Calibrated Surfaces and Supersymmetric Wilson Loops

We study the dual gravity description of supersymmetric Wilson loops whose expectation value is unity. They are described by calibrated surfaces that end on the boundary of anti de-Sitter space and are pseudo-holomorphic with respect to an almost complex structure on an eight-dimensional slice of AdS_5 x S^5. The regularized area of these surfaces vanishes, in agreement with field theory non-renormalization theorems for the corresponding operators.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figure

QCD Mass Inequalities in the Heavy Quark Limit

QCD inequalities are derived for the masses of mesons and baryons containing a single heavy quark using the heavy quark effective field theory. A rigorous lower bound is obtained for the $\bar\Lambda$ parameters of the heavy quark effective theory that parameterize $1/m$ corrections, $\bar\Lambda$ > 237 MeV for mesons, and $\bar \Lambda > 657$ MeV for baryons. The inequalities on $\bar\Lambda$ imply the inequalities $m_c < 1627$ MeV and $m_b < 5068$ MeV for the mass parameters of the heavy quark effective field theory.Comment: 10 pages, 0 figures, uses harvma

Properties of Baryons Containing a Heavy Quark in the Skyrme Model

The properties of baryons containing one heavy quark are studied in the Skyrme model, where they are treated as bound states of a heavy meson with an $SU(2)$ chiral soliton. In the large $N_c$ limit, the baryon spectrum is an infinite tower of degenerate states with isospin and spin of the light degrees of freedom $I=s_\ell=0,1,2,\dots$, and total spin s=\abs{s_\ell\pm1/2}. Exotic states with no quark model analogues in the large $N_c$ limit are found to be unbound. The $\Sigma_c-\Lambda_c$ mass difference is computed and found to be in good agreement with experiment. The $\Sigma_c\,\Sigma_c\,\pi$ and $\Sigma_c\,\Lambda_c\,\pi$ coupling constants are calculated to leading order in $N_c$ in terms of $g_A$, the axial coupling constant of the nucleon. We discuss the extension of our results to $SU(3)$ chiral solitons.Comment: (28 pages, 0 figures, uses harvmac.tex

Baryon-Pion Couplings from Large-N QCD

We derive a set of consistency conditions for the pion-baryon coupling constants in the large-N limit of QCD. The consistency conditions have a unique solution which are precisely the values for the pion-baryon coupling constants in the Skyrme model. We also prove that non-relativistic $SU(2N_f)$ spin-flavor symmetry (where $N_f$ is the number of light flavors) is a symmetry of the baryon-pion couplings in the large-N limit of QCD. The symmetry breaking corrections to the pion-baryon couplings vanish to first order in $1/N$. Consistency conditions for other couplings, such as the magnetic moments are also derived.Comment: (12 pages, 2 figs, uses harvmac and uufiles), UCSD/PTH 93-1

The Baryon Isgur-Wise Function in the Large NcN_c Limit

In the large $N_c$ limit, the $\Lambda_b$ and $\Lambda_c$ can be treated as bound states of chiral solitons and mesons containing a heavy quark. We show that the soliton and heavy meson are bound in an attractive harmonic oscillator potential. The Isgur-Wise function for $\Lambda_b\rightarrow\Lambda_c\, e^-\,\bar\nu_e$ decay is computed in the large $N_c$ limit. Corrections to the form factor which depend on $m_N/ m_Q$ can be summed exactly ($m_N$ and $m_Q$ are the nucleon and heavy quark masses). We find that this symmetry breaking correction at zero recoil is only $1\%$.Comment: 18 pages, 0 figures, uses harvma

BPS Wilson Loops on S^2 at Higher Loops

We consider supersymmetric Wilson loops of the variety constructed by Drukker, Giombi, Ricci, and Trancanelli, whose spatial contours lie on a two-sphere. Working to second order in the 't Hooft coupling in planar N=4 Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory (SYM), we compute the vacuum expectation value of a wavy-latitude and of a loop composed of two longitudes. We evaluate the resulting integrals numerically and find that the results are consistent with the zero-instanton sector calculation of Wilson loops in 2-d Yang-Mills on S^2 performed by Bassetto and Griguolo. We also consider the connected correlator of two distinct latitudes to third order in the 't Hooft coupling in planar N=4 SYM. We compare the result in the limit where the latitudes become coincident to a perturbative calculation in 2-d Yang-Mills on S^2 using a light-cone Wu-Mandelstam-Leibbrandt prescription. We are not able to calculate the SYM result at the required order in the separation between the latitudes necessary for a match with 2-d Yang-Mills; the result, however, does not preclude such a match.Comment: 39 pages, 15 figures. v2 references added, minor cosmetic changes. v3 minor error in eq. (40) corrected. v4 error in coincident limit of correlator corrected; claims of disagreement with 2-d Yang-Mills retracte

Baryons Containing a Heavy Quark as Solitons

The possibility of interpreting baryons containing a single heavy quark as bound states of solitons (that arise in the nonlinear sigma model) and heavy mesons is explored. Particular attention is paid to the parity of the bound states and to the role of heavy quark symmetry.Comment: 15 pages, uses phyzzx.tex and tables.tex, REVISED VERSION: Some of the results have changed because of a crucial minus sign, CALT-68-1783 and UCSD/PTH 92-1

Consistency in Regularizations of the Gauged NJL Model at One Loop Level

In this work we revisit questions recently raised in the literature associated to relevant but divergent amplitudes in the gauged NJL model. The questions raised involve ambiguities and symmetry violations which concern the model's predictive power at one loop level. Our study shows by means of an alternative prescription to handle divergent amplitudes, that it is possible to obtain unambiguous and symmetry preserving amplitudes. The procedure adopted makes use solely of {\it general} properties of an eventual regulator, thus avoiding an explicit form. We find, after a thorough analysis of the problem that there are well established conditions to be fulfiled by any consistent regularization prescription in order to avoid the problems of concern at one loop level.Comment: 22 pages, no figures, LaTeX, to appear in Phys.Rev.

Pair production of neutralinos via gluon-gluon collisions

The production of a neutralino pair via gluon-gluon fusion is studied in the minimal supersymmetric model(MSSM) at proton-proton colliders. The numerical analysis of their production rates are carried out in the mSUGRA scenario. The results show that this cross section may reach about 80 femto barn for $\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{1}\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2}$ pair production and 23 femto barn for $\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2}\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2}$ pair production with suitable input parameters at the future LHC collider. It shows that this loop mediated process can be competitive with the quark-antiquark annihilation process at the LHC.Comment: LaTex file, l4 pages, 5 EPS figure

Dirac theory within the Standard-Model Extension

The modified Dirac equation in the Lorentz-violating Standard-Model Extension (SME) is considered. Within this framework, the construction of a hermitian Hamiltonian to all orders in the Lorentz-breaking parameters is investigated, discrete symmetries and the first-order roots of the dispersion relation are determined, and various properties of the eigenspinors are discussed.Comment: 11 pages REVTe