119182093
ABJM amplitudes and the positive orthogonal Grassmannian
A bstractA remarkable connection between perturbative scattering amplitudes of four dimensional planar SYM, and the stratification of the positive Grassmannian, was revealed in the seminal work of Arkani-Hamed et al. Similar extension for three-dimensional ABJM theory was proposed. Here we establish a direct connection between planar scattering amplitudes of ABJM theory, and singularities thereof, to the stratification of the positive orthogonal Grassmannian. In particular, scattering processes are constructed through on-shell diagrams, which are simply iterative gluing of the fundamental four-point amplitude. Each diagram is then equivalent to the merging of fundamental OG2 orthogonal Grassmannian to form a larger OGk, where 2k is the number of external particles. The invariant information that is encoded in each diagram is precisely this stratification. This information can be easily read off via permutation paths of the on-shell diagram, which also can be used to derive a canonical representation of OGk that manifests the vanishing of consecutive minors as the singularity of all on-shell diagrams. Quite remarkably, for the BCFW recursion representation of the tree-level amplitudes, the on-shell diagram manifests the presence of all physical factorization poles, as well as the cancellation of the spurious poles. After analytically continuing the orthogonal Grassmannian to split signature, we reveal that each on-shell diagram in fact resides in the positive cell of the orthogonal Grassmannian, where all minors are positive. In this language, the amplitudes of ABJM theory is simply an integral of a product of d log forms, over the positive orthogonal Grassmannian.
119272120
Scattering Amplitudes
The purpose of this review is to bridge the gap between a standard course in quantum field theory and recent fascinating developments in the studies of on-shell scattering amplitudes. We build up the subject from basic quantum field theory, starting with Feynman rules for simple processes in Yukawa theory and QED. The material covered includes spinor helicity formalism, on-shell recursion relations, superamplitudes and their symmetries, twistors and momentum twistors, loops and integrands, Grassmannians, polytopes, and amplitudes in perturbative supergravity as well as 3d Chern-Simons-matter theories. Multiple examples and exercises are included. Part of textbook to be Published by Cambridge University Press ar X iv :1 30 8. 16 97 v2 [ he pth ] 1 1 A pr 2 01 4
6593967
String interactions on the random lattice
Abstract We combine two partons on a random lattice as a vector state. In the ladder approximation, we find that such states have 1 / p 2 propagators (after tuning the mass to vanish). We also construct some diagrams which are very similar to 3-string vertices in string field theory for the first oscillator mode. Attaching 3 such lattice states to these vertices, we get Yang–Mills and F 3 interactions up to 3-point as from bosonic string (field) theory. This gives another view of a gauge field as a bound state in a theory whose only fundamental fields are scalars.
116887100
Color-kinematics duality for pure Yang-Mills and gravity at one and two loops
We provide evidence in favor of the conjectured duality between color and kinematics for the case of nonsupersymmetric pure Yang-Mills amplitudes by constructing a form of the one-loop four-point amplitude of this theory that makes the duality manifest. Our construction is valid in any dimension. We also describe a duality-satisfying representation for the two-loop four-point amplitude with identical four-dimensional external helicities. We use these results to obtain corresponding gravity integrands for a theory containing a graviton, dilaton, and antisymmetric tensor, simply by replacing color factors with specified diagram numerators. Using this, we give explicit forms of ultraviolet divergences at one loop in four, six, and eight dimensions, and at two loops in four dimensions.
119118512
Worldgraph approach to Yang-Mills amplitudes from N = 2 spinning particle
By coupling the N = 2 spinning particle to background vector fields, we construct Yang-Mills amplitudes for trees and one loop. The vertex operators are derived through coupling the BRST charge; therefore background gauge invariance is manifest, and the Yang-Mills ghosts are automatically included in loop calculations by worldline ghosts. Inspired by string calculations, we extend the usual worldline approach to incorporate more ``generalized" 1D manifolds. This new approach should be useful for constructing higher-point and higher-loop amplitudes.
204870486
Absence of Three-Loop Four-Point Divergences in N = 4 Supergravity
Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in the possibility that certain supergravity theories may be ultraviolet finite. This question had been carefully studied in the late 70’s and early 80’s in the hope of using supergravity to construct fundamental theories of gravity. The conclusion of these early studies was that nonrenormalizable ultraviolet divergences would almost certainly appear at a sufficiently large number of quantum loops, though this remains unproven. Although supersymmetry tends to tame the ultraviolet divergences, it does not appear to be sufficient to overcome the increasingly poor ultraviolet behavior of gravity theories stemming from the two-derivative coupling. The consensus opinion from that era was that all pure supergravity theories would likely diverge at three loops (see e.g. ref. [1]), though with assumptions, certain divergences are perhaps delayed a few extra loop orders [2].
117084548
Determinations of the mass of the top quark.
53370258
Two-particle azimuthal angle correlations and azimuthal charge balance function in relativistic heavy ion collisions
The two-particle azimuthal angle correlation (TPAC) and azimuthal charge balance function (ACBF) are used to study the anisotropic expansion in relativistic heavy ion collisions. It is demonstrated by the relativistic quantum molecular dynamics (RQMD) model and a multi-phase transport (AMPT) model that the small-angle correlation in TPAC indeed presents anisotropic expansion, and the large-angle (or back-to-back) correlation is mainly due to global momentum conservations. The AMPT model reproduces the observed TPAC, but the RQMD model fails to reproduce the strong correlations in both small and large azimuthal angles. The width of ACBF from RQMD and AMPT models decreases from peripheral to central collisions, consistent with experimental data, but in contrast to the expectation from thermal model calculations. The ACBF is insensitive to anisotropic expansion. It is a probe for the mechanism of hadronization, similar to the charge balance function in rapidity.
119118243
Stability, ghost, and strong coupling in nonrelativistic general covariant theory of gravity with $\lambda \not=1$
In this paper, we investigate three important issues: stability, ghost, and strong coupling, in the Horava-Melby-Thompson setup of the Horava-Lifshitz theory with {lambda}{ne}1, generalized recently by da Silva. We first develop the general linear scalar perturbations of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe with arbitrary spatial curvature and find that an immediate by-product of the setup is that, in all the inflationary models described by a scalar field, the FRW universe is necessarily flat. Applying them to the case of the Minkowski background, we find that it is stable, and, similar to the case {lambda}=1, the spin-0 graviton is eliminated. The vector perturbations vanish identically in the Minkowski background. Thus, similar to general relativity, a free gravitational field in this setup is completely described by a spin-2 massless graviton, even with {lambda}{ne}1. We also study the ghost problem in the FRW background and find explicitly the ghost-free conditions. To study the strong coupling problem, we consider two different kinds of spacetimes, all with the presence of matter: one is cosmological, and the other is static. We find that the coupling becomes strong for a process with energy higher than M{sub pl}|c{sub {psi}|}{sup 5/2} in the flat FRW background and M{sub pl}|c{sub {psi}|}{sup more » 3} in a static weak gravitational field, where |c{sub {psi}|{identical_to}}|(1-{lambda})/(3{lambda}-1)|{sup 1/2}. « less
118336548
Inflation in general covariant theory of gravity
In this paper, we study inflation in the framework of the nonrelativistic general covariant theory of the Hořava-Lifshitz gravity with the projectability condition and an arbitrary coupling constant λ. We find that the Friedmann-Robterson-Walker (FRW) universe is necessarily flat in such a setup. We work out explicitly the linear perturbations of the flat FRW universe without specifying to a particular gauge, and find that the perturbations are different from those obtained in general relativity, because of the presence of the high-order spatial derivative terms. Applying the general formulas to a single scalar field, we show that in the sub-horizon regions, the metric and scalar field are tightly coupled and have the same oscillating frequencies. In the super-horizon regions, the perturbations become adiabatic, and the comoving curvature perturbation is constant. We also calculate the power spectra and indices of both the scalar and tensor perturbations, and express them explicitly in terms of the slow roll parameters and the coupling constants of the high-order spatial derivative terms. In particular, we find that the perturbations, of both scalar and tensor, are almost scale-invariant, and, with some reasonable assumptions on the coupling coefficients, the spectrum index of the tensor perturbation is the same as that given in the minimum scenario in general relativity (GR), whereas the index for scalar perturbation in general depends on λ and is different from the standard GR value. The ratio of the scalar and tensor power spectra depends on the high-order spatial derivative terms, and can be different from that of GR significantly.
118540854
Classification of the FRW universe with a cosmological constant and a perfect fluid of the equation of state p = wρ
We systematically study the evolution of the Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) universe coupled with a cosmological constant Λ and a perfect fluid that has the equation of state p = wρ, where p and ρ denote, respectively, the pressure and energy density of the fluid, and w is an arbitrary real constant. Depending on the specific values of w, Λ, and the curvature k of 3-dimensional space, we separate all of the solutions into various cases. In each case the main properties of the evolution are given in detail, including the periods of deceleration and/or acceleration, and the existence of big bang, big crunch, and big rip singularities. In some cases, errors in classification and interpretation appearing in standard textbooks have been corrected.