Taming the b antighost with Ramond-Ramond flux

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Regularizing cubic open Neveu-Schwarz string field theory

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Towards a worldsheet derivation of the Maldacena conjecture

A U(2,2 vertical bar 4)-invariant A-model constructed from fermionic superfields has recently been proposed as a sigma model for the superstring on AdS(5) X S(5). After explaining the relation of this A-model with the pure spinor formalism, the A-model action is expressed as a gauged linear sigma model. In the zero radius limit, the Coulomb branch of this sigma model is interpreted as D-brane holes which are related to gauge-invariant N = 4 d=4 super-Yang-Mills operators. As in the worldsheet derivation of open-closed duality for Chem-Simons theory, this construction may lead to a worldsheet derivation of the Maldacena conjecture. Intriguing connections to the twistorial formulation of N = 4 Yang-Mills are also noted. (Republished with permission of JHEP from JHEP 0803:031, 2008.)

Ten-dimensional super-twistors and Super-Yang-Mills

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Nonlocal charges for bonus yangian symmetries of Super-Yang-Mills

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Finite dimensional vertex

The spectrum of linearized excitations of the Type IIB SUGRA on AdS(5) x S-5 contains both unitary and non-unitary representations. Among the non-unitary, some are finite-dimensional. We explicitly construct the pure spinor vertex operators for a family of such finite-dimensional representations. The construction can also be applied to in finite-dimensional representations, including unitary, although it becomes in this case somewhat less explicit.

FROM DIRAC ACTION TO ELKO ACTION

A fundamental action, representing a mass dimension-transmuting operator between Dirac and ELKO spinor fields, is performed on the Dirac Lagrangian, in order to lead it into the ELKO Lagrangian. Such a dynamical transformation can be seen as a natural extension of the Standard Model that incorporates dark matter fields. The action of the mass dimension-transmuting operator on a Dirac spinor field, that de fines and introduces such a mapping, is shown to be a composition of the Dirac operator and the nonunitary transformation that maps Dirac spinor fields into ELKO spinor fields, de fined in J. Math. Phys. 4 8, 123517 (2007). This paper gives allowance for ELKO, as a candidate to describe dark matter, to be incorporated in the Standard Model. It is intended to present for the first time, up to our knowledge, the dynamical character of a mapping between Dirac and ELKO spinor fields, transmuting the mass dimension of spin one-half fermionic fields from 3/2 to 1 and from 1 to 3/2.

Cornering the unphysical vertex

In the classical pure spinor worldsheet theory of AdS(5) x S-5 there are some vertex operators which do not correspond to any physical excitations. We study their flat space limit. We find that the BRST operator of the worldsheet theory in flat space-time can be nontrivially deformed without deforming the worldsheet action. Some of these deformations describe the linear dilaton background. But the deformation corresponding to the nonphysical vertex differs from the linear dilaton in not being worldsheet parity even. The nonphysically deformed worldsheet theory has nonzero beta-function at one loop. This means that the classical Type IIB SUGRA backgrounds are not completely characterized by requiring the BRST symmetry of the classical worldsheet theory; it is also necessary to require the vanishing of the one-loop beta-function.

Left-right asymmetry and minimal coupling

In this paper we deal with an alternative approach to the description of massless particles of arbitrary spin. Within this scheme chiral components of a spinor field are regarded as fundamental quantities and treated as independent field variables. The free field Lagrangian is built up from the requirement of chiral invariance; This formulation is parallel to the neutrino theory and allows for a formulation that generalizes, to particles of arbitrary spin, the two-component neutrino theory. We achieve a spinor formulation of electrodynamics. In the case of the photon, the nonzero helicity components satisfy Weyl's equations and are associated to observables (electromagnetic fields) whereas the zero helicity components are related to nonobservables (electromagnetic potentials). Within the spinor formulation of electrodynamics the minimal coupling substitution follows as a consequence of the linearity of the interaction and the preference of nature for chiral components, that is, of the left-right asymmetry of nature. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.

New higher-derivative R-4 theorems for graviton scattering

The nonminimal pure spinor formalism for the superstring is used to prove two new multiloop theorems which are related to recent higher-derivative R-4 conjectures of Green, Russo, and Vanhove. The first theorem states that when 0 < n < 12, partial derivative R-n(4) terms in the Type II effective action do not receive perturbative contributions above n/2 loops. The second theorem states that when n <= 8, perturbative contributions to partial derivative R-n(4) terms in the IIA and IIB effective actions coincide. As shown by Green, Russo, and Vanhove, these results suggest that d=4 N=8 supergravity is ultraviolet finite up to eight loops.

Quantization of (2+1)-spinning particles and bifermionic constraint problem

This work is a natural continuation of our recent study in quantizing relativistic particles. There it was demonstrated that, by applying a consistent quantization scheme to the classical model of a spinless relativistic particle as well as to the Berezin-Marinov model of a 3 + 1 Dirac particle, it is possible to obtain a consistent relativistic quantum mechanics of such particles. In the present paper, we apply a similar approach to the problem of quantizing the massive 2 + 1 Dirac particle. However, we stress that such a problem differs in a nontrivial way from the one in 3 + 1 dimensions. The point is that in 2 + 1 dimensions each spin polarization describes different fermion species. Technically this fact manifests itself through the presence of a bifermionic constant and of a bifermionic first-class constraint. In particular, this constraint does not admit a conjugate gauge condition at the classical level. The quantization problem in 2 + 1 dimensions is also interesting from the physical viewpoint (e.g., anyons). In order to quantize the model, we first derive a classical formulation in an effective phase space, restricted by constraints and gauges. Then the condition of preservation of the classical symmetries allows us to realize the operator algebra in an unambiguous way and construct an appropriate Hilbert space. The physical sector of the constructed quantum mechanics contains spin-1/2 particles and antiparticles without an infinite number of negative-energy levels, and exactly reproduces the one-particle sector of the 2 + 1 quantum theory of a spinor field.

Comments on spin operators and spin-polarization states of 2+1 fermions

In this brief article we discuss spin-polarization operators and spin-polarization states of 2 + 1 massive Dirac fermions and find a convenient representation by the help of 4-spinors for their description. We stress that in particular the use of such a representation allows us to introduce the conserved covariant spin operator in the 2 + 1 field theory. Another advantage of this representation is related to the pseudoclassical limit of the theory. Indeed, quantization of the pseudoclassical model of a spinning particle in 2 + 1 dimensions leads to the 4-spinor representation as the adequate realization of the operator algebra, where the corresponding operator of a first-class constraint, which cannot be gauged out by imposing the gauge condition, is just the covariant operator previously introduced in the quantum theory.

PATH-ORDERED PHASE-FACTORS IN SCALAR QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS

Starting from linear equations for the complex scalar field, the two- and three-point Green's functions are obtained in the infrared approximation. We show that the infrared singularity factorizes in the vertex function as in spinor QED, reproducing in a simple and straightforward way the result of lengthy perturbative calculations.

HELICITY WAVE-FUNCTIONS FOR MASSLESS AND MASSIVE SPIN-2 PARTICLES

Starting from general properties of a spin-2 field, we construct helicity wave functions in the framework of the Weyl-van der Waerden spinor formalism. We discuss here the cases of massless and massive spin-2 particles.

Virial coefficients from (2+1)-dimensional QED effective actions at finite temperature and density

From spinor and scalar (2 + 1)-dimensional QED effective actions at finite temperature and density in a constant magnetic field background, we calculate the corresponding virial coefficients for particles in the lowest Landau level. These coefficients depend on a parameter theta related to the time-component of the gauge field, which plays an essential role for large gauge invariance. The variation of the parameter theta might lead to an interpolation between fermionic and bosonic virial coefficients, although these coefficients are singular for theta = pi/2.