Consistency of super-poincaré covariant superstring tree amplitudes

Using pure spinors, the superstring was recently quantized in a manifestly ten-dimensional super-Poincaré covariant manner and a covariant prescription was given for tree-level scattering amplitudes. In this paper, we prove that this prescription is cyclically symmetric and, for the scattering of an arbitrary number of massless bosons and up to four massless fermions, it agrees with the standard Ramond-Neveu-Schwarz prescription.

Covariant quantization of the superparticle using pure spinors

The ten-dimensional superparticle is covariantly quantized by constructing a BRST operator from the fermionic Green-Schwarz constraints and a bosonic pure spinor variable. This same method was recently used for covariantly quantizing the superstring, and it is hoped that the simpler case of the superparticle will be useful for those who want to study this quantization method. It is interesting that quantization of the superparticle action closely resembles quantization of the worldline action for Chern-Simons theory.

Exploring neutrino mixing with low energy superbeams

We explore the features of neutrino oscillation which are relevant for measurements of the leptonic CP violating phase δ and the sign of Delta;m13 2 in experiments with low-energy conventional superbeams. Toward the goal, we introduce a new powerful tool called the CP trajectory diagram in bi-probability space which allows us to represent pictorially the three effects, the effects of (a) genuine CP violation due to the sin δ term, (6) CP conserving cos δ term, and (c) fake CP violation due to earth matter, separately in a single diagram. By using the diagram, we observe that there is a two-fold ambiguity in the determination of S which is related with the sign of Delta;m13 2. Possible ways of resolving the ambiguity are discussed. In particular, we point out that an in situ simultaneous measurement of δ and the sign of Delta;m13 2 can be carried out at distances of about 700 km, or at the Phase II of the JHF experiment provided that sin δ ·Delta;m13 2 < 0, both with a megaton class water Cherenkov detector.

The Ramond sector of open superstring field theory

Although the equations of motion for the Neveu-Schwarz (NS) and Ramond (R) sectors of open superstring field theory can be covariantly expressed in terms of one NS and one R string field, picture-changing problems prevent the construction of an action involving these two string fields. However, a consistent action can be constructed by dividing the NS and R states into three string fields which are real, chiral and antichiral. The open superstring field theory action includes a WZW-like term for the real field and holomorphic Chern-Simons-like terms for the chiral and antichiral fields. Different versions of the action can be constructed with either manifest d = 8 Lorentz covariance or manifest TV = 1 d = 4 super-Poincaré covariance. The lack of a manifestly d = 10 Lorentz covariant action is related to the self-dual five-form in the type-IIB R-R sector.

Energy and the AdS/CFT correspondence

We consider a scalar field theory on AdS in both minimally and non-minimally coupled cases. We show that there exist constraints which arise in the quantization of the scalar field theory on AdS which cannot be reproduced through the usual AdS/CFT prescription. We argue that the usual energy, defined through the stress-energy tensor, is not the natural one to be considered in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We analyze a new definition of the energy which makes use of the Noether current corresponding to time displacements in global coordinates. We compute the new energy for Dirichlet, Neumann and mixed boundary conditions on the scalar field and for both the minimally and non-minimally coupled cases. Then, we perform the quantization of the scalar field theory on AdS showing that, for 'regular' and 'irregular' modes, the new energy is conserved, positive and finite. We show that the quantization gives rise, in a natural way, to a generalized AdS/CFT prescription which maps to the boundary all the information contained in the bulk. In particular, we show that the divergent local terms of the on-shell action contain information about the Legendre transformed generating functional, and that the new constraints for which the irregular modes propagate in the bulk are the same constraints for which such divergent local terms cancel out. In this situation, the addition of counterterms is not required. We also show that there exist particular cases for which the unitarity bound is reached, and the conformai dimension becomes independent of the effective mass. This phenomenon has no bulk counterpart.

Soliton spectrum of integrable models with local symmetries

The soliton spectrum (massive and massless) of a family of integrable models with local U(1) and U(1) ⊗U(1) symmetries is studied. These models represent relevant integrable deformations of SL(2,ℝ) ⊗U(1) n-1-WZW and SL(2,ℝ) ⊗ SL(2,ℝ) ⊗U(1) n-2-WZW models. Their massless solitons appear as specific topological solutions of the U(1)(or U(1) ⊗ U(1)-) CFTs. The nonconformal analog of the GKO-coset formula is derived and used in the construction of the composite massive solitons of the ungauged integrable models. © SISSA/ISAS 2002.

Towards covariant quantization of the supermembrane

By replacing ten-dimensional pure spinors with eleven-dimensional pure spinors, the formalism recently developed for covariantly quantizing the d = 10 superparticle and superstring is extended to the d = 11 superparticle and supermembrane. In this formalism, kappa symmetry is replaced by a BRST-like invariance using the nilpotent operator Q = ∮ λ αdα where dα is the worldvolume variable corresponding to the d = 11 spacetime supersymmetric derivative and λα is an SO(10, 1) pure spinor variable satisfying λΓcλ = 0 for c = 1 to 11. Super-Poincaré covariant unintegrated and integrated supermembrane vertex operators are explicitly constructed which are in the cohomology of Q. After double-dimensional reduction of the eleventh dimension, these vertex operators are related to type-IIA superstring vertex operators where Q = QL + QR is the sum of the left and right-moving type-IIA BRST operators and the eleventh component of the pure spinor constraint, λΓ 11λ = 0, replaces the bL 0 - b R 0 constraint of the closed superstring. A conjecture is made for the computation of M-theory scattering amplitudes using these supermembrane vertex operators. © SISSA/ISAS 2002.

N = 2 superconformal description of superstring in Ramond-Ramond plane wave backgrounds

Using the U(4) formalism developed ten years ago, the worldsheet action for the superstring in Ramond-Ramond plane wave backgrounds is expressed in a manifestly N = (2,2) superconformally invariant manner. This simplifies the construction of consistent Ramond-Ramond plane wave backgrounds and eliminates the problems associated with light-cone interaction point operators. © SISSA/ISAS 2002.

One loop conformal invariance of the superstring in an AdS5 × S5 background

It is proven that the pure spinor superstring in an AdS5 × S5 background remains conformally invariant at one loop level in the sigma model perturbation theory. © SISSA/ISAS 2003.

Supersymmetric Born-Infeld from the pure spinor formalism of the open superstring

Classical BRST invariance in the pure spinor formalism for the open superstring is shown to imply the supersymmetric Born-Infeld equations of motion for the background fields. These equations are obtained by requiring that the left and right-moving BRST currents are equal on the worldsheet boundary in the presence of the background. The Born-Infeld equations are expressed in N = 1 D = 10 superspace and include all abelian contributions to the low-energy equations of motion, as well as the leading non-abelian contributions. © SISSA/ISAS 2003.

Discriminating among earth composition models using geo-antineutrinos

It has been estimated that the entire Earth generates heat corresponding to about 40 TW (equivalent to 10,000 nuclear power plants) which is considered to originate mainly from the radioactive decay of elements like U, Th and K, deposited in the crust and mantle of the Earth. Radioactivity of these elements produce not only heat but also antineutrinos (called geo-antineutrinos) which can be observed by terrestrial detectors. We investigate the possibility of discriminating among Earth composition models predicting different total radiogenic heat generation, by observing such geo-antineutrinos at Kamioka and Gran Sasso, assuming KamLAND and Borexino (type) detectors, respectively, at these places. By simulating the future geo-antineutrino data as well as reactor antineutrino background contributions, we try to establish to which extent we can discriminate among Earth composition models for given exposures (in units of kt · yr) at these two sites on our planet. We use also information on neutrino mixing parameters coming from solar neutrino data as well as KamLAND reactor antineutrino data, in order to estimate the number of geo-antineutrino induced events. © SISSA/ISAS 2003.

Conformal invariance of the pure spinor superstring in a curved background

It is shown that the pure spinor formulation of the heterotic superstring in a generic gravitational and super Yang-Mills background has vanishing one-loop beta functions. © SISSA/ISAS 2004.

A dynamical gluon mass solution in a coupled system of the Schwinger-Dyson equations

We study numerically the Schwinger-Dyson equations for the coupled system of gluon and ghost propagators in the Landau gauge and in the case of pure gauge QCD. We show that a dynamical mass for the gluon propagator arises as a solution while the ghost propagator develops an enhanced behavior in the infrared regime of QCD. Simple analytical expressions are proposed for the propagators, and the mass dependency on the ΛQCD scale and its perturbative scaling are studied. We discuss the implications of our results for the infrared behavior of the coupling constant, which, according to fits for the propagators infrared behavior, seems to indicate that α s(q2) → 0 as q2 → 0. © SISSA/ISAS 2004.

Quantum consistency of the superstring

Using arguments based on BRST cohomology, the pure spinor formalism for the superstring in an AdS 5×S 5 background is proven to be BRST invariant and conformally invariant at the quantum level to all orders in perturbation theory. Cohomology arguments are also used to prove the existence of an infinite set of non-local BRST-invariant charges at the quantum level. © SISSA 2005.

One-loop conformal invariance of the type II pure spinor superstring in a curved background

We compute the one-loop beta functions for the Type II superstring using the pure spinor formalism in a generic supergravity background. It is known that the classical pure spinor BRST symmetry puts the background fields on-shell. In this paper we show that the one-loop beta functions vanish as a consequence of the classical BRST symmetry of the action. © SISSA 2007.