121030693
Vacuum polarization in curved backgrounds deduced from Hadamard kernels
The point‐splitting method of regularization is applied to alternative Hadamard kernels, for scalar fields in curved backgrounds, in order to study the polarization term in the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the energy‐momentum tensor. An ansatz to define this term is introduced and verified in several cases. The renormalized VEV of the energy‐momentum tensor of a scalar massive conformally coupled field in a Robertson–Walker universe is explicitly computed. Two terms appear, the polarization term, which coincides with the one computed using the above‐mentioned ansatz, and a creation of particle term.
1383405
Free field realization of superstring theory on AdS3
Fil: Hofman, Diego M. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas; Argentina
122296725
Intrinsic normal-ordered vertex operators from the multiloop N-tachyon amplitude
Abstract We construct vertex operators for arbitrary mass level states of the closed bosonic string. Starting from a generalization of the Koba-Nielsen amplitude which is suitable for an arbitrary genus Riemann surface, we read the vertex operators from the residues of the poles for the intermediate states. Since the original expression is metric independent and normal ordered without the need of inventing any regularization scheme, our vertex operators also possess these properties. We discuss their general features.
119116593
Coulomb integrals and conformal blocks in the AdS3-WZNW model
We study spectral flow preserving four-point correlation functions in the AdS3-WZNW model using the Coulomb gas method on the sphere. We present a multiple integral realization of the conformal blocks and explicitly compute amplitudes involving operators with quantized values of the sum of their spins, i.e., requiring an integer number of screening charges of the first kind. The result is given as a sum over the independent configurations of screening contours yielding a monodromy invariant expansion in powers of the worldsheet moduli. We then examine the factorization limit and show that the leading terms in the sum can be identified, in the semiclassical limit, with products of spectral flow conserving three-point functions. These terms can be rewritten as the m-basis version of the integral expression obtained by J. Teschner from a postulate for the operator product expansion of normalizable states in the H3+-WZNW model. Finally, we determine the equivalence between the factorizations of a particular set of four-point functions into products of two three-point functions either preserving or violating spectral flow number conservation. Based on this analysis we argue that the expression for the amplitude as an integral over the spin of the intermediate operators holds beyond the semiclassical regime, thus corroborating that spectral flow conserving correlators in the AdS3-WZNW model are related by analytic continuation to correlation functions in the H3+-WZNW model.
125323277
String propagation in non-compact backgrounds
In this lecture we review some recent developments in non-rational conformal field theory, which allow a description of strings moving in non-compact backgrounds. In particular, we discuss recent progress in the SL(2,R) WZW model, which describes string propagation in AdS3.
117028101
Ten Years of AdS/CFT
119193507
Wilson loops in string duals of walking and flavored systems
We consider the vacuum expectation value of Wilson loop operators by studying the behavior of string probes in solutions of type-IIB string theory generated by N{sub c} D5-branes wrapped on an S{sup 2} internal manifold. In particular, we focus on solutions to the background equations that are dual to field theories with a walking gauge coupling as well as for flavored systems. We present in detail our walking solution and emphasize various general aspects of the procedure to study Wilson loops using string duals. We discuss the special features that the strings show when probing the region associated with the walking of the field-theory coupling.
33155899
Probing split supersymmetry with cosmic rays
A striking aspect of the recently proposed split supersymmetry is the existence of heavy gluinos which are metastable because of the very heavy squarks which mediate their decay. In this paper we correlate the expected flux of these particles with the accompanying neutrino flux produced in inelastic pp collisions in distant astrophysical sources. We show that an event rate at the Pierre Auger Observatory of approximately 1 yr{sup -1} for gluino masses of about 500 GeV is consistent with existing limits on neutrino fluxes. Such an event rate requires powerful cosmic ray engines able to accelerate particles up to extreme energies, somewhat above 5x10{sup 13} GeV. The extremely low inelasticity of the gluino-containing hadrons in their collisions with the air molecules makes possible a distinct characterization of the showers induced in the atmosphere. Should such anomalous events be observed, we show that their cosmogenic origin, in concert with the requirement that they reach the Earth before decay, leads to a lower bound on their proper lifetime of the order of 100 years, and consequently, to a lower bound on the scale of supersymmetry breaking, {lambda}{sub SUSY}>2.6x10{sup 11} GeV. Obtaining such a bound is not possible in collider experiments.
119640171
Cosmology from String Theory
We explore the cosmological content of Salam-Sezgin six dimensional supergravity, and find a solution to the field equations in qualitative agreement with observation of distant supernovae, primordial nucleosynthesis abundances, and recent measurements of the cosmic microwave background. The carrier of the acceleration in the present de Sitter epoch is a quintessence field slowly rolling down its exponential potential. Intrinsic to this model is a second modulus which is automatically stabilized and acts as a source of cold dark matter, with a mass proportional to an exponential function of the quintessence field (hence realizing VAMP models within a String context). However, any attempt to saturate the present cold dark matter component in this manner leads to unacceptable deviations from cosmological data – a numerical study reveals that this source can account for up to about 7% of the total cold dark matter budget. We also show that (1) the model will support a de Sitter energy in agreement with observation at the expense of a miniscule breaking of supersymmetry in the compact space; (2) variations in the fine structure constant are controlled by the stabilized modulus and are negligible; (3) “fifth” forces are carried by the stabilized modulus and are short range; (4) the long time behavior of the model in four dimensions is that of a Robertson-Walker universe with a constant expansion rate (w = −1/3). Finally, we present a String theory background by lifting our six dimensional cosmological solution to ten dimensions.
118407162
Heavy-quark potential with dynamical flavors: A first-order transition
We study the static potential between external quark-antiquark pairs in a strongly coupled gauge theory with a large number of colors and massive dynamical flavors, using a dual string description. When the constituent mass of the dynamical quarks is set below a certain critical value, we find a first-order phase transition between a linear and a Coulomb-like regime. Above the critical mass the two phases are smoothly connected. We also study the dependence on the theory parameters of the quark-antiquark separation at which the static configuration decays into specific static-dynamical mesons. © 2008 The American Physical Society.
8824397
Fake supergravity and domain wall stability
We review the generalized Witten-Nester spinor stability argument for flat domain wall solutions of gravitational theories. Neither the field theory nor the solution need be supersymmetric. Nor is the space-time dimension restricted. We develop the non-trivial extension required for AdS-sliced domain walls and apply this to show that the recently proposed "Janus" solution of Type IIB supergravity is stable non-perturbatively for a broad class of deformations. Generalizations of this solution to arbitrary dimension and a simple curious linear dilaton solution of Type IIB supergravity are byproducts of this work.