arXiv subjects

A. V. Smilga

Publications and source records attributed to A. V. Smilga.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2005

Conformal properties of hypermultiplet actions in six dimensions

We consider scale-invariant interactions of 6D N=1 hypermultiplets with the gauge multiplet. If the canonical dimension of the matter scalar field is assumed to be 1, scale-invariant lagrangians involve higher derivatives in the action. Though scale-invariant, all such lagrangians are not invariant with respect to special conformal transformations and their superpartners. If the scalar canonical dimension is assumed to be 2, conformal invariance holds at the classical, but not at the quantum level.

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arXiv2005

6D superconformal theory as the theory of everything

We argue that the fundamental Theory of Everything is a conventional field theory defined in the flat multidimensional bulk. Our Universe should be obtained as a 3-brane classical solution in this theory. The renormalizability of the fundamental theory implies that it involves higher derivatives (HD). It should be supersymmetric (otherwise one cannot get rid of the huge induced cosmological term) and probably conformal (otherwise one can hardly cope with the problem of ghosts) . We present arguments that in conformal HD theories the ghosts (which are inherent for HD theories) might be not so malignant. In particular, we present a nontrivial QM HD model where ghosts are absent and the spectrum has a well defined ground state. The requirement of superconformal invariance restricts the dimension of the bulk to be D < 7. We suggest that the TOE lives in six dimensions and enjoys the maximum N = (2,0) superconformal symmetry. Unfortunately, no renormalizable field theory with this symmetry is presently known. We construct and discuss an N = (1,0) 6D supersymmetric gauge theory with four derivatives in the action. This theory involves a dimensionless coupling constant and is renormalizable. At the tree level, the theory enjoys conformal symmetry, but the latter is broken by quantum anomaly. The sign of the beta function corresponds to the Landau zero situation.

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arXiv2005

Ghost-free higher-derivative theory

We present an example of the quantum system with higher derivatives in the Lagrangian, which is ghost-free: the spectrum of the Hamiltonian is bounded from below and unitarity is preserved.

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arXiv2005

Benign vs malicious ghosts in higher-derivative theories

Interacting theories with higher derivatives involve ghosts. They correspond to instabilities that display themselves at the classical level. We notice that comparatively "benign" mechanical higher-derivative systems exist where the classical vacuum is stable with respect to small perturbations and the problems appear only at the nonperturbative level. We argue that benign higher-derivative field theories exist which are stable with respect to small fluctuations with nonzero momenta. A particular example is the 6D N=2 higher-derivative SYM theory, which is finite and unitary at the perturbative level. The inflation-like instability with respect to small fluctuations of static modes is always present, however.

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arXiv2004

Low--dimensional sisters of Seiberg-Witten effective theory

We consider the theories obtained by dimensional reduction to D=1,2,3 of 4D supersymmetric Yang--Mills theories and calculate there the effective low-energy lagrangia describing moduli space dynamics -- the low-dimensional analogs of the Seiberg--Witten effective lagrangian. The effective theories thus obtained are rather beautiful and interesting from mathematical viewpoint. In addition, their study allows one to understand better some essential features of 4D supersymmetric theories, in particular -- the nonrenormalisation theorems.

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arXiv2004

Symplectic sigma models in superspace

We discuss a special ``symplectic'' class of N = 4 supersymmetric sigma models in (0+1) dimension with 5r bosonic and 4r complex fermionic degrees of freedom. These models can be described off shell by N = 2 superfields (so that only half of supersymmetries are manifest) and also by N = 4 superfields in the framework of the harmonic superspace approach. Using the latter, we derive the general form of the relevant bosonic target metric.

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arXiv2004

Weak supersymmetry

We explore ``weak'' supersymmetric systems whose algebra involves, besides Poincare generators, extra bosonic generators not commuting with supercharges. This allows one to have inequal number of bosonic and fermionic 1--particle states in the spectrum. Coleman--Mandula and Haag--Lopuszanski--Sohnius theorems forbid the presence of such extra bosonic charges in {\it interacting} theory for $d \geq 3$. However, these theorems do not apply in one or two dimensions. For $d=1$, we construct a nontrivial interacting system characterized by weak supersymmetric algebra. It is related to ``n--fold'' supersymmetric systems and to quasi-exactly solvable systems studied earlier.

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arXiv2003

Effective Lagrangian for 3d N=4 SYM theories for any gauge group and monopole moduli spaces

We construct low energy effective Lagrangians for 3d N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with any gauge group. They represent supersymmetric sigma models at hyper-Kahlerian manifolds of dimension 4r (r is the rang of the group). In the asymptotic region, perturbatively exact explicit expression for the metric are written. We establish the relationship of this metric with the TAUB-NUT metric describing the perturbatively exact effective Lagrangians for unitary groups and monopole moduli spaces: the former is obtained out of the latter by a proper hyper-Kahlerian reduction. We describe in details the reduction procedure for SO/Sp/G_2 gauge groups, where it can also be given a natural interpretation in D-brane language. We conjecture that the exact nonperturbative metrics can be obtained by a similar hyper-Kahlerian reduction from the corresponding multidimensional Atiyah-Hitchin metrics.

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arXiv2002

Quantum gravity as Escher's dragon

The main obstacle in attempts to construct a consistent quantum gravity is the absence of independent flat time. This can in principle be cured by going out to higher dimensions. The modern paradigm assumes that the fundamental theory of everything is some form of string theory living in space of more than four dimensions. We advocate another possibility that the fundamental theory is a form of D=4 higher-derivative gravity. This class of theories has a nice feature of renormalizability so that perturbative calculations are feasible. There are also finite N=4 supersymmetric conformal supergravity theories. This possibility is particularly attractive. Einstein's gravity is obtained in a natural way as an effective low-energy theory. The N=1 supersymmetric version of the theory has a natural higher-dimensional interpretation due to Ogievetsky and Sokatchev, which involves embedding of our curved Minkowsky space-time manifold into flat 8-dimensional space. Assuming that a variant of the finite N=4 theory also admit a similar interpretation, this may eventually allow one to construct consistent quantum theory of gravity. We argue, however, that even though future gravity theory will probably use higher dimensions as construction scaffolds, its physical content and meaning should refer to 4 dimensions where observer lives.

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arXiv2002

Effective Lagrangians for (0+1) and (1+1) dimensionally reduced versions of D=4 N=2 SYM theory

We consider dimensionally reduced versions of N=2 four- dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and determine the one-loop effective Lagrangians associated with the motion over the corresponding moduli spaces. In the (0+1) case, the effective Lagrangian describes an N=4 supersymmetric quantum mechanics of the Diaconescu--Entin type. In (1+1) dimensions, the effective Lagrangian represents a twisted N=4 supesymmetric sigma model due to Gates, Hull, and Rocek. We discuss the genetic relationship between these two models and present the explicit results for all gauge groups.

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arXiv2002

Born--Oppenheimer corrections to the effective zero-mode Hamiltonian in SYM theory

We calculate the subleading terms in the Born--Oppenheimer expansion for the effective zero-mode Hamiltonian of N = 1, d=4 supersymmetric Yang--Mills theory with any gauge group. The Hamiltonian depends on 3r abelian gauge potentials A_i, lying in the Cartan subalgebra, and their superpartners (r being the rank of the group). The Hamiltonian belongs to the class of N = 2 supersymmetric QM Hamiltonia constructed earlier by Ivanov and I. Its bosonic part describes the motion over the 3r--dimensional manifold with a special metric. The corrections explode when the root forms α_j(A_i) vanish and the Born--Oppenheimer approximation breaks down.

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arXiv2002

Abelian matrix models in two loops

We perform a two-loop calculation of the effective Lagrangian for the low--energy modes of the quantum mechanical system obtained by dimensional reduction from 4D, N = 1 supersymmetric QED. The bosonic part of the Lagrangian describes the motion over moduli space of vector potentials A_i endowed with a nontrivial conformally flat metric. We determined the coefficient of the two-loop correction to the metric, which is proportional to 1/A^6. For the matrix model obtained from Abelian 4D, N = 2 theory, this correction vanishes, as it should.

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arXiv2002

Quasiclassical expansion for Tr{(-1)^F exp(-βH)}

We start with some methodic remarks referring to purely bosonic quantum systems and then explain how corrections to the leading--order quasiclassical result for the fermion--graded partition function Tr{(-1)^F exp(-βH)} can be calculated at small β. We perform such calculation for certain supersymmetric quantum mechanical systems where such corrections are expected to appear. We consider in particular supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory reduced to (0+1) dimensions and were surprised to find that the correction of order β^2 vanishes in this case. We discuss also a nonstandard N =2 supersymmetric sigma model defined on S^3 and other 3--dimensional conformally flat manifolds and show that the quasiclassical expansion breaks down for this system.

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arXiv2002

On the relation between effective supersymmetric actions in different dimensions

We make two remarks: (i) Renormalization of the effective charge in a 4--dimensional (supersymmetric) gauge theory is determined by the same graphs and is rigidly connected to the renormalization of the metric on the moduli space of the classical vacua of the corresponding reduced quantum mechanical system. Supersymmetry provides constraints for possible modifications of the metric, and this gives us a simple proof of nonrenormalization theorems for the original 4-dimensional theory. (ii) We establish a nontrivial relationship between the effective (0+1)-dimensional and (1+1)-dimensional Lagrangia (the latter represent conventional Kahlerian sigma models).

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arXiv2002

Lectures on the foundations of QCD

The paper is withdrawn by the author. This was an embryon of the book which has now been published with World Scientific under the title "Lectures on Quantum Chromodynamics". See http://www.wspc.com.sg/books/physics/4443.html, where the beginning of the book will soon be available in the pdf format.

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arXiv2001

Classical Yang-Mills Vacua on $T^{3}$ : Explicit Constructions

Flat connections for unitary gauge groups on a 3--torus with twisted boundary conditions as well as recently discovered periodic nontrivial flat connections with ``nondiagonalizable'' triples of holonomies for higher orthogonal and exceptional groups are constructed explicitly in terms of Jacobi theta functions with rational characteristics. The (fractional) Chern-Simons numbers of these vacuum gauge field configurations are verified by direct computation.

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arXiv2001

Tenacious Domain Walls in Supersymmetric QCD

We study the structure of the tenacious (existing for all values of masses of the matter fields) BPS domain walls interpolating between different chirally asymmetric vacua in supersymmetric QCD in the limit of large masses. We show that the wall consists in this case of three layers: two outer layers form a ``coat'' with the characteristic size determined by Λ_{SYM} and there is also the core with width of order of inverse mass. The core always carries a significant fraction of the total wall energy. This fraction depends on $N_f$ and on the ``windings'' of the matter fields.

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arXiv2000

Aspects of Chiral Symmetry

We give a pedagogical review of implications of chiral symmetry in QCD. First, we briefly discuss classical textbook subjects such as the axial anomaly, spontaneous breaking of the flavor-nonsinglet chiral symmetry, formation of light pseudo-Goldstone particles, and their effective interactions. Then we proceed to other issues. We explain in some detail a recent discovery how to circumvent the Nielsen--Ninomiya's theorem and implement chirally symmetric fermions on the lattice. We touch upon such classical issues as the Vafa-Witten's theorem and 't Hooft's anomaly matching conditions. We derive a set of exact theorems concerning the dynamics of the theory in a finite Euclidean volume and the behavior of the Dirac spectral density. Finally, we discuss an imaginary world with a nonzero value of the vacuum angle theta.

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