Systematic Resummed Perturbation Theory

A systematic loop expansion is formulated in terms of full propagators and vertices. It is based on an expansion of the general solution of an exact non-perturbative flow equation.Comment: 11 pages, LaTe

Conformal fixed point, Cosmological Constant and Quintessence

We connect a possible solution for the ``cosmological constant problem'' to the existence of a (postulated) conformal fixed point in a fundamental theory. The resulting cosmology leads to quintessence, where the present acceleration of the expansion of the universe is linked to a crossover in the flow of coupling constants.Comment: More detailed discussion of quantum fluctuations,update with WMAP-data,4 pages,LaTe

Nonperturbative Condensates in the Electroweak Phase-Transition

We discuss the electroweak phase-transition in the early universe, using non-perturbative flow equations for a computation of the free energy. For a scalar mass above $\sim 70$ GeV, high-temperature perturbation theory cannot describe this transition reliably. This is due to the dominance of three-dimensional physics at high temperatures which implies that the effective gauge coupling grows strong in the symmetric phase. We give an order of magnitude-estimate of nonperturbative effects in reasonable agreement with recent results from electroweak lattice simulations. (Talk given by C. Wetterich at the 3rd Colloque Cosmologie, Paris, June 7-9, 1995, to appear in the proceedings)Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures, Talk given by C. Wetterich at the 3rd Colloque Cosmologie, Paris, June 7-9, 1995, to appear in the proceedings, *** Replaced figure 1 **

Isotropization from Color Field Condensate in heavy ion collisions

The expanding fireball shortly after a heavy ion collision may be qualitatively described by a condensate of color fields or gluons which is analogous to Bose-Einstein-condensation for massive bosonic particles. This condensate is a transient non-equilibrium phenomenon and breaks Lorentz-boost symmetry. The dynamics of color field condensates involves collective excitations and is rather different from the perturbative scattering of gluons. In particular, it provides for an efficient mechanism to render the local pressure approximately isotropic after a short time of 0.2 fm/c. We suggest that an isotropic color field condensate may play a central role for a simple description of prethermalization and isotropization in the early stages of the collision.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures, published versio

Chiral tensor fields and spontaneous breaking of Lorentz symmetry

Antisymmetric tensor fields interacting with quarks and leptons have been proposed as a possible solution to the gauge hierarchy problem. We compute the one-loop beta function for a quartic self-interaction of the chiral antisymmetric tensor fields. Fluctuations of the top quark drive the corresponding running coupling to a negative value as the renormalization scale is lowered. This may indicate a non-vanishing expectation value of the tensor field, and thus a spontaneous breaking of Lorentz invariance. Settling this issue will need the inclusion of tensor loops.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Non-Equilibrium Time Evolution in Quantum Field Theory

The time development of equal-time correlation functions in quantum mechanics and quantum field theory is described by an exact evolution equation for generating functionals. This permits a comparison between classical and quantum evolution in non-equilibrium systems.Comment: 7 pages, LaTe

Dark energy cosmologies for codimension-two branes

A six-dimensional universe with two branes in the "football-shaped" geometry leads to an almost realistic cosmology. We describe a family of exact solutions with time dependent characteristic size of internal space. After a short inflationary period the late cosmology is either of quintessence type or turns to a radiation dominated Friedmann universe where the cosmological constant appears as a free integration constant of the solution. The radiation dominated universe with relativistic fermions is analyzed in detail, including its dimensional reduction.Comment: 18 page