Tachyons on Dp-branes from Abelian Higgs sphalerons

We consider the Abelian Higgs model in a (p+2)-dimensional space time with topology M^{p+1} x S^1 as a field theoretical toy model for tachyon condensation on Dp-branes. The theory has periodic sphaleron solutions with the normal mode equations resembling Lame-type equations. These equations are quasi-exactly solvable (QES) for specific choices of the Higgs- to gauge boson mass ratio and hence a finite number of algebraic normal modes can be computed explicitely. We calculate the tachyon potential for two different values of the Higgs- to gauge boson mass ratio and show that in comparison to previously studied pure scalar field models an exact cancellation between the negative energy contribution at the minimum of the tachyon potential and the brane tension is possible for the simplest truncation in the expansion about the field around the sphaleron. This gives further evidence for the correctness of Sen's conjecture.Comment: 14 Latex pages including 3 eps-figure

Tachyon condensation in open-closed p-adic string theory

We study a simple model of p-adic closed and open strings. It sheds some light on the dynamics of tachyon condensation for both types of strings. We calculate the effect of static and decaying D-brane configurations on the closed string background. For closed string tachyons we find lumps analogous to D-branes. By studying their fluctuation spectrum and the D-branes they admit, we argue that closed string lumps should be interpreted as spacetimes of lower dimensionality described by some noncritical p-adic string theory.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures; v2: discussion of the fluctuations of the double lump substantially improve

Tachyon condensation on brane sphalerons

We consider a sphaleron solution in field theory that provides a toy model for unstable D-branes of string theory. We investigate the tachyon condensation on a Dp-brane. The localized modes, including a tachyon, arise in the spectrum of a sphaleron solution of a \phi^4 field theory on M^{p+1}\times S^1. We use these modes to find a multiscalar tachyon potential living on the sphaleron world-volume. A complete cancelation between brane tension and the minimum of the tachyon potential is found as the size of the circle becomes small.Comment: To appear in JHEP, 13 pages, 2 eps figures, minor changes and references adde

Simulating Quantum Dynamics with Entanglement Mean Field Theory

Exactly solvable many-body systems are few and far between, and the utility of approximate methods cannot be overestimated. Entanglement mean field theory is an approximate method to handle such systems. While mean field theories reduce the many-body system to an effective single-body one, entanglement mean field theory reduces it to a two-body system. And in contrast to mean field theories where the self-consistency equations are in terms of single-site physical parameters, those in entanglement mean field theory are in terms of both single- and two-site parameters. Hitherto, the theory has been applied to predict properties of the static states, like ground and thermal states, of many-body systems. Here we give a method to employ it to predict properties of time-evolved states. The predictions are then compared with known results of paradigmatic spin Hamiltonians.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Open-Closed Duality at Tree Level

We study decay of unstable D-branes in string theory in the presence of electric field, and show that the classical open string theory results for various properties of the final state agree with the properties of closed string states into which the system is expected to decay. This suggests a duality between tree level open string theory on unstable D-branes and closed strings at high density.Comment: LaTeX file, 10 page

A Chemical Interpretation of Protein Electron Density Maps in the Worldwide Protein Data Bank

High-quality three-dimensional structural data is of great value for the functional interpretation of biomacromolecules, especially proteins; however, structural quality varies greatly across the entries in the worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB). Since 2008, the wwPDB has required the inclusion of structure factors with the deposition of x-ray crystallographic structures to support the independent evaluation of structures with respect to the underlying experimental data used to derive those structures. However, interpreting the discrepancies between the structural model and its underlying electron density data is difficult, since derived sigma-scaled electron density maps use arbitrary electron density units which are inconsistent between maps from different wwPDB entries. Therefore, we have developed a method that converts electron density values from sigma-scaled electron density maps into units of electrons. With this conversion, we have developed new methods that can evaluate specific regions of an x-ray crystallographic structure with respect to a physicochemical interpretation of its corresponding electron density map. We have systematically compared all deposited x-ray crystallographic protein models in the wwPDB with their underlying electron density maps, if available, and characterized the electron density in terms of expected numbers of electrons based on the structural model. The methods generated coherent evaluation metrics throughout all PDB entries with associated electron density data, which are consistent with visualization software that would normally be used for manual quality assessment. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to derive units of electrons directly from electron density maps without the aid of the underlying structure factors. These new metrics are biochemically-informative and can be extremely useful for filtering out low-quality structural regions from inclusion into systematic analyses that span large numbers of PDB entries. Furthermore, these new metrics will improve the ability of non-crystallographers to evaluate regions of interest within PDB entries, since only the PDB structure and the associated electron density maps are needed. These new methods are available as a well-documented Python package on GitHub and the Python Package Index under a modified Clear BSD open source license

One-loop Evolution of a Rolling Tachyon

We study the time evolution of the one-loop diagram in Sen's rolling tachyon background. We find that at least in the long cylinder case they grow rapidly at late time, due to the exponential growth of the timelike oscillator terms in the boundary state. This can also be interpreted as the virtual open string pair creation in the decaying brane. This behavior indicates a breakdown of this rolling tachyon solution at some point during the evolution. We also discuss the closed string emission from this one-loop diagram, and the evolution of a one-loop diagram connecting a decaying brane to a stable brane, which is responsible for the physical open string creation on the stable brane.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures; v2: references added, comments revised in various places; v3: footnotes 7&8 added, revised version to appear in PR