The dynamics of coset dimensional reduction

The evolution of multiple scalar fields in cosmology has been much studied, particularly when the potential is formed from a series of exponentials. For a certain subclass of such systems it is possible to get `assisted` behaviour, where the presence of multiple terms in the potential effectively makes it shallower than the individual terms indicate. It is also known that when compactifying on coset spaces one can achieve a consistent truncation to an effective theory which contains many exponential terms, however, if there are too many exponentials then exact scaling solutions do not exist. In this paper we study the potentials arising from such compactifications of eleven dimensional supergravity and analyse the regions of parameter space which could lead to scaling behaviour.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures; added citation

Renormalization Group Improved Optimized Perturbation Theory: Revisiting the Mass Gap of the O(2N) Gross-Neveu Model

We introduce an extension of a variationally optimized perturbation method, by combining it with renormalization group properties in a straightforward (perturbative) form. This leads to a very transparent and efficient procedure, with a clear improvement of the non-perturbative results with respect to previous similar variational approaches. This is illustrated here by deriving optimized results for the mass gap of the O(2N) Gross-Neveu model, compared with the exactly know results for arbitrary N. At large N, the exact result is reproduced already at the very first order of the modified perturbation using this procedure. For arbitrary values of N, using the original perturbative information only known at two-loop order, we obtain a controllable percent accuracy or less, for any N value, as compared with the exactly known result for the mass gap from the thermodynamical Bethe Ansatz. The procedure is very general and can be extended straightforwardly to any renormalizable Lagrangian model, being systematically improvable provided that a knowledge of enough perturbative orders of the relevant quantities is available.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure, v2: Eq. (4.5) corrected, comments adde

A monopole solution from noncommutative multi-instantons

We extend the relation between instanton and monopole solutions of the selfduality equations in SU(2) gauge theory to noncommutative space-times. Using this approach and starting from a noncommutative multi-instanton solution we construct a U(2) monopole configuration which lives in 3 dimensional ordinary space. This configuration resembles the Wu-Yang monopole and satisfies the selfduality (Bogomol'nyi) equations for a U(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs system.Comment: 19 pages; title and abstract changed, brane interpretation corrected. Version to appear in JHE

Renormalon disappearance in Borel sum of the 1/N expansion of the Gross-Neveu model mass gap

The exact mass gap of the O(N) Gross-Neveu model is known, for arbitrary $N$, from non-perturbative methods. However, a "naive" perturbative expansion of the pole mass exhibits an infinite set of infrared renormalons at order 1/N, formally similar to the QCD heavy quark pole mass renormalons, potentially leading to large ${\cal O}(\Lambda)$ perturbative ambiguities. We examine the precise vanishing mechanism of such infrared renormalons, which avoids this (only apparent)contradiction, and operates without need of (Borel) summation contour prescription, usually preventing unambiguous separation of perturbative contributions. As a consequence we stress the direct Borel summability of the (1/N) perturbative expansion of the mass gap. We briefly speculate on a possible similar behaviour of analogous non-perturbative QCD quantities.Comment: 16 pp., 1 figure. v2: a few paragraphs and one appendix added, title and abstract slightly changed, essential results unchange

Quantum interface unbinding transitions

We consider interfacial phenomena accompanying bulk quantum phase transitions in presence of surface fields. On general grounds we argue that the surface contribution to the system free energy involves a line of singularities characteristic of an interfacial phase transition, occurring below the bulk transition temperature T_c down to T=0. This implies the occurrence of an interfacial quantum critical regime extending into finite temperatures and located within the portion of the phase diagram where the bulk is ordered. Even in situations, where the bulk order sets in discontinuously at T=0, the system's behavior at the boundary may be controlled by a divergent length scale if the tricritical temperature is sufficiently low. Relying on an effective interfacial model we compute the surface phase diagram in bulk spatial dimensionality $d\geq 2$ and extract the values of the exponents describing the interfacial singularities in $d\geq 3$

New axially symmetric Yang-Mills-Higgs solutions with negative cosmological constant

We construct numerically new axially symmetric solutions of SU(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs theory in $(3+1)$ anti-de Sitter spacetime. Two types of finite energy, regular configurations are considered: multimonopole solutions with magnetic charge $n>1$ and monopole-antimonopole pairs with zero net magnetic charge. A somewhat detailed analysis of the boundary conditions for axially symmetric solutions is presented. The properties of these solutions are investigated, with a view to compare with those on a flat spacetime background. The basic properties of the gravitating generalizations of these configurations are also discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures; v2: typos correcte

Soft Supersymmetry Breaking due to Dimensional Reduction over Non-Symmetric Coset Spaces

A ten-dimensional supersymmetric $E_8$ gauge theory is compactified over six-dimensional coset spaces, establishing further our earlier conjecture that the resulting four dimensional theory is a softly broken supersymmetric gauge theory in the case that the used coset space is non-symmetric. The specific non-symmetric six-dimensional spaces examined in the present study are $Sp(4)/(SU(2) \times U(1))_{non-max.}$ and $SU(3)/U(1) \times U(1)$.Comment: 14 pages, Latex, Comments related to the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism and relevant references adde

Diffusion on a hypercubic lattice with pinning potential: exact results for the error-catastrophe problem in biological evolution

In the theoretical biology framework one fundamental problem is the so-called error catastrophe in Darwinian evolution models. We reexamine Eigen's fundamental equations by mapping them into a polymer depinning transition problem in a ``genotype'' space represented by a unitary hypercubic lattice. The exact solution of the model shows that error catastrophe arises as a direct consequence of the equations involved and confirms some previous qualitative results. The physically relevant consequence is that such equations are not adequate to properly describe evolution of complex life on the Earth.Comment: 10 pages in LaTeX. Figures are available from the authors. [email protected] (e-mail address

String Theory in the Penrose Limit of AdS_2 x S^2

The string theory in the Penrose limit of AdS_2 x S^2 is investigated. The specific Penrose limit is the background known as the Nappi-Witten spacetime, which is a plane-wave background with an axion field. The string theory on it is given as the Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten (WZNW) model on non-semi-simple group H_4. It is found that, in the past literature, an important type of irreducible representations of the corresponding algebra, h_4, were missed. We present this "new" representations, which have the type of continuous series representations. All the three types of representations of the previous literature can be obtained from the "new" representations by setting the momenta in the theory to special values. Then we realized the affine currents of the WZNW model in terms of four bosonic free fields and constructed the spectrum of the theory by acting the negative frequency modes of free fields on the ground level states in the h_4 continuous series representation. The spectrum is shown to be free of ghosts, after the Virasoro constraints are satisfied. In particular we argued that there is no need for constraining one of the longitudinal momenta to have unitarity. The tachyon vertex operator, that correspond to a particular state in the ground level of the string spectrum, is constructed. The operator products of the vertex operator with the currents and the energy-momentum tensor are shown to have the correct forms, with the correct conformal weight of the vertex operator.Comment: 30 pages, Latex, no figure