118704552
Massive higher spins from BRST and tractors
Abstract We obtain the higher spin tractor equations of motion conjectured by Gover et al. from a BRST approach and use those methods to prove that they describe massive, partially massless and massless higher spins in conformally flat backgrounds. The tractor description makes invariance under local choices of unit systems manifest. In this approach, physical models are described by conformal, rather than (pseudo-)Riemannian geometry. In particular masses become geometric quantities, namely the weights of tractor fields. Massive models can therefore be handled in a unified and simple manner mimicking the gauge principle usually employed for massless models. From a holographic viewpoint, these models describe both the bulk and boundary theories in terms of conformal geometry. This is an important advance, because tying the boundary conformal structure to that of the bulk theory gives greater control over a bulk–boundary correspondence.
119103201
A continuous Wick rotation for spinor fields and supersymmetry in Euclidean space
We obtain a continuous Wick rotation for Dirac, Majorana and Weyl spinors $\psi \to \exp ({1\over 2} \theta \gamma^4 \gamma^5)\psi$ which interpolates between Minkowski and Euclidean field theories.
16066542
Spinors on manifolds with boundary: APS index theorems with torsion
Index theorems for the Dirac operator allow one to study spinors on manifolds with boundary and torsion. We analyse the modifications of the boundary Chern-Simons correction and APS η invariant in the presence of torsion. The bulk contribution must also be modified and is computed using a supersymmetric quantum mechanics representation. Here we find agreement with existing results which employed heat kernel and Pauli-Villars techniques. Nonetheless, this computation also provides a stringent check of the Feynman rules of de Boer et al. for the computation of quantum mechanical path integrals. Our results can be verified via a duality relation between manifolds admitting a Killing-Yano tensor and manifolds with torsion. As an explicit example, we compute the indices of Taub-NUT and its dual constructed using this method and find agreement for any finite radius to the boundary. We also suggest a resolution to the problematic appearance of the Nieh-Yan invariant multiplied by the regulator (mass) 2 in computations of the chiral gravitational anomaly coupled to torsion.
16060426
Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics and Super-Lichnerowicz Algebras
We present supersymmetric, curved space, quantum mechanical models based on deformations of a parabolic subalgebra of osp(2p+2|Q). The dynamics are governed by a spinning particle action whose internal coordinates are Lorentz vectors labeled by the fundamental representation of osp(2p|Q). The states of the theory are tensors or spinor-tensors on the curved background while conserved charges correspond to the various differential geometry operators acting on these. The Hamiltonian generalizes Lichnerowicz’s wave/Laplace operator. It is central, and the models are supersymmetric whenever the background is a symmetric space, although there is an osp(2p|Q) superalgebra for any curved background. The lowest purely bosonic example (2p, Q) = (2, 0) corresponds to a deformed Jacobi group and describes Lichnerowicz’s original algebra of constant curvature, differential geometric operators acting on symmetric tensors. The case (2p, Q) = (0, 1) is simply the $${\mathcal N} = 1$$ superparticle whose supercharge amounts to the Dirac operator acting on spinors. The (2p, Q) = (0, 2) model is the $${\mathcal N} = 2$$ supersymmetric quantum mechanics corresponding to differential forms. (This latter pair of models are supersymmetric on any Riemannian background.) When Q is odd, the models apply to spinor-tensors. The (2p, Q) = (2, 1) model is distinguished by admitting a central Lichnerowicz-Dirac operator when the background is constant curvature. The new supersymmetric models are novel in that the Hamiltonian is not just a square of super charges, but rather a sum of commutators of supercharges and commutators of bosonic charges. These models and superalgebras are a very useful tool for any study involving high rank tensors and spinors on manifolds.
5028777
Quantum cosmology and conformal invariance.
According to Belinsky, Khalatnikov, and Lifshitz, gravity near a spacelike singularity reduces to a set of decoupled one-dimensional mechanical models at each point in space. We point out that these models fall into a class of conformal mechanical models first introduced by de Alfaro, Fubini, and Furlan (DFF). The deformation used by DFF to render the spectrum discrete corresponds to a negative cosmological constant. The wave function of the Universe is the zero-energy eigenmode of the Hamiltonian, or the spherical vector of the representation of the conformal group SO(1,2). A new class of conformal quantum mechanical models with enhanced ADE symmetry is constructed, based on the quantization of nilpotent coadjoint orbits.
11655832
Automorphic Forms: A Physicist's Survey
These Notes are an introduction to automorphic forms, from a physicist viewpoint. Basic concepts are introduced via the simple $Sl(2)$ Eisenstein and Jacobi theta series. The general construction of continuous representations and of their accompanying Eisenstein series is detailed for $Sl(3)$. Thereafter we present nilpotent representations and their theta series for arbitrary simply-laced groups based on our recent work. New results results on the geometrical interpretation of minimal representations are included, implying e.g. that $E_6$ acts on SO(5,5) pure spinors. We close with comments about applications of automorphic forms to the supermembrane and to quantum cosmology.
119108691
Combining neutrino oscillation experiments with the Feldman–Cousins method
In this paper we describe how two or more experimental results can be combined within the procedure of Feldman and Cousins, to provide combined confidence limits on the physical parameters of interest. We demonstrate the technique by combining the recent electron neutrino appearance results from T2K and MINOS. Our best fit point is sin2 2θ13 = 0.08 (0.11) and δ = 1.1 (2.0)π; in addition we exclude sin2 2θ13 = 0 at 2.7σ (2.8σ) for the normal (inverted) neutrino mass hierarchy.
119317491
Is Quantum Gravity a Chern{Simons Theory?
We propose a model of quantum gravity in arbitrary dimensions dened in terms of the BV quantization of a supersymmetric, innite dimensional matrix model. This gives an (AKSZ-type) Chern{Simons theory with gauge algebra the space of observables of a quantum mechanical Hilbert spaceH. The model is motivated by previous attempts to formulate gravity in terms of non-commutative, phase space, eld theories as well as the Feerman{ Graham curved analog of Dirac spaces for conformally invariant wave equations. The eld