Quantized Einstein-Rosen waves, AdS_2, and spontaneous symmetry breaking

4D cylindrical gravitational waves with aligned polarizations (Einstein-Rosen waves) are shown to be described by a weight 1/2 massive free field on the double cover of AdS_2. Thorn's C-energy is one of the sl(2,R) generators, the reconstruction from the (timelike) symmetry axis is the CFT_1 holography. Classically the phase space is also invariant under a O(1,1) group action on the metric coefficients that is a remnant of the original 4D diffeomorphism invariance. In the quantum theory this symmetry is found to be spontaneously broken while the AdS_2 conformal invariance remains intact.Comment: 13 pages, Latex, 2 Figures. v2: Figure on AdS added, minor change

Structural Aspects of Two-Dimensional Anomalous Gauge Theories

A foundational investigation of the basic structural properties of two-dimensional anomalous gauge theories is performed. The Hilbert space is constructed as the representation of the intrinsic local field algebra generated by the fundamental set of field operators whose Wightman functions define the model. We examine the effect of the use of a redundant field algebra in deriving basic properties of the models and show that different results may arise, as regards the physical properties of the generalized chiral model, in restricting or not the Hilbert space as representation of the intrinsic local field algebra. The question referring to considering the vector Schwinger model as a limit of the generalized anomalous model is also discussed. We show that this limit can only be consistently defined for a field subalgebra of the generalized model.Comment: 40 pages. Latex, to appear in Annals of Physic

The unmasking of thermal Goldstone bosons

The problem of extracting the modes of Goldstone bosons from a thermal background is reconsidered in the framework of relativistic quantum field theory. It is shown that in the case of spontaneous breakdown of an internal bosonic symmetry a recently established decomposition of thermal correlation functions contains certain specific contributions which can be attributed to a particle of zero mass.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX; new and considerably strengthened results after Eq. (14); to appear in Phys. Rev.

Influence of Regional Oceanography on the Distributions, Trophic Interactions, Growth, and Survival of the Early Life History Stages of Fishes

Most marine fishes experience high rates of mortality during their early life history stages with far reaching consequences for adult population dynamics. Within a few weeks of hatching, relatively small changes in larval growth and mortality rates can lead to orders of magnitude variability in year-class strength. Growth and survival during this phase are contingent upon the ability of larvae to find food and avoid predation in a physically and biologically heterogeneous environment. Here, we coupled biological sampling and fine-scale in situ plankton imaging to examine the influence of regional oceanography on larval fish distributions, feeding, and growth in the context of their zooplankton prey and predators in the northern California Current (NCC). Larval fish were strongly affected by two highly dynamic regional oceanographic features in the NCC: coastal upwelling and the Columbia River Plume. While the NCC supports major fisheries whose larval and juvenile stages depend on upwelling driven primary and secondary production, coastal upwelling is highly variable in space and time. In Chapter 2, diet and otolith microstructure analysis showed that the condition of a dominant myctophid (Stenobrachius leucopsarus) reflected the prevailing upwelling conditions. During reduced upwelling, recent growth was substantially slower, guts less full, and diets dominated by low trophic level prey. In contrast, during active upwelling, faster-growing northern lampfish fed on higher quality copepod prey. Yet, larvae exhibited reduced feeding and growth in the most intense upwelling, revealing a dome-shaped relationship with the fastest growth occurring in moderate upwelling conditions. Further, high zooplanktivorous predation pressure on larval northern lampfish led to above average growth, which may indicate the selective loss of slower-growing larvae. Chapter 3 revealed that upwelling also influenced the larval growth of another forage fish, northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax). Northern anchovy otolith-derived recent growth was spatially variable and related to the location of the summer upwelling front. When the front was restricted nearshore, inshore larval anchovy grew significantly faster than offshore. Conversely, when a period of prolonged active upwelling pushed the front to the edge of the continental shelf, offshore anchovy larvae grew significantly faster than inshore. Larval anchovy growth may be constrained by cross-shelf temperature differences and the distribution of nutritious copepod prey that are restricted to the nearshore environment off Oregon in summer. Embedded within the highly dynamic NCC, the tidally modulated Columbia River Plume is an important spawning and nursery ground for many fishes (e.g., northern anchovy, E. mordax). In Chapter 4, data illustrated how the strength and location of the plume front exposed larval fishes to a diversity of unique prey and predator fields over the progression of a tidal cycle. While the plume region provided a substantially higher concentration of prey that are important for the feeding of young fishes occupying this area, this region was also characterized by enhanced spatial overlap of larval fishes and their zooplankton predators relative to oceanic waters. In a separate study, and in partial fulfillment of the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) program at Oregon State University, Chapter 5 switched focus from larval fishes to another component of the plankton: Dungeness crab larvae. Mortality during the early life history stages of Dungeness crab is considered a bottleneck for fishery production, but information on the offshore distribution of the most vulnerable pelagic larval stages is lacking. Fine-scale depth discrete biological sampling over two years revealed that Dungeness crab larvae were not uniformly distributed in time or space, but exhibited distinct spatial distributions within the water column, over the continental shelf, and across latitudes, with larval abundance significantly negatively correlated with in situ temperature and salinity throughout ontogeny. Taken together, this body of work demonstrates that local and regional oceanographic features contribute to variable zooplankton distributions as well as growth and mortality patterns for larval fishes by affecting their trophic interactions. This dissertation illustrates the importance of incorporating food-web dynamics and local and regional oceanographic processes when predicting the response of fish and crab populations to ecosystem variability

Charge density and electric charge in quantum electrodynamics

The convergence of integrals over charge densities is discussed in relation with the problem of electric charge and (non-local) charged states in Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). Delicate, but physically relevant, mathematical points like the domain dependence of local charges as quadratic forms and the time smearing needed for strong convergence of integrals of charge densities are analyzed. The results are applied to QED and the choice of time smearing is shown to be crucial for the removal of vacuum polarization effects responible for the time dependence of the charge (Swieca phenomenon). The possibility of constructing physical charged states in the Feynman-Gupta-Bleuler gauge as limits of local states vectors is discussed, compatibly with the vanishing of the Gauss charge on local states. A modification by a gauge term of the Dirac exponential factor which yields the physical Coulomb fields from the Feynman-Gupta-Bleuler fields is shown to remove the infrared divergence of scalar products of local and physical charged states, allowing for a construction of physical charged fields with well defined correlation functions with local fields

The Sub-leading Magnetic Deformation of the Tricritical Ising Model in 2D as RSOS Restriction of the Izergin-Korepin Model

We compute the $S$-matrix of the Tricritical Ising Model perturbed by the subleading magnetic operator using Smirnov's RSOS reduction of the Izergin-Korepin model. We discuss some features of the scattering theory we obtain, in particular a non trivial implementation of crossing-symmetry, interesting connections between the asymptotic behaviour of the amplitudes, the possibility of introducing generalized statistics, and the monodromy properties of the OPE of the unperturbed Conformal Field Theory.Comment: (13 pages

Two-point Correlation Function in Integrable QFT with Anti-Crossing Symmetry

The two-point correlation function of the stress-energy tensor for the $\Phi_{1,3}$ massive deformation of the non-unitary model ${\cal M}_{3,5}$ is computed. We compare the ultraviolet CFT perturbative expansion of this correlation function with its spectral representation given by a summation over matrix elements of the intermediate asymptotic massive particles. The fast rate of convergence of both approaches provides an explicit example of an accurate interpolation between the infrared and ultraviolet behaviours of a Quantum Field Theory.Comment: 9 pages, LATEX file, ISAS/EP/93/167 (The paper contains two figures: extract them separately with the name fig1.ps and fig2.ps and then LATEX twice the paper

Jorge A. Swieca's contributions to quantum field theory in the 60s and 70s and their relevance in present research

After revisiting some high points of particle physics and QFT of the two decades from 1960 to 1980, I comment on the work by Jorge Andre Swieca. I explain how it fits into the quantum field theory during these two decades and draw attention to its relevance to the ongoing particle physics research. A particular aim of this article is to direct thr readers mindfulness to the relevance of what at the time of Swieca was called "the Schwinger Higgs screening mechanism". which, together with recent ideas which generalize the concept of gauge theories, has all the ingredients to revolutionize the issue of gauge theories and the standard model.Comment: 49 pages, expansion and actualization of text, improvement of formulations and addition of many references to be published in EPJH - Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Physic