14307372
Testing theories of gravity with a spherical gravitational wave detector
We consider the possibility of discriminating different theories of gravity using a recently proposed gravitational wave detector of spherical shape. We argue that the spin content of different theories can be extracted relating the measurements of the excited spheroidal vibrational eigenmodes to the Newman - Penrose parameters. The sphere toroidal modes cannot be excited by any metric GW and can thus be used as a veto.
120082660
Toroidal compactification and symmetry breaking in open-string theories
Abstract In toroidal compactification of open-string theories, the background fields of the “parent” closed string (metric and antisymmetric tensor, with suitable restrictions) are accompanied by open-string Wilson lines. In the SO(32) superstring, these control the breaking of the Chan-Paton symmetry in a way that presents interesting analogies with the corresponding phenomenon in the heterotic string. An extension of the closed-string results to include contributions from the disk and the projective plane shows that these fields are genuine “moduli”, since their amplitudes vanish when the momenta are all scaled to zero.
15057808
(Non)perturbative tests of the AdS / CFT correspondence
I summarize perturbative and non-perturbative field theory tests of the holographic correspondence between type IIB superstring on AdS5 × S5 and N = 4 SYM theory. The holographic duality between D-instantons and YM instantons is briefly described. Non renormalization of two- and three-point functions of CPO's and their extremal and next-to-extremal correlators are then reviewed. Finally, partial non-renormalization of four-point functions of lowest CPO's is analyzed in view of the interpretation of short distance logarithmic behaviours in terms of anomalous dimensions of unprotected operators.
119040998
Instanton Effects in Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theories on ALE Gravitational Backgrounds
In this letter we report on the computation of instanton-dominated correlation functions in supersymmetric YM theories on ALE spaces. Following the approach of Kronheimer and Nakajima, we explicitly construct the self-dual connection on ALE spaces necessary to perform such computations. We restrict our attention to the simplest case of an $SU(2)$ connection with lowest Chern class on the Eguchi-Hanson gravitational background.
118440611
On stable higher spin states in heterotic string theories
We study properties of 1/2 BPS Higher Spin states in heterotic compactifications with extended supersymmetry. We also analyze non BPS Higher Spin states and give explicit expressions for physical vertex operators of the first two massive levels. We then study on-shell tri-linear couplings of these Higher Spin states and confirm that BPS states with arbitrary spin cannot decay into lower spin states in perturbation theory. Finally, we consider scattering of vector bosons off higher spin BPS states and extract form factors and polarization effects in various limits.
94785817
Freezing E3-brane instantons with fluxes
E3-instantons that generate non-perturbative superpotentials in IIB N{script} = 1 compactifications have a much more frequent occurrence than currently believed. Worldvolume fluxes will typically lift the E3-brane geometric moduli and their fermionic superpartners, leaving only the two required universal fermionic zero-modes. We consistently incorporate SL(2, ℤ) monodromies and world-volume fluxes in the effective theory of the E3-brane fermions and study the resulting zero modes spectrum, highlighting the relation between F-theory and perturbative IIB results. This leads us to a IIB derivation of the index for generation of superpotential terms, which reproduces and generalizes available results. Furthermore, we show how E3 worldvolume fluxes can be explicitly constructed in a one-modulus compactification, such that the instanton has exactly two fermonic zero-modes. This construction is readily applicable to numerous scenarios. © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
52023598
On the ABJM four-point amplitude at three loops and BDS exponentiation
A bstractWe study the three-loop four-point amplitude in ABJM theory. We determine the dual conformal invariant integrals with highest number of propagators and fix their coefficients by two-particle cuts. Evaluating such a combination of integrals in dimensional regularization we provide evidence for exponentiation of the amplitude, including the finite terms. In addition we show that the three-loop amplitude can be expressed in terms of classical polylogarithms of uniform degree of transcendentality.
123488833
Scattering amplitudes in three-dimensional superconformal field theory
Recent progress in computation of loop amplitudes in three-dimensional superconformal models is reviewed.
119236388
Infrared stability of ABJ-like theories
We consider marginal deformations of the superconformal ABJM/ABJ models which preserve $ \mathcal{N} = 2 $ supersymmetry. We determine perturbatively the spectrum of fixed points and study their infrared stability. We find a closed line of fixed points which is IR stable. The fixed point corresponding to the ABJM/ABJ models is stable under marginal deformations which respect the original SU(2)A × SU(2)B invariance, while deformations which break this group destabilize the theory which then flows to a less symmetric fixed point. We discuss the addition of flavor degrees of freedom. We prove that in general a flavor marginal superpotential does not destabilize the system in the IR. An exception is represented by a marginal coupling which mixes matter charged under different gauge sectors. Finally, we consider the case of relevant deformations which should drive the system to a strongly coupled IR fixed point recently investigated in arXiv:0909.2036 [hep-th].
118517951
The conformal manifold of Chern-Simons matter theories
We determine perturbatively the conformal manifold of $ \mathcal{N} = 2 $ Chern-Simons matter theories with the aim of checking in the three dimensional case the general prescription based on global symmetry breaking, recently introduced in [1–3]. We discuss in details few remarkable cases like the $ \mathcal{N} = 6 $ ABJM theory and its less supersymmetric generalizations with/without flavors. In all cases we find perfect agreement with the predictions of global symmetry breaking prescription. For unflavored theories the conformal manifold is a three dimensional compact surface. This feature is peculiar of three dimensions, as it has no direct analogue in four dimensional supersymmetric models.
119243475
Light-like Wilson loops in ABJM and maximal transcendentality
A bstractWe revisit the computation of the two-loop light-like tetragonal Wilson loop for three dimensional pure Chern-Simons and $ \mathcal{N} $= 6 Chern-Simons-matter theory, within dimensional regularization with dimensional reduction scheme. Our examination shows that, contrary to prior belief, the result respects maximal transcendentality as is the case of the four-point scattering amplitude of the theory. Interestingly, the corrected result matches exactly the scattering amplitude both in the divergent and in the finite parts, constants included.