14446171
Was the electroweak phase transition preceded by a color broken phase
It has been suggested, in connection with electroweak baryogenesis in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), that the right-handed top squark has a negative mass squared parameter, such that its field could condense prior to the electroweak phase transition (EWPT). Thus color and electric charge could have been broken just before the EWPT. Here we investigate whether the tunneling rate from the color-broken vacuum can ever be large enough for the EWPT to occur in this case. We find that, even when all parameters are adjusted to their most favorable values, the nucleation rate is many orders of magnitude too small. We conclude that, without additional physics beyond the MSSM, the answer to our title question is ``no.'' This gives constraints in the plane of the light top squark mass versus parameters related to top squark mixing. However it may be possible to get color breaking in extended models, such as those with R-parity violation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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}
18801563
Superpotentials and membrane instantons
We investigate nonperturbative effects in M-theory compactifications arising from wrapped membranes. In particular, we show that in $d=4, \CN=1$ compactifications along manifolds of $G_2$ holonomy, membranes wrapped on rigid supersymmetric 3-cycles induce nonzero corrections to the superpotential. Thus, membrane instantons destabilize many M-theory compactifications. Our computation shows that the low energy description of membrane physics is usefully described in terms of three-dimensional topological field theories, and the superpotential is expressed in terms of topological invariants of the 3-cycle. We discuss briefly some applications of these results. For example, using mirror symmetry we derive a counting formula for supersymmetric three-cycles in certain Calabi-Yau manifolds.
11977234
Ample D4-D2-D0 Decay
We study the wall-crossing behavior of the index of BPS states for D4-D2-D0 brane systems on a Calabi-Yau 3-fold at large radius and point out that not only is the ``BPS index at large radius'' chamber-dependent, but that the changes in the index can be large in the sense that they dominate single-centered black hole entropy. We discuss implications for the weak coupling OSV conjecture. We also analyze the near horizon limit of multicentered solutions, introduced in arXiv:0802.2257, for these particular configurations and comment on a general criterion, conjectured in arXiv:0802.2257, which identifies those multicentered solutions whose near horizon limit corresponds to a geometry with a single asymptotic AdS_3 x S^2 boundary.
18800497
LOOP EQUATIONS AND THE TOPOLOGICAL PHASE OF MULTI-CUT MATRIX MODELS
We study the double scaling limit of mKdV type, realized in the two-cut Hermitian matrix model. Building on the work of Periwal and Shevitz and of Nappi, we find an exact solution including all odd scaling operators, in terms of a hierarchy of flows of 2×2 matrices. We derive from it loop equations which can be expressed as Virasoro constraints on the partition function. We discover a “pure topological” phase of the theory in which all correlation functions are determined by recursion relations. We also examine macroscopic loop amplitudes, which suggest a relation to 2D gravity coupled to dense polymers.
8410357
The Singular geometry of the sliver
We consider ``sliver'' states which act as projection operators in the matter star product of Witten's cubic string field theory. These sliver states, which might be associated with Dp-branes, are not finite norm states in the matter string Hilbert space. We describe the singularities of these states, and demonstrate that the sliver states are composed of strings having singular geometric features. These singularities take a particularly simple form in the zero slope limit α'→0, where the star algebra factorizes into a product of the algebra of functions on space-time and the non-commutative star product of fields associated with higher string modes. An analogy to the sliver geometry suggests a natural mechanism for describing closed string states in open string field theory.
15753825
Gravitational Phase Transitions and the Sine-Gordon Model
We consider the Sine-Gordon model coupled to 2D gravity. We find a nonperturbative expression for the partition function as a function of the cosmological constant, the SG mass and the SG coupling constant. At genus zero, the partition function exhibits singularities which are interpreted as signals of phase transitions. A semiclassical picture of one of these transitions is proposed. According to this picture, a phase in which the Sine-Gordon field and the geometry are frozen melts into another phase in which the fields and geometry become dynamical.