Gravitational Couplings, Orientifolds and M-Planes

We examine string-theory orientifold planes of various types including the Sp and SO-odd planes, and deduce the gravitational Chern-Simons couplings on their world-volumes. Consistency checks are carried out in different spacetime dimensions using various dualities, including those relating string theory with F-theory and M-theory. It is shown that when an orientifold 3-plane crosses a 5-brane, the jump in the charge is accompanied by a corresponding change in the gravitational couplings.Comment: 14 pages, harvmac (b), 2 figures, referencing improved and a reference added, no changes in conten

Gauge-Invariant Couplings of Noncommutative Branes to Ramond-Ramond Backgrounds

We derive the couplings of noncommutative D-branes to spatially varying Ramond-Ramond fields, extending our earlier results in hep-th/0009101. These couplings are expressed in terms of *n products of operators involving open Wilson lines. Equivalence of the noncommutative to the commutative couplings implies interesting identities as well as an expression for the Seiberg-Witten map that was previously conjectured. We generalise our couplings to include transverse scalars, thereby obtaining a Seiberg-Witten map relating commutative and noncommutative descriptions of these scalars. RR couplings for unstable non-BPS branes are also proposed.Comment: harvmac, 22 pages, v2: typos corrected, references and acknowledgements adde

Brane-Antibrane Constructions

In type II string theories, we examine intersecting brane constructions containing brane-antibrane pairs suspended between 5-branes, and more general non-BPS constructions. The tree-level spectra are obtained in each case. We identify various models with distinct physics: parallel brane-antibrane pairs, adjacent pairs, non-adjacent pairs, and configurations which break all supersymmetry even though any pair of branes preserves some supersymmetry. In each case we examine the possible decay modes. Some of these configurations turn out to be tachyon-free, stable non-BPS states. We use T-duality to map some of our brane constructions to brane-antibrane pairs at ALE singularities. This enables us to explicitly derive the spectra by the analogue of the quiver construction, and to compute the sign of the brane-antibrane force in each case.Comment: 40 pages, harvmac (b), 14 eps figures (included), v2: references added and report no. corrected, no other change

Size-dependent magnetization fluctuations in NiO nanoparticles

The finite size and surface roughness effects on the magnetization of NiO nanoparticles is investigated. A large magnetic moment arises for an antiferromagnetic nanoparticle due to these effects. The magnetic moment without the surface roughness has a non-monotonic and oscillatory dependence on $R$, the size of the particles, with the amplitude of the fluctuations varying linearly with $R$. The geometry of the particle also matters a lot in the calculation of the net magnetic moment. An oblate spheroid shape particle shows an increase in net magnetic moment by increasing oblateness of the particle. However, the magnetic moment values thus calculated are very small compared to the experimental values for various sizes, indicating that the bulk antiferromagnetic structure may not hold near the surface. We incorporate the surface roughness in two different ways; an ordered surface with surface spins inside a surface roughness shell aligned due to an internal field, and a disordered surface with randomly oriented spins inside surface roughness shell. Taking a variational approach we find that the core interaction strength is modified for nontrivial values of $\Delta$ which is a signature of multi-sublattice ordering for nanoparticles. The surface roughness scale $\Delta$ is also showing size dependent fluctuations, with an envelope decay $\Delta\sim R^{-1/5}$. The net magnetic moment values calculated using spheroidal shape and ordered surface are close to the experimental values for different sizes.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Jordan-Schwinger realizations of three-dimensional polynomial algebras

A three-dimensional polynomial algebra of order $m$ is defined by the commutation relations $[P_0, P_\pm]$ $=$ $\pm P_\pm$, $[P_+, P_-]$ $=$ $\phi^{(m)}(P_0)$ where $\phi^{(m)}(P_0)$ is an $m$-th order polynomial in $P_0$ with the coefficients being constants or central elements of the algebra. It is shown that two given mutually commuting polynomial algebras of orders $l$ and $m$ can be combined to give two distinct $(l+m+1)$-th order polynomial algebras. This procedure follows from a generalization of the well known Jordan-Schwinger method of construction of $su(2)$ and $su(1,1)$ algebras from two mutually commuting boson algebras.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX2