Thermal effects in perturbative noncommutative gauge theories

The thermodynamics of gauge theories on the noncommutative plane is studied in perturbation theory. For U(1) noncommutative Yang-Mills we compute the first quantum correction to the ideal gas free energy density and study their behavior in the low and high temperature regimes. Since the noncommutativity scale effectively cutoff interactions at large distances, the theory is regular in the infrared. In the case of U(N) noncommutative Yang-Mills we evaluate the two-loop free energy density and find that it depends on the noncommutativity parameter through the contribution of non-planar diagrams.Comment: 15 pages, harvmac. Minor changes with respect to v2. Footnote expanded, remark added in Section 3, typos corrected and references added. Final version to be published in JHE

On 't Hooft's S-matrix Ansatz for quantum black holes

The S-matrix Ansatz has been proposed by 't Hooft to overcome difficulties and apparent contradictions of standard quantum field theory close to the black hole horizon. In this paper we revisit and explore some of its aspects. We start by computing gravitational backreaction effects on the properties of the Hawking radiation and explain why a more powerful formalism is needed to encode them. We then use the map bulk-boundary fields to investigate the nature of exchange algebras satisfied by operators associated with ingoing and outgoing matter. We propose and comment on some analogies between the non covariant form of the S-matrix amplitude and liquid droplet physics to end up with similarities with string theory amplitudes via an electrostatic analogy. We finally recall the difficulties that one encounters when trying to incorporate non linear gravity effects in 't Hooft's S-matrix and observe how the inclusion of higher order derivatives might help in the black hole microstate counting.Comment: 22 Pages. Latex Fil

Boundary description of Planckian scattering in curved spacetimes

We show that for an eikonal limit of gravity in a space-time of any dimension with a non-vanishing cosmological constant, the Einstein -- Hilbert action reduces to a boundary action. This boundary action describes the interaction of shock-waves up to the point of evolution at which the forward light-cone of a collision meets the boundary of the space-time. The conclusions are quite general and in particular generalize the previous work of E. and H. Verlinde. The role of the off-diagonal Einstein action in removing the bulk part of the action is emphasised. We discuss the sense in which our result is a particular example of holography and also the relation of our solutions in $AdS$ to those of Horowitz and Itzhaki

A Diffusion Model for SU(N) QCD Screening

We consider a phenomenological model for the dynamics of Wilson loops in pure SU(N) QCD where the expectation value of the loop is the average over an interacting diffusion process on the group manifold SU(N). The interaction is provided by an arbitrary potential that generates the transition from the Casimir scaling regime into the screening phase of the four-dimensional gauge theory. The potential is required to respect the underlying center symmetry of the gauge theory, and this predicts screening of arbitrary SU(N) representations to the corresponding antisymmetric representations of the same N-ality. The stable strings before the onset of screening are therefore the k-strings. In the process we find a non-trivial but solvable modification of the QCD_2 matrix model that involves an arbitrary potential

Implementing holographic projections in Ponzano--Regge gravity

We consider the path-sum of Ponzano-Regge with additional boundary contributions in the context of the holographic principle of Quantum Gravity. We calculate an holographic projection in which the bulk partition function goes to a semi-classical limit while the boundary state functional remains quantum-mechanical. The properties of the resulting boundary theory are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, late

Alteration of Condensed Tannin Sythesis in Transgenic Forage Legumes

The transformation of Lotus corniculatus plants with the maize gene Sn, reorganizes the tissue specificity of condensed tannins accumulation. In particular the transformed plants show an increase of tannin content in roots and a decrease in leaves. Molecular and enzymatic analyses suggest that the transgene can functionally substitute an endogenous unknown gene not expressed in roots and induces its silencing when it is expressed. These findings could have applications for reducing tannin content in unpalatable plants and for cloning genes involved in tannin synthesis

The boundary field theory induced by the Chern-Simons theory

The Chern-Simons theory defined on a 3-dimensional manifold with boundary is written as a two-dimensional field theory defined only on the boundary of the three-manifold. The resulting theory is, essentially, the pullback to the boundary of a symplectic structure defined on the space of auxiliary fields in terms of which the connection one-form of the Chern-Simons theory is expressed when solving the condition of vanishing curvature. The counting of the physical degrees of freedom living in the boundary associated to the model is performed using Dirac's canonical analysis for the particular case of the gauge group SU(2). The result is that the specific model has one physical local degree of freedom. Moreover, the role of the boundary conditions on the original Chern- Simons theory is displayed and clarified in an example, which shows how the gauge content as well as the structure of the constraints of the induced boundary theory is affected.Comment: 10 page

Expected and unexpected behavior of the orientational order and dynamics induced by azobenzene solutes in a nematic

We have explored the changes in the phase stability, orientational order, and dynamics of the nematic 4-cyano-4¢-n-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) doped with either the trans or the cis form of different p-azobenzene derivatives using the ESR spin-probe technique. In particular, we have studied the effects induced by each of the seven nonmesogenic 4-R-phenylazobenzenes (R = H, F, Br, CH3, CF3, On-Bu, Ot-Bu) at 1% and 7% mole fraction on the order parameter and on the shift of the nematic-isotropic transition temperature (TNI), as reported by a nitroxide spin probe, and we have tried to relate them to the solute shape and charge distribution. In all the cases the presence of the azo-derivative causes a depression of TNI, more pronounced for the cis isomers. The dependence of on the reduced temperature T*=T/TNI remains the same as that of pure 5CB in all trans-doped samples at 1% and 7% and decreases only slightly in the cis at 1%. However, we observe different and in some cases large variations (up to 25%) in for the cis at 7%, showing solute effects that go beyond the shift in TNI. Surprisingly enough, even at the highest concentration, the probe dynamics appears to be essentially independent of the nature, the configuration, and the concentration of the different solutes and very similar to that observed in the pure 5CB

On the stringy nature of winding modes in noncommutative thermal field theories

We show that thermal noncommutative field theories admit a version of `channel duality' reminiscent of open/closed string duality, where non-planar thermal loops can be replaced by an infinite tower of tree-level exchanges of effective fields. These effective fields resemble closed strings in three aspects: their mass spectrum is that of closed-string winding modes, their interaction vertices contain extra moduli, and they can be regarded as propagating in a higher-dimensional `bulk' space-time. In noncommutative models that can be embedded in a D-brane, we show the precise relation between the effective `winding fields' and closed strings propagating off the D-brane. The winding fields represent the coherent coupling of the infinite tower of closed-string oscillator states. We derive a sum rule that expresses this effective coupling in terms of the elementary couplings of closed strings to the D-brane. We furthermore clarify the relation between the effective propagating dimension of the winding fields and the true codimension of the D-brane

Dynamics and Stability of Black Rings

We examine the dynamics of neutral black rings, and identify and analyze a selection of possible instabilities. We find the dominating forces of very thin black rings to be a Newtonian competition between a string-like tension and a centrifugal force. We study in detail the radial balance of forces in black rings, and find evidence that all fat black rings are unstable to radial perturbations, while thin black rings are radially stable. Most thin black rings, if not all of them, also likely suffer from Gregory-Laflamme instabilities. We also study simple models for stability against emission/absorption of massless particles. Our results point to the conclusion that most neutral black rings suffer from classical dynamical instabilities, but there may still exist a small range of parameters where thin black rings are stable. We also discuss the absence of regular real Euclidean sections of black rings, and thermodynamics in the grand-canonical ensemble.Comment: 39 pages, 17 figures; v2: conclusions concerning radial stability corrected + new appendix + refs added; v3: additional comments regarding stabilit