QCD at High Energies and Two-Dimensional Field Theory

Previous studies of high-energy scattering in QCD have shown a remarkable correspondence with two-dimensional field theory. In this paper we formulate a simple effective model in which this two-dimensional nature of the interactions is manifest. Starting from the (3+1)-dimensional Yang-Mills action, we implement the high energy limit $s\! >\! > \! t$ via a scaling argument and we derive from this a simplified effective theory. This effective theory is still (3+1)-dimensional, but we show that its interactions can to leading order be summarized in terms of a two-dimensional sigma-model defined on the transverse plane. Finally, we verify that our formulation is consistent with known perturbative results. This is a revised and extended version of hep-th 9302104. In particular, we have added a section that clarifies the connection with Lipatov's gluon emission vertex.Comment: LaTeX-file, 23 pages, no figures, This is a revised and extended version of hep-th 930210

RG-Flow, Gravity and the Cosmological Constant

We study the low energy effective action $S$ of gravity, induced by integrating out gauge and matter fields, in a general class of Randall-Sundrum type string compactification scenarios with exponential warp factors. Our method combines dimensional reduction with the holographic map between between 5-d supergravity and 4-d large $N$ field theory. Using the classical supergravity approximation, we derive a flow equation of the effective action $S$ that controls its behavior under scale transformations. We find that as a result each extremum of $S$ automatically describes a complete RG trajectory of classical solutions. This implies that, provided the cosmological constant is canceled in the high energy theory, classical flat space backgrounds naturally remain stable under the RG-flow. The mechanism responsible for this stability is that the non-zero vacuum energy generated by possible phase transitions, is absorbed by a dynamical adjustment of the contraction rate of the warp factor.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figur

Black Hole Evaporation and Quantum Gravity

In this note we consider some consequences of quantum gravity on the process of black hole evaporation. In particular, we will explain the suggestion by 't Hooft that quantum gravitational interactions effectively exclude simultaneous measurements of the Hawking radiation and of the matter falling into the black hole. The complementarity of these measurements is supported by the fact that the commutators between the corresponding observables can be shown to grow uncontrollably large. The only assumption that is needed to obtain this result is that the creation and annihilation modes of the in-falling and out-going matter act in the same Hilbert space. We further illustrate this phenomenon in the context of two-dimensional dilaton gravity.Comment: 28 pages, LaTex, uses epsf.tex, CERN-TH.7142/94, PUPT-144

Elliptic Genera of Symmetric Products and Second Quantized Strings

In this note we prove an identity that equates the elliptic genus partition function of a supersymmetric sigma model on the N-fold symmetric product $M^N/S_N$ of a manifold M to the partition function of a second quantized string theory on the space $M \times S^1$. The generating function of these elliptic genera is shown to be (almost) an automorphic form for O(3,2,Z). In the context of D-brane dynamics, this result gives a precise computation of the free energy of a gas of D-strings inside a higher-dimensional brane.Comment: 17 pages, latex, 1 figure, to appear in Commun. Math. Phy