Relating c < 0 and c > 0 conformal field theories

A ‘canonical mapping’ is established between the c = −1 system of bosonic ghosts and the c = 2 complex scalar theory and a similar mapping between the c = −2 system of fermionic ghosts and the c = 1 Dirac theory. The existence of this mapping is suggested by the identity of the characters of the respective theories. The respective c < 0 and c > 0 theories share the same space of states, whereas the spaces of conformal fields are different. Upon this mapping from their c < 0 counterparts, the (c > 0) complex scalar and the Dirac theories inherit hidden non-local sl(2) symmetries.     

Stability in gauged extended supergravity

Extended supergravity theories with gauged SO(N) internal symmetry have, for N ≥ 4, scalar field potentials which are unbounded below. Nevertheless, it is argued that the theories have ground states with anti-de Sitter background geometry which are stable against fluctuations which vanish sufficiently fast at spatial infinity. Stability is implied because the appropriate conserved energy functional is positive for such fluctuations. Anti-de Sitter space is not globally hyperbolic, but the boundary conditions required for positive energy are also shown to give free field theories with well-defined Cauchy problem. New information on the particle representations of OSp(1, 4) supersymmetry is presented as part of the argument. Supersymmetry requires boundary conditions for spin 0 fields such that only the improved stress tensor leads to a conserved energy functional. Although the stability arguments support the view that gauged supergravity theories are acceptable quantum field theories, the problem of a large cosmological term in the Ads phase of the theories is still unsolved.     

Scalar particles mass spectrum and localization on FRW branes embedded in a 5D de Sitter bulk

In this paper, we study the scalar fields evolving on a FRW brane embedded in a five-dimensional de Sitter bulk. The scale function and the warp factor, solutions of the Einstein equations, are employed in the five-dimensional Gordon equation describing the massive scalar field, whose wave function depends on the cosmic time and on the extra-dimension. We point out the existence of bounded states and find a minimum value of the effective four-dimensional mass. For the test (scalar) field envelope along the extra-dimension, we derive the corresponding Schrödinger-like equation which is formally that for the Pöschl-Teller potential. Accordingly, we have obtained the quantization law for the mass parameter of the tested scalar field.     

Casimir effect for a scalar field via Krein quantization

In this work, we present a rather simple method to study the Casimir effect on a spherical shell for a massless scalar field with Dirichlet boundary condition by applying the indefinite metric field (Krein) quantization technique. In this technique, the field operators are constructed from both negative and positive norm states. Having understood that negative norm states are un-physical, they are only used as a mathematical tool for renormalizing the theory and then one can get rid of them by imposing some proper physical conditions.     

Boundary energy and boundary states in integrable quantum field theories

We study the ground-state energy of integrable 1 + 1 quantum field theories with boundaries (the genuine Casimir effect). In the scalar case, this is done by introducing a new “R-channel TBA”, where the boundary is represented by a boundary state, and the thermodynamics involves evaluating scalar products of boundary states with all the states of the theory. In the non-scalar, sine-Gordon case, this is done by generalizing the method of Destri and De Vega. The two approaches are compared. Miscellaneous other results are obtained, in particular formulas for the overall normalization and scalar products of boundary states, exact partition functions for the critical Ising model in a boundary magnetic field, and also results for the energy, excited states and boundary S-matrix of O(n) and minimal models.     

Gaussian effective potential method and Higgs sector of some models of grand unification

Two quantum theories where scalar fields are transformed over 1) adjoint and vector representations of theO(N) group, and 2) adjoint and fundamental representations of theSU(N) group, are investigated with the aid of Gaussian effective potential method. It is shown, that there exist autonomous phases with spontaneous breaking of the initial symmetry.     

Symmetry breaking and restoration in Lifshitz type theories

We consider the one-loop effective potential at zero and finite temperature in scalar field theories with anisotropic space-time scaling. For z=2, there is a symmetry breaking term induced at one loop at zero temperature and we find symmetry restoration through a first-order phase transition at high temperature. For z=3, we considered at first the case with a positive mass term at tree level and found no symmetry breaking effects induced at one loop, and then we study the case with a negative mass term at tree level where we cannot conclude about symmetry restoration effects at high temperature because of the imaginary parts that appear in the effective potential for small values of the scalar field.     

Standard Model without elementary scalars and high energy Lorentz violation

If Lorentz symmetry is violated at high energies, interactions that are usually non-renormalizable can become renormalizable by weighted power counting. Recently, a CPT invariant, Lorentz violating extension of the Standard Model containing two scalar-two fermion interactions (which can explain neutrino masses) and four fermion interactions (which can explain proton decay) was proposed. In this paper we consider a variant of this model, obtained suppressing the elementary scalar fields, and argue that it can reproduce the known low-energy physics. In the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio spirit, we show, using a large N _c expansion, that a dynamical symmetry breaking takes place. The effective potential has a Lorentz invariant minimum and the Lorentz violation does not reverberate down to low energies. The mechanism generates fermion masses, gauge-boson masses and scalar bound states, to be identified with composite Higgs bosons. Our approach is not plagued by the ambiguities of approaches based on non-renormalizable vertices. The low-energy effective action is uniquely determined and predicts relations among parameters of the Standard Model.     

Power Spectrum in Krein Space Quantization

The power spectrum of scalar field and space-time metric perturbations produced in the process of inflation of universe, have been presented in this paper by an alternative approach to field quantization namely, Krein space quantization (Gazeau et al. in Class. Quantum Gravity 17:1415, 2000; Takook in Int. J. Mod. Phys. E 11:509, 2002; Rouhani and Takook in ). Auxiliary negative norm states, the modes of which do not interact with the physical world, have been utilized in this method. Presence of negative norm states play the role of an automatic renormalization device for the theory.     

Renormalization of scalar quartic and Yukawa couplings in unified gauge theories based onE 6

Renormalization group equations for scalar and Yukawa couplings in gauge theories based on the exceptional groupE ₆ are analyzed. Asymptotic freedom is possible only for a limited set of scalar fields, and then only if several fermion generations are present. The infrared behavior of the scalar quartic coupling constants is striking: they are necessarily driven out of the region of positivity of the classical potential. Some useful group theoretic relations inE ₆ are given in an Appendix.     

Models of G time variations in diverse dimensions

A review of different cosmological models in diverse dimensions leading to a relatively small time variation in the effective gravitational constant G is presented. Among them: the 4-dimensional (4-D) general scalar-tensor model, the multidimensional vacuum model with two curved Einstein spaces, the multidimensional model with the multicomponent anisotropic “perfect fluid”, the S-brane model with scalar fields and two form fields, etc. It is shown that there exist different possible ways of explaining relatively small time variations of the effective gravitational constant G compatible with present cosmological data (e.g. acceleration): 4-dimensional scalar-tensor theories or multidimensional cosmological models with different matter sources. The experimental bounds on ? may be satisfied either in some restricted interval or for all allowed values of the synchronous time variable.     

Asymptotic Stability in Geometric σ–models

Geometric –models have been defined as purely geometric theories of scalar fields in interaction with gravity. By construction, these theories possess soliton solutions with topologically nontrivial scalar sectors. We perform a detailed analysis of the stability of the effective scalar field theory far from the soliton core. It is shown that the requirement for the asymptotic stability is consistent with the existence of massive, static, spherically symmetric soliton solutions.     

Tensor theory of electromagnetic radiometry

A theory of electromagnetic radiometry is built on the premise that the electromagnetic generalised radiance has a tensor structure, represented by the electric, magnetic and mixed generalised radiance tensors as fundamental quantities. They allow overcoming the limitations due to the scalar generalised radiances, proposed for characterizing stationary random electromagnetic sources. Furthermore, they provide a unified framework for completely describing the energy flux and the states of spatial coherence and polarization of random electromagnetic fields. So, the fundamental quantities of both the scalar generalised radiometry and the classical radiometry or photometry are deduced as particular cases of the tensor theory. A new procedure of analysis of (second-order) correlations, subject to the accomplishment of conservation laws, is also introduced. It reveals that (1) the primary sources of the measurable radiometric quantities associated to the random electromagnetic fields in any states of spatial coherence and polarization are the individual radiators of the radiant source (the correlations of the electric and magnetic field vectors only modulate the contributions given by those radiators) and (2) there are two physical mechanisms for the transport of measurable radiometric quantities by the electromagnetic field, i.e. the propagation of the contributions from individual radiators and their redistribution over each wavefront on propagation. The term redistribution refers to the transfer of portions of the measurable quantity over the wavefronts on propagation, without change its total value over each wavefront. In this context, a physical meaning is given to the negative values of the generalised radiance, which gives new insight about the Poynting’s theory of energy transport.     

Solution to the Ghost Problem in Fourth Order Derivative Theories

We present a solution to the ghost problem in fourth order derivative theories. In particular we study the Pais–Uhlenbeck fourth order oscillator model, a model which serves as a prototype for theories which are based on second plus fourth order derivative actions. Via a Dirac constraint method quantization we construct the appropriate quantum-mechanical Hamiltonian and Hilbert space for the system. We find that while the second-quantized Fock space of the general Pais–Uhlenbeck model does indeed contain the negative norm energy eigenstates which are characteristic of higher derivative theories, in the limit in which we switch off the second order action, such ghost states are found to move off shell, with the spectrum of asymptotic in and out S-matrix states of the pure fourth order theory which results being found to be completely devoid of states with either negative energy or negative norm. We confirm these results by quantizing the Pais–Uhlenbeck theory via path integration and by constructing the associated first-quantized wave mechanics, and show that the disappearance of the would-be ghosts from the energy eigenspectrum in the pure fourth order limit is required by a hidden symmetry that the pure fourth order theory is unexpectedly found to possess. The occurrence of on-shell ghosts is thus seen not to be a shortcoming of pure fourth order theories per se, but rather to be one which only arises when fourth and second order theories are coupled to each other.     

Violation of CP invariance in the two-doublet higgs sector of the MSSM

Problems of substantiation and investigation of CP violation in models with the extended Higgs sector are discussed. The general form of the effective two-doublet Higgs potential with complex parameters whose CP invariance is violated both explicitly and spontaneously is considered. For the special case of the two-doublet Higgs sector of the minimum supersymmetric model in which the CP invariance of the effective potential is violated by the interaction of Higgs fields with third generation scalar quarks, the physical states of Higgs bosons, their masses and interaction constants are obtained. The basic phenomenological scenarios and predictions for investigation of the properties of the Higgs sector are considered.     

Nonperturbative dynamics of scalar field theories through the Feynman-Schwinger representation

We present a summary of results obtained for scalar field theories usingt he Feynman-Schwinger (FSR) approach. Specifically, scalar QED and X²φ theories are considered. The motivation behind the applications discussed in this paper is to use the FSR method as a rigorous tool for testing the quality of commonly used approximations in field theory. Exact calculations in a quenched theory are presented for one-, two-, and three-body bound states. Results obtained indicate that some of the commonly used approximations, such as Bethe-Salpeter ladder summation for bound states and the rainbow summation for one-body problems, produce significantly different results from those obtained from the FSR approach. We find that more accurate results can be obtained using other, simpler, approximation schemes.     

Sequestering by global symmetries in Calabi-Yau string models

We study the possibility of realizing an effective sequestering between visible and hidden sectors in generic heterotic string models, generalizing previous work on orbifold constructions to smooth Calabi-Yau compactifications. In these theories, genuine sequestering is spoiled by interactions mixing chiral multiplets of the two sectors in the effective Kähler potential. These effective interactions however have a specific current-current-like structure and can be interpreted from an M-theory viewpoint as coming from the exchange of heavy vector multiplets. One may then attempt to inhibit the emergence of generic soft scalar masses in the visible sector by postulating a suitable global symmetry in the dynamics of the hidden sector. This mechanism is however not straightforward to implement, because the structure of the effective contact terms and the possible global symmetries is a priori model-dependent. To assess whether there is any robust and generic option, we study the full dependence of the Kähler potential on the moduli and the matter fields. This is well known for orbifold models, where it always leads to a symmetric scalar manifold, but much less understood for Calabi-Yau models, where it generically leads to a non-symmetric scalar manifold. We then examine the possibility of an effective sequestering by global symmetries, and argue that whereas for orbifold models this can be put at work rather naturally, for Calabi-Yau models it can only be implemented in rather peculiar circumstances.