing normalization in
equations 2.3 - 2.8, also cleaned up notation, and added a few footnote
Holographic 3-point function at one loop
We explore the recent weak/strong coupling match of three-point functions in
the AdS/CFT correspondence for two semi-classical operators and one light
chiral primary operator found by Escobedo et al. This match is between the
tree-level three-point function with the two semi-classical operators described
by coherent states while on the string side the three-point function is found
in the Frolov-Tseytlin limit. We compute the one-loop correction to the
three-point function on the gauge theory side and compare this to the
corresponding correction on the string theory side. We find that the
corrections do not match. Finally, we discuss the possibility of further
contributions on the gauge theory side that can alter our results.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures. v2: Typos fixed, Ref. added, figure improved.
v3: Several typos and misprints fixed, Ref. updated, figures improved, new
section 2.3 added on correction from spin-flipped coherent state,
computations on string theory side improve
Matching gauge theory and string theory in a decoupling limit of AdS/CFT
We identify a regime of the AdS/CFT correspondence in which we can
quantitatively match N=4 super Yang-Mills (SYM) for small 't Hooft coupling
with weakly coupled type IIB string theory on AdS_5 x S^5. We approach this
regime by taking the same decoupling limit on both sides of the correspondence.
On the gauge theory side only the states in the SU(2) sector survive, and in
the planar limit the Hamiltonian is given by the XXX_{1/2} Heisenberg spin
chain. On the string theory side we show that the decoupling limit corresponds
to a non-relativistic limit. In this limit some of the bosonic modes and all of
the fermionic modes of the string become infinitely heavy and decouple. We
first take the decoupling limit of the string sigma-model classically. This
enables us to identify a semi-classical regime with semi-classical string
states even though we are in a regime corresponding to small 't Hooft coupling.
We furthermore analyze the quantum corrections that enter in taking the limit.
From this we infer that gauge theory and string theory match, both in terms
of the action and the spectrum, for the leading part and the first correction
away from the semi-classical regime. Finally we consider the implications for
the hitherto unexplained matching of the one-loop contribution to the energy of
certain gauge theory and string theory states, and we explain how our results
give a firm basis for the matching of the Hagedorn temperature in
hep-th/0608115.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figure. v2: Version published in JHEP, section 4 improve
New Penrose Limits and AdS/CFT
We find a new Penrose limit of AdS_5 x S^5 giving the maximally
supersymmetric pp-wave background with two explicit space-like isometries. This
is an important missing piece in studying the AdS/CFT correspondence in certain
subsectors. In particular whereas the Penrose limit giving one space-like
isometry is useful for the SU(2) sector of N=4 SYM, this new Penrose limit is
instead useful for studying the SU(2|3) and SU(1,2|3) sectors. In addition to
the new Penrose limit of AdS_5 x S^5 we also find a new Penrose limit of AdS_4
x CP^3.Comment: 30 page
The superstring Hagedorn temperature in a pp-wave background
The thermodynamics of type IIB superstring theory in the maximally
supersymmetric plane wave background is studied. We compute the thermodynamic
partition function for non-interacting strings exactly and the result differs
slightly from previous computations. We clarify some of the issues related to
the Hagedorn temperature in the limits of small and large constant RR 5-form.
We study the thermodynamic behavior of strings in the case of geometries in the presence of NS-NS and RR 3-form backgrounds. We
also comment on the relationship of string thermodynamics and the thermodynamic
behavior of the sector of Yang-Mills theory which is the holographic dual of
the string theory.Comment: 22 pages, JHEP style, minor misprints corrected, some comments adde
Magnetic Heisenberg-chain/pp-wave correspondence
We find a decoupling limit of planar N=4 super Yang-Mills (SYM) on R x S^3 in
which it becomes equivalent to the ferromagnetic XXX_{1/2} Heisenberg spin
chain in an external magnetic field. The decoupling limit generalizes the one
found in hep-th/0605234 corresponding to the case with zero magnetic field. The
presence of the magnetic field is seen to break the degeneracy of the vacuum
sector and it has a non-trivial effect on the low energy spectrum. We find a
general connection between the Hagedorn temperature of planar N=4 SYM on R x
S^3 in the decoupling limit and the thermodynamics of the Heisenberg chain.
This is used to study the Hagedorn temperature for small and large value of the
effective coupling. We consider the dual decoupling limit of type IIB strings
on AdS_5 x S^5. We find a Penrose limit compatible with the decoupling limit
that gives a magnetic pp-wave background. The breaking of the symmetry by the
magnetic field on the gauge theory side is seen to have a geometric counterpart
in the derivation of the Penrose limit. We take the decoupling limit of the
pp-wave spectrum and succesfully match the resulting spectrum to the low energy
spectrum on the gauge theory side. This enables us to match the Hagedorn
temperature of the pp-wave to the Hagedorn temperature of the gauge theory for
large effective coupling. This generalizes the results of hep-th/0608115 to the
case of non-zero magnetic field.Comment: 35 pages, 2 figures. v2: Refs. adde
Measurement of the atmospheric muon depth intensity relation with the NEMO Phase-2 tower
The results of the analysis of the data collected with the NEMO Phase-2
tower, deployed at 3500 m depth about 80 km off-shore Capo Passero (Italy), are
presented. Cherenkov photons detected with the photomultipliers tubes were used
to reconstruct the tracks of atmospheric muons. Their zenith-angle distribution
was measured and the results compared with Monte Carlo simulations. An
evaluation of the systematic effects due to uncertainties on environmental and
detector parameters is also included. The associated depth intensity relation
was evaluated and compared with previous measurements and theoretical
predictions. With the present analysis, the muon depth intensity relation has
been measured up to 13 km of water equivalent.Comment: submitted to Astroparticle Physic
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