Large N approach to Kaon decays and mixing 28 years later: \Delta I=1/2 rule, \hat{B}_K,and \Delta M_K

We review and update our results for $K\rightarrow \pi \pi $ decays and $K^0$ – $\bar{K}^0$ mixing obtained by us in the 1980s within an analytic approximate approach based on the dual representation of QCD as a theory of weakly interacting mesons for large $N$ , where $N$ is the number of colors. In our analytic approach the Standard Model dynamics behind the enhancement of $\hbox {Re}A_0$ and suppression of $\hbox {Re}A_2$ , the so-called $\Delta I=1/2$ rule for $K\rightarrow \pi \pi $ decays, has a simple structure: the usual octet enhancement through the long but slow quark–gluon renormalization group evolution down to the scales $\mathcal{O}(1\, {\hbox { GeV}})$ is continued as a short but fast meson evolution down to zero momentum scales at which the factorization of hadronic matrix elements is at work. The inclusion of lowest-lying vector meson contributions in addition to the pseudoscalar ones and of Wilson coefficients in a momentum scheme improves significantly the matching between quark–gluon and meson evolutions. In particular, the anomalous dimension matrix governing the meson evolution exhibits the structure of the known anomalous dimension matrix in the quark–gluon evolution. While this physical picture did not yet emerge from lattice simulations, the recent results on $\hbox {Re}A_2$ and $\hbox {Re}A_0$ from the RBC-UKQCD collaboration give support for its correctness. In particular, the signs of the two main contractions found numerically by these authors follow uniquely from our analytic approach. Though the current–current operators dominate the $\Delta I=1/2$ rule, working with matching scales $\mathcal{O}(1 \, {\hbox { GeV}})$ we find that the presence of QCD-penguin operator $Q_6$ is required to obtain satisfactory result for $\hbox {Re}A_0$ . At NLO in $1/N$ we obtain $R=\hbox {Re}A_0/\hbox {Re}A_2= 16.0\pm 1.5$ which amounts to an order of magnitude enhancement over the strict large $N$ limit value $\sqrt{2}$ . We also update our results for the parameter $\hat{B}_K$ , finding $\hat{B}_K=0.73\pm 0.02$ . The smallness of $1/N$ corrections to the large $N$ value $\hat{B}_K=3/4$ results within our approach from an approximate cancelation between pseudoscalar and vector meson one-loop contributions. We also summarize the status of $\Delta M_K$ in this approach.     

A realistic pattern of lepton mixing and masses from $$S_4$$ and CP

We calculate the combined angular-distribution functions of the polarized photons ( $\gamma _1$ and $\gamma _2$ ) and electron ( $e^-$ ) produced in the cascade process $\bar{p}p\rightarrow {^3{D_3}}\rightarrow {^3{P_2}}+\gamma _1 \rightarrow (\psi +\gamma _2)+\gamma _1\rightarrow (e^++e^-)+\gamma _1+\gamma _2$ , when the colliding $\bar{p}$ and $p$ are unpolarized. Our results are independent of any dynamical models and are expressed in terms of the spherical harmonics whose coefficients are functions of the angular-momentum helicity amplitudes of the individual processes. Once the joint angular distribution of ( $\gamma _1$ , $\gamma _2$ ) and that of ( $\gamma _2$ , $e^-$ ) with the polarization of either one of the two particles are measured, our results will enable one to determine the relative magnitudes as well as the relative phases of all the angular-momentum helicity amplitudes in the radiative decay processes ${^3{D_3}}\rightarrow {^3{P_2}}+\gamma _1$ and ${^3{P_2}}\rightarrow \psi +\gamma _2$ .     

Analysis of the \frac{1} {2}^ - and \frac{3} {2}^ - heavy and doubly heavy baryon states with QCD sum rules

In this article, we study the $\frac{1} {2}^ -$ and $\frac{3} {2}^ -$ heavy and doubly heavy baryon states $\Sigma _Q \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Xi '_Q \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Omega _Q \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Xi _{QQ} \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Omega _{QQ} \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Sigma _Q^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Xi _Q^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Omega _Q^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Xi _{QQ}^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ and $\Omega _{QQ}^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ by subtracting the contributions from the corresponding $\frac{1} {2}^ +$ and $\frac{3} {2}^ +$ heavy and doubly heavy baryon states with the QCD sum rules in a systematic way, and make reasonable predictions for their masses.     

The Higgs boson inclusive decay channels H \rightarrow b\bar{b} and H \rightarrow gg up to four-loop level

The principle of maximum conformality (PMC) has been suggested to eliminate the renormalization scheme and renormalization scale uncertainties, which are unavoidable for the conventional scale setting and are usually important errors for theoretical estimations. In this paper, by applying PMC scale setting, we analyze two important inclusive Standard Model Higgs decay channels, $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ and $H\rightarrow gg$ , up to four-loop and three-loop levels, respectively. After PMC scale setting, it is found that the conventional scale uncertainty for these two channels can be eliminated to a high degree. There is small residual initial scale dependence for the Higgs decay widths due to unknown higher-order $\{\beta _i\}$ terms. Up to four-loop level, we obtain $\Gamma (H\rightarrow b\bar{b}) = 2.389\pm 0.073 \pm 0.041$ MeV and up to three-loop level, we obtain $\Gamma (H\rightarrow gg) = 0.373\pm 0.030$ MeV, where the first error is caused by varying $M_H=126\pm 4$ GeV and the second error for $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ is caused by varying the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ -running mass $m_b(m_b)=4.18\pm 0.03$ GeV. Taking $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ as an example, we present a comparison of three BLM-based scale-setting approaches, e.g. the PMC-I approach based on the PMC–BLM correspondence, the $R_\delta $ -scheme and the seBLM approach, all of which are designed to provide effective ways to identify non-conformal $\{\beta _i\}$ -series at each perturbative order. At four-loop level, all those approaches lead to good pQCD convergence, they have almost the same pQCD series, and their predictions are almost independent on the initial renormalization scale. In this sense, those approaches are equivalent to each other.     

Precise photoproduction of the charged top-pions at the LHC with forward detector acceptances

We study the photoproduction of the charged top-pion predicted by the top triangle moose (TTM) model (a deconstructed version of the topcolor-assisted technicolor TC2 model) via the processes $pp\rightarrow p \gamma p \rightarrow \pi ^\pm _t t +X$ at the 14 TeV Large Hadron Collider (LHC) including next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections. Our results show that the production cross sections and distributions are sensitive to the free parameters $\sin \omega $ and $M_{\pi _t}$ . A typical QCD correction value is $7{-}11~\%$ and this does not depend much on $\sin \omega $ as well as the forward detector acceptances.     

Analysis of the {3\over 2}^{+} heavy and doubly heavy baryon states with QCD sum rules

In this article, we study the ${3\over 2}^{+}$ heavy and doubly heavy baryon states $\varXi^{*}_{cc}$ , $\varOmega^{*}_{cc}$ , $\varXi^{*}_{bb}$ , $\varOmega^{*}_{bb}$ , $\varSigma_{c}^{*}$ , $\varXi_{c}^{*}$ , $\varOmega_{c}^{*}$ , $\varSigma_{b}^{*}$ , $\varXi_{b}^{*}$ and $\varOmega_{b}^{*}$ by subtracting the contributions from the corresponding ${3\over 2}^{-}$ heavy and doubly heavy baryon states with the QCD sum rules, and we make reasonable predictions for their masses.     

Asymptotic Behavior for a Version of Directed Percolation on the Triangular Lattice

We consider a version of directed bond percolation on the triangular lattice such that vertical edges are directed upward with probability $y$ , diagonal edges are directed from lower-left to upper-right or lower-right to upper-left with probability $d$ , and horizontal edges are directed rightward with probabilities $x$ and one in alternate rows. Let $\tau (M,N)$ be the probability that there is at least one connected-directed path of occupied edges from $(0,0)$ to $(M,N)$ . For each $x \in [0,1]$ , $y \in [0,1)$ , $d \in [0,1)$ but $(1-y)(1-d) \ne 1$ and aspect ratio $\alpha =M/N$ fixed for the triangular lattice with diagonal edges from lower-left to upper-right, we show that there is an $\alpha _c = (d-y-dy)/[2(d+y-dy)] + [1-(1-d)^2(1-y)^2x]/[2(d+y-dy)^2]$ such that as $N \rightarrow \infty $ , $\tau (M,N)$ is $1$ , $0$ and $1/2$ for $\alpha > \alpha _c$ , $\alpha < \alpha _c$ and $\alpha =\alpha _c$ , respectively. A corresponding result is obtained for the triangular lattice with diagonal edges from lower-right to upper-left. We also investigate the rate of convergence of $\tau (M,N)$ and the asymptotic behavior of $\tau (M_N^-,N)$ and $\tau (M_N^+ ,N)$ where $M_N^-/N\uparrow \alpha _c$ and $M_N^+/N\downarrow \alpha _c$ as $N\uparrow \infty $ .     

Synthesis and anti-cancer activity of a glycosyl library of \varvec{N}-acetylglucosamine-bearing oleanolic acid

N-Acetylglucosamine-bearing triterpenoid saponins (GNTS) were reported to be a unique type of saponins with potent anti-tumor activity. In order to study the structure–activity relationship of GNTS, 24 oleanolic acid saponins with ( $1 \rightarrow 3$ )-linked, ( $1\rightarrow 4$ )-linked, ( $1\rightarrow 6$ )-linked $N$ -acetylglucosamine oligosaccharide residues were synthesized in a combinatorial and concise method. The cytotoxicity of these compounds toward the leukemia cell line HL-60 and the colorectal cancer cell line HT-29 could not be improved. Half maximal inhibition below $10\,\upmu \hbox {M}$ was achieved in one single case. The study revealed that the activity decreased following the order of $3^{\prime }>4^{\prime }>6^{\prime }$ glycosyl modifications. GNTS that incorporated (d/l)-xylose and l-arabinose at positions $3^{\prime }$ and $4^{\prime }$ were more potent than those bearing other sugars.     

Antihydrogen (hydrogen) atom formation

In this paper we show how the ATHENA data samples on the antihydrogen ( ${\bar{\rm H}}$ ) formation in very different conditions provide useful information on the two different possible mechanisms: the 3-body reaction ( $\bar{p}+{e^+}+{e^+}\rightarrow {\bar{\rm H}}+ e^+$ ) and the 2-body reaction ( $\bar{p}+{\rm e^+}\rightarrow {\bar{\rm H}}+{h\nu}$ ).     

Absolute E3 and M2 transition probabilities for the electromagnetic decay of the \mathrm{\ensuremath I^{\pi}=K^{\pi}=8^{-}} isomeric state in 132Ce

The decay of the $\ensuremath I^{\pi}=K^{\pi}=8^{-}$ isomeric state at 2340keV in ¹³²Ce has been investigated in the ¹²⁰Sn(¹⁶O, 4n)¹³²Ce reaction. The measurements were carried out in e - $ \gamma$ and $ \gamma$ - $ \gamma$ coincidence modes using an electron spectrometer coupled to the OSIRIS II gamma-ray array at the Heavy Ion Laboratory of the University of Warsaw. Experimentally obtained internal conversion coefficients for the $\ensuremath 8^{-} \rightarrow 6^{+}$ and $\ensuremath 8^{-} \rightarrow 5^{+}$ transitions allowed the multipolarities, mixing ratios, reduced transition probabilities and hindrance factors to be determined.     

Semileptonic form factors D \rightarrow \pi, K and B \rightarrow \pi, K from a fine lattice

We extract the form factors relevant for semileptonic decays of D and B mesons from a relativistic computation on a fine lattice in the quenched approximation. The lattice spacing is a = 0.04 fm (corresponding to a ^-1 = 4.97 GeV), which allows us to run very close to the physical B meson mass, and to reduce the systematic errors associated with the extrapolation in terms of a heavy-quark expansion. For decays of D and D_s mesons, our results for the physical form factors at $\ensuremath q^2 = 0$ are as follows: $\ensuremath f_+^{D\rightarrow\pi}(0) = 0.74(6)(4)$ , $\ensuremath f_+^{D \rightarrow K}(0) = 0.78(5)(4)$ and $\ensuremath f_+^{D_s \rightarrow K} (0) = 0.68(4)(3)$ . Similarly, for B and B_s we find $\ensuremath f_+^{B\rightarrow\pi}(0) = 0.27(7)(5)$ , $\ensuremath f_+^{B\rightarrow K} (0) = 0.32(6)(6)$ and $\ensuremath f_+^{B_s\rightarrow K}(0) = 0.23(5)(4)$ . We compare our results with other quenched and unquenched lattice calculations, as well as with light-cone sum rule predictions, finding good agreement.     

Charmonium rescattering effects in \psi(2S) \rightarrow \gamma \eta_{c}^{} decay

Charmonium rescattering effects in the M1 transition of $ \psi$ (2S) $ \rightarrow$ $ \gamma$ $ \eta_{c}^{}$ are investigated by modeling a $ \chi_{{cJ}}^{}$ or J/ $ \psi$ rescattering into a $ \eta_{c}^{}$ final state. The absorptive and dispersive part of the transition amplitudes for the rescattering loops of $ \eta$ $ \psi$ ( $ \gamma^{{\ast}}_{}$ ) and $ \gamma$ $ \chi$ ( $ \psi$ ) are separately evaluated. The numerical results show that the contribution from the $ \gamma$ $ \chi$ ( $ \psi$ ) rescattering process is negligible. Compared with the virtual D $ \bar{{D}}$ (D ^*) rescattering processes, the $ \eta$ $ \psi$ ( $ \gamma^{{\ast}}_{}$ ) process may be regarded as the next-leading order of the hadronic loop mechanism, which only offers the partial decay width of ～ 0.045 keV to the $ \psi$ (2S) $ \rightarrow$ $ \gamma$ $ \eta_{c}^{}$ .     

The effect of composite resonances on Higgs decay into two photons

In scenarios of strongly coupled electroweak symmetry breaking, heavy composite particles of different spin and parity may arise and cause observable effects on signals that appear at loop levels. The recently observed process of Higgs to $\gamma \gamma $ at the LHC is one of such signals. We study the new constraints that are imposed on composite models from $H\rightarrow \gamma \gamma $ , together with the existing constraints from the high precision electroweak tests. We use an effective chiral Lagrangian to describe the effective theory that contains the Standard Model spectrum and the extra composites below the electroweak scale. Considering the effective theory cutoff at $\Lambda = 4\pi v \sim 3\text { TeV}$ , consistency with the $T$ and $S$ parameters and the newly observed $H\rightarrow \gamma \gamma $ can be found for a rather restricted range of masses of vector and axial-vector composites from 1.5 to 1.7 and 1.8 to 1.9 TeV, respectively, and only provided a non-standard kinetic mixing between the $W^{3}$ and $B^{0}$ fields is included.     

Analysis of the vertexes \Xi_{Q}^{*}′QV , \Sigma_{Q}^{*} \Sigma_{Q}^{}V and radiative decays \Xi_{Q}^{*} \rightarrow ′Q \gamma , \Sigma_{Q}^{*} \rightarrow \Sigma_{Q}^{} \gamma

In this article, we study the vertexes $ \Xi_{Q}^{*}$ ′_Q V and $ \Sigma_{Q}^{*}$ $ \Sigma_{Q}^{}$ V with the light-cone QCD sum rules, then assume the vector meson dominance of the intermediate $ \phi$ (1020) , $ \rho$ (770) and $ \omega$ (782) , and calculate the radiative decays $ \Xi_{Q}^{*}$ $ \rightarrow$ ′_Q $ \gamma$ and $ \Sigma_{Q}^{*}$ $ \rightarrow$ $ \Sigma_{Q}^{}$ $ \gamma$ .     

Reaction pp \rightarrow pp \pi \pi \pi as a background for hadronic decays of the \eta^{{\prime}}_{} meson

Isospin violating hadronic decays of the $ \eta$ and $ \eta{^\prime}$ mesons into 3 $ \pi$ mesons are driven by a term in the QCD Lagrangian proportional to the mass difference of the d and u quarks. The source giving large yield of the mesons for such decay studies are pp interactions close to the respective kinematical thresholds. The most important physics background for $ \eta$ , $ \eta{^\prime}$ $ \rightarrow$ $ \pi$ $ \pi$ $ \pi$ is coming from direct three-pion production reactions. In case of the $ \eta$ meson the background for the decays is relatively low ( $ \approx$ 10% . The purpose of this article is to provide an estimate of the direct pion production background for the $ \eta{^\prime}$ $ \rightarrow$ 3 $ \pi$ decays. Using the inclusive data from the COSY-11 experiment we have extracted the differential cross-section for the pp $ \rightarrow$ pp -multipion production reactions with the invariant mass of the pions equal to the $ \eta{^\prime}$ meson mass and estimated an upper limit for the signal to background ratio for studies of the $ \eta{^\prime}$ $ \rightarrow$ $ \pi^{+}_{}$ $ \pi^{-}_{}$ $ \pi^{0}_{}$ decay.     

A Strong Central Limit Theorem for a Class of Random Surfaces

This paper is concerned with d = 2 dimensional lattice field models with action ${V(\nabla\phi(\cdot))}$ , where ${V : \mathbf{R}^d \rightarrow \mathbf{R}}$ is a uniformly convex function. The fluctuations of the variable ${\phi(0) - \phi(x)}$ are studied for large |x| via the generating function given by ${g(x, \mu) = \ln \langle e^{\mu(\phi(0) - \phi(x))}\rangle_{A}}$ . In two dimensions ${g'' (x, \mu) = \partial^2g(x, \mu)/\partial\mu^2}$ is proportional to ${\ln\vert x\vert}$ . The main result of this paper is a bound on ${g''' (x, \mu) = \partial^3 g(x, \mu)/\partial \mu^3}$ which is uniform in ${\vert x \vert}$ for a class of convex V. The proof uses integration by parts following Helffer–Sjöstrand and Witten, and relies on estimates of singular integral operators on weighted Hilbert spaces.     

An Averaging Theorem for FPU in the Thermodynamic Limit

Consider an FPU chain composed of $N\gg 1$ particles, and endow the phase space with the Gibbs measure corresponding to a small temperature $\beta ^{-1}$ . Given a fixed $K$ , we construct $K$ packets of normal modes whose energies are adiabatic invariants (i.e., are approximately constant for times of order $\beta ^{1-a}$ , $a>0$ ) for initial data in a set of large measure. Furthermore, the time autocorrelation function of the energy of each packet does not decay significantly for times of order $\beta $ . The restrictions on the shape of the packets are very mild. All estimates are uniform in the number $N$ of particles and thus hold in the thermodynamic limit $N\rightarrow \infty $ , $\beta >0$ .     

Existence of a Non-Averaging Regime for the Self-Avoiding Walk on a High-Dimensional Infinite Percolation Cluster

Let $Z_N$ be the number of self-avoiding paths of length $N$ starting from the origin on the infinite cluster obtained after performing Bernoulli percolation on ${\mathbb Z} ^d$ with parameter $p>p_c({\mathbb Z} ^d)$ . The object of this paper is to study the connective constant of the dilute lattice $\limsup _{N\rightarrow \infty } Z_N^{1/N}$ , which is a non-random quantity. We want to investigate if the inequality $\limsup _{N\rightarrow \infty } (Z_N)^{1/N} \le \lim _{N\rightarrow \infty } {\mathbb E} [Z_N]^{1/N}$ obtained with the Borel–Cantelli Lemma is strict or not. In other words, we want to know if the quenched and annealed versions of the connective constant are equal. On a heuristic level, this indicates whether or not localization of the trajectories occurs. We prove that when $d$ is sufficiently large there exists $p^{(2)}_c>p_c$ such that the inequality is strict for $p\in (p_c,p^{(2)}_c)$ .     

Identification of \mathrm{\ensuremath J^{\pi} = 19/2^+} and \mathrm{\ensuremath 23/2^+} isomeric states in 127Sb

The nucleus $\ensuremath {\rm ^{127}Sb}$ , which is on the neutron-rich periphery of the $\ensuremath \beta$ -stability region, has been populated in complex nuclear reactions involving deep-inelastic and fusion-fission processes with $\ensuremath {\rm {}^{136}Xe}$ beams incident on thick targets. The previously known isomer at 2325 keV in $\ensuremath {\rm {}^{127}Sb}$ has been assigned spin and parity $\ensuremath 23/2^+$ , based on the measured $\ensuremath \gamma$ - $\ensuremath \gamma$ angular correlations and total internal conversion coefficients. The half-life has been determined to be 234(12) ns, somewhat longer than the value reported previously. The 2194 keV state has been assigned $\ensuremath J^{\pi} = 19/2^+$ and identified as an isomer with $\ensuremath T_{1/2} = 14(1) {\rm ns}$ , decaying by two $\ensuremath E2$ branches. The observed level energies and transition strengths are compared with the predictions of a shell model calculation. Two $\ensuremath 15/2^+$ states have been identified close in energy, and their properties are discussed in terms of mixing between vibrational and three-quasiparticle configurations.     

On Gravitational Effects in the Schrödinger Equation

The Schrödinger  equation for a particle of rest mass $m$ and electrical charge $ne$ interacting with a four-vector potential $A_i$ can be derived as the non-relativistic limit of the Klein–Gordon  equation $\left( \Box '+m^2\right) \varPsi =0$ for the wave function $\varPsi $ , where $\Box '=\eta ^{jk}\partial '_j\partial '_k$ and $\partial '_j=\partial _j -\mathrm {i}n e A_j$ , or equivalently from the one-dimensional  action $S_1=-\int m ds +\int neA_i dx^i$ for the corresponding point particle in the semi-classical approximation $\varPsi \sim \exp {(\mathrm {i}S_1)}$ , both methods yielding the equation $\mathrm {i}\partial _0\varPsi \approx \left( \frac{1}{2m}\eta ^{\alpha \beta }\partial '_{\alpha }\partial '_{\beta } + m + n e\phi \right) \varPsi $ in Minkowski  space–time  , where $\alpha ,\beta =1,2,3$ and $\phi =-A_0$ . We show that these two methods generally yield equations  that differ in a curved background  space–time   $g_{ij}$ , although they coincide when $g_{0\alpha }=0$ if $m$ is replaced by the effective mass $\mathcal{M}\equiv \sqrt{m^2-\xi R}$ in both the Klein–Gordon  action $S$ and $S_1$ , allowing for non-minimal coupling to the gravitational  field, where $R$ is the Ricci scalar and $\xi $ is a constant. In this case $\mathrm {i}\partial _0\varPsi \approx \left( \frac{1}{2\mathcal{M}'} g^{\alpha \beta }\partial '_{\alpha }\partial '_{\beta } + \mathcal{M}\phi ^{(\mathrm g)} + n e\phi \right) \varPsi $ , where $\phi ^{(\mathrm g)} =\sqrt{g_{00}}$ and $\mathcal{M}'=\mathcal{M}/\phi ^{(\mathrm g)} $ , the correctness of the gravitational  contribution to the potential having been verified to linear order $m\phi ^{(\mathrm g)} $ in the thermal-neutron beam interferometry experiment due to Colella et al. Setting $n=2$ and regarding $\varPsi $ as the quasi-particle wave function, or order parameter, we obtain the generalization of the fundamental macroscopic Ginzburg-Landau equation of superconductivity to curved space–time. Conservation of probability and electrical current requires both electromagnetic gauge and space–time  coordinate conditions to be imposed, which exemplifies the gravito-electromagnetic analogy, particularly in the stationary case, when div ${{\varvec{A}}}=\hbox {div}{{\varvec{A}}}^{(\mathrm g)}=0$ , where ${{\varvec{A}}}^{\alpha }=-A^{\alpha }$ and ${{\varvec{A}}}^{(\mathrm g)\alpha }=-\phi ^{(\mathrm g)}g^{0\alpha }$ . The quantum-cosmological Schrödinger  (Wheeler–DeWitt) equation is also discussed in the $\mathcal{D}$ -dimensional  mini-superspace idealization, with particular regard to the vacuum potential $\mathcal V$ and the characteristics of the ground state, assuming a gravitational  Lagrangian   $L_\mathcal{D}$ which contains higher-derivative  terms up to order $\mathcal{R}^4$ . For the heterotic superstring theory  , $L_\mathcal{D}$ consists of an infinite series in $\alpha '\mathcal{R}$ , where $\alpha '$ is the Regge slope parameter, and in the perturbative approximation $\alpha '|\mathcal{R}| \ll 1$ , $\mathcal V$ is positive semi-definite for $\mathcal{D} \ge 4$ . The maximally symmetric ground state satisfying the field equations is Minkowski  space for $3\le {\mathcal {D}}\le 7$ and anti-de Sitter  space for $8 \le \mathcal {D} \le 10$ .