Brane Tensions and Coupling Constants from within M-Theory

Reviewing the cancellation of local anomalies of M-theory on R^10 x S^1/Z_2 the Yang-Mills coupling constant on the boundaries is rederived. The result is lambda^2 = 2^(1/3) (2 pi) (4 pi kappa^2)^(2/3) corresponding to eta = lambda^6/kappa^4 = 256 pi^5 in the `upstairs' units used by Horava and Witten and differs from their calculation. It is shown that these values are compatible with the standard membrane and fivebrane tensions derived from the M-theory bulk action. In view of these results it is argued that the natural units for M-theory on R^10 x S^1/Z_2 are the `downstairs' units where the brane tensions take their standard form and the Yang-Mills coupling constant is lambda^2 = 4 pi (4 pi kappa^2)^(2/3).Comment: 11 pages, no figures, Latex2e, amsmath, amsfonts, typo in abstract correcte

Weak Convergence in the Prokhorov Metric of Methods for Stochastic Differential Equations

We consider the weak convergence of numerical methods for stochastic differential equations (SDEs). Weak convergence is usually expressed in terms of the convergence of expected values of test functions of the trajectories. Here we present an alternative formulation of weak convergence in terms of the well-known Prokhorov metric on spaces of random variables. For a general class of methods, we establish bounds on the rates of convergence in terms of the Prokhorov metric. In doing so, we revisit the original proofs of weak convergence and show explicitly how the bounds on the error depend on the smoothness of the test functions. As an application of our result, we use the Strassen - Dudley theorem to show that the numerical approximation and the true solution to the system of SDEs can be re-embedded in a probability space in such a way that the method converges there in a strong sense. One corollary of this last result is that the method converges in the Wasserstein distance, another metric on spaces of random variables. Another corollary establishes rates of convergence for expected values of test functions assuming only local Lipschitz continuity. We conclude with a review of the existing results for pathwise convergence of weakly converging methods and the corresponding strong results available under re-embedding.Comment: 12 pages, 2nd revision for IMA J Numerical Analysis. Further minor errors correcte

Some cubic birth and death processes and their related orthogonal polynomials

The orthogonal polynomials with recurrence relation (\la\_n+\mu\_n-z) F\_n(z)=\mu\_{n+1} F\_{n+1}(z)+\la\_{n-1} F\_{n-1}(z) with two kinds of cubic transition rates \la\_n and $\mu\_n,$ corresponding to indeterminate Stieltjes moment problems, are analyzed. We derive generating functions for these two classes of polynomials, which enable us to compute their Nevanlinna matrices. We discuss the asymptotics of the Nevanlinna matrices in the complex plane.Comment: latex2e, 17 page