Nonequilibrium dynamics of quantum fields

The nonequilibrium effective equation of motion for a scalar background field in a thermal bath is studied numerically. This equation emerges from a microscopic quantum field theory derivation and it is suitable to a Langevin simulation on the lattice. Results for both the symmetric and broken phases are presented.

Cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure constraints on a simple quintessential inflation model

We derive constraints on a simple quintessential inflation model, based on a spontaneously broken Phi(4) theory, imposed by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe three-year data (WMAP3) and by galaxy clustering results from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We find that the scale of symmetry breaking must be larger than about 3 Planck masses in order for inflation to generate acceptable values of the scalar spectral index and of the tensor-to-scalar ratio. We also show that the resulting quintessence equation of state can evolve rapidly at recent times and hence can potentially be distinguished from a simple cosmological constant in this parameter regime.

Discrete symmetries, invisible axion, and lepton number symmetry in an economic 3-3-1 model

We show that Peccei-Quinn and lepton number symmetries can be a natural outcome in a 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos after imposing a Z(11)circle timesZ(2) symmetry. This symmetry is suitably accommodated in this model when we augment its spectrum by including merely one singlet scalar field. We work out the breaking of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry, yielding the axion, and study the phenomenological consequences. The main result of this work is that the solution to the strong CP problem can be implemented in a natural way, implying an invisible axion phenomenologically unconstrained, free of domain wall formation, and constituting a good candidate for the cold dark matter.

Pion form factor in the light-front

The pion electromagnetic form factor is calculated with a light-front quark model. The plus and minus components of the electromagnetic current are used to calculate the electromagnetic form factor in the the Breit frame with two models for the q (q) over bar vertex. The light-front constituent quark model describes very well the hadronic wave functions for pseudo-scalar and vector particles. Symmetry problems arising in the light-front approcah are solved by the pole dislocation method. The results are compared with new experimental data and with other quark models.

Scaling in few-body nuclear physics

The nuclear matter calculations with realistic nucleon-nucleon potentials present a general scaling between the nucleon-nucleus binding energy, the corresponding saturation density, and the triton binding energy. The Thomas-Efimov three-body effect implies in correlations among low-energy few-body and many-body observables. It is also well known that, by varying the short-range repulsion, keeping the two-nucleon information (deuteron and scattering) fixed, the four-nucleon and three-nucleon binding energies lie on a very narrow band known as a Tjon line. By looking for a universal scaling function connecting the proper scales of the few-body system with those of the many-body system, we suggest that the general nucleus-nucleon scaling mechanism is a manifestation of a universal few-body effect.

Mass generation from Lie algebra extensions

Applied to the electroweak interactions, the theory of Lie algebra extensions suggests a mechanism by which the boson masses are generated without resource to spontaneous symmetry breaking. It starts from a gauge theory without any additional scalar field. All the couplings predicted by the Weinberg-Salam theory are present, and a few others which are nevertheless consistent within the model.

A dynamical mechanism to explain the top-bottom quark mass hierarchy

We discuss the mass splitting between the the top and bottom quarks in a technicolor scenario. The model proposed here contains a left-right electroweak gauge group. An extended technicolor group and mirror fermions are introduced. The top-bottom quark mass splitting turns out to be intimately connected to the breaking of the left-right gauge symmetry. Weak isospin violation occurs within the experimental limits.

Pion structure in the instanton liquid model

The covariant quark model of the pion based on the effective nonlocal quark-hadron Lagrangian involving nonlocality induced by instanton fluctuations of the QCD vacuum is reviewed. Explicit gauge invariant formalism allows us to construct the conserved vector and axial currents and to demonstrate their consistency with the Ward-Takahashi identities and low-energy theorems. The spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry results in the dynamic quark mass and the vertex of the quark-pion interaction, both momentum-dependent. The parameters of the instanton vacuum, the average size of the instantons, and the effective quark mass are expressed in terms of the vacuum expectation values of the lowest dimension quark-gluon operators and low-energy pion observables. The transition pion form factor for the processes gamma*gamma --> pi (0) and gamma*gamma* --> pi (0) is analyzed in detail. The kinematic dependence of the transition form factor at high momentum transfers allows one to determine the relationship between the light-cone amplitude of the quark distribution in the pion and the quark-pion vertex function. Its dynamic dependence implies that the transition form factor gamma*gamma --> pi (0) at high momentum transfers is acutely sensitive to the size of the nonlocality of nonperturbative fluctuations in the QCD vacuum. In the leading twist, the distribution amplitude and the distribution function of the valence quarks in the pion are calculated at a low normalization point of the order of the inverse average instanton size rho (-1)(c). The QCD results are evolved to higher momentum transfers and are in reasonable agreement with available experimental data on the pion structure.

Chiral aspects of hadron structure

Chiral loop corrections for hadronic properties are considered in a constituent quark model. It is emphasized that the correct implementation of such corrections requires a sum over intermediate hadronic states. The leading non-analytic corrections are very important for baryon magnetic moments and explain the failure of the sum rule (mu(Sigma+) + 2 mu(Sigma-))/mu(A) = -1 predicted by the constituent quark model. (C) 2000 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Light-front model of the kaon electromagnetic current

The kaon electromagnetic form factor is extracted from both components of the current: J(+) and J(-) with a pseudo-scalar coupling of the quarks to the meson. The pair production process does not contribute to J(+) in the Drell-Yan frame (q(+) = 0). However, the pair production process contribution is different from zero in J(-) and this contribution is necessary to keep the rotational symmetry properties of the current.

Cosmological term and fundamental physics

A nonvanishing cosmological term in Einstein's equations implies a nonvanishing spacetime curvature even in the absence of any kind of matter. It would, in consequence, affect many of the underlying kinematic tenets of physical theory. The usual commutative spacetime translations of the Poincare group would be replaced by the mixed conformal translations of the de Sitter group, leading to obvious alterations in elementary concepts such as time, energy and momentum. Although negligible at small scales, such modifications may come to have important consequences both in the large and for the inflationary picture of the early Universe. A qualitative discussion is presented, which suggests deep changes in Hamiltonian, Quantum and Statistical Mechanics. In the primeval universe as described by the standard cosmological model, in particular, the equations of state of the matter sources could be quite different from those usually introduced.

Effect of bound nucleon internal structure change on nuclear structure functions

Effect of bound nucleon internal structure change on nuclear structure functions is investigated based on local quark-hadron duality. The bound nucleon structure functions calculated for charged-lepton and (anti)neutrino scattering are all enhanced in symmetric nuclear matter at large Bjorken-x (x greater than or similar to 0.85) relative to those in a free nucleon. This implies that a part of the enhancement observed in the nuclear structure function F-2 (in the resonance region) at large Bjorken-x (the EMC effect) is due to the effect of the bound nucleon internal structure change. However, the x dependence for the charged-lepton and (anti)neutrino scattering is different. The former (latter) is enhanced (quenched) in the region 0.8 less than or similar to x less than or similar to 0.9 (0.7 less than or similar to x less than or similar to 0.85) due to the difference of the contribution from axial vector forrn factor. Because of these differences charge symmetry breaking in parton distributions will be enhanced in nuclei. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Renormalized new solutions for the massless Thirring model

We present a nonperturbative study of the (1 + 1)-dimensional massless Thirring model by using path integral methods. The regularization ambiguities - coming from the computation of the fermionic determinant - allow to find new solution types for the model. At quantum level the Ward identity for the 1PI 2-point function for the fermionic current separates such solutions in two phases or sectors, the first one has a local gauge symmetry that is implemented at quantum level and the other one without this symmetry. The symmetric phase is a new solution which is unrelated to the previous studies of the model and, in the nonsymmetric phase there are solutions that for some values of the ambiguity parameter are related to well-known solutions of the model. We construct the Schwinger-Dyson equations and the Ward identities. We make a detailed analysis of their UV divergence structure and, after, we perform a nonperturbative regularization and renormalization of the model.

Charges and fluxes in Maxwell theory on compact manifolds with boundary

We investigate the charges and fluxes that can occur in higher-order Abelian gauge theories defined on compact space-time manifolds with boundary. The boundary is necessary to supply a destination to the electric lines of force emanating from brane sources, thus allowing non-zero net electric charges, but it also introduces new types of electric and magnetic flux. The resulting structure of currents, charges, and fluxes is studied and expressed in the language of relative homology and de Rham cohomology and the corresponding abelian groups. These can be organised in terms of a pair of exact sequences related by the Poincare-Lefschetz isomorphism and by a weaker flip symmetry exchanging the ends of the sequences. It is shown how all this structure is brought into play by the imposition of the appropriately generalised Maxwell's equations. The requirement that these equations be integrable restricts the world-volume of a permitted brane (assumed closed) to be homologous to a cycle on the boundary of space-time. All electric charges and magnetic fluxes are quantised and satisfy the Dirac quantisation condition. But through some boundary cycles there may be unquantised electric fluxes associated with quantised magnetic fluxes and so dyonic in nature.

Symmetry analysis of an integrable reaction-diffusion equation

In this paper, we investigate the invariance and integrability properties of an integrable two-component reaction-diffusion equation. We perform Painleve analysis for both the reaction-diffusion equation modelled by a coupled nonlinear partial differential equations and its general similarity reduced ordinary differential equation and confirm its integrability. Further, we perform Lie symmetry analysis for this model. Interestingly our investigations reveals a rich variety of particular solutions, which have not been reported in the literature, for this model. (C) 2000 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.