Coherent transport of matter waves

A transport theory for atomic matter waves in low-dimensional waveguides is outlined. The thermal fluctuation spectrum of magnetic near fields leaking out of metallic microstructures is estimated. The corresponding scattering rate for paramagnetic atoms turns out to be quite large in micrometer-sized waveguides (approx. 100/s). Analytical estimates for the heating and decoherence of a cold atom cloud are given. We finally discuss numerical and analytical results for the scattering from static potential imperfections and the ensuing spatial diffusion process.Comment: 9 pages incl. 10 PostScript figures (.eps), LaTeX using Springer style file svjour, submitted to Appl. Phys.

Solutions of the Polchinski ERG equation in the O(N) scalar model

Solutions of the Polchinski exact renormalization group equation in the scalar O(N) theory are studied. Families of regular solutions are found and their relation with fixed points of the theory is established. Special attention is devoted to the limit $N=\infty$, where many properties can be analyzed analytically.Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures. References added. Version accepted for publication in the International Journal of Modern Physics

Vacuum Cherenkov radiation

Within the classical Maxwell-Chern-Simons limit of the Standard-Model Extension (SME), the emission of light by uniformly moving charges is studied confirming the possibility of a Cherenkov-type effect. In this context, the exact radiation rate for charged magnetic point dipoles is determined and found in agreement with a phase-space estimate under certain assumptions.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX

Gravity from Breaking of Local Lorentz Symmetry

We present a model of gravity based on spontaneous Lorentz symmetry breaking. We start from a model with spontaneously broken symmetries for a massless 2-tensor with a linear kinetic term and a nonderivative potential, which is shown to be equivalent to linearized general relativity, with the Nambu-Goldstone (NG) bosons playing the role of the gravitons. We apply a bootstrap procedure to the model based on the principle of consistent coupling to the total energy energy-momentum tensor. Demanding consistent application of the bootstrap to the potential term severely restricts the form of the latter. Nevertheless, suitable potentials exists that permit stable vacua. It is shown that the resulting model is equivalent, at low energy, to General Relativity in a fixed gauge.Comment: Presented at DISCRETE '08, Symposium on Prospects in the Physics of Discrete Symmetries, 11-16 December 2008, IFIC, Valencia, Spai

Quantum Gravity Phenomenology without Lorentz Invariance Violation: a detailed proposal

We describe a scheme for the exploration of quantum gravity phenomenology focussing on effects that could be thought as arising from a fundamental granularity of space-time. In contrast with the simplest assumptions, such granularity is assumed to respect Lorentz Invariance but is otherwise left unspecified. The proposal is fully observer covariant, it involves non-trivial couplings of curvature to matter fields and leads to a well defined phenomenology. We present the effective Hamiltonian which could be used to analyze concrete experimental situations, some of which are briefly described, and we shortly discuss the degree to which the present proposal is in line with the fundamental ideas behind the equivalence principle.Comment: LaTeX, 24 pages. To be published in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Magnetism in a lattice of spinor Bose condensates

We study the ground state magnetic properties of ferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensates confined in a deep optical lattices. In the Mott insulator regime, the ``mini-condensates'' at each lattice site behave as mesoscopic spin magnets that can interact with neighboring sites through both the static magnetic dipolar interaction and the light-induced dipolar interaction. We show that such an array of spin magnets can undergo a ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic phase transition under the magnetic dipolar interaction depending on the dimension of the confining optical lattice. The ground-state spin configurations and related magnetic properties are investigated in detail

Disk Partition Function and Oscillatory Rolling Tachyons

An exact cubic open string field theory rolling tachyon solution was recently found by Kiermaier et. al. and Schnabl. This oscillatory solution has been argued to be related by a field redefinition to the simple exponential rolling tachyon deformation of boundary conformal theory. In the latter approach, the disk partition function takes a simple form. Out of curiosity, we compute the disk partition function for an oscillatory tachyon profile, and find that the result is nevertheless almost the same.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures. v4: discussion clarified, appendix added, conclusions unchanged; version to appear in J.Phys.