arXiv subjects

A. Sagnotti

Publications and source records attributed to A. Sagnotti.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Pre - Inflationary Clues from String Theory ?

"Brane supersymmetry breaking" occurs in String Theory when the only available combinations of D-branes and orientifolds are not mutually BPS and yet do not introduce tree-level tachyon instabilities. It is characterized by the emergence of a steep exponential potential, and thus by the absence of maximally symmetric vacua. The corresponding low-energy supergravity admits intriguing spatially-flat cosmological solutions where a scalar field is forced to climb up toward the steep potential after an initial singularity, and additional milder terms can inject an inflationary phase during the ensuing descent. We show that, in the resulting power spectra of scalar perturbations, an infrared suppression is typically followed by a pre-inflationary peak that reflects the end of the climbing phase and can lie well apart from the approximately scale invariant profile. A first look at WMAP9 raw data shows that, while the chi^2 fits for the low-l CMB angular power spectrum are clearly compatible with an almost scale invariant behavior, they display nonetheless an eye-catching preference for this type of setting within a perturbative string regime.

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arXiv2013

Integrable Scalar Cosmologies I. Foundations and links with String Theory

We build a number of integrable one--scalar spatially flat cosmologies, which play a natural role in inflationary scenarios, examine their behavior in several cases and draw from them some general lessons on this type of systems, whose potentials involve combinations of exponential functions, and on similar non--integrable ones. These include the need for the scalar to emerge from the initial singularity while climbing up sufficiently steep exponential potentials ("climbing phenomenon") and the inevitable collapse in a big Crunch whenever the scalar tries to settle at negative extrema of the potential. We also elaborate on the links between these types of potentials and "brane supersymmetry breaking", a mechanism that ties together string scale and scale of supersymmetry breaking in a class of orientifold models. We show that, under some assumptions that are spelled out in the text, the extended objects of these vacua can inject inflationary phases with discrete values of the spectral index that are determined by the number of unwrapped dimensions of the branes and by the inverse power with which the string coupling $g_s$ enters their world--volume actions. An NS fivebrane, which is interestingly unstable in this class of models, when wrapped on a small internal cycle would yield a spectral index that is amusingly close to the experimentally favored PLANCK value ns ~ 0.96.

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arXiv2013

Brane SUSY Breaking and Inflation: Implications for Scalar Fields and CMB Distorsion

I elaborate on a link between the string--scale breaking of supersymmetry that occurs in a class of superstring models and the onset of inflation. The link rests on spatially flat cosmologies supported by a scalar field driven by an exponential potential. If, as in String Theory, this potential is steep enough, under some assumptions that are spelled out in the text the scalar can only climb up as it emerges from an initial singularity. In the presence of another mild exponential, slow--roll inflation is thus injected during the ensuing descent and definite imprints are left in the CMB power spectrum: the quadrupole is systematically reduced and, depending on the choice of two parameters, an oscillatory behavior can also emerge for low multipoles l < 50, in qualitative agreement with WMAP9 and PLANCK data. The experimentally favored value of the spectral index, n_s ~ 0.96, points to a potentially important role for the NS fivebrane, which is unstable in this class of models, in the Early Universe.

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arXiv2012

Notes on Strings and Higher Spins

These notes are devoted to the intriguing and still largely unexplored links between String Theory and Higher Spins, the types of excitations that lie behind its most cherished properties. A closer look at higher-spin fields provides some further clues that String Theory describes a broken phase of a Higher-Spin Gauge Theory. Conversely, string amplitudes contain a wealth of information on higher-spin interactions that can clarify long-standing issues related to their infrared behavior.

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arXiv2012

CMB Imprints of a Pre-Inflationary Climbing Phase

We discuss the implications for cosmic microwave background (CMB) observables, of a class of pre-inflationary dynamics suggested by string models where SUSY is broken due to the presence of D-branes and orientifolds preserving incompatible portions of it. In these models the would-be inflaton is forced to emerge from the initial singularity climbing up a mild exponential potential, until it bounces against a steep exponential potential of "brane SUSY breaking" scenarios, and as a result the ensuing descent gives rise to an inflationary epoch that begins when the system is still well off its eventual attractor. If a pre-inflationary climbing phase of this type had occurred within 6-7 e-folds of the horizon exit for the largest observable wavelengths, displacement off the attractor and initial-state effects would conspire to suppress power in the primordial scalar spectrum, enhancing it in the tensor spectrum and typically superposing oscillations on both. We investigate these imprints on CMB observables over a range of parameters, examine their statistical significance, and provide a semi-analytic rationale for our results. It is tempting to ascribe at least part of the large-angle anomalies in the CMB to pre-inflationary dynamics of this type.

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arXiv2010

On Climbing Scalars in String Theory

In string models with "brane supersymmetry breaking" exponential potentials emerge at (closed-string) tree level but are not accompanied by tachyons. Potentials of this type have long been a source of embarrassment in flat space, but can have interesting implications for Cosmology. For instance, in ten dimensions the logarithmic slope |V'/V| lies precisely at a "critical" value where the Lucchin--Matarrese attractor disappears while the scalar field is \emph{forced} to climb up the potential when it emerges from the Big Bang. This type of behavior is in principle perturbative in the string coupling, persists after compactification, could have trapped scalar fields inside potential wells as a result of the cosmological evolution and could have also injected the inflationary phase of our Universe.

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arXiv2010

String Lessons for Higher-Spin Interactions

String Theory includes a plethora of higher-spin excitations, which clearly lie behind its most spectacular properties, but whose detailed behavior is largely unknown. Conversely, string interactions contain much useful information on higher-spin couplings, which can be very valuable in current attempts to characterize their systematics. We present a simplified form for the three-point (and four-point) amplitudes of the symmetric tensors belonging to the first Regge trajectory of the open bosonic string and relate them to local couplings and currents. These include the cases first discussed, from a field theory perspective, by Berends, Burgers and van Dam, and generalize their results in a suggestive fashion along lines recently explored by Boulanger, Metsaev and others. We also comment on the recovery of gauge symmetry in the low-tension limit, on the current-exchange amplitudes that can be built from these couplings and on the extension to mixed-symmetry states.

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arXiv2010

Higher Spins and Current Exchanges

The simplest higher-spin interactions involve classical external currents and symmetric tensors $ϕ_{\m_1 ... \m_s}$, and convey three instructive lessons. The first is a general form of the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity in flat space for this class of fields. The second is the rationale for its disappearance in (A)dS spaces. Finally, the third is a glimpse into an option which is commonly overlooked in Field Theory, and which both higher spins and String Theory are confronting us with: one can well allow in the Lagrangians non-local terms that do not spoil the local nature of physical quantities.

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arXiv2008

(A)dS exchanges and partially-massless higher spins

We determine the current exchange amplitudes for free totally symmetric tensor fields $\vf_{μ_1 ... μ_s}$ of mass $M$ in a $d$-dimensional $dS$ space, extending the results previously obtained for $s=2$ by other authors. Our construction is based on an unconstrained formulation where both the higher-spin gauge fields and the corresponding gauge parameters $Λ_{μ_1 >... μ_{s-1}}$ are not subject to Fronsdal's trace constraints, but compensator fields $α_{μ_1 ... μ_{s-3}}$ are introduced for $s > 2$. The free massive $dS$ equations can be fully determined by a radial dimensional reduction from a $(d+1)$-dimensional Minkowski space time, and lead for all spins to relatively handy closed-form expressions for the exchange amplitudes, where the external currents are conserved, both in $d$ and in $(d+1)$ dimensions, but are otherwise arbitrary. As for $s=2$, these amplitudes are rational functions of $(ML)^2$, where $L$ is the $dS$ radius. In general they are related to the hypergeometric functions $_3F_2(a,b,c;d,e;z)$, and their poles identify a subset of the "partially-massless" discrete states, selected by the condition that the gauge transformations of the corresponding fields contain some non-derivative terms. Corresponding results for $AdS$ spaces can be obtained from these by a formal analytic continuation, while the massless limit is smooth, with no van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity.

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arXiv2007

Current Exchanges and Unconstrained Higher Spins

The (Fang-)Fronsdal formulation for free fully symmetric (spinor-) tensors rests on (gamma-)trace constraints on gauge fields and parameters. When these are relaxed, glimpses of the underlying geometry emerge: the field equations extend to non-local expressions involving the higher-spin curvatures, and with only a pair of additional fields an equivalent ``minimal'' local formulation is also possible. In this paper we complete the discussion of the ``minimal'' formulation for fully symmetric (spinor-) tensors, constructing one-parameter families of Lagrangians and extending them to (A)dS backgrounds. We then turn on external currents, that in this setting are subject to conventional conservation laws and, by a close scrutiny of current exchanges in the various formulations, we clarify the precise link between the local and non-local versions of the theory. To this end, we first show the equivalence of the constrained and unconstrained local formulations, and then identify a unique set of non-local Lagrangian equations which behave in exactly the same fashion in current exchanges.

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arXiv2006

Higher-Spin Geometry and String Theory

The theory of freely-propagating massless higher spins is usually formulated via gauge fields and parameters subject to trace constraints. We summarize a proposal allowing to forego them by introducing only a pair of additional fields in the Lagrangians. In this setting, external currents satisfy usual Noether-like conservation laws, the field equations can be nicely related to those emerging from Open String Field Theory in the low-tension limit, and if the additional fields are eliminated without reintroducing the constraints a geometric, non-local description of the theory manifests itself.

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arXiv2005

Minimal Local Lagrangians for Higher-Spin Geometry

The Fronsdal Lagrangians for free totally symmetric rank-s tensors rest on suitable trace constraints for their gauge parameters and gauge fields. Only when these constraints are removed, however, the resulting equations reflect the expected free higher-spin geometry. We show that geometric equations, in both their local and non-local forms, can be simply recovered from local Lagrangians with only two additional fields, a rank-(s-3) compensator and a rank-(s-4) Lagrange multiplier. In a similar fashion, we show that geometric equations for unconstrained rank-n totally symmetric spinor-tensors can be simply recovered from local Lagrangians with only two additional spinor-tensors, a rank-(n-2) compensator and a rank-(n-3) Lagrange multiplier.

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arXiv2005

On Higher Spins with a Strong Sp(2,R) Condition

We report on an analysis of the Vasiliev construction for minimal bosonic higher-spin master fields with oscillators that are vectors of SO(D-1,2) and doublets of Sp(2,R). We show that, if the original master field equations are supplemented with a strong Sp(2,R) projection of the 0-form while letting the 1-form adjust to the resulting Weyl curvatures, the linearized on-shell constraints exhibit both the proper mass terms and a geometric gauge symmetry with unconstrained, traceful parameters. We also address some of the subtleties related to the strong projection and the prospects for obtaining a finite curvature expansion.

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arXiv2004

On tadpoles and vacuum redefinitions in String Theory

Tadpoles accompany, in one form or another, all attempts to realize supersymmetry breaking in String Theory, making the present constructions at best incomplete. Whereas these tadpoles are typically large, a closer look at the problem from a perturbative viewpoint has the potential of illuminating at least some of its qualitative features in String Theory. A possible scheme to this effect was proposed long ago by Fischler and Susskind, but incorporating background redefinitions in string amplitudes in a systematic fashion has long proved very difficult. In the first part of this paper, drawing from field theory examples, we thus begin to explore what one can learn by working perturbatively in a ``wrong'' vacuum. While unnatural in Field Theory, this procedure presents evident advantages in String Theory, whose definition in curved backgrounds is mostly beyond reach at the present time. At the field theory level, we also identify and characterize some special choices of vacua where tadpole resummations terminate after a few contributions. In the second part we present a notable example where vacuum redefinitions can be dealt with to some extent at the full string level, providing some evidence for a new link between IIB and 0B orientifolds. We finally show that NS-NS tadpoles do not manifest themselves to lowest order in certain classes of string constructions with broken supersymmetry and parallel branes, including brane-antibrane pairs and brane supersymmetry breaking models, that therefore have UV finite threshold corrections at one loop.

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arXiv2004

An Introduction to Free Higher-Spin Fields

In this article we begin by reviewing the (Fang-)Fronsdal construction and the non-local geometric equations with unconstrained gauge fields and parameters built by Francia and the senior author from the higher-spin curvatures of de Wit and Freedman. We then turn to the triplet structure of totally symmetric tensors that emerges from free String Field Theory in the $α' \to 0$ limit and to its generalization to (A)dS backgrounds, and conclude with a discussion of a simple local compensator form of the field equations that displays the unconstrained gauge symmetry of the non-local equations. Based on the lectures presented by A. Sagnotti at the First Solvay Workshop on Higher-Spin Gauge Theories held in Brussels on May 12-14, 2004

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arXiv2004

On the geometry of higher-spin gauge fields

We review a recent construction of the free field equations for totally symmetric tensors and tensor-spinors that exhibits the corresponding linearized geometry. These equations are not local for all spins >2, involve unconstrained fields and gauge parameters, rest on the curvatures introduced long ago by de Wit and Freedman, and reduce to the local (Fang-)Fronsdal form upon partial gauge fixing. We also describe how the higher-spin geometry is realized in free String Field Theory, and how the gauge fixing to the light cone can be effected. Finally, we review the essential features of local compensator forms for the higher-spin bosonic and fermionic equations with the same unconstrained gauge symmetry.

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arXiv2004

On higher spins and the tensionless limit of String Theory

We discuss string spectra in the low-tension limit using the BRST formalism, with emphasis on the role of triplets of totally symmetric tensors and spinor-tensors and their generalizations to cases with mixed symmetry and to (A)dS backgrounds. We also present simple compensator forms of the field equations for individual higher-spin gauge fields that display the {unconstrained} gauge symmetry of a previous non-local construction and reduce upon partial gauge fixing to the (Fang-)Fronsdal equations. For Bose fields we also show how a local Lagrangian formulation with {unconstrained} gauge symmetry is determined by a previous BRST construction.

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arXiv2002

Free geometric equations for higher spins

We show how allowing non-local terms in the field equations of symmetric tensors uncovers a neat geometry that naturally generalizes the Maxwell and Einstein cases. The end results can be related to multiple traces of the generalized Riemann curvatures R_{alpha_1 ... alpha_s; beta_1 > ... beta_s} introduced by de Wit and Freedman, divided by suitable powers of the D'Alembertian operator \Box. The conventional local equations can be recovered by a partial gauge fixing involving the trace of the gauge parameters Lambda_{alpha_1 ... alpha_{s-1}}, absent in the Fronsdal formulation. The same geometry underlies the fermionic equations, that, for all spins s+(1/2), can be linked via the operator (not hskip 1pt pr)/(\Box) to those of the spin-s bosons.

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