Non-abelian D = 11 supermembrane

We obtain a U(M) action for super membranes with central charges in the Light Cone Gauge (LCG). The theory realizes all of the symmetries and constraints of the supermembrane together with the invariance under a U(M) gauge group with M arbitrary. The worldvolume action has (LCG) N = 8 supersymmetry arid it corresponds to M parallel supermembranes minimally immersed on the target M g × T ² (MIM2). In order to ensure the invariance under the symmetries and to close the corresponding algebra, a star-product determined by the central charge condition is introduced. It is constructed with a nonconstant symplectic two-form where curvature terms are also present. The theory is in the strongly coupled gauge-gravity regime. At low energies, the theory enters in a decoupling limit and it is described by an ordinary N = 8 SYM in the IR phase for any number of M2-branes.     

The relaxed hypermultiplet: An unconstrained N = 2 superfield theory

We present an off-shell version of the hypermultiplet, without a central charge or gauge antisymmetric tensors. We give the unconstrained superfield form of the action and its coupling to N = 2 super-Yang-Mills theory. This allows an N = 2 superspace formulation of the N = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory, whose ultraviolet finiteness is then ensured by N = 2 non-renormalization theorems.     

The improved tensor multiplet in N = 2 supergravity

We construct a scale-invariant action for the N = 2 tensor multiplet which can be coupled to conformal supergravity. In spite of its non-polynomial form the action describes a free massless hypermultiplet. When used as a compensating multiplet it leads to a new minimal formulation of N = 2 Poincaré or de Sitter supergravity. We discuss its consequences and present a comparison with previous off-shell formulations.     

Conformal and poincaré tensor calculi in N=1 supergravity

We present the superconformal tensor calculus for N=1 supergravity in a complete form; irreducible multiplets, their multiplication and embedding formulae and invariant action formulae. It is further clarified in detail how the various versions of N=1 Poincaré supergravity (i.e. with different sets of auxiliary fields) are reproduced from the unique superconformal theory. The tensor calculi for all the known versions of Poincaré supergravity are derived explicitly.     

N = 4 SYM low-energy effective action in N = 4 harmonic superspace

We apply the N = 4 harmonic superspace with USp(4) harmonic variables for describing the N = 4 SYM low-energy effective action. Scale invariance and gauge symmetry fix the leading term in the low-energy effective action uniquely, up to a constant. The value of the remaining constant can be fixed by the topological quantization condition for the Wess-Zumino term which is present in the component structure of this action.     

Extended supergravity with local SO(5) invariance

We present a version of N = 5 supergravity with local SO(5) invariance and a lowest order calculation for N = 8 supergravity with local SO(8). The implications of these results and related aspects are discussed.     

Multiplet shortening in Osp(N,4)

We describe a new type of multiplet shortening in Osp(N,4) which resolves a long-standing puzzle in Kaluza-Klein supergravities. Multiplet shortening implies quantization of mass eigenvalues in units of the inverse AdS radius. While detailed proofs are presented only for N = 3, we discuss implications for N = 8 supergravity and derive the SO(8) assignments of all higher modes on the round seven-sphere.     

Fuzzy Kaluza-Klein induced M2?s from a single M5

We propose an algorithmic procedure of obtaining multiple M2 brane dynamics starting with an action of a single M5 brane. The procedure involves a novel Kaluza-Klein reduction. First, the M5 brane action is truncated to keep a few leading terms in the derivative expansion. Then 3+3 splitting of dimensions is carried out. With expansion in terms of the S² spherical harmonics, the fields are associated with SU(N) (or its infinite extension) gauge algebra. We present an elaborate reduction procedure that leads to ABJM theory when the fuzzy spherical harmonics are replaced by SU(N) gauge generators.     

Critical behaviour in baryonic matter

First we consider the phenomenology of deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration for strongly interacting matter at non-vanishing baryon number density. Subsequently, we present numerical results obtained by a Monte Carlo evaluation of statistical QCD on an 8³×3 lattice, using Wilson fermions withN _f =2, in fourth order hopping parameter expansion, and suppressing the imaginary part of the fermion action. We consider baryonic chemical potentials up to μa=0.6μa=0.6 (μ/Λ _L ?200); in this range, the critical parameters for deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration are found to coincide.     

Analysis of Coleman-Weinberg potentials in orbit space: General method and application to the inflationary universe

We present a general method to analyze Colemann-Weinberg potentials in the orbit space, which is applicable to any irreducible representation. As an example, the structure of the SU(5) Coleman-Weinberg potential with scalars asigned to the adjoint representation is analyzed in complete detail, which confirms the general conclusion reached by Breit, Gupta and Zaks, and Moss that the phase transition in the new inflationary scenario of the early universe is problematic. We show that the disease found in the SU(5) case is common to all SU(N) (N > 3) and SO(2 N) (N ≠ 4,8) adjoints, and that the adjoints of SO(8) and exceptional groups are immune from the 1 disease.     

Calculation of gauge couplings and compact circumferences from self-consistent dimensional reduction

We consider a system of gravity plus free massless matter fields in 4 + N dimensions, and look for solutions in which N dimensions form a compact curved manifold, with the energy-momentum tensor responsible for the curvature produced by quantum fluctuations in the matter fields. For manifolds of sufficient symmetry (including spheres, CP^N, and manifolds of simple Lie groups) the metric depends on only a single multiplicative parameter ?², and the field equations reduce to an algebraic equation for ?, involving the potential of the matter fields in the metric of the manifold. With a large number of species of matter fields, the manifold will be larger than the Planck length, and the potential can be calculated using just one-loop graphs. In odd dimensions these are finite, and give a potential of form C_N/?⁴. Also there are induced Yang-Mills and Einstein-Hilbert terms in the effective 4-dimensional action, proportional to additional numerical coefficients, D_N and E_N. General formulas are given for the gauge coupling g² in terms of C_N and D_N, and the ratio ?²/8πG in terms of C_N and E_N. Numerical values for C_N, D_N, and E_N are obtained for scalar and spinor fields on spheres of odd dimensionality N. It is found that the potential, g² and ?²/8πG can all be positive but only when the compact manifold has N = 3 + 4 k dimensions. (The positivity of the potential is needed for stability of the sphere against uniform dilations or contractions). In this case, solutions exist either for spinor fields alone or for suitable mixes of spinor and scalar fields provided the ratio of the number of scalar fields to the number of fermion fields is not too large. Numerical values of the O(N + 1) gauge couplings and 8φG/?² are calculated for illustrative values of the numbers of spinor fields. It turns out that large numbers of matter fields are needed to make these parameters reasonably small.     

On the eigenvalue problem associated with Feynman path integration

When the lagrangian is not explicit function of time, the Nth approximation to the propagator may be viewed as the Nth power of anitary operator — the infinitesimal time propagator. We solve the eigenvalue problem associated with the operator for some special cases. In the limit of large N the eigenfunctions are shown to be identical to those of the finite time propagator. We also present an elementary method to evaluate the propagator corresponding to an action function encountered in the study of electron gas in a random potential. The evaluation of this propagator within Feynman's polygonal approach was not possible until recently.     

Dynamical gauge fields in four dimensions from σ-models

We calculate the modification of the D = 4 CP(n) σ-model required by the existence of the effective action for composite fields which is finite in all orders in $\text{1}\text{N}$. We obtain the Higgs-like action with “free” bilinear terms for composite scalar and gauge fields. Contrary to the D = 2 case, due to the freedom of finite renormalization, the composite field excitations are not uniquely determined by the dynamics.     

Effective Lagrangian Approach to pion photoproduction from the nucleon

We present a pion photoproduction model on the free nucleon based on an Effective Lagrangian Approach (ELA) which includes the nucleon resonances (Δ(1232), N(1440), N(1520), N(1535), Δ(1620), N(1650), and Δ(1700)), in addition to Born and vector meson exchange terms. The model incorporates a new theoretical treatment of spin-3/2 resonances, first introduced by Pascalutsa, avoiding pathologies present in previous models. Other main features of the model are chiral symmetry, gauge invariance, and crossing symmetry. We use the model combined with modern optimization techniques to assess the parameters of the nucleon resonances on the basis of world data on electromagnetic multipoles. We present results for electromagnetic multipoles, differential cross-sections, asymmetries, and total cross-sections for all one pion photoproduction processes on free nucleons. We find overall agreement with data from threshold up to 1 GeV in laboratory frame.     

Superprojectors

We present a simple algorithm for constructing the N-extended superfield projection operators for irreducible representations of supersymmetry, and explicitly perform all simplifications due to spinor derivative algebra. The method is based on covariant expansion of a general superfield in terms of chiral superfields, and requires no knowledge of Casimir operators. We list these superprojectors for various N = 1, 2, and 4 superfields, and apply our results to quantized the linearized N = 2 vector multiplet in a supersymmetric gauge.     

Aspects of effective action for super Chern-Simons-Matter models

We develop the superfield background field method and study the effective action in the N = 2, d3 supersymmetric Chern-Simons-matter systems. The one-loop low-energy effective action for non-Abelian supersymmetric Chern-Simons theory is computed to order F ⁴ by use of N = 2 superfield heat kernel techniques.     

The density of states method and the velocity of sound in hot QCD

We present an initial study of the thermodynamics of hot lattice QCD using the “density of states” method, which we describe in detail. The raw data were generated from a Monte Carlo simulation of pureSU(3) gauge theory on 8³×N _t lattices, withN _t =2,4,8, at several values of the gauge coupling β. These data, taken at up to eight values of β, are then used to reconstruct the “density of states” as a function of the action and one additional observable. When combined with the proper Boltzmann weight this yieldscurves of quantities of interest as functions of the coupling constant β. These curves then yield the equation of state in a range of temperature, and the corresponding velocity of sound is obtained through appropriate derivatives. We also discuss in detail the errors, limitations, and advantages of the density of states method in its general application to QCD.     

Counterterms in extended supergravities

Geometrical invariants respecting all necessary symmetries of the theory are shown to exist, starting from the 8th (4th) loop approximation in N = 8 (N = 4) on-shell supergravity. 3-loop counterterms are presented on a linearized level for N = 4 and N = 8 theories. The corresponding 3-loop non-linear invariants are discussed.