1,381 research outputs found
Quantisation without Gauge Fixing: Avoiding Gribov Ambiguities through the Physical Projector
The quantisation of gauge invariant systems usually proceeds through some
gauge fixing procedure of one type or another. Typically for most cases, such
gauge fixings are plagued by Gribov ambiguities, while it is only for an
admissible gauge fixing that the correct dynamical description of the system is
represented, especially with regards to non perturbative phenomena. However,
any gauge fixing procedure whatsoever may be avoided altogether, by using
rather a recently proposed new approach based on the projection operator onto
physical gauge invariant states only, which is necessarily free on any such
issues. These different aspects of gauge invariant systems are explicitely
analysed within a solvable U(1) gauge invariant quantum mechanical model
related to the dimensional reduction of Yang-Mills theory.Comment: 22 pages, no figures, plain LaTeX fil
Topological Background Fields as Quantum Degrees of Freedom of Compactified Strings
It is shown that background fields of a topological character usually
introduced as such in compactified string theories correspond to quantum
degrees of freedom which parametrise the freedom in choosing a representation
of the zero mode quantum algebra in the presence of non-trivial topology. One
consequence would appear to be that the values of such quantum degrees of
freedom, in other words of the associated topological background fields, cannot
be determined by the nonperturbative string dynamics.Comment: 1+10 pages, no figure
Revisiting the Fradkin-Vilkovisky Theorem
The status of the usual statement of the Fradkin-Vilkovisky theorem, claiming
complete independence of the Batalin-Fradkin-Vilkovisky path integral on the
gauge fixing "fermion" even within a nonperturbative context, is critically
reassessed. Basic, but subtle reasons why this statement cannot apply as such
in a nonperturbative quantisation of gauge invariant theories are clearly
identified. A criterion for admissibility within a general class of gauge
fixing conditions is provided for a large ensemble of simple gauge invariant
systems. This criterion confirms the conclusions of previous counter-examples
to the usual statement of the Fradkin-Vilkovisky theorem.Comment: 21 pages, no figures, to appear in Jnl. Phys.
Topologically Massive Gauge Theories and their Dual Factorised Gauge Invariant Formulation
There exists a well-known duality between the Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory and
the self-dual massive model in 2+1 dimensions. This dual description has been
extended to topologically massive gauge theories (TMGT) in any dimension. This
Letter introduces an unconventional approach to the construction of this type
of duality through a reparametrisation of the master theory action. The dual
action thereby obtained preserves the same gauge symmetry structure as the
original theory. Furthermore, the dual action is factorised into a propagating
sector of massive gauge invariant variables and a sector with gauge variant
variables defining a pure topological field theory. Combining results obtained
within the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations, a new completed structure
for a gauge invariant dual factorisation of TMGT is thus achieved.Comment: 1+7 pages, no figure
On Electric Fields in Low Temperature Superconductors
The manifestly Lorentz covariant Landau-Ginzburg equations coupled to
Maxwell's equations are considered as a possible framework for the effective
description of the interactions between low temperature superconductors and
magnetic as well as electric fields. A specific experimental set-up, involving
a nanoscopic superconductor and only static applied fields whose geometry is
crucial however, is described, which should allow to confirm or invalidate the
covariant model through the determination of the temperature dependency of the
critical magnetic-electric field phase diagram and the identification of some
distinctive features it should display.Comment: 14 pages (Latex) + 2 postscript figure
The N=1 Supersymmetric Landau Problem and its Supersymmetric Landau Level Projections: the N=1 Supersymmetric Moyal-Voros Superplane
The N=1 supersymmetric invariant Landau problem is constructed and solved. By
considering Landau level projections remaining non trivial under N=1
supersymmetry transformations, the algebraic structures of the N=1
supersymmetric covariant non(anti)commutative superplane analogue of the
ordinary N=0 noncommutative Moyal-Voros plane are identified
Gauge Invariant Factorisation and Canonical Quantisation of Topologically Massive Gauge Theories in Any Dimension
Abelian topologically massive gauge theories (TMGT) provide a topological
mechanism to generate mass for a bosonic p-tensor field in any spacetime
dimension. These theories include the 2+1 dimensional Maxwell-Chern-Simons and
3+1 dimensional Cremmer-Scherk actions as particular cases. Within the
Hamiltonian formulation, the embedded topological field theory (TFT) sector
related to the topological mass term is not manifest in the original phase
space. However through an appropriate canonical transformation, a gauge
invariant factorisation of phase space into two orthogonal sectors is feasible.
The first of these sectors includes canonically conjugate gauge invariant
variables with free massive excitations. The second sector, which decouples
from the total Hamiltonian, is equivalent to the phase space description of the
associated non dynamical pure TFT. Within canonical quantisation, a likewise
factorisation of quantum states thus arises for the full spectrum of TMGT in
any dimension. This new factorisation scheme also enables a definition of the
usual projection from TMGT onto topological quantum field theories in a most
natural and transparent way. None of these results rely on any gauge fixing
procedure whatsoever.Comment: 1+25 pages, no figure
World-line Quantisation of a Reciprocally Invariant System
We present the world-line quantisation of a system invariant under the
symmetries of reciprocal relativity (pseudo-unitary transformations on ``phase
space coordinates" which preserve the Minkowski
metric and the symplectic form, and global shifts in these coordinates,
together with coordinate dependent transformations of an additional compact
phase coordinate, ). The action is that of free motion over the
corresponding Weyl-Heisenberg group. Imposition of the first class constraint,
the generator of local time reparametrisations, on physical states enforces
identification of the world-line cosmological constant with a fixed value of
the quadratic Casimir of the quaplectic symmetry group , the semi-direct product of the pseudo-unitary group with
the Weyl-Heisenberg group (the central extension of the global translation
group, with central extension associated to the phase variable ).
The spacetime spectrum of physical states is identified. Even though for an
appropriate range of values the restriction enforced by the cosmological
constant projects out negative norm states from the physical spectrum, leaving
over spin zero states only, the mass-squared spectrum is continuous over the
entire real line and thus includes a tachyonic branch as well
The Physical Projector and Topological Quantum Field Theories: U(1) Chern-Simons Theory in 2+1 Dimensions
The recently proposed physical projector approach to the quantisation of
gauge invariant systems is applied to the U(1) Chern-Simons theory in 2+1
dimensions as one of the simplest examples of a topological quantum field
theory. The physical projector is explicitely demonstrated to be capable of
effecting the required projection from the initially infinite number of degrees
of freedom to the finite set of gauge invariant physical states whose
properties are determined by the topology of the underlying manifold.Comment: 24 pages, no figures, plain LaTeX file; one more reference added.
Final version to appear in Jour. Phys.
Computation of periodic solution bifurcations in ODEs using bordered systems
We consider numerical methods for the computation and continuation of the three generic secondary periodic solution bifurcations in autonomous ODEs, namely the fold, the period-doubling (or flip) bifurcation, and the torus (or Neimark–Sacker) bifurcation. In the fold and flip cases we append one scalar equation to the standard periodic BVP that defines the periodic solution; in the torus case four scalar equations are appended. Evaluation of these scalar equations and their derivatives requires the solution of linear BVPs, whose sparsity structure (after discretization) is identical to that of the linearization of the periodic BVP. Therefore the calculations can be done using existing numerical linear algebra techniques, such as those implemented in the software AUTO and COLSYS
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