11641900
A way to estimate the heavy quark thermalization rate from the lattice
The thermalization rate of a heavy quark is related to its momentum diffusion coefficient. Starting from a Kubo relation and using the framework of the heavy quark effective theory, we argue that in the large-mass limit the momentum diffusion coefficient can be defined through a certain Euclidean correlation function, involving color-electric fields along a Polyakov loop. Furthermore, carrying out a perturbative computation, we demonstrate that the spectral function corresponding to this correlator is relatively flat at small frequencies. Therefore, unlike in the case of several other transport coefficients, for which the narrowness of the transport peak makes analytic continuation from Euclidean lattice data susceptible to severe systematic uncertainties, it appears that the determination of the heavy quark thermalization rate could be relatively well under control.
119279378
Bjorken flow, plasma instabilities, and thermalization
A bstractAt asymptotically high energies, thermalization in heavy ion collisions can be described via weak-coupling QCD. We present a complete treatment of how thermalization proceeds, at the parametric weak-coupling level. We show that plasma instabilities dominate the dynamics, from immediately after the collision until well after the plasma becomes nearly in equilibrium. Initially they drive the system close to isotropy, but Bjorken expansion and increasing diluteness makes the system again become more anisotropic. At time $ \tau \sim {\alpha^{{\frac{{ - 12}}{5}}}}Q_s^{{ - 1}} $ the dynamics become dominated by a nearly-thermal bath; and at time $ \tau \sim {\alpha^{{\frac{{ - 5}}{2}}}}Q_s^{{ - 1}} $ the bath comes to dominate the energy density, completing thermalization. After this time there is a nearly isotropic and thermal Quark-Gluon Plasma.
118416779
Next-to-leading order thermal photon production in a weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma
A bstractWe compute the next-to-leading order O(g) correction to the thermal photon production rate in a QCD plasma. The NLO contributions can be expressed in terms of gauge invariant condensates on the light cone, which are amenable to novel sum rules and Euclidean techniques. We expect these technologies to be generalizable to other NLO calculations. For the phenomenologically interesting value of αs = 0.3, the NLO correction represents a 20% increase and has a functional form similar to the LO result.
119023526
The phantom menaced: Constraints on low-energy effective ghosts
It has been suggested that a scalar field with negative kinetic energy, or ``ghost,'' could be the source of the observed late-time cosmological acceleration. Naively, such theories should be ruled out by the catastrophic quantum instability of the vacuum. We derive phenomenological bounds on the Lorentz-violating ultraviolet cutoff $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ which must apply to low-energy effective theories of ghosts, in order to keep the instability at unobservable levels. Assuming only that ghosts interact at least gravitationally, we show that $\ensuremath{\Lambda}\ensuremath{\lesssim}3\mathrm{MeV}$ for consistency with the cosmic gamma ray background. We also show that theories of ghosts with a Lorentz-conserving cutoff are completely excluded.
10799212
Classical field dynamics of the electroweak phase transition
We investigate the thermodynamics and dynamics of the electroweak phase transition by modeling the infrared physics with classical Yang-Mills Higgs theory. We discuss the accuracy of this approach and conclude that, for quantities whose determination is dominated by the infrared, the classical method should be correct up to parametrically suppressed [i.e., O({alpha})] corrections. For a Higgs self-coupling which at the tree level corresponds to m{sub H}{approx_equal}50 GeV, we determine the jump in the order parameter to be {delta}{phi}=1.5gT, the surface tension to be {sigma}=0.07g{sup 4}T{sup 3}, and the friction coefficient on the moving bubble wall due to infrared bosons to be {eta}{equivalent_to}P/v{sub w}=0.03{plus_minus}0.004g{sup 6}T{sup 4}. We also investigate the response of the Chern-Simons number to a spatially uniform chemical potential and find that it falls off a short distance inside the bubble wall, both in equilibrium and below the equilibrium temperature. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}
18843095
Classical sphaleron rate on fine lattices
We measure the sphaleron rate for hot, classical Yang-Mills theory on the lattice, in order to study its dependence on lattice spacing. By using a topological definition of Chern-Simons number and going to extremely fine lattices [up to $\ensuremath{\beta}=32,$ or lattice spacing ${a=1/(8g}^{2}T)]$ we demonstrate nontrivial scaling. The topological susceptibility, converted to physical units, falls with lattice spacing on fine lattices in a way which is consistent with linear dependence on a (the Arnold-Son-Yaffe scaling relation) and is difficult to reconcile with a nonzero continuum limit. We also explain some unusual behavior of the rate in small volumes, reported by Ambj\o{}rn and Krasnitz.
119635081
D-branes, Quivers, and ALE Instantons
Effective field theories in type I and II superstring theories for D-branes located at points in the orbifold C^2/Z_n are supersymmetric gauge theories whose field content is conveniently summarized by a `quiver diagram,' and whose Lagrangian includes non-metric couplings to the orbifold moduli: in particular, twisted sector moduli couple as Fayet-Iliopoulos terms in the gauge theory. These theories describe D-branes on resolved ALE spaces. Their spaces of vacua are moduli spaces of smooth ALE metrics and Yang-Mills instantons, whose metrics are explicitly computable. For U(N) instantons, the construction exactly reproduces results of Kronheimer and Nakajima.
15740893
The Donaldson–Witten Function for Gauge Groups of Rank Larger Than One
Abstract:We study correlation functions in topologically twisted , d=4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory for gauge groups of rank larger than one on compact four-manifolds X. We find that the topological invariance of the generator of correlation functions of BRST invariant observables is not spoiled by noncompactness of field space. We show how to express the correlators on simply connected manifolds of b2,+(X)>0 in terms of Seiberg–Witten invariants and the classical cohomology ring of X. For manifolds X of simple type and gauge group SU(N) we give explicit expressions of the correlators as a sum over =1 vacua. We describe two applications of our expressions, one to superconformal field theory and one to large N expansions of SU(N) , d=4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory.
40824923
K-Theory from a physical perspective
This is an expository paper which aims at explaining a physical point of view on the K-theoretic classification of D-branes. We combine ideas of renormalization group flows between boundary conformal field theories, together with spacetime notions such as anomaly cancellation and D-brane instanton effects. We illustrate this point of view by describing the twisted K-theory of the special unitary groups SU(N).
11520732
Chiral Lagrangians, anomalies, supersymmetry, and holomorphy
Abstract We investigate higher-dimensional analogues of the bc systems of 2D RCFT. When coupled to gauge fields and Beltrami differentials defining integrable holomorphic structures, the bc partition functions can be explicitly evaluated using anomalies and holomorphy. The resulting induced actions generalize the chiral algebras of 2D RCFT to 2 n dimensions. Moreover, bc systems in four and six dimensions are closely related to supersymmetric matter. In particular, we show that d = 4, N = 2 hypermultiplets induce a theory of self-dual Yang-Mills fields coupled to self-dual gravity. In this way the bc systems fermionize both the algebraic sector of the WZW 4 theory, as defined by Losev et al., and the classical open N WS = 2 string.
15098285
Finite in All Directions
We study toroidal compactifications of string theories which include compactification of a timelike coordinate. Some new features in the theory of toroidal compactifications arise. Most notably, Narain moduli space does not exist as a manifold since the action of duality on background data is ergodic. For special compactifications certain infinite dimensional symmetries, analogous to the infinite dimensional symmetries of the $2D$ string are unbroken. We investigate the consequences of these symmetries and search for a universal symmetry which contains all unbroken gauge groups. We define a flat connection on the moduli space of toroidally compactified theories. Parallel transport by this connection leads to a formulation of broken symmetry Ward identities. In an appendix this parallel transport is related to a definition of conformal perturbation theory.