119233133
On a path integral representation of the Nekrasov instanton partition function and its Nekrasov--Shatashvili limit
In this work we study the Nekrasov--Shatashvili limit of the Nekrasov instanton partition function of Yang--Mills field theories with ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetry and gauge group SU(N). The theories are coupled with fundamental matter. A path integral expression of the full instanton partition function is derived. It is checked that in the Nekrasov--Shatashvili (thermodynamic) limit the action of the field theory obtained in this way reproduces exactly the equation of motion used in the saddle-point calculations.
18373561
Biharmonic conformal field theories
Abstract We construct in this paper a new class of conformal field theories (CFT's) in which the fields are characterized by equations of the biharmonic type. All these theories are interacting and admit an explicit Lagrangian formulation. For that reason, the biharmonic CFT's are useful in the study of interacting CFT's and can have also applications in string theories. Besides, it is possible to interprete the biharmonic CFT's as theories of conformal gravity in two dimensions, which represent an alternative to Liouville field theory.
118282052
Toward a Field Theoretical Description of Topologically Linked Polymers
In this work a field theoretical model is constructed to describe the statistical mechanics of an arbitrary number of topologically linked polymers in the context of the analytical approach of Edwards. As an application, the effects of the topological interactions are studied in the one loop approximation. A natural way to include in the treatment also more sophisticated link invariants than the Gauss linking number is outlined.
121244510
On the stochastic quantization of the Chern-Simons theory
Abstract We present in this paper a refined treatment of the stochastic quantization of Chern-Simons field theories. We show in particular that the naive Langevin equation does not lead to a well-defined equilibrium limit. Our main issue is the introduction of a nontrivial kernel in the Langevin equation which yields the correct equilibrium limit. We restrict ourselves to the free field theory case.
121604245
Performance of the TOTEM neurochip in Higgs search
We present preliminary results on the ability of the neurochip TOTEM to discriminate Higgs particles from background in p-p high energy collisions.
119092707
Dirac quantization of the Chern-Simons field theory in the Coulomb gauge
Abstract In this letter the Chern-Simons field theories are studied in the Coulomb gauge using the Dirac's canonical formalism for constrained systems. As a strategy, we first work out the constraints and then quantize, replacing the Dirac brackets with quantum commutators. We find that the Chern-Simons field theories become two dimensional models with no propagation along the time direction. Moreover, we prove that, despite of the presence of non-trivial self-interactions in the gauge fixed functional, the commutation relations between the fields are trivial at any order in perturbation theory in the absence of couplings with matter fields. If these couplings are present, instead, the commutation relations become rather involved, but it is still possible to study their main properties and to show that they vanish at the tree level.
18522220
The BPS spectra and superconformal points in massive N = 2 supersymmetric QCD
We present a detailed study of the analytic structure, BPS spectra and superconformal points of the N = 2 susy SU(2) gauge theories with Nf = 1, 2, 3 massive quark hypermultiplets. We compute the curves of marginal stability with the help of the explicit solutions for the low-energy effective actions in terms of standard elliptic functions. We show that only a few of these curves are relevant. As a generic example, the case of Nf = 2 with two equal bare masses is studied in depth. We determine the precise existence domains for each BPS state, and show how they are compatible with the RG flows. At the superconformal point, where two singularities coincide, we prove that (for Nf = 2) the massless spectrum consists of four distinct BPS states and is S-invariant. This is due to the monodromy around the superconformal point being S, providing strong evidence for exact S-duality of the SCFT For all Nf, we compute the slopes ω of the β-functions at the fixed point couplings and show that they are related to the anomalous dimensions α of u = 〈trƒ2〉 by ω = 2(α − 1).
31469664
FQHE on curved backgrounds, free fields and large N
A bstractWe study the free energy of the Laughlin state on curved backgrounds, starting from the free field representation. A simple argument, based on the computation of the gravitational effective action from the transformation properties of Green functions under the change of the metric, allows to compute the first three terms of the expansion in large magnetic field. The leading and subleading contributions are given by the Aubin-Yau and Mabuchi functionals respectively, whereas the Liouville action appears at next-to-next-to-leading order. We also derive a path integral representation for the remainder terms. They correspond to a large mass expansion for a related interacting scalar field theory and are thus given by local polynomials in curvature invariants.
15289132
On exact superpotentials in confining vacua
We consider the N=1 super Yang-Mills theory with gauge group U(Nc) or SU(Nc) and one adjoint Higgs field with an arbitrary polynomial superpotential. We provide a purely field theoretic derivation of the exact effective superpotential W(S) for the glueball superfield S in the confining vacua. We show that the result matches with the Dijkgraaf-Vafa matrix model proposal. The proof brings to light a deep relationship between non-renormalization theorems first discussed by Intriligator, Leigh and Seiberg, and the fact that W(S) is given by a sum over planar diagrams.
15870966
Large N and double scaling limits in two dimensions
Recently, the author has constructed a series of four dimensional non-critical string theories with eight supercharges, dual to theories of light electric and magnetic charges, for which exact formulas for the central charge of the space-time supersymmetry algebra as a function of the world-sheet couplings were obtained. The basic idea was to generalize the old matrix model approach, replacing the simple matrix integrals by the four dimensional matrix path integrals of N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, and the Kazakov critical points by the Argyres-Douglas critical points. In the present paper, we study qualitatively similar toy path integrals corresponding to the two dimensional N=2 supersymmetric non-linear sigma model with target space CP^n and twisted mass terms. This theory has some very strong similarities with N=2 super Yang-Mills, including the presence of critical points in the vicinity of which the large n expansion is IR divergent. The model being exactly solvable at large n, we can study non-BPS observables and give full proofs that double scaling limits exist and correspond to universal continuum limits. A complete characterization of the double scaled theories is given. We find evidence for dimensional transmutation of the string coupling in some non-critical string theories. We also identify en passant some non-BPS particles that become massless at the singularities in addition to the usual BPS states.
15406996
Microscopic quantum superpotential in = 1 gauge theories
We consider the = 1 super Yang-Mills theory with gauge group U(N), adjoint chiral multiplet X and tree-level superpotential Tr W(X). We compute the quantum effective superpotential Wmic as a function of arbitrary off-shell boundary conditions at infinity for the scalar field X. This effective superpotential has a remarkable property: its critical points are in one-to-one correspondence with the full set of quantum vacua of the theory, providing in particular a unified picture of solutions with different ranks for the low energy gauge group. In this sense, Wmic is a good microscopic effective quantum superpotential for the theory. This property is not shared by other quantum effective superpotentials commonly used in the literature, like in the strong coupling approach or the glueball superpotentials. The result of this paper is a first step in extending Nekrasov's microscopic derivation of the Seiberg-Witten solution of = 2 super Yang-Mills theories to the realm of = 1 gauge theories.