Cosmological tachyon condensation

We consider the prospects for dark matter/energy unification in k-essence type theories. General mappings are established between the k-essence scalar field, the hydrodynamic and braneworld descriptions. We develop an extension of the general relativistic dust model that incorporates the effects of both pressure and the associated acoustic horizon. Applying this to a tachyon model, we show that this inhomogeneous "variable Chaplygin gas" does evolve into a mixed system containing cold dark matter like gravitational condensate in significant quantities. Our methods can be applied to any dark energy model as well as to mixtures of dark energy and traditional dark matter.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, title changed, typos corrected, accepted in Phys. Rev.

Chaplygin Gas Cosmology - Unification of Dark Matter and Dark Energy

The models that unify dark matter and dark energy based upon the Chaplygin gas fail owing to the suppression of structure formation by the adiabatic speed of sound. Including string theory effects, in particular the Kalb-Ramond field, we show how nonadiabatic perturbations allow a successful structure formation.Comment: 7 pages, presented by N. B. at IRGAC 2006, Barcelona, 11-15 July 2006, typos corrected, concluding paragraph slightly expanded, final version, accepted in J. Phys. A, special issu

Superluminal pions in a hadronic fluid

We study the propagation of pions at finite temperature and finite chemical potential in the framework of the linear sigma model with 2 quark flavors and $N_c$ colors. The velocity of massless pions in general differs from that of light. One-loop calculations show that in the chiral symmetry broken phase pions, under certain conditions, propagate faster than light.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures included. Considerably revised, discussions expanded, one figure added, typos corrected, results unchanged. To be published in Phys. Rev.

General-Relativistic Thomas-Fermi model

A system of self-gravitating massive fermions is studied in the framework of the general-relativistic Thomas-Fermi model. We study the properties of the free energy functional and its relation to Einstein's field equations. A self-gravitating fermion gas we then describe by a set of Thomas-Fermi type self-consistency equations.Comment: 7 pages, LaTex, to appear in Gen. Rel. Gra

Gauging the Shadow Sector with SO(3)

We examine the phenomenology of a low-energy extension of the Standard Model, based on the gauge group SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) x SO(3), with SO(3) operating in the shadow sector. This model offers $\nu_{e} \to \nu_{s}$ and $\nu_{\mu} \to \nu_{\tau}$ oscillations as the solution of the solar and atmospheric neutrino problems. Moreover, it provides a neutral heavy shadow lepton X that could play the role of a cold dark matter particle.Comment: 8 page

Quenched QCD at finite density

Simulations of quenched $QCD$ at relatively small but {\it nonzero} chemical potential $\mu$ on $32 \times 16^3$ lattices indicate that the nucleon screening mass decreases linearly as $\mu$ increases predicting a critical chemical potential of one third the nucleon mass, $m_N/3$, by extrapolation. The meson spectrum does not change as $\mu$ increases over the same range, from zero to $m_\pi/2$. Past studies of quenched lattice QCD have suggested that there is phase transition at $\mu = m_\pi/2$. We provide alternative explanations for these results, and find a number of technical reasons why standard lattice simulation techniques suffer from greatly enhanced fluctuations and finite size effects for $\mu$ ranging from $m_\pi/2$ to $m_N/3$. We find evidence for such problems in our simulations, and suggest that they can be surmounted by improved measurement techniques.Comment: 23 pages, Revte

Ghost Condensate Busting

Applying the Thomas-Fermi approximation to renormalizable field theories, we construct ghost condensation models that are free of the instabilities associated with violations of the null-energy condition.Comment: 9 pages, minor corrections, a reference added, the discussion on consistency of the Thomas-Fermi approximation expanded, to appear in JCA

Chiral-symmetry restoration in the linear sigma model at nonzero temperature and baryon density

We study the chiral phase transition in the linear sigma model with 2 quark flavors and $N_c$ colors. One-loop calculations predict a first-order phase transition at both $\mu=0$ and $\mu\neq 0$. We also discuss the phase diagram and make a comparison with a thermal parametrization of existing heavy-ion experimental data.Comment: 12 pages, 6 ps-figures, LaTe

Transition from a quark-gluon plasma in the presence of a sharp front

The effect of a sharp front separating the quark-gluon plasma phase from the hadronic phase is investigated. Energy-momentum conservation and baryon number conservation constrain the possible temperature jump across the front. If one assumes that the temperature in the hadronic phase is $T\simeq$ 200 MeV , as has been suggested by numerous results from relativistic ion collisions, one can determine the corresponding temperature in the quark phase with the help of continuity equations across the front. The calculations reveal that the quark phase must be in a strongly supercooled state. The stability of this solution with respect to minor modifications is investigated. In particular the effect of an admixture of hadronic matter in the quark phase (e.g. in the form of bubbles) is considered in detail. In the absence of admixture the transition proceeds via a detonation transition and is accompanied by a substantial super-cooling of the quark-gluon plasma phase. The detonation is accompanied by less supercooling if a small fraction of bubbles is allowed. By increasing the fraction of bubbles the supercooling becomes weaker and eventually the transition proceeds via a smoother deflagration wave.Comment: 10 pages, manuscript in TeX, 9 figures available as Postscript files, CERN-TH 6923/9

Negative-Energy Spinors and the Fock Space of Lattice Fermions at Finite Chemical Potential

Recently it was suggested that the problem of species doubling with Kogut-Susskind lattice fermions entails, at finite chemical potential, a confusion of particles with antiparticles. What happens instead is that the familiar correspondence of positive-energy spinors to particles, and of negative-energy spinors to antiparticles, ceases to hold for the Kogut-Susskind time derivative. To show this we highlight the role of the spinorial ``energy'' in the Osterwalder-Schrader reconstruction of the Fock space of non-interacting lattice fermions at zero temperature and nonzero chemical potential. We consider Kogut-Susskind fermions and, for comparison, fermions with an asymmetric one-step time derivative.Comment: 14p