Affine spherical homogeneous spaces with good quotient by a maximal unipotent subgroup

For an affine spherical homogeneous space G/H of a connected semisimple algebraic group G, we consider the factorization morphism by the action on G/H of a maximal unipotent subgroup of G. We prove that this morphism is equidimensional if and only if the weight semigroup of G/H satisfies some simple condition.Comment: v2: title and abstract changed; v3: 16 pages, minor correction

Spherical actions on flag varieties

For every finite-dimensional vector space V and every V-flag variety X we list all connected reductive subgroups in GL(V) acting spherically on X

A Bethe Ansatz Study of Free Energy and Excitation Spectrum for Even Spin Fateev Zamolodchikov Model

A Bethe Ansatz study of a self dual Z_N spin model is undertaken for even spin system. One has to solve a coupled system of Bethe Ansatz Equations (BAE) involving zeroes of two families of transfer matrices. A numerical study on finite size lattices is done for identification of elementary excitations over the Ferromagnetic and Antiferromagnetic ground states. The free energies for both Ferromagnetic and Antiferromagnetic ground states and dispersion relation for elementary excitations are found.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figure

Harmonic analysis on spherical homogeneous spaces with solvable stabilizer

For all spherical homogeneous spaces G/H, where G is a simply connected semisimple algebraic group and H a connected solvable subgroup of G, we compute the spectra of the representations of G on spaces of regular sections of homogeneous line bundles over G/H.Comment: v2: 14 pages, minor correction

Widespread late Cenozoic increase in erosion rates across the interior of eastern Tibet constrained by detrital low-temperature thermochronometry

New detrital low-temperature thermochronometry provides estimates of long-term erosion rates and the timing of initiation of river incision from across the interior of the Tibetan Plateau. We use the erosion history of this region to evaluate proposed models of orogenic development as well as regional climatic events. Erosion histories of the externally drained portion of the east-central Tibetan Plateau are recorded in modern river sands from major rivers across a transect that spans >750 km and covers a region with no published thermochronometric ages. Individual grains from eight catchments were analyzed for apatite (U-Th)/He and fission track thermochronometry. A wide distribution in ages that, in most cases, spans the entire Cenozoic and Late Mesozoic eras requires a long period of slow or no erosion with a relative increase in erosion rate toward the present. We apply a recently developed methodology for inversion of detrital thermochronometric data for three specified erosion scenarios: constant erosion rate, two-stage erosion history, and three-stage erosion history. Modeling results suggest that rates increase by at least an order of magnitude between 11 and 4 Ma following a period of slow erosion across the studied catchments. Synchroneity in accelerated erosion across the whole of the Tibetan Plateau rather than a spatial or temporal progression challenges the widely held notion that the plateau evolved as a steep, northward-propagating topographic front, or that south to north precipitation gradients exert a primary control on erosion rates. Instead, we suggest that accelerated river incision late in the orogen's history relates to regional-scale uplift that occurred in concert with eastern expansion of the plateau

On the infrared behaviour of 3d Chern-Simons theories in N=2 superspace

We discuss the problem of infrared divergences in the N=2 superspace approach to classically marginal three-dimensional Chern-Simons-matter theories. Considering the specific case of ABJM theory, we describe the origin of such divergences and offer a prescription to eliminate them by introducing non-trivial gauge-fixing terms in the action. We also comment on the extension of our procedure to higher loop order and to general three-dimensional Chern-Simons-matter models.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, JHEP3; v2: minor corrections and references added; v3: introduction expanded, presentation of section 3.3.1 improved, references added, version to appear in JHE

Single Scale Tadpoles and O(GF mt^2 as^3) Corrections to the rho Parameter

We present a new set of high precision numerical values of four-loop single-scale vacuum integrals, which we subsequently use to obtain the non-singlet corrections to the rho parameter at O(GF mt^2 as^3). Our result for Delta rho is in agreement with the recent calculation [1].Comment: 20 pages, references added, final version as published in journa