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A. Paredes

Publications and source records attributed to A. Paredes.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations on magnetic instabilities

Magnetic fields of planets, stars and galaxies are generated by self-excitation in moving electrically conducting fluids. Once produced, magnetic fields can play an active role in cosmic structure formation by destabilizing rotational flows that would be otherwise hydrodynamically stable. For a long time, both hydromagnetic dynamo action as well as magnetically triggered flow instabilities had been the subject of purely theoretical research. Meanwhile, however, the dynamo effect has been observed in large-scale liquid sodium experiments in Riga, Karlsruhe and Cadarache. In this paper, we summarize the results of some smaller liquid metal experiments devoted to various magnetic instabilities such as the helical and the azimuthal magnetorotational instability, the Tayler instability, and the different instabilities that appear in a magnetized spherical Couette flow. We conclude with an outlook on a large scale Tayler-Couette experiment using liquid sodium, and on the prospects to observe magnetically triggered instabilities of flows with positive shear.

physics.plasm-ph

Mixing of a passive scalar by the instability of a differentially rotating axial pinch

The mixing of a passive scalar like lithium, beryllium or temperature fluctuations due to the magnetic Tayler instability of a rotating axial pinch is considered. Our study is carried out within a Taylor-Couette setup for two rotation laws: quasi-Kepler and solid-body rotation. The minimum magnetic Prandtl number used is 0.05 while the molecular Schmidt number Sc of the fluid varies between 0.1 and 2. An effective diffusivity coefficient for the mixing is numerically measured by the decay process of a global concentration peak located between the cylinder walls. We find that only models with Sc>0.1 do provide finite eddy diffusivity values. We also find that for quasi-Kepler rotation at a magnetic Mach number Mm~2 the flow transits from the slow-rotation regime to the fast-rotation regime. For fixed Reynolds number the relation between the normalized eddy diffusivity and the Schmidt number of the fluid is always linear so that also a linear relation between the instability-induced diffusivity and the molecular viscosity results just in the sense proposed by Schatzman (1977). The numerical value of the coefficient in this relation will reach a maximum at Mm~2 and will decrease for Mm>>1 implying that only toroidal magnetic fields of order kG can exist in the solar tachocline.

astro-ph.SR

Phase transitions in large N(c) heavy quark potentials

We describe phase transitions in the heavy quark potential in planar gauge theories having wrapped D5-brane string duals. A new phase transition, previously unnoticed in these models, is driven by the source of a large dimension operator. Another transition, which has already been described in a previous paper, is driven by the presence of light dynamical flavors. Both transitions connect a Coulomb-like phase to a confining linear phase.

hep-th

Non-critical holography and four-dimensional CFT's with fundamentals

We find non-critical string backgrounds in five and eight dimensions, holographically related to four-dimensional conformal field theories with N=0 and N=1 supersymmetries. In the five-dimensional case we find an AdS_5 background metric for a string model related to non-supersymmetric, conformal QCD with large number of colors and flavors and discuss the conjectured existence of a conformal window from the point of view of our solution. In the eight-dimensional string theory, we build a family of solutions of the form AdS_5 x \tilde{S}^3 with \tilde{S}^3 a squashed three-sphere. For a special value of the ratio N_f/N_c, the background can be interpreted as the supersymmetric near-horizon limit of a system of color and flavor branes on R^{1,3} times a known four-dimensional generalization of the cigar. The N=1 dual theory with fundamental matter should have an IR fixed point only for a fixed ratio N_f/N_c. General features of the string/gauge theory correspondence for theories with fundamental flavors are also addressed.

hep-th

Interlinguistic similarity and language death dynamics

We analyze the time evolution of a system of two coexisting languages (Castillian Spanish and Galician, both spoken in northwest Spain) in the framework of a model given by Abrams and Strogatz [Nature 424, 900 (2003)]. It is shown that, contrary to the model's initial prediction, a stable bilingual situation is possible if the languages in competition are similar enough. Similarity is described with a simple parameter, whose value can be estimated from fits of the data.

physics.soc-ph

Supersymmetry and flavor in a sugra dual of N=1 Yang-Mills

Some field theory aspects can be addressed holographically by introducing D-branes in the string theory duals. In this work, we study this issue in the framework of a dual of N=1 YM, the so-called Maldacena-Nunez model. Some supersymmetric embeddings for D5-brane probes are found and they are interpreted as the addition of fundamental flavors to the gauge theory. This allows to give a dual description of some known aspects of N=1 SQCD and to compute a mass spectrum of mesons.

hep-th

Flavoring the gravity dual of N=1 Yang-Mills with probes

We study two related problems in the context of a supergravity dual to N=1 SYM. One of the problems is finding kappa symmetric D5-brane probes in this particular background. The other is the use of these probes to add flavors to the gauge theory. We find a rich and mathematically appealing structure of the supersymmetric embeddings of a D5-brane probe in this background. Besides, we compute the mass spectrum of the low energy excitations of N=1 SQCD (mesons) and match our results with some field theory aspects known from the study of supersymmetric gauge theories with a small number of flavors.

hep-th

Wrapped branes with fluxes in 8d gauged supergravity

We study the gravity dual of several wrapped D-brane configurations in presence of 4-form RR fluxes partially piercing the unwrapped directions. We present a systematic approach to obtain these solutions from those without fluxes. We use D=8 gauged supergravity as a starting point to build up these solutions. The configurations include (smeared) M2-branes at the tip of a G_2 cone on S^3 x S^3, D2-D6 branes with the latter wrapping a special Lagrangian 3-cycle of the complex deformed conifold and an holomorphic sphere in its cotangent bundle T^*S^2, D3-branes at the tip of the generalized resolved conifold, and others obtained by means of T duality and KK reduction. We elaborate on the corresponding N=1 and N=2 field theories in 2+1 dimensions.

hep-th

Singularity Resolution in Gauged Supergravity and Conifold Unification

We obtain a unified picture for the conifold singularity resolution. We propose that gauged supergravity, through a novel prescription for the twisting, provides an appropriate framework to smooth out singularities in the context of gravity duals of supersymmetric gauge theories.

hep-th

Let's Twist Again: General Metrics of G(2) Holonomy from Gauged Supergravity

We construct all complete metrics of cohomogeneity one G(2) holonomy with S^3 x S^3 principal orbits from gauged supergravity. Our approach rests on a generalization of the twisting procedure used in this framework. It corresponds to a non-trivial embedding of the special Lagrangian three-cycle wrapped by the D6-branes in the lower dimensional supergravity. There are constraints that neatly reduce the general ansatz to a six functions one. Within this approach, the Hitchin system and the flop transformation are nicely realized in eight dimensional gauged supergravity.

hep-th

Noncommutative Field Theory and the Dynamics of Quantum Hall Fluids

We study the spectrum of density fluctuations of Fractional Hall Fluids in the context of the noncommutative hidrodynamical model of Susskind. We show that, within the weak-field expansion, the leading correction to the noncommutative Chern--Simons Lagrangian (a Maxwell term in the effective action,) destroys the incompressibility of the Hall fluid due to strong UV/IR effects at one loop. We speculate on possible relations of this instability with the transition to the Wigner crystal, and conclude that calculations within the weak-field expansion must be carried out with an explicit ultraviolet cutoff at the noncommutativity scale. We point out that the noncommutative dipoles exactly match the spatial structure of the Halperin--Kallin quasiexcitons. Therefore, we propose that the noncommutative formalism must describe accurately the spectrum at very large momenta, provided no weak-field approximations are made. We further conjecture that the noncommutative open Wilson lines are `vertex operators' for the quasiexcitons.

hep-th

Stable Wrapped Branes

We study some wrapped configurations of branes in the near-horizon geometry of a stack of other branes. The common feature of all the cases analyzed is a quantization rule and the appearance of a finite number of static configurations in which the branes are partially wrapped on spheres. The energy of these configurations can be given in closed form and the analysis of their small oscillations shows that they are stable. The cases studied include D(8-p)-branes in the type II supergravity background of Dp-branes (for p less or equal than 5), M5-branes in the M5-brane geometry in M-theory and D3-branes in a (p,q) fivebrane background in the type IIB theory. The brane configurations found admit the interpretation of bound states of strings (or M2-branes in M-theory) which extend along the unwrapped directions. We check this fact directly in a particular case by using the Myers polarization mechanism.

hep-th