Saddle point solutions in Yang-Mills-dilaton theory

The coupling of a dilaton to the $SU(2)$-Yang-Mills field leads to interesting non-perturbative static spherically symmetric solutions which are studied by mixed analitical and numerical methods. In the abelian sector of the theory there are finite-energy magnetic and electric monopole solutions which saturate the Bogomol'nyi bound. In the nonabelian sector there exist a countable family of globally regular solutions which are purely magnetic but have zero Yang-Mills magnetic charge. Their discrete spectrum of energies is bounded from above by the energy of the abelian magnetic monopole with unit magnetic charge. The stability analysis demonstrates that the solutions are saddle points of the energy functional with increasing number of unstable modes. The existence and instability of these solutions are "explained" by the Morse-theory argument recently proposed by Sudarsky and Wald.Comment: 11 page

Enumerative geometry of Calabi-Yau 4-folds

Gromov-Witten theory is used to define an enumerative geometry of curves in Calabi-Yau 4-folds. The main technique is to find exact solutions to moving multiple cover integrals. The resulting invariants are analogous to the BPS counts of Gopakumar and Vafa for Calabi-Yau 3-folds. We conjecture the 4-fold invariants to be integers and expect a sheaf theoretic explanation. Several local Calabi-Yau 4-folds are solved exactly. Compact cases, including the sextic Calabi-Yau in CP5, are also studied. A complete solution of the Gromov-Witten theory of the sextic is conjecturally obtained by the holomorphic anomaly equation.Comment: 44 page

On field theory quantization around instantons

With the perspective of looking for experimentally detectable physical applications of the so-called topological embedding, a procedure recently proposed by the author for quantizing a field theory around a non-discrete space of classical minima (instantons, for example), the physical implications are discussed in a ``theoretical'' framework, the ideas are collected in a simple logical scheme and the topological version of the Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity is solved in the intermediate situation between type I and type II superconductors.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures, LaTe

Precise Determination of Electroweak Parameters in Neutrino-Nucleon Scattering

A systematic error in the extraction of $\sin^2 \theta_W$ from nuclear deep inelastic scattering of neutrinos and antineutrinos arises from higher-twist effects arising from nuclear shadowing. We explain that these effects cause a correction to the results of the recently reported significant deviation from the Standard Model that is potentially as large as the deviation claimed, and of a sign that cannot be determined without an extremely careful study of the data set used to model the input parton distribution functions.Comment: 3pages, 0 figures, version to be published by IJMP

PU(2) monopoles and links of top-level Seiberg-Witten moduli spaces

This is the first of two articles in which we give a proof - for a broad class of four-manifolds - of Witten's conjecture that the Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten series coincide, at least through terms of degree less than or equal to c-2, where c is a linear combination of the Euler characteristic and signature of the four-manifold. This article is a revision of sections 1-3 of an earlier version of the article dg-ga/9712005, now split into two parts, while a revision of sections 4-7 of that earlier version appears in a recently updated dg-ga/9712005. In the present article, we construct virtual normal bundles for the Seiberg-Witten strata of the moduli space of PU(2) monopoles and compute their Chern classes.Comment: Journal fur die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik, to appear; 64 page

Dietary fat and cardiometabolic health: evidence, controversies, and consensus for guidance.

Although difficulties in nutrition research and formulating guidelines fuel ongoing debate, the complexities of dietary fats and overall diet are becoming better understood, argue Nita G Forouhi and colleague

Conservation Laws in a First Order Dynamical System of Vortices

Gauge invariant conservation laws for the linear and angular momenta are studied in a certain 2+1 dimensional first order dynamical model of vortices in superconductivity. In analogy with fluid vortices it is possible to express the linear and angular momenta as low moments of vorticity. The conservation laws are compared with those obtained in the moduli space approximation for vortex dynamics.Comment: LaTex file, 16 page

SS-duality in Vafa-Witten theory for non-simply laced gauge groups

Vafa-Witten theory is a twisted N=4 supersymmetric gauge theory whose partition functions are the generating functions of the Euler number of instanton moduli spaces. In this paper, we recall quantum gauge theory with discrete electric and magnetic fluxes and review the main results of Vafa-Witten theory when the gauge group is simply laced. Based on the transformations of theta functions and their appearance in the blow-up formulae, we propose explicit transformations of the partition functions under the Hecke group when the gauge group is non-simply laced. We provide various evidences and consistency checks.Comment: 14 page

Exact N-vortex solutions to the Ginzburg-Landau equations for kappa=1/sqrt(2)

The N-vortex solutions to the two-dimensional Ginzburg - Landau equations for the kappa=1/\sqrt(2) parameter are built. The exact solutions are derived for the vortices with large numbers of the magnetic flux quanta. The size of vortex core is supposed to be much greater than the magnetic field penetration depth. In this limiting case the problem is reduced to the determination of vortex core shape. The corresponding nonlinear boundary problem is solved by means of the methods of the theory of analytic functions.Comment: 12 pages in RevTex, 1 Postscript figur

Instantons and Monopoles in General Abelian Gauges

A relation between the total instanton number and the quantum-numbers of magnetic monopoles that arise in general Abelian gauges in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory is established. The instanton number is expressed as the sum of the `twists' of all monopoles, where the twist is related to a generalized Hopf invariant. The origin of a stronger relation between instantons and monopoles in the Polyakov gauge is discussed.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures; comments added to put work into proper contex