Sealed containers in Z

Physical means of securing information, such as sealed envelopes and scratch cards, can be used to achieve cryptographic objectives. Reasoning about this has so far been informal. We give a model of distinguishable sealed envelopes in Z, exploring design decisions and further analysis and development of such models

Bound States of D-Branes and the Non-Abelian Born-Infeld Action

We attempt to settle the issue as to what is the correct non-abelian generalisation of the Born-Infeld action, via a consideration of the two-loop $\beta$--function for the non-abelian background gauge field in open string theory. An analysis of the bosonic theory alone shows the recent proposal of Tseytlin's to be somewhat lacking. For the superstring, however, this proposal would seem to be correct, and not just within the approximation used in \cite{tseytlin}. Since it is this latter case that is relevant to the description of D-branes we, in effect, obtain an independent verification of Tseytlin's result. Some issues involved in the concept of non-abelian T--duality are discussed; and it is shown how the interaction between separated and parallel branes, in the form of massive string states, emerges.Comment: 24 pages, 4 eps figures, LaTeX. Further comments concerning earlier work added, minor typos corrected. Version to be published in Nucl. Phys.

On the existence of a static black hole on a brane

We study a static black hole localized on a brane in the Randall-Sundrum (RS) II braneworld scenario. To solve this problem numerically, we develop a code having the almost 4th-order accuracy. This code derives the highly accurate result for the case where the brane tension is zero, i.e., the spherically symmetric case. However, a nonsystematic error is detected in the cases where the brane tension is nonzero. This error is irremovable by any systematic methods such as increasing the resolution, setting the outer boundary at more distant location, or improving the convergence of the numerical relaxation. We discuss the possible origins for the nonsystematic error, and conclude that our result is naturally interpreted as the evidence for the nonexistence of solutions to this setup, although an "approximate" solution exists for sufficiently small brane tension. We discuss the possibility that the black holes produced on a brane may be unstable and lead to two interesting consequences: the event horizon pinch and the brane pinch.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, submitted to JHE

Entropy of Anisotropic Universe and Fractional Branes

We obtain the entropy of a homogeneous anisotropic universe applicable, by assumption, to the fractional branes in the universe in the model of Chowdhury and Mathur. The entropy for the 3 or 4 charge fractional branes thus obtained is not of the expected form E^{{3/2}} or E^2. One way the expected form is realised is if p \to \rho for the transverse directions and if the compact directions remain constant in size. These conditions are likely to be enforced by brane decay and annihilation, and by the S, T, U dualities. T duality is also likely to exclude high entropic cases, found in the examples, which arise due to the compact space contracting to zero size. Then the 4 charge fractional branes may indeed provide a detailed realisation of the maximum entropic principle we proposed recently to determine the number (3 + 1) of large spacetime dimensions.Comment: Version 2: 21 pages. More discussion and references added. To appear in General Relativity and Gravitatio

High Spin Glueballs from the Lattice

We discuss the principles underlying higher spin glueball calculations on the lattice. For that purpose, we develop numerical techniques to rotate Wilson loops by arbitrary angles in lattice gauge theories close to the continuum. As a first application, we compute the glueball spectrum of the SU(2) gauge theory in 2+1 dimensions for both parities and for spins ranging from 0 up to 4 inclusive. We measure glueball angular wave functions directly, decomposing them in Fourier modes and extrapolating the Fourier coefficients to the continuum. This allows a reliable labelling of the continuum states and gives insight into the way rotation symmetry is recovered. As one of our results, we demonstrate that the D=2+1 SU(2) glueball conventionally labelled as J^P = 0^- is in fact 4^- and that the lightest ``J=1'' state has, in fact, spin 3.Comment: Minor changes in the text; the spin 4 glueball mass is taken further out in Euclidean time at higher beta values. 41 pages, 20 figure

Generalized Conformal Quantum Mechanics of D0-brane

We study the generalized conformal quantum mechanics of the probe D0-brane in the near horizon background of the bound state of source D0-branes. We elaborate on the relationship of such model to the M theory in the light cone frame.Comment: 14 pages, RevTeX, revised version with added references to appear in Phys. Rev.

g=1 for Dirichlet 0-branes

Dirichlet 0-branes, considered as extreme Type IIA black holes with spin carried by fermionic hair, are shown to have the anomalous gyromagnetic ratio g=1, consistent with their interpretation as Kaluza-Klein modes.Comment: 13 pages, Late

Massive IIA flux compactifications and U-dualities

We attempt to find a rigorous formulation for the massive type IIA orientifold compactifications of string theory introduced in hep-th/0505160. An approximate double T-duality converts this background into IIA string theory on a twisted torus, but various arguments indicate that the back reaction of the orientifold on this geometry is large. In particular, an AdS calculation of the entropy suggests a scaling appropriate for N M2-branes, in a certain limit of the compactification, though not the one studied in hep-th/0505160. The M-theory lift of this specific regime is not 4 dimensional. We suggest that the generic limit of the background corresponds to a situation analogous to F-theory, where the string coupling is small in some regions of a compact geometry, and large in others, so that neither a long wavelength 11D SUGRA expansion, nor a world sheet expansion exists for these compactifications. We end with a speculation on the nature of the generic compactification.Comment: JHEP3 LaTeX - 34 pages - 3 figures; v2: Added references; v3: mistake in entropy scaling corrected, major changes in conclusions; v4: changed claims about original DeWolfe et al. setup, JHEP versio

Open Heterotic Strings

We classify potential cosmic strings according to the topological charge measurable outside the string core. We conjecture that in string theory it is this charge that governs the stability of long strings. This would imply that the SO(32) heterotic string can have endpoints, but not the E_8 x E_8 heterotic string. We give various arguments in support of this conclusion.Comment: 15 pages. v.2: typos, references correcte

Supersymmetry without Supersymmetry

We present four-dimensional M-theory vacua with N>0 supersymmetry which, from the perspective of perturbative Type IIA string theory, have N=0. Such vacua can appear when the compactifying 7-manifold is a U(1) fibration. The missing superpartners are Dirichlet 0-branes. Someone unable to detect Ramond-Ramond charge would thus conclude that these worlds have no unbroken supersymmetry. In particular, the gravitinos (and also some of the gauge bosons) are 0-branes not seen in perturbation theory but which curiously remain massless however weak the string coupling.Comment: Latex, 16 pages. Minor revisions and reference adde