119642811
Topologically linked polymers are anyon systems
Abstract We consider the statistical mechanics of a system of topologically linked polymers, such as for instance a dense solution of polymer rings. If the possible topological states of the system are distinguished using the Gauss linking number as a topological invariant, the partition function of an ensemble of N closed polymers coincides with the 2 N point function of a field theory containing a set of N complex replica fields and Abelian Chern–Simons fields. Thanks to this mapping to field theories, some quantitative predictions on the behavior of topologically entangled polymers have been obtained by exploiting perturbative techniques. In order to go beyond perturbation theory, a connection between polymers and anyons is established here. It is shown in this way that the topological forces which maintain two polymers in a given topological configuration have both attractive and repulsive components. When these opposite components reach a sort of equilibrium, the system finds itself in a self-dual point similar to that which, in the Landau–Ginzburg model for superconductors, corresponds to the transition from type I to type II superconductivity. The significance of self-duality in polymer physics is illustrated considering the example of the so-called 4-plat configurations, which are of interest in the biochemistry of DNA processes like replication, transcription and recombination. The case of static vortex solutions of the Euler–Lagrange equations is discussed.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
118391965
Emergent D5-brane background from D-strings
Abstract We solve the worldsheet theory describing the near-horizon dynamics of a D-string in the presence of a very large number N of D5-branes. The model is pre-geometric in the sense that the near-horizon worldsheet Lagrangian does not have dynamical fields associated with the dimensions transverse to the D5-branes. The solution at large N is shown to be given by a classical action for the D-string moving in a curved ten-dimensional spacetime. The four dimensions transverse to the D5-branes emerge from the quantum loops of the original strongly coupled quantum worldsheet field theory. By comparing with the Dirac–Born–Infeld plus Chern–Simons action for a D-string in a general type IIB background, we identify the string-frame metric, dilaton and Ramond–Ramond three-form field strength and find a match with the near-horizon geometry of a stack of D5-branes.
15090082
Non-supersymmetric cousins of supersymmetric gauge theories: quantum space of parameters and double scaling limits
Abstract I point out that standard two dimensional, asymptotically free, non-linear sigma models, supplemented with terms giving a mass to the would-be Goldstone bosons, share many properties with four-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories, and are tractable even in the non-supersymmetric cases. The space of mass parameters gets quantum corrections analogous to what was found on the moduli space of the supersymmetric gauge theories. I focus on a simple purely bosonic example exhibiting many interesting phenomena: massless solitons and bound states, Argyres–Douglas-like CFTs and duality in the infrared, and rearrangement of the spectrum of stable states from weak to strong coupling. At the singularities on the space of parameters, the model can be described by a continuous theory of randomly branched polymers, which is defined beyond perturbation theory by taking an appropriate double scaling limit.
209869150
The microscopic approach to N=1 super Yang-Mills theories
119171660
Random geometry, quantum gravity and the Kähler potential
We propose a new method to define theories of random geometries, using an explicit and simple map between metrics and large hermitian matrices. We outline some of the many possible applications of the formalism. For example, a background-independent measure on the space of metrics can be easily constructed from first principles. Our framework suggests the relevance of a new gravitational effective action and we show that it occurs when coupling the massive scalar field to two-dimensional gravity. This yields new types of quantum gravity models generalizing the standard Liouville case.
15472365
Quantum parameter space and double scaling limits in N=1 super Yang-Mills theory
We study the physics of $\mathcal{N}=1$ super Yang-Mills theory with the gauge group $\mathrm{U}(N)$ and one adjoint Higgs field, by using the recently derived exact effective superpotentials. Interesting phenomena occur for some special values of the Higgs potential couplings. We find critical points with massless glueballs and/or massless monopoles, confinement without a mass gap, and tensionless domain walls. We describe the transitions between regimes with different patterns of gauge symmetry breaking, or, in the matrix model language, between solutions with a different number of cuts. The standard large N expansion is singular near the critical points, with domain wall tensions scaling as a fractional power of N. We argue that the critical points are four-dimensional analogues of the Kazakov critical points that are commonly found in low dimensional matrix integrals. We define a double scaling limit that yields the exact tension of BPS two-branes in the resulting $\mathcal{N}=1,$ four-dimensional noncritical string theory. D-brane states can be deformed continuously into closed string solitonic states, and vice versa, along paths that go over regions where the string coupling is strong.