197525690
Towards holographic walking from N = 4 super Yang-Mills
15505916
Exact Superpotentials from Matrix Models
Dijkgraaf and Vafa (DV) have conjectured that the exact superpotential for a large class of = 1 SUSY gauge theories can be extracted from the planar limit of a certain holomorphic matrix integral. We test their proposal against existing knowledge for a family of deformations of = 4 SUSY Yang-Mills theory involving an arbitrary polynomial superpotential for one of the three adjoint chiral superfields. Specifically, we compare the DV prediction for these models with earlier results based on the connection between SUSY gauge theories and integrable systems. We find complete agreement between the two approaches. In particular we show how the DV proposal allows the extraction of the exact eigenvalues of the adjoint scalar in the confining vacuum and hence computes all related condensates of the finite-N gauge theory. We extend these results to include Leigh-Strassler deformations of the = 4 theory.
59440238
Vacuum structure and flavor symmetry breaking in supersymmetric SO(nc) gauge theories
We determine the vacuum structure and phases of N=1 theories obtained via a 
mass \mu for the adjoint chiral superfield in N=2, SO(n_c) SQCD. For large 
number of flavors these theories have two groups of vacua. The first exhibits 
dynamical breaking of flavor symmetry \USp(2n_f) \to U(n_f) and arises as a 
relevant deformation of a non-trivial superconformal theory. These are in the 
confined phase. The second group, in an IR-free phase with unbroken flavor 
symmetry, is produced from a Coulomb branch singularity with Seiberg's dual 
gauge symmetry. In the large-\mu regime both groups of vacua are well-described 
by dual quarks and mesons, and dynamical symmetry breaking in the first group 
occurs via meson condensation. We follow the description of these vacua from 
weak to strong coupling and demonstrate a nontrivial agreement between the 
phases and the number of vacua in the two regimes. We construct the 
semiclassical monopole flavor multiplets and argue that their multiplicity is 
consistent with the number of N=1 vacua.
2071005
Spacetime Virasoro algebra from strings on zero radius AdS3
We study bosonic string theory in the light-cone gauge on AdS3 spacetime with zero radius of curvature (in string units) R/(?')1/2 = 0. We find that the worldsheet theory admits an infinite number of conserved quantities which are naturally interpreted as spacetime charges and which form a representation of (two commuting copies of) a Virasoro algebra. Near the boundary of AdS3 these charges are found to be isomorphic to the infinite set of asymptotic Killing vectors of AdS3 found originally by Brown and Henneaux. In addition to the spacetime Virasoro algebra, there is a worldsheet Virasoro algebra that generates diffeomorphisms of the spatial coordinate of the string worldsheet. We find that if the worldsheet Virasoro algebra has a central extension then the spacetime Virasoro algebra acquires a central extension via a mechanism similar to that encountered in the context of the SL(2,) WZW model. Our observations are consistent with a recently proposed duality between bosonic strings on zero radius AdSd+1 and free field theory in d dimensions.
5243610
Non-Abelian Vortices at Weak and Strong Coupling in Mass Deformed ABJM Theory
We find half-BPS vortex solitons, at both weak and strong coupling, in the = 6 supersymmetric mass deformation of ABJM theory with U(N) × U(N) gauge symmetry and Chern-Simons level k. The strong coupling gravity dual is obtained by performing a k quotient of the = 8 supersymmetric eleven dimensional supergravity background of Lin, Lunin and Maldacena corresponding to the mass deformed M2-brane theory. At weak coupling, the BPS vortices preserving six supersymmetries are found in the Higgs vacuum of the theory where the gauge symmetry is broken to U(1) × U(1). The classical vortex solitons break a colour-flavour locked global symmetry resulting in non-Abelian internal orientational moduli and a CP1 moduli space of solutions. At strong coupling and large k, upon reduction to type IIA strings, the vortex moduli space and its action are computed by a probe D0-brane in the dual geometry. The mass of the D0-brane matches the classical vortex mass. However, the gravity picture exhibits a six dimensional moduli space of solutions, a section of which can be identified as the CP1 we find classically, along with a Dirac monopole connection of strength k. It is likely that the extra four dimensions in the moduli space are an artifact of the strong coupling limit and of the supergravity approximation.
18863456
Out of Equilibrium Fields in Inflationary Dynamics. Density Fluctuations
The energy and time scales during the inflationary stage of the universe calls for an out of equilibrium quantum field treatment. Moreover, the high energy densities involved (∼1/g ∼ 1012) make necessary the use of non-perturbative approaches as the large N and Hartree methods. We start these lectures by introducing the such non-perturbative out of equilibrium methods in cosmological universes. We discuss the renormalization procedure and the choice of initial conditions. We then study with these methods the non-linear dynamics of quantum fields in matter and radiation dominated FRW and de Sitter universes. For a variety of initial conditions, we compute the evolution of the inflaton, its quantum fluctuations and the equation of state. We investigate the phenomenon of explosive particle production due to spinodal instabilities and parametric amplification in FRW and de Sitter universes with and without symmetry breaking. We find that the particle production is somewhat sensitive to the expansion of the universe. In the large N limit for symmetry breaking scenarios, we determine generic late time fields behavior for any flat FRW and de Sitter cosmology. We find that quantum fluctuations damp in FRW as the square of the scale factor while the order parameter approaches a minimum of the potential at the same rate. We present a complete and numerically accessible renormalization scheme for the equation of motion and the energy momentum tensor in flat cosmologies. In this scheme the renormalization constants are independent of time and of the initial conditions. Furthermore, we consider an O(N) inflaton model coupled self-consistently to gravity in the semiclassical approximation, where the field is subject to ‘new inflation’ type initial conditions. We study the dynamics self-consistently and non-perturbatively with non-equilibrium field theory methods in the large N limit. We find that spinodal instabilities drive the growth of non-perturbatively large quantum fluctuations which shut off the inflationary growth of the scale factor. We find that a very specific combination of these large fluctuations plus the inflaton zero mode assemble into a new effective field. This new field behaves classically and it is the object which actually rolls down. We show how this reinterpretation qualitatively saves the standard picture of how metric perturbations are generated during inflation and that the spinodal growth of fluctuations dominates the time dependence of the Bardeen variable for superhorizon modes during inflation. We compute the amplitude and index for the spectrum of scalar density and tensor perturbations and argue that in all models of this type the spinodal instabilities are responsible for a ‘red’ spectrum of primordial scalar density perturbations. The decoherence aspects and the quantum to classical transition through inflation are studied in detail by following the full evolution of the density matrix.
118061832
Search for the PN coefficients for the Energy flux through Gravitational Waves from Black-Hole Binaries using Markov Chain Monte Carlo
In this work, the focus is on the improvement of the existing post-Newtonian approximation for the gravitational flux from Super Massive Black Hole Binaries. In order to improve the existing templates for LISA, we need more accurate post-Newtonian expansions for the gravitational flux. Stochastic search techniques like the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) have been used extensively for searching for sky parameters etc. The idea is to combine the two and approach the problem of finding post-Newtonian coefficients using MCMC. It has been shown that matching against a 5.5PN signal, with noise, the last coefficient can be found by MCMC very easily and displays fast convergence. Also the space for higher dimensional searches are explored.
10083588
Gamma-Ray Burst Energetics
We estimate the fraction of the total energy in a gamma-ray burst (GRB) that is radiated in photons during the main burst. Random internal collisions among different shells limit the efficiency for converting bulk kinetic energy to photons. About 1% of the energy of explosion is converted to radiation, in the 10-103 keV energy band in the observer frame, for long-duration bursts (lasting 10 s or more); the efficiency is significantly smaller for shorter duration bursts. Moreover, about 50% of the energy of the initial explosion could be lost to neutrinos during the early phase of the burst if the initial fireball temperature is ~10 MeV. If isotropic, the total energy budget of the brightest GRBs is 1055 ergs, a factor of 20 larger than previously estimated. Anisotropy of explosion, as evidenced in two GRBs, could reduce the energy requirement by a factor of 10-100. Putting these two effects together, we find that the energy release in the most energetic bursts is about 1054 ergs.
119181202
Template banks to search for low-mass binary black holes in advanced gravitational-wave detectors
Coalescing binary black holes (BBHs) are among the most likely sources for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and its international partners Virgo and KAGRA. Optimal searches for BBHs require accurate waveforms for the signal model and effectual template banks that cover the mass space of interest. We investigate the ability of the second-order post-Newtonian TaylorF2 hexagonal template placement metric to construct an effectual template bank, if the template waveforms used are effective one body waveforms tuned to numerical relativity (EOBNRv2). We find that by combining the existing TaylorF2 placement metric with EOBNRv2 waveforms, we can construct an effectual search for BBHs with component masses in the range 3 Msolar = 2.68 radians, there is no significant loss in the total possible signal-to-noise ratio due to neglecting modes other than l = m = 2 in the template waveforms. For a source population uniformly distributed in spacial volume, over the entire sampled region of the component-mass space, the loss in detection rate (averaged over a uniform distribution of inclination angle and sky-location/polarization angles), remains below ~11%. For binaries with high mass-ratios \textit{and} 0.31 <= \iota <= 2.68, including higher order modes could increase the signal-to-noise ratio by as much as 8% in Advanced LIGO. Our results can be used to construct matched-filter searches in Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo.
15665522
The dust scattering model cannot explain the shallow X-ray decay in GRB afterglows
A dust scattering model was recently proposed to explain the shallow X-ray decay (plateau) observed prevalently in Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) early afterglows. In this model, the plateau is the scattered prompt X-ray emission by the dust located close (about 10 to a few hundred pc) to the GRB site. In this paper, we carefully investigate the model and find that the scattered emission undergoes strong spectral softening with time, due to the model’s essential ingredient thatharderX-rayphotonshavesmallerscatteringanglethusarriveearlier,whilesofterphotons suffer larger angle scattering and arrive later. The model predicts a significant change, that is �β ∼ 2–3, in the X-ray spectral index from the beginning of the plateau towards the end of the plateau, while the observed data show close to zero softening during the plateau and the plateau-to-normal transition phase. The scattering model predicts a big difference between the harder X-ray light curve and the softer X-ray light curve, i.e. the plateau in harder X-rays ends much earlier than in softer X-rays. This feature is not seen in the data. The large scattering optical depths of the dust required by the model imply strong extinction in optical, AV 10, which contradicts current findings of AV = 0.1–0.7 from optical and X-ray afterglow observations. We conclude that the dust scattering model cannot explain the X-ray plateaus.
53406604
On the generation of high-energy photons detected by the Fermi Satellite from gamma-ray bursts
Observations of gamma-ray bursts by the Fermi satellite, capable of detecting photons in a very broad energy band: 8 keV to >300 GeV, have opened a new window for the study of these enigmatic explosions. It is widely assumed that photons of energy larger than 100 MeV are produced by the same source that generated lower energy photons – at least whenever the shape of the spectrum is a Band function. We report here a surprising result – the Fermi data for a bright burst, GRB 080916C, unambiguously shows that the high-energy photons (≳102 MeV) were generated in the external shock via the synchrotron process, and the lower energy photons had a distinctly different source. The magnetic field in the region where high-energy photons were produced (and also the late-time afterglow emission region) is found to be consistent with shock compressed magnetic field of the circum-stellar medium. This result sheds light on the important question of the origin of magnetic fields required for gamma-ray burst afterglows. The external shock model for high-energy radiation makes a firm prediction that can be tested with existing and future observations.