Improving Lattice Quark Actions

We explore the first stage of the Symanzik improvement program for lattice Dirac fermions, namely the construction of doubler-free, highly improved classical actions on isotropic as well as anisotropic lattices (where the temporal lattice spacing, a_t, is smaller than the spatial one). Using field transformations to eliminate doublers, we derive the previously presented isotropic D234 action with O(a^3) errors, as well as anisotropic D234 actions with O(a^4) or O(a_t^3, a^4) errors. Besides allowing the simulation of heavy quarks within a relativistic framework, anisotropic lattices alleviate potential problems due to unphysical branches of the quark dispersion relation (which are generic to improved actions), facilitate studies of lattice thermodynamics, and allow accurate mass determinations for particles with bad signal/noise properties, like glueballs and P-state mesons. We also show how field transformations can be used to completely eliminate unphysical branches of the dispersion relation. Finally, we briefly discuss future steps in the improvement program.Comment: Tiny changes to agree with version to appear in Nucl. Phys. B (33 pages, LaTeX, 13 eps files

Eta Car: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Nebular and Stellar Confusion

Observations in the far-UV provide a unique opportunity to investigate the very massive star Eta Car and its hot binary companion, Eta Car B. Eta Car was observed with FUSE over a large portion of the 5.54 year spectroscopic period before and after the 2003.5 minimum. The observed spectrum is defined by strong stellar wind signatures, primarily from Eta Car A, complicated by the strong absorptions of the ejecta surrounding Eta Car plus interstellar absorption. The Homunculus and Little Homunculus are massive bipolar ejecta historically associable with LBV outbursts in the 1840s and the 1890s and are linked to absorptions at -513 and -146 km/s, respectively. The FUSE spectra are confused by the extended nebulosity and thermal drifting of the FUSE co-pointed instruments. Interpretation is further complicated by two B-stars sufficiently close to h Car to be included most of the time in the large FUSE aperture. Followup observations partially succeeded in obtaining spectra of at least one of these B-stars through the smaller apertures, allowing potential separation of the B-star contributions and h Car. A complete analysis of all available spectra is currently underway. Our ultimate goals are to directly detect the hot secondary star if possible with FUSE and to identify the absorption contributions to the overall spectrum especially of the stellar members and the massive ejecta

Duality in Superstring Compactifications with Magnetic Field Backgrounds

Motivated by the work of Polchinski and Strominger on type IIA theory, where the effect of non-trivial field strengths for p-form potentials on a Calabi-Yau space was discussed, we study four-dimensional heterotic string theory in the presence of magnetic field on a 2-cycle in the internal manifold, for both N=4 and N=2 cases. We show that at special points in the moduli space, certain perturbative charged states become tachyonic and stabilize the vacuum by acquiring vacuum expectation values, thereby restoring supersymmetry. We discuss both the cases where the tachyons appear with a tower of Landau levels, which become light in the limit of large volume of the 2-cycle, and the case where such Landau levels are not present. In the latter case it is sufficient to restrict the analysis to the quartic potential for the tachyon. On the other hand, in the former case it is necessary to include the Landau levels in the analysis of the potential; for toroidal and orbifold examples, we give an explicit CFT description of the new supersymmetric vacuum. The resulting new vacuum turns out to be in the same class as the original supersymmetric one. Finally, using duality, we discuss the role of the Landau levels on the type IIA side.Comment: 26 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure; Nucl. Phys. B version with typos corrected and references adde

The Case for Quantum Key Distribution

Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises secure key agreement by using quantum mechanical systems. We argue that QKD will be an important part of future cryptographic infrastructures. It can provide long-term confidentiality for encrypted information without reliance on computational assumptions. Although QKD still requires authentication to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, it can make use of either information-theoretically secure symmetric key authentication or computationally secure public key authentication: even when using public key authentication, we argue that QKD still offers stronger security than classical key agreement.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure; to appear in proceedings of QuantumComm 2009 Workshop on Quantum and Classical Information Security; version 2 minor content revision

Entanglement study of the 1D Ising model with Added Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction

We have studied occurrence of quantum phase transition in the one-dimensional spin-1/2 Ising model with added Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) interaction from bi- partite and multi-partite entanglement point of view. Using exact numerical solutions, we are able to study such systems up to 24 qubits. The minimum of the entanglement ratio R $\equiv$ \tau 2/\tau 1 < 1, as a novel estimator of QPT, has been used to detect QPT and our calculations have shown that its minimum took place at the critical point. We have also shown both the global-entanglement (GE) and multipartite entanglement (ME) are maximal at the critical point for the Ising chain with added DM interaction. Using matrix product state approach, we have calculated the tangle and concurrence of the model and it is able to capture and confirm our numerical experiment result. Lack of inversion symmetry in the presence of DM interaction stimulated us to study entanglement of three qubits in symmetric and antisymmetric way which brings some surprising results.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, submitte

Planck intermediate results. VIII. Filaments between interacting clusters

About half of the baryons of the Universe are expected to be in the form of filaments of hot and low density intergalactic medium. Most of these baryons remain undetected even by the most advanced X-ray observatories which are limited in sensitivity to the diffuse low density medium. The Planck satellite has provided hundreds of detections of the hot gas in clusters of galaxies via the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect and is an ideal instrument for studying extended low density media through the tSZ effect. In this paper we use the Planck data to search for signatures of a fraction of these missing baryons between pairs of galaxy clusters. Cluster pairs are good candidates for searching for the hotter and denser phase of the intergalactic medium (which is more easily observed through the SZ effect). Using an X-ray catalogue of clusters and the Planck data, we select physical pairs of clusters as candidates. Using the Planck data we construct a local map of the tSZ effect centered on each pair of galaxy clusters. ROSAT data is used to construct X-ray maps of these pairs. After having modelled and subtracted the tSZ effect and X-ray emission for each cluster in the pair we study the residuals on both the SZ and X-ray maps. For the merging cluster pair A399-A401 we observe a significant tSZ effect signal in the intercluster region beyond the virial radii of the clusters. A joint X-ray SZ analysis allows us to constrain the temperature and density of this intercluster medium. We obtain a temperature of kT = 7.1 +- 0.9, keV (consistent with previous estimates) and a baryon density of (3.7 +- 0.2)x10^-4, cm^-3. The Planck satellite mission has provided the first SZ detection of the hot and diffuse intercluster gas.Comment: Accepted by A&

Search for the glueball candidates f0(1500) and fJ(1710) in gamma gamma collisions

Data taken with the ALEPH detector at LEP1 have been used to search for gamma gamma production of the glueball candidates f0(1500) and fJ(1710) via their decay to pi+pi-. No signal is observed and upper limits to the product of gamma gamma width and pi+pi- branching ratio of the f0(1500) and the fJ(1710) have been measured to be Gamma_(gamma gamma -> f0(1500)). BR(f0(1500)->pi+pi-) < 0.31 keV and Gamma_(gamma gamma -> fJ(1710)). BR(fJ(1710)->pi+pi-) < 0.55 keV at 95% confidence level.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Planck 2015 results. XXVII. The Second Planck Catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich Sources

We present the all-sky Planck catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) sources detected from the 29 month full-mission data. The catalogue (PSZ2) is the largest SZ-selected sample of galaxy clusters yet produced and the deepest all-sky catalogue of galaxy clusters. It contains 1653 detections, of which 1203 are confirmed clusters with identified counterparts in external data-sets, and is the first SZ-selected cluster survey containing > $10^3$ confirmed clusters. We present a detailed analysis of the survey selection function in terms of its completeness and statistical reliability, placing a lower limit of 83% on the purity. Using simulations, we find that the Y5R500 estimates are robust to pressure-profile variation and beam systematics, but accurate conversion to Y500 requires. the use of prior information on the cluster extent. We describe the multi-wavelength search for counterparts in ancillary data, which makes use of radio, microwave, infra-red, optical and X-ray data-sets, and which places emphasis on the robustness of the counterpart match. We discuss the physical properties of the new sample and identify a population of low-redshift X-ray under- luminous clusters revealed by SZ selection. These objects appear in optical and SZ surveys with consistent properties for their mass, but are almost absent from ROSAT X-ray selected samples

Search for supersymmetry with a dominant R-parity violating LQDbar couplings in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130GeV to 172 GeV

A search for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a dominant LQDbar coupling has been performed using the data collected by ALEPH at centre-of-mass energies of 130-172 GeV. The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. This result is translated into lower limits on the masses of charginos, neutralinos, sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks. For instance, for m_0=500 GeV/c^2 and tan(beta)=sqrt(2) charginos with masses smaller than 81 GeV/c^2 and neutralinos with masses smaller than 29 GeV/c^2 are excluded at the 95% confidence level for any generation structure of the LQDbar coupling.Comment: 32 pages, 30 figure