Vacuum Boundary Effects

The effect of boundary conditions on the vacuum structure of quantum field theories is analysed from a quantum information viewpoint. In particular, we analyse the role of boundary conditions on boundary entropy and entanglement entropy. The analysis of boundary effects on massless free field theories points out the relevance of boundary conditions as a new rich source of information about the vacuum structure. In all cases the entropy does not increase along the flow from the ultraviolet to the infrared.Comment: 10 page

Cosmic Rays Induced Background Radiation on Board of Commercial Flights

The aim of this work is to determine the total integrated flux of cosmic radiation which a commercial aircraft is exposed to along specific flight trajectories. To study the radiation background during a flight and its modulation by effects such as altitude, latitude, exposure time and transient magnetospheric events, we perform simulations based on Magnetocosmics and CORSIKA codes, the former designed to calculate the geomagnetic effects on cosmic rays propagation and the latter allows us to simulate the development of extended air showers in the atmosphere. In this first work, by considering the total flux of cosmic rays from 5 GeV to 1 PeV, we obtained the expected integrated flux of secondary particles on board of a commercial airplane during the Bogot\'a-Buenos Aires trip by point-to-point numerical integration.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings X SILAFAE Medellin-2014. To appear in Nuclear Physics B - Proceedings Supplement

Geant4 based simulation of the Water Cherenkov Detectors of the LAGO Project

To characterize the signals registered by the different types of water Cherenkov detectors (WCD) used by the Latin American Giant Observatory (LAGO) Project, it is necessary to develop detailed simulations of the detector response to the flux of secondary particles at the detector level. These particles are originated during the interaction of cosmic rays with the atmosphere. In this context, the LAGO project aims to study the high energy component of gamma rays bursts (GRBs) and space weather phenomena by looking for the solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). Focus in this, a complete and complex chain of simulations is being developed that account for geomagnetic effects, atmospheric reaction and detector response at each LAGO site. In this work we shown the first steps of a GEANT4 based simulation for the LAGO WCD, with emphasis on the induced effects of the detector internal diffusive coating.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings X SILAFAE Medellin-2014. To appear in Nuclear Physics B - Proceedings Supplement

Implementing the De-thinning Method for High Energy Cosmic Rays Extensive Air Shower Simulations

To simulate the interaction of cosmic rays with the Earth atmosphere requires highly complex computational resources and several statistical techniques have been developed to simplify those calculations. It is common to implement the thinning algorithms to reduce the number of secondary particles by assigning weights to representative particles in the evolution of the cascade. However, since this is a compression method with information loss, it is required to recover the original flux of secondary particles without introduce artificial biases. In this work we present the preliminary results of our version of the de-thinning algorithm for the reconstruction of thinned simulations of extensive air showers initiated by cosmic rays and photons in the energy range $10^{15} < E/\mathrm{eV} < 10^{17}$.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, Proceedings X SILAFAE Medellin-2014. To appear in Nuclear Physics B - Proceedings Supplement

Boundary conditions: The path integral approach

The path integral approach to quantum mechanics requires a substantial generalisation to describe the dynamics of systems confined to bounded domains. Non-local boundary conditions can be introduced in Feynman's approach by means of boundary amplitude distributions and complex phases to describe the quantum dynamics in terms of the classical trajectories. The different prescriptions involve only trajectories reaching the boundary and correspond to different choices of boundary conditions of selfadjoint extensions of the Hamiltonian. One dimensional particle dynamics is analysed in detail.Comment: 8 page

Consistency of the Regularization of Gauge Theories by High Covariant Derivatives

We show that regularization of gauge theories by higher covariant derivatives and gauge invariant Pauli-Villars regulators is a consistent method if the Pauli-Villars vector fields are considered in a covariant in the regulating Pauli-Villars fields is pathological and the original Slavnov proposal in covariant Landau gauge is not correct because of the appearance of massless modes in the regulators which do not decouple when the ultraviolet regulator is removed. In such a case the method does not correspond to the regularization of a pure gauge theory but that of a gauge theory in interaction with massless ghost fields. This explains the problems pointed out by Martin and Ruiz in covariant Landau gauge. However, a minor modification of Slavnov method provides a consistent regularization even for such a case. The regularization that we introduce also solves the problem of overlapping divergences in a way similar to geometric regularization and yields the standard values of the $\beta$ and $\gamma$ functions of the renormalization group equations.Comment: 20 pages, latex, 3 Postscript figures (expanded version

Exact renormalization-group analysis of first order phase transitions in clock models

We analyze the exact behavior of the renormalization group flow in one-dimensional clock-models which undergo first order phase transitions by the presence of complex interactions. The flow, defined by decimation, is shown to be single-valued and continuous throughout its domain of definition, which contains the transition points. This fact is in disagreement with a recently proposed scenario for first order phase transitions claiming the existence of discontinuities of the renormalization group. The results are in partial agreement with the standard scenario. However in the vicinity of some fixed points of the critical surface the renormalized measure does not correspond to a renormalized Hamiltonian for some choices of renormalization blocks. These pathologies although similar to Griffiths-Pearce pathologies have a different physical origin: the complex character of the interactions. We elucidate the dynamical reason for such a pathological behavior: entire regions of coupling constants blow up under the renormalization group transformation. The flows provide non-perturbative patterns for the renormalization group behavior of electric conductivities in the quantum Hall effect.Comment: 13 pages + 3 ps figures not included, TeX, DFTUZ 91.3

Vacuum Energy and Renormalization on the Edge

The vacuum dependence on boundary conditions in quantum field theories is analysed from a very general viewpoint. From this perspective the renormalization prescriptions not only imply the renormalization of the couplings of the theory in the bulk but also the appearance of a flow in the space of boundary conditions. For regular boundaries this flow has a large variety of fixed points and no cyclic orbit. The family of fixed points includes Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions. In one-dimensional field theories pseudoperiodic and quasiperiodic boundary conditions are also RG fixed points. Under these conditions massless bosonic free field theories are conformally invariant. Among all fixed points only Neumann boundary conditions are infrared stable fixed points. All other conformal invariant boundary conditions become unstable under some relevant perturbations. In finite volumes we analyse the dependence of the vacuum energy along the trajectories of the renormalization group flow providing an interesting framework for dark energy evolution. On the contrary, the renormalization group flow on the boundary does not affect the leading behaviour of the entanglement entropy of the vacuum in one-dimensional conformally invariant bosonic theories.Comment: 10 pages, 1 eps figur