Low Energy Effective Field Theories of Sp(4) Spin systems

We study the classical and quantum phase transitions of Sp(4) spin systems on three dimensional stacked square and triangular lattices. We present general Ginzburg-Landau field theories for various types of Sp(4) spin orders with different ground state manifolds such as CP(3), S^7/Z_2, Grassmann manifold G_{2,5}, G_{2,6} and so on, based on which the nature of the classical phase transitions are studied, and a global phase diagram is presented. The classical phase transitions close to quantum phase transitions toward spin liquid states are also discussed based on renormalization group (RG) flow. Our results can be directly applied to the simplest Sp(4) and SU(4) Heisenberg models which can be realized using spin-3/2 atoms and Alkaline earth atoms trapped in optical lattice.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

On the Z2Z_2 classification of Quantum Spin Hall Models

We propose an alternative formulation of the $Z_2$ topological index for quantum spin Hall systems and band insulators when time reversal invariance is not broken. The index is expressed in terms of the Chern numbers of the bands of the model, and a connection with the number of pairs of robust edge states is thus established. The alternative index is easy to compute in most cases of interest. We also discuss connections with the recently proposed spin Chern number for quantum spin Hall models.Comment: Presentation changed to improve clarity, some technical aspects of the topological arguments including material previously cited as unpublished notes have now been added as an appendi

Spectral Functions, Maximum Entropy Method and Unconventional Methods in Lattice Field Theory

We present two unconventional methods of extracting information from hadronic 2-point functions produced by Monte Carlo simulations. The first is an extension of earlier work by Leinweber which combines a QCD Sum Rule approach with lattice data. The second uses the Maximum Entropy Method to invert the 2-point data to obtain estimates of the spectral function. The first approach is applied to QCD data, and the second method is applied to the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model in (2+1)D. Both methods promise to augment the current approach where physical quantities are extracted by fitting to pure exponentials.Comment: Paper presented at the Workshop on Lattice Hadron Physics, July 2001, Cairns, Australia. 5 pages. Minor spelling error correcte

Some Non-Perturbative Aspects of Gauge Fixing in Two Dimensional Yang-Mills Theory

Gauge fixing in general is incomplete, such that one solves some of the gauge constraints, quantizes, then imposes any residual gauge symmetries (Gribov copies) on the wavefunctions. While the Fadeev-Popov determinant keeps track of the local metric on this gauge fixed surface, the global topology of the reduced configuration space can be different depending on the treatment of the residual symmetries, which can in turn affect global properties of the theory such as the vacuum wavefunction. Pure $SU(N)$ gauge theory in two dimensions provides a simple yet non-trivial example where the above structure and effects can be elucidated explicitly, thus displaying physical effects of the treatment of Gribov copies.Comment: 3 pages (14.2kb), LaTeX + uufiles: 1 PS figure and sty file, Talk presented at LATTICE 93, ITFA-93-3

Scirtothrips perseae (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) : a new species infesting avocado in southern California

Scirtothrips perseae new species is described. It is a pest of avocado in southern California