DOCSLIB.ORG

Been There, Done That the BIG BANG MAY NOT HAVE BEEN a SINGULAR EVENT by GEORGE MUSSER

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Been There, Done That the BIG BANG MAY NOT HAVE BEEN a SINGULAR EVENT by GEORGE MUSSER confident that the whole package can be fi- news nanced through private sources. Under his 27- year leadership, Energy Management, a part- SCAN ner in Cape Wind, has built a number of nat- ural gas–fired plants in New England. Says Gordon: “We’re creating a national model for America’s energy and environmental future.” The U.S. Department of Energy is “watch- PASSING THE ing the Cape project very closely,” remarks CARBON BUCK Brian Parsons, a scientist with the DOE’s Na- tional Renewable Energy Laboratory. But the The Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to curb size of the undertaking has raised some eye- emissions of global warming brows. “I’d be a little skeptical about starting gases, allows countries to trade OFFSHORE WIND FARMS, such as these in the North with something that big,” warns wind-farm emissions through a commodity Sea off the coast of Blyth in the U.K., are less likely to engineering expert Tim Cockerill, a research called a CO2 equivalent, which draw complaints of noise and unsightliness. fellow at the University of Sunderland in Eng- equals the amount of industrial greenhouse gases that have the land. Others in Europe, however, are think- heat-trapping ability of one metric acquisition is unnecessary. And, perhaps most ing along the same lines as Cape Wind. Re- ton of carbon dioxide. The supply of important, the huge turbines are out of sight searchers at the Dutch Offshore Wind Energy CO2 equivalents is severely limited. and earshot of most people. Initially fishermen Converter project are aiming for a single six- worried about their catch volume decreasing, megawatt offshore turbine by 2008. Contin- According to a trading group formed by the financial-services but several European studies suggest that the ued interest may prove within the decade firm Cantor Fitzgerald, the price heavily anchored turbines act like shipwrecks whether this alternative to fossil fuels is more of one CO2 equivalent ranges from and in fact improve fish numbers. than just a passing gust. $1 to $2 a year, although in the On the flip side, investment costs are future it may reach $5 to $9. mammoth. Cape Wind, having already in- Wendy Williams, based in Mashpee, Mass., Cape Wind claims that the 420-megawatt wind farm will vested several million dollars in planning stud- is studying technologies that reduce carbon displace a plant that would have ies, expects to spend a total of $600 million. emissions through a grant from the Fund for annually spewed 1.37 million AMEC BORDER WIND James S. Gordon, president of Cape Wind, is Investigative Journalism. metric tons of carbon dioxide. COSMOLOGY Been There, Done That THE BIG BANG MAY NOT HAVE BEEN A SINGULAR EVENT BY GEORGE MUSSER ingularities are the toxic waste of cos- cially with the maturing of string theory, mology. Theories, let alone children, are physicists’ best candidate for a theory of S well advised not to touch anything with everything. Last fall cosmologists Paul Stein- an infinite density or temperature: the zero hardt of Princeton University and Neil Turok time of the big bang, say, or the very center of the University of Cambridge, building on of a black hole. At such places, physics dis- earlier work with Steinhardt’s graduate stu- solves into metaphysics. These mathematical dent Justin Khoury and string theorists Burt THE GREAT points admit of no explanation; they just are. A. Ovrut of the University of Pennsylvania To dispose of them, cosmologists usually have and Nathan Seiberg of the Institute for Ad- CYCLE OF BEING opted for burial. For instance, cosmic infla- vanced Study in Princeton, proposed that the The idea of a cycling universe tion—the favored mechanism for how our big bang is not a one-of-a-kind event but part seems to cycle around every now universe expanded from the big bang—does of a recurring cycle. “What we’re motivated and then. Its last appearance was not eliminate the primeval singularity but sim- by string theory to believe is that the big bang motivated by the possibility that the universe has enough matter to ply isolates it from today’s universe. is not what we’ve always thought—a begin- reverse its expansion and collapse Lately, though, a more thorough decon- ning of space and time, where temperature in a big crunch. Observations tamination is becoming a viable option, espe- and energy diverge,” Steinhardt says. “Rather have since ruled that out. www.sciam.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 25 Copyright 2002 Scientific American, Inc. news it is a transition between the current expand- And unlike inflation, the cyclic model natu- ing phase and a preexisting contracting phase.” rally incorporates the dark energy that is now SCAN Detoxifying singularities has long been causing cosmic expansion to accelerate: it is one of string theory’s major goals. According none other than the spring energy. to the theory, elementary particles ultimately Like a bicycle pump, the back-and-forth consist of wriggling strings, which have multi- motion of the fourth dimension puffs up the dimensional counterparts known as branes. volume of our three dimensions. The pump al- The intrinsic size of strings and branes pre- lows a little backflow, so just before each col- vents them from collapsing into points of in- lision, the branes contract slightly. But the finite density. The theory has already had density never becomes infinite. “The only thing some success in explaining black holes as a that is singular is that one dimension shrinks novel type of particle, and over the past to zero for one moment,” Turok says. “This decade it has inspired several alternatives to is the mildest of all possible singularities.” the standard picture of inflation. Unfortunately, a mild singularity is still a A CYCLE BUILT Like some of those alternatives, the cyclic singularity. String theory is too provisional to FOR TWO BRANES model is based on the idea that our universe is detoxify it fully, so researchers can’t be sure a three-dimensional brane that bounds a four- that some unsuspected effect won’t undo each Earlier models of the cycling dimensional space. Another brane—a parallel cycle’s careful preparation for the next. “How universe had a fatal flaw: the big universe—resides a subsubatomic distance do small perturbations come through the big crunch is not a perfect mirror image of the big bang. As space contracts, away. That universe is closer to you than your crunch and go out of it?” asks cosmologist photons gain energy at the expense own skin, yet you can never see or touch it. Andrei Linde of Stanford University, a lead- of the gravitational field, so the These two branes act as if connected by a ing critic of the model. “It is like throwing a universe ends up hotter than when spring, which pulls the branes together when chair into a black hole and expecting it to re- it started. No true cycle could they are far apart and pushes them apart materialize later.” And that is not the only develop; the model requires an ultimate beginning as surely as the when they are close. Thus, they oscillate to problem; the precise behavior of the spring- one-time big bang does. and fro. Periodically the branes hit and re- like force, for instance, seems rather ad hoc. bound like cymbals. To those of us stuck in- New observations of the cosmic micro- The new cyclic model solves that side one of the branes, the collision looks ex- wave background radiation should be able to problem. The accelerating actly like a big bang. The hot primordial soup confirm or dispel these misgivings. Whatever expansion wrought by dark energy dilutes the photons, so each bang was the energy dumped into the branes when becomes of the model, it has encouraged cos- begins afresh. (This acceleration they hit. The density fluctuations that seeded mologists to question conventional wisdom. fulfills the same role as inflation in galaxies began as wrinkles in the branes. Gabriele Veneziano of CERN, a pioneer of the standard big bang theory but Many a cosmological model has found- both string theory and its application to cos- occurs at a different point in cosmic ered on the question of these density fluctua- mology, says, “Thanks partly to the work of history.) The universe can be infinitely old, thereby eliminating tions. Observations indicate that the fluctu- Turok, Steinhardt and colleagues, our com- the puzzle of what came “before.” ations had the same amplitude no matter munity is much more ready to accept that the what their size. The cyclic model predicts ex- big bang was the outcome of something actly that—the only model besides inflation rather than the cause of everything.” CYCLIC COSMOLOGY posits that to do so. “Without any notion of inflation our universe and a twin—shown here as planes, but actually three- whatsoever, we are able to account for that A longer discussion appears at dimensional—periodically bounce near-scale-invariant spectrum,” Ovrut says. www.sciam.com/explorations/ off each other. “That really was a remarkable discovery.” 2002/021102cyclic/ 1. The universes stop moving apart and 2. Even as they do so, each 3. They collide. A new big 4. The collision refills each start to approach each other. universe continues to expand. bang commences. universe with matter. SAMUEL VELASCO 26 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MARCH 2002 Copyright 2002 Scientific American, Inc..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Inflation, Large Branes, and the Shape of Space
    Inflation, Large Branes, and the Shape of Space Brett McInnes National University of Singapore email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Linde has recently argued that compact flat or negatively curved spatial sections should, in many circumstances, be considered typical in Inflationary cosmologies. We suggest that the “large brane instability” of Seiberg and Witten eliminates the negative candidates in the context of string theory. That leaves the flat, compact, three-dimensional manifolds — Conway’s platycosms. We show that deep theorems of Schoen, Yau, Gromov and Lawson imply that, even in this case, Seiberg-Witten instability can be avoided only with difficulty. Using a specific cosmological model of the Maldacena-Maoz type, we explain how to do this, and we also show how the list of platycosmic candidates can be reduced to three. This leads to an extension of the basic idea: the conformal compactification of the entire Euclidean spacetime also has the topology of a flat, compact, four-dimensional space. arXiv:hep-th/0410115v2 19 Oct 2004 1. Nearly Flat or Really Flat? Linde has recently argued [1] that, at least in some circumstances, we should regard cosmological models with flat or negatively curved compact spatial sections as the norm from an Inflationary point of view. Here we wish to argue that cosmic holography, in the novel form proposed by Maldacena and Maoz [2], gives a deep new interpretation of this idea, and also sharpens it very considerably to exclude the negative case. This focuses our attention on cosmological models with flat, compact spatial sections. Current observations [3] show that the spatial sections of our Universe [as defined by observers for whom local isotropy obtains] are fairly close to being flat: the total density parameter Ω satisfies Ω = 1.02 0.02 at 95% confidence level, if we allow the imposition ± of a reasonable prior [4] on the Hubble parameter.
    [Show full text]
  • Anomalies, Dualities, and Topology of D = 6 N = 1 Superstring Vacua
    RU-96-16 NSF-ITP-96-21 CALT-68-2057 IASSNS-HEP-96/53 hep-th/9605184 Anomalies, Dualities, and Topology of D =6 N =1 Superstring Vacua Micha Berkooz,1 Robert G. Leigh,1 Joseph Polchinski,2 John H. Schwarz,3 Nathan Seiberg,1 and Edward Witten4 1Department of Physics, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08855-0849 2Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4030 3California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 4Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540 Abstract We consider various aspects of compactifications of the Type I/heterotic Spin(32)/Z2 theory on K3. One family of such compactifications in- cludes the standard embedding of the spin connection in the gauge group, and is on the same moduli space as the compactification of arXiv:hep-th/9605184v1 25 May 1996 the heterotic E8 × E8 theory on K3 with instanton numbers (8,16). Another class, which includes an orbifold of the Type I theory re- cently constructed by Gimon and Polchinski and whose field theory limit involves some topological novelties, is on the moduli space of the heterotic E8 × E8 theory on K3 with instanton numbers (12,12). These connections between Spin(32)/Z2 and E8 × E8 models can be demonstrated by T duality, and permit a better understanding of non- perturbative gauge fields in the (12,12) model. In the transformation between Spin(32)/Z2 and E8 × E8 models, the strong/weak coupling duality of the (12,12) E8 × E8 model is mapped to T duality in the Type I theory. The gauge and gravitational anomalies in the Type I theory are canceled by an extension of the Green-Schwarz mechanism.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Comments on Physical Mathematics
    Preprint typeset in JHEP style - HYPER VERSION Some Comments on Physical Mathematics Gregory W. Moore Abstract: These are some thoughts that accompany a talk delivered at the APS Savannah meeting, April 5, 2014. I have serious doubts about whether I deserve to be awarded the 2014 Heineman Prize. Nevertheless, I thank the APS and the selection committee for their recognition of the work I have been involved in, as well as the Heineman Foundation for its continued support of Mathematical Physics. Above all, I thank my many excellent collaborators and teachers for making possible my participation in some very rewarding scientific research. 1 I have been asked to give a talk in this prize session, and so I will use the occasion to say a few words about Mathematical Physics, and its relation to the sub-discipline of Physical Mathematics. I will also comment on how some of the work mentioned in the citation illuminates this emergent field. I will begin by framing the remarks in a much broader historical and philosophical context. I hasten to add that I am neither a historian nor a philosopher of science, as will become immediately obvious to any expert, but my impression is that if we look back to the modern era of science then major figures such as Galileo, Kepler, Leibniz, and New- ton were neither physicists nor mathematicans. Rather they were Natural Philosophers. Even around the turn of the 19th century the same could still be said of Bernoulli, Euler, Lagrange, and Hamilton. But a real divide between Mathematics and Physics began to open up in the 19th century.
    [Show full text]
  • 2005 March Meeting Gears up for Showtime in the City of Angels
    NEWS See Pullout Insert Inside March 2005 Volume 14, No. 3 A Publication of The American Physical Society http://www.aps.org/apsnews 2005 March Meeting Gears Up for Reborn Nicholson Medal Showtime in the City of Angels Stresses Mentorship Established in memory of Dwight The latest research relevance to the design R. Nicholson of the University of results on the spin Hall and creation of next- Iowa, who died tragically in 1991, effect, new chemistry generation nano-electro- and first given in 1994, the APS with superatoms, and mechanical systems Nicholson Medal has been reborn several sessions cel- (NEMS). Moses Chan this year as an award for human ebrating all things (Pennsylvania State Uni- outreach. According to the infor- Einstein are among the versity) will talk about mation contained on the Medal’s expected highlights at evidence of Bose-Einstein web site (http://www.aps.org/praw/ the 2005 APS March condensation in solid he- nicholso/index.cfm), the Nicholson meeting, to be held later lium, while Stanford Medal for Human Outreach shall Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Los Angeles Convention Center this month in Los University’s Zhixun Shen be awarded to a physicist who ei- Angeles, California. The will discuss how photo- ther through teaching, research, or Photo from Iowa University Relations. conference is the largest physics Boltzmann, and Ehrenfest, but also emission spectroscopy has science-related activities, Dwight R. Nicholson. meeting of the year, featuring some Emmy Noether, one of the rare emerged as a leading tool to push
    [Show full text]
  • Round Table Talk: Conversation with Nathan Seiberg
    Round Table Talk: Conversation with Nathan Seiberg Nathan Seiberg Professor, the School of Natural Sciences, The Institute for Advanced Study Hirosi Ooguri Kavli IPMU Principal Investigator Yuji Tachikawa Kavli IPMU Professor Ooguri: Over the past few decades, there have been remarkable developments in quantum eld theory and string theory, and you have made signicant contributions to them. There are many ideas and techniques that have been named Hirosi Ooguri Nathan Seiberg Yuji Tachikawa after you, such as the Seiberg duality in 4d N=1 theories, the two of you, the Director, the rest of about supersymmetry. You started Seiberg-Witten solutions to 4d N=2 the faculty and postdocs, and the to work on supersymmetry almost theories, the Seiberg-Witten map administrative staff have gone out immediately or maybe a year after of noncommutative gauge theories, of their way to help me and to make you went to the Institute, is that right? the Seiberg bound in the Liouville the visit successful and productive – Seiberg: Almost immediately. I theory, the Moore-Seiberg equations it is quite amazing. I don’t remember remember studying supersymmetry in conformal eld theory, the Afeck- being treated like this, so I’m very during the 1982/83 Christmas break. Dine-Seiberg superpotential, the thankful and embarrassed. Ooguri: So, you changed the direction Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih metastable Ooguri: Thank you for your kind of your research completely after supersymmetry breaking, and many words. arriving the Institute. I understand more. Each one of them has marked You received your Ph.D. at the that, at the Weizmann, you were important steps in our progress.
    [Show full text]
  • David Olive: His Life and Work
    David Olive his life and work Edward Corrigan Department of Mathematics, University of York, YO10 5DD, UK Peter Goddard Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA St John's College, Cambridge, CB2 1TP, UK Abstract David Olive, who died in Barton, Cambridgeshire, on 7 November 2012, aged 75, was a theoretical physicist who made seminal contributions to the development of string theory and to our understanding of the structure of quantum field theory. In early work on S-matrix theory, he helped to provide the conceptual framework within which string theory was initially formulated. His work, with Gliozzi and Scherk, on supersymmetry in string theory made possible the whole idea of superstrings, now understood as the natural framework for string theory. Olive's pioneering insights about the duality between electric and magnetic objects in gauge theories were way ahead of their time; it took two decades before his bold and courageous duality conjectures began to be understood. Although somewhat quiet and reserved, he took delight in the company of others, generously sharing his emerging understanding of new ideas with students and colleagues. He was widely influential, not only through the depth and vision of his original work, but also because the clarity, simplicity and elegance of his expositions of new and difficult ideas and theories provided routes into emerging areas of research, both for students and for the theoretical physics community more generally. arXiv:2009.05849v1 [physics.hist-ph] 12 Sep 2020 [A version of section I Biography is to be published in the Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society.] I Biography Childhood David Olive was born on 16 April, 1937, somewhat prematurely, in a nursing home in Staines, near the family home in Scotts Avenue, Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey.
    [Show full text]
  • Is String Theory Holographic? 1 Introduction
    Holography and large-N Dualities Is String Theory Holographic? Lukas Hahn 1 Introduction1 2 Classical Strings and Black Holes2 3 The Strominger-Vafa Construction3 3.1 AdS/CFT for the D1/D5 System......................3 3.2 The Instanton Moduli Space.........................6 3.3 The Elliptic Genus.............................. 10 1 Introduction The holographic principle [1] is based on the idea that there is a limit on information content of spacetime regions. For a given volume V bounded by an area A, the state of maximal entropy corresponds to the largest black hole that can fit inside V . This entropy bound is specified by the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy A S ≤ S = (1.1) BH 4G and the goings-on in the relevant spacetime region are encoded on "holographic screens". The aim of these notes is to discuss one of the many aspects of the question in the title, namely: "Is this feature of the holographic principle realized in string theory (and if so, how)?". In order to adress this question we start with an heuristic account of how string like objects are related to black holes and how to compare their entropies. This second section is exclusively based on [2] and will lead to a key insight, the need to consider BPS states, which allows for a more precise treatment. The most fully understood example is 1 a bound state of D-branes that appeared in the original article on the topic [3]. The third section is an attempt to review this construction from a point of view that highlights the role of AdS/CFT [4,5].
    [Show full text]
  • Thoughts About Quantum Field Theory Nathan Seiberg IAS
    Thoughts About Quantum Field Theory Nathan Seiberg IAS Thank Edward Witten for many relevant discussions QFT is the language of physics It is everywhere • Particle physics: the language of the Standard Model • Enormous success, e.g. the electron magnetic dipole moment is theoretically 1.001 159 652 18 … experimentally 1.001 159 652 180... • Condensed matter • Description of the long distance properties of materials: phases and the transitions between them • Cosmology • Early Universe, inflation • … QFT is the language of physics It is everywhere • String theory/quantum gravity • On the string world-sheet • In the low-energy approximation (spacetime) • The whole theory (gauge/gravity duality) • Applications in mathematics especially in geometry and topology • Quantum field theory is the modern calculus • Natural language for describing diverse phenomena • Enormous progress over the past decades, still continuing 2011 Solvay meeting Comments on QFT 5 minutes, only one slide Should quantum field theory be reformulated? • Should we base the theory on a Lagrangian? • Examples with no semi-classical limit – no Lagrangian • Examples with several semi-classical limits – several Lagrangians • Many exact solutions of QFT do not rely on a Lagrangian formulation • Magic in amplitudes – beyond Feynman diagrams • Not mathematically rigorous • Extensions of traditional local QFT 5 How should we organize QFTs? QFT in High Energy Theory Start at high energies with a scale invariant theory, e.g. a free theory described by Lagrangian. Λ Deform it with • a finite set of coefficients of relevant (or marginally relevant) operators, e.g. masses • a finite set of coefficients of exactly marginal operators, e.g. in 4d = 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Université Joseph Fourier Les Houches Session LXXXVII 2007
    houches87cov.tex; 12/05/2008; 18:25 p. 1 1 Université Joseph Fourier 1 2 2 3 Les Houches 3 4 4 5 Session LXXXVII 5 6 6 7 2007 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 String Theory and the Real World: 15 16 16 17 From Particle Physics to Astrophysics 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 24 25 25 26 26 27 27 28 28 29 29 30 30 31 31 32 32 33 33 34 34 35 35 36 36 37 37 38 38 39 39 40 40 41 41 42 42 houches87cov.tex; 12/05/2008; 18:25 p. 2 1 Lecturers who contributed to this volume 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 I. Antoniadis 5 5 J.L.F. Barbón 6 6 Marcus K. Benna 7 7 Thibault Damour 8 8 Frederik Denef 9 9 F. Gianotti 10 10 G.F. Giudice 11 11 Kenneth Intriligator 12 12 Elias Kiritsis 13 13 Igor R. Klebanov 14 14 Marc Lilley 15 15 Juan M. Maldacena 16 16 Eliezer Rabinovici 17 17 Nathan Seiberg 18 18 Angel M. Uranga 19 19 Pierre Vanhove 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 24 25 25 26 26 27 27 28 28 29 29 30 30 31 31 32 32 33 33 34 34 35 35 36 36 37 37 38 38 39 39 40 40 41 41 42 42 houches87cov.tex; 12/05/2008; 18:25 p. 3 1 ÉCOLE D’ÉTÉ DE PHYSIQUE DES HOUCHES 1 2 2 3 SESSION LXXXVII, 2 JULY–27 JULY 2007 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 COLE THÉMATIQUE DU 7 É CNRS 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 STRING THEORY AND THE REAL WORLD: 15 16 16 17 FROM PARTICLE PHYSICS TO ASTROPHYSICS 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 21 21 Edited by 22 22 23 C.
    [Show full text]
  • Nathan Seiberg
    QED3 Nathan Seiberg IAS Analyzing a Lagrangian QFT Semiclassical physics, mostly in the UV (reliable, straightforward, but can be subtle) • Global symmetry and its ‘t Hooft anomalies • Weakly coupled limits: flat directions, small parameters, … Quantum physics in the IR (mostly conjectural) • Consistency with the global symmetry (including ‘t Hooft anomalies) and the various semiclassical limits • Approximate methods: lattice, bootstrap, , 1/ , … • Integrability • String constructions 2 QED3 [Many references using various methods] Simple, characteristic example, demonstrating surprising phenomena. Many applications. • (1) gauge field • fermions with charges and masses • A bare Chern-Simons term. – Label the theory as 1 with a parameter . – When all the fermions are massive, at low energies a TQFT 1 with = + sign . 1 2 Since , 1 2 ∑ + . ∈ ℤ 2 2 3 � ∈ ℤ Global symmetries • Charge-conjugation : (with appropriate action on the fermions) → − • 1 , = 0 time-reversal : ( , ) , ( , ) , 0 0 0 (with appropriate action on the fermions )→ − → − − • Standard algebra on all the fundamental fields = = 1 2 = 1 • For equal charges and masses2 − more symmetries, e.g. − . 4 Global magnetic (topological) symmetry • 1 symmetry: = . 1 • The charged operators are monopole operators (like 2 a disorder operator). – Remove a point from spacetime and specify boundary conditions around it. • Massless fermions have zero modes, which can lead to “funny” quantum numbers. 5 Global magnetic (topological) symmetry In many applications, the magnetic symmetry is approximate or absent • In lattice constructions • When the gauge (1) is embedded at higher energies in a non-Abelian gauge group • When the gauge 1 is emergent • In the generalization of the gauge 1 2 to ( ) with higher (only a magnetic symmetry).
    [Show full text]
  • Symmetries, Anomalies and Duality in Chern-Simons Matter Theories
    Symmetries, Anomalies and Duality in Chern-Simons Matter Theories Po-Shen Hsin A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Princeton University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Recommended for Acceptance by the Department of Physics Adviser: Nathan Seiberg September 2018 c Copyright by Po-Shen Hsin, 2018. All rights reserved. Abstract This thesis investigates the properties of quantum field theory with Chern-Simons interac- tion in three spacetime dimension. We focus on their symmetries and anomalies. We find many theories exhibit the phenomenon of duality - different field theories describe the same long-distance physics, and we will explore its consequence. We start by discussing Chern-Simons matter dualities with unitary gauge groups. The theories can couple to background gauge field for the global U(1) symmetry, and we produce new dualities by promoting the fields to be dynamical. We then continue to discuss theories with orthogonal and symplectic gauge groups and their dualities. For the orthogonal gauge algebra there can be discrete levels in addition to the ordinary Chern-Simons term, and the dualities require specific discrete levels as well as precise global forms of the gauge groups. We present several consistency tests for the dualities, such as consistency under deformation by the mass terms on both sides of the duality. When the matter fields are heavy the dualities reduce at long distance to the level-rank dualities between Chern-Simons theories, which we prove rigorously. We clarify the global form of the gauge groups, and we show the level-rank dualities hold generally only between spin topological quantum field theories.
    [Show full text]
  • 216306747.Pdf
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Caltech Authors - Main Journal of High Energy Physics OPEN ACCESS Related content - Local models of gauge mediated Abelian hidden sectors at a GeV supersymmetry breaking in string theory Iñaki García-Etxebarria, Fouad Saad and Angel M. Uranga To cite this article: David E. Morrissey et al JHEP07(2009)050 - Common gauge origin of discrete symmetries in observable sector and hidden sector Taeil Hur, Hye-Sung Lee and Christoph Luhn View the article online for updates and enhancements. - Semi-direct gauge mediation Nathan Seiberg, Tomer Volansky and Brian Wecht Recent citations - Dark matter in very supersymmetric dark sectors Avital Dery et al - A portalino to the dark sector Martin Schmaltz and Neal Weiner - Light dark matter from leptogenesis Adam Falkowski et al This content was downloaded from IP address 131.215.225.165 on 13/06/2019 at 19:20 Published by IOP Publishing for SISSA Received: May 19, 2009 Accepted: June 22, 2009 Published: July 15, 2009 Abelian hidden sectors at a GeV JHEP07(2009)050 David E. Morrissey,a David Polanda and Kathryn M. Zurekb,c aJefferson Physical Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, U.S.A. bParticle Astrophysics Center, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, U.S.A. cDepartment of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract: We discuss mechanisms for naturally generating GeV-scale hidden sectors in the context of weak-scale supersymmetry.
    [Show full text]