Twisted Open Strings from Closed Strings: The WZW Orientation Orbifolds

Including {\it world-sheet orientation-reversing automorphisms} $\hat{h}_{\sigma} \in H_-$ in the orbifold program, we construct the operator algebras and twisted KZ systems of the general WZW {\it orientation orbifold} $A_g (H_-) /H_-$. We find that the orientation-orbifold sectors corresponding to each $\hat{h}_{\sigma} \in H_-$ are {\it twisted open} WZW strings, whose properties are quite distinct from conventional open-string orientifold sectors. As simple illustrations, we also discuss the classical (high-level) limit of our construction and free-boson examples on abelian $g$.Comment: 65 pages, typos correcte

Further search for a neutral boson with a mass around 9 MeV/c2

Two dedicated experiments on internal pair conversion (IPC) of isoscalar M1 transitions were carried out in order to test a 9 MeV/c2 X-boson scenario. In the 7Li(p,e+e-)8Be reaction at 1.1 MeV proton energy to the predominantly T=0 level at 18.15 MeV, a significant deviation from IPC was observed at large pair correlation angles. In the 11B(d,n e+e-)12C reaction at 1.6 MeV, leading to the 12.71 MeV 1+ level with pure T=0 character, an anomaly was observed at 9 MeV/c2. The compatibility of the results with the scenario is discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Metal-Insulator transition in the Generalized Hubbard model

We present the exact ground-state wave function and energy of the generalized Hubbard model, subjected to the condition that the number of double occupied sites is conserved, for a wide, physically relevant range of parameters. For one hole and one double occupied site the existence of the ferromagnetic ground-state is proved which allow one to determine the critical value of the on-site repulsion corresponding to the point of metal-insulator transition. For the one dimensional model the exact solution for special values of the parameters is obtained.Comment: 20 pages, LaTex. Mod.Phys.Lett.B 7 (1993) 1397; Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter (to appear

Membranes for Topological M-Theory

We formulate a theory of topological membranes on manifolds with G_2 holonomy. The BRST charges of the theories are the superspace Killing vectors (the generators of global supersymmetry) on the background with reduced holonomy G_2. In the absence of spinning formulations of supermembranes, the starting point is an N=2 target space supersymmetric membrane in seven euclidean dimensions. The reduction of the holonomy group implies a twisting of the rotations in the tangent bundle of the branes with ``R-symmetry'' rotations in the normal bundle, in contrast to the ordinary spinning formulation of topological strings, where twisting is performed with internal U(1) currents of the N=(2,2) superconformal algebra. The double dimensional reduction on a circle of the topological membrane gives the strings of the topological A-model (a by-product of this reduction is a Green-Schwarz formulation of topological strings). We conclude that the action is BRST-exact modulo topological terms and fermionic equations of motion. We discuss the role of topological membranes in topological M-theory and the relation of our work to recent work by Hitchin and by Dijkgraaf et al.Comment: 22 pp, plain tex. v2: refs. adde

Testing the membrane paradigm with holography

One version of the membrane paradigm states that as far as outside observers are concerned, black holes can be replaced by a dissipative membrane with simple physical properties located at the stretched horizon. We demonstrate that such a membrane paradigm is incomplete in several aspects. We argue that it generically fails to capture the massive quasinormal modes, unless we replace the stretched horizon by the exact event horizon, and illustrate this with a scalar field in a BTZ black hole background. We also consider as a concrete example linearized metric perturbations of a five-dimensional AdS-Schwarzschild black brane and show that a spurious excitation appears in the long-wavelength response that is only removed from the spectrum when the membrane paradigm is replaced by ingoing boundary conditions at the event horizon. We interpret this excitation in terms of an additional Goldstone boson that appears due to symmetry breaking by the classical solution ending on the stretched horizon rather than the event horizon.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; v2: improved presentation, typos fixed, figure fixed, conclusions unchanged; v3: further improvements in the presentation, conclusions unchanged; v4: shortened, published versio