Particle theory

Abstract:

The membrane paradigm approach to black hole physics introduces the notion of a stretched horizon as a fictitious time-like surface endowed with physical characteristics such as entropy, viscosity and electrical conductivity. We show that certain properties of the stretched horizons are encoded in the quasinormal spectrum of black holes. We compute analytically the lowest quasinormal frequency of a vector-type perturbation for a generic black hole with a translationally invariant horizon (black brane) in terms of the background metric components. The resulting dispersion relation is identical to the one obtained in the membrane paradigm treatment of the diffusion on stretched horizons. Combined with the Buchel-Liu universality theorem for the membrane's diffusion coefficient, our result means that in the long wavelength limit the black brane spectrum of gravitational perturbations exhibits a universal, purely imaginary quasinormal frequency. In the context of gauge-gravity duality, this provides yet another (third) proof of the universality of shear viscosity to entropy density ratio in theories with gravity duals. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

We present new results of searches for neutrino point sources in the northern sky, using data recorded in 2007-2008 with 22 strings of the IceCube detector (approximately one-fourth of the planned total) and 275.7 days of live time. The final sample of 5114 neutrino candidate events agrees well with the expected background of atmospheric muon neutrinos and a small component of atmospheric muons. No evidence of a point source is found, with the most significant excess of events in the sky at 2.2σ after accounting for all trials. The average upper limit over the northern sky for point sources of muon-neutrinos with E -2 spectrum is E -2 φv le; 1.4 × 10-11 TeV cm?2 ≤ s?1, in the energy range from 3TeV to 3PeV, improving the previous best average upper limit by the AMANDA-II detector by a factor of 2. © 2009. The American Astronomical Society.

Abstract:

The proposed Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC) at CERN would bring Deep- Inelastic scattering into the unexplored TeV regime. The LHeC rich physics program, among other topics, includes both precision SM measurements to complement LHC physics as well as studies of QCD in the high energy limit. The present contribution reports on ongoing studies within the NNPDF framework towards the LHeC CDR. We study the impact of LHeC simulated data on PDF uncertainties, in particular the small- x gluon. We also assess the LHeC potential to disentangle between various scenarios of small-x QCD, including saturation models and small-x resummation. Finally, we explore how deviations from DGLAP can be quantified in inclusive measurements.

Abstract:

We give a simple tutorial introduction to the Mathematica package STRINGVACUA, which is designed to find vacua of string-derived or inspired four-dimensional N = 1 supergravities. The package uses powerful algebro-geometric methods, as implemented in the free computer algebra system Singular, but requires no knowledge of the mathematics upon which it is based. A series of easy-to-use Mathematica modules are provided which can be used both in string theory and in more general applications requiring fast polynomial computations. The use of these modules is illustrated throughout with simple examples. Program summary: Program title: STRINGVACUA. Catalogue identifier: AEBZ_v1_0. Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEBZ_v1_0.html. Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland. Licensing provisions: GNU GPL. No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 31 050. No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 163 832. Distribution format: tar.gz. Programming language: "Mathematica" syntax. Computer: Home and office spec desktop and laptop machines, networked or stand alone. Operating system: Windows XP (with Cygwin), Linux, Mac OS, running Mathematica V5 or above. RAM: Varies greatly depending on calculation to be performed. Classification: 11.1. External routines: Linux: The program "Singular" is called from Mathematica. Windows: "Singular" is called within the Cygwin environment from Mathematica. Nature of problem: A central problem of string-phenomenology is to find stable vacua in the four-dimensional effective theories which result from compactification. Solution method: We present an algorithmic method, which uses techniques of algebraic geometry, to find all of the vacua of any given string-phenomenological system in a huge class. Running time: Varies greatly depending on calculation requested. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.