116762993
Topics in two-dimensional string theory
17373607
Precision Entropy of Spinning Black Holes
We construct spinning black hole solutions in five dimensions that take into account the mixed gauge-gravitational Chern-Simons term and its supersymmetric completion. The resulting entropy formula is discussed from several points of view. We include a Taub-NUT base space in order to test recent conjectures relating 5D black holes to 4D black holes and the topological string. Our explicit results show that certain charge shifts have to be taken into account for these relations to hold. We also compute corrections to the entropy of black rings in terms of near horizon data.
15932550
String theory effects on five-dimensional black hole physics
We review recent developments in understanding quantum/string corrections to BPS black holes and strings in five-dimensional supergravity. These objects are solutions to the effective action obtained from M-theory compactified on a Calabi–Yau threefold, including the one-loop corrections determined by anomaly cancellation and supersymmetry. We introduce the off-shell formulation of this theory obtained through the conformal supergravity method and review the methods for investigating supersymmetric solutions. This leads to quantum/string corrected attractor geometries, as well as asymptotically flat black strings and spinning black holes. With these solutions in hand, we compare our results with analogous studies in four-dimensional string-corrected supergravity, emphasizing the distinctions between the four- and five-dimensional theories.
44213542
5D attractors with higher derivatives
We analyze higher derivative corrections to attractor geometries in five di- mensions. We find corrected AdS3 × S 2 geometries by solving the equations of motion coming from a recently constructed four-derivative supergravity action in five dimensions. The result allows us to explicitly verify a previous anomaly based derivation of the AdS3 central charges of this theory. Also, by dimensional reduction we compare our results with those of the 4D higher derivative attractor, and find complete agreement.
118543383
Twisted Inflation
We present a new mechanism for slow-roll inflation based on higher dimensional supersymmetric gauge theory compactified to four dimensions with twisted (supersymmetry breaking) boundary conditions. These boundary conditions lead to a potential for directions in field space that would have been flat were supersymmetry preserved. For field values in these directions much larger than the supersymmetry-breaking scale, the flatness of the potential is nearly restored. Starting in this nearly flat region, inflation can occur as the theory relaxes towards the origin of field space. Near the origin, the potential becomes steep and the theory quickly descends to a confining gauge theory in which the inflaton does not exist as a particle. This confining gauge theory could be part of the Standard Model (QCD) or a natural dark matter sector; we comment on various scenarios for reheating. As a specific illustration of this mechanism, we discuss 4+1 dimensional maximally supersymmetric gauge theory on a circle with antiperiodic boundary conditions for fermions. When the theory is weakly coupled at the compactification scale, we calculate the inflaton potential directly in field theory by integrating out the heavy W-bosons and their superpartners. At strong coupling the model can be studied using a gravity dual, which realizes a new model of brane inflation on a non-supersymmetric throat geometry. Assuming there exists a UV completion that avoids the η-problem, predictions from our model are consistent with present observations, and imply a small tensor-to-scalar ratio. e-mail: jdavis@phas.ubc.ca e-mail: tslevi@phas.ubc.ca e-mail: mav@phas.ubc.ca e-mail: kwhyte@phas.ubc.ca ar X iv :1 00 4. 53 85 v1 [ he pth ] 2 9 A pr 2 01 0
118538275
Holographic fermionic fixed points in d=3
We present a top-down string theory holographic model of strongly interacting relativistic 2 + 1-dimensional fermions, paying careful attention to the discrete symmetries of parity and time reversal invariance. Our construction is based on probe D7-branes in AdS5 × S5, stabilized by internal fluxes. We find three solutions, a parity and time reversal invariant conformal field theory which can be viewed as a particular deformation of Coulomb interacting graphene, a parity and time reversal violating but gapless field theory and a system with a parity and time reversal violating charge gap. We show that the Chern-Simons-like electric response function, which is generated perturbatively at one-loop order by parity violating fermions and which is protected by a no-renormalization theorem at orders beyond one loop, indeed appears with the correctly quantized coefficient in the charge gapped theory. In the gapless parity violating solution, the Chern-Simons response function obtains quantum corrections which we compute in the holographic theory.
118433665
XENON100 exclusion limit without considering L-eff as a nuisance parameter
In 2011, the XENON100 experiment has set unprecedented constraints on dark matter-nucleon interactions, excluding dark matter candidates with masses down to 6 GeV if the corresponding cross section is larger than 10^{-39} cm^2. The dependence of the exclusion limit in terms of the scintillation efficiency (Leff) has been debated at length. To overcome possible criticisms XENON100 performed an analysis in which Leff was considered as a nuisance parameter and its uncertainties were profiled out by using a Gaussian likelihood in which the mean value corresponds to the best fit Leff value smoothly extrapolated to zero below 3 keVnr. Although such a method seems fairly robust, it does not account for more extreme types of extrapolation nor does it enable to anticipate on how much the exclusion limit would vary if new data were to support a flat behaviour for Leff below 3 keVnr, for example. Yet, such a question is crucial for light dark matter models which are close to the published XENON100 limit. To answer this issue, we use a maximum Likelihood ratio analysis, as done by the XENON100 collaboration, but do not consider Leff as a nuisance parameter. Instead, Leff is obtained directly from the fits to the data. This enables us to define frequentist confidence intervals by marginalising over Leff.
54708481
New method for analyzing dark matter direct detection data
The experimental situation of dark matter direct detection has reached an exciting crossroads, with potential hints of a discovery of dark matter (DM) from the CDMS, CoGeNT, CRESST-II and DAMA experiments in tension with null results from xenon-based experiments such as XENON100 and LUX. Given the present controversial experimental status, it is important that the analytical method used to search for DM in direct detection experiments is both robust and flexible enough to deal with data for which the distinction between signal and background points is difficult, and hence where the choice between setting a limit or defining a discovery region is debatable. In this article we propose a novel (Bayesian) analytical method, which can be applied to all direct detection experiments and which extracts the maximum amount of information from the data. We apply our method to the XENON100 experiment data as a worked example, and show that firstly our exclusion limit at 90% confidence is in agreement with their own for the 225 live days data, but is several times stronger for the 100 live days data. Secondly we find that, due to the two points at low values of S1 and S2 in the 225 days data set, our analysis points to either weak consistency with low-mass dark matter or the possible presence of an unknown background. Given the null result from LUX, the latter scenario seems the more plausible.