Tensionless strings: physical Fock space and higher spin fields

I study the physical Fock space of the tensionless string theory with perimeter action, exploring its new gauge symmetry algebra. The cancellation of conformal anomaly requires the space-time to be 13-dimensional. All particles are massless and there are no tachyon states in the spectrum. The zero mode conformal operator defines the levels of the physical Fock space. All levels can be classified by the highest Casimir operator W of the little group E(11) for massless particles in 11-dimensions. The ground state is infinitely degenerated and contains massless gauge fields of arbitrary large integer spin, realizing the irreducible representations of E(11) of fixed helicity. The excitation levels realize CSR representations of little group E(11) with an infinite number of helicities. After inspection of the first excitation level, which, as I prove, is a physical null state, I conjecture that all excitation levels are physical null states. In this theory the tensor field of the second rank does not play any distinctive role and therefore one can suggest that in this model there is no gravity.Comment: 22 pages, Latex, references adde

Hagedorn transition for strings on pp-waves and tori with chemical potentials

It has been conjectured that string theory in a pp-wave background is dual to a sector of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We study the Hagedorn transition for free strings in this background. We find that the free energy at the transition point is finite suggesting a confinement/deconfinement transition in the gauge theory. In the limit of vanishing mass parameter the free energy matches that of free strings on an 8-torus with momentum/winding chemical potential. The entropy in the microcanonical ensemble with fixed energy and fixed momentum/winding is computed in each case.Comment: 15 pages, latex, references added and minor correction

Numerical Study of the Two Color Attoworld

We consider QCD at very low temperatures and non-zero quark chemical potential from lattice Monte Carlo simulations of the two-color theory in a very small spatial volume (the attoscale). In this regime the quark number rises in discrete levels in qualitative agreement with what is found analytically at one loop on S3xS1 with radius R_S3 << 1/{\Lambda}_QCD. The detailed level degeneracy, however, cannot be accounted for using weak coupling arguments. At each rise in the quark number there is a corresponding spike in the Polyakov line, also in agreement with the perturbative results. In addition the quark number susceptibility shows a similar behaviour to the Polyakov line and appears to be a good indicator of a confinement-deconfinement type of transition.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

From Free Fields to AdS -- II

We continue with the program of hep-th/0308184 to implement open-closed string duality on free gauge field theory (in the large $N$ limit). In this paper we consider correlators such as \la \prod_{i=1}^n \Tr\Phi^{J_i}(x_i)\ra. The Schwinger parametrisation of this $n$-point function exhibits a partial gluing up into a set of basic skeleton graphs. We argue that the moduli space of the planar skeleton graphs is exactly the same as the moduli space of genus zero Riemann surfaces with $n$ holes. In other words, we can explicitly rewrite the $n$-point (planar) free field correlator as an integral over the moduli space of a sphere with $n$ holes. A preliminary study of the integrand also indicates compatibility with a string theory on $AdS$. The details of our argument are quite insensitive to the specific form of the operators and generalise to diagrams of higher genus as well. We take this as evidence of the field theory's ability to reorganise itself into a string theory.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figures; v2. some additional comments, references adde

Interpreting complex fluvial channel and barform architecture: Carboniferous Central Pennine Province, northern England

The Bashkirian Lower Brimham Grit of North Yorkshire, England, is a fluvio-deltaic sandstone succession that crops out as a complex series of pinnacles, the three-dimensional arrangement of which allows high-resolution architectural analysis of genetically-related lithofacies assemblages. Combined analysis of sedimentary graphic log profiles, architectural panels and palaeocurrent data have enabled three-dimensional geometrical relationships to be established for a suite of architectural elements so as to develop a comprehensive depositional model. Small-scale observations of facies have been related to larger-scale architectural elements to facilitate interpretation of the palaeoenvironment of deposition to a level of detail that has rarely been attempted previously, thereby allowing interpretation of formative processes. Detailed architectural panels form the basis of a semi-quantitative technique for recording the variety and complexity of the sedimentary lithofacies present, their association within recognizable architectural elements and, thus, the inferred spatio-temporal relationship of neighbouring elements. Fluvial channel-fill elements bounded by erosional surfaces are characterized internally by a hierarchy of sets and cosets with subtly varying compositions, textures and structures. Simple, cross-bedded sets represent in-channel migration of isolated mesoforms (dunes); cosets of both trough and planar-tabular cross-bedded facies represent lateral-accreting and downstream-accreting macroforms (bars) characterized by highly variable, yet predictable, patterns of palaeocurrent indicators. Relationships between sandstone-dominated strata bounded by third-order and fifth-order surfaces, which represent in-channel bar deposits and incised channel bases respectively, chronicle the origin of the preserved succession in response to autocyclic barform development and abandonment, major episodes of incision probably influenced by episodic tectonic subsidence, differential tilting and fluvial incision associated with slip on the nearby North Craven Fault system. Overall, the succession represents the preserved product of an upper-delta plain system that was traversed by a migratory fluvial braid-belt system comprising a poorly-confined network of fluvial channels developed between major sandy barforms that evolved via combined lateral-accretion and downstream-accretion

3-D Interacting CFTs and Generalized Higgs Phenomenon in Higher Spin Theories on AdS

We study a duality, recently conjectured by Klebanov and Polyakov, between higher-spin theories on AdS_4 and O(N) vector models in 3-d. These theories are free in the UV and interacting in the IR. At the UV fixed point, the O(N) model has an infinite number of higher-spin conserved currents. In the IR, these currents are no longer conserved for spin s>2. In this paper, we show that the dual interpretation of this fact is that all fields of spin s>2 in AdS_4 become massive by a Higgs mechanism, that leaves the spin-2 field massless. We identify the Higgs field and show how it relates to the RG flow connecting the two CFTs, which is induced by a double trace deformation.Comment: 8 pages, latex; v2 references adde

Higher Spin Black Holes from CFT

Higher spin gravity in three dimensions has explicit black holes solutions, carrying higher spin charge. We compute the free energy of a charged black hole from the holographic dual, a 2d CFT with extended conformal symmetry, and find exact agreement with the bulk thermodynamics. In the CFT, higher spin corrections to the free energy can be calculated at high temperature from correlation functions of W-algebra currents.Comment: 24 pages; v2 reference adde

Higher Spin Gauge Theories in Any Dimension

Some general properties of higher spin gauge theories are summarized with the emphasize on the nonlinear theories in any dimension.Comment: 15 pages, Proceedings of Strings 2004, Paris, June 28-July

Hot String Soup

Above the Hagedorn energy density closed fundamental strings form a long string phase. The dynamics of weakly interacting long strings is described by a simple Boltzmann equation which can be solved explicitly for equilibrium distributions. The average total number of long strings grows logarithmically with total energy in the microcanonical ensemble. This is consistent with calculations of the free single string density of states provided the thermodynamic limit is carefully defined. If the theory contains open strings the long string phase is suppressed.Comment: 13 pages, no figures, uses LaTex, some errors in equations have been corrected, NSF-ITP-94-83, UCSBTH-94-3

Conical Defects in Higher Spin Theories

We study conical defect geometries in the SL(N) Chern-Simons formulation of higher spin gauge theories in AdS_3. We argue that (for N\geq 4) there are special values of the deficit angle for which these geometries are actually smooth configurations of the underlying theory. We also exhibit a gauge in which these geometries can be viewed as wormholes interpolating between two distinct asymptotically AdS_3 spacetimes. Remarkably, the spectrum of smooth SL(N,C) solutions, after an appropriate analytic continuation, exactly matches that of the so-called "light primaries" in the minimal model W_N CFTs at finite N. This gives a candidate bulk interpretation of the latter states in the holographic duality proposed in [1].Comment: 38 page