Tagged Questions

5
votes
0answers
102 views

Has hep-th/0312070 forgotten to fix $s_{0} = 1/2$ for the fermionic states in the second table on page 52?

Link to the original paper: The Gauge/String Correspondence Towards Realistic Gauge Theories (arXiv paper) On page 52 we see that, for a theory of Dp-branes placed at an orbifold (orbifold = ...
4
votes
0answers
165 views

The ${\cal N} = 3$ Chern-Simons matter lagrangian

This question is sort of a continuation of this previous question of mine. I would like to know of some further details about the Lagrangian discussed in this paper in equation 2.8 (page 7) and in ...
9
votes
3answers
439 views

Is there any quantum-gravity theory that has flat space-time and gravitons?

Many quantum-gravity theories are strongly interacting. It is not clear if they produce the gravity as we know it at low energies. So I wonder, is there any quantum-gravity theory that a) is a well ...
2
votes
0answers
57 views

Why/When can the gauge superfield and/or chiral superfield kinetic term in $(2,2)$ SUSY be ignored?

This is in reference to the argument given towards the end of page $61$ of this review paper. There for the path-integral argument to work the author clearly needed some argument to be able to ignore ...
6
votes
1answer
270 views

About the definition/motivation/properties of the twisted chiral superfield in ${\cal N}=2$ theories in $1+1$ dimensions

The following is in the context of the ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetry in $1+1$ dimensions - which is probably generically constructed as a reduction from the ${\cal N}=1$ case in $3+1$ dimensions. In ...
4
votes
1answer
74 views

$\pm$ (light-cone?) notation in supersymmetry

I would like to know what is exactly meant when one writes $\theta^{\pm}, \bar{\theta}^\pm, Q_{\pm},\bar{Q}_{\pm},D_{\pm},\bar{D}_{\pm}$. {..I typically encounter this notation in literature on ...
3
votes
1answer
39 views

Spectrum of Free Strings

As far as I understand, both in bosonic and superstring theory one considers initially a free string propagating through D-dimensional Minkowskispace. Regardless of what quantization one uses, at the ...
4
votes
1answer
75 views

What is the connection between extra dimensions in Kaluza-Klein type theories and those in string theories?

This follows to some extent from a question I asked previously about the flaws of Kaluza-Klein theories. It appears to me that Kaluza-Klein theories attach additional dimensions to spacetime that are ...
7
votes
1answer
25 views

Low-energy gluodynamics as a string

Does anyone know of a (most likely heuristic) derivation of the use of the string sigma model action to model the soft gluonic interactions between color charges? I'm familiar with the classic ...
5
votes
1answer
95 views

Renormalization of the R-charge?

In general I would like to know as to known or what is/are the standard references about R-charge renormalization in supersymmetric theories. When does it do so and what is expected or known to be ...
5
votes
1answer
107 views

Some questions about the BCFW reduction

I am trying to give a fast sketch of what the BCFW reduction does and embed within it some questions at the steps which I don't seem to understand clearly. The first bullet point is sort of a very ...
6
votes
1answer
55 views

Poisson structure on moduli space of CFTs

The moduli space of CFTs with central charge 26 forms the classical phase space of bosonic string theory, in some sense. Similarily the moduli space of SCFTs with central charge 10 forms the classical ...
7
votes
3answers
100 views

String-theoretic significance of extended CFT

Extended TQFT and CFT have been puzzling me for while. While I understand the mathematical motivation behind them, I don't quite understand the physical meaning. In particular, it's not clear to me to ...
6
votes
1answer
87 views

random matrix ensembles from BMN model

My friends working on Thermalization of Black Holes explained solutions to their matrix-valued differential equations (from numerical implementation of the Berenstein-Maldacena-Nastase matrix model) ...
6
votes
0answers
46 views

Pohlmeyer reduction of string theory for flat and AdS spaces

The definition of Pohlmeyer invariants in flat-space (as per eq-2.16 in Urs Schreiber's DDF and Pohlmeyer invariants of (super)string) is the following: $ Z^{\mu_1...\mu_N} (\mathcal{P}) = ...
8
votes
1answer
174 views

Derivation of the basic equation for Witten diagrams

I could understand the derivation of the "bulk-to-boundary" propagators ($K$) for scalar fields in $AdS$ but the iterative definition of the "bulk-to-bulk" propagators is not clear to me. On is ...
6
votes
0answers
49 views

String landscape in different dimensions

For D = 11 large (uncompactified) spacetime dimensions, the only "string theory" vacuum is M-theory For D = 10, there are 5 vacua. Or maybe it's more correct to say 4, since type I is S-dual to ...
6
votes
1answer
140 views

Uniqueness of the 5 string theories

This question combines several sub-questions, the common theme being: why the known 5 string theories are unique? Firstly, regarding heterotic theory. I understand the only allowed gauge groups are ...
8
votes
1answer
93 views

AdS/CFT at D = 3

AdS/CFT at D = 3 (on the AdS side) seems to have some special issues which I bundled into a single question The CFT is 2D hence it has an infinite-dimensional group of symmetries (locally). The ...
5
votes
1answer
37 views

Interplay between the cosmological constant and “microscopic” properties of string vacua

As far as I understand, string phenomenology is usually concerned with compactifications of string theory, M-theory or F-theory in which the uncompactified dimensions form a 4-dimensional Minkowski ...
7
votes
1answer
46 views

Matrix geometry for F-strings

A stack of N D-branes has the strange property that the traverse D-brane coordinates are matrix-valued. When the matrices commute, they can be interpreted as ordinary coordinates for N ...
10
votes
1answer
46 views

Physical interpretation of superstrings

The scalar fields $X^\mu$ in bosonic string theory have a clear physical interpretation - they describe the embedding of the string in spacetime. Adding fermionic fields on the worldsheet is a ...
7
votes
0answers
53 views

Quantum statistics of branes

Quantum statistics of particles (bosons, fermions, anyons) arises due to the possible topologies of curves in D-dimensional spacetime winding around each other What happens if we replace particles by ...
10
votes
2answers
44 views

Examples of heterotic CFTs

I'm trying to get a global idea of the world of conformal field theories. Many authors restrict attention to CFTs where the algebras of left and right movers agree. I'd like to increase my intuition ...
8
votes
1answer
89 views

“finite” QFTs and short-distance singularities and vanishing beta functions

I am not sure that I can frame this question coherently enough - it springs from various things in QFT that I have recently been thinking and reading about. May be these thoughts are mis-directed but ...
8
votes
1answer
270 views

Quivers in String Theory

Why do a physicist, particularly a string theorist care about Quivers ? Essentially what I'm interested to know is the origin of quivers in string theory and why studying quivers is a natural thing ...
6
votes
1answer
74 views

Scherk-Schwarz and other compactifications?

I have been thinking about various types of compactifications and have been wondering if I have been understanding them, and how they all fit together, correctly. From my understanding, if we want ...
13
votes
2answers
128 views

Which CFTs have AdS/CFT duals?

The AdS/CFT correspondence states that string theory in an asymptotically anti-De Sitter spacetime can be exactly described as a CFT on the boundary of this spacetime. Is the converse true? Does any ...
9
votes
1answer
64 views

Global symmetry in string theory

It is often stated that in quantum gravity only charges coupled to gauge fields can be conserved. This is because of the no hair theorem. If a charge is coupled to a gauge field then when it falls ...
8
votes
0answers
36 views

Minimal strings and topological strings

In http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0206255 Dijkgraaf and Vafa showed that the closed string partition function of the topological B-model on a Calabi-Yau of the form $uv-H(x,y)=0$ coincides with the free ...
5
votes
2answers
201 views

Lorentz transformation in light cone coordinates in string theory

What is the explicit form of the Lorentz transformation changing the light cone coordinates in the light cone gauge in string theory? The extended nature of the strings complicate matters, especially ...
12
votes
2answers
182 views

Renormalization in string theory

I'm taking a course in string theory and have encountered renormalization for the first time (and I suspect it isn't the last). Specifically, while quantizing the bosonic and spinning strings, an ...
5
votes
1answer
42 views

Are there stable string theory vacua with non-minimal cosmological constant?

Naive reasoning suggests that a string theory vacuum with cosmological constant Lambda1 is always unstable as long as there is a string theory vacuum with cosmological constant Lambda2 < Lambda1 ...
4
votes
0answers
25 views

What is the state-of-the-art on spacelike singularities in string theory?

What lessons do we have from string theory regarding the fate of singularities in general relativity? What happens to black hole singularities? What happens to cosmological singularities? Which ...
9
votes
1answer
89 views

Is there a background independent closed string field theory?

Analogous to the background independent open string field theory by Witten. If there isn't, what are the main stumbling blocks preventing its construction?
8
votes
0answers
48 views

Super Lie-infinity algebra of closed superstring field theory?

Bosonic closed string field theory is famously governed by a Lie n-algebra for $n = \infty$ whose $k$-ary bracket is given by the genus-0 (k+1)-point function in the BRST complex of the string. One ...
12
votes
2answers
165 views

Generalized Complex Geometry and Theoretical Physics

I have been wondering about some of the different uses of Generalized Complex Geometry (GCG) in Physics. Without going into mathematical detail (see Gualtieri's thesis for reference), a Generalized ...
5
votes
1answer
25 views

Scaling solutions in context of Denef - Moore

My question is based on the paper Split states, entropy enigma, holes, halos. What are the scaling solutions discussed on page 49 of the paper ? It is stated that the equations ${\sum_{j, i\neq ...
12
votes
1answer
50 views

Local Fermionic Symmetry

That is perhaps a bit of an advertisement, but a couple of collaborators and myself just sent out a paper, and one of the results there is a little bit surprising. We found (in section 6E) a fermionic ...
8
votes
3answers
48 views

Does the complex 3-sphere have a complex structure modulus?

This question has a flavor which is more mathematical than physical, however it is about a mathematical physics article and I suspect my misunderstanding occurs because the precise mathematical ...
13
votes
1answer
95 views

realization of: CFT generating fuction = AdS partition function

An important aspect of the AdS/CFT correspondence is the recipe to compute correlation functions of a boundary operator $\mathcal{O} $ in terms of the supergravity fields in the interior of the ...
14
votes
1answer
168 views

Is string theory local?

By locality I mean something like the Atiyah-Segal axioms for Riemannian cobordisms (see e.g. http://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/FQFT). I.e. to any (spacelike) hypersurface in the target we associate a ...
7
votes
1answer
49 views

Why isn't there heterotic holographic QCD?

I think the question speaks for itself... Top-down holographic QCD, like Sakai-Sugimoto, always involves the Type II string. There are one or two papers on hQCD using the Type 0 string. But I can't ...
5
votes
0answers
41 views

Why Are Even and Odd Regge Trajectories Degenerate?

The Gribov-Froissart projection treats even angular momentum differently from odd angular momentum. But in QCD, I believe that the odd trajectories interpolate the even trajectories--- the two ...
5
votes
1answer
104 views

How Exactly Does Linear Regge Trajectories Imply Stability?

(for a more muddled version, see physics.stackexchange: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/14020/whats-with-mandelstams-argument-that-only-linear-regge-trajectories-are-stable) There is a ...
5
votes
1answer
62 views

Choice and identification of vacuums in AdS/CFT

I know how we define a vacuum in flat space QFT and also in a curved space QFT. But, can somebody tell me how do the choice of vacuum state in (say) the CFT side of AdS/CFT changes the choice of ...
13
votes
2answers
64 views

Uniqueness of supersymmetric heterotic string theory

Usually we say there are two types of heterotic strings, namely $E_8\times E_8$ and $Spin(32)/\mathbb{Z}_2$. (Let's forget about non-supersymmetric heterotic strings for now.) The standard argument ...
13
votes
1answer
31 views

SuperHiggs Mechanism on different Backgrounds & Compactifications

I've been studying Bagger & Giannakis paper on the SuperHiggs Mechanism found here. The paper shows how SUSY is broken by a $B_{\mu\nu}$ gauge field background restricted to $T^3$ in $M^7\times ...